4<fo THE HISTORY Book 1. the admiral's fhip carried a fhieid faftened high upon the maft, which was a fufficient mark of itfelf in the day, and which was
- frequently beat upon as a fignal m the night ; the whole fleet
fleering by the ftars, and the boats being drawn upon the beach ?t landing 4 Thus equipped, the Irifli ranged with their nu- merous navy along the whole coaft of Lancashire, landed in the Ifle of Man, and reduced it * 6 . They made a deiceat upon North-Wales, and fobdued a confiderable extent of the ^country. They difembarked a body of their troops in the regions of the Dimetae, and conquered the greateft part of their dominions 47 » And they afterwards extended their ravages to the fouthern chan- nel 48 . This unexpe&ed invafion however was foon afterwards repelled. As in fo critical a period the troops in the eaft and north could not be ordered aw^y to the weftem thore, Other forces were fent ovter by StiHcho 4 % and were* joined by a confi- derable body of the provincials, legionary citizens and original Bri- tons Without doubt, under the command of Cunedag the mo- narch of the Otadini *°. The Scots were attacked, were defeated,, and were driven to their fljips* with & great a carnage, that they never afterwards attempted any defcents of conqueft upon out weftem coaft 5I . - But the period was now not very remote, in which thcJRo- man empire, having done the-great work far which it was ero£be& by Providence, having long connected the central nations of the globe with a chain of alniry, was abfoltftely to be demoliihed for ever. The period wds now haftily appro&chkg, in wfeiah> the Divinity, who had already inverted to Chriftiaurty all the nations that 4ay wkhin the .pale of the Roman empire, defigned to bring the uncivilized nations of Europe into the one in order to convert them to the other. The period was now a dually* arrived, in which -the mtftries' that 3iad been fo wantonly fcatv tered over half the globe by r the Romans were now to be fe*ere$y- retorted upon them. God fumttioned the favage nations 4Sf the North to come and erase thenfnightyilrufture of their enqpire, -aikt Co avenge the injuries of *keo£j>refled nations around them. The* Roman*
