The Eyewitness Author:Hilaire Belloc Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: chance series of historical essays; it may, however, be of interest to the reader to know that the scene from " The Barricade " has been described to the author ... more »by men still living, who fought and were wounded there ; while the scene drawn from our English party'politics in " The Politician " was carefully studied upon the platform so recently as the year 1906. Kino's Land, 1908. chapter{Section 4Faob Motive Of This Book 1 The Two Soldiers (August 26, B.c. 55) ... IS Upon August 26, B.c. 65, Julius Cwsar sailed from Boulogne with two legions for the Invasion of Britain The Christian (179 A.d,) .25 In the year 179 A.d. the Emperor Marcus Anrelius, among the worst of the enemies of the Faith, still lired. The town of Thyrsus in the Province of Africa (now El Djcm in Tunis) was the most important of the great towns near the Desert. It has disappeared. A Christian Is here supposed suffering martyrdom The General Officer (About 370 A.d.) ... 37 At the end of the fourth century, about 870 A.D., England was highly populated. The official language was Latin; the large garrisons were those of a Roman army. The Catholic Faith was officially accepted, though many of the governing class rejected or smiled at it. This wealthy province (of which East Anglia was one of the wealthiest and most populous parts) was annoyed by incursions of petty barbarian tribes from the north, east and west, eager to enjoy the advantage of a high civilisation. None of these incursions were more irritating than the descent of small pirate boats under the northeast winds of spring from the savage countries beyond the North bea The Pagans (About 420 A.d.) 9 Certain old families maintained a Pagan loyalty long after the Empire was officially Christian. The Narboncne, where this scene is lai...« less