Note 518 — Chapter IX · BRIDE’S BAIRNS
Reading edition
Apart from recent experiences and the records of the Saxon invaders of this country, one may connote the candid maxims of the Frederick upon whom the German nation has thought proper to confer the sobriquet of “Great,” e.g.:—
“It was the genius of successive rulers of our race to be guided only by self-interest, ambition, and the instinct of self-preservation.”
“When Prussia shall have made her fortune, she will be able to give herself the air of good-faith and of constancy which is only suitable for great States or small Sovereigns.” “As for war, it is a profession in which the smallest scruple would spoil everything.”
“Nothing exercises a greater tyranny over the spirit and heart than religion.... Do we wish to make a treaty with a Power? If we only remember that we are Christians all is lost, we shall always be duped.”
“Do not blush at making alliances with the sole object of reaping advantage for yourself. Do not commit the vulgar fault of not abandoning them when you believe it to be to your advantage to do so; and, above all, ever follow this maxim that to despoil your neighbours is to take from them the means of doing you harm.”
In the eyes of the stupid and unappreciative Britons the Saxons were “swine,” and the “loathest of all things,” vide Layamon’s Brut, e.g.: “Lo! where here before us the heathen hounds, who slew our ancestors with their wicked crafts; and they are to us in land loathest of all things. Now march we to them, and starkly lay on them, and avenge worthily our kindred, and our realm, and avenge the mickle shame by which they have disgraced us, that they over the waves should have come to Dartmouth. And all they are forsworn, and all they shall be destroyed; they shall be all put to death, with the Lord’s assistance! March we now forward, fast together”—(Everyman’s Library, p. 195).
“The Saxons set out across the water, until their sails were lost to sight. I know not what was their hope, nor the name of him who put it in their mind, but they turned their boats, and passed through the channel between England and Normandy. With sail and oar they came to the land of Devon, casting anchor in the haven of Totnes. The heathen breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the folk of the country. They poured forth from their ships, and scattered themselves abroad amongst the people, searching out arms and raiment, firing homesteads and slaying Christian men. They passed to and fro about the country, carrying off all they found beneath their hands. Not only did they rob the hind of his weapon, but they slew him on his hearth with his own knife. Thus throughout Somerset and a great part of Dorset, these pirates spoiled and ravaged at their pleasure, finding none to hinder them at their task”—(Ibid., p. 47).