Alda, the british captive

Among the illustrious captives who were doomed to grace the triumph which Rome decreed to her victorious general Paulinus, on the occasion of the signal overthrow which he had given to the Britons and their warrior-queen Boadicea, were the warlike prince Aldogern and his young daughter Alda.

Aldogern was nearly related to the unfortunate queen, and had held a high command in that disastrous battle where the light of freedom was quenched in the life-blood of his unhappy countrymen for centuries of woe. He had vainly performed prodigies of valor that day, and it was not till he had seen his five brave sons slain by his side, and received many desperate wounds, that he was overpowered and made prisoner, while defending the chariot in which his youngest-born and best-loved child, the youthful Aida, was with her female slaves, in accordance with the customs of the Britons, who absurdly encumbered themselves with the helpless members of their families in their campaigns...