The battle is not always for the strong, nor the race to the swift
Susanna uttered these words to Alda when Alda claimed that her people were visibly physically stronger than the Romans and also had better moral character than them. This was because Alda could not comprehend how the British had been defeated by the Romans. Susanna was responding in kind to to convince her that in life God plans what would happen to them rather than they being the masters of their destinies.
When the blind follow the guidance of the blind, shall not both fall
Susanna said these words to Alda as she was convincing her to change her religion to Christianity. Susanna perceived the Druids that Alda followed to be blind to the holy religion that she ascribed to. Alda had been defending her religion that the Druids offered the purest religion.
Believe me, where no sinful compliance is required, submission is not only the wisest but the most dignified course of proceeding especially in a case like ours, where resistance is perfectly unavailing.
Susanna was advising Alda that she should submit to her enslavement and perform her duties as required by their mistress Lelia. This is because Alda’s resistance bore no fruits but it made her suffer more for she was punished for misbehavior such as breaking the roman gods in the household of Marcus.
She too in the short-lived day of her greatness had abused her little measure of power.
The narrator is describing the realization in Alda that she was no different in cruelty to her mistress Lelia. This is because Alda in her capacity as princess in her home country had often mistreated her servants as Lelia was now doing with her. She realized her own mistakes and in a cruel twist of fate, she had been put in the receiving end of mistreatment.
My heart was bound to my own green land but how could I return thither without ships, I am not an eagle that can spread the wings of his might to the winds and sail through the pathless fields of air wither soever it fits him.
Mainos said these words in response to Alda's question on why he had not returned to Britain after fleeing his captivity. He is remarking on his helplessness and desperation because he did not have the means to travel back to his beloved country from where he had been taken as a prisoner of war.
