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Then I turned and made hither, travelling without stopping, except once for a few hours' sleep. There are many fugitives in the woods, and from them I heard that the land of the Trinobantes was lit up by burning villages, and that the Romans were slaughtering all.
The Trinobantes, being protected and secured from any violence of the soldiers, the Cenimagni, the Segontiaci, the Ancalites, the Bibroci, and the Cassi, sending embassies, surrender themselves to Cæsar.
The wildest licence prevailed, and there were those who ventured even to defend it. About this time the Roman governor in Britain, Suetonius, crossed the Menai Strait and conquered the island of Anglesea. But outrages committed against Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, stirred that tribe to fierce revolt. Being joined by the Trinobantes, they fell upon the Romans at Camulodunum and massacred them.
Messengers had already brought in news that at midday Cerealis had learned that Camalodunum had been attacked, and that the legion was to start on the following morning to relieve the town. The news had been taken to him by one of the Trinobantes, who had received his instructions from Aska.
The doors hardly quivered at the shock, and in the meantime the assailants were suffering heavily, for from openings in the roof, extending from the building itself to the pillars that surrounded it, the Romans dropped missiles upon them. For some time the Trinobantes persevered, and then their chiefs, seeing that the attempt was hopeless, called off their followers.
Beric had not been present at the council, to which only a few of the leading chiefs had been summoned; but he doubted, when he heard what had been decided upon, whether the attack would be successful. It was settled that the Trinobantes were to attack the door at one end of the temple, and the Iceni that at the other.
It is a strong place, with its massive walls unpierced save by the doorway at each end; but we will have them out if to do so we are forced to tear it down stone by stone." "I trust that we shall not be as long as that would take, queen," Beric said, "for we have other work to do." Just at this moment one of the chiefs of the Trinobantes came up.
"Very well, then, let the Trinobantes attack by falling upon the Romans on our right; the Iceni will attack them in front; and the Sarci will remain where they stand until Beric sees need for them to advance." In a few minutes the Roman legion was seen advancing, with a portion of the cavalry in front and the rest in the rear.
I hear that they spare none, and that the whole land of the Trinobantes, from the Thames to the Stour, has been turned into a waste." "It was only what we had to expect, Aska. Have any more of my people come in since I left?" "Only a young girl. She arrived last night. It is she that brought the news that I am giving you.
At daybreak they were again afoot and on the march southward, swollen by the accession of the Trinobantes and by the arrival during the last two days of tribes who had been too late to join the rest at Cardun. The British force now numbered at least fifty thousand. "It is a great army, Beric," Boduoc said exultingly as they moved forward. "It is a great host," Beric replied.
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