Then he turned and spoke for some time to Boduoc’s
mother in her own language, thanking her for the shelter
that she had given the fugitives, and giving instructions
as to the future. He took a hasty meal, and started
at once on his return journey in order to rejoin the
Sarci as the army advanced from London. Berenice
wept bitterly when he said goodbye, and Cneius himself
was much affected.
“I view you almost as a son,” he said;
“and it is terrible to know that if you win
in the battle, my patron Caius and my countrymen will
be destroyed, while if they win, you may fall.”
“It is the fortune of war, Cneius. You
know that we Britons look forward to death with joy;
that, unlike you, we mourn at a birth and feast at
a burial, knowing that after death we go to the Happy
Island where there is no more trouble or sorrow, but
where all is peace and happiness and content; so do
not grieve for me. You will know that if I fall
I shall be happy, and shall be free from all the troubles
that await this unfortunate land.”
London was but a heap of ashes when Beric arrived
there. It had been a trading place rather than
a town. Here were no Roman houses or temples
with their massive stone work; it consisted only of
a large collection of wooden structures, inhabited
by merchants and traders. It lay upon a knoll
rising above the low swampy ground covered by the
sea at high water, for not till long afterwards did
the Romans erect the banks that dammed back the waters
and confined them within their regular channel.
The opposite shore was similarly covered with water
at high tide, and forests extended as far as the eye
could reach. London, in fact, occupied what was
at high water a peninsula, connected with the mainland
only by a shoulder extending back to the hills beyond
it, and separated by a deep channel on the west from
a similar promontory.
It was a position that, properly fortified by strong
walls across the isthmus, could have been held against
a host, but the Romans had not as yet taken it in
hand; later, however, they recognized the importance
of the position, and made it one of the chief seats
of their power. Even in the three days that he
had been absent Beric found that the host had considerably
increased. The tribes of Sussex and Kent, as
they heard of the approach of the army, had flocked
in to join it, and to share in the plunder of London.
Another day was spent in feasting and rejoicing, and
then the army moved northward. It consisted now
of well nigh two hundred thousand fighting men, and
a vast crowd of women, with a huge train of wagons.
Two days later, news reached them of the spot where
Suetonius had taken up his position and was awaiting
their attack, and the army at once pressed forward
in that direction. At nightfall they bivouacked
two miles away from it, and Beric, taking Boduoc with
him, went forward to examine it. It was at a point
where a valley opened into the plain; the sides of
the valley were steep and thickly wooded, and it was
only in front that an attack could well be delivered.
