Beric the Briton | Page 4

ten years ago. The Belgae and Dumnonii in the southwest have been
crushed after thirty battles; the Dobuni in the centre have been defeated
and garrisoned; the Silures have set an example to us all, inflicting
many defeats on the Romans; but their power has at last been broken.
The Brigantes and ourselves have both been heavily struck, as we
deserved, Boduoc, for standing aloof from Caractacus at first. Thus the
task of shaking off the Roman bonds is far more difficult now than it
was when Plautius landed here twenty years ago. Well, it is time for me
to be going on. Won't you come with me, Boduoc?"
"Not I, Beric; I never want to enter their town again save with a sword
in one hand and a torch in the other. It enrages me to see the airs of
superiority they give themselves. They scarce seem even to see us as
we walk in their streets; and as to the soldiers as they stride along with
helmet and shield, my fingers itch to meet them in the forest. No; I
promised to walk so far with you, but I go no farther. How long will
you be there?"
"Two hours at most, I should say."
"The sun is halfway down, Beric; I will wait for you till it touches that
hill over there. Till then you will find me sitting by the first tree at the
spot where we left the forest."
Beric nodded and walked on towards the town. The lad, for he was not
yet sixteen, was the son of Parta, the chieftainess of one of the divisions
of the great tribe of the Iceni, who occupied the tract of country now
known as Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge, and Huntingdon. This tribe had
yielded but a nominal allegiance to Cunobeline, and had held aloof

during the struggle between Caractacus and the Romans, but when the
latter had attempted to establish forts in their country they had taken up
arms. Ostorius Scapula, the Roman proprietor, had marched against
them and defeated them with great slaughter, and they had submitted to
the Roman authority. The Sarci, the division of the tribe to which Beric
belonged, had taken a leading part in the rising, and his father had
fallen in the defence of their intrenchments.
Among the British tribes the women ranked with the men, and even
when married the wife was often the acknowledged chief of the tribe.
Parta had held an equal authority with her husband, and at his death
remained sole head of the subtribe, and in order to ensure its obedience
in the future, Ostorius had insisted that her only son Beric, at that time
a boy of eleven, should be handed over to them as a hostage.
Had Parta consulted her own wishes she would have retired with a few
followers to the swamps and fens of the country to the north rather than
surrender her son, but the Brigantes, who inhabited Lincolnshire, and
who ranged over the whole of the north of Britain as far as
Northumberland, had also received a defeat at the hands of the Romans,
and might not improbably hand her over upon their demand. She
therefore resigned herself to let Beric go.
"My son," she said, "I need not tell you not to let them Romanize you.
You have been brought up to hate them. Your father has fallen before
their weapons, half your tribe have been slain, your country lies under
their feet. I will not wrong you then by fearing for a moment that they
can make a Roman of you.
"You have been brought up to lie upon the bare ground, to suffer
fatigue and hardship, hunger and thirst, and the rich food and splendid
houses and soft raiment of the Romans should have no attraction for
you. I know not how long your imprisonment among them may last.
For the present I have little hope of another rising; but should I see a
prospect of anything like unity among our people, I will send Boduoc
with a message to you to hold yourself in readiness to escape when you
receive the signal that the time has come. Till then employ your mind
in gaining what good you may by your residence among them; there
must be some advantage in their methods of warfare which has enabled
the people of one city to conquer the world.
"It is not their strength, for they are but pigmies to us. We stand a full

head above them, and even we women are stronger than Roman
soldiers, and yet they defeat us. Learn then their language, throw your
whole mind into that at first, then study their military discipline and
their laws. It must be the last as much as their discipline