ritain,[173] and whence the lately-established
veterans were wont, by the connivance of the Procurator, to treat the
neighbourhood with utterly illegal military licence, sacking houses,
ravaging fields, and abusing their British fellow-subjects as "caitiff
slaves."[174]

E. 5.--These marauders were, however, as great cowards as bullies, and
were now trembling before the approach of vengeance. How completely
they were cowed is shown by the gloomy auguries which passed from
lip to lip as foreshadowing the coming woe. The statue of Victory
had fallen on its face, women frantic with fear rushed about wildly
shrieking "Ruin!", strange moans and wailings were heard in Courthouse
and Theatre, on the Thames estuary the ruddy glow of sunset looked
like blood and flame, the sand-ripples and sea-wrack left by the ebb
suggested corpses; everything ministered to their craven fear.

E. 6.--So hopeless was the demoralization that the very commonest
precautions were neglected. The town was unfortified, yet these old
soldiers made no attempt at entrenchment; even the women and children
were not sent away while the roads were yet open. And when the storm
burst on the town the hapless non-combatants were simply abandoned to
massacre, while the veterans, along with some two hundred badly-armed
recruits (the only help furnished by their precious Procurator, who
himself fled incontinently to Gaul), shut themselves up in the Temple,
in hopes of thus saving their own skins till the Ninth Legion, which
was hastening to their aid, should arrive.

E. 7.--It is a satisfaction to read that in this they were
disappointed. Next day their refuge was stormed, and every soul within
put to the sword. The Temple itself, and all else at Camelodune, was
burnt to the ground, and the wicked Colony blotted off the face of the
earth. The approaching Legion scarcely fared better. The victorious
Britons swept down upon it on the march, cut to pieces the entire
infantry, and sent the cavalry in headlong flight to London, where
Suetonius Paulinus, the Governor of Britain, was now mustering such
force as he could make to meet the overwhelming onslaught.

E. 8.--When the outbreak took place he had been far away, putting down
the last relics of the now illicit Druidism in the island of Mona or
Anglesey. The enterprise was one which demanded a considerable display
of force, for the defenders of the island fought with fanatical
frenzy, the priests and priestesses al