The Lion and the Lark Read Online Free PDF Page A

Caesar conquered them.”
         “He’s not here,” Ardus said darkly.  “And Hibernia to the west is worse, even great Caesar didn’t venture there.”
         “Enough,” said Claudius, who tolerated the other man’s impudence because of his twelve years of service with him.  Ardus would always speak the truth, even if it was not what others wanted to hear.
         “I notice that Scipio is in no hurry to come back,” Ardus concluded pointedly.
         Claudius ignored him, turning and giving the order for the anchor to be dropped.  He felt the sudden lurch as it sank into the sand below him, and then he called for the small boats to be lowered.
         The Romans had dredged the inlet when they first came to Britain, but it had filled in since then, and the latest charts indicated that this was as close as they could come to the shore without striking a sandbar.  As the men boarded and lowered the landing boats with pulleys, Claudius looked back at the flotilla sailing in behind him and wondered where he was leading these men.  Before them lay the home of a people so fierce that even Caesar, who had seen everything during his campaigns, was impressed, calling the Celts optime forte , the bravest of the brave.
         Claudius turned toward the shore and saw the garrison perched in the hills and overlooking the water, the only building of any kind visible from his current vantage point.  He was not frightened but perplexed, wondering just what it was about these people that made them unique to the Roman experience.
         He supposed that he was about to find out.
         By the time the troops were assembled on the shore, the detachment from each legion carrying its own standard and the Roman eagle held aloft before all, Claudius had put aside his misgivings and was concerned only with getting his men to the fort without incident.  He had been thoroughly briefed before he left Rome and knew the tactics of the locals.  The Iceni were experts in the art of sneak attack, suddenly rushing from cover on horseback and doing as much damage as possible in a short period of time, then melting back into the trees.  They had a reputation for being quick witted and flexible, turning as one man and changing strategy as if able to communicate without words.  Claudius had everyone on the alert for covert movements in the woods and had sent scouts ahead to clear the way.  Once they were on the march routine concerns dominated his thoughts and he hardly noticed the spectacular scenery emerging from the dreamy haze as the sun rose.
         He would have plenty of time to look at it later.
     
     
         “There they are,” Brettix said disgustedly.  He looked down from his perch in the tall maple tree as the scarlet wave of humanity advanced up the single road the Romans had carved through the forest.  “We should jump them right now.”
         “With what?” his friend Parex said.  “It will take at least three weeks for us to get the necessary weapons from the Trinovantes.  Do you plan to beat the Romans to death with sticks?”
         “It’s so hard to see them marching through here as if they owned the country,” Brettix said between his teeth.
         “They do.”
         “Don’t say that!”
         Parex shrugged.  “As of this moment, Brettix, they do.  And we won’t be able to rout them until we can buy more arms, so you’d better practice patience.”
         Brettix dropped from the tree like an ape and joined Parex on the ground.  “They’re all as arrogant as princes.  What army wears red?  An easier target would be difficult to imagine.”
         “The color disguises the blood shed in battle,” Parex said.
         “That’s just what they want you to think, to intimidate you.”
         “I’m intimidated,” Parex said soberly.
         “I’m glad that you fight a lot better than you talk,” Brettix said