Simon Scarrow - When the Eagle hunts

The First Cohort, accompan.ied by their engineer detachment, mounted the. first approach ramp and immediately. had to turn parallel to the hill fort as they climbed at an angle towards the first dogleg. Already, some of the bravor souls among the defenders were popping up along the ruin of their palisade and loosing arrows or slingshot into the massed mailed ranks of the legionaries, and Roman casualties began to fall out of line. Most were wounded and tried to cover themselves with their big shields while they waited to be carried to the casualty stations. Some were killed outright and lay still, sprawled on the track leading up the ramp.

Over the heads of the First Cohort the barrage of iron bolts continued to sweep the defences clear, but soon the crews would begin to imperil their own men. Vespasian held off giving the order to cease fire, willing to risk a shot falling short rather than permit the enemy to swarm over the remains of their defences and pour down a far more damaging rain of missiles on the heads of the legionaries.

The cohort reached the first dogleg and turned the corner, doubling back on itself as it climbed towards the main gate.

The bolts were whirring less than fifty feet above their heads now, and the staff officers around Vespasian were getting edgy.

'Just a little longer,' the legate muttered.

There was a splintering noise from the artillery platform, and Vespasian swung round. The arm on one of the bolt-throwers had snapped under the strain. A loud chorus of groans came from the staff officers. Up on the second rampart the bolt from the broken machiiae had fallen short and skewered a file of legionaries, hurling them into an untidy bundle at the side of the track. The succeeding ranks of legionaries faltered for a moment, until an angry centurion laid into them with his vine cane, and the advance continued. Cease fire. Vespasian shouted over to the artillery crews.

'CEASE FIRE! The last few bolts cleared the heads of the First Cohort, thankfully, and then there was an eerie quiet, before the defenders realised the danger was gone. With a roar of their battle cry they ran out from cover and swarmed onto what remained of their defences above and around the main gate.

At once a hail of arrows, stones and rocks pelted down on the men of the First Cohort. The commander of the cohort, the most senior and experienced centurion in the legion, i gave the order to form the testudo, and in a moment a wall of shields surrounded the cohort and covered its Immediately the pace of the advance slowed, but the were now protected from 'the missiles pelting them from above, and they rattled harmlessly off the broad curves of their shields. The clatter of the impacts was clearl3 down where Vespasian and.his staff stood.

The First Cohort rounded the corner of the final dogleg and began to pass between a bastion and the main gate. This was the most dangerous moment of the assault. The m were under fire from two sides and could not begin to the ram against the gate until the bastion was taken. TI: senior centurion knew his job, and in calm, measured ton gave the order for the First Century of the cohort to away from the testudo. The men turned abruptly scrambled up the steep slope to the bastion. The Durotrig who had survived the barrage of bolts threw themselves oa their attackers, making the most of their height advantage., Several legionaries fell to their weapons, tumbling slipping back down the slope. But there were too few of the enemy to hold off the Romans for long, and the vicious thrusting swords of the legionaries made short work of them.

As soon as the bastion had been cleared, men armed with compound bows scampered up and began pouring fire onto the defenders on the main gate, ducking down to string the next arrow behind the shields of the century who had won the bastion. The Durotriges redirected their missile fire onto the new threat, taking the pressure off the testudo standing at the base of the gate. Now the engineers moved up with the battering ram, and under cover of the testudo began a slow rhythmic assault on the stout wooden bbams of the main gate.

The dull thud of the ram reached Vespasian's ears and his mind turned to Cato and his small party on the other side of the hill fort. They, too, would hear the ram, and start making their move.

Below the drainage gully on the other side of the hill fort, the pile of sewage and refuse suddenly came to life. Had there been a sentry on the palisade above, he might have had difficulty believing his eyes when a small party of what appeared to be Celtic warriors emerged from the foul smelling heap and silently swarmed up either Side of the gully, making for the wooden opening set into the palisade.

While the engineers had been busy levelling the ground, a small party of legionaries, the best men of the former Sixth Century of the Fourth Cohort, had quietly made their way round the hill fort, under the command of their optio Simon Scarrow and the tall Iceni warrior they had been introduced to earlier that night. Naked, and daubed in the blue woad designs of the Celts, they were equipped with cavalry long swords, which might just pass for native weapons at a quick glance. Prasutagus had led them orer the ramparts and through the staked trenches to the reeking mound of spoil. There, with silent expressions of disgust, they had hidden themselves amid the shit and slops, and waited, motionless, for the coming of dawn and the battering ram attack on the maila i gate.

At the first distant thump of the ram, Cato pushed aside the rotting deer carcass he had been hiding beneath and..i clambered on all fours Ul towards the wooden structure.

With natural agility, Prasuta.gus scaled the far side of the gully, reminding Cato of.'ala ape he had once seen at the games in Rome. Around em were the rest of the men Cato had selected, tough and mostly o-f Gaulish extraction, so that they stood a better chaneI of passing for Britons.

By the time they reachod the top of the gully, the thudding from the ram had become a regular beat, sounding the death knell of the hill fort and its defenders. Cato pointed at the space under the opening and,' as before, Prasutagus shifted his powerful frame into position. Cato clambered up, and cautiously looked over the rim into the hill fort's interior, by daylight this time. The plateau] immediately to his front was deserted. Off to the right, beyond the giant figure of the wicker man, a dark mass of bodies was packed around the main gate, waiting to hurl themselves upon the First Cohort the moment the ram burst through the thick timbers of the

gate. Among them were some black cloaks of the Druids and Cato smiled with satisfaction; the odds against him and his small party had lessened.

He pulled himself over the rim, and reached down for the hand of the next man. One by one they clambered through the opening and crawled to the side of the nearest animal pen. At last only Prasutagus remained, and Cato braced himself firmly against the timber frame of the platform before he reached his hands down to Prasutagus. The Iceni warrior grabbed Cato's forearms and heaved himself up, transferring his grip to the rim of the opening as soon as he could.

'Are all the Iceni as heavy as you?' Cato gasped.

'No. My father – bigger than me.'

'Bloody glad you're on our side then.'

They scrambled over to the other men, and then Cato led them along the pens towards the Druid enclosure. At the last pen he signalled for his men to be still, and then slowly poked his head round the wattle panel, cursing softly at the sight of two Druids still guarding the gateway into the enclosure. They were squatting down and chewing on hunks of bread, apparently unconcerned by the desperate fight at the gate. Cato pulled his head back and motioned his men to stay down. They must keep out of sight tmtil the main gate fell, and pray that the Druids had not already executed their hostages.