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Page 47
'What did you do?' said Dan.
'Went on. Why should _I_ care for such things, my business being to
reach my station? It took me twenty days.
'Of course, the farther North you go the emptier are the roads. At last
you fetch clear of the forests and climb bare hills, where wolves howl
in the ruins of our cities that have been. No more pretty girls; no more
jolly magistrates who knew your Father when he was young, and invite you
to stay with them; no news at the temples and way-stations except bad
news of wild beasts. There's where you meet hunters, and trappers for
the Circuses, prodding along chained bears and muzzled wolves. Your pony
shies at them, and your men laugh.
'The houses change from gardened villas to shut forts with watch-towers
of grey stone, and great stone-walled sheepfolds, guarded by armed
Britons of the North Shore. In the naked hills beyond the naked houses,
where the shadows of the clouds play like cavalry charging, you see
puffs of black smoke from the mines. The hard road goes on and on--and
the wind sings through your helmet-plume--past altars to Legions and
Generals forgotten, and broken statues of Gods and Heroes, and thousands
of graves where the mountain foxes and hares peep at you. Red-hot in
summer, freezing in winter, is that big, purple heather country of
broken stone.
'Just when you think you are at the world's end, you see a smoke from
East to West as far as the eye can turn, and then, under it, also as far
as the eye can stretch, houses and temples, shops and theatres, barracks
and granaries, trickling along like dice behind--always behind--one
long, low, rising and falling, and hiding and showing line of towers.
And that is the Wall!'
'Ah!' said the children, taking breath.
'You may well,' said Parnesius. 'Old men who have followed the Eagles
since boyhood say nothing in the Empire is more wonderful than first
sight of the Wall!'
'Is it just a Wall? Like the one round the kitchen-garden?' said Dan.
'No, no! It is _the_ Wall. Along the top are towers with guard-houses,
small towers, between. Even on the narrowest part of it three men with
shields can walk abreast, from guard-house to guard-house. A little
curtain wall, no higher than a man's neck, runs along the top of the
thick wall, so that from a distance you see the helmets of the sentries
sliding back and forth like beads. Thirty feet high is the Wall, and on
the Picts' side, the North, is a ditch, strewn with blades of old swords
and spear-heads set in wood, and tyres of wheels joined by chains. The
Little People come there to steal iron for their arrow-heads.
'But the Wall itself is not more wonderful than the town behind it. Long
ago there were great ramparts and ditches on the South side, and no one
was allowed to build there. Now the ramparts are partly pulled down and
built over, from end to end of the Wall; making a thin town eighty miles
long. Think of it! One roaring, rioting, cock-fighting, wolf-baiting,
horse-racing town, from Ituna on the West to Segedunum on the cold
eastern beach! On one side heather, woods and ruins where Picts hide,
and on the other, a vast town--long like a snake, and wicked like a
snake. Yes, a snake basking beside a warm wall!
'My Cohort, I was told, lay at Hunno, where the Great North Road runs
through the Wall into the Province of Valentia.' Parnesius laughed
scornfully. 'The Province of Valentia! We followed the road, therefore,
into Hunno town, and stood astonished. The place was a fair--a fair of
peoples from every corner of the Empire. Some were racing horses: some
sat in wine-shops: some watched dogs baiting bears, and many gathered in
a ditch to see cocks fight. A boy not much older than myself, but I
could see he was an officer, reined up before me and asked what I
wanted.
'"My station," I said, and showed him my shield.' Parnesius held up his
broad shield with its three X's like letters on a beer-cask.
'"Lucky omen!" said he. "Your Cohort's the next tower to us, but they're
all at the cock-fight. This is a happy place. Come and wet the Eagles."
He meant to offer me a drink.
'"When I've handed over my men," I said. I felt angry and ashamed.
'"Oh, you'll soon outgrow that sort of nonsense," he answered. "But
don't let me interfere with your hopes. Go on to the Statue of Roma Dea.
You can't miss it. The main road into Valentia!" and he laughed and rode
off. I could see the statue not a quarter of a mile away, and there I
went. At some time or other the Great North Road ran under it into
Valentia; but the far end had been blocked up because of the Picts, and
on the plaster a man had scratched, "Finish!" It was like marching into
a cave. We grounded spears together, my little thirty, and it echoed in
the barrel of the arch, but none came. There was a door at one side
painted with our number. We prowled in, and I found a cook asleep, and
ordered him to give us food. Then I climbed to the top of the Wall, and
looked out over the Pict country, and I--thought,' said Parnesius. 'The
bricked-up arch with "Finish!" on the plaster was what shook me, for I
was not much more than a boy.'
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