The Dawn in Britain :: :: University of Virginia Library

Soldiers, in Britain's meadows, pitched their tents;
(They, in yond upland, see none hostile arms!)
Lie slumbering-out their long sea-weariness,
On the sweet herb: and say, One day or twain,

213

Would they, here, rest; and then repair from Britain.
They drive this sun forth, thus, with sullen hearts,
Empty of worth and honour; that forsake,
Against their sacrament, the imperial legate.
Behind them vast sea's waves, before them Britons!
Nor they have duke, save this old chiding Geta.
Fleet-soldiers gone up, on the green hill-bents,
Mongst thyme and gossamer, looking stedfast forth;
View not their consort fleet! At afternoon,
Who watch, see glance of arms. Descends a troop.
Horsemen, of Belges; fifty spears, approach!
Bright harnessed, a tall lord, before them, rides.

The men, whose long red hairlocks, backward blown,
Are of high looks, and like to Belgic Gauls.
They bear round bucklers, dight with hammered hide,
Of the wild ox: their mantles, long-fringed, broached,
With bronze, hang, party-coloured, o'er buff coats;
Which scaled, with glittering tin, of the White Isle.
Lo, wavering, on their shoulders, long war-spears,
As they fast ride. Three come, with them, half-Romans,
Chapmen of Gaul; sons, (pale, are those, of face,)
Of Romans and their stranger Gaulish wives.

214

They, in the former fleet, had sailed with Aulus.
They put to-day their lives, for promised meed,
In this adventure; knowing both the tongues,
To be interpreters, as twixt Gauls and Romans.

Stood Aulus' fleet in, under island Vectis;
And anchors warped, in haven called the Longport,
(Harbour of ships,) which in the lordship is,
Of Cogidubnos, who his foster-Britain
Betrays. Disbarked the legions, measured camps,
The legate set strong watch. He sent then forth
Horsemen, with Cogidubnos, longs East shore;
To seek the lateward fleet. Soon, those find Britons:
For, from a nigh dune, ridden, with fifty spears,
Came certain friend of his, to Cogidubnos,
One Beltucadros, saying; his people saw
The Romans' second navy row to land:
Then those returned, to the proprætor Aulus:
Who, straight, caused, mongst the merchant-sort be cried;
Romans, which can Gaul's tongue, might large reward,
Win, with those men, interpreters, to ride:
And he, for surety of their lives, would bind
As many Belges, in the legions' castra.
These Romans, pale, then offered them to wend,

215

With the armed Britons; (pale, as aye adread
Of the dire altars of the island's druids!)
And they bear letters, from the prætor Aulus.

Geta the seal upbreaks; and reads, The legate
Of Cæsar, in the war begun in Britain,
Unto who chief captains, in the second fleet,
Greeting. We entered now this Belges port;
And hear, in the same tide, ye went to land.
Now, when these letters ye have read, make speed,
To march unto my castra, with your soldiers:
And, put to sea, the mariners of your ships
Row, Westward forth, longs shore, to this Longport.

Such, from green bank, a loud-voiced scribe of Geta,
Outreads. And soldiers standing him around,
Make answer, with one mighty throat, Strike tents!
And, to our fellows, march! The tribune Geta,
Spake; that they silent march, in hostile soil;
Where is dark night as a vast ambushment.

Nigh was sun-setting; when, led, by their guides,

216

In land of aspect strange, the legionaries
Make forth, long trains. Toward clear star, lies their path,
Under yond golden pillars of Orion,
Celestial gateway; which, now the third month,
Low over Britain lies. Behind them, soon,
Like a vast brazier, the bright heaven-queen,
Riseth o'er strange dim field. Cynthia! they hail her:
And lightened are their hearts. Much moor, they pass;
Where cries of the wild curlews, from night loft,
Seem shrieks of aery spirits. They hear no bark
Of hound, in the night peace; they see no wight:
Far from these pastures, Britons have driven their beasts.
Mid-watch was, when they see shine thousand fires,
Of sleeping legions: hear now Roman clarion.
With shout! they answer, and to camp arrive.

Portsmouth and Porchester Harbour.