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

Cold fleeting Ver, mingled with blood, ran down,
All night; and corses of slain steeds and men,
Cumber his sedgy brinks. From Camulodunum,
Vast field of swollen Britons' carcases;
Foul ravens flit, to sup at Verulam,
Of fallen Romans. Few, 'scaped forth, have round
Them, in that twilight, mounded bank of mould;
Weak fence, in an hill-place. Wounded the most,
In the dank herb, they lie, and daze their hearts!

When risen new cheerful light is, on wide earth,
Those Roman soldiers, creeping faintly forth,
Did leaves, for hunger, gnaw, of trees and grass.

Then footsteps finding, of some fore-past cohorts;
They journey on, fearful; staying, who are hurt,
On wild staves of lopt boughs. Dread fills their hearts;
(Had many, in flight, their shields and harness cast;)
Whiles they pass forth, in hostile wilderness,
By unknown paths! where hips and bramble-berries,
And worts, those, in the way, must seek for meat.

For naught those, (minding overthrow of Varus,
In stories old,) now cure; might they but save
Their weary lives! When of those fugitives,
The first, to Colne brinks, now sixth eve, arrive,
Already, is their discomfiture known to Aulus.

Lighted one Tertius, servant to the quæstor,
(His tabellarius, mongst the Gaulish horse;)
One, whom had raging spear of Antethrigus
Hurt. Weary after battle; he, with few,
Which, scaped to horse, had all that night ridden forth,
Towards rising stars. He lights, by the brook Maran;
To rest, and wash his angry wound and bind.
But feeling come, with trembling, the cold death;
Rent Tertius, hastily, roll of his account:

And part, (on Jovis Vindex, calling!) binds
He, round light scabbard of his horseman's glaive;
And wrote, Ex clade Romanorum, Ver .
So cast, in Maran's stream, his dying hand!

Certain, next eve, post-riders to Longport
(With Belges, guides,) it fleeting found, by hap,
In ford of Lea; where watered they their steeds.
Those one sent back then, who this bare to Aulus.
Have perished, all which lingered in the path,
Fainting with wounds and thirst and weariness;
Whom finding, angry Icenians did cut-off.

Lo, Roman towers, that now wide walls o'erlook
Of Trinobantine war-god Camulus.
Is sway in some and battery of ram-head beams:
From other, mighty archery, of steel-stringed engines;
Launching both great winged darts, as shafts, and stones
Of poise: walls, whereon now beleaguered Britons,
May stand uneath. Few days, they, yet, them fence,
With countermures, gainst that strong siege of Romans.

Helm-clad, like Belisama, lo, queen Embla,
With archers' guard and spears, walks hourly round:
And where, war-lady, Embla stedfast mounts,

There power, with beauty and grace seems of a goddess.
And who is there, hearing her heavenly voice,
His shield not strains, in sterner wise, and arms.
Who, even the aged, feels not then revive,
(Beholding her, clear glory of womankind!)
The flowers of spring-time, in his withered blood?
All, after Embla look, where she doth pace.

And weight is aye, of sorrowful dark thought,
And travail, in all breasts, for Caradoc,
And cannot be repressed; because not yet,
He, Shield-of-Britons, wakes out of his trance;
(Fighting, for mastery, in his royal veins,
The radical heat, with venim's deadly force.)

Murmur, who barefoot go before that porch,
(Where the lord lieth, not tasting meat, save oft
Is little milk and mead poured, twixt his teeth,)
That Togodumnos perished by a shaft.
Opinion also, mongst blue Britons, is;
(It druids sought out, of some Numidian captive;
Which this, by signs, to them, declared!) the shot
Was tinct in venim; (namely of hornéd asp,
Bush-adder of their droughty wilderness;)
Whence must the strongest die; whom not preserve,

The gods! By day and night-time wakes queen Embla,
Singing aye spells, by loved Caratacus.

Vol. iv. p. 26.