as many men. With time to teach the people, not of the Sarci tribe
only, but all the Iceni, to fight in solid masses, and to bear the
brunt of the battle, while the rest of the tribes attacked furiously
on all sides, we might hope for victory; but fighting without
order or regularity, each man for himself, cannot hope to prevail
against their solid mass.

"If I could have gained a name before the time came, so that my
voice might have had weight and power in the councils of the chiefs,
I might have done something. As it is, I fear that a rising now
will bring ruin and slavery upon all Britain."

Beric thought but little of himself, or of the personal danger he
should encounter. The Britons were careless of their lives. They
believed implicitly in a future life, and that those who fell fighting
bravely for their country would meet with reward hereafter; hence,
as among the Gauls, cowardice was an almost unknown vice.

Beric had faith in the gods of his country, while he had none
whatever in those of Rome, and wondered how a mighty people could
believe in such deities; but, unlike the Britons in general, he did
not believe that the gods interfered to decide the fate of battles.

He saw that the Romans, with their false gods, had conquered all
other nations, and that so far they had uniformly triumphed over
his own. Therefore, mighty as he believed the gods to be, he thought
that they concerned themselves but little in the affairs of the
world, and that battles were to be won solely by valour, discipline,
and numbers. Numbers and valour the British had, but of discipline
they were absolutely ignorant, and it was this that gave so tremendous