enslaved for ever."

It was not long before messengers arrived from Boadicea, bidding
the Sarci prepare for war, and summoning Parta and her son to a
council of the chiefs of the tribe, to be held under a well known
sacred oak in the heart of the forest, near Norwich. Parta's chariot
was at once prepared, together with a second, which was to carry
Boduoc and a female attendant of Parta, and as soon as the horses
were harnessed they started. Two long days' journey brought them
to the place of meeting. The scene was a busy one. Already fully
two score of the chiefs had arrived. Parta was received with great
marks of respect. The Sarci were the tribe lying nearest to the
Romans, and upon them the brunt of the Roman anger would fall, as
it had done before; but her appearance in answer to the summons
showed, it was thought, their willingness to join in the general
action of the tribe.

Beric was looked at curiously. His four years' residence among the
Romans caused him to be regarded with a certain amount of suspicion,
which had been added to by rumours that he had been impressing
upon the tribe the greatness and power of Rome. Of late there had
been reports brought by wandering bards that the Sarci were being
practised in the same exercises as those of the Roman soldiers,
and there were many who thought that Beric, like Cogidinus, a chief
of the Regi of Sussex, had joined himself heart and soul to Rome,
and was preparing his tribe to fight side by side with the legions.
On the other hand many, knowing that Parta had lost her husband at
the hands of the Romans, and hated them with all her heart, held
that she would never have divided her power with Beric, or suffered
him to take military command of the tribe, had she not been assured