of his fidelity to the cause of Britain.

Beric was dressed in the full panoply of a chief. He wore a short
skirt or kilt reaching to his knees. Above it a loose vest or
shirt, girt in by a gold belt, while over his shoulders he wore
the British mantle, white in colour and worked with gold. Around
his neck was the torque, the emblem of chieftainship. On his left
arm he carried a small shield of beaten brass, and from a baldric
covered with gold plates hung the straight pointless British sword
that had been carried by his father in battle. Even those most
suspicious of him could not deny that he was a stalwart and well
built youth, with a full share of pith and muscle, and that his
residence among the Romans had not given him any airs of effeminacy.
The only subject of criticism was that his hair was shorter than
that of his countrymen, for although he had permitted it to grow
since he left Camalodunum, where he had worn it short, in Roman
fashion, it had not yet attained its full length.

Beric felt a stranger among the others. Since his return home there
had been no great tribal gathering, for Prasutagus had for some
time been ill, and had always discouraged such assemblages both
because they were viewed with jealousy by the Romans and because he
begrudged the expenses of entertaining. Parta, who was personally
known to almost all present, introduced Beric to them.

"My son is none the less one of the Iceni for his Roman training,"
she said; "he has learned much, but has forgotten nothing. He is
young, but you will find him a worthy companion in arms when the
day of battle comes."