"I am glad to hear what you say, Parta," Aska, one of the older
chiefs, said. "It would be unfair to impute blame to him for what
assuredly was not his fault, but I feared that they might have
taught him to despise his countrymen."

"It is not so, sir," Beric said firmly. "Happily I fell into good
hands. Caius Muro, the commander of the 12th Legion, in whose charge
I was, is a just as well as a valiant man, and had me instructed
as if I had been his own son, and I trust that I am none the less
a true Briton because I except him and his from the hatred I bear
the Romans. He never said a word to me against my countrymen, and
indeed often bewailed that we were not treated more wisely and
gently, and were not taught to regard the Romans as friends and
teachers rather than oppressors."

"Well spoken, young chief!" the other said; "ingratitude is, of
all sins, the most odious, and you do well to speak up boldly for
those who were kind to you. Among all men there are good and evil,
and we may well believe, even among the Romans, there are some who
are just and honourable. But I hear that you admire them greatly,
and that you have been telling to your tribe tales of their greatness
in war and of their virtues."

"I have done so," Beric replied. "A race could not conquer the
world as the Romans have done unless they had many virtues; but
those that I chiefly told of are the virtues that every Briton
should lay to heart. I spoke of their patriotism, of the love of
country that never failed, of the stern determination that enabled
them to pass through the gravest dangers without flinching, and to
show a dauntless face to the foe even when dangers were thickest