CHAPTER SIX
A
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the first galleys left the open sea and pulled in towards the river mouth the threatened storm broke. Looking back into the Channel, the vanguard saw the following barges swing away from them, like a rope cut in the middle.
Here and there right out into the broad sea of the channel, flaming pitch-balls were shot into the dusk as an indication of position. But the wind had now risen to such a point of violence that it seemed impossible, short of the miracle that happens only too infrequently during surprise attacks, for the full force to proceed as planned.
After a hasty consultation with his ship’s captain, Aulus Plautius, in the leading barge, gave the signal for his vessel and the six others that had followed him inshore to lie off the river mouth until dawn. By that
