30 MeetingThe settlement of Boudicca was a place of savage confusion. In the flaring torchlight, dogs barked, running to and fro among the horses wagging their shaggy tails; hens scuttled under the very hooves, clucking in terror; the black cattle lowed from the steadings and corrals set here and there at the edge of the encampment; stallions neighed and whinnied, stamped their hooves as they scented the mares; men and women hurried this way and that, about their many tasks—some carrying food, or clothing, others sharpening swords, bill-hooks, chariot scythes or javelin-heads.
Fantastic shadows flickered madly between the reed huts, thrown by the animals and men of that strange maelstrom of effort. To Gemellus and Duatha, coming into the settlement from the open country, it was a place of
