XXIIWhen the riders were seven days out from Caerwent they reached a high and ancient earthworks, at the summit of which had been constructed a rough fortification of unhewn stones, built much after the fashion of the Roman mile castles, along Hadrian’s great wall. It was such a fortress as might give shelter to a hundred defenders, though there was little enough for such a castle to protect in the poverty-stricken countryside about it; nor would any enemy force, working its way along the river valley below the hill, be taken by surprise should a sudden sally be made from the rude fortress, since it would be possible from a long distance to observe the movements of any men who descended the bare hillside.
Artos put forward this opinion to his chief captains who rode beside him. Medrodus,
