"'Leave them their village councils, and let them furnish their own soldiers," he said. "You, I am sure, would hold the reins very lightly."
"Even then, no," I said. "At least not now. They have been too oppressed by us to trust anything with a Roman name for years and years."
'I heard old Allo behind me mutter: "Good child!"
"'Then what do you recommend," said Maximus, "to keep the North quiet till I win Gaul?"
"'Leave the Picts alone," I said. "Stop the heather-burning at once, and - they are improvident little animals - send them a shipload or two of corn now and then."
"'Their own men must distribute it - not some cheating Greek accountant," said Pertinax.
"'Yes, and allow them to come to our hospitals when they are sick," I said.
"'Surely they would die first," said Maximus.
"'Not if Parnesius brought them in," said Allo. "I could show you twenty wolf-bitten, bear-clawed Picts within twenty miles of here. But Parnesius must stay with them in hospital, else they would go mad with fear. "
"'I see," said Maximus. "Like everything else in the world, it is one man's work. You, I think, are that one man."
"'Pertinax and I are one," I said.
"'As you please, so long as you work. Now, Allo, you know that I mean your people no harm. Leave us to talk together," said Maximus.
"'No need!" said Allo. "I am the corn between the upper and lower millstones. I must know what the lower millstone means to do. These boys have spoken the truth as far as they know it. I, a Prince, will tell you the rest. I am troubled about the Men of the North." He squatted like a hare in the heather, and looked over his shoulder.
"'I also," said Maximus, "or I should not be here."
"'Listen," said Allo. "Long and long ago the Winged Hats" - he meant the Northmen - "came to our beaches and said, 'Rome falls! Push her down!' We fought you.
You sent men. We were beaten. After that we said to the Winged Hats, 'You are liars! Make our men alive that Rome killed, and we will believe you.' They went away ashamed. Now they come back bold, and they tell the old tale, which we begin to believe - that Rome falls!"
"'Give me three years' peace on the Wall," cried Maximus, "and I will show you and all the ravens how they lie!"
"'Ah, I wish it too! I wish to save what is left of the corn from the millstones. But you shoot us Picts when we come to borrow a little iron from the Iron Ditch; you burn our heather, which is all our crop; you trouble us with your great catapults. Then you hide behind the Wall, and scorch us with Greek fire. How can I keep my young men from listening to the Winged Hats - in winter especially, when we are hungry? My young men will say, 'Rome can neither fight nor rule. She is taking her men out of Britain. The Winged Hats will help us to push down the Wall. Let us show them the secret roads across the bogs.'
Do I want that? No!" He spat like an adder. "I would keep the secrets of my people though I were burned alive. My two children here have spoken truth. Leave us Picts alone. Comfort us, and cherish us, and feed us from far off - with the hand behind the back. Parnesius understands us. Let him have rule on the Wall, and I will hold my young men quiet for" - he ticked it off on his fingers -
"one year easily: the next year not so easily: the third year, perhaps! See, I give you three years. If then you do not show us that Rome is strong in men and terrible in arms, the Winged Hats, I tell you, will sweep down the Wall from either sea till they meet in the middle, and you will go. I shall not grieve over that, but well I know tribe never helps tribe except for one price. We Picts will go too. The Winged Hats will grind us to this!" He tossed a handful of dust in the air.
"'Oh, Roma Dea!" said Maximus, half aloud. "It is always one man's work- always and everywhere!"
"And one man's life," said Allo. "You are Emperor, but not a God. You may die."
"'I have thought of that too," said he. "Very good. If this wind holds, I shall be at the East end of the Wall by morning. Tomorrow, then, I shall see you two when I inspect, and I will make you Captains of the Wall for this work."
"'One instant, Caesar," said Pertinax. "All men have their price. I am not bought yet."
"'Do you also begin to bargain so early?" said Maximus. "Well?"
"'Give me justice against my uncle Icenus, the Duumvir of Divio in Gaul," he said.
"'Only a life? I thought it would be money or an office.
Certainly you shall have him. Write his name on these tablets - on the red side; the other is for the living!" and Maximus held out his tablets.
"'He is of no use to me dead," said Pertinax. "My mother is a widow. I am far off. I am not sure he pays her all her dowry."
"'No matter. My arm is reasonably long. We will look through your uncle's accounts in due time. Now, farewell till tomorrow, O Captains of the Wall!"
'We saw him grow small across the heather as he walked to the galley. There were Picts, scores, each side of him, hidden behind stones. He never looked left or right. He sailed away southerly, full spread before the evening breeze, and when we had watched him out to sea, we were silent. We understood that Earth bred few men like to this man.
'Presently Allo brought the ponies and held them for us to mount - a thing he had never done before.
"'Wait awhile," said Pertinax, and he made a little altar of cut turf, and strewed heather-bloom atop, and laid upon it a letter from a girl in Gaul.
"'What do you do, O my friend?" I said.
"'I sacrifice to my dead youth," he answered, and, when the flames had consumed the letter, he ground them out with his heel. Then we rode back to that Wall of which we were to be Captains.'
Parnesius stopped. The children sat still, not even asking if that were all the tale. Puck beckoned, and pointed the way out of the wood. 'Sorry,' he whispered, 'but you must go now.'
'We haven't made him angry, have we?' said Una. 'He looks so far off, and - and - thinky.'
'Bless your heart, no. Wait till tomorrow. It won't be long. Remember, you've been playing Lays of Ancient Rome.'
And as soon as they had scrambled through their gap where Oak, Ash and Thorn grew, that was all they remembered.
