n, no spoil was made, no ransom was
accepted; all was fire, sword, and hideous torturing. Tacitus declares
that, to his own knowledge,[178] no fewer than seventy thousand Romans
and pro-Romans thus perished in this fearful day of vengeance; the
spirit of which has been caught by Tennyson, with such true poetic
genius, in his 'Boadicea.'

E. 11.--Suetonius, however, now felt strong enough to risk a battle.
The odds were enormous, for the British forces were estimated at
two hundred and thirty thousand, while his own were barely ten
thousand--only one legion (the Fourteenth) with the cavalry of the
Twentieth. (Where its infantry was does not appear: it may have been
left behind in the west.) The Ninth had ceased to exist, and the
Second did not arrive from far-off Caerleon till too late for the
fight. The strength of legionary sentiment is shown by the fact that
its commander actually slew himself for vexation that the Fourteenth
had won without his men.

E. 12.--Where the armies met is quite uncertain, though tradition
fixes on a not unlikely spot near London, whose name of "Battle
Bridge" has but lately been overlaid by the modern designation of
"King's Cross."[179] We only know that Suetonius drew up his line
across a glade in the forest, which thus protected his flanks, and
awaited the foe as they came pouring back from Verulam. In front of
the British line Boadicea, arrayed in the Icenian tartan, her plaid
fastened by a golden brooch, and a spear in her hand, was seen passing
along "loftily-charioted" from clan to clan, as she exhorted each
in turn to conquer or die. Suetonius is said to have given the like
exhortation to the Romans; but every man in their ranks must already
have been well aware that defeat would spell death for him. The one
chance was in steadiness and disciplined valour; and the legionaries
stood firm under a storm of missiles, withholding their own fire
till the foe came within close range. Then, and not till then, they
delivered a simultaneous discharge of their terrible _pila_[180] on
the British centre. The front gave with the volley, and the Romans, at
once wheeling into wedge-shape formation, charged sword in hand into
the gap, and cut the British line clean in two. Behind it was a laager
of wagons, containing their families and spoil, and there the Britons
made a last attempt to rally. But the furious Romans entered the
enclosure with them, and the fight became a simple massacre. No
fewer