‘Tell them, that’s what will happen to anyone who defies me. There will be no warning,just death. Tell the chief he’s to come with us when we leave. I will give him a list of our needs back at the camp.’

The First Century turned about and, with a terrified mob of screaming children pressed together between the legionaries, the column marched away from the village, back down the slope towards the stream. The villagers followed them through the gate, and a short distance down the slope, numbed into silence by their despair. Macro felt sick, and tore his gaze away from them as he glanced around the valley. Was this the same valley that had been so easy on his eyes as he marched down its length only a brief while before? The age-long serenity of this valley of farmers had been bloodily shattered in the space of a few hours by the men of Rome. Nothing would be the same here ever again.

05 The Eagles Prey

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

The men were beginning to be openly resentful of him, and Cato wondered how long it would be before the sentiment turned into something far more deadly. They had been hiding in the marsh for ten days now, and the lack of food left a gnawing agony in their bellies that preoccupied their minds above all else. The last meal they had eaten had been some days earlier - a small pig that they had found wandering along a narrow path. When the animal had been speared and killed, Cato had heard someone calling out nearby and, creeping forwards with Figulus, he discovered a small farm on a patch of arable ground that barely rose above the level of the surrounding marsh. There were two or three families working the land from a huddle of small huts. Outside the nearest hut sat a young man and his plump wife, playing with two small children, one of them not yet on his feet. To one side of the hut there were two pens, one with chickens and the other contained a large sow and several suckling pigs. There was a small opening in the side of the pig-pen.

‘That explains our find,’ the optio whispered. ‘Now, if only one or two more get it into their heads to go and explore the wide world, we can eat like kings.’

‘Don’t get your hopes up. They’ll miss that pig soon. We’d better get out of here.’

As Cato made to shuffle back his optio grasped him on the shoulder.

‘Wait . . . sir.’

Cato turned to give his companion a cold look. ‘Get your hand off me.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘That’s better. What is it?’

Figulus nodded towards the farmer and his family, just as the eldest child’s laughter shrilled out in the warm afternoon air. ‘There’s only one man there.’

‘Only the one we can see,’ Cato agreed cautiously.