Cato kept his mouth shut, feeling first anger and then contempt for his superior, but conscious that he must let none of this show. Now was not the time to defend himself against such spineless accusations. He had to handle the situation carefully, before the old centurion panicked and made a rash, genuinely disastrous decision. Besides, Cato knew that Tullius was wrong.

‘I must have been mad to listen to you,’ Tullius continued bitterly. ‘Mad. I should never have set you free. In fact, I think you should be relieved of your command.’

‘Now hold on a moment, sir.’ Macro stepped forward.’That ain’t fair. We all agreed to the plan. The lad’s not to blame.’

Tullius turned his bitter gaze to Macro. ‘Perhaps I should have you both put in irons.’

‘Sir,’ Cato interrupted quietly, ‘we shouldn’t be doing this. Not in front of the men.’

Tullius glanced round, and saw that the nearest legionaries were looking at them curiously. ‘Get back to your positions! Keep your bloody eyes on the enemy!’

The men glanced away and tried to look as if they had never been interested in the officers’ confrontation in the first place. Tullius made sure that none of them was eavesdropping before he turned back to Cato and Macro.

‘I’ll deal with you two later. Right now I need every man who can hold a weapon. But I promise you, if by some miracle we get out of this alive, there will be a full accounting for this balls-up.’

Macro’s nostrils flared as he took a deep breath and leaned forward to respond in kind. But Cato grasped his forearm and spoke before his friend could make a bad situation any worse.

‘Yes, sir. We agree. But let’s deal with the attack first. You can do what you like with us later.’

Centurion Tullius nodded.’Very well. We have to get out of this trap.’

‘If we quit the rampart,’ said Macro, ‘while that lot are licking their wounds and working themselves up for another attempt, we might make it back to the fort before they can catch us. We’d stand a better chance there.’

‘Assuming that the force sacking the fort is small enough for us to overcome,’ Tullius replied. He stared at the smoke billowing up in the distance. ‘In any case, we don’t know how badly they’ve damaged the defences.’

‘Sir?’

‘What now, Cato? Another brilliant plan?’

‘No, sir. I just think there’s no point in returning to the fort. We don’t know what we might find there. The defences could still be standing; they might not. In which case we’re better off staying here. Besides, I don’t think whoever’s having a go at the fort need concern us.’

‘Oh, really? And what makes you think that?’