Ten days after returning to work for Bricius he had been given a day off and had gone out on his horse. A few miles to the south and clear of any settlements, he had come across a team of Roman engineers who were carrying out the initial work in order for a road to be constructed. It was a small party of about fifteen soldiers who were using strange tools and planting markers into the ground after ensuring the new road would be in a straight line. They used thin wooden pieces of wood that were joined together in a frame from which weights hung on rope, these weights were aligned with others further forward on other frames and then the markers were staked into the turf. Miles to the rear other engineers were doing the hard work of digging and bringing gravel and stone forward. Dumnoc knew that the advance party were vulnerable and planned to hit them with a war band of twenty five, which should be more than enough especially if they could use the element of surprise and were far enough away from any support. He would have to limit himself to such tactics until such times as his numbers grew from reinforcements sent by Caradoc.
He was surprised that these engineers weren’t guarded by legionaries considering the attacks of late. They were either becoming over confident or were too stretched to provide covering patrols, he suspected. During the morning he had ridden by them counting their numbers and making sure there weren’t any sentries hidden nearby, and had done the same thing, later in the afternoon. It was as he suspected, they were alone and isolated.
Returning to Bricius during the evening, he helped with some work and then turned in, getting an early night before the raid on the engineering party. He planned to sneak away from the settlement a few hours before dawn and meet up with his war band at a pre-arranged place a few miles short of their target’s location. He dressed quickly and quietly slipped out of the roundhouse he occupied and rode to get his weapons. Feeling a sense of excitement and fear he recovered his sword, spear and shield from where he kept them hidden by three large oak trees and then met up with the others. After a brief discussion with them about how he wanted the attack to proceed, they set off looking for the engineering party.
When he suspected they were close, they began walking their horses, leading them by their reins. He knew the soldiers wouldn’t be far from the last place he had seen them and would have travelled directly in one straight line as they had a tendency to construct their roads. Sure enough over the next rise, he saw their tents in the rolling countryside below, three of them, there were two men on guard standing off to one side.
He indicated for the others to stop where they were below the height of the hill so they wouldn’t be seen and pointed at two of the older warriors, telling them to follow him. He crouched down and went forward dropping to his knees and then crawled along slowly on his stomach, the two others following.
“We’ll have to take the sentries first.” He whispered looking across the plain. Despite the darkness, the tents were visible as there were lamps glowing inside and one was a short distance from the two guards.
“It would be too dangerous to get any closer, we’d be seen and they would raise the alarm.” Dumnoc said thinking aloud. “Some of the men have bows with them, you,” he said addressing one of the men, “Crawl back and bring four bowmen with you, I’ve got an idea.” The man did as he was told, returning a short time later with the archers.
“I want two of you to take the man on the right and the other two to shoot the one on the left but not until I give the word, you are to stay here with me.” He turned again to the man who had brought the archers, “Now go back and get the others, I want you to encircle them but from a safe distance as best you can. Once the arrows fly, we’ll move in but not before, do you understand?”
He nodded, Dumnoc said, “Once you have them in position give the signal and we’ll take the sentries down, then the rest of us will move in and deal with the others, clear?” He nodded again and moved off. Dumnoc lay there waiting for what seemed like an age with the four bowmen who had spread out slightly giving themselves space for when the order came to fire at the guards. Just as he got so frustrated that he was about to go and find out what was going on, he heard the hoot of an owl, the signal that the rest of the war band were in position.
“On your feet,” He said to the archers, “Remember to fire together or as close as you can and don’t miss.” He turned back to the guards and waited, listening to a slight breeze. The Roman sentries were about one hundred and twenty paces from their position, easily within range of the arrows. The bowmen waited for the breeze to settle and then loosed their missiles, there was a faint twang as their drawstrings relaxed and within no time they were lost in the dark. The archers loaded more arrows but they weren’t required as one of the soldiers dropped to the ground instantly, within seconds dark figures appeared from all around and descended on the tents. The second guard was seen clutching at his face and staggering towards the nearest tent, but he was brought down by a warrior who jumped on him from behind.
Dumnoc rose and ran seeing the Briton who had felled the legionary thrashing downward with his axe, the noise of the contact on his armour was quite loud but then he saw him roll him over and begin to pound his face with the bladed weapon. Dumnoc was certain that the sound would wake the other soldiers but knew that if it had it was too late as they had reached the tents.
He stopped short by a few feet, quickly looking at the warrior who had leapt onto the guard and could see his face splattered with blood, another sliced the throat of the other prone man who had two arrows in his face. The three tents were completely surrounded. Dumnoc walked over to the lamp the sentries had near them and picked it up, walking back towards the tents, he threw it at the one in the middle. It landed on the side of the slanting roof, at first nothing happened, and then the oil began to run down the sides of the goat skin surface, the flame caught and it burnt. From within the structure the other soldiers quickly began to stir and then he heard the others in the two tents on either side were waking up.
The legionaries were allowed to exit the tents, fear on their faces as they realised what was happening. One tried to speak but was struck on the side of the head by the shaft of a spear, the sound was loud as it thumped against his skull and he fell to the ground moaning and grasping at where he had been hit. They were lined up on their knees terrified, the battered man dragged up, they looked at Dumnoc who stood in front of the others. He stared back at them and then knelt down and picked up some dirt. Standing again, he rubbed the soil between his fingers allowing some of it to fall, staring at the captured men.
“You come to our lands, kill and enslave our people, take our gold, silver, remove our cattle, sheep and goats and you build your roads.” He said speaking in Latin, looking at their markers. “What shall we do with you?” He asked.
One of the men replied, “Let us go please, we’re just soldiers, we were sent here to put the markers out for the engineers that’s all. We’re not involved in the fighting and we haven’t even drawn our swords since we’ve been in Britannia.”
Dumnoc struck him hard across the forehead and he toppled over landing on his side groaning, “Our land is called Albion not Britannia Roman.” The man got back on his knees. “It matters little to me or these warriors you see before you whether you have drawn blood on our people or not. The roads you help to build move your soldiers through our lands so to us you are all the same.” He looked at the other legionaries on their knees. “How much mercy did you show the Catuvellauni when you first came to our shores? How many tribal kings have taken your gold with promises of land, treaties?” He paused. “Albion was a friend of Rome for many years, we traded peacefully and your Emperor betrayed that trust by sending men like you to kill us, to steal our land and enslave our people.”