Free In the Shadow of the Wall by Gordon Anthony Page A

in an open space within the fort. Then they were given cold water and some hard, grainy soap to wash with, always under the eyes of the Romans. Many soldiers came along to watch in a disinterested sort of way. Brude saw some who wore fine red cloaks and solid breastplates. He could tell these were important men but he got a cuff on the back of his head from a soldier who barked at him in Latin. Carallus translated, “Keep your gaze lowered, slave.”
    After they had washed, their heads were shaved which to most was the worst part of the day for the Pritani were proud of long, strong hair. It showed their virility and to lose it was a source of shame. “It will grow back,” Carallus reassured them. Once they had all been shaved, they were examined by a small man who was, according to Carallus, a doctor although he did little to help the wounds they had other than to wrap some linen bandages round them. Then they were given short tunics to wear before being taken back to their large cell room.
    Another light meal of plain oatmeal gruel and some water was brought to them as evening came. There was barely enough to go around but one of the men, a large warrior called Drugh, one of Nechtan’s men, insisted that they all share the food equally. Nobody argued, despite the hunger; they were all in this together.
    They had no blankets and nowhere to sleep except the hard, beaten earth floor so they lay down and tried to sleep, though some men whimpered because of the pain of their wounds or the loss of their freedom. Brude did not cry, not en when he remembered his father’s death. He wanted to, but no tears would come. Instead, he burned with a deep resolve that he would escape this captivity and return to Broch Tava to marry Mairead. It was the only thing he could think of that kept him feeling alive.
     
    Brude soon learned that escape would not be easy. They spent a week cooped up in the fort, during which time two men died when their wounds became infected. They discovered that Carallus was a Pritani, from a tribe who lived far to the south, which was why he had the job of speaking to them. Drugh, the big man who had become their nominal leader, asked him once why one of the Pritani would fight for the Romans. Carallus just shrugged. “The pay’s good,” he said. “And you get regular meals.”
    Then one morning they were taken outside, heavily guarded, and the Romans put them in a long coffle, iron rings fastened about their necks and linked together with long iron chains. They could move their arms and they could walk but they had to keep together for if any man did not keep pace or changed direction, his neighbours were dragged by the neck chains and choked.
    So began the long years of Brude’s slavery.
    They walked along the road behind the Wall, prodded by the guards if their pace flagged. At night they were taken inside the nearest fort and Brude began to realise just how many soldiers the Romans had. They had heard that most soldiers had gone away to fight in some other part of the empire but there were still hundreds of them in the forts along the Wall, every man armed and armoured with enough iron to make a Pritani a wealthy man.
    They turned south, sometimes handed from one guard party to another. Some of them were now starting to pick up a few words of Latin. Brude was able to recognise the words for water, food, orders to get up, march, stop and rest. They all knew the word for slave, for they heard it constantly. They were just serui . They had no names as far as the Romans were concerned.
    The roads ran straight across the countryside, passing through villages and even large towns, many of them with streets laid out in orderly, rectangular patterns and surrounded by high walls. Sometimes they spent the nights sheltered in barns but mostly they slept outside, shivering in their short tunics even though it was high summer. “Lughnasa today,” said Frual one morning as they sipped the small ration of water