Funny old world

Greetings!
You never know what`s going to happen next. I was never so glad to get away from anywhere as I was from Rome. It all went bad when I finally found the street where Hern was when he saved Julia Domnina`s life. If you remember from Celts v Romans that ended with Hern trapping Diarmid into a plot against the General. He was training Diarmid to be a Roman citizen. That part of the city held a lot of people with not much money and various ideas for laying thier hands on what other people had.

As this involved hitting them on the head, grabbing them from behind and cutting their throats or sticking a dagger in just far enough to loosen the srtrings of their purses, or much, much worse. So I was creeping along, looking around nervoulsy. Someone told me later this was my mistake. Dik the Miller said: "Be confident, but not too confident. Move steady, but not too fast or slow." Easier said than done. And he was talking about London, which was not so dangerous then, in the time of Richard the Third. Don`t ask. It`s a long story. Maybe later, if I remember.

Somehow, which I can`t explain, I suddenly knew someone was making a move on me. Not a nice feeling in a town where you haven`t even found a bed to sleep on. So I took off. Someone tripped me. I scraped skin off my knees and hands. I scrabbled up in panic and ran on. I saw the river, l leapt onto the parapet and dived.

Luckily, I hit the water. Later, I saw someone do this and land headfirst in the mud. His legs kicked wildly for a bit, but he could work his head free and they twitched horribly and went still. Rome was scary enough from the start. I was even more nervous after these two experiences. Twice more I was chased over the next few weeks. I got myself sold as a slave, like Diarmid and Hern and I learned a lot from that. It brought me a kind of safety, a place to sleep, and food. I had to put up with being whipped a lot more than I wanted, but my owner wasn`t as bad as some I heard of. In a few months, I felt I knew enough about Rome and the Romans.

Some of them were all right. Kind and clever. But when they were horrible, you wouldn`t want to see how horrible they were. I had to take Mistress to the Circus Maximus. She always wanted to see the Gladiator she was supporting, every time he fought, until he was killed. It was awful. He was stabbed in the side with a trident and fell to his knees. I cried. That great strong man. I heard him stifel a groan. The look in his eyes still haunts me, like the nightmares of running down the street that went on and on. I still get them occasionally. It wasn`t much fun watching the wild animals fighting either. They screamed.

I tell you, I became desperate to get away. When the slipshift came in, I was so glad. Falling asleep in Rome, I woke up on a hillside, by a stream, in the North Country. Just below was a little settlement hidden among a forest of oak trees. When I went down they greeted me in a friendly way, and they spoke Gaelic. Soon food was set out and we talked about their battles with the Romans.

"Nothing has happened for many years," said Daoulas, their leader, "my people came here from Gaul, at the time of Caesar, and now if we leave them alone, they leave us alone."

While this sounded good, I could see others in the group were turning away their heads. It seemed to me they did not agree. I thought it would be a bad idea to ask what they were thinking too soon. For the next few days I just enjoyed the games, the dancing, the songs and the hunting. Bad idea to go poking a stick into a hornets` nest unless you really have to. I tried to amuse them with stories about Rome or my slipshift travels. Quite quickly I became popular with all sorts of people, including children bringing me their questions. On the surface, everyone looked happy and carefree. I was thoroughly enjoying myself, and the nightmares left me.

But all the time I was making myself ready for the time when talk of conflict with the Romans would begin again, as I was sure it must. From what I had learned about them, the Romans very rarely gave up on controlling the countries where theyhad taken over. Only the Saxona, in Germania, had driven them back. Only the Gaels, across the sea, had been left alone along with the Picts, in their Northern fastness. Very soon, the sound of tramping Roman feet would be heard in the distance. Then there would have to be talks about what to do.

I will report again soon. I tell you, I was so shaken by my last visit to Rome, it took a long time before I could even think about it again.

May the wind be always at your back

Conor