And he spoke to each as though that man were as
high-minded as himself. Now I saw so strongly what
things were needed to be done, that I forgot things
are only accomplished by means of men. That was a mistake.
'I feared nothing from the Picts, at least for that year,
but Allo warned me that the Winged Hats would soon
come in from the sea at each end of the Wall to prove to
the Picts how weak we were. So I made ready in haste,
and none too soon. I shifted our best men to the ends of
the Wall, and set up screened catapults by the beach. The
Winged Hats would drive in before the snow-squalls -
ten or twenty boats at a time - on Segedunum or Ituna,
according as the wind blew.
'Now a ship coming in to land men must furl her sail. If
you wait till you see her men gather up the sail's foot,
your catapults can jerk a net of loose stones (bolts only cut
through the cloth) into the bag of it. Then she turns over,
and the sea makes everything clean again. A few men
may come ashore, but very few ... It was not hard work,
except the waiting on the beach in blowing sand and
snow. And that was how we dealt with the Winged Hats
that winter.
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