and the top of his helmet will be concealed beneath the head of that beast, worn as a hood.  Being a saving man, and taking a pride in himself, he will gradually decorate his sword-belt and girdle, and perhaps his scabbard, with silver knobs and ornaments.  Also behaving well in the victorious brushes with the Britons, he will acquire, besides occasional loot and booty-money, a number of metal medallions or disks, to be strung across his breast somewhat after the manner of the modern war-medals.  Gradually, as he becomes a veteran, he may rise to be centurion, when he will wear a crest upon his helmet and greaves upon his shins, have his corslet of scale-armour covered with medallions, and will himself carry the vine-rod of authority.  If he should ever succeed in becoming, not merely the centurion of his company, but the first or senior of all the sixty centurions belonging to the whole legion, he will rank practically as a commissioned officer, will retire on a competence if he does retire, and will in all probability be made a knight.  In that case he may proceed to higher commands, as if he had been born in that order to which he has at last attained.

[Illustration:  FIG. 102.—­BAGGAGE-TRAIN.]

But all this promotion is yet a long way off.  One morning, while Scius is still a private, he hears, not the “taratantara” of the long straight trumpet which calls to ordinary work, but the sound of the military horn, which means that the legion is to march.  He helps to pack up the tent, the hand-mills, and other indispensable needments, and to place them on the mules, packhorses, or waggons.  He then puts on his full armour, although, if it is hot, and if there is no immediate danger, he may sling his helmet over his shoulder, while his shield, marked with his name and company, may perhaps be stacked with others in a baggage-waggon.  His food-supply for sixteen days—­the Roman fortnight—­is wrapped in a parcel, and this, together with his eating and drinking vessels and any other articles such as would appertain to a modern knapsack, is carried over his shoulder on a forked stick.  It is known that to-night the army will be obliged to camp on the way, and it is a binding rule of the service that no camp arrangements shall be left to chance.  Surveyors will ride on ahead with a body of cavalry, and will choose a suitable position easily defended and with water near.  They will then outline the boundaries according to a certain scale, and will parcel out the interior, according to an almost invariable system, into blocks or sections to accommodate certain units.  When the legion arrives, it marches in with a perfect understanding as to where each company of men and each part of the baggage-train is to quarter itself.  Being in an enemy’s country it is not enough simply to post sentries.  A trench must be dug and a palisade erected round the camp, and for that purpose every soldier on the march has carried a couple of sharpened stakes and a sort of small pickaxe.  It may therefore be readily understood that Scius is heavily laden.  Besides the weight of his body-armour and his shield, pike, and sword, his orthodox burden is about forty-five English pounds.