`` I only wanted peace for my people , '' and he went out stumbling through the snow behind the tall Winged Hats . ` In this fashion then , slowly , a day at a time , which is very bad for doubting troops , the War came upon us . At first the Winged Hats swept in from the sea as they had done before , and there we met them as before -- with the catapults ; and they sickened of it . Yet for a long time they would not trust their duck-legs on land , and I think , when it came to revealing the secrets of the tribe , the little Picts were afraid or ashamed to show them all the roads across the heather . I had this from a Pict prisoner . They were as much our spies as our enemies , for the Winged Hats oppressed them , and took their winter stores . Ah , foolish Little People ! ` Then the Winged Hats began to roll us up from each end of the Wall . I sent runners Southward to see what the news might be in Britain , but the wolves were very bold that winter , among the deserted stations where the troops had once been , and none came back . We had trouble , too , with the forage for the ponies along the Wall . I kept ten , and so did Pertinax . We lived and slept in the saddle , riding east or west , and we ate our worn-out ponies . The people of the town also made us some trouble till I gathered them all in one quarter behind Hunno . We broke down the Wall on either side of it to make as it were a citadel . Our men fought better in close order . ` By the end of the second month we were deep in the War as a man is deep in a snowdrift , or in a dream . I think we fought in our sleep . At least I know I have gone on the Wall and come off again , remembering nothing between , though my throat was harsh with giving orders , and my sword , I could see , had been used . ` The Winged Hats fought like wolves -- all in a pack . Where they had suffered most , there they charged in most hotly .
This was hard for the defenders , but it held them from sweeping on into XXXXX .
Britain Hunno Pertinax Pict Picts War citadel day duck-legs snowdrift