“Ask me any questions you like,” said Lucius presently. But Betty scarcely knew where to begin.
“This country is called Britain, isn’t it?” she said at last, remembering her history. “And you Roman people conquered it?”
“We did,” answered the boy, smiling. “Long ago. Four hundred years ago.”
“And the British people are not angry about it anymore?”
“No. Why should they be? Everything is peaceful now.”
“But at first there was fighting, I suppose?”
“Long and bitter fighting,” said Lucius. “There is a story, which I believe is true, that when my ancestors first came to Britain, more than three hundred years ago, there was a British Queen who led men to battle against us. She actually took and burnt this town of Londinium—which was then, however, much smaller and less important than it is now.”
“Boadicea!” thought Betty, remembering in a flash the statue on Westminster Bridge.
But Lucius was again speaking. “My own family has been settled here nearly two hundred years. It was my great-grandfather who built this villa, and he was born in Londinium.”