midnight
He was to say that the town had suddenly been attacked and that many had fallen ; but the greater portion of the population had escaped to the temple , which had been vainly attacked by the Iceni . The object of this news was to induce Cerealis to move out from his fortified camp . The chiefs felt the difficulty of assaulting such a position , and though they had dreaded the arrival of Cerealis before the temple was taken , they were anxious that he should set out as soon as they saw that Beric 's plan of attack had succeeded , and that the temple was now open to their assault . At midnight the roof of the temple fell in , and nothing remained but the bare walls and the columns surrounding them . The chiefs ordered their followers to make their way through the still burning town and to gather by tribes outside the defensive works , and there lie down until morning , when they would march to meet the legion of Cerealis . At daybreak they were again afoot and on the march southward , swollen by the accession of the Trinobantes and by the arrival during the last two days of tribes who had been too late to join the rest at Cardun . The British force now numbered at least fifty thousand .