D. 7.—­Naturally, hostages ceased to be sent in; but it did not need this symptom to show Caesar in how tight a place he now was.  His only chance was to strain every nerve to get his ships refitted; and by breaking up those most damaged, and ordering what materials were available from the Continent, he did in a week or two succeed in rendering some sixty out of his eighty vessels just seaworthy.

D. 8.—­And while this work was in progress, another event showed how imperative was his need and how precarious his situation.  He had, in fact, been guilty of a serious military blunder in going with a mere flying column into Britain as he had gone into Germany.  The Channel was not the Rhine, and ships were exposed to risks from which his bridge had been entirely exempt.  Nothing but a crushing defeat would cut him off from retiring by that; but the Ocean was not to be so bridled.

D. 9.—­It was, as we have said, the season of harvest, and the corn was not yet cut, though the men of Kent were busily at work in the fields.  With regard to the crops nearest the camp, the legionaries spared them the trouble of reaping, by commandeering the corn themselves, the area of their operations having, of course, to be continually extended.  Harvesters numbered by the thousand make quick work; and in a day or two the whole district was cleared, either by Roman or Briton.  Caesar’s scouts could only bring him word of one unreaped field, bordered by thick woodland, a mile or two from the camp, and hidden from it by a low swell of the ground.  Mr. Vine, in his able monograph ‘Caesar in Kent,’ thinks that the spot may still be identified, on the way between Deal and Dover, where, by this time, a considerable British force was once more gathered.  So entirely was the whole country on the patriot side, that no suspicion of all this reached the Romans, and still less did they dream that the unreaped corn-field was an elaborate trap, and that the woodlands beside it were filled, or ready for filling, by masses of the enemy.  The Seventh legion, which was that day on duty, sent out a strong fatigue party to seize the prize; who, on reaching the field, grounded shields and spears, took off, probably, their helmets and tunics, and set to work at cutting down the corn, presumably with their swords.

D. 10.—­Not long afterwards the camp guard reported to Caesar that a strange cloud of dust was rising beyond the ridge over which the legion had disappeared.  Seeing at once that something was amiss, he hastily bade the two cohorts (about a thousand men) of the guard to set off with him instantly, while the other legion, the Tenth, was to relieve them, and follow with all the rest of their force as speedily as possible.  Pushing on with all celerity, he soon could tell by the shouts of his soldiers and the yells of the enemy that his men were hard pressed; and, on crowning the ridge, saw the remnant of the legion huddled together in a half-armed mass, with the British chariots sweeping round them, each chariot-crew[86] as it came up springing down to deliver a destructive volley of missiles, then on board and away to replenish their magazine and charge in once more.