D. 11.—­Even at this moment Caesar found time to note and admire the supreme skill which the enemy showed in this, to him, novel mode of fighting.  Their driving was like that of the best field artillery of our day; no ground could stop them; up and down slopes, between and over obstacles, they kept their horses absolutely in hand; and, out of sheer bravado, would now and again exhibit such feats of trick-driving as to run along the pole, and stand on the yoke, while at full speed.  Such skill, as he truly observed, could not have been acquired without constant drill, both of men and horses; and his military genius grasped at once the immense advantages given by these tactics, combining “the mobility of cavalry with the stability of infantry.”

D. 12.—­We may notice that Caesar says not a word of the scythe-blades with which popular imagination pictures the wheels of the British chariots to have been armed.  Such devices were in use amongst the Persians, and figure at Cunaxa and Arbela.  But there the chariots were themselves projectiles, as it were, to break the hostile ranks; and even for this purpose the scythes proved quite ineffective, while they must have made the whole equipment exceedingly unhandy.  In the ’De Re Militari’ (an illustrated treatise of the 5th century A.D. annexed to the ‘Notitia’) scythed chariots are shown.  But the scythes always have chains attached, to pull them up out of the way in ordinary manoeuvres.  The Britons of this date, whose chariots were only to bring their crews up to the foe and carry them off again, had, we may be sure, no such cumbrous and awkward arrangement.[87]

D. 13.—­On this scene of wild onset Caesar arrived in the nick of time [tempore opportunissimo].  The Seventh, surprised and demoralized, were on the point of breaking, when his appearance on the ridge caused the assailants to draw back.  The Tenth came up and formed; their comrades, possibly regaining some of their arms, rallied behind them, and the Britons did not venture to press their advantage home.  But neither did Caesar feel in any case to retaliate the attack [alienum esse tempus arbitratus], and led his troops back with all convenient speed.  The Britons, we may well believe, represented the affair as a glorious victory for the patriot arms.[88] They employed several days of bad weather which followed in spreading the tidings, and calling on all lovers of freedom or of spoil to join in one great effort for crushing the presumptuous invader.

D. 14.—­The news spread like wild-fire, and the Romans found themselves threatened in their very camp (whence they had taken care not to stir since their check) by a mighty host both of horse and footmen.  Caesar was compelled to fight, the legions were drawn up with their backs to the rampart, that the hostile cavalry might not take them in rear, and, after a long hand-to-hand struggle, the Roman charge once more proved irresistible.  The Britons turned their backs and fled; this time cut up, in their retreat, by a small body of thirty Gallic horsemen whom Commius had brought over as his escort, and who had shared his captivity and release.  So weak a force could, of course, inflict no serious loss upon the enemy, but, before returning to the camp, they made a destructive raid through the neighbouring farms and villages, “wasting all with fire and sword far and wide.”