J. CÆSAR'S INVASION.

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ture from the French coast; and before noon it arsived under the cliffs of Dover. To prevent, if practicable, the Britons from opposing his invasion, Cæsar had endeavoured to deceive them into submission, by sending before him Comius, a neighbouring Gallic chieftain, who was ordered to invite them to become the allies of the Romans; an invitation which, he was farther to say, it was Cæsar's intention to offer in person. But the Britons understood sufficiently that alliance meant subjection, and the surrender of their sons to perish far from home, in the Roman armies; so they put Comius in chains as a spy, and drew near to the coast in numbers, as men determined to defend their country. Cæsar, therefore, beheld the heights about Dover covered with a hostile multitude, and saw it would be imprudent to attempt a landing, where the boldness of the shore put it in the power of any unarmed savage to crush his best soldiers under stones hurled down from those lofty cliffs.. This induced him to cast anchor till three o'clock, by which time the tide as well as the wind became favourable for doubling the South Foreland, and his fleet, having collected round him, received his orders to move in that direction. The Britons anxiously watched, and followed his progress along their shores; whilst Cæsar, having arrived opposite the flat coast about Sandwich, proceeded, without farther loss of time, to disembark his troops. It was not necessary to incur any delay, by transferring the men into boats, to convey them to the beach; for the Roman vessels were of such small burden, that Cæsar had been necessitated to employ a transport for every hundred men. It was easy, therefore, to run them so close in upon the shore, that the men, leaping from their decks into the sea, found themselves only breast high in the water. Yet, brave and well trained as the Roman soldiers were, many of them shrunk from encountering the difficulty of struggling through the surge, exposed

to the darts of their enemies, and liable to be suffocated in the waves under the Britons, for they rode on horseback into the sea to strike or trample down their invaders. The hesitation of his soldiers did not escape the notice of their sagacious commander, who immediately ordered his gallies, which he had equipped with archers, slingers, and machines for casting volleys of darts or stones, to row along the shore, and endeavour to frighten back the Britons, by pouring in upon them a shower of these various missiles. This produced considerable effect. It was at this time that a standard bearer called out aloud, "Leap down, my comrades, if you wish not to surrender your eagle to the enemy. I shall, assuredly, do my duty to our country and general." The next moment he plunged into the sea with his eagle, the national ensign of the Romans, and advanced with it amongst the enemy. Dreading the disgrace of losing their eagle, every soldier in the same vessel rushed after him into the sea; and the example was immediately followed from every transport in sight. Still it was not without a desperate struggle that the Romans were enabled to push their way, and form upon the beach. As soon as that was effected they found themselves in possession of the superiority which necessarily belongs to veteran soldiers over an undisciplined, though warlike, population. Having, however, no cavalry, the Romans were unable to pursue the natives in their retreat, and found it necessary to entrench themselves on the spot where they had made good their landing.

As the Britons had endeavoured to prevent the invasion of their country, by sending to Cæsar, while he was yet in Gaul, to remove any causes of complaint which he might allege against them, so, after this day's ineffectual resistance, they offered hostages and compliance with his demands. To these offers Cæsar had the effrontery to reply, that

he had reason to complain, that, after having first professed to wish for peace, they should, without any cause, have made war upon him; but that he would pardon their imprudence; and bade them bring their hostages. Some were, accordingly, immediately placed in his hands, with a promise that others should be sent in on their arrival from distant districts. In the mean time, petty chieftains began to come in, offering their submissions to the invader.

Before, however, five days had passed, a storm and high tide had dispersed the cavalry transports, now on their way towards the British coast; and as the wind was accompanied with a spring tide, it raised such a surge as disabled or destroyed nearly every vessel of the fleet from which Cæsar and his infantry had landed. The Romans, though excellent soldiers, were very awkward and ignorant in naval affairs; and being unaccustomed to see any considerable effects produced by the tides in the narrow seas which wash the Italian shores, they had dragged their small and, probably, ill-built vessels up the beach beyond the waves of one day's tide, without anticipating that the next might be driven in much higher; so that the beating of a heavy surge from a rough sea dashed great part of their ill-secured fleet to pieces.

The Romans were now left unprovisioned, without the means of sending to Gaul for supplies, or additional troops, and unable to recross the sea. Their desperate situation was not unobserved by the Britons, who immediately conceived the hope of destroying the whole army of their invaders by famine, if they could not subdue them by arms. The wants of the Romans compelled Cæsar, who soon guessed the intentions of the British chiefs, to send out his soldiers in large foraging parties; and he quickly collected within his camp nearly all the that was at this season ripening within an accessible distance. The little that remained was no

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ticed by the Britons as likely to be next visited. They had sedulously employed the interim in collecting forces; and now they concealed themselves in a wood near this yet standing corn, till, as they had anticipated, a considerable portion of Cæsar's little army came to the spot, and, laying down their arms, were soon scattered over the field, and busied in reaping the corn. At this moment the Britons rushed out from every point of the wood, slew several of the Romans before they could resume their arms, and with their horses and cars drove the rest before them, unable to gain time for forming into order.

The cars just noticed were, probably, low carts with solid wheels, whose motion is attended with a horrible, creaking, grating noise, as the axle turns with the wheels. Cæsar mentions this noise as one of the most alarming circumstances attending their approach. They carried two persons-one to combat, the other to drive. These coarsely constructed vehicles might be driven, without injury, over very rough ground; and the hardy native horses which drew them being incapable of moving with any great rapidity, the active warrior could run along the shaft to make his blow; or leave the car and rejoin it again, if a momentary retreat became necessary.

In the present instance, the confusion, from which the Romans were unable to recover, gave every advantage to this irregular kind of attack; and the whole of the foraging party would have been destroyed, had not the unusual cloud of dust, which these cars must have mainly contributed to raise, been perceived at the out-posts of the Roman camp, and induced Cæsar to hasten immediately, with such troops as happened to be under arms, in the direction which he knew the foragers had taken. The relief he brought proved most opportune; but he could do no more than keep the pursuers at bay, and cover the retreat of his own forces to their

camp; from which he found the British hostages had taken advantage of the alarm to escape.

A few days after this the arrival, in Cæsar's quarters, of about 300 auxiliary horse from the Continent, and a regular pitched battle, in which the Roman discipline naturally carried the day, brought the Britons to sue again for peace; which Cæsar, perceiving his present means inadequate to subduing the country, and having now collected or repaired sufficient shipping to re-convey his troops, was glad to concede, without demanding any severer condition than that of having twice as many hostages, as he had at first stipulated for, sent after him into Gaul; for which he hastened to re-embark with his troops before the equinox.

Had there been the least sincerity in Cæsar's profession, that he wished to keep the Britons peaceable, he had done enough to make them careful not to excite his anger by any interference between him and the Gauls, whom he was, avowedly, employed in reducing to thorough subjection. But no sooner had he re-landed in Gaul than he began to take measures preparatory to the formation of another expedition on a much greater scale. With this view he gave orders for building, in the course of the winter, a large number of vessels, on a model which his late experience had taught him was best adapted for the purpose of conveying and landing an army on the British coast. From the account which he gives of his directions on this head, it would appear that he wished them to have the qualities since aimed at in the construction of the flatbottomed boats which have, in modern times, been prepared for a similar purpose. It has been customary for writers to give the name of ships to the vessels in ordinary use in every age; but the fleet of 800 ships with which Cæsar is said to have crossed the channel again, early in the following sum

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