secretly began to levy his clansmen afresh.

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