h history.

E. 13.--The battle began with a down-hill charge of the British
cavalry and chariots against the Roman horse who were sent forward
to seize the passage of the stream. Beaten back they retreated to its
banks, which were now, doubtless, lined by their infantry. And here
the real struggle took place. The unhappy Britons, however, were
hopelessly outclassed, and very probably outnumbered, by Caesar's
twenty-four thousand legionaries and seventeen hundred horsemen. They
gave way, some dispersing in confusion, but the best of their troops
retiring in good order to a stronghold in the neighbouring woods,
"well fortified both by nature and art," which was a legacy from some
local quarrel. Now they had strengthened it with an abattis of felled
trees, which was resolutely defended, while skirmishers in open
order harassed the assailants from the neighbouring forest [_rari
propugnabant e silvis_]. It was necessary for the Seventh legion
to throw up trenches, and finally to form a "tortoise" with their
shields, as in the assault on a regularly fortified town, before the
position could be carried. Then, at last, the Britons were driven from
the wood, and cut up in their flight over the open down beyond.
The spot where they made this last stand is still, in local legend,
associated with the vague memory of some patriot defeat, and known by
the name of "Old England's Hole." Traces of the rampart, and of the
assailants' trenches, are yet visible.[105]

SECTION F.

Fleet again wrecked--Britons rally under Caswallon--Battle of Barham
Down--Britons fly to London--Origin of London--Patriot army dispersed.

F. 1.--It was Caesar's intention to give the broken enemy no chance
of rallying. In spite of the dire fatigue of his men (who had now been
without sleep for two nights, and spent the two succeeding days in
hard rowing and hard fighting), he sent forward the least exhausted to
press the pursuit. But before the columns thus detailed had got out of
sight a message from the camp at Richborough changed his purpose. The
mishap of the previous year had been repeated. Once more the gentle
breeze had changed to a gale, and the fleet which he had left so
smoothly riding at anchor was lying battered and broken on the beach.
His own presence was urgently needed on the scene of the misfortune,
and it would have been madness to let the campaign go on without
him. So the pursuers, horse and foot, were hastily recalled, and,
doubtle