overtaken and pressed by the Barbarians only
in the rear, gradually reached in better order the spot where the Via
Principalis, near the Decumanian Gate, intersected the long central
street leading to it. Here all the baggage, with many hundred carts and
wagons, was piled together. Such a barricade, a valuable defence to
German bands on the migrations, was the most dangerous obstacle and
interruption to the Roman order of marching and fighting; for no matter
whether the attempt to pass was made by going around or climbing over
it, in either case the firmly closed ranks were broken into little
groups, nay sometimes even separated into individual warriors, who were
forced to press forward or climb over the wagons one behind another.

But the old Duke had not studied the plan of the camp in vain: he had
noted accurately where the baggage, the carts and wagons were placed,
and eagerly distributed all the bands of his men who poured toward him.
They came from the three gates north, west, and east, which they had
long since forced open, and they passed through the streets of the camp
in such a manner, as they pressed forward in pursuit, that they pushed
from all sides down the long and the cross streets upon the fugitives,
just at this exact point.

CHAPTER L.

In the midst of the intoxication of victory another joy filled the old
leader's heart: delight in the progress which, within a single
generation, the training in obedience had made in the subjection of his
Alemanni to the military authority of their Duke.

The traditions of their forefathers and his own youthful experience
contained many an instance in which Germans had lost a victory already
won, because the conquerors, against their leader's commands, began, in
unbridled lust for booty, to plunder the captured camp. They would
scatter themselves through tents and baggage wagons, each vying with
his comrades, so that the Romans, little disturbed by pursuit, found
the opportunity to assemble again and, with closed ranks, could wrest
from the dispersed pillagers both camp and victory. So the old
Commander could say to himself with proud delight: "They have learned
something, through me--under me--ay, for love of me!"

Before the commencement of the assault he had proposed, for he could
not command: "The camp and all its contents shall belong to the whole
army, after the victory is won. When the morning sun shines down upon
it, a