advance of our men; and leaving all the lower
space empty, they had filled the upper part of the hill, as far as the
wall of the town, with their camps very close to one another. The
soldiers, on the signal being given, quickly advance to this
fortification, and passing over it, make themselves masters of the
separate camps. And so great was their activity in taking the camps,
that Teutomarus, the king of the Nitiobriges, being suddenly surprised
in his tent, as he had gone to rest at noon, with difficulty escaped
from the hands of the plunderers, with the upper part of his person
naked, and his horse wounded.

XLVII.--Caesar, having accomplished the object which he had in view,
ordered the signal to be sounded for a retreat; and the soldiers of the
tenth legion, by which he was then accompanied, halted. But the soldiers
of the other legions, not hearing the sound of the trumpet, because
there was a very large valley between them, were however kept back by
the tribunes of the soldiers and the lieutenants, according to Caesar's
orders; but being animated by the prospect of speedy victory, and the
flight of the enemy, and the favourable battles of former periods, they
thought nothing so difficult that their bravery could not accomplish it;
nor did they put an end to the pursuit, until they drew nigh to the wall
of the town and the gates. But then, when a shout arose in every quarter
of the city, those who were at a distance being alarmed by the sudden
tumult, fled hastily from the town, since they thought that the enemy
were within the gates. The matrons begin to cast their clothes and
silver over the wall, and bending over as far as the lower part of the
bosom, with outstretched hands beseech the Romans to spare them, and not
to sacrifice to their resentment even women and children, as they had
done at Avaricum. Some of them let themselves down from the walls by
their hands, and surrendered to our soldiers. Lucius Fabius, a centurion
of the eighth legion, who, it was ascertained, had said that day among
his fellow soldiers that he was excited by the plunder of Avaricum, and
would not allow any one to mount the wall before him, finding three men
of his own company, and being raised up by them, scaled the wall. He
himself, in turn, taking hold of them one by one, drew them up to the
wall.

XLVIII.--In the meantime those who had gone to the other part of the
town to defend it, as we have mentioned above, at first, aroused