Thus the battle ended in the victory of our enemies and
our saviours. Caesar tells us that he forbade his men to pursue the
enemy for any great distance, because he was ignorant of the nature
of the country, and because, the day being far spent, he wished to
devote what remained of the daylight to the building of his camp.
Caesar speaks of this camp and rightly of course, as a thing of
importance. We know from his narrative, too, that it was occupied by
some fifteen thousand foot and seventeen hundred horse, with their
baggage and equipment for more than ten days. Where did it stand? It
must have been within reach of the river, for without plentiful water
no such army as Caesar encamped could have maintained itself for so
long a period as ten days; exactly where it was, however, we shall in
all probability never know.
Wherever it was, there Caesar spent the night, both he and his army,
sleeping soundly, we may be sure, after the sleepless and anxious
nights, one spent in the peril of the sea, the other in a not less
perilous night march in a roadless and unknown country.
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