be fixed beforehand, as the time for attempting to make the passage must
necessarily depend upon the state of the wind and weather. Accordingly,
when the favorable opportunity arrived, and the main body of the army
began to embark it took some time to send the orders to the port where
the cavalry had rendezvoused; and there were, besides, other causes of
delay which occurred to detain this corps, so that it turned out, as we
shall presently see, that the foot soldiers had to act alone in the
first attempt at landing on the British shore.

[Sidenote: Sailing of the fleet.]
[Sidenote: Preparations of the Britons.]

It was one o'clock in the morning when the fleet set sail. The Britons
had, in the mean time, obtained intelligence of Caesar's threatened
invasion, and they had assembled in great force, with troops, and
horsemen, and carriages of war, and were all ready to guard the shore.
The coast, at the point where Caesar was approaching, consists of a line
of chalky cliffs, with valley-like openings here and there between them,
communicating with the shore, and sometimes narrow beaches below. When
the Roman fleet approached the land, Caesar found the cliffs every where
lined with troops of Britons, and every accessible point below carefully
guarded. It was now about ten o'clock in the morning, and Caesar,
finding the prospect so unfavorable in respect to the practicability of
effecting a landing here, brought his fleet to anchor near the shore,
but far enough from it to be safe from the missiles of the enemy.

[Sidenote: Caesar calls a council of officers.]

Here he remained for several hours, to give time for all the vessels to
join him. Some of them had been delayed in the embarkation, or had made