Defeat of Germans--Bridge over Rhine--Caesar's army--Dread
of ocean--Fleet at Boulogne--Commius sent to Britain--Channel
crossed--Attempt on Dover--Landing at Deal--Legionary
sentiment--British army dispersed.

C. 1.--For making use of these pretexts, however, Caesar had to wait
a while. It was needful to bring home to both supporters and opponents
his brilliant success by showing himself in Rome, during the idle
season when his men were in winter quarters. And when he got back to
his Province with the spring of A.D. 55, his first attention had to be
given to the Rhine frontier, whence a formidable German invasion
was threatening. With his usual skill and war-craft--which, on
this occasion, in the eyes of his Roman ill-wishers, seemed
indistinguishable from treachery--he annihilated the Teutonic
horde which had dared to cross the river; and then, by a miracle of
engineering skill, bridged the broad and rapid stream, and made such a
demonstration in Germany itself as to check the national trek westward
for half a millennium.

C. 2.--By this time, as this wonderful feat shows, the Army of Gaul
had become one of those perfect instruments into which only truly
great commanders can weld their forces. Like the Army of the
Peninsula, in the words of Wellington, "it could go anywhere and do
anything." The men who, when first enlisted, had trembled before
the Gauls, and absolutely shed tears at the prospect of encountering
Germans, now, under the magic of Caesar's genius, had learnt to dread
nothing. Often surprised, always outnumbered, sometimes contending
against tenfold odds, the legionaries never faltered. Each individual
soldier seems to have learnt to do instinctively the right thing in
every emergency, and every man worshipped his general. For every man