All these were finished and
ready to be launched. He directed that they should collect at Boulogne as
before; and in the interval he paid a visit to the north of Gaul, where
there were rumors of fresh correspondence with the Germans. Danger, if
danger there was, was threatened by the Treveri, a powerful tribe still
unbroken on the Moselle. Caesar, however, had contrived to attach the
leading chiefs to the Roman interest. He found nothing to alarm him, and
once more went down to the sea. In his first venture he had been
embarrassed by want of cavalry. He was by this time personally acquainted
with the most influential of the Gallic nobles. He had requested them to
attend him into Britain with their mounted retinues, both for service in
the field, and that he might keep these restless chiefs under his eye.
Among the rest he had not overlooked the Aeduan prince, Dumnorix, whose
intrigues had brought the Helvetii out of Switzerland, and whose treachery
had created difficulty and nearly disaster in the first campaign. Dumnorix
had not forgotten his ambition. He had affected penitence, and he had been
treated with kindness. He had availed himself of the favor which had been
shown to him to pretend to his countrymen that Caesar had promised him the
chieftainship. He had petitioned earnestly to be excused from accompanying
the expedition, and, Caesar having for this reason probably the more
insisted upon it, he had persuaded the other chiefs that Caesar meant to
destroy them, and that if they went to Britain they would never return.
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