Caesar, however, amidst his conquests had
the art of making staunch friends. What the province could not supply he
obtained from his allies across the Rhine, and he furnished himself with
bodies of German cavalry, which when mounted on Roman horses proved
invaluable. In the new form which the insurrection had assumed the Aedui
were the first to be attended to. Caesar advanced leisurely upon them,
through the high country at the rise of the Seine and the Marne, toward
Alesia, or Alice St. Reine. Vercingetorix watched him at ten miles'
distance. He supposed him to be making for the province, and his intention
was that Caesar should never reach it. The Celts at all times have been
fond of emphatic protestations. The young heroes swore a solemn oath that
they would not see wife or children or parents more till they had ridden
twice through the Roman army. In this mood they encountered Caesar in the
valley of the Vingeanne, a river which falls into the Saone, and they met
the fate which necessarily befell them when their ungovernable multitudes
engaged the legions in the open field. They were defeated with enormous
loss: not they riding through the Roman army, but themselves ridden over
and hewn down by the German horsemen and sent flying for fifty miles over
the hills into Alice St. Reine. Caesar followed close behind, driving
Vercingetorix under the lines of the fortress; and the siege of Alesia,
one of the most remarkable exploits in all military history, was at once
undertaken.
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