He had food, he bade the messengers say, for thirty days; by
thrifty management it might be made to last a few days longer. In thirty
days he should look for relief.
The horsemen sped away like the bearers of the fiery cross. Caesar learnt
from deserters that they had gone out, and understood the message which
they carried. Already he was besieging an army far outnumbering his own.
If he persevered, he knew that he might count with certainty on being
attacked by a second army immeasurably larger. But the time allowed for
the collection of so many men might serve also to prepare for their
reception. Vercingetorix said rightly that the Romans won their victories,
not by superior courage, but by superior science. The same power of
measuring the exact facts of the situation which determined Caesar to
raise the siege of Gergovia decided him to hold on at Alesia. He knew
exactly, to begin with, how long Vercingetorix could hold out. It was easy
for him to collect provisions within his lines which would feed his own
army a few days longer. Fortifications the same in kind as those which
prevented the besieged from breaking out would serve equally to keep the
assailants off. His plan was to make a second line of works--an exterior
line as well as an interior line; and as the extent to be defended would
thus be doubled, he made them of a peculiar construction, to enable one
man to do the work of two.
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