They filled the plain below the town. From the heights of Alesia the whole
scene lay spread under the feet of the besieged. Vercingetorix came down
on the slope to the edge of the first trench, prepared to cross when the
turn of battle should give him a chance to strike. Caesar sent out his
German horse, and stood himself watching from the spur of an adjoining
hill. The Gauls had brought innumerable archers with them. The horse
flinched slightly under the showers of arrows, and shouts of triumph rose
from the lines of the town; but the Germans rallied again, sent the
cavalry of the Gauls flying, and hewed down the unprotected archers.
Vercingetorix fell back sadly to his camp on the hill, and then for a day
there was a pause. The relieving army had little food with them, and, if
they acted at all, must act quickly. They spread over the country
collecting faggots to fill the trenches, and making ladders to storm the
walls. At midnight they began their assault on the lines in the plain; and
Vercingetorix, hearing by the cries that the work had begun, gave his own
signal for a general sally. The Roman arrangements had been completed long
before. Every man knew his post. The slings, the crossbows, the scorpions
were all at hand and in order. Mark Antony and Caius Trebonius had each a
flying division under them to carry help where the pressure was most
severe.
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