BATTLE OF BARHAM DOWNS 225 



remain in camp mitil his return, and meanwhile to 

 increase the strength of their defences, he set out. 

 He was absent ten days. In the meanwhile the courage 

 of the Britons had revived. They perceived from their 

 woody lairs the Roman soldiery busily throwing up 

 mounds and long lines of earthworks on the level 

 summit of the downs, and they judged that the 

 invaders were compelled, either by fear, or from lack 

 of numbers, to remain on the defensive. Their 

 numbers increased as the days went by and the 

 Romans made no advance, and they were now com- 

 manded by a general of great ability, none less than 

 the celebrated Cassivelaunus. Csesar, on his return, 

 was harassed by them, and found his camp seriously 

 threatened when he arrived. Leaving 10,000 men 

 in camp, he advanced with the remainder, and made 

 a determined stand on a spot that may be identified 

 on the hills half a mile to the north-west of Bridge. 

 Here a desperate and bloody day's fighting took place, 

 the Britons returning again and again after repeated 

 repulses. Many of the foremost legionaries who had 

 pursued them into the woods were surrounded and 

 slain there ; many more of the Britons fell in that 

 glorious fight. One of the Roman tribunes, Quintus 

 Laberius Durus, was killed that day, and Nennius, 

 one of the foremost British leaders, was slain in the 

 last onset, when he burst at the head of a chosen 

 few on the Roman soldiery engaged in the formation 

 of a camp. Both sides claimed the victory, and, 

 indeed, Caesar had, so far, little reason to boast, for 

 when night came he had only advanced three miles 

 beyond the stream upon which his first camp on 

 Barham Doa\tis had looked, and, even then, he had 

 only been enabled to hold his own by the aid of 

 reinforcements drawn from his camp-guard. The 

 next day, however, put a different aspect upon his 

 campaign. He had probably intended to rest his 

 troops, and sent out a strong force only in order to 

 perform the necessary foraging ; but the Britons 



