was
this the end of their miseries; a palisade was to be raised, an
intrenchment digged; their instruments, too, for throwing up and
carrying earth, and their tools for cutting turf, were almost all lost.
No tents for the soldiers; no remedies for the wounded. While dividing
among them their food, defiled with mire or blood, they lamented that
mournful night; they lamented the approaching day, to so many thousand
men the last.

It happened that a horse which had broken his fastenings and, as he
strayed about, become frightened by a noise, had run over some that were
in his way. This raised such a consternation in the camp--from a
persuasion that the Germans had forced an entrance--that all rushed to
the gates, especially to the postern,[19] as the farthest from the foe
and safer for flight. Caecina having ascertained that there was no cause
for alarm, but unable to stop them or hold them back, either by his
authority or prayers or even by force, prostrated himself on the
threshold of the gate; and thus at length by appealing to their
humanity--for if they proceeded it must be over the body of the
general--he blocked the passage, and the tribunes and centurions
satisfied them the while that it was a false alarm.

Then assembling them in the court, and desiring them to hear him with
silence, he warned them of their difficulties, and their duty under
them: "That their sole hope of safety was in their valor, but that must
be guided by counsel; that they must keep close within their camp till
the enemy, in hopes of taking it by storm, came up nearer to them; then
make a sudden sally on every side, that by this sally they might make
good their way to the Rhine; but if they fled, more forests, deeper
marshes, and the fierce attack of the foe still remained to them; but
that if they conquered, honor and renown awaited them." He reminded them
of all that was dear to them at home, and the rewards to be obtained in
the camp, but suppressed all mention of defeat. He next distributed
horses, first his own, then those of the tribunes and leaders of the
legions, to all the bravest warriors, without any flattery, that these
first, and afterward the infantry, might charge the enemy.

The Germans were in no less agitation from hope, eagerness, and the
opposite counsels of their leaders. Arminius proposed "To let them march
out, and to beset them again in their way when they got into marshes and
difficult passes." Inguiomer advised me