42.
Disappointed in this hope, the Nervii surround the winter-quarters
with a rampart eleven feet high, and a ditch thirteen feet in depth. These
military works they had learned from our men in the intercourse of former years,
and, having taken some of our army prisoners, were instructed by them: but, as
they had no supply of iron tools which are requisite for this service, they were
forced to cut the turf with their swords, and to empty out the earth with their
hands and cloaks, from which circumstance, the vast number of the men could be
inferred; for in less than three hours they completed a fortification of ten
miles in circumference; and during the rest of the days they began to prepare
and construct towers of the height of the ramparts, and grappling irons, and
mantelets, which the same prisoners had taught them.
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