As he drew near to Deal, where he hoped to land, Cæsar saw that his ships were too big to sail close in to shore, so he ordered his soldiers to jump into the sea and make their way to land as well as they could.
The Romans looked at the sea and their hearts misgave them, brave soldiers as they were, for they were not used to the sea, nor did they love it as the Britons seemed to do.
They were already in the water, some on foot, some on horses, and they seemed to the astonished Romans as undisturbed as though they were on land.
And Cæsar had bidden them jump into the sea. Still they hesitated.
Then the officer who carried the eagle of the tenth legion jumped into the water, crying, ‘Leap, soldiers, unless you wish to betray your eagle to the enemy.’
The soldiers could not risk their standard being captured by the barbarians, so now they hastily leaped into the water and followed their officer.
Then a fierce struggle began, many of the Romans falling before the battle axes of the Britains, many others slipping on the treacherous sand and being drowned.
But at length the Romans reached the shore, and the Briton chiefs were soon forced to submit to Cæsar.
The Roman general was disappointed to find little booty on the island which he had taken so much trouble to invade, and to see nothing of the precious stones which he had been told were strewn in plenty on the ground. And so he soon sailed back to Gaul.
In the following spring, however, Cæsar again returned to Britain. This time, instead of eighty vessels his fleet consisted of eight hundred, while his army numbered many thousands.