Caesar, discovering their design, leads his army into the territories of Cassivellaunus to the river Thames; which river can be forded in one place only and that with difficulty.
Caesar cognito consilio eorum ad flumen Tamesim in fines Cassivellauni exercitum duxit; quod flumen uno omnino loco pedibus, atque hoc aegre, transiri potest.
When he had arrived there, he perceives that numerous forces of the enemy were marshaled on the other bank of the river;
Eo cum venisset, animum advertit ad alteram fluminis ripam magnas esse copias hostium instructas;
the bank also was defended by sharp stakes fixed in front, and stakes of the same kind fixed under the water were covered by the river.
ripa autem erat acutis sudibus praefixis munita, eiusdemque generis sub aqua defixae sudes flumine tegebantur.
These things being discovered from [some] prisoners and deserters, Caesar, sending forward the cavalry, ordered the legions to follow them immediately.
His rebus cognitis a captivis perfugisque Caesar praemisso equitatu confestim legiones subsequi iussit.
But the soldiers advanced with such speed and such ardor, though they stood above the water by their heads only, that the enemy could not sustain the attack of the legions and of the horse, and quitted the banks, and committed themselves to flight.
Sed ea celeritate atque eo impetu milites ierunt, cum capite solo ex aqua exstarent, ut hostes impetum legionum atque equitum sustinere non possent ripasque dimitterent ac se fugae mandarent.