"I? I shall take the shortest way--from beneath." "No! No! Leave it to me. It is the--most dangerous one." "Yes, yes," cried the old man, laughing. "And you have no suspicion how dangerous it is. Know then: the ascent cannot be made, as we hoped, first of all and unexpectedly, taking them by surprise; it cannot be made until after the foe, alarmed by the assault on the northern wall, stands ready in full armor." "Then it will be impossible! But why?" "Because, as I first learned night before last, the Romans, in digging out the northern ditch, filled up the extreme northern end of the subterranean passage; or else the earth has fallen in, from the jarring. When I entered this passage from the forest outside of the camp--" "What? you yourself?" "Yes, I myself; night before last. I advanced only a few steps before I found a heap of earth which had fallen from above, and I was obliged to return. But I stole, on the surface of the earth, so near the ditch that I could look into it from a tree. The whole ditch--it is now dry again--was brightly lighted by their camp fires. Then I saw that the earth-goddess of our land had blinded the strangers' eyes. They perceived nothing suspicious in the large boulder that bars the continuation of the passage from the ditch into their camp, and they did not roll it away. True, it has not been moved from the spot for decades; for the secret, bequeathed from generation to generation, is known to but two men of the race who bear the emblem of the stag's antlers, and there is rarely an occasion which demands its use. So they did not perceive that the rock had been rolled there by human hands, and they planted one of their banners on the turf which covers it. They have no suspicion of the passage. For look! The plan of the camp shows it; close beside the Nerthus pine, above the altar stones of the Idise, they have pitched a tent filled with provisions and weapons. You see, here!" "Yes, indeed. The tent is placed exactly over the mouth of the passage. But outside there, in the northern ditch, numerous sentinels are posted--Thracian spearmen alternating with Batavians." "Yes, that's just it. They must be driven away before I can roll the rock aside and make my way up." "That will cost blood; it will also require time. The Thracians, and especially the Batavians, are their very best troops. Alas, if it happen to be the turn of the Batavians. They are not inferior to us in heroic courage." "No matter! They must fall before the badger can enter the old burrow." "And then--after the battle has summoned all our foes to arms--then you will? Let me go in your place!"