When Labienus arrived on the opposite bank, he ordered covered galleries to be pushed forward, and sought, by means of hurdles and earth, to establish a road across the marsh; but, meeting with too many difficulties, he formed the project of surprising the passage of the Seine at Melodunum (_Melun_), and, when once on the right bank, of advancing towards Lutetia by stealing a march upon the enemy. He therefore left his camp in silence, at the third watch (midnight), and, retracing his steps, arrived at Melun, an _oppidum_ of the Senones, situated, like Lutetia, on an island in the Seine. He seized about fifty boats, joined them together, filled them with soldiers, and entered into the place without striking a blow. Terrified at this sudden attack, the inhabitants, a great part of whom had answered to the appeal of Camulogenus, offered no resistance. A few days before, they had cut the bridge which united the island with the right bank; Labienus restored it, led his troops over it, and proceeded towards Lutetia, where he arrived before Camulogenus. He took a position near the place where Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois now stands. Camulogenus, informed by those who had fled from Melun, quits his position on the Essonne, returns to Lutetia, gives orders to burn it and to cut the bridges, and establishes his camp on the left bank of the Seine, in front of the _oppidum_, that is, on the present site of the Hotel de Cluny. It was already rumoured that Cæsar had raised the siege of Gergovia; the news of the defection of the Ædui, and of the progress of the insurrection, had begun already to spread. The Gauls repeated incessantly that Cæsar, arrested in his march by the Loire, had been compelled, by want of provisions, to retire towards the Roman province. The Bellovaci, whose fidelity was doubtful, had no sooner heard of the revolt of the Ædui, than they collected troops and prepared openly for war.