At the news of so many unfavourable events, Labienus felt all the difficulties of his situation. Placed on the right bank of the Seine, he was threatened on one side by the Bellovaci, who had only to cross the Oise to fall upon him; on the other by Camulogenus, at the head of a well-trained army, ready to give battle; lastly, a large river, which he had crossed at Melun, separated him from Sens, where he had his dépôts and baggage. To escape from this perilous position, he thought it advisable to change his plans: he renounced all offensive movements, and resolved to return to his point of departure by an act of daring. Fearing that, if he went by the road on which he had advanced, he should not be able to cross the Seine at Melun, because his boats would not have re-mounted the river without difficulty, he decided on surprising the passage of the Seine below Paris, and returning to Sens by the left bank, marching over the body of the Gaulish army. Towards evening he convoked a council, and urged on his officers the punctual execution of his orders. He entrusted the boats he had brought from Melun to the Roman knights, with orders to descend the river at the end of the first watch (ten o’clock), to advance in silence for the space of four miles (six kilomètres), which would bring them as far down as the village of Point-du-Joir, and to wait for him. The five cohorts which had least experience were left in charge of the camp, and the five others of the same legion received orders to re-ascend on the right bank of the river in the middle of the night, with all their baggage, and attract by their tumult the attention of the enemy. Boats were sent in the same direction, which were rowed with great noise. He himself, a little after, left in silence with the three remaining legions, and, proceeding down the river, repaired to the spot where the first boats waited for him. When he arrived there, a violent storm enabled him to carry by surprise the Gaulish posts placed along the whole bank. The legions and cavalry had soon passed the Seine with the assistance of the knights. Day began to appear, when the enemy learnt, almost at the same instant, first, that an unusual agitation prevailed in the Roman camp, that a considerable column of troops was ascending the river, and that in the same direction a great noise of oars was heard; lastly, that lower down the stream the troops were crossing the Seine in boats. This news made the Gauls believe that the legions intended to cross it on three points, and that, perplexed by the defection of the Ædui, they had decided on forcing the road by the left bank.[504] Camulogenus divided also his forces into three corps: he left one opposite the Roman camp; sent the second, less numerous, in the direction of Melodunum,[505] with instructions to regulate its march according to the progress of the enemy’s boats which re-ascended the Seine; and, at the head of the third, went to meet Labienus.