X. The desertion of the Ædui gave the war a greater development. Deputies are sent in all directions: credit, authority, money, everything is put in activity to excite the other states to revolt. Masters of the hostages whom Cæsar had entrusted to them, the Ædui threaten to put to death those who belong to the nations which hesitate. In a general assembly of Gaul, convoked at Bibracte, at which the Remi, the Lingones, and the Treviri only were absent, the supreme command is conferred on Vercingetorix, in spite of the opposition of the Ædui, who claim it, and who, seeing themselves rejected, begin to regret the favours they had received from Cæsar. But they had pronounced for the war, and no longer dare to separate themselves from the common cause. Eporedorix and Viridomarus, young men of great promise, obey Vercingetorix unwillingly. The latter begins by exacting from the other states hostages to be delivered on a fixed day; orders that the cavalry, amounting to 15,000 men, shall be gathered round his person; declares he has infantry enough at Bibracte, for his intention is not to offer a pitched battle to the Romans, but, with a numerous cavalry, to intercept their convoys of grain and forage. He exhorts the Gauls to set fire with a common accord to their habitations and crops, which are only small sacrifices in comparison to their liberty. These measures having been decided, he demands from the Ædui and the Segusiavi, who bordered upon the Roman province, 10,000 foot soldiers, sends them 800 horse, and gives the command of these troops to the brother of Eporedorix, with orders to carry the war into the country of the Allobroges. On another side, he orders the Gabali and the neighbouring cantons of the Arverni to march against the Helvii, and sends the Ruteni and the Cadurci to lay waste the country of the Volcæ Arecomici. At the same time, he labours secretly to gain the Allobroges, in the hope that the remembrance of their ancient struggles against the Romans is not yet effaced. He promises money to their chiefs, and to their country the sovereignty over the whole Narbonnese.