CAESAR AND VERCINGETORIX. Vercingetorix found the work of conquering Caesar in this way too difficult. He was finally driven to take refuge in Alesia, on a hilltop in eastern Gaul. Here the Romans prepared to starve him into surrender. They dug miles of deep trenches about the fortress so that the imprisoned Gauls could not break through. They dug other trenches to protect themselves from the attacks of a great army of Gauls which came to rescue Vercingetorix. These trenches were fifteen or twenty feet wide; they were strengthened by palisades and ramparts, and filled with water where this was possible. Several times the Gauls nearly succeeded in breaking through, but the quickness and stubborn courage of Caesar always saved the day. DEATH OF VERCINGETORIX. Vercingetorix now proved that he was a real hero. He offered to give himself up to Caesar, if this would save the town. But Caesar demanded the submission of all the chiefs. When they had laid down their arms before the conqueror, Vercingetorix appeared on a gaily decorated horse. He rode around the throne where Caesar sat, dismounted in front, took off his armor, and bowed to the ground. His fate was hard. He was sent to Rome a prisoner, was shown in the triumphal procession of the victorious Caesar, and was then put to death in a dungeon. On the site of Alesia stands a monument erected by the French to the memory of the brave Gallic hero. The defeat of Vercingetorix ended the resistance of the Gauls, and not many years afterward their country was added to the long list of Roman provinces. [Illustration: THE BRIDGE ON WHICH CAESAR'S ARMY CROSSED THE RHINE] CAESAR IN GERMANY. Caesar crossed the Rhine into Germany on a bridge which his engineers built in ten days. He laid waste the fields of the tribes near the river in order to make the name of Rome feared, and then returned to Gaul and destroyed the bridge. Twice he sailed over to Britain, the last time marching a few miles north of where London now stands. His purpose was to keep the Britons from stirring up the Gauls to attack him. Other generals many years later conquered Britain as far as the hills of Scotland. THE GERMAN HERO HERMANN. The Romans were not fortunate in their later attempts to conquer a part of Germany. When Caesar's grandnephew Augustus was master of Rome, he sent an army under Varus into the forests far from the Rhine. Hermann, a leader of the Germans, gathered the tribes together and utterly destroyed the army of Varus. Whenever Augustus thought of this dreadful disaster, he would cry out, "O Varus, give me back my legions!" The Rhine and the Danube became the northern boundaries of the Roman conquests.