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By this time, the corn began to ripen, and the hopes of a speedy supply supported the soldiers under their present wants. Nay, they were often heard to say one to another, that they would sooner live on the bark of trees, than let Pompey escape. For they were informed from time to time, by deserters, that their horses were almost starved, and the rest of their cattle actually dead; that the troops themselves were very sickly; partly occasioned by the narrow space in which they were inclosed, the number and noisesome smell of dead carcases, and the daily fatigue to which they were unaccustomed, partly by their extreme want of water. For Caesar had either turned the course of all the rivers and brooks that ran into the sea, or dammed up their currents. And as the country was mountainous, intermixed with deep valleys, by driving piles into the earth, and covering them with mould, he stopped up the course of the waters. This obliged the enemy to search for low and marshy places, and to dig wells, which added to their daily labour. The wells too, when discovered, lay at a considerable distance from some parts of the army, and were soon dried up by the heat. Caesar's army, on the contrary, was very healthy, abounded in water, and had plenty of all kinds of provisions, corn excepted, which they hoped to be soon supplied with, as the season was now pretty far advanced, and harvest approached.

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