5.46

Caesar, with the letters received around the eleventh hour of the day, immediately sends a messenger to the [territory of] the Bellovaci to the quaestor Marcus Crassus, whose winter quarters were twenty five miles away from him; he [Caesar] orders a legion to set out in the middle of the night and to come to him [Caesar] quickly. Crassus leaves with the messenger [i.e., as soon as he got the message]. He sends the other envoy to Gaius Fabius, so that he may induce the legion into the boundaries of the Atrebates where he was knowing a journey must be made by him.

He writes to Labienus [that], if he was able to act for the interest of the republic, he should come with a legion to the territory of the Nervi. He does not think that the remaining part of the army, which was slightly farther away, should be waited for; he gathers together about 400 cavalry from the nearest winter quarters.

5.47
Around the third hour, informed by scouts about the arrival of Crassus, on that day he [Caesar] proceeds twenty miles. He puts Crassus in charge at Samaraobriva and gives/assigns [him] a legion, because there he was leaving behind the army’s equipment/baggage, the hostages of the [Gallic] states, public letters, and all the grain which in this [place] he had conveyed for the purpose of enduring the winter. Fabius, as it had been commanded, not having delayed much [for this reason] meets [him, Caesar] on the march with the legion.

Having learned the death of Sabinus and murder of cohorts, since all the forces of the Treveri had come to him, Labienus having feared that, if he had made a similar departure of flight from the winter quarters, he would not be able to sustain the force of the enemy, especially [those enemies] whom he knew to be elated by a fresh victory, he sends letters back to Caesar, with how much danger (to him) he was about to lead out (his) legion from winter quarters; he describes what happened to the Eburones; he explains (that) all of the cavalries and infantries of the Treveri had taken a position a distance (of) 3 miles from his own camp.

5.48

With his [Labienus’s] plan having been approved, although disappointed with [his] opinions of the three legions, Caesar had gone back to two [legions]; nevertheless he was depending on the only [hope for] rescue of the common safety in speed. He comes into the territory of Nervii by large [i.e., forced] marches. There from the captives, he learns what [things] are being done at Cicero[‘s location], and in how much danger the thing [i.e., affair] is. Then he persuades somebody from horsemen of Gaul with a great reward, that he might bring a letter to Cicero.
He sends this written in Greek letters, lest our plans are recognized by the enemies, with the letter having been intercepted. If he [the messenger] should not able to attack, he advises that he [the messenger] should hurl within the entrenchments of the camps a javelin with the letter tied down to a strap. He writes in the letter that he will be there swiftly having set out with the legions; he urges that he [Cicero] maintain [his] previous courage. The Gaul [i.e., the messenger] having feared danger, as it had been commanded, throws [his] spear.
This [spear]by change stuck to the tower; and not noticed by our men for two days, was discerned by some soldier on the third day, taken down it is brought to Cicero. That man [Cicero] reads out loud the read-through [letter] (he read the letter to himself, and then after that, out loud) and inspires them all with the greatest joy. Then the smokes of the fires were being seen in the distance, which matter drove out all uncertainty in regard to the arrival of the legion .