Even the Batavians became weary of the hopeless contest, while fortune, after much capricious hovering, settled at last upon the Roman side.

The imperial commander Cerialis seized the moment when the cause of the Batavian hero was most desperate to send emissaries among his tribe, and even to tamper with the mysterious woman whose prophecies had so inflamed his imagination.

These intrigues had their effect.

The fidelity of the people was sapped; the prophetess fell away from her worshipper, and foretold ruin to his cause.

The Batavians murmured that their destruction was inevitable, that one nation could not arrest the slavery which was destined for the whole world.