the violence of the wind all the torches of his escort were blown out, so
that the whole party lost their road, having probably at first
intentionally deviated from the main route, and wandered about through the
whole night, until the early dawn enabled them to recover their true
course. The light was still gray and uncertain, as Caesar and his retinue
rode down upon the banks of the fatal river--to cross which with arms in
his hands, since the further bank lay within the territory of the
Republic, _ipso facto_ proclaimed any Roman a rebel and a traitor. No man,
the firmest or the most obtuse, could be otherwise than deeply agitated,
when looking down upon this little brook--so insignificant in itself, but
invested by law with a sanctity so awful, and so dire a consecration. The
whole course of future history, and the fate of every nation, would
necessarily be determined by the irretrievable act of the next half hour.

In these moments, and with this spectacle before him, and contemplating
these immeasurable consequences consciously for the last time that could
allow him a retreat,--impressed also by the solemnity and deep
tranquillity of the silent dawn, whilst the exhaustion of his night
wanderings predisposed him to nervous irritation,--Caesar, we may be sure,
was profoundly agitated. The whole elements of the scene were almost
scenically disposed; the law of antagonism having perhaps never been
employed with so much effect: the little quiet brook presenting a direct,
antithesis to its grand political character; and the innocent dawn, with
its pure, untroubled repose, contrasting potently, to a man of any
intellectual sensibility, with the long chaos of bloodshed, darkness, and
anarchy, which was to take its rise from the apparently trifling acts of
this one morning. So prepared, we need not much wonder at what followed.
Caesar was yet lingering on the hither bank, when suddenly, at a point not
far distant from himself, an apparition was descried in a sitting posture,
and holding in its hand what seemed a flute. This phantom was of unusual