In a moment Cæsar had sprung to his feet, and seizing hold of Casca’s weapon, he cried, ‘Vile Casca, what does this mean?’
But immediately daggers were drawn on every side of him, and blow after blow descended upon his body, while angry faces looked into his.
Unarmed as he was, Cæsar yet struggled desperately with the assassins, until he caught sight of Decimus Brutus, whom he loved, among his murderers, ready to strike.
Then crying, ‘Et tu, Brute?’ ‘Thou, too, Brutus?’ he covered his face with his toga and fell to the ground, his body covered with many wounds.
Cæsar was dead. And it is said that nature herself mourned for the great man stricken to death by those whom he had befriended. For, for a whole year the sun shone dull and faint, while grey clouds were stretched across the sky like a funeral pall. Cæsar was dead.
CHAPTER CXVII
BRUTUS SPEAKS TO THE CITIZENS
When the terrible deed was done, Brutus wished to tell those senators, who had known nothing of the plot, why it had been necessary to murder the Dictator.
But they, horrified with the murder, and dismayed that they had been unable to aid Cæsar, were in no mood to listen to the conspirators. They fled indeed from the Senate-house, not knowing what fate awaited them, and too sad perhaps to greatly care.
Not far from the Senate-house they met Mark Antony, Cæsar’s most faithful friend, who had been purposely kept away from the meeting. They told him what had befallen Cæsar, and he and many others of Cæsar’s friends hid themselves, lest the conspirators should wish to murder them also. But they need not have feared, for it was Cæsar’s life alone that had been doomed.