is son, and
they both died gallantly. Antony's hirelings came upon the two together,
or nearly together, and, finding the son first, put him to the torture,
so to learn from him the place of his father's concealment; then the
father, hearing his son's screams, rushed out to his aid, and the two
perished together. But this story also comes to us from Greek sources,
and must be taken for what it is worth.

Marcus, alone in his litter, travelled through the country to his
sea-side villa at Astura. Then he went on to Formiae, sick with doubt,
not knowing whether to stay and die, or encounter the winter sea in such
boat as was provided for him. Should he seek the uncomfortable refuge of
Brutus's army? We can remember his bitter exclamations as to the
miseries of camp life. He did go on board; but was brought back by the
winds, and his servants could not persuade him to make another attempt.
Plutarch tells us that he was minded to go to Rome, to force his way
into young Caesar's house and there to stab himself, but that he was
deterred from this melodramatic death by the fear of torture. The story
only shows how great had been the attention given to every detail of his
last moments, and what the people in Rome had learned to say of them.
The same remark applies to Plutarch's tale as to the presuming crows who
pecked at the cordage of his sails when his boat was turned to go back
to the land, and afterward with their beaks strove to drag the
bedclothes from off him when he lay waiting his fate the night before
the murderers came to him.

He was being carried down from his villa at Formiae to the sea-side when
Antony's emissaries came upon him in his litter. There seem to have been
two of them--both soldiers and officers in the pay of Antony--Popilius
Laenas and Herennius. They overtook him in the wood, through which paths
ran from the villa down to the sea-shore. On arriving at the house they
had not found Cicero, but were put upon his track by a freedman who had
belonged to Quintus, named Philologus. He could hardly have done a
kinder act than to show the men the way how they might quickly release
Cicero from his agony. They went down to the end of the wood, and there
met the slaves bearing the litter. The men were willing to fight for
their master; but Cicero, bidding them put down the chair, stretched out
his neck and received his death-blow. Antony had given special orders to
his servants. They were to bring Cicero's head