e 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 size, and of
beauty more than human, so far as its lineaments could be traced in
the early dawn. What is singular, however, in the story, on any
hypothesis which would explain it out of Caesar's individual
condition, is, that others saw it as well as he; both pastoral
labourers (who were present, probably, in the character of guides) and
some of the sentinels stationed at the passage of the river. These men
fancied even that a strain of music issued from this aerial flute. And
some, both of the shepherds and the Roman soldiers, who were bolder
than the rest, advanced towards the figure. Amongst this party, it
happened that there were a few Roman trumpeters. From one of these,
the phantom, rising as they advanced nearer, suddenly caught a
trumpet, and blowing through it a blast of superhuman strength,
plunged into the Rubicon--passed to the other bank--and disappeared in
the dusky twilight of the dawn. Upon which Caesar exclaimed:--"It is
finished: the die is cast: let us follow whither the guiding portents
from heaven, and the malice of our enemy alike summon us to go." So
saying, he crossed the river with impetuosity; and in a sudden rapture
of passionate and vindictive ambition, placed himself and his retinue
upon the Italian soil; and as if by inspiration from Heaven, in one
moment involved himself and his followers in treason, raised the
standard of revolt, put his foot upon the neck of the invincible
republic which had humbled all the kings of the earth, and founded an
empire