Hearing, however, that the
body of Caesar was to be burned in the Forum, he went to assist in doing
him the last honors, though he had a fever upon him, the consequence of
his uneasiness about his dream. On his coming up, one of the populace
asked who that was? and having learned his name, told it to his next
neighbor. A report immediately spread through the whole company that it
was one of Caesar's murderers; and, indeed, one of the conspirators was
named Cinna. The multitude, taking this for the man, fell upon him, and
tore him to pieces upon the spot. Brutus and Cassius were so terrified
at this rage of the populace that a few days after they left the city.
An account of their subsequent actions, sufferings, and death may be
found in the life of Brutus.

Caesar died at the age of fifty-six, and did not survive Pompey above
four years. His object was sovereign power and authority, which he
pursued through innumerable dangers, and by prodigious efforts he gained
it at last. But he reaped no other fruit from it than an empty and
invidious title. It is true the divine Power, which conducted him
through life, attended him after his death as his avenger, pursued and
hunted out the assassins over sea and land, and rested not till there
was not a man left, either of those who dipped their hands in his blood
or of those who gave their sanction to the deed.

The most remarkable of natural events relative to this affair was that
Cassius, after he had lost the battle of Philippi, killed himself with
the same dagger which he had made use of against Caesar; and the most
signal phenomenon in the heavens was that of a great comet, which shone
very bright for seven nights after Caesar's death, and then disappeared;
to which we may add the fading of the sun's lustre; for his orb looked
pale all that year; he rose not with a sparkling radiance, nor had the
heat he afforded its usual strength. The air, of course, was dark and
heavy, for want of that vigorous heat which clears and rarefies it; and
the fruits were so crude and unconcocted that they pined away and
decayed, through the chilliness of the atmosphere.

We have a proof still more striking that the assassination of Caesar was
displeasing to the gods, in the phantom that appeared to Brutus. The
story of it is this: Brutus was on the point of transporting his army
from Abydos to the opposite continent; and the night before, he lay in
his tent awake, according to custom, and in