tus: Well; then I shall see thee again?

Ghost: Ay, at Philippi.
(Vanishes.)

That was very satisfactory, so far. But Brutus, having taken heart,
as he says, would hold more talk with the "ill spirit." A ghost always
needs to be taken quietly--it's no use getting excited and threshing
round. But Caesar's, being a new-chum ghost and bashful, was doubtless
embarrassed by his cool, matter-of-fact reception, and left. It didn't
matter much. They were to meet soon, above Philippi, on more level
terms.

But I cannot get away from the idea that Caesar's ghost's visit was made
in a friendly spirit. Who knows? Perhaps Portia's spirit had sent it to
comfort Brutus: her own being prevented from going for some reason only
known to the immortal gods.

Then Brutus wakes them all.

Lucius: The strings, my lord, are false.

Brutus: He thinks he is still at his instrument.
Lucius, awake!

And after questioning them as to whether they cried out in their sleep,
or saw anything, he bids the boy sleep again (it is easy for tired boys
to sleep at will in camp) and sends two of the others to Cassius to bid
him get his forces on the way early and he would follow.

Brutus: Go and commend me to my brother Cassius;
Bid him set on his powers betimes before,
And we will follow.

Varro and Claudius: It shall be done, my lord.

For, being a wise soldier, as well as a brave and gentle one, he
reckoned, no doubt, that it would be best to have a strong man in the
rear until the field was actually reached, for the benefit of would-be
deserters, and unconsidered trifles of country people-and maybe for
another reason not totally disconnected with his erratic friend Cassius.

Just one more scene, and a very different one, before we hurry on to the
end, as they have done to Philippi. It's the only scene in which those
two unlucky Romans, Cassius and Brutus, seem to score.

It is during the barney, or as Shakespeare calls it, the "parley" before
the battle. Those parleys never seemed to do any good--except to make
matters worse, if I might put it like that: it's the same, under similar
circumstances, right up to to-day. Enter on one side Octavius Caesar,
Mark Antony, and their pals and army; and, on the other, Brutus and
Cassius and the friends and followers of their falling fortunes.

Brutus: Words before blows: is it so, countrymen?