dered it almost impossible for
them to return.

Caesar was very little accustomed to shrink from danger in any of his
enterprises and plans, though still he was usually prudent and
circumspect. In this instance, however, his ardent interest in the
pursuit of Pompey overruled all considerations of personal safety. He
arrived at Alexandria, but he found that Pompey was not there. He
anchored his vessels in the port, landed his troops, and established
himself in the city. These two events, the assassination of one of the
great Roman generals on the eastern extremity of the coast, and the
arrival of the other, at the same moment, at Alexandria, on the western,
burst suddenly upon Egypt together, like simultaneous claps of thunder.
The tidings struck the whole country with astonishment, and immediately
engrossed universal attention. At the camps both of Cleopatra and
Ptolemy, at Pelusium, all was excitement and wonder. Instead of thinking
of a battle, both parties were wholly occupied in speculating on the
results which were likely to accrue, to one side or to the other, under
the totally new and unexpected aspect which public affairs had assumed.

Of course the thoughts of all were turned toward Alexandria. Pothinus
immediately proceeded to the city, taking with him the young king.
Achillas, too, either accompanied them, or followed soon afterward. They
carried with them the head of Pompey, which they had cut off on the
shore where they had killed him, and also a seal which they took from
his finger. When they arrived at Alexandria, they sent the head, wrapped
up in a cloth, and also the seal, as presents to Caesar. Accustomed as
they were to the brutal deeds and heartless cruelties of the Ptolemies,
they supposed that Caesar would exult at the spectacle of the dissevered
and ghastly head of his great rival and enemy. Instead of this, he was
shocked and displeased, and ordered the head to be buried with the most
solemn and imposing funeral ceremonies. He, however, accepted and kept
the seal. The device engraved upon it was a lion holding a sword in his
paw--a fit emblem of the characters of the men, who, though in many
respects magnanimous and just, had filled the whole world with the
terror of their quarrels.

The army of Ptolemy, while he himself and his immediate counselors went
to Alexandria, was left at Pelusium, under the command of other
officers, to watch Cleopatra. Cleopatra herself would have been pleased,
also