CÆSAR'S FRIEND AND ENEMY
rippling stream. Here there was a cave in which he and his companions took shelter. They brooded sadly over the ruin of their cause, and wondered what would happen to Rome and to the patricians who had opposed Octavius Cæsar.
A helmet was dipped into the brook, and the water brought to Brutus, and he drank eagerly. Now and then noises were heard among the woods on the opposite bank of the stream. The enemy were searching for the defeated general.
Brutus felt that his hour was come. He spoke in a low tone to one of his friends. The man shook his head and burst into tears. A second did likewise, and others also refused to do what he asked.
He had begged them to slay him.
At length, one of them—a Greek—held a sword, and Brutus thrust himself upon it, and so died in the year 42 B.C.
Two great poets speak of Brutus in their verse; but while Shakespeare praises him, Dante (Dan-tay) condemns him.
Shakespeare, in his play of Julius Cæsar, shows the death of Brutus in the cave, and makes Octavius and Antony and their soldiers enter; and then Antony says:
| This was the noblest Roman of them all; |
| All the conspirators save only he |
| Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar; |
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