Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/336

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328
TEXT

328 CAESAR. a terrible figure, like that of a man, but of unusual stat- ure and severe countenance. He was somewhat fright- ened at first, but seeing it neither did nor spoke any thing to him, only stood silently by his bed-side, he asked who it was. The spectre answered him, " Thy evil gen- ius, Brutus, thou shalt see me at Philippi." Brutus an- swered courageously, " Well, I shall see you," and imme- diately the appearance vanished. When the time was come, he drew up his army near Philippi against Antony and Csesar, and in the first battle won the day, routed the enemy, and plundered Caesar's camp. The night before the second battle, the same phantom appeared to him again, but spoke not a word. He presently understood his destiny was at hand, and exposed himself to all the danger of the battle. Yet he did . not die in the fight, but seeing his men defeated, got up to the top of a rock, and there presenting his sword to his naked breast, and assisted, as they say, by a friend, who helped him to give the thrust, met his death.