"Et cuncta terrarum subacta, Praeter atrocem animum Catonis." ["And conquered all but the indomitable mind of Cato." --Horace, Od., ii. 1, 23.] And the master of the choir, after having set forth all the great names of the greatest Romans, ends thus: "His dantem jura Catonem." ["Cato giving laws to all the rest."--AEneid, viii. 670.] CHAPTER XXXVII THAT WE LAUGH AND CRY FOR THE SAME THING When we read in history that Antigonus was very much displeased with his son for presenting him the head of King Pyrrhus his enemy, but newly slain fighting against him, and that seeing it, he wept; and that Rene, Duke of Lorraine, also lamented the death of Charles, Duke of Burgundy, whom he had himself defeated, and appeared in mourning at his funeral; and that in the battle of D'Auray (which Count Montfort obtained over Charles de Blois, his competitor for the duchy of Brittany), the conqueror meeting the dead body of his enemy, was very much afflicted at his death, we must not presently cry out: "E cosi avven, the l'animo ciascuna Sua passion sotto 'l contrario manto, Ricopre, con la vista or'chiara, or'bruna." ["And thus it happens that the mind of each veils its passion under a different appearance, and beneath a smiling visage, gay beneath a sombre air."--Petrarch.] When Pompey's head was presented to Caesar, the histories tell us that he turned away his face, as from a sad and unpleasing object. There had been so long an intelligence and society betwixt them in the management of the public affairs, so great a community of fortunes, so many mutual offices, and so near an alliance, that this countenance of his ought not to suffer under any misinterpretation, or to be suspected for either false or counterfeit, as this other seems to believe: "Tutumque putavit Jam bonus esse socer; lacrymae non sponte cadentes, Effudit, gemitusque expressit pectore laeto;" ["And now he thought it safe to play the kind father-in-law, shedding forced tears, and from a joyful breast discharging sighs and groans."--Lucan, ix. 1037.] for though it be true that the greatest part of our actions are no other than visor and disguise, and that it may sometimes be true that "Haeredis fletus sub persona rises est," ["The heir's tears behind the mask are smiles." --Publius Syrus, apud Gellium, xvii. 14.]