The Prince, Capulet and Montague family soon discover all, and Friar Laurence tells the true story, punishment follows, and the two contending houses of Verona clasp hands over the ruin they have wrought, while the Prince exclaims: _"For, never was a story of more woe, Than this of Juliet and her Romeo!"_ The drop curtain was rung down and up three times, and the storm of applause that greeted Shakspere and Taylor, as the representatives of Romeo and Juliet, was never equaled before at the Blackfriars. The Queen called William and Jo to the royal box and by her own firm hand presented a signet ring to Romeo and a lace handkerchief to Juliet! _"What fates impose, that men must needs abide; It boots not to resist both wind and tide!"_ CHAPTER XII. "JULIUS CAESAR." _"O mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so low? Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils Shrunk to this little measure?"_ The assassination of Julius Caesar by Brutus, Cassius, Casca and twenty other Roman Senators, in the capital of the Empire in broad daylight, was one of the most cowardly and infamous crimes recorded in the annals of time. The historical and philosophical friends of Brutus and Cassius have tried to justify the conspiracy and assassination by imputing the deep design of tyranny to Caesar, who was bent on trampling down the rights of the people and securing for himself a kingly crown. They say the motive of the conspirators in the deep damnation of Caesar's "taking off" was purely patriotism. Many murderers have used the same argument. The facts do not justify the excuse. For more than thirty years Julius Caesar had been a star performer on the boards of the Roman Empire, and his family had been illustrious for five hundred years. Sylla, Marius, Cicero, Cato, Brutus and Pompey had crossed lances with this civil and military genius, and had all become very jealous of his increasing fame. From boyhood Caesar had been a mixer with the common people, and in midnight hours in Rome, among tradesmen, merchants, students, authors, sailors and soldiers, he became imbued with their wants and impulsive nature. He had no reason to doubt or oppress the people. As commander of invincible troops in Spain, Gaul, Germany and Britain, Caesar had secured a world-wide reputation, for the eagles of his victorious legions had swept across the mountains and seas to the shore end of Europe and screamed in triumph among the palms and sands of Africa and Asia! Caesar was a poet, orator, historian, warrior and statesman, and the imperial families and politicians of Rome, who were forced to sit in the shade of his triumphs and glory, felt a secret pang of jealousy at the stride of this colossal character. He was the pride and idol of his soldiers, and whether in the forests of Gaul and Germany, the swamps of Britain, mountains of Spain, or among Ionian isles, his presence was ever worth a thousand men in battle action.