_"Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men and such as sleep of nights; Yonder Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much; such men are dangerous; And are never at heart's ease Whiles they behold a greater than themselves!"_ Casca, one of the senatorial conspirators, tells Cassius that Caesar is to be crowned king, and he replies thus, contemplating suicide: _"I know where I will wear this dagger then; Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius; Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong; Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat; Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass, Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron Can be retentive to the strength of spirit; But life being weary of these worldly bars, Never lacks power to dismiss itself; That part of tyranny that I do bear I can shake off at pleasure!"_ Brutus, contemplating assassination, says in soliloquy: _"To speak the truth of Caesar, I have not known when his affections swayed More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof, That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, Whereto the climber upward turns his face; But when he once attains the upmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees By which he did ascend!"_ This ingratitude of the great to the people is often recompensed by defeat and death. After the senatorial conspirators decided that Caesar should die, Cassius insisted wisely that Marcus Antonius should not outlive the great Julius, and said: "Let Antony and Caesar fall together!" But Brutus would not consent to the death of Antony, believing that he was not dangerous to their future, yet insisting that "Caesar must bleed for it." _"Let's kill him bodily, but not wrathfully; Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods, Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds; And let our hearts as subtle masters do, Stir up their servants to an act of rage, And after seem to chide them!"_ And yet this is the sweet-scented assassin who prates of "honor," and is sometimes known as "the noblest Roman of them all!" Portia, the wife of Brutus, felt a strange alarm at his recent conduct, and Calphurnia, the wife of Caesar, implored him not to attend the session of the senate, reminding him of the soothsayer's warning--"Beware the ides of March." Yet, Caesar threw off all fear and suspicion and said: _"What can be avoided, Whose end is purposed by the mighty gods? Yet Caesar shall go forth, for these predictions Are to the world in general, not to Caesar! Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once!"_ The hour of assassination has arrived, and Caesar, seated in the chair of state, says: _"What is now amiss That Caesar and his senate must redress?"_