into a kind of bread, telling Cæsar they would live upon the bark of trees rather than abandon his cause. At length the army of Pompey was in turn hemmed in by Cæsar’s forces, and becoming very desperate, on account of the distress occasioned by want of food and water, Pompey made some successful attacks upon Cæsar’s lines, and broke away from his enemy’s grasp. At last, however, they came to open battle on the plain of Pharsalia. As Pompey’s forces far outnumbered those of Cæsar he felt confident of victory. “The hour at length arrived; the charge was sounded by the trumpets, and Cæsar’s troops began to advance with loud shouts and great impetuosity toward Pompey’s lines. There was a long and terrible struggle, but the forces of Pompey began finally to give way. Notwithstanding the precautions which Pompey had taken to guard and protect the wing of his army which was extended toward the land, Cæsar succeeded in turning his flank upon that side by driving off the cavalry, and destroying the archers and slingers; and he was thus enabled to throw a strong force upon Pompey’s rear. The flight then soon became general, and a scene of dreadful confusion and slaughter ensued. The soldiers of Cæsar’s army, maddened with the insane rage which the progress of a battle never fails to awaken, and now excited to frenzy by the exultation of success, pressed on after the affrighted fugitives, who trampled one upon another or fell pierced with the weapons of their assailants, filling the air with their cries of agony and their shrieks of terror.” When Pompey perceived that all was lost he fled from the field, and having disguised himself as a common soldier, he retreated with a few attendants until he reached the Vale of Tempe in Thessaly. Here, in this picturesque spot, noted for its beautiful scenery, the fallen Pompey took his weary way. Having at length reached the Ægean Sea, he took refuge in a fisherman’s hut; hearing still of Cæsar’s pursuit he did not dare to rest, but embarked the next morning in a little vessel, with three attendants. He was afterwards taken up by the commander of a merchant ship, and was at length conveyed to the island of Lesbos, where his wife, Cornelia, was residing; Pompey had married her after the death of Julia, Cæsar’s daughter. Cornelia now provided a small fleet, and, determining to accompany her husband, they set sail upon the Mediterranean Sea. At last Pompey decided to seek refuge in Egypt. Some years before Pompey had been the means of restoring a king of Egypt to his throne; this king had since died, but had left his daughter, the famous Cleopatra, on the throne, to rule, conjointly, with a younger brother, named Ptolemy. At this time, the Egyptian ministers, who acted for the young prince, who was not old enough to be invested with the royal power, had dethroned Cleopatra that they might thus govern alone.