No sooner had Cæsar reached the Senate-house and taken his seat than the conspirators crowded around him, one of them, named Cimber, offering him a petition. It was one which the Dictator had already refused to grant, and he was annoyed at the persistence shown by Cimber. Moreover, the other conspirators joined him in his entreaties, pressing ever closer and closer around the Dictator, until only those in the plot were near to him. Cæsar was now really angry and turned away from Cimber, again refusing his request. As he did so, Cimber pulled Cæsar’s toga down from his neck. It was the signal upon which the conspirators had agreed. Casca, who was to give the first blow, thereupon drew his dagger and struck Cæsar on the shoulder. Either through fear or haste he did little harm by his stroke. In a moment Cæsar had sprung to his feet, and seizing hold of Casca’s weapon, he cried, ‘Vile Casca, what does this mean?’ But immediately daggers were drawn on every side of him, and blow after blow descended upon his body, while angry faces looked into his. Unarmed as he was, Cæsar yet struggled desperately with the assassins, until he caught sight of Decimus Brutus, whom he loved, among his murderers, ready to strike. Then crying, ‘Et tu, Brute?’ ‘Thou, too, Brutus?’ he covered his face with his toga and fell to the ground, his body covered with many wounds. Cæsar was dead. And it is said that nature herself mourned for the great man stricken to death by those whom he had befriended. For, for a whole year the sun shone dull and faint, while grey clouds were stretched across the sky like a funeral pall. Cæsar was dead. CHAPTER CXVII BRUTUS SPEAKS TO THE CITIZENS When the terrible deed was done, Brutus wished to tell those senators, who had known nothing of the plot, why it had been necessary to murder the Dictator. But they, horrified with the murder, and dismayed that they had been unable to aid Cæsar, were in no mood to listen to the conspirators. They fled indeed from the Senate-house, not knowing what fate awaited them, and too sad perhaps to greatly care. Not far from the Senate-house they met Mark Antony, Cæsar’s most faithful friend, who had been purposely kept away from the meeting. They told him what had befallen Cæsar, and he and many others of Cæsar’s friends hid themselves, lest the conspirators should wish to murder them also. But they need not have feared, for it was Cæsar’s life alone that had been doomed. As the senators had not stayed to listen to their explanations, the conspirators now determined to tell the people that Cæsar was dead. So they marched through the streets crying that the tyrant had been killed, and bidding all those who loved the Republic to join them. But the citizens turned away, with scarcely concealed horror, and hurrying into their shops and houses, shut the doors.