Page:The Children's Plutarch, Romans.djvu/159

 “Beware the Ides of March!” I must explain that each month of the year had in it a number of days called Ides; and in the month of March the Ides lasted from the eighth day till the end of the fifteenth—one week.

It was now the middle of March, in the year 44 Cæsar had supper with his friends, and then signed letters which his secretary brought to him. The guests were talking loudly.

“What are you conversing about?” asked Cæsar.

“The best kind of death. Which do you think the best?”

“A sudden one.”

His death—a sudden one—came next day.

In the morning Cæsar—“the foremost man of all the world,” as Shakespeare calls him—went out to the meeting of the senate. A crowd was in the streets.

“There goes Cæsar!” buzzed many voices.

He saw the soothsayer, and said to him:

“The Ides of March are come!”

“Yes, but they are not gone!” replied the soothsayer.

A parchment, folded up, was thrust into Cæsar's hand.

“Sir, pray read it; it is most important,” whispered a voice.

“Hail, Cæsar!” shouted the people.