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 senators; they remonstrate with the Dictator, who retorts with scorn, and who, retaining Brutus for a moment, while dismissing his companions, tells him that it is Brutus alone who can disarm Cæsar—it is he alone whom Cæsar desires to love. Brutus replies:—

The conspirators meet; and Brutus, impelled to action by such appeals as Shakespeare, following history, tells of, is for killing Cæsar. Before Pompey's statue he vows the death of the Dictator; the others have left the scene, and he is following, when Cæsar's entrance stays him. The ambitious chief reproaches the Republican, reasons with him, draws him almost to confess his fell design, and then gives him Servilia's letter, in which the relationship between them is revealed. Brutus receives the intelligence with more horror than satisfaction; to Cæsar's appeals he at length replies, that if he be indeed his father, he will make one single prayer to him:—

Cæsar, exasperated, bursts forth against him:—