ther look at our chances.

CAESAR (taking the dates). My age! (He shakes his head and bites a
date.) Yes, Rufio: I am an old man--worn out now--true, quite true. (He
gives way to melancholy contemplation, and eats another date.) Achillas
is still in his prime: Ptolemy is a boy. (He eats another date, and
plucks up a little.) Well, every dog has his day; and I have had mine:
I cannot complain. (With sudden cheerfulness) These dates are not bad,
Rufio. (Britannus returns, greatly excited, with a leathern bag. Caesar
is himself again in a moment.) What now?

BRITANNUS (triumphantly). Our brave Rhodian mariners have captured a
treasure. There! (He throws the bag down at Caesar's feet.) Our enemies
are delivered into our hands.

CAESAR. In that bag?

BRITANNUS. Wait till you hear, Caesar. This bag contains all the letters
which have passed between Pompey's party and the army of occupation
here.

CAESAR. Well?

BRITANNUS (impatient of Caesar's slowness to grasp the situation).
Well, we shall now know who your foes are. The name of every man who
has plotted against you since you crossed the Rubicon may be in these
papers, for all we know.

CAESAR. Put them in the fire.

BRITANNUS. Put them--(he gasps)!!!!

CAESAR. In the fire. Would you have me waste the next three years of
my life in proscribing and condemning men who will be my friends when
I have proved that my friendship is worth more than Pompey's was--than
Cato's is. O incorrigible British islander: am I a bull dog, to seek
quarrels merely to show how stubborn my jaws are?

BRITANNUS. But your honor--the honor of Rome--

CAESAR. I do not make human sacrifices to my honor, as your Druids do.
Since you will not burn these, at least I can drown them. (He picks up
the bag and throws it over the parapet into the sea.)

BRITANNUS. Caesar: this is mere eccentricity. Are traitors to be allowed
to go free for the sake of a paradox?

RUFIO (rising). Caesar: when the islander has finished preaching, call
me again. I am going to have a look at the boiling water machine. (He
goes into the lighthouse.)

BRITANNUS (with genuine feeling). O Caesar, my great master, if I could
but persuade you to regard life seriously, as men do in my country!

CAESAR. Do they truly do so, Britannus?

BRITANNUS. Have you not been there? Have you not seen them? What Briton
speaks as you do in your moments of levity? What Briton neglects to
attend the services at the sacred grove? What