any other time, Cicero let himself be carried away
and deceived, though an old man, by the persuasions of a boy. He joined
him in soliciting votes, and procured the good-will of the senate, not
without blame at the time on the part of his friends; and he, too, soon
enough after, saw that he had ruined himself, and betrayed the liberty
of his country. For the young man, once established, and possessed of
the office of consul, bade Cicero farewell; and reconciling himself
with Antony and Lepidus, joined his power with theirs, and divided the
government, like a piece of property, with them. Thus united, they made
a schedule of above two hundred persons who were to be put to death.
But the greatest contention in all their debates was on the question of
Cicero's case. Antony would come to no conditions, unless he should be
the first man to be killed. Lepidus held with Antony, and Caesar opposed
them both. They met secretly and by themselves, for three days together,
near the town of Bononia. The spot was not far from the camp, with a
river surrounding it. Caesar, it is said, contended earnestly for Cicero
the first two days; but on the third day he yielded, and gave him up.
The terms of their mutual concessions were these; that Caesar should
desert Cicero, Lepidus his brother Paulus, and Antony, Lucius Caesar,
his uncle by his mother's side. Thus they let their anger and fury take
from them the sense of humanity, and demonstrated that no beast is more
savage than man, when possessed with power proportioned to his rage.

While these things were contriving, Cicero was with his brother at his
country-house near Tusculum; whence, hearing of the proscriptions, they
determined to pass to Astura, a villa of Cicero's near the sea, and to
take shipping from there for Macedonia to Brutus, of whose strength in
that province news had already been heard. They traveled together in
their separate litters, overwhelmed with sorrow; and often stopping on
the way till their litters came together, condoled with one another.
But Quintus was the more disheartened, when he reflected on his want of
means for his journey; for, as he said, he had brought nothing with him
from home. And even Cicero himself had but a slender provision. It was
judged therefore most expedient that Cicero should make what haste he
could to fly, and Quintus return home to provide necessaries, and thus
resolved, they mutually embraced, and parted with many tears.

Quintus,