on, promised his place to a
dependant of his, who gave him for it L6,000 down. The vexation of old
Sir Julius at this arbitrary step so moved his friends, that King
Charles was induced to promise Robert Caesar the next post in the clerks'
office that should fall vacant, and the Lord Treasurer was bound by this
promise. One day the Earl of Tullibardine, passionately pressing the
treasurer about his business, was told by Sir Richard that he had quite
forgotten the matter, but begged for a memorandum, that he might remind
the king that very afternoon. The earl then wrote on a small bit of
paper the words, "Remember Caesar!" and Sir Richard, without reading it,
placed it carefully in a little pocket, where he said he kept all the
memorials first to be transacted. Many days passed, and the ambitious
treasurer forgot all about Caesar. At length one night, changing his
clothes, his servant brought him the notes and papers from his pocket,
which he looked over according to his custom. Among these he found the
little billet with merely the words "Remember Caesar!" and on the sight
of this the arrogant yet timid courtier was utterly confounded. Turning
pale, he sent for his bosom friends, showed them the paper, and held a
solemn deliberation over it. It was decided that it must have been
dropped into his hand by some secret friend, as he was on his way to the
priory lodgings. Every one agreed that some conspiracy was planned
against his life by his many and mighty enemies, and that Caesar's fate
might soon be his unless great precautions were taken. The friends
therefore persuaded him to be at once indisposed, and not venture forth
in that neighbourhood, nor to admit to an audience any but persons of
undoubted affection. At night the gates were shut and barred early, and
the porter solemnly enjoined not to open them to any one, or to venture
on even a moment's sleep. Some servants were sent to watch with him, and
the friends sat up all night to await the event. "Such houses," says
Clarendon, who did not like the treasurer, "are always in the morning
haunted by early suitors;" but it was very late before any one could now
get admittance into the house, the porter having tasted some of the
arrears of sleep which he owed to himself for his night watching, which
he accounted for to his acquaintance by whispering to them "that his
lord should have been killed that night, which had kept all the house
from going to bed." Shortly afterward