utus, and believed him to
be entirely devoted to his cause.

[Sidenote: Interview between Brutus and Cassius.]

Cassius, however, sought an interview with Brutus, with a view of
engaging him in his design. He easily effected his own reconciliation
with him, as he had himself been the offended party in their
estrangement from each other. He asked Brutus whether he intended to be
present in the Senate on the Ides of March, when the friends of Caesar,
as was understood, were intending to present him with the crown. Brutus
said he should not be there. "But suppose," said Cassius, "we are
specially summoned." "Then," said Brutus, "I shall go, and shall be
ready to die if necessary to defend the liberty of my country."

[Sidenote: Arguments of Cassius.]

Cassius then assured Brutus that there were many other Roman citizens,
of the highest rank, who were animated by the same determination, and
that they all looked up to him to lead and direct them in the work which
it was now very evident must be done. "Men look," said Cassius, "to
other praetors to entertain them with games, spectacles, and shows, but
they have very different ideas in respect to you. Your character, your
name, your position, your ancestry, and the course of conduct which you
have already always pursued, inspire the whole city with the hope that
you are to be their deliverer. The citizens are all ready to aid you,
and to sustain you at the hazard of their lives; but they look to you to
go forward, and to act in their name and in their behalf, in the crisis
which is now approaching."

[Sidenote: Effect on Brutus.]
[Sidenote: Brutus engages in the conspiracy.]

Men of a very calm exterior are often susceptible of the profoundest
agitations within, the emotions seeming to be sometimes all the more
permanent and uncontrollable from the absence of outward display. Brutus
said little, but his soul was excited and fired by Cassius's words.
There was a struggle in his soul between his grateful sense of his
political obligations to Caesar and his personal attachment to him on
the one hand, and, on the other, a certain stern Roman conviction that
every thing should be sacrificed, even friendship and gratitude, as
well as fortune and life, to the welfare of his country. He acceded to
the plan, and began forthwith to enter upon the necessary measures for
putting it into execution.

[Sidenote: Ligurius.]

There was a certain general, named Ligurius, who had been