irement in a splendid
park which Caesar had provided for them, by some mysterious instinct, or
from some divine communication, had warning of the approach of their
great benefactor's end. They refused their food, and walked about with
melancholy and dejected looks, mourning apparently, and in a manner
almost human, some impending grief.

[Sidenote: The soothsayers.]

There was a class of prophets in those days called by a name which has
been translated _soothsayers_. These soothsayers were able, as was
supposed, to look somewhat into futurity--dimly and doubtfully, it is
true, but really, by means of certain appearances exhibited by the
bodies of the animals offered in sacrifices These soothsayers were
consulted on all important occasions; and if the auspices proved
unfavorable when any great enterprise was about to be undertaken, it was
often, on that account, abandoned or postponed. One of these
soothsayers, named Spurinna, came to Caesar one day, and informed him
that he had found, by means of a public sacrifice which he had just been
offering, that there was a great and mysterious danger impending over
him, which was connected in some way with the Ides of March, and he
counseled him to be particularly cautious and circumspect until that day
should have passed.

[Sidenote: The hawks and the wren.]

The Senate were to meet on the Ides of March in a new and splendid
edifice, which had been erected for their use by Pompey. There was in
the interior of the building, among other decorations, a statue of
Pompey. The day before the Ides of March, some birds of prey from a
neighboring grove came flying into this hall, pursuing a little wren
with a sprig of laurel in its mouth. The birds tore the wren to pieces,
the laurel dropping from its bill to the marble pavement of the floor
below. Now, as Caesar had been always accustomed to wear a crown of
laurel on great occasions, and had always evinced a particular fondness
for that decoration, that plant had come to be considered his own proper
badge, and the fall of the laurel, therefore, was naturally thought to
portend some great calamity to him.

[Sidenote: Caesar's agitation of mind.]
[Sidenote: His dream.]
[Sidenote: Calpurnia's dream.]
[Sidenote: The effect of a disturbed mind.]

The night before the Ides of March Caesar could not sleep. It would not
seem, however, to be necessary to suppose any thing supernatural to
account for his wakefulness. He lay upon his bed