lly defeated. He had fled to the
sea-shore, and there, with a few ships and a small number of followers,
he had pushed out upon the Mediterranean, not knowing whither to fly,
and overwhelmed with wretchedness and despair. Caesar followed him in
eager pursuit. He had a small fleet of galleys with him, on board of
which he had embarked two or three thousand men. This was a force
suitable, perhaps, for the pursuit of a fugitive, but wholly
insufficient for any other design.

Pompey thought of Ptolemy. He remembered the efforts which he himself
had made for the cause of Ptolemy Auletes, at Rome, and the success of
those efforts in securing that monarch's restoration--an event through
which alone the young Ptolemy had been enabled to attain the crown. He
came, therefore to Pelusium, and, anchoring his little fleet off the
shore, sent to the land to ask Ptolemy to receive and protect him.
Pothinus, who was really the commander in Ptolemy's army, made answer to
this application that Pompey should be received and protected, and that
he would send out a boat to bring him to the shore. Pompey felt some
misgivings in respect to this proffered hospitality, but he finally
concluded to go to the shore in the boat which Pothinus sent for him. As
soon as he landed, the Egyptians, by Pothinus's orders, stabbed and
beheaded him on the sand. Pothinus and his council had decided that this
would be the safest course. If they were to receive Pompey, they
reasoned, Caesar would be made their enemy; if they refused to receive
him, Pompey himself would be offended, and they did not know which of
the two it would be safe to displease; for they did not know in what
way, if both the generals were to be allowed to live, the war would
ultimately end. "But by killing Pompey," they said, "we shall be sure to
please Caesar and Pompey himself will _lie still."_

In the mean time, Caesar, not knowing to what part of Egypt Pompey had
fled, pressed on directly to Alexandria. He exposed himself to great
danger in so doing, for the forces under his command were not sufficient
to protect him in case of his becoming involved in difficulties with the
authorities there. Nor could he, when once arrived on the Egyptian
coast, easily go away again; for, at the season of the year in which
these events occurred, there was a periodical wind which blew steadily
toward that part of the coast, and, while it made it very easy for a
fleet of ships to go to Alexandria, ren