The whole elements of the scene
were almost scenically disposed; the law of antagonism having perhaps
never been employed with so much effect: the little quiet brook
presenting a direct antithesis to its grand political character; and
the innocent dawn, with its pure untroubled repose, contrasting
potently, to a man of any intellectual sensibility, with the long
chaos of bloodshed, darkness, and anarchy, which was to take its rise
from the apparently trifling acts of this one morning. So prepared, we
need not much wonder at what followed. Caesar was yet lingering on the
hither bank, when suddenly, at a point not far distant from himself,
an apparition was descried in a sitting posture, and holding in its
hand what seemed a flute. This phantom was of unusual size, and of
beauty more than human, so far as its lineaments could be traced in
the early dawn. What is singular, however, in the story, on any
hypothesis which would explain it out of Caesar's individual
condition, is, that others saw it as well as he; both pastoral
labourers (who were present, probably, in the character of guides) and
some of the sentinels stationed at the passage of the river. These men
fancied even that a strain of music issued from this aerial flute. And
some, both of the shepherds and the Roman soldiers, who were bolder
than the rest, advanced towards the figure.
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