ACT V., SCENE I.

CÆSAR, ANDROGEUS, MANDUBRATIUS, &c. _Soldiers_.

CÆS. Thus gain we ground; yet still our foes will fight, Whether they win or lose. With bloody drops Our path is printed: Thames his maiden cheeks Blush with vermillion. Nations crave our league On every side; yet still Cassibelane braves us, Nor will submit.

AND. Not far hence Verulam lies, his chiefest fort: By nature guarded round with woods and fens, By art enclosed with a ditch and rampier: From hence we must dislodge the boar.

MAN. There are but two ways to assail this town, Both which I know. Your parted army must Break through both at once, and so distract His doubtful rescues.

_Enter_ VOLUSENUS, _with_ HULACUS _prisoner_.

HUL. Draw, slaves unwilling; I dare meet my death, And lead my leader.

VOL. You'll repent anon.

HUL. If I do ill; but not for suffering ill.

VOL. Your stoical apathy will relent, I know. This priest I caught within a shady grove, Devoutly kneeling at a broad oak's foot. Now he awaits your doom.

CÆS. What God adore you?

HUL. Him whom all should serve.

CÆS. What's the moon?

HUL. Night's sun.

CÆS. What's night?

HUL. A foil to glorify the day.

CÆS. What most compendious way to happiness?

HUL. To die in a good cause.

CÆS. What is a man?

HUL. An hermaphrodite of soul and body.

CÆS. How differ they in nature?

HUL. The body hath in weight, the soul in length.

CÆS. One question more: What dangers shall I pass?

HUL. Many by land and sea, as steps to glory. Throw Palatine on Æsquiline, on both Heap Aventine, to raise one pyramid for a Chair of estate, where thy advanced head, Among those heroes pictur'd in the stars, Orion, Perseus, Hercules, may consult With Jove himself: but shun the senate-house. March round about the Caspian sea; search out, 'Mong cedars tall, th' Arabian phoenix' nest; Run counter to old Nile, till thou discover His sacred head wrapt up in cloudy mountains; And, rather than work fail, turn Hellespont Out of his channel; dig that isthmus down, Which ties great Afric--shun the senate-house.

_Be Saturn, and so thou shalt not be Tarquin._ _A Brutus strong_ _Repays in fine_ _The brutish wrong_ _To Brutus' line._

CÆS. We'll talk at leisure more. [_Exeunt._