Cassis

“ To Cassius’ compliments, and his inquiry as to her early rising, she replies that the love she bears her country demands that she be made a party to their plans. It is in vain that they withhold secrets from a loving woman. Cassius assures her that no one doubts her worth and constancy, but the matters they contemplate are such that it would be unwise to risk their discovery. ”

“ Amid the darkness and roar of elements Cassio lost all perception of time, and as he tossed on his narrow bed, blessed visions came at last to his storm-tossed heart. The sighing of the wind in his distant well-loved mountains; the prints of the wild boar among the green ferns; the noisy stream bounding from rock to rock; the partridges flitting among the flowering oleanders; the joyful neighing of his black horse, and, above all else, the smile of Paola. ”

“ Is overthrown by noble Brutus' power,
As Cassius' legions are by Antony.
TITINIUS. These tidings would well comfort Cassius.
MESSALA. Where did you leave him?
TITINIUS. All disconsolate,
With Pindarus his bondman, on this hill.
MESSALA. Is not that he that lies upon the ground?
TITINIUS. He lies not like the living. O my heart!
MESSALA. Is not that he?
TITINIUS. No, this was he, Messala,
But Cassius is no more. O setting sun,
As in thy red rays thou dost sink to night,
So in his red blood Cassius' day is set,
The sun of Rome is set! Our day is gone ”

“ An eagle is not formidable at the head of an army of daws, nor a lion commanding fawns; and it was not Cassius, but you, that brought to an end the Arabian or the famous Parthian War. Again, even though he is renowned as a result of his achievements against the Parthians, yet you have Verus, who has won more victories than he and has acquired more territory in a not less, but more distinguished manner.--But probably he has already changed his mind, on hearing that I am alive, for surely he has done this on no other assumption than that I was dead. ”

“ Gradually Cassio pulled himself together. At first he had gazed at the Direttore without seeing him. Now he began to look at him. He observed his pale face was flushed, that the air of physical suffering had disappeared, that the small, green eyes were shining.
He, on the other hand, was trembling violently, his [Pg 501] face was ashy, his hands cold, and a mist floated before his eyes.
“This man is fine, when he is rejoicing in the happiness of another. How I have misjudged him,” he thought. Then he asked himself: “But why did he do it?” ”

“ Cassio hath beaten thee, And thou, by that small hurt, hast cashier’d Cassio; Though other things grow fair against the sun, Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe. Content thyself awhile. By the mass, ’tis morning; Pleasure and action make the hours seem short. Retire thee; go where thou art billeted. Away, I say, thou shalt know more hereafter. Nay, get thee gone.
[Exit Roderigo.]
Two things are to be done, My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress. I’ll set her on; Myself the while to draw the Moor apart, And bring him jump when he may Cassio find Soliciting his wife. ”

“ Of course Mark Antony’s wonderful speech at the funeral was fine business. Gee! how he skinned the “Honorable men!” Some of the things he said after that will stand reading, too.
But Yond Cassius, he was the man for my money. He was a regular go-getter. If Brutus had only hearkened to Cassius once in a while they’d have made a different play of it. I didn’t like Brutus near so well. He was a four-flusher. Said he wouldn’t kill himself and sure enough he did. He was set [95] up and heady and touchy. I shouldn’t wonder if he was better than Cassius, just morally. ”

“ As gifts to Desdemona;
It must not be. If Cassio do remain,
He hath a daily beauty in his life
That makes me ugly; and besides, the Moor
May unfold me to him; there stand I in much peril.
No, he must die. Be't so. I hear him coming.
Enter Cassio.
RODERIGO. I know his gait; 'tis he. Villain, thou diest!
Makes a pass at
Cassio.
CASSIO. That thrust had been mine enemy indeed,
But that my coat is better than thou know'st;
I will make proof of thine. Draws, and wounds
Roderigo.
RODERIGO. O, I am slain!
Iago from behind wounds Cassio in the leg, and exit.
CASSIO. I am maim'd forever. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Cassius, perceiving his friend's ambition a little stimulated by these papers, began to ply him closer than before, and spur him on to the great enterprise; for he had a particular enmity against Cæsar. Cæsar, too, had some suspicion of him, and he even said one day to his friends: "What think you of Cassius? I do not like his pale looks." Another time, when Antony and Dolabella were accused of some designs against his person and government, he said: "I have no apprehensions from those fat and sleek men; I rather fear the pale and lean ones," meaning Cassius and Brutus. ”

“ IAGO. I do not like the office, But sith I am enter’d in this cause so far, Prick’d to ’t by foolish honesty and love, I will go on. I lay with Cassio lately, And being troubled with a raging tooth, I could not sleep. There are a kind of men so loose of soul, That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs. One of this kind is Cassio: In sleep I heard him say, “Sweet Desdemona, Let us be wary, let us hide our loves;” And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my hand, Cry “O sweet creature!” ”

“ But now I am of a different mind in the circumstances, and if the deity shall not determine in our favour, I do not want to try other hopes and means, but I will withdraw content with fortune, that on the Ides of March I gave to my country my life and have lived another life for her sake free and glorious.” Whereat Cassius smiled and, embracing Brutus, said, “With such thoughts let us go against the enemy; for we shall either conquer or we shall not fear the conquerors.” ”

“ Cassio, on the other hand, experienced a profound disgust, which was but accentuated by the stupid resignation of his companions in misfortune—a very anguish of impotent desperation, and regretted his request. Better to have remained alone in his cell, with his hands clasping the bars of the little window, and before him the distant Apennines, that brought to him memories of his own native mountains, resounding with the neighing of his black charger, dashing in pursuit of the straying sheep—alone with his sentence and his sorrow! ”

“ She, alone of all the world, remains to me, and she, Signore Direttore, is Paola.”
The Signore Direttore remained absolutely silent. What, indeed could he say? He only felt that Cassio’s story and his own seemed impossible, though he knew but too well it was but too true. Cassio understood him perfectly.
“It is strange, impossible, is it not? Had I been told it, I would not have believed it.”
“Life is strange,” said the other at last, and he clenched his hands till the nails penetrated the flesh. “The ways of destiny are indeed mysterious.” ”

“ Cethegus; seest thou not—seest thou not there? If it be he, he 'scapes us not again!—out with thy weapon, man, and strike at once, if that thou have a chance; but if not, do thou go on with Cassius to the appointed place. Leave him to me! and say, I follow ye! See! he hath slunk into the darkness. Separate ye, and occupy the whole width of the street, while I dislodge him!"
And as he spoke, unsheathing his broad poignard, but holding it concealed beneath his cassock, he strode on boldly, affecting the most perfect indifference, and even insolence of bearing. ”

“ When he twice spoke of Cassius as ‘Yond Cassius,’ when he mentioned Cæsar’s superstitions, and afterward said some of his hunches were pretty good at that, he might have been referring me to either ‘Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look’ or to the line immediately above: ‘Let me have men about me that are fat.’ I am reasonably sure that he meant the last. Because he knew that we would get this far—to the big question of what we were going to do about it. We are clear [133] as to Thorpe’s guilt; but that isn’t going to help Jeff—or Tillotson. ”

“ You are too profound in canonization not to have read of a certain saint, no matter his name, who, with a pair of convenient red-hot pincers, clutched the devil by his feature of honour, and so dragged him roaring round the world. Cassius was no saint, whatever he might be of a conjuror; but I never hear your king-killing demagogues vaunting of their prince of patriots, without seeing the pincers at his nose. So, prithee, my dainty Cæsar, no more misnomers if you would not have me requite you in kind! ”

“ In all else we stand equal, and I accept insult from no living man. ’Tis well that you know this, Monsieur.”
The hat was back upon his head, and he had turned away before Cassion found answering speech. It was a jaunty, careless figure, disappearing amid the trees, the very swing of his shoulders a challenge, nor did he so much as glance about to mark the effect of his insolent words. For the instant I believed Cassion’s first thought was murder, for he gripped a pistol in his hand, and flung one foot forward, an oath sputtering between his lips. ”

“ But, if Cass found no material result from his treasure, it stimulated his lazy imagination, and, albeit a dangerous and seductive stimulant, at least lifted him out of the monotonous grooves of his half-careless, half-slovenly, but always self-contented camp life. Heeding the wise caution of his comrades, he took the habit of wearing the ring only at night. Wrapped in his blanket, he stealthily slipped the golden circlet over his little finger, and, as he averred, "slept all the better for it." ”

“ What has happened between you and Cassion?”
“No more than occurred between us yonder in Quebec, when I informed him that I was his wife in name only,” I answered quietly. “Do you blame me now that you understand his purpose in this marriage?”
“But I don’t understand. You have but aroused my suspicion. Tell me all, and if the man is a villain he shall make answer to me.” ”

“ Cassius was desirous to show no less respect and honor to Brutus than Brutus did to him; but Brutus was still beforehand with him, coming for the most part to him, both because he was the elder man, and of a weaker constitution than himself. Men generally reckoned Cassius a very expert soldier, but of a harsh and angry nature, and one that desired to command rather by fear than love ”

“ Now will I question Cassio of Bianca, A housewife that by selling her desires Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature That dotes on Cassio, (as ’tis the strumpet’s plague To beguile many and be beguil’d by one.) He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain From the excess of laughter. ”

“ Mammy Lou called us to breakfast just then, but I could eat only four soft-boiled guinea eggs, wondering what on earth Cassius had said in reply when Jean said genuflections to him.
"Pshaw! The rest isn't worth telling," she said with a weary look, as I pulled her down on the steps right after breakfast and begged her to go on about Cassius. "It ended with a disappointment—like everything else that has a man connected with it! You're a lucky girl to be in love with Lord Byron so long, for dead men break no hearts!" ”

“ DESDEMONA. O most lame and impotent conclusion!—Do not learn of him, Emilia, though he be thy husband.—How say you, Cassio? is he not a most profane and liberal counsellor?
CASSIO. He speaks home, madam. You may relish him more in the soldier than in the scholar.
IAGO. [Aside.] He takes her by the palm. Ay, well said, whisper. With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. Ay, smile upon her, do. I will gyve thee in thine own courtship. You say true, ’tis so, indeed. ”

“ The other thought a moment. “This young man is laboring under too much excitement; I was wrong to speak to him so suddenly. He is not in a state to hear it.”
“My proposal of marriage.”
Cassio did not reply at once. By a terrible effort he controlled himself. When the mist cleared from his eyes he turned and looked at the Direttore, and beheld him as in the past, pale, suffering, and ugly and into his terrible pain there fell one drop of comfort—she would not accept him, he felt sure. ”

“ An intense affection manifested itself through all the four sheets, a certain nameless sweetness, and exquisite suggestion of comfort and resignation.
“Have courage, Cassio, do not despair nor suffer too much; remember that we two are alone in the world, alone to love and believe in one another. The time will pass, and when God reunites us I will know how to recompense thee for the immense sacrifice thou hast made for me. Do not feel humiliated nor cast down ”

“ At daybreak there was hung out in the lines of Brutus and of Cassius the signal for the contest, a purple vest, and they met between the two camps, and Cassius said: “Brutus, I hope we may be victorious and live together happily all the rest of our lives; but as the chief of human events are the most uncertain, and if the battle results contrary to our expectation, it will not be easy for us to see one another, what do you intend with respect to flight or death?” ”

“ The tone of Cassius is further indicated, and with exquisite art, in his soliloquy where, after tempering Brutus to his purpose, and finding how his "honorable metal may be wrought," he gently slurs him for being practicable to flatteries, and then proceeds to ruminate the scheme for working upon his vanity, and thereby drawing him into the conspiracy; thus spilling the significant fact, that his own xlix honor does not stick to practice the arts by which he thinks it is a shame to be seduced. ”