satisfaction at the loss of their master.  He had been their champion, and, as they believed, their friend.  The removal of Caesar brought no accession of power nor increase of liberty to them.  It might have been a gain to ambitious senators, or powerful generals, or high officers of state, by removing a successful rival out of their way, but it seemed to promise little advantage to the community at large, other than the changing of one despotism for another.  Besides, a populace who know that they mast be governed, prefer generally, if they must submit to some control, to yield their submission to some one master spirit whom they can look up to as a great and acknowledged superior.  They had rather have a Caesar than a Senate to command them.

[Sidenote:  Feelings of the populace.]

The higher authorities, however, were, at might have been expected, disposed to acquiesce in the removal of Caesar from his intended throne.  The Senate met, and passed an act of indemnity, to shield the conspirators from all legal liability for the deed they had done.  In order, however, to satisfy the people too, as far as possible, they decreed divine honors to Caesar, confirmed and ratified all that he had done while in the exercise of supreme power, and appointed a time for the funeral, ordering arrangements to be made for a very pompous celebration of it.

[Sidenote:  Caesar’s will.] [Sidenote:  Its provisions.]

A will was soon found, which Caesar, it seems, had made some time before.  Calpurnia’s father proposed that this will should be opened and read in public at Antony’s house; and this was accordingly done.  The provisions of the will were, many of them, of such a character as renewed the feelings of interest and sympathy which the people of Rome had begun to cherish for Caesar’s memory.  His vast estate was divided chiefly among the children of his sister, as he had no children of his own, while the very men who had been most prominent in his assassination were named as trustees and guardians of the property; and one of them, Decimus Brutus, the one who had been so urgent to conduct him to the senate-house, was a second heir.  He had some splendid gardens near the Tiber, which he bequeathed to the citizens of Rome, and a large amount of money also, to be divided among them, sufficient to give every man a considerable sum.

[Sidenote:  Preparations for Caesar’s funeral.] [Sidenote:  The Field of Mars.]

The time for the celebration of the funeral ceremonies was made known by proclamation, and, as the concourse of strangers and citizens of Rome was likely to be so great as to forbid the forming of all into one procession without consuming more than one day, the various classes of the community were invited to come, each in their own way, to the Field of Mars, bringing with them such insignia, offerings, and oblations as they pleased.  The Field of Mars was an immense parade ground, reserved for military reviews, spectacles,