The tree no longer exists, but
neither does Caesar, or the thirty thousand enemies whom he slew there,
or the sons of Pompeii who commanded them. These were so near beating
Casar at first that he ran among his soldiers "asking them whether they
were not ashamed to deliver him into the hands of boys." One of the boys
escaped, but two days after the fight the head of the elder was brought
to Caesar, who was not liked for the triumph he made himself after the
event in Rome, where it was thought out of taste to rejoice over the
calamity of his fellow-countrymen as if they had been foreign foes; the
Romans do not seem to have minded his putting twenty-eight thousand
Cordovese to death for their Pompeian politics. If I had remembered all
this from my Plutarch, I should certainly have gone to see the place
where Caesar planted that plane tree. Perhaps some kind soul will go to
see it for me. I myself do not expect to return to Cordova.
IX
FIRST DAYS IN SEVILLE
Cordova seemed to cheer up as much as we at our going. We had
undoubtedly had the better night's sleep; as often as we woke we found
Cordova awake, walking and talking, and coughing more than the night
before, probably from fresh colds taken in the rain.
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