Dining on one occasion at a table, where the servants had inadvertently,
for salad-oil, furnished some sort of coarse lamp-oil, Caesar would not
allow the rest of the company to point out the mistake to their host, for
fear of shocking him too much by exposing the mistake. At another time,
whilst halting at a little _cabaret_, when one of his retinue was
suddenly taken ill, Caesar resigned to his use the sole bed which the house
afforded. Incidents, as trifling as these, express the urbanity of Caesar's
nature; and, hence, one is the more surprised to find the alienation of
the senate charged, in no trifling degree, upon a failure in point of
courtesy. Caesar neglected to rise from his seat, on their approaching him
in a body with an address of congratulation. It is said, and we can
believe it, that he gave deeper offence by this one defect in a matter of
ceremonial observance, than by all his substantial attacks upon their
privileges. What we find it difficult to believe, however, is not that
result from the offence, but the possibility of the offence itself, from
one so little arrogant as Caesar, and so entirely a man of the world.
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