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a little amazedness, we were all commanded out of the chamber;

only this, methought I heard the shepherd say he found the child.

AUTOLYCUS.

I would most gladly know the issue of it.

FIRST GENTLEMAN.

I make a broken delivery of the business; but the

changes I perceived in the King and Camillo were very notes of

admiration. They seem'd almost, with staring on one another, to

tear the cases of their eyes; there was speech in their dumbness,

language in their very gesture; they look'd as they had heard of

a world ransom'd, or one destroyed. A notable passion of wonder

appeared in them; but the wisest beholder that knew no more but

seeing could not say if th' importance were joy or sorrow-

but in

the extremity of the one it must needs be.

Enter another GENTLEMAN

Here comes a gentleman that happily knows more. The news,

Rogero?

SECOND GENTLEMAN.

Nothing but bonfires. The oracle is

fulfill'd:

the King's daughter is found. Such a deal of wonder is broken out

within this hour that ballad-makers cannot be able to express it.

Enter another GENTLEMAN

Here comes the Lady Paulina's steward; he can deliver you more.

How goes it now, sir? This news, which is call'd true, is so like

an old tale that the verity of it is in strong suspicion. Has the

King found his heir?

THIRD GENTLEMAN.

Most true, if ever truth were pregnant by

circumstance. That which you hear you'll swear you see, there is

such unity in the proofs. The mantle of Queen Hermione's; her

jewel about the neck of it; the letters of Antigonus found with

it, which they know to be his character; the majesty of the

creature in resemblance of the mother; the affection of nobleness

which nature shows above her breeding; and many other

evidences-

proclaim her with all certainty to be the King's daughter.

Did

you see the meeting of the two kings?

SECOND GENTLEMAN.

No.

THIRD GENTLEMAN.

Then you have lost a sight which was to be seen,

cannot be spoken of. There might you have beheld one joy crown

another, so and in such manner that it seem'd sorrow wept to take

leave of them; for their joy waded in tears. There was casting up

of eyes, holding up of hands, with countenance of such

distraction that they were to be known by garment, not by favour.

Our king, being ready to leap out of himself for joy of his found

daughter, as if that joy were now become a loss, cries 'O, thy

mother, thy mother!' then asks Bohemia forgiveness; then embraces

his son-in-law; then again worries he his daughter with clipping

her. Now he thanks the old shepherd, which stands by like a

weather-bitten conduit of many kings' reigns. I never heard of

such another encounter, which lames report to follow it and

undoes description to do it.

SECOND GENTLEMAN.

What, pray you, became of Antigonus, that carried

hence the child?

THIRD GENTLEMAN.

Like an old tale still, which will have matter to

rehearse, though credit be asleep and not an ear open: he was

torn to pieces with a bear. This avouches the shepherd's son, who has not only his innocence, which seems much, to justify him, but a handkerchief and rings of his that Paulina knows. FIRST GENTLEMAN. What became of his bark and his followers? THIRD GENTLEMAN. Wreck'd the same instant of their master's death, and in the view of the shepherd; so that all the instruments which aided to expose the child were even then lost when it was found. But, O, the noble combat that 'twixt joy and sorrow was fought in Paulina! She had one eye declin'd for the loss of her husband, another elevated that the oracle was fulfill'd. She lifted the Princess from the earth, and so locks her in embracing as if she would pin her to her heart, that she might no more be in danger of losing. FIRST GENTLEMAN. The dignity of this act was worth the audience of kings and princes; for by such was it acted. THIRD GENTLEMAN. One of the prettiest touches of all, and that which angl'd for mine eyes- caught the water, though not the fish- was, when at the relation of the Queen's death, with the manner how