Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Adaptations; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Stories, plots, etc. -- Juvenile literature
He still believed Imogen false to him; yet the death of her he
had so fondly loved, and by his own orders, too (Pisanio having
written him a letter to say he had obeyed his command, and that
Imogen was dead), sat heavy on his heart, and therefore he
returned to Britain, desiring either to be slain in battle or to
be put to death by Cymbeline for returning home from banishment.
Imogen, before she reached Milford Haven, fell into the hands of
the Roman army, and, her presence and deportment recommending
her, she was made a page to Lucius, the Roman general.
Cymbeline’s army now advanced to meet the enemy, and when they
entered this forest Polydore and Cadwal joined the king’s army.
The young men were eager to engage in acts of valor, though they
little thought they were going to fight for their own royal
father; and old Bellarius went with them to the battle.
He had long since repented of the injury he had done to Cymbeline
in carrying away his sons; and, having been a warrior in his
youth, he gladly joined the army to fight for the king he had so
injured.
And now a great battle commenced between the two armies, and the
Britons would have been defeated, and Cymbeline himself killed,
but for the extraordinary valor of Posthumus and Bellarius and
the two sons of Cymbeline. They rescued the king and saved his
life, and so entirely turned the fortune of the day that the
Britons gained the victory.
When the battle was over, Posthumus, who had not found the death
he sought for, surrendered himself up to one of the officers of
Cymbeline, willing to suffer the death which was to be his
punishment if he returned from banishment.
Imogen and the master she served were taken prisoners and brought
before Cymbeline, as was also her old enemy, Iachimo, who was an
officer in the Roman army. And when these prisoners were before
the king, Posthumus was brought in to receive his sentence of
death; and at this strange juncture of time Bellarius with
Polydore and Cadwal were also brought before Cymbeline, to
receive the rewards due to the great services they had by their
valor done for the king. Pisanio, being one of the king’s
attendants, was likewise present.
Therefore there were now standing in the king’s presence (but
with very different hopes and fears) Posthumus and Imogen, with
her new master the Roman general; the faithful servant Pisanio
and the false friend Iachimo; and likewise the two lost sons of
Cymbeline, with Bellarius, who had stolen them away.
The Roman general was the first who spoke; the rest stood silent
before the king, though there was many a beating heart among
them.
Imogen saw Posthumus, and knew him, though he was in the disguise
of a peasant; but he did not know her in her male attire. And she
knew Iachimo, and she saw a ring on his finger which she
perceived to be her own., but she did not know him as yet to have
been the author of all her troubles; and she stood before her own
father a prisoner of war.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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