Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Adaptations; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Stories, plots, etc. -- Juvenile literature
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 valour, 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 valour 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 valour 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.
Pisanio knew Imogen, for it was he who had dressed her in the garb of a
boy. "It is my mistress," thought he; "since she is living, let the time
run on to good or bad." Bellarius knew her too, and softly said to
Cadwal, "Is not this boy revived from death?"--"One sand," replied
Cadwal, "does not more resemble another than that sweet rosy lad is like
the dead Fidele."--"The same dead thing alive," said Polydore. "Peace,
peace," said Bellarius; "if it were he, I am sure he would have spoken
to us."--"But we saw him dead," again whispered Polydore. "Be silent,"
replied Bellarius.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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