_Hor._ [_Reads_] 'Horatio, when thou shalt have over-looked[1825] this, give these fellows some means to the king: they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chase. 15 Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour: and in the grapple I boarded them: on the instant[1826] they got clear of our ship; so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy: but they knew what they did; I am to do a good turn[1827] 20 for them. Let the king have the letters I have sent; and repair thou to me with as much speed as thou wouldest[1828] fly death. I have words to speak in thine ear will make[1829] thee dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore of[1830] the matter. These good fellows will bring thee where I[1830] 25 am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course for England: of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell.[1831] 'He that thou knowest thine, HAMLET.'[1832] Come, I will make you way for these your letters;[1833] And do't the speedier, that you may direct me 30 To him from whom you brought them. [_Exeunt._[1834] SCENE VII. _Another room in the castle._[1835] _Enter_ KING _and_ LAERTES. _King._ Now must your conscience my acquittance seal, And you must put me in your heart for friend, Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear, That he which hath your noble father slain[1836] Pursued my life. _Laer._ It well appears: but tell me 5 Why you proceeded not against these feats,[1837] So crimeful and so capital in nature,[1838] As by your safety, wisdom, all things else,[1839] You mainly were stirr'd up. _King._ O, for two special reasons,[1840] Which may to you perhaps seem much unsinew'd,[1841] 10 But yet to me they're strong. The queen his mother[1842] Lives almost by his looks; and for myself-- My virtue or my plague, be it either which--[1843] She's so conjunctive to my life and soul,[1844] That, as the star moves not but in his sphere, 15 I could not but by her. The other motive, Why to a public count I might not go, Is the great love the general gender bear him; Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone,[1845] 20 Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows,[1846] Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind,[1847] Would have reverted to my bow again[1848] And not where I had aim'd them.[1849]