standing as a prisoner before
her subjects to receive their judgment, Cleomenes and Dion entered the
assembly, and presented to the king the answer of the oracle sealed
up; and Leontes commanded the seal to be broken, and the words of
the oracle to be read aloud, and these were the words:--"_Hermione
is innocent, Polixenes blameless, Camillo a true subject, Leontes a
jealous tyrant, and the king shall live without an heir if that which
is lost be not found_." The king would give no credit to the words
of the oracle: he said it was a falsehood invented by the queen's
friends, and he desired the judge to proceed in the trial of the
queen; but while Leontes was speaking, a man entered and told him that
the prince Mamillus, hearing his mother was to be tried for her life,
struck with grief and shame, had suddenly died.

Hermione, upon hearing of the death of this dear affectionate child,
who had lost his life in sorrowing for her misfortune, fainted; and
Leontes, pierced to the heart by the news, began to feel pity for his
unhappy queen, and he ordered Paulina, and the ladies who were her
attendants, to take her away, and use means for her recovery. Paulina
soon returned, and told the king that Hermione was dead.

When Leontes heard that the queen was dead, he repented of his cruelty
to her; and now that he thought his ill usage had broken Hermione's
heart, he believed her innocent; and he now thought the words of the
oracle were true, as he knew "if that which was lost was not found,"
which he concluded was his young daughter, he should be without an
heir, the young prince Mamillus being dead; and he would give his
kingdom now to recover his lost daughter: and Leontes gave himself up
to remorse, and passed many years in mournful thoughts and repentant
grief.

The ship in which Antigonus carried the infant princess out to sea
was driven by a storm upon the coast of Bohemia, the very kingdom of
the good king Polixenes. Here Antigonus landed, and here he left the
little baby.

Antigonus never returned to Sicily to tell Leontes where he had left
his daughter, for as he was going back to the ship, a bear came out
of the woods, and tore him to pieces; a just punishment on him for
obeying the wicked order of Leontes.

The child was dressed in rich clothes and jewels; for Hermione had
made it very fine when she sent it to Leontes, and Antigonus had
pinned a paper to its mantle, with the name of _Perdita_ written
thereon, an