ance of Camillo, arrived safe in his own kingdom of Bohemia,
where Camillo lived from that time in the king's court, and became the
chief friend and favourite of Polixenes.

The flight of Polixenes enraged the jealous Leontes still more; he went
to the queen's apartment, where the good lady was sitting with her
little son Mamillius, who was just beginning to tell one of his best
stories to amuse his mother, when the king entered, and taking the child
away, sent Hermione to prison.

Mamillius, though but a very young child, loved his mother tenderly; and
when he saw her so dishonoured, and found she was taken from him to be
put into a prison, he took it deeply to heart, and drooped and pined
away by slow degrees, losing his appetite and his sleep, till it was
thought his grief would kill him.

The king, when he had sent his queen to prison, commanded Cleomenes and
Dion, two Sicilian lords, to go to Delphos, there to inquire of the
oracle at the temple of Apollo, if his queen had been unfaithful to him.

When Hermione had been a short time in prison, she was brought to bed of
a daughter; and the poor lady received much comfort from the sight of
her pretty baby, and she said to it, "My poor little prisoner, I am as
innocent as you are."

[Illustration: PAULINA DREW BACK THE CURTAIN WHICH CONCEALED THIS FAMOUS
STATUE]

Hermione had a kind friend in the noble-spirited Paulina, who was the
wife of Antigonus, a Sicilian lord; and when the lady Paulina heard her
royal mistress was brought to bed, she went to the prison where Hermione
was confined; and she said to Emilia, a lady who attended upon Hermione,
"I pray you, Emilia, tell the good queen, if her majesty dare trust me
with her little babe, I will carry it to the king, its father; we do not
know how he may soften at the sight of his innocent child." "Most worthy
madam," replied Emilia, "I will acquaint the queen with your noble
offer; she was wishing to-day that she had any friend who would venture
to present the child to the king." "And tell her," said Paulina, "that I
will speak boldly to Leontes in her defence." "May you be for ever
blessed," said Emilia, "for your kindness to our gracious queen!" Emilia
then went to Hermione, who joyfully gave up her baby to the care of
Paulina, for she had feared that no one would dare venture to present
the child to its father.

Paulina took the new-born infant, and forcing herself into the king's
presence, notwithstanding h