he might tread softly and not awake her; so did true
gentleness spring up in the minds of these princely foresters; but he
soon discovered that she could not be awakened by any noise, and
concluded her to be dead, and Polydore lamented over her with dear and
brotherly regret, as if they had never from their infancy been parted.

Bellarius also proposed to carry her out into the forest, and there
celebrate her funeral with songs and solemn dirges, as was then the
custom.

Imogen's two brothers then carried her to a shady covert, and there
laying her gently on the grass, they sang repose to her departed
spirit, and covering her over with leaves and flowers, Polydore said:
'While summer lasts and I live here, Fidele, I will daily strew thy
grave. The pale primrose, that flower most like thy face; the
blue-bell, like thy clear veins; and the leaf of eglantine, which is
not sweeter than was thy breath; all these will I strew over thee. Yea,
and the furred moss in winter, when there are no flowers to cover thy
sweet corset.'

When they had finished her funeral obsequies they departed very
sorrowful.

Imogen had not been long left alone, when, the effect of the sleepy
drug going off, she awaked, and easily shaking off the slight covering
of leaves and flowers they had thrown over her, she arose, and
imagining she had been dreaming, she said: 'I thought I was a
cave-keeper, and cook to honest creatures; how came I here covered with
flowers?' Not being able to find her way back to the cave, and seeing
nothing of her new companions, she concluded it was certainly all a
dream; and once more Imogen set out on her weary pilgrimage, hoping at
last she should find her way to Milford-Haven, and thence get a passage
in some ship bound for Italy; for all her thoughts were still with her
husband Posthumus, whom she intended to seek in the disguise of a page.

But great events were happening at this time, of which Imogen knew
nothing; for a war had suddenly broken out between the Roman emperor
Augustus Caesar and Cymbeline, the king of Britain; and a Roman army
had landed to invade Britain, and was advanced into the very forest
over which Imogen was journeying. With this army came Posthumus.

Though Posthumus came over to Britain with the Roman army, he did not
mean to fight on their side against his own countrymen, but intended to
join the army of Britain, and fight in the cause of his king who had
banished him.

He still believ