ve so
great a train as he was bringing with him. This messenger arrived at
the same time with Caius, and Caius and he met: and who should it be
but Caius's old enemy the steward, whom he had formerly tripped up by
the heels for his saucy behaviour to Lear. Caius not liking the
fellow's look, and suspecting what he came for, began to revile him,
and challenged him to fight, which the fellow refusing, Caius, in a fit
of honest passion, beat him soundly, as such a mischief-maker and
carrier of wicked messages deserved; which coming to the ears of Regan
and her husband, they ordered Caius to be put in the stocks, though he
was a messenger from the king her father, and in that character
demanded the highest respect: so that the first thing the king saw when
he entered the castle, was his faithful servant Caius sitting in that
disgraceful situation.

This was but a bad omen of the reception which he was to expect; but a
worse followed, when, upon inquiry for his daughter and her husband, he
was told they were weary with travelling all night, and could not see
him; and when lastly, upon his insisting in a positive and angry manner
to see them, they came to greet him, whom should he see in their
company but the hated Goneril, who had come to tell her own story, and
set her sister against the king her father!

This sight much moved the old man, and still more to see Regan take her
by the hand; and he asked Goneril if she was not ashamed to look upon
his old white beard. And Regan advised him to go home again with
Goneril, and live with her peaceably, dismissing half of his
attendants, and to ask her forgiveness; for he was old and wanted
discretion, and must be ruled and led by persons that had more
discretion than himself. And Lear showed how preposterous that would
sound, if he were to go down on his knees, and beg of his own daughter
for food and raiment, and he argued against such an unnatural
dependence, declaring his resolution never to return with her, but to
stay where he was with Regan, he and his hundred knights; for he said
that she had not forgot the half of the kingdom which he had endowed
her with, and that her eyes were not fierce like Goneril's, but mild
and kind. And he said that rather than return to Goneril, with half his
train cut off, he would go over to France, and beg a wretched pension
of the king there, who had married his youngest daughter without a
portion.

But he was mistaken in expecting kinder