If the event o' the journey
Prove as successful to the queen,--O, be't so!--
As it hath been to us rare, pleasant, speedy,
The time is worth the use on't.

CLEOMENES.
Great Apollo
Turn all to th' best! These proclamations,
So forcing faults upon Hermione,
I little like.

DION.
The violent carriage of it
Will clear or end the business: when the oracle,--
Thus by Apollo's great divine seal'd up,--
Shall the contents discover, something rare
Even then will rush to knowledge.--Go,--fresh horses;--
And gracious be the issue!

[Exeunt.]

SCENE II. The same. A Court of Justice

[Enter LEONTES, Lords, and Officers appear, properly seated.]

LEONTES.
This sessions,--to our great grief we pronounce,--
Even pushes 'gainst our heart;--the party tried,
The daughter of a king, our wife; and one
Of us too much belov'd. Let us be clear'd
Of being tyrannous, since we so openly
Proceed in justice; which shall have due course,
Even to the guilt or the purgation.--
Produce the prisoner.

OFFICER.
It is his highness' pleasure that the queen
Appear in person here in court.--

CRIER.
Silence!

[HERMIONE, is brought in guarded; PAULINA, and Ladies attending.]

LEONTES.
Read the indictment.

OFFICER.
[Reads.] 'Hermione, queen to the worthy Leontes, king of
Sicilia, thou art here accused and arraigned of high treason,
in committing adultery with Polixenes, king of Bohemia; and
conspiring with Camillo to take away the life of our sovereign
lord the king, thy royal husband: the pretence whereof being by
circumstances partly laid open, thou, Hermione, contrary to the
faith and allegiance of true subject, didst counsel and aid them,
for their better safety, to fly away by night.'

HERMIONE.
Since what I am to say must be but that
Which contradicts my accusation, and
The testimony on my part no other
But what comes from myself, it shall scarce boot me
To say 'Not guilty': mine integrity,
Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it,
Be so receiv'd. But thus,--if powers divine
Behold our human actions,--as they do,--
I doubt not, then, but innocence shall make
False accusation blush, and tyranny
Tremble at patience.--You, my lord, best know,--
Who least will seem to do so,--my past life
Hath been as continent, as chaste, as true,
As I am now unhappy: which is more
Than history can pattern, though devis'd
And play