arms, and he said to the little babe,
"Now may your life be mild, for a more blusterous birth had never babe!
May your condition be mild and gentle, for you have had the rudest
welcome that ever prince's child did meet with! May that which follows
be happy, for you have had as chiding a nativity as fire, air, water,
earth, and heaven could make to herald you from the womb! Even at the
first, your loss," meaning in the death of her mother, "is more than all
the joys, which you shall find upon this earth to which you are come a
new visitor, shall be able to recompense."

The storm still continuing to rage furiously, and the sailors having a
superstition that while a dead body remained in the ship the storm
would never cease, they came to Pericles to demand that his queen should
be thrown overboard; and they said, "What courage, sir? God save you!"
"Courage enough," said the sorrowing prince: "I do not fear the storm;
it has done to me its worst; yet for the love of this poor infant, this
fresh new seafarer, I wish the storm was over." "Sir," said the sailors,
"your queen must overboard. The sea works high, the wind is loud, and
the storm will not abate till the ship be cleared of the dead." Though
Pericles knew how weak and unfounded this superstition was, yet he
patiently submitted, saying, "As you think meet. Then she must
overboard, most wretched queen!" And now this unhappy prince went to
take a last view of his dear wife, and as he looked on his Thaisa, he
said, "A terrible childbed hast thou had, my dear; no light, no fire;
the unfriendly elements forget thee utterly, nor have I time to bring
thee hallowed to thy grave, but must cast thee scarcely coffined into
the sea, where for a monument upon thy bones the humming waters must
overwhelm thy corpse, lying with simple shells. O Lychorida, bid Nestor
bring me spices, ink, and paper, my casket and my jewels, and bid
Nicandor bring me the satin coffin. Lay the babe upon the pillow, and go
about this suddenly, Lychorida, while I say a priestly farewell to my
Thaisa."

They brought Pericles a large chest, in which (wrapped in a satin
shroud) he placed his queen, and sweet-smelling spices he strewed over
her, and beside her he placed rich jewels, and a written paper, telling
who she was, and praying if haply any one should find the chest which
contained the body of his wife, they would give her burial: and then
with his own hands he cast the chest into the sea. When the