the king in defence of Hermione, and she
reproached him severely for his inhumanity, and implored him to have
mercy on his innocent wife and child. But Paulina's spirited
remonstrances only aggravated Leontes' displeasure, and he ordered her
husband Antigonus to take her from his presence.

When Paulina went away, she left the little baby at its father's feet,
thinking when he was alone with it, he would look upon it, and have
pity on its helpless innocence.

The good Paulina was mistaken: for no sooner was she gone than the
merciless father ordered Antigonus, Paulina's husband, to take the
child, and carry it out to sea, and leave it upon some desert shore to
perish.

Antigonus, unlike the good Camillo, too well obeyed the orders of
Leontes; for he immediately carried the child on ship-board, and put
out to sea, intending to leave it on the first desert coast he could
find.

So firmly was the king persuaded of the guilt of Hermione, that he
would not wait for the return of Cleomenes and Dion, whom he had sent
to consult the oracle of Apollo at Delphos; but before the queen was
recovered from her lying-in, and from her grief for the loss of her
precious baby, he had her brought to a public trial before all the
lords and nobles of his court. And when all the great lords, the
judges, and all the nobility of the land were assembled together to try
Hermione, and that unhappy queen was standing as a prisoner before her
subjects to receive their judgement Cleomenes and Dion entered the
assembly, and presented to the king the answer of the oracle, sealed
up; and Leontes commanded the seal to be broken, and the words of the
oracle to be read aloud, and these were the words: 'Hermione is
innocent, Polixenes blameless,--Camillo a true subject, Leontes a
jealous tyrant, and the king shall live without an heir if that which
is lost be not found.' The king would give no credit to the words of
the oracle: he said it was a falsehood invented by the queen's friends,
and he desired the judge to proceed in the trial of the queen; but
while Leontes was speaking, a man entered and told him that the prince
Mamillius, hearing his mother was to be tried for her life, struck with
grief and shame, had suddenly died.

Hermione, upon hearing of the death of this dear affectionate child,
who had lost his life in sorrowing for her misfortune, fainted; and
Leontes, pierced to the heart by the news, began to feel pity for his
unhappy queen, an