him to it with the alternative of preferment or death.  The minister, after trying his best to dissuade the King, at last gave his consent, in order to gain time, then went to Egistus, and told him the secret, and fled with him to Sicilia.  Full of rage at being thus baffled, Pandosto then let loose his fury against the Queen, ordering her forthwith into close prison.  He then had his suspicion proclaimed as a certain truth; and though her character went far to discredit the charge, yet the sudden flight of Egistus caused it to be believed.  And he would fain have made war on Egistus, but that the latter not only was of great strength and prowess, but had many kings in his alliance, his wife being daughter to the Emperor of Russia.

Meanwhile the Queen in prison gave birth to a daughter, which put the King in a greater rage than ever, insomuch that he ordered both the mother and the babe to be burnt alive.  Against this cruel sentence his nobles stoutly remonstrated; but the most they could gain was, that he should spare the child’s life; his next device being to put her in a boat and leave her to the mercy of the winds and waves.  At the hearing of this hard doom, the Queen fell down in a trance, so that all thought her dead; and on coming to herself she at last gave up the babe, saying, “Let me kiss thy lips, sweet infant, and wet thy tender cheeks with my tears, and put this chain about thy little neck, that if fortune save thee, it may help to succour thee.”

When the day of trial came, the Queen, standing as a prisoner at the bar, and seeing that nothing but her death would satisfy the King, “waxed bold, and desired that she might have law and justice,” and that her accusers might be brought before her face.  The King replied that their word was enough, the flight of Egistus confirming what they had said; and that it was her part “to be impudent in forswearing the fact, since she had passed all shame in committing the fault.”  At the same time he threatened her with a cruel death; which she met by telling him that her life had ever been such as no spot of suspicion could stain, and that, if she had borne a friendly countenance towards Egistus, it was only as he was her husband’s friend:  “therefore, if she were condemned without further proof, it was rigour, and not law.”  The judges said she spoke reason, and begged that her accusers might be openly examined and sworn; whereupon the King went to browbeating them, the very demon of tyranny having got possession of him.  The Queen then told him that, if his fury might stand for law, it was of no use for the jury to give their verdict; and therefore she begged him to send six of his noblemen to “the Isle of Delphos,” to inquire of Apollo whether she were guilty or not.  This request he could not refuse.  The messengers using all haste soon came back with the sealed answer of Apollo.  The court being now assembled again, the scroll was opened and read in their presence, its contents being much