Page:Stories from Old English Poetry-1899.djvu/188

166 Rh touched land at a coast in Bohemia. The night before they reached this shore, Antigonus had seen in his sleep a vision, which warned him of his approaching death, and instructed him to call the child Perdita (meaning lost), and leave her on the nearest shore. Accordingly, he placed the infant in a box with the rich clothing, the gold, and the jewels he had brought with him, and writing on a slip, which he pinned to her garments, the name by which she was to be called, and some of the circumstances of her birth, he landed, and placed her on the shore, which was a very lonely and desolate one.

As soon as he had done this, a terrible storm arose, which obscured all the day. And as Antigonus went over the beach towards his ship, he was seized by a ferocious wild beast, which tore him in pieces. After the storm had abated, an old peasant passing that way found the child in its casket, unharmed by the beasts or the elements, and his son, a simple country youth, also saw the wretched Antigonus, who was just uttering his dying groans. These two took up the child, and carrying her to their cottage, agreed to call her Perdita, and rear her as a shepherdess.

Sixteen years passed on after the death of Hermione, and Leontes, chastened by grief, had become a grave and somewhat melancholy man