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186 Kent that he thought the sisters had formed a plot to have their old father murdered, and Kent resolved to hurry on with his helpless charge to the French camp. When he reached there, he found the King of France had gone back into his own country on some sudden business, but he saw Cordelia, who was left in charge of the the army, and told her the sad story of her father’s wrongs. Lear could not be persuaded to enter the camp; but escaped from Kent, and went roving up and down the open country, crowning himself with weeds, and imagining himself again a king. Cordelia sent her trustiest guards to find him; and when at length he was weary and footsore, they found him, and brought him to the queen’s tent, where he fell into a deep slumber.

While he slept Cordelia watched his breathing as if he were a sick child, and wept over his poor white head, so beaten by the storm. By and by he waked. With the deep slumber his madness had gone away, and he recognized his youngest and dearest daughter weeping by his couch. How happy he was to find he had one child who loved him, and how grieved that he had not understood her sooner!

While they were in the first joy of meeting, news came that the good old Gloster had been most cruelly treated for being kind to Lear, and