"Good morrow to you both," said Lear.

"Hail to

Regan falsely said,

Poor Lear, whose

your grace," responded Cornwall, and immediately, Kent was taken out of the stocks. "I am glad to see your highness." heart was very full, touched by this assurance, hollow as it was, said, "Regan, I think you are; I know what reason I have to think so. Beloved Regan, thy sister's naught, O, Regan! She hath tied sharped-toothed unkindness like a vulture here," pointing to his heart. But Regan's pretended affection soon betrayed its hollowness. She said, "I cannot think my sister in the least would fail her obligation. If sir, perchance, she have restrained the riots of your followers, 'tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end, as clears her from all blame." Then she reminded her father that he was old, and that he should allow himself to be guided by some one wiser than himself; said he had wronged her sister, and advised him to confess to Goneril that he had done so. The king could bear

no more.

"Ask her forgiveness. Say, 'Dear daughter,

I confess that I am old; age is unnecessary; on my knees I beg that you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food."" "Good sir," replied Regan, "no more; these are unsightly tricks; return you to my sister." "Never, Regan; she hath abated me of half my train; looked black upon me; struck me with her tongue, most serpent-like, upon the very heart." Suddenly trumpets were heard. Regan knew it was her sister, for she had said in her letters that she was coming. Lear asked who had put his servant into the stocks, and said he hoped that Regan did not even know of it. While he was speaking, he was terror-stricken to see Goneril come in. He asked her if she was not ashamed to look upon his white beard, and said, "O, Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand ?" "Why not by the hand, sir?" "How have I offended? all's not offence that dotage terms so," said Goneril. The king, scarcely able to contain himself, asked again, "How came my man in the stocks?" "I set him there," said Cornwall.

But

"You! Did you?" cried Lear. It was almost more than he could bear. Regan again proposed that he should return with her sister for a month, after dismissing fifty of his followers; that, after that, he should come to her; as, for the present, she had not made provision for his entertainment. And so, these two wicked and ungrateful daughters tossed the poor king to and fro, as children might a catch-ball. Lear said that sooner than return to Goneril, he would live out of doors, and be a comrade with the wolf and owl. He prayed his daughter not to make him mad. Goneril said that he might do without any followers at all; that the attendants in her house or Regan's might suffice for him; and Regan told him that if he would come to her, five-and-twenty of his knights must suffice, for she would not have one more. "I gave you all," said the unhappy king; and, not knowing what to do, he said that as Goneril still allowed him fifty followers, and Regan only five-and-twenty, he would return to Goneril; but she, not wishing to have

him, repeated that he had no need for any followers. "You think I'll weep," said Lear. "No, I'll not weep. My heart shall break into a hundred thousand flaws ere I weep. O fool! I shall go mad." Then Lear, Gloster, Kent, and the fool withdrew. A storm was coming on, and Cornwall proposed to enter the palace. Regan, fearing that her father might be admitted for shelter, said, hastily, "This house is little. The old man and his people cannot be well bestowed." Goneril said it was his own fault, and that he must needs taste his folly. The Duke of Gloster, who even in his own palace had little power when the Dukes of Cornwall and Albany were there, was much grieved to see his old master, the king, so shamefully treated; for who, with any heart or right feeling, could help it? He entered, saying, "The king is in high rage." "Whither is he going?" asked Cornwall. "He calls to horse," said Gloster; "but I know not whither." Goneril begged her lord by no means to entreat him to stay. "Alack," said Gloster, "the

night comes on, and the bleak winds do sorely ruffle; for many miles about there's scarce a bush ;" but this did not move them to compassion. Regan and Cornwall both bid him shut up his doors. Cornwall remarked that it was a wild night, and said, "My Regan counsels well; come out of the storm." How could they sleep, when their poor old father was wandering about in the darkness and storm upon a barren heath.

CHAPTER VII.

THERE was thunder and lightning. It was an awful night. The king and his friends were scattered and groping in the darkness. Kent and a Kent and a gentleman met each other. Kent said, “I know you. Where's the king?" "Contending with the fretful element." "But who is with him?" "None but the fool." "Sir," said Kent, "I know you." Then he told him, in confidence, that there was a division between

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