CYMBELINE, ~ 47

trunk opened and a man got out. It was Iachimo. The story about the
jewels was as untrue as the rest of the things he had said. He had only
wished to get into her room to win his wicked wager. He looked about
him and noticed the furniture, and then crept to the side of the bed where
Imogen was asleep and took from her arm the gold bracelet which had
been the parting gift of her husband. Then he crept back to the trunk,
and the next morning sailed for Rome.

When he met Leonatus, he said-—

“T have been to Britain and I have won the wager, for your wife no
longer thinks about you. She stayed talking with me all one night in
her room, which is hung with tapestry and has a carved chimney-piece,
and silver andirons in the shape of two winking Cupids.”

“IT do not believe she has forgotten me; I do not believe she stayed
talking with you in her room. You have heard her room described by
the servants.”

“Ah!” said Iachimo, “but she gave me this bracelet. She took it
from her arm. I see her yet. Her pretty action did outsell her gift, and
yet enriched it too. She gave it me, and said she prized it once.”

“Take the ring,” cried Leonatus, “you have won, and you might
have won my life as well, for I care nothing for it now I know my lady
has forgotten me.”

And mad with anger, he wrote letters to Britain to his old servant,
Pisanio, ordering him to take Imogen to Milford Haven, and to murder her,
because she had forgotten him and given away his gift. At the same time
he wrote to Imogen herself, telling her to go with Pisanio, his old servant,
to Milford Haven, and that he, her husband, would be there to meet her.

Now when Pisanio got this letter he was too good to carry out its
orders, and too wise to let them alone altogether. So he gave Imogen
the letter from her husband, and started with her for Milford Haven.
Before he left, the wicked Queen gave him a drink which, she said, would
be useful in sickness. She hoped he would give it to Imogen, and that
Imogen would die, and then the wicked Queen’s son could be King. For
the Queen thought this drink was a poison, but really and truly it was
only a sleeping-draught.

When Pisanio and Imogen came near to Milford Haven, he told her
what was really in the letter he had had from her husband.