given him as a sovereign remedy in all disorders.

The queen, who hated Pisanio because he was a friend to Imogen and
Posthumus, gave him this phial, which she supposed contained
poison, she having ordered her physician to give her some poison, to
try its effects (as she said) upon animals; but the physician, knowing
her malicious disposition, would not trust her with real poison, but
gave her a drug which would do no other mischief than causing a
person to sleep with every appearance of death for a few hours. This
mixture, which Pisanio thought a choice cordial, he gave to Imogen,
desiring her, if she found herself ill upon the road, to take it; and so,
with blessings and prayers for her safety and happy deliverance from
her undeserved troubles, he left her.

Providence strangely directed Imogen's steps to the dwelling of her
two brothers, who had been stolen away in their infancy. Bellarius,
who stole them away, was a lord in the court of Cymbeline, and
having been falsely accused to the king of treason, and banished from
the court, in revenge he stole away the two sons of Cymbeline, and
brought them up in a forest, where he lived concealed in a cave. He
stole them through revenge, but he soon loved them as tenderly as if
they had been his own children, educated them carefully, and they
grew up fine youths, their princely spirits leading them to bold and
daring actions; and as they subsisted by hunting, they were active and
hardy, and were always pressing their supposed father to let them seek
their fortune in the wars.

At the cave where these youths dwelt it was Imogen's fortune to
arrive. She had lost her way in a large forest, through which her road
lay to Milford-Haven (from which she meant to embark for Rome);