earl of his eyes, with the most pitiful and barbarous cruelty; and, all the time he was suffering, Cornwall and Regan taunted him with bitter words. One of the servants, touched with compassion, spoke, "Hold your hand, my lord. I have served you ever since you were a child, but better service have I never done you than now to bid you hold." Cornwall, infuriated, drew his sword and ran at him. The servant was obliged to fight with him in self-defence. Cornwall was wounded; and Regan, in a fury, snatched a sword from another attendant, and basely stabbed the faithful servant in the back; so the poor fellow's reward for venturing to speak the truth, and taking the side of the oppressed, was to be killed. Gloster, in the agony of his pain, called for his son Edmund; but Regan made him still more wretched by telling him that it was Edmund who had betrayed him. Gloster said, “O, my follies! Then Edgar was abused." He prayed for forgiveness, and asked that Edgar might prosper. "Thrust him out of the gates," said Regan, "and let him find his

way to Dover." Cornwall seconded her cruel order, and then, as his wound bled very much, he and Regan left the room. The servants were full of compassion for Gloster, and one of them went for something to apply to his poor wounded face.

CHAPTER X.

EDGAR, still disguised as poor Tom, was on the heath, when he saw his injured and honoured father approaching, led by an old man ; "But who comes here?" he said to himself. "My father, poorly led ?" The good old man was talking to the Earl of Gloster. "O, my good lord, I have been your tenant and your father's tenant these four-score years. Gloster entreated him to leave him, lest, by befriending him, he should bring mischief upon himself. "Alas! sir, you cannot see your way." "I have no way," said Gloster, "and therefore want no eyes. Ah, dear son Edgar, might I but live to see thee in my touch, I'd

say

I had eyes again."

"How now," said the old man, "who's there? 'Tis poor mad Tom. Fellow where goest thou?" "Is it a beggar man ?” asked the earl. “Madman and beggar too," the old man answered. Gloster said he must have some sense, or he would not beg. Then he desired the old man to leave him; but said, that if for his sake he liked to join him again a mile or two off on the way to Dover, he might do it, for ancient love, and bring some covering for this naked soul, whom I'll entreat to lead me." The old man remarked that Tom was crazy; but said he would bring him the best apparel that he had. Then Gloster bid poor Tom come to him. Edgar was so deeply affected at the sight of his poor father's bleeding face, that he found it hard work to keep up his disguise. "Do you know the way to Dover ?" Edgar, as poor Tom, answered that he knew both stile and gate, horse-way and foot-path. Gloster gave him his purse, and said that his wretchedness made poor Tom happier than he would otherwise

Then

have been, as it caused him to give him money. "Dost thou know Dover," he asked. "Ay master."

"There is a cliff," said Gloster. Bring me to the very brim of it." "Give me thy arm, poor Tom shall lead thee." After they had walked some distance, Gloster said, "When shall we come to the top of that same hill?" "You climb it now." "Methinks

"Horrible

the ground is even," said the blind earl. steep; hark, do you hear the sea?" "No, truly," said Gloster. Edgar, or Tom, told him that his other senses must have suffered as well as his eyes. Edgar for a moment had forgotten to speak like Tom, and the duke, struck with the change, said he thought he spoke better. Edgar assured him he was mistaken, for he was changed in nothing but his garments. Gloster still said he thought he spoke better. "Come on, sir, here's the place. Stand still. How fearful and dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low! The crows and choughs that wing the midway air show scarce so gross as beetles. Half way down hangs one that

gathers samphire; dreadful trade. Methinks he seems no bigger than his head. The fishermen that walk upon the beach appear like mice. The murmuring surge that on the unnumbered pebbles chafes cannot be heard so high. I'll look no more, lest my brain turn.” "Set me where you stand," said Gloster. "Give me your hand," Edgar answered. "For all beneath the moon, would I not leap." "Let go my hand," said Gloster. "Here, friend, is another purse; in it is a jewel well worth a poor man taking. Go further off. Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going." Edgar seemed to go. The earl leaped and fell. In a short time, Edgar pretended to be a stranger at the foot of the cliff, from which Gloster thought he had fallen. He asked the earl who he was, seemed astonished that he was alive, and said he must have been either gossamer or feathers; else he would have been shivered like an egg. "But have I fallen, or no?" asked Gloster. Edgar said, "From the dread summit of this chalky bourn, look up a height; the shrill