Page:Matteo Bandello - twelve stories (IA cu31924102029083).pdf/251

 yard, for I would fain look once more upon my hapless wife as she lies there, dead. Then, all unrecognised, I will quit Verona betimes, you following me a little way after; and we will both return hither."

Accordingly, soon after this Pietro started, and Romeo wrote a letter to his father, asking pardon for marrying without his permission, setting forth in full the story of his love and of his marriage. He also tenderly besought him to have a solemn service for the dead said at Giulietta's grave, as if it were for his daughter-in-law, and make this service a perpetual one by endowing it with the revenues which he (Romeo) possessed, as certain property had come to him from an aunt who, dying, had made him her heir. For Pietro also Romeo made such provision that he could live in ease without depending upon others for support. These two things he most urgently requested of his father, declaring it to be his last wish, and, as his aunt had died a few days before, he begged his father to give the first-fruits of her property to the poor. Sealing this letter, he put it in his bosom, and, taking a phial full of deadly poison, he dressed himself like a German and mounted