Page:Matteo Bandello - twelve stories (IA cu31924102029083).pdf/253

 Then he called to Pietro, who kept watch in a corner of the graveyard, and bade him approach. So Pietro, climbing up, leaned over the mouth of the tomb, when Romeo thus addressed him:

"Listen, Pietro; my wife lies here, and you partly know how much I loved and still do love her. I felt that it was as impossible for me to live without her as for a body to exist without a soul, and so I brought poison with me—snake-water, which, as you know, can kill a man in less than an hour. This of my own free will I have drunk, so as to die here by the side of her whom living I so dearly loved; and though in life I was not allowed to be with her, I shall at least lie beside her in the grave. See, here is the phial, which, if you recollect, we got of the Spoletine in Mantua—the fellow that had those live asps and snakes. Of His pity and infinite goodness may God pardon me, for not to offend against Him have I slain myself, but because without my dear wife I could not live. And if you see these eyes of mine full of tears, not for my lost youth do I weep, but because I grieve for her death—she deserved to live a happier, more tranquil life. Give this letter to my father; Rh