Page:Matteo Bandello - twelve stories (IA cu31924102029083).pdf/256

 grief? Though, dearest consort, I rejoice unspeakably that you are come back to life, incomparable sorrow covers me as I think that all too soon I may no longer see you, nor hear your voice, nor stay near you to enjoy your sweet company. But the gladness at your return to life far exceeds the sorrow at my own approaching death, and I pray the Lord God to give you those years of my hapless youth which now He takes away from me, letting you live long and have a far happier fate than mine, whose life, as I feel, now touches its close."

Then Giulietta replied: "What is this, love, that you say? Do you come from Mantua to comfort me with such news? What is it that ails you?" Then Romeo told her how he had drunk the poison, and she exclaimed: "Alas! and woe is me! What awful thing is this you tell me? Fra Lorenzo never wrote to you of the plan which he and I had made? He promised me that he would inform you of it all by letter!" And in her anguish the despairing damsel wept and shrieked, being well-nigh beside herself, as she told Romeo all that had befallen, and all that she and the friar had arranged.