Page:Matteo Bandello - twelve stories (IA cu31924102029083).pdf/260

 my lord, you came to die in the arms of her whom most you loved, and who loved you with a matchless love, for, thinking her dead and buried, you of your own free will were for burying yourself with her. Never did you deem that these her tears would fall for you; never did you think to pass over to the other world and not find her there. But soon, love, soon will I come to you, and stay with you for evermore!"

Distressed at her anguish, the friar and Pietro did all they could to comfort her, but in vain; and Fra Lorenzo said at last: "My daughter, what is done cannot be undone. If mourning could bring back Romeo from the grave, one and all we would dissolve ourselves in tears, that so we might succour him; but for this thing no remedy exists. Take heart; be comforted, and hold on to life; if you desire not to return to your home, I will find shelter for you in a nunnery, where, in the service of God, you can pray for the soul of your Romeo." However, she would on no account listen to him; but, being resolved to die, she checked within her all her vital forces, and, embracing Romeo once more, straightway expired.