Part 39

“Woe is me! for what?” said Isabel.

Lucio then told her Claudio was imprisoned for seducing a young maiden. “Ah,” said she, “I fear it is my cousin Juliet.”

Juliet and Isabel were not related, but they called each other cousin in remembrance of their school-days’ friendship; and as Isabel knew that Juliet loved Claudio, she feared she had been led by her affection for him into this transgression.

“She it is,” replied Lucio.

“Why, then, let my brother marry Juliet,” said Isabel.

Lucio replied that Claudio would gladly marry Juliet, but that the lord deputy had sentenced him to die for his offense. “Unless,” said he, “you have the grace by your fair prayer to soften Angelo, and that is my business between you and your poor brother.”

“Alas!” said Isabel, “what poor ability is there in me to do him good? I doubt I have no power to move Angelo.”

“Our doubts are traitors,” said Lucio, “and make us lose the good we might often win, by fearing to attempt it. Go to Lord Angelo! When maidens sue and kneel and weep men give like gods.”

“I will see what I can do said Isabel. “I will but stay to give the prioress notice of the affair, and then I will go to Angelo. Commend me to my brother. Soon at night I will send him word of my success.”

Isabel hastened to the palace and threw herself on her knees before Angelo, saying, “I am a woeful suitor to your Honor, if it will please your Honor to hear me.”

“Well, what is your suit?” said Angelo.

She then made her petition in the most moving terms for her brother’s life.

But Angelo said, “Maiden, there is no remedy; your brother is sentenced, and he must die.”

“Oh, just but severe law!” said Isabel. “I had a brother then. Heaven keep your Honor!” and she was about to depart.

But Lucio, who had accompanied her, said: “Give it not over so; return to him again, entreat him, kneel down before him, hang upon his gown. You are too cold; if you should need a pin, you could not with a more tame tongue desire it.”

Then again Isabel on her knees implored for mercy.

“He is sentenced,” said Angelo. “It is too late.”

“Too late!” said Isabel. “Why, no! I that do speak a word may call it back again. Believe this, my lord, no ceremony that to great ones belongs, not the king’s crown, nor the deputed sword, the marshal’s truncheon, nor the judge’s robe, becomes them with one half so good a grace as mercy does.”

“Pray you begone,” said Angelo.

But still Isabel entreated; and she said: “If my brother had been as you, and you as he, you might have slipped like him, but he, like you, would not have been so stern. I would to Heaven I had your power and you were Isabel. Should it then be thus? No, I would tell you what it were to be a judge, and what a prisoner.”

“Be content, fair maid!” said Angelo: “it is the law, not I, condemns your brother. Were he my kinsman, my brother, or my son, it should be thus with him. He must die to-morrow.”

“To-morrow?” said Isabel. “Oh, that is sudden! Spare him, spare him. He is not prepared for death. Even for our kitchens we kill the fowl in season; shall we serve Heaven with less respect than we minister to our gross selves? Good, good, my lord, bethink you, none have died for my brother’s offense, though many have committed it. So you would be the first that gives this sentence and he the first that suffers it. Go to your own bosom, my lord; knock there, and ask your heart what it does know that is like my brother’s fault; if it confess a natural guiltiness such as his is, let it not sound a thought against my brother’s life!”

Her last words more moved Angelo than all she had before said, for the beauty of Isabel had raised a guilty passion in his heart and he began to form thoughts of dishonorable love, such as Claudio’s crime had been, and the conflict in his mind made him to turn away from Isabel; but she called him back, saying: “Gentle my lord, turn back. Hark, how I will bribe you. Good my lord, turn back!”

“How! bribe me?” said Angelo, astonished that she should think of offering him a bribe.

“Aye,” said Isabel, “with such gifts that Heaven itself shall share with you; not with golden treasures, or those glittering stones whose price is either rich or poor as fancy values them, but with true prayers that shall be up to Heaven before sunrise--prayers from preserved souls, from fasting maids whose minds are dedicated to nothing temporal.”

“Well, come to me to-morrow,” said Angelo.

And for this short respite of her brother’s life, and for this permission that she might be heard again, she left him with the joyful hope that she should at last prevail over his stern nature. And as she went away she said: “Heaven keep your Honor safe! Heaven save your Honor!” Which, when Angelo heard, he said within his heart, “Amen, I would be saved from thee and from thy virtues.” And then, affrighted at his own evil thoughts, he said: “What is this? What is this? Do I love her, that I desire to hear her speak again and feast upon her eyes? What is it I dream on? The cunning enemy of mankind, to catch a saint, with saints does bait the hook. Never could an immodest woman once stir my temper, but this virtuous woman subdues me quite. Even till now, when men were fond, I smiled and wondered at them.”

In the guilty conflict in his mind Angelo suffered more that night than the prisoner he had so severely sentenced; for in the prison Claudio was visited by the good duke, who, in his friar’s habit, taught the young man the way to heaven, preaching to him the words of penitence and peace. But Angelo felt all the pangs of irresolute guilt, now wishing to seduce Isabel from the paths of innocence and honor, and now suffering remorse and horror for a crime as yet but intentional. But in the end his evil thoughts prevailed; and he who had so lately started at the offer of a bribe resolved to tempt this maiden with so high a bribe as she might not be able to resist, even with the precious gift of her dear brother’s life.