"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.

When Isabel came in the morning Angelo desired she might be admitted alone to his presence; and being there, he said to her, if she would yield to him her virgin honor and transgress even as Juliet had done with Claudio, he would give her her brother's life.

"For," said he, "I love you, Isabel."

"My brother," said Isabel, "did so love Juliet, and yet you tell me he shall die for it."

"But," said Angelo, "Claudio shall not die if you will consent to visit me by stealth at night, even as Juliet left her father's house at night to come to Claudio."

Isabel, in amazement at his words, that he should tempt her to the same fault for which he passed sentence upon her brother, said, "I would do as much for my poor brother as for myself; that is, were I under sentence of death, the impression of keen whips I would wear as rubies, and go to my death as to a bed that longing I had been sick for, ere I would yield myself up to this shame." And then she told him she hoped he only spoke these words to try her virtue.

But he said, "Believe me, on my honor, my words express my purpose."

Isabel, angered to the heart to hear him use the word honor to express such dishonorable purposes, said: "Ha! little honor to be much believed; and most pernicious purpose. I will proclaim thee, Angelo, look for it! Sign me a present pardon for my brother, or I will tell the world aloud what man thou art!"

"Who will believe you, Isabel?" said Angelo; "my unsoiled name, the austereness of my life, my word vouched against yours, will outweigh your accusation. Redeem your brother by yielding to my will, or he shall die to-morrow. As for you, say what you can, my false will overweigh your true story. Answer me to-morrow."

"To whom should I complain? Did I tell this, who would believe me?" said Isabel, as she went toward the dreary prison where her brother was confined. When she arrived there her brother was in pious conversation with the duke, who in his friar's habit had also visited Juliet and brought both these guilty lovers to a proper sense of their fault; and unhappy Juliet with tears and a true remorse confessed that she was more to blame than Claudio, in that she willingly consented to his dishonorable solicitations.

As Isabel entered the room where Claudio was confined, she said, "Peace be here, grace, and good company!"

"Who is there?" said the disguised duke. "Come in; the wish deserves a welcome."

"My business is a word or two with Claudio," said Isabel.

Then the duke left them together, and desired the provost who had the charge of the prisoners to place him where he might overhear their conversation.

"Now, sister, what is the comfort?" said Claudio.

Isabel told him he must prepare for death on the morrow.

"Is there no remedy?" said Claudio.

"Yes, brother," replied Isabel, "there is; but such a one as if you consented to it would strip your honor from you and leave you naked."

"Let me know the point," said Claudio.

"Oh, I do fear you, Claudio!" replied his sister; "and I quake, lest you should wish to live, and more respect the trifling term of six or seven winters added to your life than your perpetual honor! Do you dare to die? The sense of death is most in apprehension, and the poor beetle that we tread upon feels a pang as great as when a giant dies."

"Why do you give me this shame?" said Claudio. "Think you I can fetch a resolution from flowery tenderness? If I must die, I will encounter darkness as a bride and hug it in my arms."

"There spoke my brother," said Isabel; "there my father's grave did utter forth a voice! Yes, you must die; yet would you think it, Claudio, this outward sainted deputy, if I would yield to him my virgin honor, would grant your life? Oh, were it but my life, I would lay it down for your deliverance as frankly as a pin!"

"Thanks, dear Isabel," said Claudio.

"Be ready to die to-morrow," said Isabel.

"Death is a fearful thing," said Claudio.

"And shamed life a hateful," replied his sister.

But the thoughts of death now overcame the constancy of Claudio's temper, and terrors, such as the guilty only at their deaths do know, assailing him, he cried out: "Sweet sister, let me live! The sin you do to save a brother's life, nature dispenses with the deed so far that it becomes a virtue."

"O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch!" said Isabel. "Would you preserve your life by your sister's shame? Oh, fie, fie, fie! I thought, my brother, you had in you such a mind of honor that, had you twenty heads to render up on twenty blocks, you would have yielded them up all before your sister should stoop to such dishonor."

"Nay, hear me, Isabel!" said Claudio.