ll, only the messenger was delayed, and could not go.

But ill news travels fast. Romeo's servant who knew the secret of the
marriage, but not of Juliet's pretended death, heard of her funeral, and
hurried to Mantua to tell Romeo how his young wife was dead and lying in
the grave.

"Is it so?" cried Romeo, heart-broken. "Then I will lie by Juliet's side
to-night."

And he bought himself a poison, and went straight back to Verona. He
hastened to the tomb where Juliet was lying. It was not a grave, but a
vault. He broke open the door, and was just going down the stone steps
that led to the vault where all the dead Capulets lay, when he heard a
voice behind him calling on him to stop.

It was the Count Paris, who was to have married Juliet that very day.

"How dare you come here and disturb the dead bodies of the Capulets, you
vile Montagu?" cried Paris.

Poor Romeo, half mad with sorrow, yet tried to answer gently.

"You were told," said Paris, "that if you returned to Verona you must
die."

"I must indeed," said Romeo. "I came here for nothing else. Good, gentle
youth--leave me! Oh, go--before I do you any harm! I love you better
than myself--go--leave me here--"

Then Paris said, "I defy you, and I arrest you as a felon," and Romeo,
in his anger and despair, drew his sword. They fought, and Paris was
killed.

As Romeo's sword pierced him, Paris cried--

"Oh, I am slain! If thou be merciful, open the tomb, and lay me with
Juliet!"

And Romeo said, "In faith I will."

And he carried the dead man into the tomb and laid him by the dear
Juliet's side. Then he kneeled by Juliet and spoke to her, and held
her in his arms, and kissed her cold lips, believing that she was dead,
while all the while she was coming nearer and nearer to the time of her
awakening. Then he drank the poison, and died beside his sweetheart and
wife.

Now came Friar Laurence when it was too late, and saw all that had
happened--and then poor Juliet woke out of her sleep to find her husband
and her friend both dead beside her.

The noise of the fight had brought other folks to the place too, and
Friar Laurence, hearing them, ran away, and Juliet was left alone. She
saw the cup that had held the poison, and knew how all had happened, and
since no poison was left for her, she drew her Romeo's dagger and thrust
it through her heart--and so, falling with her head on her Romeo's
breast, she died. And here ends the story of these faithful and