o another head."

The Provost thought, "This friar speaks with power. I know the Duke's
signet and I know his hand."

He said at length, "A man died in prison this morning, a pirate of the
age of Claudio, with a beard of his color. I will show his head."

The pirate's head was duly shown to Angelo, who was deceived by its
resemblance to Claudio's.

The Duke's return was so popular that the citizens removed the city
gates from their hinges to assist his entry into Vienna. Angelo and
Escalus duly presented themselves, and were profusely praised for their
conduct of affairs in the Duke's absence.

It was, therefore, the more unpleasant for Angelo when Isabella,
passionately angered by his treachery, knelt before the Duke, and cried
for justice.

When her story was told, the Duke cried, "To prison with her for a
slanderer of our right hand! But stay, who persuaded you to come here?"

"Friar Lodowick," said she.

"Who knows him?" inquired the Duke.

"I do, my lord," replied Lucio. "I beat him because he spake against
your Grace."

A friar called Peter here said, "Friar Lodowick is a holy man."

Isabella was removed by an officer, and Mariana came forward. She took
off her veil, and said to Angelo, "This is the face you once swore was
worth looking on."

Bravely he faced her as she put out her hand and said, "This is the hand
which wears the ring you thought to give another."

"I know the woman," said Angelo. "Once there was talk of marriage
between us, but I found her frivolous."

Mariana here burst out that they were affianced by the strongest vows.
Angelo replied by asking the Duke to insist on the production of Friar
Lodowick.

"He shall appear," promised the Duke, and bade Escalus examine the
missing witness thoroughly while he was elsewhere.

Presently the Duke re-appeared in the character of Friar Lodowick, and
accompanied by Isabella and the Provost. He was not so much examined as
abused and threatened by Escalus. Lucio asked him to deny, if he dared,
that he called the Duke a fool and a coward, and had had his nose pulled
for his impudence.

"To prison with him!" shouted Escalus, but as hands were laid upon him,
the Duke pulled off his friar's hood, and was a Duke before them all.

"Now," he said to Angelo, "if you have any impudence that can yet serve
you, work it for all it's worth."

"Immediate sentence and death is all I beg," was the reply.

"Were you affianced to Mariana?" asked the Du