the prince accompanied Claudio to the church,
where the good friar, and Leonato and his niece, were already
assembled, to celebrate a second nuptial: and Leonato presented to
Claudio his promised bride; and she wore a mask, that Claudio might
not discover her face. And Claudio said to the lady in the mask,
"Give me your hand, before this holy friar; I am your husband, if you
will marry me." "And when I lived, I was your other wife," said this
unknown lady; and, taking off her mask, she proved to be no niece (as
was pretended), but Leonato's very daughter, the lady Hero herself. We
may be sure that this proved a most agreeable surprise to Claudio, who
thought her dead, so that he could scarcely for joy believe his eyes:
and the prince, who was equally amazed at what he saw, exclaimed
"Is not this Hero, Hero that was dead?" Leonato replied, "She died,
my lord, but while her slander lived." The friar promised them an
explanation of this seeming miracle, after the ceremony was ended; and
was proceeding to marry them, when he was interrupted by Benedick, who
desired to be married at the same time to Beatrice. Beatrice making
some demur to this match, and Benedick challenging her with her love
for him, which he had learned from Hero, a pleasant explanation took
place; and they found they had both been tricked into a belief of
love, which had never existed, and had become lovers in truth by the
power of a false jest: but the affection, which a merry invention had
cheated them into, was grown too powerful to be shaken by a serious
explanation; and since Benedick proposed to marry, he was resolved to
think nothing to the purpose that the world could say against it; and
he merrily kept up the jest, and swore to Beatrice, that he took her
but for pity, and because he heard she was dying of love for him; and
Beatrice protested, that she yielded but upon great persuasion, and
partly to save his life, for she heard he was in a consumption. So
these two mad wits were reconciled, and made a match of it, after
Claudio and Hero were married; and to complete the history, Don John,
the contriver of the villany, was taken in his flight, and brought
back to Messina; and a brave punishment it was to this gloomy,
discontented man, to see the joy and feastings which, by the
disappointment of his plots, took place at the palace in Messina.

AS YOU LIKE IT

(_By Mary Lamb_)

During the time that France was divided into provinces (or d