rable lovers might be put
in effect, without giving offence by an unusual severity in his own
person.

Angelo, a man who bore the reputation of a saint in Vienna for his
strict and rigid life, was chosen by the duke as a fit person to
undertake this important charge; and when the duke imparted his design
to lord Escalus, his chief counsellor, Escalus said, "If any man in
Vienna be of worth to undergo such ample grace and honour, it is lord
Angelo." And now the duke departed from Vienna under pretence of
making a journey into Poland, leaving Angelo to act as the lord deputy
in his absence; but the duke's absence was only a feigned one, for he
privately returned to Vienna, habited like a friar, with the intent to
watch unseen the conduct of the saintly-seeming Angelo.

It happened just about the time that Angelo was invested with his new
dignity, that a gentleman, whose name was Claudio, had seduced a young
lady from her parents; and for this offence, by command of the new
lord deputy, Claudio was taken up and committed to prison, and by
virtue of the old law which had been so long neglected, Angelo
sentenced Claudio to be beheaded. Great interest was made for the
pardon of young Claudio, and the good old lord Escalus himself
interceded for him. "Alas," said he, "this gentleman whom I would
save had an honourable father, for whose sake I pray you pardon the
young man's transgression." But Angelo replied, "We must not make a
scare-crow of the law, setting it up to frighten birds of prey, till
custom, finding it harmless, makes it their perch, and not their
terror. Sir, he must die."

Lucio, the friend of Claudio, visited him in the prison, and Claudio
said to him, "I pray you, Lucio, do me this kind service. Go to my
sister Isabel, who this day proposes to enter the convent of Saint
Clare; acquaint her with the danger of my state; implore her that she
make friends with the strict deputy; bid her go herself to Angelo. I
have great hopes in that; for she can discourse with prosperous art,
and well she can persuade; besides, there is a speechless dialect in
youthful sorrow, such as moves men."

Isabel, the sister of Claudio, had, as he said, that day entered upon
her noviciate in the convent, and it was her intent after passing
through her probation as a novice, to take the veil, and she was
enquiring of a nun concerning the rules of the convent, when they
heard the voice of Lucio, who, as he entered that religious house