id. He, Hamlet, was the last man on the globe with whom she should have
had any tender affiliation. If they had wed, they would have caught
each other's despondency, and died, like a pair of sick ravens, within a
fortnight. What had become of her? Had she gone into a nunnery? He would
make her abbess, if he ever returned to Elsinore.

After a month or two of courtship, there being no earthly reason to
prolong it, Hamlet and Juliet were privately married in the Franciscan
Chapel, Friar Laurence officiating; but there was a grand banquet
that night at the Capulets', to which all Verona went. At Hamlet's
intercession, the Montagues were courteously asked to this festival.
To the amazement of every one the Montagues accepted the invitation and
came, and were treated royally, and the long, lamentable feud--it would
have sorely puzzled either house to explain what it was all about--was
at an end. The adherents of the Capulets and the Montagues were
forbidden on the spot to bite any more thumbs at each other.

"It will detract from the general gayety of the town," Mercutio
remarked. "Signior Tybalt, my friend, I shall never have the pleasure of
running you through the diaphragm; a cup of wine with you!"

The guests were still at supper in the great pavilion erected in
the garden, which was as light as day with the glare of innumerable
flambeaux set among the shrubbery. Hamlet and Juliet, with several
others, had withdrawn from the tables, and were standing in the doorway
of the pavilion, when Hamlet's glance fell upon the familiar form of a
young man who stood with one foot on the lower step, holding his plumed
bonnet in his hand. His hose and doublet were travel-worn, but his
honest face was as fresh as daybreak.

"What! Horatio?"

"The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever."

"Sir, my good friend: I 'll change that name with you. What brings you
to Verona?"

"I fetch you news, my lord."

"Good news? Then the king is dead."

"The king lives, but Ophelia is no more."

"Ophelia dead!"

"Not so, my lord; she 's married."

"I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student."

"As I do live, my honored lord, 't is true."

"Married, say you?"

"Married to him that sent me hither--a gentleman of winning ways and
a most choice conceit, the scion of a noble house here in Verona--one
Romeo."

The oddest little expression flitted over Juliet's face. There was
never woman yet, even on her bridal day, could forgive a ji