elo again, and when he said, "I will not pardon
him," she was not discouraged, and when he said, "He's sentenced; 'tis
too late," she returned to the assault. But all her fighting was with
reasons, and with reasons she could not prevail over the Deputy.

She told him that nothing becomes power like mercy. She told him that
humanity receives and requires mercy from Heaven, that it was good to
have gigantic strength, and had to use it like a giant. She told him
that lightning rives the oak and spares the myrtle. She bade him look
for fault in his own breast, and if he found one, to refrain from making
it an argument against her brother's life.

Angelo found a fault in his breast at that moment. He loved Isabella's
beauty, and was tempted to do for her beauty what he would not do for
the love of man.

He appeared to relent, for he said, "Come to me to-morrow before noon."

She had, at any rate, succeeded in prolonging her brother's life for a
few hours.'

In her absence Angelo's conscience rebuked him for trifling with his
judicial duty.

When Isabella called on him the second time, he said, "Your brother
cannot live."

Isabella was painfully astonished, but all she said was, "Even so.
Heaven keep your Honor."

But as she turned to go, Angelo felt that his duty and honor were slight
in comparison with the loss of her.

"Give me your love," he said, "and Claudio shall be freed."

"Before I would marry you, he should die if he had twenty heads to lay
upon the block," said Isabella, for she saw then that he was not the
just man he pretended to be.

So she went to her brother in prison, to inform him that he must die.
At first he was boastful, and promised to hug the darkness of death.
But when he clearly understood that his sister could buy his life by
marrying Angelo, he felt his life more valuable than her happiness, and
he exclaimed, "Sweet sister, let me live."

"O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch!" she cried.

At this moment the Duke came forward, in the habit of a friar, to
request some speech with Isabella. He called himself Friar Lodowick.

The Duke then told her that Angelo was affianced to Mariana, whose
love-story he related. He then asked her to consider this plan. Let
Mariana, in the dress of Isabella, go closely veiled to Angelo, and say,
in a voice resembling Isabella's, that if Claudio were spared she would
marry him. Let her take the ring from Angelo's little finger, that it
might be aft