kens of extreme
wretchedness, he had said at the time (perhaps having some misgivings
that his own disastrous life might haply meet with a conclusion so
desperate), "If a man were to need poison, which by the law of Mantua
it is death to sell, here lives a poor wretch who would sell it him."
These words of his now came into his mind, and he sought out the
apothecary, who, after some pretended scruples, Romeo offering him
gold which his poverty could not resist, sold him a poison, which, if
he swallowed, he told him, if he had the strength of twenty men, would
quickly dispatch him.

With this poison he set out for Verona, to have a sight of his dear
lady in her tomb, meaning, when he had satisfied his sight, to swallow
the poison, and be buried by her side. He reached Verona at midnight,
and found the church-yard, in the midst of which was situated the
ancient tomb of the Capulets. He had provided a light, and a spade,
and wrenching iron, and was proceeding to break open the monument,
when he was interrupted by a voice, which by the name of _vile
Mountague_ bade him desist from his unlawful business. It was the
young count Paris, who had come to the tomb of Juliet at that
unseasonable time of night, to strew flowers and to weep over the
grave of her that should have been his bride. He knew not what an
interest Romeo had in the dead, but knowing him to be a Mountague,
and (as he supposed) a sworn foe to all the Capulets, he judged that
he was come by night to do some villanous shame to the dead bodies;
therefore in an angry tone he bade him desist; and as a criminal,
condemned by the laws of Verona to die if he were found within the
walls of the city, he would have apprehended him. Romeo urged Paris to
leave him, and warned him by the fate of Tybalt who lay buried there,
not to provoke his anger, or draw down another sin upon his head, by
forcing him to kill him. But the count in scorn refused his warning,
and laid hands on him as a felon, which Romeo resisting, they fought,
and Paris fell. When Romeo, by the help of a light, came to see who it
was that he had slain, that it was Paris, who (he learned in his way
from Mantua) should have married Juliet, he took the dead youth by the
hand, as one whom misfortune had made a companion, and said that he
would bury him in a triumphal grave, meaning in Juliet's grave, which
he now opened: and there lay his lady, as one whom death had no power
upon to change a feature or complex