to apprise Mariana of their intention. He had
before this time visited this unhappy lady in his assumed character,
giving her religious instruction and friendly consolation, at which
times he had learned her sad story from her own lips; and now she,
looking upon him as a holy man, readily consented to be directed by him
in this undertaking.

When Isabel returned from her interview with Angelo, to the house of
Mariana, where the duke had appointed her to meet him, he said, "Well
met, and in good time; what is the news from this good deputy?" Isabel
related the manner in which she had settled the affair. "Angelo," said
she, "has a garden surrounded with a brick wall, on the western side of
which is a vineyard, and to that vineyard is a gate." And then she
showed to the duke and Mariana two keys that Angelo had given her; and
she said, "This bigger key opens the vineyard gate; this other a little
door which leads from the vineyard to the garden. There I have made my
promise at the dead of the night to call upon him, and have got from him
his word of assurance for my brother's life. I have taken a due and wary
note of the place; and with whispering and most guilty diligence he
showed me the way twice over."--"Are there no other tokens agreed upon
between you, that Mariana must observe?" said the duke. "No, none," said
Isabel, "only to go when it is dark. I have told him my time can be but
short; for I have made him think a servant comes along with me, and that
this servant is persuaded I come about my brother." The duke commended
her discreet management, and she, turning to Mariana, said, "Little have
you to say to Angelo, when you depart from him, but soft and low,
_Remember now my brother_!"

Mariana was that night conducted to the appointed place by Isabel, who
rejoiced that she had, as she supposed, by this device preserved both
her brother's life and her own honour. But that her brother's life was
safe the duke was not well satisfied, and therefore at midnight he again
repaired to the prison, and it was well for Claudio that he did so, else
would Claudio have that night been beheaded; for soon after the duke
entered the prison, an order came from the cruel deputy, commanding that
Claudio should be beheaded, and his head sent to him by five o'clock in
the morning. But the duke persuaded the provost to put off the
execution of Claudio, and to deceive Angelo, by sending him the head of
a man who died that morning in the