Disclaimer: Konnichi-wa to all of you! I still don't own anything, but I'm
trying to fix that, unfortunately the judge is a pain in the, BUT that's
another story. Email or review. Also, at the end I'm going to put personal
thank-yous up, after I get a lot in.
Chapter 5
Romeo sighed as he though of his wife, "If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep, my dreams presage some joyful news at hand. My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne. And all this day an unaccustomed spirit lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts. I dreamt my lady came and found me dead– Strange dream, that gives a dead man leave to think!– And breathed such life with kisses in my lips, that I revived, and was an emperor. Ah me! how sweet is love itself possessed, when but love's shadows are so rich in joy!"
He turned and saw his knight Balthasar come towards him, still wearing boots. "News from Verona!--How now, Balthasar! Dost thou not bring me letters from the friar? How doth my lady? Is my father well? How fares my Juliet? That I ask again. For nothing can be ill, if she be well."
"Then she is well, and nothing can be ill. Her body sleeps in Capel's monument, and her immortal part with angels lives. I saw her laid low in her kindred's vault, and presently took post to tell it you. O, pardon me for bringing these ill news, since you did leave it for my office, sir." Balthasar said quietly, his eyes full of sorrow for his friend and lord.
"Is it even so? Then I defy you, stars! Thou knowest my lodging, get me ink and paper, and hire post-horses. I will hence to-night." Romeo said, his eyes drained of love and caring
"I do beseech you, sir, have patience. Your looks are pale and wild, and do import some misadventure."
"Tush, thou art deceived. Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do. Hast thou no letters to me from the friar?"
"No, my good lord."
"No matter, get thee gone, and hire those horses. I'll be with thee straight."
Balthasar bowed and left.
"Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night. Let's see for means, O mischief, thou art swift to enter in the thoughts of desperate men! I do remember an apothecary, a hag, a midwife – and hereabouts she dwells,– which late I noted in tattered weeds, with overwhelming brows, culling of simples. Meager were her looks, sharp misery had worn her to the bones. Noting this penury, to myself I said 'An if a man did need a poison now, whose sale is present death in Mantua, here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.' O, this same thought did but forerun my need. And this same needy man must sell it me. As I remember, this should be the house. Being holiday, the beggar's shop is shut. What, ho! apothecary!"
An old woman came out of the hut. "Who calls so loud?" She asked in a scratchy, ancient voice.
"Come hither, woman. I see that thou art poor. Hold, there is forty ducats, let me have a dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear as will disperse itself through all the veins that the life-weary taker may fall dead and that the trunk may be discharged of breath as violently as hasty powder fired doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb."
"Such mortal drugs I have. But Mantua's law is death to any he that utters them."
"Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness, and fearest to die? Famine is in thy cheeks, need and oppression starveth in thine eyes, contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back. The world is not thy friend nor the world's law; the world affords no law to make thee rich. Then be not poor, but break it, and take this."
"My poverty, but not my will, consents."
"I pay thy poverty, and not thy will."
"Put this in any liquid thing you will, and drink it off; and, if you had the strength of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight."
"There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls, doing more murders in this loathsome world, than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell. I sell thee poison. Thou hast sold me none. Farewell, buy food, and get thyself in flesh. Come, cordial and not poison, go with me to Juliet's grave. For there must I use thee."
Olivia sat in the tree, above Friar Laurence's herb garden.
Friar John, Laurence's apprentice came up to the older man's cell door, "Holy Franciscan friar! brother, ho!"
Friar Laurence called out warmly, "This same should be the voice of Friar John. Welcome from Mantua, what says Romeo? Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter."
"Going to find a bare-foot brother out, one of our order, to associate me, here in this city visiting the sick, and finding him, the searchers of the town, suspecting that we both were in a house where the infectious pestilence did reign, sealed up the doors, and would not let us forth. So that my speed to Mantua there was stayed."
"Who bare my letter, then, to Romeo?"
"I could not send it,--here it is again,– Nor get a messenger to bring it thee, So fearful were they of infection."
Olivia did all she could to keep from gasping and screaming in horror. She did not know how to save Juliet from Paris now.
"Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood, the letter was not nice but full of charge of dear import, and the neglecting it may do much danger. Friar John, go hence. Get me an iron crow, and bring it straight Unto my cell."
"Brother, I'll go and bring it thee." He said and left.
"Now must I to the monument alone. Within three hours will fair Juliet wake, she will beshrew me much that Romeo hath had no notice of these accidents. But I will write again to Mantua, and keep her at my cell till Romeo come. Poor living corse, closed in a dead man's tomb!" He said and went back into his cell.
Olivia dropped down from the tree and sped away to the Houses of Healing.
"Are you telling us that Romeo married Juliet?" The Prince asked.
Mercutio and Benvolio stared at the three girls in front of them.
"Yes." Helena said. She had just finished explaining everything to the three men in front of them
"You did get past that part didn't you, for time is very important." Hero asked.
"Well yes, but if Laurence is going to keep Juliet, why does it matter?" Benvolio asked.
"Because Romeo knows! I saw Balthasar speed off towards Mantua after Juliet was put into the tomb. He does not know of Juliet taking the potion, because Balthasar did not know of it. He will come and kill himself, for his only wish is to be with Juliet." Helena said.
"We must act fast!" Mercutio said. He was supposed to leave the next day anyway.
"I know not when Romeo will get here, but we must go in haste." Olivia said, her eyes showed fear.
"Why do you three want to save Romeo?" The prince asked.
"Because if Juliet discovers Romeo dead, she will kill herself as well." Hero said, her voice full of sadness at the thought.
"Then let us go." The prince said, leading the way.
Paris stood in a tomb belonging to the Capulets. "Give me thy torch, boy: hence, and stand aloof:Yet put it out, for I would not be seen. Under yond yew-trees lay thee all along,holding thine ear close to the hollow ground. So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread, being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves, but thou shalt hear it, whistle then to me, as signal that thou hearest something approach. Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee, go."
The boy bowed, though shaking with fear at the though of being in the churchyard alone.
Paris went down the stairs towards Juliet's place. He was going there to place flowers at her feet, when the boy whistled.
"The boy gives warning something doth approach.What cursed foot wanders this way to-night, to cross my obsequies and true love's rite? What with a torch! Muffle me, night, awhile."
Romeo and Balthasar entered the room with a torch.
"Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron. Hold, take this letter early in the morning. See thou deliver it to my lord and father. Give me the light: upon thy life, I charge thee, whatever thou hearest or seest, stand all aloof, and do not interrupt me in my course. Why I descend into this bed of death is partly to behold my lady's face. Do not pry in what I shall intend to do, by heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint and strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs. The time and my intents are savage- wild, more fierce and more inexorable far than empty tigers or the roaring sea."
"I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you."
"So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that, live, and be prosperous, and farewell, good fellow."
Balthasar left, leaving him in the cold room, full of the lifeless forms.
Paris stepped forward from the shadows after seeing that it was the banished Montague that murdered Juliet's cousin. "Stop thy unhallowed toil, vile Montague! Can vengeance be pursued further than death? Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee, obey and go with me for thou must die."
"I must indeed; and therefore came I hither. Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man, fly hence, and leave me, think upon these gone. Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth, put not another sin upon my head, by urging me to fury, O, be gone! By heaven, I love thee better than myself. For I come hither armed against myself. Stay not, be gone. Live, and hereafter say, a madman's mercy bade thee run away."
"I do defy thy conjurations, and apprehend thee for a felon here."
"Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee, boy!" Romeo said.
They began to fight, exchanging blow for blow. Romeo saw an opening and took it, stabbing Paris.
"If thou be merciful," he coughed out, "Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet." Paris's green eye rolled back into his head and his breath stopped.
"In faith, I will. Let me peruse this face. Mercutio's kinsman, noble County Paris! What said my man, when my betossed soul did not attend him as we rode? I think he told me Paris should have married Juliet. Said he not so? Or did I dream it so? Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet, to think it was so? O, give me thy hand, one writ with me in sour misfortune's book! I'll bury thee in a triumphant grave. A grave? O no! A lantern, slaughtered youth, for here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes this vault a feasting presence full of light. Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interred."
Romeo laid Paris in the tomb and went over to Juliet.
"How oft when men are at the point of death have they been merry! Which their keepers call a lightning before death. O, how may I call this a lightning? O my love! my wife! Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty. Thou art not conquered. Beauty's ensign yet is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, and death's pale flag is not advanced there. Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet? O, what more favor can I do to thee, than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain to sunder his that was thine enemy? Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet, why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe that unsubstantial death is amorous, and that the lean abhorred monster keeps thee here in dark to be his paramour? For fear of that, I still will stay with thee. And never from this palace of dim night depart again, here, here will I remain \pard bkmkstart 5_46_3_46_110with worms that are thy chamber- maids. O, here will I set up my everlasting rest, and shake the yoke of inauspicious stars from this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last! Arms, take your last embrace! And, lips, O you the doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss a dateless bargain to engrossing death! Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavory guide! Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on the dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark! Here's to my love!" He said, opening the vial.
Six figures burst through the door, causing him to turn around before he could drink the poison.
"Don't do anything!" Mercutio's voice rang through the tomb.
"Mercutio?!" Romeo called out.
"Yea, it is I, as well as Benvolio and Prince Escalus. As well as Juliet's friends, Helena, Hero, and Olivia." He said, running up to where Romeo was.
"Benvolio said that you were dead." He breathed out.
"And so I thought he was, but good Olivia and the elder checked, he was alive, but barely." Benvolio said.
"The elder used her magic to heal him." The prince said.
"I am glad that you are alive, but my wife is not. Death still caresses her cheek."
"That's just it!" Hero said happily, "It doesn't."
"What?"
"No, Juliet was being made to marry Paris. Not wanting to she went to Friar Laurence and he gave her a sleeping potion, making her appear to be dead to the world, though she still lived. We knew that you had not gotten Laurence's letter, so we came down here in great haste. If you wait but three minutes, Juliet should wake. Laurence's letter said that you were to come and get her and take her back to Mantua." Olivia explained.
Hero watched her friend's lifeless form in wonder. Juliet's fingers began to move and then her whole hands.
"Watch your love gentle Romeo, watch her awaken." Hero said.
Everyone looked at Juliet as she began to move and eventually sit up.
"Romeo," she muttered, barely opening her eyes.
When she opened her eyes all the way, after letting them come into focus, she saw all seven people.
"How did you three know?" Juliet asked the three girls.
"We've been keeping watch over you two since we first saw you kiss at your father's feast." Hero said gently.
Juliet turned bright red.
"Not then." Olivia said, "Though I do admit, I never knew you were so forward. I'm talking about early Monday morning on the balcony."
"I have an idea, but I'm going to need all of your--"
He stopped as Friar Laurence walked in.
"Good Friar! I must ask you to go get the Watch." The Prince said.
The friar bowed and left, not knowing what had happened with Romeo and Juliet.
"As you were saying..." Hero said, looking at him.
"Yes, as I was saying. I have a plan. Benvolio, you and Helena go and summon the Montagues. Mercutio, you and Olivia summon the Capulets. Bring both families here."
All four of them bowed and left.
"Romeo, pour out that poison. Juliet, take his dagger."
Both did as they were told.
"Now, Romeo, lie down as though you had drunken the poison."
Romeo did as he was told.
"Juliet, I shall dip the dagger in Paris's blood, but you must hold it as though you had stabbed yourself."
Juliet gave the dagger to the prince. He dipped the dagger in a large puddle of blood and gave it back to her.
"Now, do not show yourselves to be alive until I tell you. You may rest for now. Come sweet Hero, let us leave these two alone for now."
The prince and Hero stood outside together until they saw the watch coming.
Hero looked at him, "I shall tell them to prepare."
The prince waited for every one to arrive and then led them down to where Romeo and Juliet were. Hero had gone into the shadows.
"Friar Laurence, tell us their story." The prince said in a stern voice.
The friar told the entire story. From where he told Romeo that he would marry them up until now.
"Helena, would you please tell your story?" The prince asked his younger cousin.
Helena began to tell everything that she knew. From talking of ending the feud to discovering that Romeo had not received his letter.
"Thank you, that will be all." He said, making sure she didn't go too far.
The Montagues and the Capulets were all in tears.
Lord Montague went up to Lord Capulet, "I offer thee peace. I will raise a statue of my son's wife that will be of pure gold. It will stand as long as there is a Verona."
"Romeo can stay in my family's tomb. Husbands and Wives should not be parted in death." Capulet said.
"Good, now that the feud is dead, you two can get up now."
Romeo and Juliet stood, much to everyone's wonder.
The prince began to explain the plan that he had come up with.
"Now, just because the feud is over, doesn't mean anything. There is still the matter of punishment." Everyone's face became fearful, "Romeo is no longer banished, but now his punishment is greater. Romeo, you must love, honor, and cherish the lady Juliet for the rest of thy life."
Romeo smiled, "I accept."
"Mercutio, for fighting Tybalt, you must marry the lady Olivia. And you must love her for the of your life."
Mercutio looked at the blushing girl next to him, "I welcome the punishment most readily."
"Benvolio, for fighting with Tybalt as well, you must marry the lady Helena and love her for the rest of your life."
"I accept the punishment with an eager heart." Benvolio said, making Helena blush crimson.
"And, last but not least, Lady Hero, for disappearing for such a long time. You need a better guardian. There is only one person I trust with that responsibility."
He walked over to the nervous girl. She was bitting her lip so hard that she could taste blood. She didn't know who he was going to pair her up with. Hundreds of people were coming to mind. "Let's see, there's Gregory, Lord Capulet's man, Sampson, Capulet's man, Benedict, Lord Montague's man.....Who is it going to be" She wondered.
He looked at her and whispered, "I will be thy guardian, as well as thy husband, if thou want my hand as much as I want yours."
Hero smiled, her fear disappeared, and threw her arms around his neck. "Yes," She said, after kissing him soundly.
"Friar Laurence, we will go to your cell where you will perform three ceremonies. Benvolio's, Mercutio's, and mine."
Friar Laurence smiled. "As you wish, your majesty."
Chapter 5
Romeo sighed as he though of his wife, "If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep, my dreams presage some joyful news at hand. My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne. And all this day an unaccustomed spirit lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts. I dreamt my lady came and found me dead– Strange dream, that gives a dead man leave to think!– And breathed such life with kisses in my lips, that I revived, and was an emperor. Ah me! how sweet is love itself possessed, when but love's shadows are so rich in joy!"
He turned and saw his knight Balthasar come towards him, still wearing boots. "News from Verona!--How now, Balthasar! Dost thou not bring me letters from the friar? How doth my lady? Is my father well? How fares my Juliet? That I ask again. For nothing can be ill, if she be well."
"Then she is well, and nothing can be ill. Her body sleeps in Capel's monument, and her immortal part with angels lives. I saw her laid low in her kindred's vault, and presently took post to tell it you. O, pardon me for bringing these ill news, since you did leave it for my office, sir." Balthasar said quietly, his eyes full of sorrow for his friend and lord.
"Is it even so? Then I defy you, stars! Thou knowest my lodging, get me ink and paper, and hire post-horses. I will hence to-night." Romeo said, his eyes drained of love and caring
"I do beseech you, sir, have patience. Your looks are pale and wild, and do import some misadventure."
"Tush, thou art deceived. Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do. Hast thou no letters to me from the friar?"
"No, my good lord."
"No matter, get thee gone, and hire those horses. I'll be with thee straight."
Balthasar bowed and left.
"Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night. Let's see for means, O mischief, thou art swift to enter in the thoughts of desperate men! I do remember an apothecary, a hag, a midwife – and hereabouts she dwells,– which late I noted in tattered weeds, with overwhelming brows, culling of simples. Meager were her looks, sharp misery had worn her to the bones. Noting this penury, to myself I said 'An if a man did need a poison now, whose sale is present death in Mantua, here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.' O, this same thought did but forerun my need. And this same needy man must sell it me. As I remember, this should be the house. Being holiday, the beggar's shop is shut. What, ho! apothecary!"
An old woman came out of the hut. "Who calls so loud?" She asked in a scratchy, ancient voice.
"Come hither, woman. I see that thou art poor. Hold, there is forty ducats, let me have a dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear as will disperse itself through all the veins that the life-weary taker may fall dead and that the trunk may be discharged of breath as violently as hasty powder fired doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb."
"Such mortal drugs I have. But Mantua's law is death to any he that utters them."
"Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness, and fearest to die? Famine is in thy cheeks, need and oppression starveth in thine eyes, contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back. The world is not thy friend nor the world's law; the world affords no law to make thee rich. Then be not poor, but break it, and take this."
"My poverty, but not my will, consents."
"I pay thy poverty, and not thy will."
"Put this in any liquid thing you will, and drink it off; and, if you had the strength of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight."
"There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls, doing more murders in this loathsome world, than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell. I sell thee poison. Thou hast sold me none. Farewell, buy food, and get thyself in flesh. Come, cordial and not poison, go with me to Juliet's grave. For there must I use thee."
Olivia sat in the tree, above Friar Laurence's herb garden.
Friar John, Laurence's apprentice came up to the older man's cell door, "Holy Franciscan friar! brother, ho!"
Friar Laurence called out warmly, "This same should be the voice of Friar John. Welcome from Mantua, what says Romeo? Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter."
"Going to find a bare-foot brother out, one of our order, to associate me, here in this city visiting the sick, and finding him, the searchers of the town, suspecting that we both were in a house where the infectious pestilence did reign, sealed up the doors, and would not let us forth. So that my speed to Mantua there was stayed."
"Who bare my letter, then, to Romeo?"
"I could not send it,--here it is again,– Nor get a messenger to bring it thee, So fearful were they of infection."
Olivia did all she could to keep from gasping and screaming in horror. She did not know how to save Juliet from Paris now.
"Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood, the letter was not nice but full of charge of dear import, and the neglecting it may do much danger. Friar John, go hence. Get me an iron crow, and bring it straight Unto my cell."
"Brother, I'll go and bring it thee." He said and left.
"Now must I to the monument alone. Within three hours will fair Juliet wake, she will beshrew me much that Romeo hath had no notice of these accidents. But I will write again to Mantua, and keep her at my cell till Romeo come. Poor living corse, closed in a dead man's tomb!" He said and went back into his cell.
Olivia dropped down from the tree and sped away to the Houses of Healing.
"Are you telling us that Romeo married Juliet?" The Prince asked.
Mercutio and Benvolio stared at the three girls in front of them.
"Yes." Helena said. She had just finished explaining everything to the three men in front of them
"You did get past that part didn't you, for time is very important." Hero asked.
"Well yes, but if Laurence is going to keep Juliet, why does it matter?" Benvolio asked.
"Because Romeo knows! I saw Balthasar speed off towards Mantua after Juliet was put into the tomb. He does not know of Juliet taking the potion, because Balthasar did not know of it. He will come and kill himself, for his only wish is to be with Juliet." Helena said.
"We must act fast!" Mercutio said. He was supposed to leave the next day anyway.
"I know not when Romeo will get here, but we must go in haste." Olivia said, her eyes showed fear.
"Why do you three want to save Romeo?" The prince asked.
"Because if Juliet discovers Romeo dead, she will kill herself as well." Hero said, her voice full of sadness at the thought.
"Then let us go." The prince said, leading the way.
Paris stood in a tomb belonging to the Capulets. "Give me thy torch, boy: hence, and stand aloof:Yet put it out, for I would not be seen. Under yond yew-trees lay thee all along,holding thine ear close to the hollow ground. So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread, being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves, but thou shalt hear it, whistle then to me, as signal that thou hearest something approach. Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee, go."
The boy bowed, though shaking with fear at the though of being in the churchyard alone.
Paris went down the stairs towards Juliet's place. He was going there to place flowers at her feet, when the boy whistled.
"The boy gives warning something doth approach.What cursed foot wanders this way to-night, to cross my obsequies and true love's rite? What with a torch! Muffle me, night, awhile."
Romeo and Balthasar entered the room with a torch.
"Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron. Hold, take this letter early in the morning. See thou deliver it to my lord and father. Give me the light: upon thy life, I charge thee, whatever thou hearest or seest, stand all aloof, and do not interrupt me in my course. Why I descend into this bed of death is partly to behold my lady's face. Do not pry in what I shall intend to do, by heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint and strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs. The time and my intents are savage- wild, more fierce and more inexorable far than empty tigers or the roaring sea."
"I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you."
"So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that, live, and be prosperous, and farewell, good fellow."
Balthasar left, leaving him in the cold room, full of the lifeless forms.
Paris stepped forward from the shadows after seeing that it was the banished Montague that murdered Juliet's cousin. "Stop thy unhallowed toil, vile Montague! Can vengeance be pursued further than death? Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee, obey and go with me for thou must die."
"I must indeed; and therefore came I hither. Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man, fly hence, and leave me, think upon these gone. Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth, put not another sin upon my head, by urging me to fury, O, be gone! By heaven, I love thee better than myself. For I come hither armed against myself. Stay not, be gone. Live, and hereafter say, a madman's mercy bade thee run away."
"I do defy thy conjurations, and apprehend thee for a felon here."
"Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee, boy!" Romeo said.
They began to fight, exchanging blow for blow. Romeo saw an opening and took it, stabbing Paris.
"If thou be merciful," he coughed out, "Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet." Paris's green eye rolled back into his head and his breath stopped.
"In faith, I will. Let me peruse this face. Mercutio's kinsman, noble County Paris! What said my man, when my betossed soul did not attend him as we rode? I think he told me Paris should have married Juliet. Said he not so? Or did I dream it so? Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet, to think it was so? O, give me thy hand, one writ with me in sour misfortune's book! I'll bury thee in a triumphant grave. A grave? O no! A lantern, slaughtered youth, for here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes this vault a feasting presence full of light. Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interred."
Romeo laid Paris in the tomb and went over to Juliet.
"How oft when men are at the point of death have they been merry! Which their keepers call a lightning before death. O, how may I call this a lightning? O my love! my wife! Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty. Thou art not conquered. Beauty's ensign yet is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, and death's pale flag is not advanced there. Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet? O, what more favor can I do to thee, than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain to sunder his that was thine enemy? Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet, why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe that unsubstantial death is amorous, and that the lean abhorred monster keeps thee here in dark to be his paramour? For fear of that, I still will stay with thee. And never from this palace of dim night depart again, here, here will I remain \pard bkmkstart 5_46_3_46_110with worms that are thy chamber- maids. O, here will I set up my everlasting rest, and shake the yoke of inauspicious stars from this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last! Arms, take your last embrace! And, lips, O you the doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss a dateless bargain to engrossing death! Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavory guide! Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on the dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark! Here's to my love!" He said, opening the vial.
Six figures burst through the door, causing him to turn around before he could drink the poison.
"Don't do anything!" Mercutio's voice rang through the tomb.
"Mercutio?!" Romeo called out.
"Yea, it is I, as well as Benvolio and Prince Escalus. As well as Juliet's friends, Helena, Hero, and Olivia." He said, running up to where Romeo was.
"Benvolio said that you were dead." He breathed out.
"And so I thought he was, but good Olivia and the elder checked, he was alive, but barely." Benvolio said.
"The elder used her magic to heal him." The prince said.
"I am glad that you are alive, but my wife is not. Death still caresses her cheek."
"That's just it!" Hero said happily, "It doesn't."
"What?"
"No, Juliet was being made to marry Paris. Not wanting to she went to Friar Laurence and he gave her a sleeping potion, making her appear to be dead to the world, though she still lived. We knew that you had not gotten Laurence's letter, so we came down here in great haste. If you wait but three minutes, Juliet should wake. Laurence's letter said that you were to come and get her and take her back to Mantua." Olivia explained.
Hero watched her friend's lifeless form in wonder. Juliet's fingers began to move and then her whole hands.
"Watch your love gentle Romeo, watch her awaken." Hero said.
Everyone looked at Juliet as she began to move and eventually sit up.
"Romeo," she muttered, barely opening her eyes.
When she opened her eyes all the way, after letting them come into focus, she saw all seven people.
"How did you three know?" Juliet asked the three girls.
"We've been keeping watch over you two since we first saw you kiss at your father's feast." Hero said gently.
Juliet turned bright red.
"Not then." Olivia said, "Though I do admit, I never knew you were so forward. I'm talking about early Monday morning on the balcony."
"I have an idea, but I'm going to need all of your--"
He stopped as Friar Laurence walked in.
"Good Friar! I must ask you to go get the Watch." The Prince said.
The friar bowed and left, not knowing what had happened with Romeo and Juliet.
"As you were saying..." Hero said, looking at him.
"Yes, as I was saying. I have a plan. Benvolio, you and Helena go and summon the Montagues. Mercutio, you and Olivia summon the Capulets. Bring both families here."
All four of them bowed and left.
"Romeo, pour out that poison. Juliet, take his dagger."
Both did as they were told.
"Now, Romeo, lie down as though you had drunken the poison."
Romeo did as he was told.
"Juliet, I shall dip the dagger in Paris's blood, but you must hold it as though you had stabbed yourself."
Juliet gave the dagger to the prince. He dipped the dagger in a large puddle of blood and gave it back to her.
"Now, do not show yourselves to be alive until I tell you. You may rest for now. Come sweet Hero, let us leave these two alone for now."
The prince and Hero stood outside together until they saw the watch coming.
Hero looked at him, "I shall tell them to prepare."
The prince waited for every one to arrive and then led them down to where Romeo and Juliet were. Hero had gone into the shadows.
"Friar Laurence, tell us their story." The prince said in a stern voice.
The friar told the entire story. From where he told Romeo that he would marry them up until now.
"Helena, would you please tell your story?" The prince asked his younger cousin.
Helena began to tell everything that she knew. From talking of ending the feud to discovering that Romeo had not received his letter.
"Thank you, that will be all." He said, making sure she didn't go too far.
The Montagues and the Capulets were all in tears.
Lord Montague went up to Lord Capulet, "I offer thee peace. I will raise a statue of my son's wife that will be of pure gold. It will stand as long as there is a Verona."
"Romeo can stay in my family's tomb. Husbands and Wives should not be parted in death." Capulet said.
"Good, now that the feud is dead, you two can get up now."
Romeo and Juliet stood, much to everyone's wonder.
The prince began to explain the plan that he had come up with.
"Now, just because the feud is over, doesn't mean anything. There is still the matter of punishment." Everyone's face became fearful, "Romeo is no longer banished, but now his punishment is greater. Romeo, you must love, honor, and cherish the lady Juliet for the rest of thy life."
Romeo smiled, "I accept."
"Mercutio, for fighting Tybalt, you must marry the lady Olivia. And you must love her for the of your life."
Mercutio looked at the blushing girl next to him, "I welcome the punishment most readily."
"Benvolio, for fighting with Tybalt as well, you must marry the lady Helena and love her for the rest of your life."
"I accept the punishment with an eager heart." Benvolio said, making Helena blush crimson.
"And, last but not least, Lady Hero, for disappearing for such a long time. You need a better guardian. There is only one person I trust with that responsibility."
He walked over to the nervous girl. She was bitting her lip so hard that she could taste blood. She didn't know who he was going to pair her up with. Hundreds of people were coming to mind. "Let's see, there's Gregory, Lord Capulet's man, Sampson, Capulet's man, Benedict, Lord Montague's man.....Who is it going to be" She wondered.
He looked at her and whispered, "I will be thy guardian, as well as thy husband, if thou want my hand as much as I want yours."
Hero smiled, her fear disappeared, and threw her arms around his neck. "Yes," She said, after kissing him soundly.
"Friar Laurence, we will go to your cell where you will perform three ceremonies. Benvolio's, Mercutio's, and mine."
Friar Laurence smiled. "As you wish, your majesty."
