“Be they of much import?” said the duke.

“No more, my lord,” said Valentine, “than to tell my father I am well and happy at your grace’s court.”

“Nay, then,” said the duke, “no matter:  stay with me a while.  I wish your counsel about some affairs that concern me nearly.”  He then told Valentine an artful story, as a prelude to draw his secret from him, saying, that Valentine knew he wished to match his daughter with Thurio, but that she was stubborn and disobedient to his commands, “neither regarding,” said he, “that she is my child, nor fearing me as if I were her father.  And I may say to thee, this pride of hers has drawn my love from her.  I had thought my age should have been cherished by her childlike duty.  I now am resolved to take a wife, and turn her out to whosoever will take her in.  Let her beauty be her wedding-dower, for me and my possessions she esteems not.”

Valentine, wondering where all this would end, made answer, “And what would your grace have me to do in all this?”

“Why,” said the duke, “the lady I would wish to marry is nice and coy, and does not much esteem my aged eloquence.  Besides, the fashion of courtship is much changed since I was young:  now I would willingly have you to be my tutor to instruct me how I am to woo.”

Valentine gave him a general idea of the modes of courtship then practised by young men, when they wished to win a fair lady’s love, such as presents, frequent visits, and the like.

The duke replied to this, that the lady did refuse a present which he sent her, and that she was so strictly kept by her father, that no man might have access to her by day.

“Why then,” said Valentine, “you must visit her by night.”

“But at night,” said the artful duke, who was now coming to the drift of his discourse, “her doors are fast locked.”

Valentine then unfortunately proposed, that the duke should get into the lady’s chamber at night by means of a ladder of ropes, saying, he would procure him one fitting for that purpose; and in conclusion advised him to conceal this ladder of ropes under such a cloak as that which he now wore.  “Lend me your cloak,” said the duke, who had feigned this long story on purpose to have a pretence to get off the cloak:  so, upon saying these words, he caught hold of Valentine’s cloak, and throwing it back, he discovered not only the ladder of ropes, but also a letter of Silvia’s, which he instantly opened, and read; and this letter contained a full account of their intended elopement.  The duke, after upbraiding Valentine for his ingratitude in thus returning the favour he had shewn him, by endeavouring to steal away his daughter, banished him from the court and city of Milan for ever; and Valentine was forced to depart that night, without even seeing Silvia.

While Protheus at Milan was thus injuring Valentine, Julia at Verona was regretting the absence of Protheus; and her regard for him at last so far overcame her sense of propriety, that she resolved to leave Verona, and seek her lover at Milan; and to secure herself from danger on the road, she dressed her maid Lucetta and herself in men’s clothes, and they set out in this disguise, and arrived at Milan, soon after Valentine was banished from that city through the treachery of Protheus.