Then the governor of the city decreed, as the time drew near when the two lovers must be left to their peace, and it was ill that any should lose the sight of this marvel, that on the fourth day they should be carried through the streets in the eyes of all the people, and then be buried together in the vault of the Capulets—­for by this burial in the same tomb, says the old chronicler who was first honoured with the telling of their sweet story, the governor hoped to bring about a peace between the Montagues and Capulets, at least for a little while.

Meanwhile, though Verona was a city of many trades and professions, and love and death were idle things, yet was there little said of business all these days, and little else done but talk of the two lovers, of whom, indeed, it was true, as it has seldom been true out of Holy Writ, that death was swallowed up in victory.  During these days also there stole a strange sweetness over the city, as though the very spirit of love had nested there, and was filling the air with its soft breathing—­as when in the first days of spring the birds sing so sweetly that broken hearts must hide away, and hard hearts grow a little kind.  Men once more spoke kindly to their wives, and even coarse faces wore a gentle light,—­just as sometimes at evening the setting sun will turn to tenderness even black rocks and frowning towers.

There were many wild stories afloat about the end of the lovers.  Some said one way and some another.  By some the story went that Romeo was already dead before Juliet had awakened from her swoon, but others declared that the poison had not worked upon him until Juliet’s awakening had made him awhile forget that he was to die.  There were those who professed to know the very words of their wild farewell, and in fact there had been several witnesses of Juliet’s agony over the body of her lord.  These had told how first she had raved and clung to him, and called him ‘Romeo,’ ‘Sweet Sir Romeo,’ ‘Husband,’ and many flower-like names, and had petted him and wooed him to come back.  Then on a sudden she had cried, God-a-mercy—­how cold thou art!’ and looked at him long and strangely.  Then had she grown stern, and anon soft.  ’Canst thou not come back, my love?  Then must I follow thee.  Not so far art thou on the way of death, but that I shall overtake thee, and together shall we go to Pluto’s realm, and seek a kinder world.’

Thereat she had plunged Romeo’s dagger into her side, though some said she had stopped her heart’s beating by the strong will of her great love.  Yea—­such were the distracted rumours—­some averred that at the last she had curst Christ and His saints, and called upon Venus, who, it was rumoured in awestruck whispers, was being worshipped once more in secret corners of the world.

It was strong noon when, on the fourth day, Romeo and Juliet were carried through the bright and solemn streets, that the world might be saved; saved as ever by the spectacle and the worship of a mysterious nobility, [comma added by transcriber] an uncomprehended greatness, a beauty which haunts not its daily dreams, lifted up by the humble gaze of devout eyes into the empyrean of greater souls, stirred to an unfamiliar passion, and fired with glimpses of a strange unworldly truth.