“I thank your Grace,” said Valentine, deeply moved, “and yet must ask you one more boon.”
“I grant it,” said the Duke.
“Pardon these men, your Grace, and give them employment. They are better than their calling.”
“I pardon them and you,” said the Duke. “Their work henceforth shall be for wages.”
“What think you of this page, your Grace?” asked Valentine, indicating Julia.
The Duke glanced at her, and said, “I think the boy has grace in him.”
“More grace than boy, say I,” laughed Valentine, and the only punishment which Proteus had to bear for his treacheries against love and friendship was the recital in his presence of the adventures of Julia-Sebastian of Verona.
[ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL]
In the year thirteen hundred and something, the Countess of Rousillon was unhappy in her palace near the Pyrenees. She had lost her husband, and the King of France had summoned her son Bertram to Paris, hundreds of miles away.