“You were told,” said Paris, “that if you returned to Verona you must die.”
“I must indeed,” said Romeo. “I came here for nothing else. Good, gentle youth--leave me! Oh, go--before I do you any harm! I love you better than myself--go--leave me here--”
Then Paris said, “I defy you, and I arrest you as a felon,” and Romeo, in his anger and despair, drew his sword. They fought, and Paris was killed.
As Romeo's sword pierced him, Paris cried--
“Oh, I am slain! If thou be merciful, open the tomb, and lay me with Juliet!”
And Romeo said, “In faith I will.”
And he carried the dead man into the tomb and laid him by the dear Juliet's side. Then he kneeled by Juliet and spoke to her, and held her in his arms, and kissed her cold lips, believing that she was dead, while all the while she was coming nearer and nearer to the time of her awakening. Then he drank the poison, and died beside his sweetheart and wife.
Now came Friar Laurence when it was too late, and saw all that had happened--and then poor Juliet woke out of her sleep to find her husband and her friend both dead beside her.
The noise of the fight had brought other folks to the place too, and Friar Laurence, hearing them, ran away, and Juliet was left alone. She saw the cup that had held the poison, and knew how all had happened, and since no poison was left for her, she drew her Romeo's dagger and thrust it through her heart--and so, falling with her head on her Romeo's breast, she died. And here ends the story of these faithful and most unhappy lovers.