Antipholus of Syracuse, seeing that he was likely to be overpowered, slipped with Dromio for refuge inside a Priory, near which they were standing. The Abbess refused to give them up, as they had taken sanctuary there, though Adriana vehemently demanded her husband.
Luciana advised her sister to appeal to the Duke, and as it happened, the Duke himself now approached, on his way to attend the execution of the luckless Ægeon, who up to the present had not been able to obtain the money for his ransom.
Adriana told her story to the Duke, who thereupon commanded that the Lady Abbess should be summoned to his presence. At that instant a servant came rushing up in terror to Adriana saying that his master and Dromio had got loose, and had tied up the doctor, and were beating the servants.
“Peace, fool! Your master and his man are here,” said Adriana. “What you report to us is false.”
But the speedy appearance of Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus showed that the servant had spoken truth.
“Unless the fear of death makes me doat,” said Ægeon, “I see my son Antipholus and Dromio.”
“I see my son Antipholus.”