JULIA, or rather Sebastian, was engaged by Proteus as his servant, and sent to carry her own ring to Silvia as a token of love. But Silvia was not flattered by Proteus’s attentions, and went in desperate search of Valentine.

As soon as she was missed, Proteus and the Duke took a search-party into the hills, just in time to rescue her from brigands. But when Proteus caught her about the waist expecting the warmest of thanks, she accused him to his face of his deceit, and longed for Valentine.

At that, Valentine obligingly dropped from the branches of an overhanging tree.

Valentine too had been captured in those woods by the brigands, but from their prisoner he had become their leader, a kind of Robin Hood. The Duke, much impressed, yielded Silvia to him willingly.

And Proteus, discovering that ‘Sebastian’ was his own long-suffering Julia (‘I changed my shape when you changed your mind,’ said she), was shamed into repentance and faithfulness at last.