Contarino (clasping Falieri's hand).--Bravo, my friend! Venice
shall see a second edition of Catiline's conspiracy. Now, then, it
is MY turn to speak, for I have not been idle since we parted. In
truth, I have as yet CAUGHT nothing, but I have made myself master
of an all-powerful net, with which I doubt not to capture the best
half of Venice. You all know the Marchioness Olympia?
Parozzi.--Does not each of us keep a list of the handsomest women in
the Republic, and can we have forgotten number one?
Falieri.--Olympia and Rosabella are the goddesses of Venice; our
youths burn incense on no other altars.
Contarino.--Olympia is my own.
Falieri.--How?
Parozzi.--Olympia?
Contarino.--Why, how now? Why stare ye as had I prophesied to you
that the skies were going to fall? I tell you Olympia's heart is
mine, and that I possess her entire and most intimate confidence.
Our connection must remain a profound secret, but depend on it,
whatever _I_ wish SHE wishes also; and you know she can make half
the nobility in Venice dance to the sound of her pipe, let her play
what tune she pleases.
Parozzi.--Contarino, you are our master.
Contarino.--And you had not the least suspicion how powerful an ally
I was labouring to procure for you?
Parozzi.--I must blush for myself while I listen to you, since as
yet I have done nothing. Yet this I must say in my excuse: Had
Matteo, bribed by my gold, accomplished Rosabella's murder, the Doge
would have been robbed of that chain with which he holds the chief
men in Venice attached to his government.
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