Andreas.--Be that my task. Flodoardo has demanded my niece in
marriage if he performs his promise. Rosabella shall be his reward.
All gazed on each other in silence; some with looks expressing the
most heartfelt satisfaction, and others with glances of envy and
surprise.
Falieri (in a low voice).--Parozzi, how will this end?
Memmo.--As I live, the very idea makes me shake as if I had a fever.
Parozzi (smiling contemptuously).--It's very likely that Abellino
should suffer himself to be caught!
Contarino.--Pray inform me, signors, have any of you ever met this
Abellino face to face?
Several Noblemen at once.--Not I. Never.
A Senator.--He is a kind of spectre, who only appears now and then,
when he is least expected and desired.
Rosabella.--I saw him once; never again shall I forget the monster.
Andreas.--And my interview with him is too well known to make it
needful for me to relate it.
Memmo.--I have heard a thousand stories about this miscreant, the
one more wonderful than the other; and for my own part I verily
believe that he is Satan himself in a human form. I must say that I
think it would be wiser not to let him be brought in among us, for
he is capable of strangling us all as we stand here, one after
another, without mercy.
"Gracious Heaven!" screamed several of the ladies, "you don't say
so? What, strangle us in this very chamber?"
Contarino.--The principal point is, whether Flodoardo will get the
better of HIM, or HE of Flodoardo.
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