The latter laughingly said: "How well you know how to say that--with what variations and modulations! I yesterday heard you say the same to Cardinal Albani; to be sure, it sounded a little different, but not less warm and glowing!""You know why I do that!" said she. "He is an enamored fool, whom Iwould win with tender words that I may make him my instrument. You know the object for which I strive, and which I must attain at any price! Ah, Carlo, when once they have crowned me in the capitol, then, I am sure, you will be compelled to love me again!""Never again!" he harshly and roughly said.
"Is that your last word?" shrieked she, with flashing eyes and the wild rage of a tigress.
"It is my last word!"
She flew to him like a mad person, seized his hands and fixedly stared him in the face.
"Ungrateful!" said she, gnashing her teeth. "Is it thus you reward my love, is this your return for all I have done for you? Can you forget that it was I who withdrew you from poverty and baseness? What were you but a poor, unnoticed singer in the streets, on whom people bestowed scanty alms? Was it not I who rescued you from that shame, and clothed you and gave you a home? Was it not I who gave you a name and procured you consideration and respect by making you my singer and companion, and allowing you to play upon the harp at my improvisations? How has not all Rome admired you when you sang the canzones I wrote for you, thereby procuring you honor and respectability, and making you a popular man from a low beggar? Go, you cannot leave me, for you are my creature, my property!"He wildly thrust her aside, and his eyes flashed with indignation.
"Signora," said he, his lips tremulous with rage, "you have rent the last band that bound me to you, and in twitting me of your benefits you have annihilated them! We now have nothing in common with each other, except perhaps mutual hatred, and that, I hope, will have a longer duration than our love!"And Carlo turned toward the door. Corilla rushed after him with an exclamation of terror.
"You will leave me now!" cried she, with anguish, "now, in this hour when you are so indispensable to me? now, when I am to celebrate a new triumph before this notable assembly? when all eyes are expectantly turned to the curtain behind which I am to appear? No, no, Carlo, from compassion remain with me only one hour, only this evening!"Carlo smiled contemptuously. "I will remain," said he, "for I have promised /her/ that she shall hear you!""She has therefore come?" cried Corilla, with an outburst of joy.
"She is now here," he laconically said.
Corilla no longer listened to him, she walked back and forth with a triumphant mien, a cruel, malicious smile playing upon her lips.
At this moment there was a slight knock at the door, which was opened, and a man who appeared upon the threshold glanced into the room with a grinning laugh.
Corilla gave him a sign, and at the same time pointed at Carlo, who, having his back toward her, seemed to have no suspicion of what was occurring behind him. But he saw it, nevertheless, in the tall mirror that stood in the middle of the room; he saw Corilla make signs of intelligence with that man who was in the livery of Cardinal Francesco Albani; he saw the man make answer with his fingers, and then draw forth a dagger, which he threateningly swung over his head.
Oh, Carlo had very well understood what that man said, as he also did that language of the fingers, this much-used language of the Romans and Neapolitans.
The man had said: "She is here, that beautiful lady! She can no longer escape us!""You will strike her?" had Corilla asked.
The man had swung the dagger over his head and held up two fingers of his right hand. That signified: "In two hours she will be dead.""Good! you shall be satisfied with me," had been Corilla's answer.
The door was again closed. Corilla turned smiling to Carlo, her former rancor seemed to have vanished; she was in high spirits.
"Carlo," said she, "how good you are not to leave me! Let us now begin. I feel myself glowing with inspiration. Ah, I shall enrapture these good Romans, I think!""How long will this improvisation last?" Carlo gruffly asked.
"Well, one or two hours, according to the delight we give our public.""If this farce continues longer than an hour and a half, I shall throw down my harp and go away," said Carlo, in a tone of severity. "I swear it to you by the spirit of my mother! Remember it; I shall show you the time every quarter of an hour.""You are a tyrant," said she, laughing. "But I suppose I must submit.
Give, therefore, the signal that we are ready."
