But I pass by the second Act, which, however, is fully worthy of the reader's attention, in order to arrive at the third Act, which closes the play, that opened with the masked ball in Venice, by a Borgian supper at Ferrara. The five young Venetian noblemen have been invited by Lucrèce's order to an entertainment at the Negroni Palace, and Gennaro, whom she supposes distant from Ferrara, accompanies them thither.

passionately demands the offender's pardon, on discovering the insult to have been offered her by the young Gennaro. The Duke, however, more and more confirmed in his jealousy, persists in his determination that death shall be inflicted on the culprit, and only allows his wife to choose whether her supposed paramour shall be stabbed or poisoned on Lucrèce preferring the latter, the famous Borgia poison is administered to Gennaro, who, however, believes himself pardoned and the Duke then, quitting the room, tells his wife that he gives her her lover's last quarter of an hour.

Lucrèce, on finding herself alone with Gennaro, offers him an antidote for the poison that he has taken-and there is a fine moment, where he doubts whether the Duke de Ferrara has really poisoned him, or whether it is Lucrèce herself who wishes to do so. Finally, however, he swallows the antidote, and is warned by Lucrèce to quit Ferrara without delay.

ACT III.

OLOFERNO (his glass in his hand).

What wine like that of Xerès ?-Xerès of Frontera is a city of Paradise?

MAFFIO (his glass in his hand).

The wine that we drink, Jeppo, is better than any of your stories.

ASCANIO.

Jeppo has the misfortune to be a great teller of tales when he has drunk a little.

DON APOSTOLO.

The other day it was at Venice, at his serene highness's the Doge Barbarigo's; to-day it is at Ferrara, at the divine Princess Negroni's.

JEPPO.

The other day it was a mournful tale; to-day it's a merry one.

MAFFIO.

A merry tale, Jeppo!-How happened it that Don Siliceo, a fine cavalier not more than thirty, after having gambled away his patrimony, married that rich Marquesa Calpurnia, who has counted forty-eight springs, to say the least of it? By the body of Bacchus, do you call that a gay story?

GUBETTA.

It's sad and trite-a man ruined, who marries a woman in ruins; one sees it every day.

(He turns to the table. Some get up and come to the front of the scene during the continuance of the orgie.)

THE PRINCESS NEGRONI (to Maffio, pointing to

Gennaro).

You seem, D'Orsini, to have but a melancholy friend there.

MAFFIO.

He is always so, madam. You must pardon me for having brought him without an invitation; he is my brother in arms-he saved my life in an assault at Rimini; I received a thrust intended for him in the attack of the bridge of Vicenza: we never quit one another. A gipsy predicted we should die the same day.

THE NEGRONI (smiling).

Did the gipsy say that it was to be in the night, or the morning?

MAFFIO.

He said that it should be in the morning.

THE NEGRONI.

Your Bohemian did not know what he was saying.

And you are friends with that young man?

MAFFIO.

As much as one man can be with another.

Friendship does not fill all the heart, madam.

THE NEGRONI.

My God! what does fill all the heart?

Love.

MAFFIO.

THE NEGRONI.

You have love always on your lips.

MAFFIO.

And you, madam, have love in your eyes.

THE NEGRONI.

You are very singular.

MAFFIO.

You are very beautiful!

(He puts his arm round her waist.)

THE NEGRONI.

Monsieur Orsini !*

MAFFIO.

Give me, then, one kiss upon your hand.

No.

THE NEGRONI.

(She escapes.)

GUBETTA (approaching Maffio).

Your business goes on well with the princess.

* The reader will observe that it is not my fault if the Count Orsini and the Princess Negroni behave a little too much like a young Oxonian and a Dover chambermaid.

GUBETTA.

But in a woman's mouth "No" is the eldest brother

to "Yes."

JEPPO (coming up to Maffio).

What do you think of the Princess Negroni?

MAFFIO.

She is adorable! Between ourselves, she begins to work upon my heart most furiously.

And her supper?

JEPPO.

MAFFIO.

As perfect as orgie can be!

JEPPO

The princess is a widow.

MAFFIO.

One sees that well enough by her gaiety.

JEPPO.

I hope that your fears of the supper are gone by this time?

MAFFIO.

I? how then?-I was stupid.

JEPPO (to Gubetta)

Monsieur de Belverana, you would hardly think that Maffio was afraid of supping at the princess's?

Afraid!-why?

GUBETTA.

JEPPO.

Because the palace Negroni, forsooth, joins the palace

Borgia!