Chapter 8

Enter _Benedetto_, _Carlo_, _Pietro_, &c.

_Ben._ Here, Pietro! Carlo! where are you all? they call for more iced water! the supper-room is not half lighted-- and Carlo, Carlo, bless my heart! I had almost forgotten! Carlo, take three of your fellows, and help to bring out the fat countess of Calpi, who has just fainted away in the ball room.

[Exeunt servants.

What heat! what a crowd! nay, for that matter the fat countess of Calpi is a crowd of herself, and though it were the depth of winter, her presence would raise the thermometer to “boiling water.” Well! I must say, it’s mighty inconsiderate in corpulent people to come abroad in sultry weather; and if I were a senator, I’d make it high treason for persons above a certain weight to squeeze themselves into public places after the first of May.

Enter _Teresa_.

So, Teresa! gay doings! lord bless their elbows, how the fiddlers are shaking them away in the ball room.

_Te._ Gay in truth. But good-lack! it only serves to make me melancholy by reminding me, how the dear lady Josepha would have ornamented such an entertainment! I see the marchioness is here: well! how she can find spirits to enter scenes of gayety--

_Ben._ Nay, nay, Teresa, the viceroy insisted on her coming; but though the scene around her is gay, that her heart is sad is but too evident.

_Te._ Ah! and well it may be sad-- after shutting her daughter up in the convent where she caught that fatal malady--

_Ben._ Could she foresee that? and why lay all the blame upon the marchioness? surely the marquis is almost as culpable for consenting that--

_Te._ By no means, Benedetto, by no means; the marquis only did what every sensible man ought to do; he obeyed his wife-- but as for the marchioness-- oh! I have no patience with her!

_Ben._ So it appears, Teresa; and shall I tell you why? because the marchioness is a woman, and you are a woman too: now I’ve always observed that when a female has done wrong, she ever meets with least indulgence from persons of her own sex; and whenever I want to hear the foibles of one woman properly cut up, I never fail to ask another woman what she thinks of them.

_Ser._ (_without_) Benedetto, Benedetto!

_Ben._ Coming, coming! [Exit.

_Te._ Well, there is one thing that seems to me very strange; Benedetto has certainly an excellent understanding-- and yet he isn’t always of my opinion-- now that appears to me quite unaccountable. (_going_)

Father _Michael_ rushes in out of breath.

_Mi._ Heaven be praised! then I am arrived at last.

_Te._ A friar! your business, father?

_Mi._ Tis with the viceroy; good daughter, lead me to him this instant.

_Te._ This instant? oh, mercy on me, you can’t see him tonight, if you’d give your eyes.

_Mi._ I must, I tell you! I must! my business is of such importance, that--

Enter _Benedetto_.

_Ben._ Why, Teresa! dawdling here, while the maids--

[Exit Teresa.

_Mi._ Tis the same! how fortunate!-- worthy old man--

_Ben._ Is it you, father? why, you were out, when his excellence went this evening to--

_Mi._ I was at home-- but the prior’s suspicions-- I was a prisoner; and-- but this is no time for explanation-- lead me to your lord! away.

_Ben._ Impossible, father! all the grandees of Messina-- a banquet, a ball-- dont you hear the music? but doubtless tomorrow--

_Mi._ Tomorrow will be too late! alas! perhaps it is too late already! perhaps at this very moment Venoni is no more!

_Ben._ No more. Venoni? follow me, father, follow me this instant-- stay, stay! as I live, here comes his excellence himself.

Enter the _Viceroy_ and _Hortensia_.

_Vice._ Nay, dear Hortensia-- how now? what would you, father?

_Mi._ Pardon my intrusion, noble sir, but my business will not brook delay-- I am that friar whose letter this morning--

_Vice._ Father Michael? speak! come you from Venoni?

_Mi._ He is in danger-- perhaps is already no more! oh, speed for his aid! rescue him, if possible; if too late, avenge him! if he still lives, I suspect the place of his confinement, and can guide you thither: if this bloody deed is already accomplished, at least let us punish the crimes of his assassin, the monster Cœlestino!

_Vice._ His assassin!

_Hor._ Cœlestino? stay, brother, stay! will you on the word of an unknown believe that a man whose whole course of life has been so pure, so pious--

_Mi._ Nay, lady, for heaven’s love delay us not; these moments are precious, are dreadful! these moments decide the life or death of a human being-- come, come, my lord! let the prior be seized; terror will doubtless compel him to confess my charge! secure, too, the abbess of the Ursulines; she can confirm my story; she well knows that the prior’s licentious love for your niece, for the murdered Josepha--

_Hor._ Murdered? my child?

_Vice._ Horror crowds on horror! within there! my servants! my guards! away to the monastery; if there denied admittance, we’ll force the gates!-- Venoni, thou shalt be preserved, or avenged most dreadfully. On, on, good friar! away!

[Exeunt.

_Hor._ (_alone_) Can it be? Cœlestino-- the abbess-- he, whom I ever thought so holy-- she, in whom I reposed such fatal confidence?-- distracting doubts, I must be satisfied;-- yes! I’ll hasten to the Ursulines; I’ll interrogate the abbess myself! I’ll question-- I’ll threaten; and if I find her guilty-- oh! then if her heart possesses but one feeling fibre, it will surely writhe with agony, when she hears the groans, when she sees the anguish of a despairing, of a childless mother!

[Exit.