end and servant the wink.

Now, Rigoletto was in the habit of assisting the Duke in all his
wrongdoing, and on this night the Duke confided to him his new
enchantment--not Gilda, but the Countess Ceprano.

"The Countess has a jealous husband, Rigoletto; pray what do you
advise?"

"Why, that you carry her off, to be sure; or else get rid of her
husband the Count; maybe that would be the easiest way."

The Duke was wild enough to undertake almost anything, and so with the
help of Rigoletto he was ready to undertake that. Hence, he made
desperate love to the Countess all the evening, while the Count became
more and more angry, and followed the pair continually about.

Even the courtiers were a good deal disgusted with the Duke's conduct,
and they especially hated Rigoletto, who they thought was the real
author of most of the Duke's misconduct.

"I don't know what we are coming to," Marullo exclaimed.

Yes, and 'tis here but as elsewhere!
'Tis gambling and feasting, duelling and dancing;
And love-making always, wherever he goes.
To-day he's for pastime, besieging the countess,
While we watch the husband and laugh at his woes!

This condition of things exactly suited the malevolent dwarf,
however.

After the Count had followed the Duke and Countess about the palace
half the night, the Duke came into the room in a rage.

"What am I to do with this Count? I'd like to fight him and kill him.
He torments me to death. If you don't think out a way to rid me of him
while I am making love to the Countess, I'll get some other fellow to
make life gay for me, Rigoletto," he cried to the dwarf.

"Well, have I not told you--run off with her."

"Oh, yes, that's easy enough to say."

"It's easy enough to _do_. Try it to-night!"

"But what about her husband?"

"Oh, I don't know--let him be arrested."

"No, no, that won't do; he's of noble birth. You are going too far."

"All right! If he is too good to be arrested, then exile him," the
dwarf obligingly arranges, showing thereby his notion of the fitness
of things.

"No! that would hardly do, either," the Duke exclaimed impatiently.

"Well, cut off his head, then." Rigoletto thought that should be an
ending dignified enough for any one. Meantime Ceprano overheard that
pleasing conversation.

"They are black-hearted villains," he muttered aside.

"Cut off that head so unbending," the Duke exclaimed, looking at
Ceprano, who was really a nobl