They were horrified at their
own doings, hearing it was Rigoletto's daughter.

"Stand back! Don't think to keep me from my daughter." As they still
held him tight, hardly knowing what then to do, he sank down in
despair. He entreated help of the different courtiers whom he had so
often and maliciously misused. Then he wept.

"Oh, have pity on me, my lords! Let me go to my daughter." While
everybody was hesitating in consternation, Gilda, having got free,
rushed from the next room, and into his arms. She screamed
hysterically that she had been carried off by the Duke. Rigoletto
nearly foamed at the mouth with rage, and at last the men became truly
afraid of him.

"Go, all of you!" he stammered, no longer able to speak plainly. "And
if the Duke comes into this room I will kill him." So the courtiers
withdrew. The palace was in an uproar.

"It is a mistake to jest with a madman," Marullo whispered to Borsa as
they went out. Father and daughter were left alone. After looking at
Gilda a moment, trying to recover himself, Rigoletto whispered.

"Now, my child; they have gone. Speak!" Gilda throwing herself into
her father's arms, told of her meetings with the Duke, and of how she
had grown to love him, and finally of how in the night she had been
carried away.

As they were in each other's arms the guard entered with old Count
Monterone, who was being taken to his cell. As he was being led across
the room, Rigoletto's wild eyes fixed themselves in horror upon the
man whose curse had cursed him. The Count paused before the Duke's
picture and cursed it.

"I shall be the instrument to fulfill thy curse, old man," Rigoletto
whispered as the Count passed out, and he made a frightful oath of
vengeance against the Duke of Mantua. His words frightened Gilda,
because she dearly loved the Duke even though she believed he had
caused her to be carried off. As the jester raised his hand to take
the dreadful oath to kill, Gilda fell upon her knees beside him.

ACT III

Rigoletto and Gilda had fled from the palace, for the dwarf meant to
hide his daughter away forever; and in the darkness they were
hurrying on their way to an old inn, which could be seen near at hand.
A swift, rushing river ran back of the inn, and the innkeeper could be
seen inside his house sitting at a table polishing an old belt. It was
the villainous old cut-throat, Sparafucile, who had stopped Rigoletto
on his way home two nights before, offering to kill