ppino says nothing. "Chiappino?" says
Eulalia, questioning him with her eyes. "Yes, I understand," he rejoins,

"You think I should have promptlier disowned
This deed with its strange unforeseen success,
In favour of Luitolfo. But the peril,
So far from ended, hardly seems begun.
To-morrow, rather, when a calm succeeds,
We easily shall make him full amends:
And meantime--if we save them as they pray,
And justify the deed by its effects?
_Eu._ You would, for worlds, you had denied at once.
_Ch._ I know my own intention, be assured!
All's well. Precede us, fellow-citizens!"

Thus ends act first, "being what was called the poetry of Chiappino's
life;" and act second, "its prose," opens after a supposed interval of a
month.

The second act exhibits, in very humorous prose, the gradual and
inevitable deterioration which the silence and the deception have
brought about. Drawn on and on, upon his own lines of thought and
conduct, by Ogniben, the Pope's legate, who has come to put down the
revolt by diplomatic measures, Chiappino denies his political
principles, finding a democratic rule not at all so necessary when the
provostship may perhaps fall to himself; denies his love, for his views
of love are, he finds, widened; and finally, denies his friend, to the
extent of arguing that the very blow which, as struck by Luitolfo, has
been the factor of his fortune, was practically, because logically, his
own. Ogniben now agrees to invest him with the Provost's office, making
at the same time the stipulation that the actual assailant of the
Provost shall suffer the proper penalty. Hereupon Luitolfo comes forward
and avows the deed. Ogniben orders him to his house; Chiappino "goes
aside for a time;" "and now," concludes the legate, addressing the
people, "give thanks to God, the keys of the Provost's palace to me, and
yourselves to profitable meditation at home."

Besides Chiappino, there are three other characters, who serve to set
off the main figure. Eulalia is an observer, Luitolfo a foil, Ogniben a
touchstone. Eulalia and Luitolfo, though sufficiently worked out for
their several purposes, are only sketches, the latter perhaps more
distinctly outlined than the former, and serving admirably as a contrast
to Chiappino. But Ogniben, who does so much of the talking in the second
act, is a really memorable figure. His portrait is painted with more
prominent