of no use, he has
struck at the provost, and, as he thinks, killed him. A crowd which he
imagines to be composed of the Provost's attendants has followed him
from the palace. Torture stares him in the face; and his physical
sensitiveness has the upper hand again. For a moment Chiappino becomes a
hero; he is shamed into nobleness. He flings his own cloak over
Luitolfo, gives him his passport, hurries him from the house, assumes
his friend's blood-stained garment, and claims his deed. But he has
scarcely done so when he perceives their mistake. Luitolfo's fears have
distorted a friendly crowd into a hostile one; and the throng which
Chiappino has nerved himself to defy is the populace of Faenza
applauding him as its saviour. He postpones the duty of undeceiving it
under pretence of the danger being not yet over. The next step will be
to refuse to do so. His moral collapse, the "tragedy" of his "soul," has
begun.

In the second act, a month later, this is complete. The papal legate,
Ogniben, has ridden on his mule in to Faenza to find out what was
wanted. "He has not come to punish; there is no harm done: for the
provost was not killed after all. He has known twenty-three leaders of
revolts," and therefore, so we understand, is not disposed to take such
persons too seriously. He has made friends with Chiappino, accepting him
in this character, and lured him on with the hope of becoming provost
himself; and Chiappino again rising--or falling--to the situation, has
discovered patriotic reasons for accepting the post. He has outgrown his
love, as well as modified his ideas of civic duty; and he disposes of
the obligations of friendship, by declaring (to Eulalia) that the blow
imputed to him was virtually his, because Luitolfo would fain have
avoided striking it, while he would have struck it if he could. The
legate draws him out in a humorous dialogue; satirizes his flimsy
sophistries under cover of endorsing them, and leads him up to a final
self-exposure.

This occurs when he reminds Chiappino in the hearing of the crowd of the
private agreement they have come to: that he is to have the title and
privileges of Provost on the one hand, and pay implicit obedience to
Rome, in the person of her legate, on the other; but with the now added
condition, that if the actual assailant of the late provost is
discovered, he shall be dealt with as he deserves. At which new view of
the situation Chiappino is silent; and Luitolfo, who ha