etta and the weight of his chains and il cuore di Sansone, and he
threatened them over and over again, and struggled and shook himself and
made great efforts to get free, so that the soldiers shrank back.
Suddenly he broke his chains, and the soldiers all ran away and Samson
after them, leaving the paladin alone. A soldier soon returned and
announced that Samson was committing deeds of violence behind. This
frightened the paladin; he winked nervously and hurried away,
exclaiming--

"Arrest him, arrest him; I'm off," amid the derisive laughter of the
audience.

Then Samson came on in his fury, armed with the jawbone of an ass;
Turiddu said it was of a horse, but I knew better, at least, I knew what
it ought to have been. The soldiers did their best, but he knocked them
all down again as before amid immense cheering.

The next scene was outside a castle in the country. Samson came on alone
with his jawbone, and stood silent, very terrible, and waiting for an
opportunity to break out.

The silence was prolonged. Nothing happened. It was a pause of
expectation.

Then we heard a voice, a solemn, cavernous voice with a vibrato like a
cinematograph, calling loud and slow--

"Sansone, Sansone, Sansone!"

"Whose voice is that?" exclaimed Samson, looking round and seeing no one.

The voice repeated its call two or three times and at last Samson
recognized it.

"E la voce del mio genitore."

"Sansone, Sansone, Sansone! In questa torre sono incarcerato."

Then Samson understood that Manoah had been arrested and imprisoned and
must be delivered. He approached the castle and knocked.

"Chi e?" said the porter.

"Son io, Sansone."

We heard a movement of consternation within the castle and then Samson
called out--

"Aprite."

There was more consternation and the voice of Pasquino or Onofrio was
heard speaking in dialect which made the audience laugh. The castle sent
a messenger who came on and asked what Samson wanted.

"Open the door and give me my father," said Samson with suppressed rage.
Throughout Samson behaved with extreme moderation. But the messenger,
instead of doing as he was told, approached Samson in a hostile manner.
Samson took him in his arms and, with his great strength, threw him up
and out of sight. We heard his body fall inside the castle walls.

"Aprite," said Samson.

Then several messengers came, sometimes singly, sometimes two together,
and once four soldiers came and said--