leman clothed as a pilgrim,
interrupts the general hilarity; for when the bride enters, he throws
off the dreadful black cloak and reveals the outlaw chieftain. He
pitches himself into a variety of passionate attitudes, to the great
terror of a whole boarding school of young ladies, whom their teacher
has permitted to visit the opera to improve their style of singing. The
bride elect rushes up to him, and so they both step down to the
foot-lights. The outlaw gentleman passes his right hand round the waist
of the lady, and clasps in his left both of her's, elevating them to a
line with the breast. They remain stationary for a moment, whilst the
orchestra is playing the symphony, looking as fondly into each other's
eyes as a pair of dear little turtle doves, and smiling as sweetly as
every gentleman and lady have a right to smile under such pleasant
circumstances. There they begin to assure each other simultaneously of
the pleasure they would find in immediately dying, placed in the
attitude which they are at present enjoying so highly; by a rare and
curious accident, both repeating the same words, with the exception of
the respective substitution of the pronouns "I, you, my, your, he, she,"
as often as such substitutions become necessary--as if one should say,
for example,

I'll } bet { my } money on the bob-tail mare.
You'll} {your}

He'll } bet {his} money on the bob-tail mare.
She'll} {her}

The outlaw is, however, obliged to run and hide himself, because he
hears the king knocking to come in, and he fears that he'll be killed if
he is discovered. The king enters, and with a very "fee, fi, fo, fum"
air, asks for the body of the outlaw. The tyrant tells a most bare-faced
falsehood, swears the outlaw is not in his house, and so, the king,
after considerable use of the word wretch, traitor, menditore, &c.,
carries off the bride as a hostage, to the great chagrin of the tyrant.
As soon as the king has departed with his fair companion, the tyrant
runs to the outlaw's hiding place, and dragging him forth by the
collar, declares that he'll kill him himself. The outlaw, under great
excitement, seizes his head in both hands in a manner so terrible, that
self-decapitation would seem to be inevitable, which so alarms the
aforesaid boarding school misses, that two of them go off into
hysterics, and they are carried into the lobby, where the cutting of
their laces is attended with an explosion similar