r son with sorrowful sternness. His eyes had
taken that bright glazed look which is an indication of frozen brain and
turbulent heart--madness that sane men enamoured can be struck by. She
knew there was no appeal to it.

A very dull continuous sound, like that of an angry swarm, or more like
a rapid mufed thrumming of wires, was heard. The audience had caught
view of a brown-coated soldier at one of the wings. The curious Croat
had merely gratified a desire to have a glance at the semicircle of
crowded heads; he withdrew his own, but not before he had awakened the
wild beast in the throng. Yet a little while and the roar of the beasts
would have burst out. It was thought that Vittoria had been seized
or interdicted from appearing. Conspirators--the knights of the
plains--meet: Rudolfos, Romualdos, Arnoldos, and others,--so that you
know Camilla is not idle. She comes on in the great scene which closes
the opera.

It is the banqueting hall of the castle. The Pontifical divorce is
spread upon the table. Courtly friends, guards, and a choric bridal
company, form a circle.

'I have obtained it,' says Count Orso: 'but at a cost.'

Leonardo, wavering eternally, lets us know that it is weighted with a
proviso: IF Camilla shall not present herself within a certain term,
this being the last day of it. Camillo comes forward. Too late, he has
perceived his faults and weakness. He has cast his beloved from his arms
to clasp them on despair. The choric bridal company gives intervening
strophes. Cavaliers enter. 'Look at them well,' says Leonardo. They
are the knights of the plains. 'They have come to mock me,' Camillo
exclaims, and avoids them.

Leonardo, Michiella, and Camillo now sing a trio that is tricuspidato,
or a three-pointed manner of declaring their divergent sentiments in
harmony. The fast-gathering cavaliers lend masculine character to
the choric refrains at every interval. Leonardo plucks Michiella
entreatingly by the arm. She spurns him. He has served her; she needs
him no more; but she will recommend him in other quarters, and bids
him to seek them. 'I will give thee a collar for thy neck, marked
"Faithful." It is the utmost I can do for thy species.' Leonardo thinks
that he is insulted, but there is a vestige of doubt in him still. 'She
is so fair! she dissembles so magnificently ever!' She has previously
told him that she is acting a part, as Camilla did. Irma had shed all
her hair from a golden circlet about