gratitude, and the hand has
the power to perform what that grateful heart dictates and desires: oh!
surely if there is aught which gives mortals a foretaste of the bliss of
angels, it is when affection brings a smile upon the furrowed cheeks of
those to whom we are indebted for our existence. Tis to you that I owe
that gift; and while I have life, never will I forget that it is to you
I owe it. Now then away! one embrace: one blessing: then pray for me,
father, pray for me, and farewell!

[Exit with the lamp.

_Lod._ (_alone_) Spirits who favour virtue oh! strengthen his arms! aid
him! support him! hark he is at the door! I hear him! again, and again!
repeat the blow! hark, hark, it breaks, it shivers! and see--

_Venoni_, appearing above with the lamp.

_Venoni._ Freedom, freedom, freedom, friend, farewell! I speed to rescue
you.

[Exit.

_Lod._ Fly, fly! you bear with you my blessing! (_kneeling_) Heaven,
I adore and thank you! I have preserved a fellow creature's life.

[The scene closes.

SCENE II-- _an anti-chamber in the viceroy's palace._

Enter _Benedetto_, _Carlo_, _Pietro_, &c.

_Ben._ Here, Pietro! Carlo! where are you all? they call for more iced
water! the supper-room is not half lighted-- and Carlo, Carlo, bless my
heart! I had almost forgotten! Carlo, take three of your fellows, and
help to bring out the fat countess of Calpi, who has just fainted away
in the ball room.

[Exeunt servants.

What heat! what a crowd! nay, for that matter the fat countess of Calpi
is a crowd of herself, and though it were the depth of winter, her
presence would raise the thermometer to "boiling water." Well! I must
say, it's mighty inconsiderate in corpulent people to come abroad in
sultry weather; and if I were a senator, I'd make it high treason for
persons above a certain weight to squeeze themselves into public places
after the first of May.

Enter _Teresa_.

So, Teresa! gay doings! lord bless their elbows, how the fiddlers are
shaking them away in the ball room.

_Te._ Gay in truth. But good-lack! it only serves to make me melancholy
by reminding me, how the dear lady Josepha would have ornamented such an
entertainment! I see the marchioness is here: well! how she can find
spirits to enter scenes of gayety--

_Ben._ Nay, nay, Teresa, the viceroy insisted on her coming; but though
the scene around her is gay, that her heart is sad is but too evident.

_Te._ Ah! and w