Mar. Love for me?

Bal. Yesh, I meant the necklace for you; your charms, your eyes, your lips, your shape-theyare all accomplices.

1

Mar. And you betrayed him out of love for me?

Bal. Oh no, that wash out of love for my country!

But you know he's not hanged yet; and if you could only cast upon me the look of affection

Mar. Well, what then?

Bal. Why then I think I could contrive to soften the evidence a little. Let those eyes shine comfort upon me, and they shall drop no more tears for Nicolino.

Mar. That is, you'll be a rogue, if I'll consent to be--something a great deal worse.

Bal. Pho, pho! you know I would marry you, but it is against my religion and my conscience.

Mar. And what does your conscience say to ruining a poor girl?

Bal. Oh! my conscience says nothing at all about that.

Mar. Then your conscience is a very easy one.
Bal. Yesh, a good man has always an easy

conscience.

Mar. Why, you see it isn't so much the thing itself

as the scandal of it that I'm afraid of— If I thought you would certainly be secret.

Bal. Aye, now you talk like a woman of sense. Secret! do you take me for a young rake who chatters his gallantries over his wine? What can I get by blabbing?

Mar. True; then upon one condition

Bal. What ish dat?

Mar. That you dress yourself like a Christian. Bal. Oh! if dat ish all, I will dress myself like a Turk, a Christian, or a—

Mar. Well then-in the first place, you must cut off your beard.

Bal. Cut off my beard? Ash I hope to be shaved, I will not cut off my beard!

Mar. Then Nicolino must be hanged, and I will remain an honest woman.

Bal. But why should I cut off my beard?

Mar. Because you must dress yourself like Signor Stephano; he, you know, is a judge, and by virtue of his office may visit any body at any hour.

Bal. But then, if I should be discovered?

Mar. No fear of that; nobody dares peep under the robe of a judge.

Bal. Well, dat ish true; and then you know—

he, he, ha! I shall have the pleasure of the thing, and he-ha, ha, ha! will have the reputation of it!

Mar. Yes-ha, ha, ha, ha!

Bal. I dare say he'd do as much for me.

Mar. That I'm sure he would,

Bal. But hold! hold!

If I consent to soften the

evidence, how will you prevail upon his worship? Mar. Pho! I've settled matters with him already. Bal. What, a bribe, I suppose?

Mar. Yes.

Bal. Oh, he's a sad mercenary dog. Well, well, then; a little after eight you shall see Signor Stephano -ha, ha, ha!

Mar. Yes, or somebody very much like him ha, ha, ha!

Bal. Ha, ha, ha! very good! but can't it be done without my cutting off my beard?

Mar. Oh, no, impossible. You know your beard will grow again.

Bal. Dat ish true. I did not think of that.

Hark! I hear Signor Stephano: you'll see me a little after eight.

Mar. You won't forget the pardon.

Bal. No, no! (ÁS MARTHA goes out on one side the Stage, STEPHANO enters on the other.) I don't

like cutting off my beard.-But hush! Signor Stephano, your very humble servant. How shall I break it to him. (Aside.)

Steph. I understand you have business with me, Signor Balthazar. `I hope he'll begin the subject.

(Aside.)

Bal. Why, I must confess there is an affair I wished to have consulted you upon; but then it is a melancholy business, and I do not like to make my friends melancholy. I have been thinking, Signor Stephano, of my poor friend Nicolino, who is to be hanged to-morrow; and though my conscience was his accuser, yet his fate touches my bowels with pity and commiseration.

Steph. The very thing. (Aside.) Why, Signor Balthazar, to confess the truth I don't know how it

is

there's no accounting, you know, for the influence of the tender feelings but I can't help pitying the young man, myself: but then, you know, justice

Bal. Yesh, I know justice must be done: but mercy, Signor Stephano- my dear friend, Signor Stephano, mercy, you know —

Steph. Why, that's true! Justice should be tempered with mercy. 'Tis a hard case, I must confess. Bal. Oh, yesh, a very hard case.

Steph. But then, the necklace being found in his possession

Bal. Why, dat ish a little aukward, to be sure. Steph. But then, you know, it's possible he may have found it.

Bal. Do you think it possible?

Steph. Yes, I do think it very possible.

Bal. Upon my conscience, I think it probable. Steph. I think it very probable myself: and then, as you observe, there's no positive proof against him.

Bal. None at all. If I should hang an innocent man, and my friend too

Steph. You'd be damn'd, to a certainty.

Bal. I should never sleep in my bed without seeing his gibbet, and hearing the rattling of his chains! Steph. Nor I. Then, to cut him off in the very bloom of his youth!

Bal. Not yet twenty.

Steph. And his poor sister!

Bal. Will be left quite desolate.
Steph. Nobody to comfort her!

Bal. Nobody!

Steph. I declare it brings the tears into my eyes.

(Weeps.)

Bal. So it does into mine, I protest. (Weeps.) I

have been thinking, Signor Stephano