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Steph. Well?

Bal. That if.
Steph. What?

Bal. We were to endeavour

Steph. To save him?

Bal. Yesh.

Steph. Agreed-your hand

Bal. You're a merciful man, Signor Stephano! A very merciful man!

Steph. It's in my nature: I can't help it.

Balt. My own failing-I've too much of the milk of human kindness, myself.

AIR 10th.

(Duet.)

Bal.

Shall we save him?

Step. Agreed!

Both.

'Tis a merciful deed,

Not to cheat of his fee the physician.

Bal. Oh, I rather would die,

Twenty deaths, Step. So would I, Both. Than hang a young man on suspicion. Steph. Both early and late,

Bal.

The thought of his fate,

To my conscience 'twould stick like a blister.
And if he should swing,

What a terrible thing,

It would be for his poor little sister!

Steph. Fatherless and motherless!

Bal.

Sisterless and brotherless !

Left to mourn !

Steph. Forlorn!

Who shall hear her sigh?

Bal. Who her tears shall dry?

Both.

Alas! I fear, neither you nor I.

Steph. "Twould be kind just to step and tell her not to make herself too unhappy.

Bal. So it would.

Steph. I'll do it immediately.

Bal. My dear friend, I can't think of giving you the trouble: it is in my way, and I'll just look in and quiet her apprehension.-Oh, Signor! if every body felt for the distresses of their fellow-creatures, like you and me, the world would be very different from what it is. [Exeunt.

Scene, the Sea Shore.-NICOLINO and LEAH. Nic. A murderer? Leah, do I look like a murderer? Leah. Nay, be comforted, Nicolino: I am sure you are innocent.

Nic. Innocent? Heaven knows I am innocent. Commit a murder, and in the broad day-light too! Thou knowest when our cat kitten'd I could not find in my heart to have one of them drown'd. I've

a dog that's past service, yet before I'd hang him, I'd starve with him. Why, the tree, the old tree, that stands by the hut's side, I once had the axe in my hand, but I couldn't strike, lest there should be life in it.

net

Leah. Yes, Nicolino; and when I made your last

Nic. Curse on the net; not but that I am equally obliged to you, Leah :—but what were you going to say?

Leah. You told me again and again to make the meshes big enough for the little fish to escape.

Nic. So I did; yet they say I'm a murderer; that I have murder'd a fellow-creature, and that fellowcreature a woman! and that woman a Countess !

Leah. Nay, don't grieve so; let the worst come to the worst, you know you are innocent.

Nic. Why, to be sure, that will be a great consolation to me after I'm hang'd. You comfort me more like a wife than a mistress. Didn't you hear a noise? Leah. No, 'tis your fancy.

Nic. True, that makes a sound in every thing. -Again! that is not fancy, there is some one stirring in the rock this way, softly; this way. [They retire.

The Two SAILORS who carried off the COUNTESS

come forward from the rock.

1st Sail. She cannot escape, comrade.

2d Sail. No, no, she's safe enough.

1st Sail. So is that damn'd necklace, I fear: what a couple of lubbers have we been to fight for a prize, which by all the laws of war we ought to have divided at leisure.

2d Sail. Well, well, that's past: we have some hopes yet. There has been a huge swell, and who knows but the surf may have thrown it ashore?

1st Sail. Along then.

2d Sail. If we find it, no more fighting; you and I at best, I'm afraid, are but a couple of rogues; but we must be sad dogs indeed to attempt to cheat one another.

NICOLINO and LEAH come forward.

[Exeunt.

Nic. They have turn'd the point, and are clear out of sight.

Leah. You heard them talk of a necklace?

Nic. Yes, Leah, and of a lady. If it should be the Countess.

Leah. Oh, Nicolino! if we should get the reward. Nic. Hark! (The COUNTESS sings from the interior of the rock.)

AIR 11th.

Spirits of the unfathom'd deep,
Who mid the storm your vigils keep,
Catching with greedy ears,

Of sinking mariners,

The dying groans;

Yet o'er their white unshrouded bones,

Will sometimes weep.

Leah. It must be she: none but the countess could

sing so sweetly.

Nic. 'Tis either she or a mermaid-Hark!

Oh! leave them to their wat❜ry grave,

And ye who on the flagging whirlwind sleep,
Awake, arise, a living soul to save,

Spirits of the unfathom'd deep.

Leah. She has done now.

Nic. Hush! yes, quite done. I'll venture in. Leah. Nay, stop: there may be fifty more of them; and perhaps it may not be the Countess after all.

Nic. No matter, 'tis the voice of a woman in distress, and I will enter if there should be an hundred. I had better die like a man to-night, in doing an act of humanity, than be hang'd like a scoundrel tofor a crime I never committed.

morrow,

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