BEAUSEANT AND GLAVIS (confusedly).

Ha ha! very good joke that!

(Appear to remonstrate with Melnotte in dumb show.)

DAMAS.

What's all that whispering? I am sure there is some juggle here; hang me if I think he is an Italian, after all. Gad! I'll try him. Servitore umilissimo, eccellenza.*

MELNOTTE.

Hum; what does he mean, I wonder?

Fa bel tempo che si dice di nuovo?‡

MELNOTTE.

Well, sir, what's all that gibberish?

DAMAS.

Oh, oh! only Italian, your highness! The Prince of Como does not understand his own language!

MELNOTTE.

Not as you pronounce it; who the deuse could ?

MADAME DESCHAP.

Ha ha! Cousin Damas, never pretend to what you don't know.

* Your excellency's most humble servant.
+ I am glad to see you in good health.
Fine weather! What news is there?

PAULINE.

Ha! ha! Cousin Damas; you speak Italian, indeed! (Makes a mocking gesture at him.)

BEAUSEANT (to Glavis).

Clever dog! how ready!

GLAVIS.

Ready, yes; with my diamond ring! Damn his readiness!

DAMAS.

Laugh at me! laugh at a colonel in the French army! The fellow's an impostor; I know he is. I'll see if he understands fighting as well as he does Italian. (Goes up to him, and aside) Sir, you are a jackanapes! Can you construe that?

MELNOTTE.

No, sir; I never construe affronts in the presence of ladies; by-and-by I shall be happy to take a lesson, or give one.

Let us after, and pacify him; he evidently suspects

something.

GLAVIS.

Yes! but my diamond ring!

BEAUSEANT.

And my box! We are overtaxed, fellow-subject! we must stop the supplies, and dethrone the prince!

GLAVIS.

Prince! he ought to be heir-apparent to King Stork! [Exeunt.

MADAME DESCHAP.

Dare I ask your highness to forgive my cousin's insufferable vulgarity?

PAULINE.

Oh, yes! you will forgive his manner for the sake of his heart.

MELNOTTE.

sure of our position Besides, M. Damas

And the sake of his cousin. Ah, madame, there is one comfort in rank: we are so that we are not easily affronted. has bought the right of indulgence from his friends by never showing it to his enemies.

PAULINE.

Ah! he is, indeed, as brave in action as he is rude in speech. H rose from the ranks to his present grade, and in two years!

MELNOTTE.

In two years! two years, did you say?

MADAME DESCHAP. (aside).

I don't like leaving girls alone with their lovers; but, with a prince, it would be so ill-bred to be prudish. [Exit.

MELNOTTE.

You can be proud of your connexion with one who owes his position to merit, not birth.

There is something glorious in the heritage of command. A man who has ancestors is like a representative of the past.

MELNOTTE.

True; but, like other representatives, nine times out of ten he is a silent member. Ah, Pauline! not to the past, but to the future, looks true nobility, and finds its blazon in posterity.

PAULINE.

You say this to please me, who have no ancestors; but you, prince, must be proud of so illustrious a race!

MELNOTTE.

No, no! I would not, were I fifty times a prince, be a pensioner on the dead! I honour birth and ancestry when they are regarded as the incentives to exertion, not the title-deeds to sloth! I honour the laurels that overshadow the graves of our fathers; it is our fathers I emulate when I desire that beneath the evergreen I myself have planted my own ashes may repose! Dearest! couldst thou but see with my eyes!

PAULINE.

I cannot forego pride when I look on thee, and think that thou lovest me. Sweet prince, tell me again of thy palace by the Lake of Como; it is so pleasant to hear of thy splendours since thou didst swear to me that they would be desolate without Pauline; and when thou describest them, it is with a mocking lip

and a noble scorn, as if custom had made thee disdain greatness.

MELNOTTE.

Nay, dearest, nay, if thou wouldst have me paint
The home to which, could love fulfil its prayers,
This hand would lead thee, listen!* a deep vale
Shut out by Alpine hills from the rude world;
Near a clear lake, margined by fruits of gold
And whispering myrtles; glassing softest skies
As cloudless, save with rare and roseate shadows,
As I would have thy fate!

PAULINE.

My own dear love!

MELNOTTE.

A palace lifting to eternal summer

Its marble walls, from out a glossy bower
Of coolest foliage musical with birds,

Whose songs should syllable thy name! At noon
We'd sit beneath the arching vines, and wonder
Why earth could be unhappy, while the heavens
Still left us youth and love! We'd have no friends
That were not lovers; no ambition, save

To excel them all in love! We'd read no books
That were not tales of love, that we might smile
To think how poorly eloquence of words
Translates the poetry of hearts like ours!
And when night came, amid the breathless heavens
We'd guess what star should be our home when love

The reader will observe that Melnotte evades the request of Pauline. He proceeds to describe a home, which he does not say he possesses, but to which he would lead her, "could love fulfil its prayers." This caution is intended as a reply to a sagacious critic who censures the description, because it is not an exact and prosaic inventory of the characteristics of the Lake of Coma! When Melnotte, for instance, talks of birds "that syllable the name of Pauline" (by-the-way, a literal translation from an Italian poet), he is not thinking of ornithology, but probably of the Arabian Nights. He is venting the extravagant, but natural enthusiasm, of the poet and the lover.