In the first part of the fifth act, Niccolini deals again with the _rôle_ which woman has played in the tragedy of Italian history, the hopes she has defeated, and the plans she has marred through those religious instincts which should have blest her country, but which through their perversion by priestcraft have been one of its greatest curses. Adrian is in the Vatican, after his triumphant return to Rome, when Adelasia, the wife of that Ostasio, Count of the Campagna, in whose castle Arnaldo is concealed, and who shares his excommunication, is ushered into the Pope's presence. She is half mad with terror at the penalties under which her husband has fallen, in days when the excommunicated were shunned like lepers, and to shelter them, or to eat and drink with them, even to salute them, was to incur privation of the sacraments; when a bier was placed at their door, and their houses were stoned; when King Robert of France, who fell under the anathema, was abandoned by all his courtiers and servants, and the beggars refused the meat that was left from his table--and she comes into Adrian's presence accusing herself as the greatest of sinners. The Pope asks: Hast thou betrayed Thy husband, or from some yet greater crime Cometh the terror that oppresses thee? Hast slain him? _Adelasia._ Haply I ought to slay him. _Adrian._ What? _Adelasia._ I fain would hate him and I cannot. _Adrian._ What Hath his fault been? _Ad._ Oh, the most horrible Of all. _Adr._ And yet is he dear unto thee?