"What am I to do with this Count? I'd like to fight him and kill him. He torments me to death. If you don't think out a way to rid me of him while I am making love to the Countess, I'll get some other fellow to make life gay for me, Rigoletto," he cried to the dwarf. "Well, have I not told you--run off with her." "Oh, yes, that's easy enough to say." "It's easy enough to _do_. Try it to-night!" "But what about her husband?" "Oh, I don't know--let him be arrested." "No, no, that won't do; he's of noble birth. You are going too far." "All right! If he is too good to be arrested, then exile him," the dwarf obligingly arranges, showing thereby his notion of the fitness of things. "No! that would hardly do, either," the Duke exclaimed impatiently. "Well, cut off his head, then." Rigoletto thought that should be an ending dignified enough for any one. Meantime Ceprano overheard that pleasing conversation. "They are black-hearted villains," he muttered aside. "Cut off that head so unbending," the Duke exclaimed, looking at Ceprano, who was really a noble-appearing aristocrat. "Aye--we have discovered its use. Cut it off; that will make it pliant," the charming dwarf said, facetiously; and that being a bit too much for any noble to put up with, the Count drew his sword. "Enough! you ribald hunchback," he cried; at which the Duke became uneasy. "Yes, come here, you jesting fool!" he called to Rigoletto, trying to turn the matter off. "We've had enough of your jests. We are tired of you. I advise you not to impose too much on our good humour, because some of this maliciousness may come back at you." But the Count was not so easily to be pacified. He turned to the other nobles and asked them to help him revenge himself; but the Duke of Mantua was very powerful, and few were willing to displease him, however much they disapproved of his conduct. "What can we do?" several of them murmured, and meanwhile the dwarf was trying aside to secure help in carrying off the Countess for the Duke. That was really too audacious, and all of the nobles finally sided with the Count, privately agreeing to help him ruin the dwarf, since they dared not directly oppose the Duke. While the excitement of this general quarrel was at its height, the dancers all poured in from the other room and began to sing gaily of life's pleasures, which were about all that made life worth living. In the very midst of this revelry some one without made a great noise and demanded instant admittance. The Duke recognized the voice of Monterone, a powerful noble, whom he had wronged and cried out angrily: "He shall not come in." As a fact, Rigoletto had carried off Monterone's daughter for the Duke but a little time before. "Make way there," the old Count insisted, more enraged than ever, and forcing his way past the attendants, he entered the room. He was an old and proud man and the nobles present were bound to give heed to him.