"It is the time of my vengeance, now," he muttered to himself. He tried the inn door and found it locked. "He cannot have done the deed yet," he muttered. After waiting a little he knocked. "Who's there?" "I am known to thee," he whispered back; at this Sparafucile came out, dragging behind him a sack. "Bring a light," Rigoletto called, "that I may see him." "That's all right--but you pay my money first," the cut-throat insisted. Rigoletto impatiently paid him. "I'll throw him into the river, myself," Rigoletto said triumphantly. "The tide is shallow here--go farther on--and be sure no one surprises you," Sparafucile advised. "Good night," he said shortly, and went inside the inn. Then Rigoletto stood in the dripping road looking gloatingly at the sack. "I've got you at last," he chuckled, diabolically, "I have revenge for your treatment of my daughter. My dear daughter! The child of my heart!" At the very thought of what she had suffered the dwarf sobbed. "I'll put my foot upon you, you noble vermin," he cried, kicking the body in the sack. At that moment he heard a song--_La Donna e Mobile_--The voice! Was he going mad? He knew the voice. He had heard it only a few hours ago, in the inn--he had heard it daily at court--_La Donna e Mobile_! He looked toward the windows of the inn. _La Donna e Mobile!_ As he looked he saw the Duke and Maddalena step from the window to the terrace that ran by the river bank. "_La Donna e Mobile_," the Duke sang gaily. With a frightful cry, Rigoletto dragged the sack open and the body of his murdered daughter rolled out upon the road. She moved ever so little. "Father?" and she gasped out the truth, with a dying breath, while the dwarf shrieked and tore his hair. "The curse, the curse! Monterone's curse!" he screamed, and went raving mad. IL TROVATORE CHARACTERS OF THE OPERA, WITH THE ORIGINAL CAST AS PRESENTED AT THE FIRST PERFORMANCE Leonora Penco Azucena Goggi Inez Quadri Manrico Baucarde Count di Luna Guicciardi Ferrando Balderi Ruiz Bazzoli An old gipsy. Messenger, jailer, soldiers, nuns, gipsies, and attendants. The story belongs to the fifteenth century in Spain, and tells of the border wars of northern Spain, carried on in the provinces of Arragon and Biscay. Composer: Giuseppe Verdi. Author: Cammarano. First sung in Rome, _Teatro Apollo_, January, 19, 1853; Paris, _Theatre des Italiens_, December 23, 1854 (in Italian); at the _Opera_, January 12, 1857 (in French); London, Covent Garden, May 17, 1855; New York, Academy of Music, April 30, 1855. ACT I [Music] There you are, prepared for almost anything in the way of battle, murder, or sudden death, to the accompaniment of beautiful music; opera in true Italian style, at its second best.