SCENE II-- _an anti-chamber in the viceroy’s palace._ Enter _Benedetto_, _Carlo_, _Pietro_, &c. _Ben._ Here, Pietro! Carlo! where are you all? they call for more iced water! the supper-room is not half lighted-- and Carlo, Carlo, bless my heart! I had almost forgotten! Carlo, take three of your fellows, and help to bring out the fat countess of Calpi, who has just fainted away in the ball room. [Exeunt servants. What heat! what a crowd! nay, for that matter the fat countess of Calpi is a crowd of herself, and though it were the depth of winter, her presence would raise the thermometer to “boiling water.” Well! I must say, it’s mighty inconsiderate in corpulent people to come abroad in sultry weather; and if I were a senator, I’d make it high treason for persons above a certain weight to squeeze themselves into public places after the first of May. Enter _Teresa_. So, Teresa! gay doings! lord bless their elbows, how the fiddlers are shaking them away in the ball room. _Te._ Gay in truth. But good-lack! it only serves to make me melancholy by reminding me, how the dear lady Josepha would have ornamented such an entertainment! I see the marchioness is here: well! how she can find spirits to enter scenes of gayety-- _Ben._ Nay, nay, Teresa, the viceroy insisted on her coming; but though the scene around her is gay, that her heart is sad is but too evident. _Te._ Ah! and well it may be sad-- after shutting her daughter up in the convent where she caught that fatal malady-- _Ben._ Could she foresee that? and why lay all the blame upon the marchioness? surely the marquis is almost as culpable for consenting that-- _Te._ By no means, Benedetto, by no means; the marquis only did what every sensible man ought to do; he obeyed his wife-- but as for the marchioness-- oh! I have no patience with her! _Ben._ So it appears, Teresa; and shall I tell you why? because the marchioness is a woman, and you are a woman too: now I’ve always observed that when a female has done wrong, she ever meets with least indulgence from persons of her own sex; and whenever I want to hear the foibles of one woman properly cut up, I never fail to ask another woman what she thinks of them. _Ser._ (_without_) Benedetto, Benedetto! _Ben._ Coming, coming! [Exit. _Te._ Well, there is one thing that seems to me very strange; Benedetto has certainly an excellent understanding-- and yet he isn’t always of my opinion-- now that appears to me quite unaccountable. (_going_) Father _Michael_ rushes in out of breath. _Mi._ Heaven be praised! then I am arrived at last. _Te._ A friar! your business, father? _Mi._ Tis with the viceroy; good daughter, lead me to him this instant. _Te._ This instant? oh, mercy on me, you can’t see him tonight, if you’d give your eyes. _Mi._ I must, I tell you! I must! my business is of such importance, that-- Enter _Benedetto_. _Ben._ Why, Teresa! dawdling here, while the maids-- [Exit Teresa.