MASC. Ah blockhead! numskull! idiot! Will you never leave off
persecuting me?

ERG. The constable took great care everything was going on smoothly; the
fellow would have been in jail, had not your master come up that very
moment, and, like a madman spoiled your plot. "I cannot suffer," says he
in a loud voice, "that a respectable man should be dragged to prison in
this disgraceful manner; I will be responsible for him, from his very
looks, and will be his bail." And as they refused to let him go, he
immediately and so vigorously attacked the officers, who are a kind of
people much afraid of their carcasses, that, even at this very moment,
they are running, and every man thinks he has got a Lelio at his heels.

MASC. The fool does not know that this gipsy is in the house already to
carry off his treasure.

ERG. Good-bye, business obliges me to leave you.




SCENE II.--MASCARILLE, _alone_.


Yes, this last marvellous accident quite stuns me. One would think, and
I have no doubt of it, that this bungling devil which possesses Lelio
takes delight in defying me, and leads him into every place where his
presence can do mischief. Yet I shall go on, and notwithstanding all
these buffets of fortune, try who will carry the day. Celia has no
aversion to him, and looks upon her departure with great regret. I must