poor, homeless wretches, starving vagrants, sleeping out-of-doors, and lead them to the morgue, which was filled with suicides and the bodies of those who had been murdered, or who had died in the streets from hunger and cold. There are myriads of them in the winter-time—men and women and children, too. It was horrible! He threw money on the corpses, and the terrible struggle of that maddened throng, frenzied at the sight of the gold, was an awful thing to see. One coin fell into an open wound; a hundred hands grappled upon it. They pushed the bodies aside, they trampled them under foot, while he—he did not even smile; he looked and looked as the devil must look from hell upon the crimes poor wretches commit who are hungry and cold, crushed beneath the selfishness of the heartless and the rich. This is that Prince who is so pale that he freezes the blood with his eye.
Donina. I did not hate him for nothing. Nunu shall not go with him to-night—or he will never see me any more!
Imperia. Will you come with me?
Donina. No, not without him. I said that he would never see me, because I would kill myself; I could never leave him in any other way.
Imperia. Love in life or in death! Be it so.
Zaida. The music, Donina! The act before our number. We must not be late…
Donina. No, to sing and dance! But he shall not go tonight! He shall not go! Are you coming in to see me?
Imperia. Yes.
Donina. Good-by, then. Give me a kiss. [Indicating Zaida] And one for her, too.
Zaida. I love you, too, Signora—all, all who love Donina.
Zaida and Donina go out. The Countess Rinaldi and Leonardo enter.
Leonardo. Having rescued you from one danger, how is
