Page:The Ladies' Cabinet of Fashion, Music & Romance 1832.pdf/319



CHAPTER I.

OPPRESSION.

" BE not alarmed, fair matron-most divine ! Was a Di Doria ever ungenerous ?" " Unhand me, proud noble ! You know not what you do ; I am the wife of Massaniello ." " Massaniello ?—a fisherman, I suppose . And what is your fisherman, Massaniello , to the mightiest noble in all Naples ? By our Lady, madam, you were fit to grace the halls of the mightiest ! Am I not right, Morelli ? Speak, knave !" " Di Doria, if such you be, again I say, unhand me ! I can rouse friends by my own cottage.'"" 66 Humph, and what then? The times are too unquiet, methinks, for rank to wander thus far unattended. You see my retinue ?" " And mark it well. I beseech you release me !" " It promises well, when threats turn thus quickly into prayers. Nay, fair lady-wedded you may be-it's all one to me. What say you, Morelli, is 't fair to plunder thus in open day ?" But ere the inebriated noble could obtain reply to his appeal, the matron whom he detained by the wrist, made one violent effort, and succeeded in releasing herself from his grasp. As she turned to take advantage of her escape in flight, he whose wife she had acknowledged herself, stood before her, gazing with all the indignation of an injured man, at the wretch who thus invaded his fireside rights. She sprang to his side with an exclamation of joy, as at deliverance from a mighty danger, and as if his single arm were to protect her against the armed opera which bears its name. It will be new, however, to a large portion of our readers. CC MAY, 1839.
 * Many play-goers will recognise in this story the incidents ofthe fine