"A Hund...."
"Oh, Giulia!"
"About one hundred ducats...."
"Alas! they are not enough!"
Giulia shrugged her shoulders. Titta, after remaining thoughtful a while, continued:
"But one must never despair of one's country, as Themistocles said: if you will help me, there is a way to seize fortune by the hair. Listen attentively, woman.... You must know that the lord, my master, is a revengeful man...."
"All the worse for him...."
"A strange notion has got into his head: he thinks the discoveries of Columbus, Americus, Cabot, Pigafetta, and all others, but little compared to the wonderful one he is about to make. And not only that: he intends that all the world should know it, and we must help him in this discovery...."
"Oh, power of wine!"
"Woman, listen. This discovery consists in knowing that his wife is unfaithful to him. He has already received flying reports of it, but he wishes to know them certainly, and touch with his own hands, as the proverb says; then he will intrust this most beautiful affair to the seven trumpets of fame, and I rather think that he will have it published by Torrentino in octave rhymes.... Come nearer, for I wish to speak to you lower.—He, the Duke, has sent me on purpose to see how things stand, and to report them to him; and if I carry to him a certain proof of it, he has promised me three hundred ducats of reward, besides his everlasting protection, and many other favors...."