Scene VI.
Battista and Marinelli.
BATTISTA (in haste).
The mother, my lord chamberlain----
MARINELLI.
As I suspected. Where is she?
BATTISTA.
She will be here immediately, unless you prevent it. When you ordered me to pretend to look for her, I felt little inclination to do so. But in the distance I heard her shrieks. She is in search of her daughter, and will discover the whole plot. All the people who inhabit this retired spot have gathered round her, and each vies with his neighbour to show her the way. Whether she has been told that you are here, or that the Prince is here, I know not. What is to be done?
MARINELLI.
Let us see (considering). Refuse her admittance when she knows that her daughter is here? That will not do. She will certainly open her eyes when she finds her lambkin in the clutches of the wolf. Eyes! They would be of little consequence; but Heaven have mercy on our ears! Well, well. A woman's lungs are not inexhaustible. She will be silent, when she can shriek no longer. Besides, the mother it is whom we should gain over to our side--and if I be a judge of mothers--to be a sort of prince's step--mother would flatter most of them. Let her come, Battista, let her come.