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FLORENTINE.

Thanks; I will be secret as the grave.Exit.

CASTRUCCIO.

I loathe the tools that I perforce must use;

For sooner would I hang yon knave than pay him.
Crime takes no shape so base as treachery,
And yonder slave betrays his city's council
For a few ducats; but the time will come,
When, strong in Lucca's cause, I shall not need
Such an unworthy means; the slave and spy
Belong to tyranny, and freedom works
With nobler instruments.

Going out, Claricha returns, they meet face to face, and
recognize each other.

CASTRUCCIO.

My loved, my lost, my beautiful Claricha!

CLARICHA.

Oh! wake me not, Amino, if I dream.

CASTRUCCIO.

Amino! how that name recalls my youth!

But whence art thou? when last I sought our home,
There was no vestige of the humble roof
That was the shelter of our early years.
I only found a heap of blacken'd ashes
O'er which the green weeds had begun to trail.

CLARICHA.

You had not left us but a few sad months,

When, burnt and plunder'd by the Florentines,
Our village 'mid its vineyards lay in ruins;
The aid from Lucca sent, arrived too late