A sudden thought of rescue had like a flash of lightning arisen in
Carlo's soul.
"Natalie must first be completely separated from this society, and then
I will seek this man and render him incapable of mischief!" thought he.
By main strength he made himself a path through the crowd surrounding
Corilla, and now stood near Cardinal Bernis, at whose side still
remained Natalie and Count Paulo.
"You have struck the lyre like an Apollo," exclaimed the cardinal to the
singer.
Carlo bowed with a smile, and hastily said: "And are you ignorant,
your eminence, that a much greater poetess and improvisatrice than our
Corilla is in your society?"
The cardinal smilingly threatened him with his finger. "Poor Carlo, has
it already come to this?" said he. "You are jealous of our delight in
Corilla, and would lessen her fame, that you may make her more your
own!"
"I speak the truth," said Carlo; "a poetess is among us whom the
muses themselves have consecrated, an improvisatrice, not of human
composition, but by the grace of God, to whom the angels whisper the
rhymes, and the muses the ideas!"
"And who, then, is this divinely-gifted artist, this consecrated
daughter of the muses?" wonderingly asked the cardinal.
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