Either  Le  Roi  samtise — that  is  to  say,  La
Maledizione — or  nothing  !

What  was  to  be  done  ^.  Every  one  was  in
despair,  every  one  was  preparing  to  throw  the
handle  after  the  axe,  when  the  situation  was  saved
by  a  Deus  ex  machind  presenting  himself — who
would  have  believed  it  ? — under  the  guise  of  a
commissary  of  police.  Yes,  it  was  a  commis-
sary of  police,  of  the  name  of  Martello,  a  man
not  altogether  wanting  in  literary  taste,  who
came  one  day  to  Piave,  and  gave  him,  in  an
unlooked-for  manner,  the  solution  of  the  problem
which  the  latter  was  vainly  trying  to  resolve.
That  is,  he  pointed  out  to  him  unimportant,
but  nevertheless  essential,  modifications  in  his


RIGOLETTO       AND    THE   CENSURE.  1 35

work,  advised  him  to  substitute  for  the  cha-
racter of  the  King  that  of  the  Duke  of  Mantua,
and  even  furnished  him  with  a  new  title  —
Rigoletto,  B2tffo7ie  di  Corte.  In  a  word,  all  was
saved,  thanks  to  the  intervention,  as  effectual  as
it  was  unexpected,  of  this  member  of  the  police,
who,  it  is  well  to  remark,  had  distinguished
himself  by  his  zeal  and  ardour  in  pursuing
Italian  patriots,  and  in  using  them  harshly.  So
true  is  it  that  in  this  world  we  should  be  sur-
prised at  nothing.
