[VERONA.]
THE AMPHITHEATRE, VERONA.
Jones asks Robinson, whether he "Sees before him the gladiator die?" but Robinson maintains a dignified silence.
Austrian detective stops Brown to examine his sketching stool. It puzzles him. There is an air of mystery about it. It might possibly be a weapon to be used for political purposes, or an infernal machine! Who knows? On the whole, he thinks he had better detain it.
SCENE--DISCOVERS BROWN SKETCHING.
Enter the Austrian army. They advance upon him, they think he is taking the fortifications.
Robinson, who is much given to quotation, is, at the very moment, languidly reciting the lines:--
"Am I in Italy? Is this the Mincius?
And those the distant turrets of Verona?
And shall I sup where Juliet at the masque Saw her loved Montague?" --etc., etc.
Not being familiar with the German, or the Croatian language, Brown is helpless. He protests his innocence, but the military don't understand him. They see treason in his hat, which is of an illegal shape, and they arrest him.
Jones and Robinson appear, to the surprise of the military, and relief of Brown.
Brown, quite resigned, walks quietly to meet his fate. Jones plunges violently, but is finally overcome. Robinson resists passively, and is accordingly dragged along.
SKETCHES FOUND UPON BROWN.
They are brought before the Governor. That is he seated at the table, the soldiers showing him the libellous representations of the Croats found in Brown's portfolio. The latter expects to be ordered for instant execution; but Jones assumes an air of great dignity, and says, "_Civis Romanus sum_."
The Governor, Field-Marshal Lieutenant Count Brown, of the Imperial service, discovers in his prisoner a near relation of his own; and our friend is instantly locked in the embrace of that distinguished warrior.
Jones remarked "All's well that ends well;" and Robinson, greatly relieved, broke out with:--
"Thus may each" nephew "whom chance directs, Find an" uncle "when he least expects."
[VENICE.]
EXAMINATION OF PASSPORTS.
HOTEL.
MODERN VENETIAN TROUBADOURS.
An evening scene before the Cafe Florian, Piazza San Marco.
Brown at this period undertook, at the urgent request of Jones and Robinson, to settle the accounts of the party, which had become complicated owing to that perplexing "medium," to those unused to it, the Austrian paper money.
This is a faithful picture of the unfortunate man as he sat, in the solitude of his chamber, until a late hour of the night, drawing up the "financial" statement.
Robinson (_solo_). --"I stood in Venice," etc.; Jones and Brown, having heard something like it before, have walked on a little way.
_Reflection made by BROWN._ --Why do people when repeating poetry always look unhappy?
ENJOYMENT!
A scene upon the Grand Canal.
THE THEATRE MALIBRAN.
The entertainment commenced at 5 P.M., and lasted till 7. It consisted of a melodrama, full of awful crimes, and the most pathetic sentiment.
The audience, chiefly composed of "the people," was, from beginning to end, in an extraordinary state of excitement, fizzing, like the perpetual going off of soda-water. The theatre was lighted (?) by about four oil lamps; and such was the darkness, that our travellers--who may be seen, perhaps, through the "dim obscure," up in a private box--could scarcely discern anything but the white uniform and glittering bayonet of an Austrian sentinel in the pit.
[A NIGHT IN VENICE.]
BROWN RETIRED TO REST.
MISERY.
NOTE.-- If the Musquitos appear rather large in this and the following scenes, let it be remembered that in the "Heroic" it was a principle of many of the great painters to exaggerate the "parts."
DESPERATION.
MOMENTARY RELIEF.