Scene 1—Five years later.

[A marketplace in Fiori, vegetables, fruits and flowers exposed for
sale in little stalls and wagons, crowd of townspeople moving about,
talking, laughing, buying. Group of children playing a game in a
ring. Supper time.]

CHILDREN. One, two, three,
The dough is in the oven!
One, two, three,
The bread is on the board!
One, two, three.
The dough is in the oven!
One, two, three,
The bread is on the board!
One, two, three,
All follow me!

EUGENIA. Good-even, Giovanitta. Those are beautiful
Onions you have there.

GIO. Ay, it has been a good year
For onions.

EUG. I am taking seven.

GIO. Each year,
You buy another onion!

EUG. Faith, each year
I have another mouth to thrust it in!
Beautiful carrots, too, you have.

GIO. Ay, carrots
Are well enough. One cannot complain. 'Tis a good year
For carrots.

CLARA. 'Tis a good year for many things.
Prices are low,—but not too low for profit.

GIULIANA. And there are fewer taxes than there once were
On things one cannot live without.

ANNA. 'Tis a good Queen
We have, it must be granted.

GIO. Ay, and a wise one.

GILDA. And pretty, too.

GIULIANA. Ho, ho! When did you see her?

GILDA. This morning, mother. I was at the edge of the wood
With Beppo, when they rode by to the hunt,
Talking together, and laughing.

BEPPO. [Calling from across the stage.] And the horses
With feet like this!
[Arching his hands and feet to represent a horse stepping delicately.]

GILDA. And glittering in the sunshine
In a thousand places, mother! I wanted to tell you
When we returned, but you had gone to the brook
With the linen. They were so near us we could hear them
Talking.

BEPPO. [Coming up.] And hear the horses breathe!

ANNA. What said they?

GILDA. Well, one of them said—what was the name?

BEPPO. Anselmo.

GILDA. Oh, ay. She said, "Anselmo, am I getting thinner
Do you think? If I be not thinner than I was at starting,
I shall descend at once! I like not this;
It chatters my teeth."

BEPPO. And then she said—

GILDA. What said she?
Oh, ay,—about the boat.

BEPPO. She said, "Next time
I shall go fishing instead of hunting. A boat
Hath a more mannerly gait!"

GILDA. There was one horse, mother,
That was all white! There was not one hair upon him
That was not white!

GIULIANA. And who was riding that horse?

BEPPO. A man. And riding well.

GILDA. He was dressed in green,
And had a yellow beard. And there was a lady
With hair the color of Adelina's, bright
Like fire. She was dressed in blue, and was most beautiful.

BEPPO. And she was mounted on a dappled mare.

GILDA. But, oh, it was the Queen that was more lovely—
Than any of the rest!

GIO. How did you know, now,
It was the Queen?

GILDA. Nay, but you could not help
But know! She was not laughing like the rest,—
Just smiling; and I would not have been afraid
To toss a flower to her from the wood,
If I had had a flower.

BEPPO. You knew her, though,
Because she was in scarlet. All the world knows
She wears a scarlet mantle!

GILDA. Nay, if that were all,
It might have been the Pope!

BEPPO. I would it had been.
I never saw the Pope.

GILDA. You never saw
The Queen until this morning!—Mother, she rides
Clothed like a man, almost!

BEPPO. With sword at side!

GILDA. And, oh, the sword had a jeweled—what is the name of it?

BEPPO. Scabbard, of course!

GILDA. A jeweled scabbard, mother!
I wish I were a queen.

BEPPO. Ho, you would make
A proper queen, with that droll nose of yours!

GILDA. I know a boy who likes my nose!

BEPPO. Ho, ho!
He must be a hunch-back!

GIULIANA. You must not tease her, Beppo.

GILDA. I wish I were queen. If I were a queen,
You would not dare to say my nose is droll.

BEPPO. It would be, all the same.

GIO. You should be content
With what you have, not cry to rise beyond it.
It is a sin to covet.

GIULIANA. Being a queen,
My bird, is not all riding to the hunt
Of a sunny morning.

ANNA. Nay, 'tis riding back
At times, of a rainy night, to such a burden
Of cares as simple folk have little mind of.

GILDA. I'd rather have a queen's cares than my own.

BEPPO. Ho, ho! Your cares! What cares have you?

GILDA. I have
A brother that will be teasing me all times!
'Tis cares enough for one, I tell you.

ADELINA. [Across stage.] Beppo!
Come help me fetch the milk!

GILDA. Oh, Mister Beppo,
Your sweetheart calls you! Run and fetch the milk!

LEONORA. [From a house, coming out.] Come in to supper, children!

RIGO. Oh, not just yet!

ELENORA. Father's not home yet!

LEONORA. You need not wait for him.

LOUIS. May we come out again?

LEONORA. [Joining other women.] Ay, for a time.
Till it gets dark.

RIGO. [To Louis.] 'Tis dark now, almost.

LOUIS. Hush!
She does not know it.

GIULIANA. 'Tis dark now.

LEONORA. Ay, I know.
I let them play a little after dark
Sometimes, when the weather's fine. I would not have them
Afraid of shadows. They think I do not know
Darkness from light.

ELENORA. There's father now!

RIGO. I see him!

[Elenora, Louis and Rigo run off the stage and along the path.]

LEONORA. He is late home today. I cannot think
What may have held him. 'Twill be deep night already
In the woods.

CESCO. [Off stage, harshly.] Down! Down! Do you run back to your mother!
See you not I am in haste?—Hang not upon me!

EUG. La! He is in a temper!

LEO. I never knew him
So out of patience with them.

GIU. He is hungry, maybe.

LEO. He is often hungry, but I never knew him
So out of patience. [The children come running back. To Elenora.]
Why do you weep, my heart?

LUI. Father is someone else tonight.

ELENORA. [Weeping.] He pushed me!

[Enter Cesco, with game on his shoulder, or a basket of mushrooms.]

SEVERAL WOMEN. Good-even, Cesco.

CES. [To Leonora.] Look you, Leonora,
Have we a bed fit for a queen to lie in?

LEO. Nay, faith! Not we!

GIL. She can have my bed, mother.

GIN. Ay, true. There is a bed in my house, Cesco.

GIO. What will the queen do here?

GIU. I would indeed
She had let us know that she was coming!

CES. The Queen
Knew not herself. Nor is she coming of herself.
They are bringing her,—on a litter of crossed boughs,

GIL. She is not dead?

CES. Nay. Wounded in the arm
A little, and in a swoon. But the young King
Of Lagoverde is no more!

WOMEN. How so?

CES. I tell you my two eyes have looked this day
On a sad and useless thing!—A fine lad, young,
And strong, and beautiful as a lad may be,
And king of a fair country, thrust from horse
By a foul blow, and sprawled upon the ground,—
Legs wide asunder, fist full of brown mud,
Hair in his eyes,—most pitiful unkingly!
Bring me a mug of wine, good wife! [Leonora goes out.]

GIO. You, Gilda!
There is a queen you would not be tonight,
I'll warrant you,—the Queen of Lagoverde,
With her two fatherless babes!

EUG. Nay, now, good Cesco,
What is this matter?

CES. You'll know it quick enough.
They will be bringing the queen here ere I have breath
To tell you. They are coming by the road,
I took the mountain-path, and ran.

GIU. I must hasten
To put fresh sheets on. [To Gilda.] Look you,—listen well
If he should talk, and tell me afterwards. [Exit.]

EUG. Here comes Horatio! The boats are in.

[Some children rush down to the water-side.]

A good day, husband?

HOR. Ay, a heavy day.
What think you of that?—A big one, eh?—Came in
With a school of little fish,—too greedy that time!
What happens here?—The air is full of breathing!

[The men come up from the boats with children clinging to them.
Beppo and Adelina return from an