Irma made her voice claw at her quondam lover very finely; it was a voice with claws, that entered the hearing sharp-edged, and left it plucking at its repose.
She was applauded relishingly when, after vainly wooing him, she turned aside and said-- 'What change is this in one who like a reed Bent to my twisting hands?
Does he recoil?
Is this the hound whom I have used to feed With sops of vinegar and sops of oil ?' Michiella's further communications to the audience make it known that she has allowed the progress toward the ceremonies of espousal between Camillo and Camilla, in order, at the last moment, to show her power over the youth and to plunge the detested Camilla into shame and wretchedness.
Camillo retires: Count Orso appears.

There is a duet between father and daughter: she confesses her passion for Camillo, and entreats her father to stop the ceremony; and here the justice of the feelings of Italians, even in their heat of blood, was noteworthy.

Count Orso says that he would willingly gratify his daughter, as it would gratify himself, but that he must respect the law.

'The law is of your own making,' says Michiella.

'Then, the more must I respect it,' Count Orso replies.
The audience gave Austria credit for that much in a short murmur.
Michiella's aside, 'Till anger seizes him I wait!' created laughter; it came in contrast with an extraordinary pomposity of self-satisfaction exhibited by Count Orso--the flower-faced, tun-bellied basso, Lebruno.
It was irresistible.