Adelaide: but how? If I am your first muse, the joy of your life, the divine fruit of your land, the stars of your sky!
Rondofei: Enough! That it's not for you, I say.
Adelaide: love, this alcohol is taking away your clarity.
Rondofei: Bullshit. Don't you know, by your experience, that a drunkard tells nothing but the truth?
Adelaide: Is it because you already want my treasure?
Rondofei: I want my shrew!
A fainting moan overshadowed the entrance of a brutal thunder in that stormy afternoon. Adelaide's relatives held her as soon as they could, but the atmosphere was getting cloudy for everyone. The wind was raging and swirling, as lightning flashed from a throat:
Brontio: it's over!
Margarita: no, father, wait. Let's beg the priest to pour his holy water on him.
Federico: now is not the time.
Brontio: What do you mean, no? You humiliate my family, Mr. priest.
Federico: That's not enough.
Brontio: Well, what I'm going to do will have to be.
Not a quarter of an hour had passed, when Adelaide's father brought Magnus, the giant of the village, at a trot. His presence was immediately overlaid by the brightness of the sky. The wind shrieked, the clouds darkened and the lightning gave a glimpse of his cracked face between one step and the next.
Rondofei: cowards, all of you! You prevent an innocent, unwilling to bother you, from claiming his shrew.
Brontio: you wretched cockroach, let your tongue and your filthy deeds come to an end! My daughter will not die in sorrow.
Margarita: priest, intervene before the worst happens, I beg you!
Rondofei: she must know how to love me, she gives me the most inaccessible love, how much I rejoice in her caresses!
Brontio: I've never seen such a scoundrel, don't you think, Mr. priest, that's a more than legitimate reason to take him to the gallows?
Federico: I would have to consider it.
Brontio: for God's sake, I don't know what you know more about, whether it's justice or headaches. Go on, Magnus, go!
Magnus advanced in his terrible task. Perhaps he was the only one who could stand before a wind that played with people, as if they were abandoned straw.
Adelaide: stop, Magnus, suddenly cried the helpless woman. Stop your intentions.
Magnus: Miss Adelaide, you don't want any extra inconvenience.
Brontio: make him pay, Magnus!
Magnus: don't tell me... no. I can't do this.
Brontio: What? How many betrayals do I have to endure today? Magnus, I've given you gold from my coffers and this is how you respond?
Magnus: but Mr. Rondofei is my friend. This is not his fault. I know him well. He wouldn't make even the most terrible soul suffer.
Rondofei: I thank God for this unsuspected lawyer.
Adelaide: go back, Magnus, the tavern cannot be run by your brother alone.
Brontio: I am running out of patience. Fortunately I have brought with me the gun that will put an end to this circus.
Federico: What is the truth, Magnus?
Magnus: Sir priest, if you listen to me, let it be as if the Most High listens to me.
Federico: Certainly.
Magnus: you see, my friend Rondofei is not guilty. He went to the tavern earlier. He was hopeless. I asked him about his malaise, and he told me it was love. I assumed it was that from the beginning because he is a man who lacked nothing else.
Adelaide: Stop it, Magnus. It's just lies you're talking.
Magnus: I...
Federico: go on, please.
Magnus: when I went to get some clean long drinks in the back, I heard how Miss Adelaide, with a different face than now, bribed my brother to give an extremely strong drink to her boyfriend, Rondofei.
Many opened their eyes wide, others placed their hands over their mouths trying to hide their astonishment. The priest Frederick encouraged Magnus to continue.
Magnus: Although I warned my brother not to participate in such a deception, he insisted that he had already received payment. So, that's when I wanted to warn my friend Rondofei about this, but many people came to the tavern and I had no choice but to deal with them.
Brontio: Adelaide, was this the financial urgency you had earlier?
Adelaide: no, father, you can't believe such a story. You know that in the village they are always trying to tarnish my name.
Magnus: after a while I heared that many are laughing in the tavern. Laughter came and went, watching how Rondofei crawled on the floor and said: "she wanted this".
Federico: and what did you do, Magnus?
Magnus: I soon assisted him and with food and water I made him come to his senses a little bit after a couple of hours. Then I went on with my work, as there were many things to do.
Rondofei: when Magnus told me what had happened, I knew I no longer wanted that woman. It was the definitive moment to exchange her dismal love for the one who awaits me.
Adelaide: Rondofei, how can you talk like that? My love is like none you've ever been given before.
Rondofei: Shut up, shut up now! Earlier you sought to kill me with drunkenness to make me the laughingstock of the village so that your father would get me out of your life.
Adelaide: that doesn't make any sense.
Rondofei: Of course it does....
Federico: so you would have a clear path to unite with your lover, your cousin Lorenzo, without criticism or punishment.
Of all the lightnings that stormy afternoon was throwing, there was one at that moment that struck a nearby grass and quickly set it on fire.
This caused panic among those present, who began to run, crashing into each other.
Federico: Magnus, don't let him escape!
Magnus: I've almost got him, don't worry.
As if he were an ant, Magnus lifted Lorenzo by one arm and put him in front of the priest.
Lorenzo: excuse me, sir, I didn't mean to...
Federico: I saw you and Adelaide slipping into the meadow earlier. They were dressed up, they came disheveled. I didn't take poor Rondofei before because I knew that in the end I would take you to court.
Adelaide: Father, don't allow this! Use your fortune to calm their envy.
Brontio: money, money, money. That's all your cheating heart wants.
With Lord Brontio, the priest Frederick and the giant Magnus gone with their two prisoners, poor Rondofei got to see what he was waiting for. He ran and ran, and embraced her.
Rondofei: at last, my tender little shrew! You do know about love. Come and let me kiss you while you rub your nose all over my face, rub it with joy!
So Rondofei was a happy man since he walked with his pet as many times as he wanted, through his home village and all the surrounding ones, knowing that she would never plot anything against him.
