The courtiers, too, have found out that Rigoletto is in
the habit of visiting a lady, and jumping to the conclusion that she is
his mistress, determine to carry her off by night in order to pay the
jester out for the bitter insults which he loves to heap upon them.
Their plan succeeds, and Gilda is conveyed to the Palace. There she is
found by her father, and to his horror she confesses that she loves the
Duke. He determines to punish his daughter's seducer, and hires a bravo
named Sparafucile to put him out of the way. This worthy beguiles the
Duke, by means of the charms of his sister Maddalena, to a lonely inn on
the banks of the river, promising to hand over his body to Rigoletto at
midnight. Maddalena pleads tearfully for the life of her handsome lover,
but Sparafucile is a man of honour, and will not break his contract with
the jester. Rigoletto has paid for a body, and a body he must have.
However, he consents, should any stranger visit the inn that night, to
kill him in the Duke's place. Gilda, who is waiting in the street, hears
this and makes up her mind to die instead of her lover. She enters the
house, and is promptly murdered by Sparafucile. Her body, sewn up in a
sack, is handed over at the appointed hour to Rigoletto. The jester, in
triumph, is about to hurl the body into the river, when he hears the
Duke singing in the distance. Overcome by a horrible suspicion, he opens
the sack and is confronted by the body of his daughter.
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