Scene Two: the mountain church and the monastery of Our Lady the Virgin.

Leonora at last reaches the place to which a priest named Father Cleto had directed her — a place where she hopes to find refuge and to live out what remains to her of this life as the hermits live. Still in men's clothes, she kneels before the cross that stands before the church and, in all piety and devotion, gives thanks to Heaven, which has led her to that place. She sings a prayer to the Virgin... and from within the monastery rise the sounds of the organ and the choir of priests... This atmos-phere fills Leonora's soul with strength and hardens her resolve, and she knocks at the door. It is opened by Brother Melitone, a tall young man rather like a peasant, upon whom the marks of laziness show. He would have liked, had he the courage, to shut the door in her face so as not to be disturbed; but he cannot do so, and calls Father Guardiano. The latter had heard something of Leonora's story from Father Cleto, who had sent her to the monastery. He is moved to pity for the poor girl and consents to admit her into the Franciscan order, and to let her take a nearby cave as a place of hermitage and renunciation. No one shall visit her at the cave save he himself, once each week, bringing her provisions.

Thereupon he summons all the monks and informs them that Leonora will dwell in the cave, but that any person whatsoever is forbidden to approach it. He gives her his blessing. The scene closes with a prayer of protection raised to the Virgin, in which Leonora's

voice soars high above the voices of the monks who form the chorus.

Act Two

Scene One: a battlefield near the town of Velletri in Italy.

Don Carlo and Don Alvaro have enlisted, neither knowing the other, in a Spanish company fighting the Germans in Italy. When the curtain rises we see Don Alvaro alone on the stage, wearing a captain's uniform. From his singing we learn that he believes

Leonora dead, and that he longs for death in exile rather than life without her.

Sounds of a quarrel are heard off-stage, and the clatter of arms; Don Alvaro hurries out to see what is happening. He soon returns in the company of Don Carlo, who had fallen into the grip of a band of adventurers and whom he rescued from their claws. Neither knows the other, for both have taken assumed names in that war,

and they swear everlast-ing friendship.

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