Act Three

the wedding night of Lord Arturo Bucklaw and Lucia di Lammermoor, who was forced into the marriage by sheer compulsion. The guests are still celebrating the wedding although the bridal pair have withdrawn. Suddenly the old guide Raimondo appears at the top of the great staircase and announces, in tones tinged with agitation and alarm, that he heard cries in the bridal chamber; he burst into the room and found himself before the corpse of Lord Arturo flung upon the floor, with Lucia standing before it like a madwoman, blood still dripping from the weapon she had used to kill him... And in all innocence she turned to Raimondo and asked him where her bridegroom might be.

Only a moment passes before Lucia herself appears, pale of feature, in her nightclothes, the dagger in her hand. Presently she descends the steps of the great staircase, and the guests make way for her, gazing at her in astonishment and pity... Lucia imagines that she is once more with her beloved Edgardo... and imagines, too, that he has dis-covered her marriage to another. So she cries: "Do not curse me!" and wishes that death would put an end to her sufferings. At the close of the mournful song she sings, her strength gives way and she falls to the ground, and her attendants carry her off. Remorse gnaws at the heart of her brother Enrico for the terrible end to which his scheme has come.

Scene Two: A graveyard near the castle.

Edgardo is in the graveyard, pacing back and forth among the tombs of his forefathers and ancestors, longing for death now that Lucia has wed another, saying: "Before long there will be a new tomb in the family graveyard... it is mine!" From afar he sees the lights glittering from the windows of Lammermoor Castle, and scenes of the wedding celebration dance before his eyes.

But only a few minutes pass before a company comes out of the castle, possessed by grief and sorrow, not by joy and happiness.

They tell Edgardo that Lucia has gone mad and is wrestling with the throes of death, saying that his name is on her lips even in her final agony.

That was the first time Edgardo learned the truth of what had hap-pened. And when the faithfulness of poor Lucia is confirmed to him, he hears the death bell announcing her death; so Edgardo sings the melody of the last farewell, saying that they will meet again in heaven. And he draws a dagger and plunges it into his breast before Raimondo can come between him and self-destruction!..

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