Chapter III: Act III: SCENE 1.--Soldiers discovered carousing, as wildly as is

possible on four gilded cruets, and a dozen goblets. _Azucena_ is brought before the Count, and manacled. Operatic handcuffs--a most humane contrivance--with long links, to permit of the freest facilities for entreaty and imprecation. Soldiers, who have been called to arms, but stayed, from a natural curiosity to hear what the _Conte di Luna_ had to say to the Gipsy, go off, as she is led away to prison, with a sense that they have seen all there _is_ to be seen, and a vague recollection that there is some fighting to be done somewhere.

SCENE 2.--_Leonora_, and _Manrico_ are about to be married; everything prepared--four apathetic bridesmaids, and the four acolytes in tights--who have possibly been kindly lent by the Convent for the occasion--in a vacuous row at the back of the scene. Fancy _Manrico_ has forgotten to give them the usual initial brooches, and they feel the wedding is a poky affair, and take no interest in it. _Leonora_ herself is in low spirits--seems to miss the confidant, and to be oppressed with a misgiving that the wedding is not destined to come off. Misgivings on the stage are never thrown away--the wedding _is_ interrupted immediately by a crowd of men, in small sugar-loaf caps, who carry the bridegroom off to fight--whereupon, of course, the Curtain falls.