ain
rejoices and after a secret sign from Rose resolves to warn the
refugees in the evening.

In the second act Rose and Silvain meet near St. Gratien. Rose, after
telling him that all the paths are occupied by sentries, promises to
show him a way for the refugees, which she and her goat alone know.
Silvain, thanking her warmly, endeavours to induce her to care more for
her outward appearance, praising her pretty features. Rose is
delighted to hear for the first time that she is pretty, and the duet
ensuing is one of the most charming things in the opera. Silvain
promises to be her friend henceforth and then leaves, in order to seek
the Camisards. After this Thibaut {66} appears, seeking his wife, whom
he has seen going away with Belamy. Finding Rose he imagines he has
mistaken her for his wife, but she laughingly corrects him and he
proceeds to search for Georgette. Belamy now comes and courts
Thibaut's wife. But Rose, seeing them, resolves to free the path for
the others.--No sooner has Belamy tried to snatch a kiss from his
companion, than Rose draws the rope of the hermit's bell, and she
repeats the proceeding, until Georgette takes flight, while Thibaut
rushes up at the sound of the bell. Belamy reassures him, intimating
that the bell may have rung for Rose (though it never rings for girls)
and accompanies him to the village. But he soon returns to look for
the supposed hermit, who has played him this trick and finds Rose
instead, who does not perceive him.--To his great surprise Silvain
comes up with the whole troop of refugees, leading the aged clergyman,
who had been a father to him in his childhood. Silvain presents Rose
to them as their deliverer and vows to make her his wife.--Rose leads
them to the secret path, while Silvain returns to the village, leaving
Belamy triumphant at his discovery.

In the third act we find the people on the following morning speaking
of nothing but Silvain's wedding with Rose and of the hermit's bell.
Nobody knows who has been the culprit, but Thibaut slily calculates
that the hermit has rung before-hand, when Rose the bride kissed the
dragoon. Having learned that the soldiers had been commanded to {67}
saddle their horses in the midst of the dancing the night before, and
that Belamy, sure of his prey, has come back, he believes that Rose has
betrayed the poor Camisards in order to win the price set on their
heads and this opinion he now communicates to Silvain.

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