two unknown men, who, veiling his eyes, force him to follow them to a
spot unknown to him, in order to do some mason-work for them. It is to
the house of Abdallah, the Turkish ambassador, that he is led. The
latter has heard that his mistress Irma, a young Greek maiden, is about
to take flight with a French officer, who is no other than de
Merinville.

The lovers are warned by a slave, named Rica, but it is too late;
Abdallah's people overtake and bind them. They are brought into a
cavern, the entrance to which Roger is ordered to mure up. There,
before him, he finds his friend and brother-in-law, Baptiste, who was
likewise caught and is now forced to help him.

Recognizing in the officer his benefactor, Roger revives hope in him by
singing a song, which Leon heard him sing at the time he saved his life.

Meanwhile Henrietta has passed a dreadful night, not being able to
account for her husband's absence. In the morning Mistress Bertrand
succeeds in exciting the young wife's sorrow and jealousy to a shocking
degree, so that when Roger {217} at last appears, she receives him with
a volley of reproaches and questions.

Roger, unhappy about Merinville's fate and ignorant of where he has
been in the night, scarcely listens to his wife's complaints, until
Henrietta remarks that she well knows where he has been, Mistress
Bertrand having recognized the carriage of the Turkish ambassador, in
which he was wheeled away.

This brings light into Roger's brain and without more ado he rushes to
the police, with whose help the poor prisoners are delivered. Roger
returns with him to his wife's house, where things are cleared up in
the most satisfactory manner.

MELUSINE.

Romantic Opera in three acts by CARL GRAMMANN.

Text after C. CAMP'S poem of the same name.

Tableaux and mise en scene after SCHWIND'S composition.

The composer of this opera is known in the musical world as the author
of many other fine works. He has given us several operas worthy of
mention, "St. Andrew's Night", and "Thusnelda" among others, which were
brought on the stage in Dresden some years ago.--

Melusine was first represented in Wiesbaden in 1874 with but small
success.--Since then the opera has been rewritten and in part
completely changed by the author, and in this new garb has found its
first representation in the Dresden Opera-house, on the 23rd of May
1891.

{218}

Neither music nor libretto are strikingly original; b