and the
vessels move.

CHORUS OF RUMOURS

The south wind, the south wind,
The south wind will save him,
Embaying the frigate
Whose speed would enslave him;
Restoring the Empire
That fortune once gave him!

The moon rises and the ships silently disappear over the horizon
as it mounts higher into the sky.

SCENE II

VIENNA. THE IMPERIAL PALACE

[The fore-part of the scene is the interior of a dimly lit gallery
with an openwork screen or grille on one side of it that commands
a bird's-eye view of the grand saloon below. At present the screen
is curtained. Sounds of music and applause in the saloon ascend
into the gallery, and an irradiation from the same quarter shines
up through chinks in the curtains of the grille.

Enter the gallery MARIE LOUISE and the COUNTESS OF BRIGNOLE,
followed by the COUNT NEIPPERG, a handsome man of forty two with
a bandage over one eye.]

COUNTESS OF BRIGNOLE

Listen, your Majesty. You gather all
As well as if you moved amid them there,
And are advantaged with free scope to flit
The moment the scene palls.

MARIE LOUISE

Ah, my dear friend,
To put it so is flower-sweet of you;
But a fallen Empress, doomed to furtive peeps
At scenes her open presence would unhinge,
Reads not much interest in them! Yet, in truth,
'Twas gracious of my father to arrange
This glimpse-hole for my curiosity.
--But I must write a letter ere I look;
You can amuse yourself with watching them.--
Count, bring me pen and paper. I am told
Madame de Montesquiou has been distressed
By some alarm; I write to ask its shape.

[NEIPPERG spreads writing materials on a table, and MARIE LOUISE
sits. While she writes he stays near her. MADAME DE BRIGNOLE
goes to the screen and parts the curtains.

The light of a thousand candles blazes up into her eyes from
below. The great hall is decorated in white and silver, enriched
by evergreens and flowers. At the end a stage is arranged, and
Tableaux Vivants are in progress thereon, representing the history
of the House of Austria, in which figure the most charming women
of the Court.

There are present as spectators nearly all the notables who have
assembled for the Congress, including the EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA
himself, has gay wife, who quite eclipses him, the EMPE