ets sound the tattoo, introducing a scene in Marguerite's
chamber, where Faust sings a passionate love-song ("Thou sweet Twilight,
be welcome"), corresponding with the well-known "Salve dimora" in
Gounod's garden scene. At its close Mephistopheles warns him of the
approach of Marguerite and conceals him behind a curtain. She enters, and
in brief recitative tells her dream, in which she has seen the image of
Faust, and discloses her love for him. Then while disrobing she sings the
ballad "There was a King in Thule." As its pathetic strains come to a
close, the music suddenly changes and Mephistopheles in a characteristic
strain summons the will-o'-the-wisps to bewilder the maiden. It is
followed by their lovely and graceful minuet, in which Berlioz again
displays his wonderful command of orchestral realism. It is followed by
Mephistopheles' serenade ("Why dost thou wait at the Door of thy
Lover?"), with a choral accompaniment by the will-o'-the-wisps,
interspersed with demoniac laughter. The last number is a trio ("Angel
adored") for Marguerite, Faust, and Mephistopheles, wonderfully
expressive in its utterances of passion, and closing with a chorus of
mockery which indicates the coming tragedy.

The fourth part opens with a very touching romance ("My Heart with Grief
is heavy"), the familiar "Meine Ruh' ist hin" of Goethe, sung by
Marguerite, and the scene closes with the songs of the soldiers and
students heard in the distance. In the next scene Faust sings a sombre
and powerful invocation to Nature ("O boundless Nature, Spirit sublime").
Mephistopheles is seen scaling the rocks and in agitated recitative tells
his companion the story of Marguerite's crime and imprisonment. He bids
him sign a scroll which will save him from the consequences of the deed,
and Faust thus delivers himself over to the Evil One. Then begins the
wild "Ride to Hell," past the peasants praying at the cross, who flee in
terror as they behold the riders, followed by horrible beasts, monstrous
birds, and grinning, dancing skeletons, until at last they disappear in
an abyss and are greeted by the chorus of the spirits of hell in a
tempest of sound, which is literally a musical pandemonium ("Has! Irimiru
Karabras," etc.) in its discordant vocal strains and in the mighty
dissonances and supernatural effects in the accompaniment. A brief
epilogue, "On Earth," follows, in which Faust's doom is told, succeeded
by a correspondingly brief one, "In Heaven,"