The dark and faithless cheek of her
And left it scarred for life. Scarred!
When I had meant to kill.
All that night I lingered, watching ’neath her window—
Saw once more the haunting face of my Maria—
Saw her once more—I can see her still!—
Fled away and am buried here
In God’s own house and all unchastened yet.
In very irony, it would seem, to the simplicity of his nature, the outpourings of the novitiate’s sorrowing heart have been confessed to his wife, the scarred-faced Lucretia, who inhabits the monastery in the guise of the Father Confessor (not an unknown historical fact) thus in its very inception lending an intense dramatic effect to the story. Now, at the ringing of the bell, the villagers enter the public loft, Maria—his lost love—in the foreground unrecognized either by Francesco or Lucretia, singing an “Ave Maria:”