The action of the third part takes place in Marguerite’s chamber. Faust enters and sings passionately of his love for her (‘Oh, come, calm breathing twilight’). Mephistopheles warns him of her approach and hides him behind a curtain. She enters and in detached phrases tells of her vision of Faust and her love for him. While preparing for slumber, she sings the pathetic ballad, ‘Once in far Thule.’ As its sad strains die away, Mephistopheles summons the evil spirits and the will-o’-the-wisps to encircle her dwelling and lure her to her doom. Then follows the lovely dance of the will-o’-the-wisps, an orchestral minuet which Berlioz has enriched with many a masterly touch of tonal realism. Mephistopheles sings his sardonic serenade (‘Why, fair maid, wilt thou linger’), with frequent choral accompaniment by the will-o’-the-wisps, each stanza closing with a derisive ‘Ha!’ A trio (‘O purest maid’) of great dramatic power and passion brings this part to a close. Faust and Marguerite avow their mutual love, Mephistopheles warns them of approaching danger, while a chorus of neighbors in the street taunts the hapless maiden. As the fourth part opens, Marguerite, alone in her chamber, sings a sad, sweet romance, ‘Alone and heavy-hearted’ (Goethe’s familiar _Meine Ruh’ ist hin_), at the end of which distant strains of the songs of the soldiers and students are heard. The next scene is Faust’s solemn and powerful invocation to Nature (‘Mysterious Nature! vast and relentless power!’). Mephistopheles appears on the rocky scene, relates Marguerite’s crime and imprisonment, and, playing upon Faust’s desire to rescue her, makes him sign the contract that binds his soul to the Evil One. The ‘Ride to the Abyss’ now begins and Berlioz’s furious music, which only for one short moment relaxes its impetuous galloping rhythm, pictures with relentless realism the terrible scenes as the riders pass horror-stricken peasants praying at the roadside, as they draw into their train monstrous birds, hideous beasts, and leering skeleton-phantoms. With a shout of triumph from Mephistopheles and a cry of horror from Faust, they fall into the abyss, where they are greeted by a chorus of devils (male voices), who sing in a language invented for them by the imaginative Berlioz (_Has! Irimiru Karabrao_, etc.). The glee and triumph of this fiendish host are uttered in snarling tones of harshest discord, ‘the hellish laugh of fiends exulting in their torture.’ These sounds of pandemonium are followed by a short epilogue ‘On Earth,’ leading into an equally short one ‘In Heaven,’ in which the seraphim plead for Marguerite. The whole work closes with the ‘Apotheosis of Marguerite,’ in which the celestial chorus (‘Thou ransomed soul, rest from thy sorrow!’) with joyful tones welcomes the pardoned maiden to the realms of everlasting light. V