[_The guests greet and salute each other; servants circulate among the crowd, bearing platters laden with flowers and fruits. A group of young girls forms itself near a window to the left. Suddenly one of them calls to the others, and motions to them to look out of the window._ DIANA (_looking out_). Come and look! come and look, Bérangère! BÉRANGÈRE (_looking into the street_). Isn't she quick? Isn't she light? DIANA. It is a fairy or it is love. VISCOUNT DE GIF (_laughing_). Who dances in the public square? M. DE CHEVREUSE (_after having looked_). Indeed! it is the magician. Phoebus, it is your gypsy Whom, the other night, with valor You saved from a robber. VISCOUNT DE GIF. Oh, yes, it is the gypsy. M. DE MORLAIX. She's as beautiful as the day. DIANA (_to Phoebus_). If you know her, tell her to come And dance for us. PHOEBUS (_looking out with an absent air_). It might be she! [_To M. de Gif._] Do you think she would remember? FLEUR-DE-LYS (_who watches and listens_). Every one remembers you. Come, call her, tell her to come up. [_Aside._] I will see whether to believe what I am told. PHOEBUS (_to Fleur-de-lys_). You wish it? Well, let us try! [_He motions to the dancer to come up._ THE YOUNG GIRLS. She is coming! M. DE CHEVREUSE. She has disappeared under the porch. DIANA. She has left the mob, stupefied. VISCOUNT DE GIF. Ladies, you will see the nymph of the streets. FLEUR-DE-LYS (_aside_). How quickly she obeyed that sign from Phoebus! SCENE IV _The same. Esmeralda. The gypsy enters timidly, confused and radiant. Movement of admiration. The crowd falls back before her_ CHORUS. Look! her brow is fair amid the fairest, As a star would shine, surrounded by torches. PHOEBUS. Oh, creature divine! Admiration is duty. Of this ball she is queen, Her crown is her beauty. [_He turns to Messieurs de Gif and de Chevreuse._ Friends, my soul is on fire. War and death would I face, To hold in my arms Such bewildering grace. M. DE CHEVREUSE. She is a heavenly vision, A dream most rare and tender, Which, floating through earth's darkness, Radiates celestial splendor. Born in the public streets-- Oh, blind caprice of fate, To trail through muddy streams A flower so immaculate! ESMERALDA (_fixing her eyes on Phoebus in the crowd_). It is my Phoebus, I was sure, Just as that night I found him; Whether in satin or in steel, How grace and strength surround him! Phoebus--my head is all on fire, All burns within me, joy and pain; My soul's consumed for lack of tears, Just as earth yearns for rain. FLEUR-DE-LYS. How fair she is--yes, I was sure! Jealous, indeed, I ought to be; But yet to match that loveliness How great must be my jealousy! Alas! perhaps we both, foredoomed To waste 'neath sorrow's harsh caress, Full soon shall die--she in her flower, I in my loneliness! MADAME ALOISE.