A CHILD Maman! Maman! how many carts will pass? A WOMAN None, sweeting, none! It is a holiday. _Enter_ CÉLESTE, ANGÉLIQUE, _and_ NANON. NANON It was the very night of the great storm From those dull convent walls she ran away! CÉLESTE Two years agone— ANGÉLIQUE Would she had stayed! NANON Ah, then, You had been Goddess, Angélique! ANGÉLIQUE The witch! With her dark skin and with her purple flower! Let her beware! I know a thing or two! CÉLESTE _I_ know who comes from Paris back to Nantes! This morning on the quai I saw him! NANON (_eagerly_) Is’t That ci-devant, that black Aristocrat, De Vardes? CÉLESTE The man your brother loves? The same. NANON I spit upon his name! CÉLESTE Denounced! NANON The set of sun Will see him so, or my name’s not Nanon! CÉLESTE The Loire—the Loire will close above his head! _Enter_ SÉRAPHINE. SÉRAPHINE Whose head? NANON The Citizen Vardes. SÉRAPHINE Monseigneur! He’s in the prison of La Force at Paris!— One truly told me so—He’s not in Nantes. NANON And if he were— SÉRAPHINE (_stammering_) Why—why— NANON And if he were, You would not give him up! I know you well! I know you, Séraphine! SÉRAPHINE And if you do, You know no ill of me, Citoyenne! CÉLESTE Yvette Would not give him up either. ANGÉLIQUE No, i’ faith! I’ll take my oath on that! SÉRAPHINE Your oath, lint-locks! It’s worth a deal, your oath! _Your_ mind I know! You would be Goddess, you and not Yvette! ANGÉLIQUE Let her beware! SÉRAPHINE