When presently the light returns, Ivan finds himself still in the forest clearing. But the Fire Bird has vanished; vanished, too, the ogre and his strange court. Wonderingly he gazes round. Close at hand, on the spot where previously was the group of stone effigies, a band of young men, handsomely attired, is waiting to greet him: opposite there is a bevy of maidens in whom he recognises the enchanted damsels of his late adventure. Gladly his eye lights, too, upon the beautiful Tsarevna, still wrapped in sleep in the place of safety to which he committed her. The strange scene which lingers so vividly in his mind was not, then, a mere dream. But who are these gracious persons now advancing to pay him courtesies? Gratefully the young men explain that they are victims of the ogre’s sorcery now released by that monster’s overthrow--no other indeed than the stones come to life. The maidens give him the joyous tidings that in similar wise the spell which held them is also broken. Even while these explanations are going forward, two servants descend from the castle and fling wide the gates. Forth there comes a gallant company of men and women, no longer full of grotesque antics or clownishly bedizened, but clothed with dignity and in their proper minds. These, too, pay courtesies to their deliverer, who presently perceives that the Princess, awakened from her trance, has risen to her feet. He approaches and salutes her; then before the assembled company, she consenting, embraces her. Pages and attendants bring from the castle a flashing crown and sceptre, and as the Prince is being invested with these, the Fire Bird, its mission accomplished, soars upward in dazzling flight. The joyous climax is reached, and upon the proud figure of Ivan Tsarevitch, surrounded by a loyal court, the beautiful Tsarevna’s hand in his, the curtain falls to triumphant strains of music. There is not the least doubt that they lived happily ever afterwards. [Illustration] LE PAVILLON D’ARMIDE. PANTOMIME-BALLET BY ALEXANDRE BENOIS. MUSIC BY NICOLAS TCHEREPNIN. SCENES AND DANCES BY MICHEL FOKINE. SCENERY AND COSTUMES DESIGNED BY ALEXANDRE BENOIS. One reason for the remarkable conquest which the Russian Ballet has made of London is that for the first time the present generation--at all events the stay-at-home portion of it--has been given an opportunity of learning what a ballet really is. For the last few decades, at least, the native ballet (if one can call it native) has been a poor, debased thing, clinging to the faded traditions of Taglioni’s day: sadly in need of a revival, but seeking new vigour from mistaken sources.