the fiendish
malevolence of Bertram stands the gentle figure of Alice, Robert's
foster-sister, who has followed him from Normandy with a message from
his dead mother. Isabella supplies Robert with a fresh horse and arms;
nevertheless, he is beguiled away from Palermo by some trickery of
Bertram's, and fails to put in an appearance at the tournament. The
only means, therefore, left to him of obtaining the hand of Isabella is
to visit the tomb of his mother, and there to pluck a magic branch of
cypress, which will enable him to defeat his rivals. The cypress grows
in a deserted convent haunted by the spectres of profligate nuns, and
there, amidst infernal orgies, Robert plucks the branch of power. By
its aid, he sends the guards of the princess into a deep sleep, and is
only prevented by her passionate entreaties from carrying her off by
force. Yielding to her prayers, he breaks the branch, and his magic
power at once deserts him. He seeks sanctuary from his enemies in the
cathedral, and there the last and fiercest strife for the possession of
his soul is waged between the powers of good and evil. On the one hand
is Bertram, whose term of power on earth expires at midnight. He has
now discovered himself as Robert's father, and produced an infernal
compact of union, which he entreats his son to sign. On the other is
Alice, pleading and affectionate, bearing the last words of Robert's
dead mother, warning him against the fiend who had seduced her. While
Robert is hesitating between the two, midnight strikes, and Bertram
sinks with thunder into the pit. The scene changes, and a glimpse is
given of the interior of the cathedral, where the marriage of Robert
and Isabella is being celebrated."

Next to the evil Bertram is portrayed, in his coronation robes, John of
Leyden, the chief character in "Le Prophete," which had its first
representation in 1849. "John, an innkeeper of Leyden, loves Bertha, a
village maiden, who dwells near Dordrecht. Unfortunately, her liege
lord, the Count of Oberthal, has designs upon the girl himself, and
refuses his consent to the marriage. Bertha escapes from his clutches
and flies to the protection of her lover, but Oberthal secures the
person of Fides, John's old mother, and, by threats of putting her to
death, compels him to give up Bertha. Wild with rage against the vice
and lawlessness of the nobles, John joins the ranks of the Anabaptists,
a revolutionary sect pledged to the d