Unfortunately Stella brings forth the portrait of
her former lover, in whom to her horror Caecilie recognises her
husband, and Lucie to her surprise recognises the officer at the
posting-house--a fact which she makes known to Stella. In an ecstasy
of excited expectation Stella dispatches a servant with the order to
fetch the long-lost one, and Caecilie, retiring to the garden,
communicates to Lucie the discovery of her father. In the rapidly
succeeding Scenes that follow the three chief persons experience
alternations of agony and bliss which find facile expression in many
sighs, tears, and embraces. Fernando and Stella, lost in the present
and oblivious of the past, melt in their new-found bliss, but are
interrupted in their raptures by the announcement that Caecilie and
Lucie are preparing to take their departure. At Stella's request
Fernando finds Caecilie, whom he at first does not recognise. Mutual
recognition follows, however, when Fernando vows that he will never
again leave her, and proposes that he and she and Lucie should make
off at once. Meanwhile, Stella is pouring forth her bliss over the
grave which, like one of the Darmstadt ladies, she has had dug for
herself in her garden.
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