Domino nero

Abstract

Horace, a young Spanish nobleman, is attending the queen's masked ball in the hope of meeting the young woman he encountered a year earlier, but whose identity he never discovered. She is Angèle, a niece of the queen, who arrives with her companion Brigitte. Both are novice nuns who are attending the ball as a last venture into society - although Brigitte has decided to renounce her vows and marry. At eleven, Horace's friend Count Juliano tricks Brigitte into believing that it is midnight - when the convent gates close - and she leaves, allowing Horace and Angèle some time together. When the clock strikes twelve, Angèle rushes from the ball.