Chapter 3

with followers, to abduct _Leonora_. The followers range themselves against a wall in the background, until the Count has finished "_Il Balen_." If their opinion was asked, they would probably be in favour of his making rather less noise about it, if he really means business--but of course it is not _their_ place to interfere. _Leonora_ enters to take the veil, with procession of nuns, preceded by four female acolytes--or are they pages?--in white tights, carrying tapers. The Count and his followers are evidently a little taken aback--an abduction not quite so simple an affair as they expected. While they are working themselves up to it, _Manrico_ appears, as the stage-direction says, "like a phantom." In a helmet, with a horsehair tail, and a large white cloak, he does look extremely like the _Ghost_ in _Hamlet_, and which is, perhaps, why the Count, under the impression that he is an apparition from some other Opera, allows him to Walk off with _Leonora_ under his very nose. Swords are drawn--with the usual result of bringing down the Curtain.