In the next act Raoul contrives to gain admittance to Nevers' house, and
there has an interview with Valentine. They are interrupted by the
entrance of Saint Bris and his followers, whereupon Valentine conceals
Raoul behind the arras. From his place of concealment he hears Saint
Bris unfold the plan of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, which is to
be carried out that night. The conspirators swear a solemn oath to
exterminate the Huguenots, and their daggers are consecrated by
attendant priests. Nevers alone refuses to take part in the butchery.
When they all have left, Raoul comes out of his hiding-place, and in
spite of the prayers and protestations of Valentine, leaps from the
window at the sound of the fatal tocsin, and hastens to join his
friends. In the last act, which is rarely performed in England, Raoul
first warns Henry of Navarre and the Huguenot nobles, assembled at the
Hotel de Sens, of the massacre, and then joins the _melee_ in the
streets. Valentine has followed him, and after vainly endeavouring to
make him don the white scarf which is worn that night by all Catholics,
she throws in her lot with his, and dies in his arms, after they have
been solemnly joined in wedlock by the wounded and dying Marcel.
'Les Huguenots' shows Meyerbeer at his best Even Wagner, his bitterest
enemy, admitted the dramatic power of the great duet in the fourth act,
and several other scenes are scarcely inferior to it in sustained
inspiration.
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