In the duel, the Count receives his life at the
hands of Victorian: declares his ignorance of the understanding
between Victorian and Preciosa; boasts of favours received from the
latter, and, to make good his words, produces a ring which she gave
him, he asserts, as a pledge of her love. This ring is a duplicate
of one previously given the girl by Victorian, and known to have
been so given by the Count. Victorian mistakes it for his own,
believes all that has been said, and abandons the field to his
rival, who, immediately afterwards, while attempting to procure access
to the Gipsy, is assassinated by Bartolome. Meantime, Victorian,
wandering through the country, reaches Guadarrama. Here he receives
a letter from Madrid, disclosing the treachery practiced by Lara,
and telling that Preciosa, rejecting his addresses, had been through
his instrumentality hissed from the stage, and now again roamed with
the Gipsies. He goes in search of her, finds her in a wood near
Guadarrama; approaches her, disguising his voice; she recognizes
him, pretending she does not, and unaware that he knows her innocence;
a conversation of equivoque ensues; he sees his ring upon her
finger; offers to purchase it; she refuses to part with it, a full
eclairissement takes place; at this juncture a servant of
Victorian's arrives with "news from court," giving the first
intimation of the true parentage of Preciosa.
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