she never yielded to his passion. Whether Fatima was to know that
she was his sister I left undecided in framing my plot. Meanwhile
she is careful to show herself to him only at critical moments,
and then always in such a way as to remain unapproachable. When
at last she witnesses the completion of her task in his
coronation at Naples, she determines, in obedience to her vow, to
slip away secretly from the newly anointed king, that she may
meditate in the solitude of her distant home upon the success of
her enterprise.

The Saracen Nurreddin, who had been a companion of her youth, and
to whose help she had chiefly owed her success in rescuing
Manfred, is to be the sole partner of her flight. To this man,
who loves her with passionate ardour, she had been promised in
her childhood. Before her secret departure she pays a last visit
to the slumbering king. This rouses her lover's furious jealousy,
as he construes her act into a proof of unfaithfulness on the
part of his betrothed. The last look of farewell which Fatima
casts from a distance at the young monarch, on his return from
his coronation, inflames the jealous lover to wreak instant
vengeance for the supposed outrage upon his honour. He strikes
the prophetess to the earth, whereupon she thanks him with a
smile for having delivered her from an unbearable existence. At
the sight of her body Manfred realises that henceforth happiness
has deserted him for ever.

This theme I had adorned with many gorgeous scenes and
complicated situations, so that when I had worked it out I could
regard it as a fairly suitable, interesting, and effective whole,
especially when compared with other well-known subjects of a