The Elaborate Costumes
The Elaborate Costumes. Teresa is dressed from head to foot in the magnificent garb of the Count of San-Felice’s daughter, with a cashmere gown, pearl earrings and necklace, and sapphire, emerald, and ruby ornaments—making her look like an Alpine shepherdess from a Florian painting. Vampa’s costume is equally elegant: a garnet velvet vest with cut-gold buttons, an embroidered silk waistcoat, a Roman scarf, a gold-worked cartridge-box, sky-blue velvet breeches fastened with diamond buckles, ornamented deerskin garters, a multicolored-ribboned hat, two watches at his girdle, and a splendid poniard. Teresa cries out in admiration, and Vampa resembles a painting by Léopold Robert or Schnetz.
Teresa Pledges to Follow Vampa
Teresa Pledges to Follow Vampa. Pleased by the effect his costume has on Teresa, Vampa asks if she is ready to share his fortune, whatever it may be, and to follow him wherever he goes. Teresa answers enthusiastically that she will follow him to the world’s end. She takes his arm without questioning where he is leading her, finding him at that moment as handsome, proud, and powerful as a god.
Flight Into the Forest
Flight Into the Forest. Vampa and Teresa set off toward the forest, which he enters without hesitation along paths known to him through familiarity with the trees and bushes. After an hour and a half, they reach the thickest part of the forest and follow a dry torrent bed into a deep gorge, a path shaded by pines and resembling Virgil’s road to Avernus. Though alarmed by the wild surroundings, Teresa presses close to her composed guide in silence and tries to master her fear.
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