longer can I doubt it"). Tony manages to clear up his record, and the
soldiers decide that he may have Marie's hand if he will consent to
join them. He blithely accepts the condition and dons the French
cockade. Everything seems auspicious, when suddenly the Marchioness of
Berkenfeld appears and dashes Tony's hopes to the ground. The
Sergeant, as in honor bound, delivers the letter he has been
preserving. After reading it she claims Marie as her niece, and
demands that the regiment shall give up its daughter, while Tony is
incontinently dismissed as an unsuitable person to be connected in any
capacity with her noble family. Marie sings a touching adieu to her
comrades ("Farewell, a long Farewell"), and the act closes with
smothered imprecations on the Marchioness by the soldiers, and
protestations of undying love by Tony.

The second act opens in the castle of Berkenfeld, where Marie is duly
installed, though she does not take very kindly to her change of
surroundings. The old Sergeant is with her. Grand company is expected,
and the Marchioness desires Marie to rehearse a romance ("The Light of
Early Days was breaking"), which she is to sing to them.

Before she finishes it she and the Sergeant break out into the
rollicking Rataplan and go through with the military evolutions, to
the horror of the Marchioness. While regret for the absent Tony keeps
her in a sad mood, she is suddenly cheered up by the sound of drums
and fifes, announcing the approach of soldiers. They are the gallant
Twenty-first, with Tony, now a colonel, at their head. He applies once
more for Marie's hand. The soldiers also put in a spirited choral
appeal ("We have come, our Child to free"). The Marchioness again
refuses. Tony proposes an elopement, to which Marie, in resentment at
her aunt's cruelty, consents. To thwart their plans, the Marchioness