Secret

Following the instructions of Ghismunda, Guiscardo ventures through a secret cave leading up to the palace every time they meet. One day Tancredi, finding himself alone in his daughter’s bedroom, sits down at an angle of the bed where he eventually falls asleep, hidden from sight. At a certain point the two young lovers enter the room and whilst they make love, Tancredi awakes. Seeing his daughter and his page together makes him suffer immensely, but he resolves to keep silent and escapes after they have left the room.

When Guiscardo is captured the next night by two of Tancredi’s men, the prince of Salerno confronts his daughter with the acts he has witnessed, reproving her for not having chosen a nobler man. Contrary to her father, Ghismunda does not cry loudly, but defends herself with the dignity and composure that characterizes her. In a long answer to her father she insists that the love she feels for Guiscardo is so strong that she simply could not resist. Furthermore, she states that he is maybe not a nobleman by birth, but that he is noble because of his virtues, something Tancredi himself could confirm.