The Count orders his cast-off wife, Ellowen, to stop pretending to be dead and prepare a banquet. Servants mock her degraded appearance and pitiful howls from the previous night. Confronting her directly, the Count cruelly blames her for her own suffering. He declares her sacrifice is necessary for the alliance's future and for another woman, Lena, offering her a grim ultimatum: accept this fate to be allowed to keep living.