- Dominique - un ménestrel: Men have loved me, as they like to whisper in my ear. I let them. Is it my fault if they wept, gave everything for me, even their lives? The young men were passionate; the old men crawled at my feet.
- Gilles - un ménestrel: When did I ever cry or throw myself at your feet?
- Dominique - un ménestrel: [snorts] You're different - greedy, stubborn, proud. You just want to be loved, to take without giving, to keep it all and leave.
- Gilles - un ménestrel: Like you!
- Dominique - un ménestrel: You hunted me like a cat hunts a mouse - but we're both cats, there is no mouse. It's not our fault. We both thought we'd caught a tender new victim... two executioners, face to face and no one to torture. How sad.
- Le diable: Oh, such a lovely fire! I like fire. It likes me, too. The flames are so attentive. They lap at my fingers like a hound - a pleasant sensation!
- [discussing Renaud's upcoming duel with Baron Huges]
- Dominique - un ménestrel: Don't add to my pain. I'm already so afraid... .for your life.
- Le baron Renaud - le fiancé d'Anne: Have no fear. My life's in no danger.
- [holds up a suit of chain mail armor]
- Dominique - un ménestrel: Look how fine the links are.in this Italian chain mail! Here, we can't make them this pretty or strong. With this and a bit of luck even the worst blows can not harm me.
- Dominique - un ménestrel: A fine proof of love, if you're in no danger!
- Le baron Renaud - le fiancé d'Anne: Don't you see? It's only to reassure you. I'd fight bare-chested if you wished it. I fear no man - nor the Devil, nor death.
- Dominique - un ménestrel: "Nor the Devil, nor death." You please me well, Renaud. So confident, so dangerous. Tomorrow, where this under your doublet as you fight to keep me.
- [Dominique indicates her cotton shirt]
- Le diable: Please, don't cry. It hurts me to see such a pretty face twisted in sorrow.
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: Leave me alone. My heart is sad... so sad. I'm not used to unhappiness and now Gilles is in prison threatened by the executioner, Renaud is dead, and my father is in despair. Could you be the cause of all these troubles?
- Le diable: What do expect? No one loves me. I amuse myself the best I can.
- [walking through the palace garden in the moonlight, Anne and Gilles see a man and a woman kissing]
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: My page Guillaume with Agnes? I didn't know they were in love.
- Gilles - un ménestrel: They're not. For them, it's a game. They toy with love. That's the one who truly loves Guillaume.
- [Anne turns and sees a servant hiding in the bushes]
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: Louison?
- Gilles - un ménestrel: She hides and watches them. She wants to cry. She's ugly; no one loves her.
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: If she loves him, why is she ugly? It's not fair. It makes me sad, too.
- Gilles - un ménestrel: I don't want you to be sad tonight.
- [Gilles magically transforms Louison into a lovely young woman]
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: She's beautiful now!
- Gilles - un ménestrel: It's nothing - the devilish beauty of youth.
- [the Devil laughs evilly]
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: Who are you? How did you get in?
- Le diable: I am the Devil!
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: I could care less.
- Le diable: What? Don't you understand? I'm the Devil! Yes, the Devil. How else can I be here and elsewhere at the same time? Yes, elsewhere - for example, in the garden.
- [the Devil points to the garden where he is standing next to Baron and Renaud as they argue]
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: What's so marvelous about that? I'm here, locked in my room, but I am also at the fountain.where my beloved held me in his arms.
- [Anne disappears and returns magically to Gilles prison cell]
- Le diable: Anne. Anne! She makes a fool out of me and yet I love her! I was too sweet, too obliging. That's no way to win a woman. All that will change!
- Le diable: [to Dominique] You look astonishingly like one of my daughters.
- Dominique - un ménestrel: I'm flattered.
- Le baron Hugues - le châtelain, père d'Anne: You have daughters?
- Le diable: Yes. I have many children, boys and girls, but I must admit, I prefer girls, especially ones like yours. Boys are ungrateful - no sense of duty, disobedient. I'm not a hard man, but I detest being disobeyed.
- [last lines]
- [the devil has turned Anne and Gilles into statues]
- Le diable: The silence I adore - deathly silence.
- [startled, the Devil walks towards the statues]
- Le diable: What's that? What's that noise? It's their hearts. Their hearts are beating!
- [the Devil lashes the statues angrily with his quirt]
- Le diable: BEATING! Beating! Beating... .
- [the Devil slowly fades away leaving the statues of Gilles and Anne staring lovingly into each others' eyes]
- [Gilles, whose memory of Anne has been erased by the Devil, finds her sitting at their fountain]
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: Are you thirsty?
- [Anne fills her hands with spring water]
- Gilles - un ménestrel: The water is so sweet.
- [they kiss]
- Gilles - un ménestrel: Your lips are sweet, too.
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: Gilles!
- Gilles - un ménestrel: [remembering] Anne!
- [first lines]
- Opening panel: And so, in the lovely month of May 1485, the devil sent two envoys to this world to drive humans to despair.
- [Anne stops crying and runs to Gilles when he enters her bedroom]
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: Ah, Gilles! I knew you loved me!
- [they kiss passionately]
- Gilles - un ménestrel: Alas, we are under a spell and once it dissipates, you'll see me as I truly am - miserable and alone.
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: I love you!
- Gilles - un ménestrel: Anne, I belong to the Devil. I'm among his friends. If you love me, it's probably thanks to him.
- Le diable: Whenever there's a new joy in the world, or new love shines, imagine my suffering! I'd cry, if only I had tears.
- [Gilles is released from his contract with the Devil when Anne agrees to love the Evil One]
- Le diable: I kept my promise. You are mine now, forever!
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: No.
- Le diable: What do you mean, "No".
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: *No*.
- Le diable: I can't believe it! You promised. You swore.
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: I lied.
- Le baron Renaud - le fiancé d'Anne: You look proud of yourself. How dare you gaze into a lady's eyes while crooning such nonsense?
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: Renaud, please!
- Le baron Renaud - le fiancé d'Anne: If I had you hung, would you sing as sweetly with a rope around your throat?
- Gilles - un ménestrel: I doubt it.
- Le baron Renaud - le fiancé d'Anne: Then sing no more if you value the pitiful thing you call your life!
- Le baron Hugues - le châtelain, père d'Anne: Sing us another song.
- Gilles - un ménestrel: [singing] The tender and dangerous face of love, Appeared to me one night after an endless day, Perhaps is was an archer with his bow, Perhaps a musician with his harp, I know no more, I know nothing, All I know, Is that he wounded me, Perhaps with an arrow, Perhaps with a song, All I know, Is that he wounded me, His shot hit my heart wounded forever, Burning, Ardently burning, This wound of love...
- Le baron Renaud - le fiancé d'Anne: Love, always love! With its little sighs and big deceits! Before, at least we had songs about war, hunting, the urge to fight, to kill.
- Le baron Hugues - le châtelain, père d'Anne: I believe my daughter would like to hear sweet things that touch the heart. Stories of romance, the yearnings of simple hearts. Are there any singers in the hall?
- Gilles - un ménestrel: [singing] Demons and marvels, Winds and waves, Far away already, The tide has gone out, And you like seaweed, Caressed by the wind, In the dunes of your bed, You stir in your sleep, Demons and marvels, Winds and waves, Far away already, The tide has gone out, But in your half-open eyes, Two little waves, Still remain, Demons and marvels, Winds and waves, Two little waves, To drown myself in...
- Gilles - un ménestrel: As soon as I saw you, I knew why I'd traveled so far. I thanked Heaven for leading me to you.
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: As soon as I saw you, I knew you'd come for me. I knew it. I'm sure my life will change.
- Gilles - un ménestrel: Do you regret it?
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: No.
- Gilles - un ménestrel: Will you regret it?
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: Never. Even if it makes me suffer.
- Gilles - un ménestrel: Those who love never suffer. Look at them. Do they suffer? No. They feel marvelously alone, the moonlight shines on their love. And those two star-gazers, what are they thinking of? Nothing. Not even the stars. They are together, in love. They are happy.
- Le baron Renaud - le fiancé d'Anne: Now you're near me. That's what matters. I must be dreaming! Where did you come from? Who are you?
- Dominique - un ménestrel: Who am I? You just said it. A woman who's near you, in your arms.
- Gilles - un ménestrel: It isn't worth a single tear, it's nothing but a story invented to amuse the Devil. Believe me, no one loves anyone. Everyone pretends! They stalk their prey, set traps.
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: Why be frightened? Life is full of mysteries, isn't it? A bird, an apple, a beast, the sun, the trees in these woods. Even us: we don't know from whence we come or where we go. Isn't that marvelous?
- Gilles - un ménestrel: If you'd truly loved me, I might have loved you.
- Dominique - un ménestrel: If you'd truly loved me, I, too, might have loved you.
- Gilles - un ménestrel: Dominque!
- Dominique - un ménestrel: Go on. Scare me. Hit me. Kill me. Slit my throat. My handsome love.
- Le baron Renaud - le fiancé d'Anne: What do I desire? Why ask such a question? What do I desire? I desire you, totally, completely, and you know it!
- Dominique - un ménestrel: You're so blunt.
- Le baron Renaud - le fiancé d'Anne: Sorry to offend. Perhaps it's no way to woo women, but I speak my mind.
- Dominique - un ménestrel: I said you were blunt, not that I didn't like it.
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: I was so happy, then suddenly, I thought of Renaud. He also said, "I love you, Anne." But with the same hard voice in which he says: "I love my dogs. I love hunting. I love killing whatever flies or leaps." "I love you, Anne. You'll be mine forever." Forever. Is it possible for a person to totally belong to another?
- Gilles - un ménestrel: Some call that love.
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: Then is love like death? We no longer exist? It's all over? Why? If you love me, don't hurt me, don't lock me up, let me live! Love me as I love you - simply.
- Gilles - un ménestrel: Why stir up long-dead things?
- Dominique - un ménestrel: Who killed them? Did I? Did you? Or both? Who nipped in the bud our story of love?
- Gilles - un ménestrel: I believed myself utterly alone, yet since I've found you, I'm even more lost, more alone, more desperate. Anne, to me, you are all the love in the world - and all I can bring you is sorrow and despair.
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: Gilles, hold me in your arms. Once more, tell me you love me.
- Gilles - un ménestrel: Anne, you are so simple, so young, so sweet, and so alive! Protect me. Teach me to live. Before I met you, I only pretended. My heart was like ice.
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: Gilles, my love, be happy and at peace. My body is close to yours, your heart beats with mine, our bodies, our hearts are one. Nothing can ever separate us.
- Gilles - un ménestrel: Anne, I love you. And on one - do you hear? No one can stop me from loving you!
- Le diable: Do you hear me? Why don't you answer? What are you thinking of, wretch?
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: A song my governess once sang, she said it was the fairies...
- Le diable: Ah! I detest fairies!
- Dominique - un ménestrel: I admire how you speak of death so lightly!
- Le baron Renaud - le fiancé d'Anne: I'm not talking of my own death. Since I met you, I'm filled with a ferocious lust for life. A life with you.
- Dominique - un ménestrel: With me, close to me. In my arms, forever.
- Le diable: [disguised as Gilles] Anne. Anne, my love, my true love! Anne, you are as beautiful as the day! I love you madly! Give me your lips!
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: Leave me alone. You aren't Gilles.
- Le diable: What?
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: You aren't Gilles. You look like Gilles, you have his voice, but Gilles would never say such things.
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: It's true, you are the Deceiver. You may even deceive yourself. There are some things that escape you.
- Le diable: Escape me? Poor idiot! Nothing escapes me. No one can escape me, not even you! You don't know my powers! I hold the world in my hands! That's right! Storms, rain, hail, wind, shipwrecks: that's me! Sickness, war, and all its pleasures, pestilence, famine, misery, murder, hatred, jealousy. That's me, always me! And death. Me, again.
- Le diable: Don't forget, treacherous creature, that you've done wrong. You've sinned.
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: If it's sin to give myself to the one I love, I don't regret it.
- Le diable: Truly? You should be ashamed.
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: Ashamed? Why? I don't even know what shame is!
- Le diable: Shame - is what we hide.
- Gilles - un ménestrel: [singing] Sad lost children, We wander through the night, Where are day's blooms? Love's pleasures? Life's radiance?
- Le diable: It's so like you to forget your chains, to take refuge in happy memories! Alas, I am here! I have no ill intentions. Memories are lovely, but the past is gone forever! The present is what counts - and right now, some surprising things are happening!
- Dominique - un ménestrel: Why bother, Gilles?
- Gilles - un ménestrel: I enjoy dong good sometimes.
- Dominique - un ménestrel: Why bother?
- Le baron Renaud - le fiancé d'Anne: Soon you will be mine. Did you hear me?
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: Yes, Renaud.
- Le baron Renaud - le fiancé d'Anne: Your every pleasure, desire, even sorrow, if you have any, should be given to me.
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: May I at least dream?
- Le baron Renaud - le fiancé d'Anne: As little as possible! Dreams are dangerous and useless. I never dream myself.
- Gilles - un ménestrel: The devilish beauty of youth.
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: I don't believe in the Devil.
- Gilles - un ménestrel: You're lucky.
- Le baron Hugues - le châtelain, père d'Anne: When I speak, people listen and remain silent! Dominique, I want - do you hear me? I want you to take off these men's clothes.
- Dominique - un ménestrel: Right now?
- Le baron Hugues - le châtelain, père d'Anne: What are you saying?
- Dominique - un ménestrel: Nothing. You speak, I remain silent.
- Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud: Why take such pleasure in seeing me suffer? Why?