[Scene I]

(A black carriage rushing through the mountains of Carpathia
The only passenger — the main character of this drama.)

Titan wood and haunted hill
Vales in which the wolf doth kill
Wisps that in the morass glow
Mounts with diadems of snow
Fog that swirls o'er moor and heath
The tawny owl sings from the trees
From the ponds the old toad calls
This is where our drapery falls

Eight hooves that pound the midnight groove

Over stock and stone, a carriage that winds
Upward the mountain pass, deep into the wild
Crushing stone and shatt'ring bough under wooden wheel
And moonlight breaks in spruce and fir and paints the night unreal

Titan wood and haunted hill
Vales in which the wolf doth kill
Wisps that in the morass glow
Mounts with diadems of snow
Secrecies lurk in darkness
A spell was cast upon this Nile
With ruthless hand and turbid eyes the coachman drives his brute
That snarls and sniffs but rushes on to escape that spook
Six hours as the raven flies — still — to acquinted land
Six hours till the sun will rise and morning shall ascend

Sleep my dear, don't bother thee with the idle talk
Of cursed and evil blood that runneth in thy veins

In the cabin lies asleep, unblessed by fevered dreams
A traveller on his way home towards the sun's first beams

Fog that swirls o'er moor and heath
The tawny owl sings from the trees
From the ponds the old toad calls
Where the darkened drapery falls
Secrecies lurk in darkness
A spell was cast upon this Nile
Secrecies lurk in darkness
A spell was cast upon this Nile