In Act III, Scene I of “The Lady of Lyons; Or, Love and Pride,” the sto­ry unfolds out­side the Gold­en Leon at twi­light, tran­si­tion­ing to moon­light. The land­lord and his daugh­ter, Janet, exit the inn, amused by Claude Mel­not­te’s sud­den ele­va­tion to nobil­i­ty due to his car­riage break­ing down at their estab­lish­ment. Their con­ver­sa­tion hints at an air of supe­ri­or­i­ty assumed by guests, par­tic­u­lar­ly a young lady, like­ly Pauline, who inquires about the qual­i­ty of their best room with dis­dain.

Short­ly after, Beause­ant and Glavis enter, mock­ing the sit­u­a­tion and fore­see­ing an unfor­tu­nate end to Pauline’s jour­ney, fan­ta­siz­ing about a beau­ti­ful palace at the foot of the Alps. Their con­ver­sa­tion drips with sar­casm about the accom­mo­da­tions pro­vid­ed by the Gold­en Leon and the over­all deceit they have spun.

Claude Mel­notte then emerges from the inn, con­fronting Beause­ant and Glavis. He speaks of his dis­grace in deceiv­ing Pauline and declares his pro­tec­tion over her, warn­ing them against any dis­re­spect. His change from a betray­er to a pro­tec­tor is dri­ven by remorse, urg­ing Beause­ant and Glavis to leave with threats of ret­ri­bu­tion for any insult towards Pauline.

Beause­ant mock­ing­ly refers to Mel­not­te’s nobil­i­ty and offers him a purse of mon­ey as a wed­ding gift, which Mel­notte vehe­ment­ly rejects, equat­ing Beause­an­t’s actions to those of Judas. Despite this, Beause­ant non­cha­lant­ly plans to return the next day to see how Pauline has adjust­ed to her “new dig­ni­ty,” leav­ing with a sar­cas­tic farewell.

Mel­notte, filled with anger and self-loathing, fears the pub­lic dis­cov­ery of their sit­u­a­tion. Deter­mined to pro­tect Pauline’s hon­or, he plans to remove her from the pub­lic eye, con­tem­plat­ing refuge at his moth­er’s house. How­ev­er, as he resolves to call for her, Pauline steps out from the inn, lament­ing the rude­ness of the peo­ple with­in, unaware of the unfold­ing dra­ma and Mel­not­te’s inter­nal tur­moil.

This scene cap­tures the piv­otal moment where Mel­not­te’s façade of nobil­i­ty starts to crum­ble, pro­pelling him towards repen­tance and the defense of the woman he has wronged, set­ting the stage for the con­se­quences of his and Beause­an­t’s decep­tive schemes.