Theander decides to vent his malice by raping Merione. Crates and other court sycophants abduct Merione in the night and take her to a secluded place, where Theander commits the act. The courtiers are masked, and stage the rape so that it resembles the abduction of Proserpine by Pluto. Merione is drugged, and carried to the house of her brother Leonidas, where she is left unconscious. She is discovered on the front stoop by Leonidas and Agenor, and awakened; her condition becomes understood by them and by the Queen and her court, to general outrage. Her wedding with Agenor is postponed, and Leonidas and Agenor swear vengeance on the rapist.