In the town, the women (including Leonardo's wife and mother-in-Law) have gathered near the church to whisper of the events. Death arrives in the disguise of the beggar woman and, before departing, announces that doom has visited the forest. The Mother enters the church, full of anger and black bitterness, only to see The Bride returning—her dress covered in the blood of her lovers who killed each other in the forest. Presumably, (although this is never explicitly stated, and it happens after the play's end) The Bride is afterwards killed as a sacrifice to restore the family's honour. Still, in some incarnations of the play, it is suggested that The Mother allows The Bride to live based on the idea that living with the pain of her lovers' deaths is a more severe punishment than death.