the opera opens as a gaggle of captives is processed past the home of clémentine and her servant, alix. the master of the house, clémentine's father horace, a wealthy merchant of florence, had been shipwrecked nine years earlier alongside his servant laurence, alix's husband. they were taken by pirates and sold into slavery. as clémentine and alix watch the captives from their windows, alix recognizes her husband, laurence, among them ("c'est lui, c'est lui, c'est lui!"). she suggests that horace might be with them, telling clémentine of how they had been freed by octave (le magnifique). as alix leaves to investigate, she mentions that clémentine's tutor, aldorandin, who had been her caretaker in her father's absence, would like to marry her. clémentine wonders why this proposition does not give her the same joy as the mention of le magnifique ("pourquoi donc ce magnifique").