premier tableau – a great hall in the seigniory palace. despite their apparent victory, the guelphs only control but half of the city. among the dead on the ghibelline side is andreino, the fifteen-year-old son of uberta, cordelia's old nurse. the guelphs request a truce in order to tend to the injured and bury the dead : plague is feared. the saracini palace is on fire. cordelia comes back, alive, but tells her brothers ercole and giugurta, as well as her nurse, that she has been raped by a man of whom all she can remember is the voice.