Count Douglas then receives a message from Ratcliff delivered by his friend Lesley challenging him to a similar duel at Black Rock.
In an inn frequented by thieves and swindlers, the innkeeper Tom, is holding his son, Willie on his knees.
When he asks the child to recite the Pater Noster, he repeatedly stumbles on the line "And lead us not into temptation".
Tom grows increasingly angry with the boy, tells him that he will end up like the clientele of the inn, and eventually sends him from the room.
Ratcliff then tells Lesley how Maria's rejection of him led to his compulsion to kill any man who succeeded in winning her love.
Ratcliff is disturbed by the appearance of strange figures who, unbeknownst to him, are the ghosts of Maria's dead suitors.
With her mother's story still on her mind and thinking that she might be making the same mistake, Maria at first feels pity for Guglielmo, but then asks him to leave.