[3] According to the musicologist Elizabeth Bartlet, "several scholars have pointed out [that] Beethoven's trumpet call in Fidelio was inspired by Méhul's Héléna".

He flees with his wife Héléna to escape the anger of the common people, egged on by the new count, Romuald.

Their situation becomes so bad that they have to hand their four-year-old son to be brought up under the name "Paul" to a kindly farmer, Maurice.

Héléna later takes refuge with Maurice too (without him knowing her identity) and disguises herself as a shepherd, "Petit Jacques".

However, Edmond asks for a private interview with him and reveals that on his deathbed Romuald confessed to the murder of Constantin's father.