Fearful of the consequences of saying no, Jerome plays along.
Manfred, however, repeatedly refuses, and tries to convince Jerome to grant him a divorce. However, after Hippolita dismisses herself from the conversation, Father Jerome more frankly accuses Manfred of his crimes and urges him to repent and turn to the church.
Meanwhile, Father Jerome is telling Hippolita and Manfred the same thing, with Jerome insinuating but not fully disclosing Manfred’s crimes. Matilda, Manfred’s daughter, is talking with her servant Bianca about the disappearance of Isabella when a servant informs them that Isabella has taken sanctuary. Nicholas, where she is under the protection of Father Jerome. With the help of Theodore, a peasant, Isabella escapes the castle through a secret underground passageway to seek sanctuary at the church of St. Despite her horrified protests, he grabs her, intending to rape her, but Isabella escapes, as Manfred is distracted first by the swaying feathers of the giant helmet, then by the moving portrait of his grandfather, then by his servants’ reports of the appearance of a giant leg in armor. Intending to divorce or kill Hippolita, Manfred approaches Isabella alone, proclaiming his intention to produce several sons with her. Realizing his only heir is dead and unable to produce more sons with his own wife, Hippolita, Manfred decides to continue his line by marrying his son’s fiancé Isabella. Rumors fly about Manfred’s impatience for the wedding, and the people believe that the marriage is in some way related to an ancient prophecy: “that the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it.” However, on the day of the wedding, Conrad is mysteriously crushed to death by a giant helmet falling from the sky.
Manfred, the ruler of Otranto, is impatiently waiting for the marriage between his son Conrad and the princess Isabella, the daughter of Frederic the Marquis of Vincenza.
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