La maschera tragica

The city of Naples is in the grasp of the plague, and the terrified people are mowed down by the awful disease. The king with his court flees to a distant castle, where death is mockingly defied, behind locked doors. Death, a shadowy specter, carrying his scythe, stalks into the castle, presenting a weird and awe-inspiring sight, and casts the plague upon all except a poor woman and her two little children, whose pleadings moved the king to take them along, and who, alone, prayed to be spared.