"One evening in the countryside he hears two shepherds in the distance dialoguing with their "ranz des vaches"; this pastoral duet, the setting (1:30), the gentle rustling of the trees in the wind, some causes for hope that he has recently conceived, all conspire to restore to his heart an unaccustomed feeling of calm and to give to his thoughts a happier coloring. He broods on his loneliness and hopes that soon he will no longer be on his own... But what if she betrayed him (6:36)!
This mingled hope and fear, these ideas of happiness, disturbed by dark premonitions, form the subject of the adagio. In the end one of the shepherds resumes his "ranz des vaches" (12:54); the other one no longer answers. Distant sounds of thunder... solitude... silence."
-Hector Berlioz
Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14
III. Scene in the Fields