parts,
called the Palas, and the Kemenate. The former was where the knights
lived, and the latter was the home of the ladies of the court. Late on
the night of the battle between Frederick and Lohengrin, Frederick and
his wife, Ortrud, were sitting without the palace, which was brightly
illuminated, thinking of the misfortunes their wickedness had brought
upon them. They were dressed in the garments of outcasts, as the King
had commanded, and especially was Frederick gazing at the brightly
lighted part where the knights were doubtless making merry since the
wedding of Lohengrin and Elsa was to be on the morrow. He knew that
had he been an honest man, he would have been among them and happy.

Music could be heard floating from the palace windows, and everything
spoke of gaiety and happiness.

"Come, arouse thyself, Ortrud. You have brought this upon us, now
rouse thyself, since it is near day, and we must be gone out of the
city."

"I cannot flee! Some strange thing holds me here. I shall avenge us,
you may be sure before I have gone from this place." She rose from the
steps upon which she had been reclining and went toward the palace,
looking up at the windows where the women dwelt in the Kemenate.

"I don't know what spell binds me to a woman so wicked as thou art,
Ortrud," Frederick exclaimed, watching her moodily. "I should leave
thee, and cast thee off. To tell the truth I never believed the crimes
with which I charged that maiden."

"Get thyself up," she cried to him, for he had thrown himself upon the
ground. "Thou art but a chicken-hearted creature, not fit for an
heroic woman like me."

"Thou art a black-hearted woman," he answered, and so they fell to
quarrelling vigorously. But at last, each being quite lost to
goodness, they felt their only help lay in each other.

"If thou wilt be a decently conducted husband toward me, I tell thee I
will use my enchantments to undo that strange knight, and then all
will be well with us." The lights in the palace began to go out, one
by one. "Now is the hour when the stars reveal their secrets to me,
Telramund," she said. "Sit here by me, and I will tell you who that
swan was who drew the knight's boat upon the river. It was the brother
of Elsa--enchanted,--whom we accused her of destroying. More than
that, the knight is ruined if the secret of his home and his birth is
discovered. If Elsa can be made to break her promise, and get him to
reveal these things, he will