s lips--a strain of the tenderest and most ecstatic of the
Siegfried-Bruennhilde love-music marks the first effect of the draught
which dissolves the mists obscuring memory,--followed close by
the whole slowly unwinding Bruennhilde-motif. We feel as if we had
suddenly, with Siegfried, waked from a bad dream. We take a trembling
breath of relief at the weight removed from our heart.

A light of fixed joy grows and grows in Siegfried's face, as upon
this recovering of his true identity he takes up his story again:
"Wistfully I listened for the bird in the tree-tops. He sat there
still, and sang; 'Hei, Siegfried has slain the wicked dwarf! I
have in mind for him now the most glorious mate! On a high rock
she sleeps, a wall of flame surrounds her abode. If he should push
through the fire, if he should waken the bride, then were Bruennhilde
his own!'" Gunther hears in growing amazement. "Straightway,
unhesitating, I hastened forth. I reached the fire-girt rock. I
crossed the flaming barrier, and found in reward"--the memory holds
his breath suspended--a beautiful woman, asleep in a suit of gleaming
armour. I loosed the helmet from the glorious head; audaciously
with a kiss I waked the maid.... Oh, with what ardour did then
the arm of the lovely Bruennhilde enfold me!"

Gunther springs up in horrified comprehension. Two ravens at this
moment make sudden interruption, flying out of a tree and wheeling
above Siegfried's head. He starts up, in natural interest at the
apparition of Wotan's messengers. "Can you understand, too, the
croaking of these ravens?" sneers Hagen. Siegfried, looking after
the black birds as they bend their flight Rhine-wards, turns his
back to the questioner. "They bid me take vengeance!" Hagen grimly
interprets for himself, and with a quick thrust drives his spear
through Siegfried's body, from the back. Too late Gunther holds
his arm and the retainers spring to prevent him. Siegfried's eyes
flash wildly about for a weapon. He snatches up his great shield
and lifts it aloft to crush the perfidious enemy,--but his strength
fails, the shield drops, and he falls crashing backwards upon it.

"Hagen, what have you done?" comes accusingly from Gunther and
the men-of-arms, while a shudder runs through the assembly, and,
as one feels at the music's intimation, through the very heart
of nature. "Taken vengeance of perjury!" Hagen coldly replies,
and, turning from the group gathered around the dying hero, slowly