ast night with your pretended grief? And
do you now haughtily demand precedence of me, you, the wife of a
man convicted by God?" Ortrud sees here her opportunity again to
introduce the wedge of suspicion into her victim's mind. "Though a
false sentence banished my husband, his name was honoured throughout
the land, he was never spoken of save as the pattern of virtue.
His sword was well-tested and was feared--But yours, tell me, who
that is present knows him? You cannot even yourself call him by
his name!... Nay, but can you?" she taunts the shocked, pale-grown
bride, who has found no more than force to gasp,--"What does she
say? She blasphemes! Stop her lips!"--"Can you tell us whether
his lineage, his nobility, be well attested? From whence the river
brought him and whither he will go when he leaves? No, you cannot!
The matter, no doubt, would present difficulties, wherefore the
astute hero forbade all questioning!" Elsa has found her voice
at last, and speaks right hotly: "You slanderer! Abandoned woman!
Hear, whether I can answer you! So pure and lofty is his nature,
so filled with virtue is that noblest man, that never shall the
person obtain forgiveness who presumes to doubt his mission! Did
not my hero overcome your husband by the power of God in singular
combat? You shall tell me then, all of you, which of the two must
lawfully be held true?"--"Ha! That truth of your hero's!" mocks
Ortrud, fearfully ready of tongue; "How soon were it cast in doubt,
should he be forced to confess the sorcery by which he practises
such power! If you fear to question him concerning it, all may
believe with good right that you are not free yourself from the
suspicion that his truth must not be too closely looked into!"
Elsa is near fainting with the anguish of this encounter; her women
surround and comfort her.

The doors of the Palace have opened, the King and the Knight of
the Swan, with great retinue of nobles, issue forth, bound for
the church and wedding-ceremony. They arrive upon the scene before
the confusion is allayed occasioned by the quarrel between vulture
and dove. Elsa runs to the arms of the Protector. Receiving her and
glancing naturally about for explanation, he beholds the dangerous
Ortrud, whom his clear eye reads, restored to splendour, part of the
wedding-train, and remarks upon it with amazement to the trembling
bride. "What do I see? That unhappy woman at your side?"--"My
deliverer," weeps Elsa, "shield me f