rom her! Scold me, for having
disobeyed you! I found her in tears here before my door; I took
her in out of her wretchedness. Now see how dreadfully she rewards
my kindness!... She taunts me for my over-great trust in you!" The
Knight fixes his eyes sternly upon the offender, who somehow cannot
look back bold insult as she would wish, but stands spell-bound
under the calm severity of his glance. "Stand off from her, you
fearful woman. Here shall you never prevail!--Tell me, Elsa," he
bends over her tearful face, "tell me that she tried vainly to
drop her venom into your heart?" Elsa hides her face against his
breast without answering. But the gesture with its implied confidence
satisfies him; the tears increase his protecting tenderness. "Come!"
he draws her toward the church; "Let your tears flow in there as
tears of joy!"

The wedding-train forms again and moves churchward in wake of King
and bride and groom. But the wedding to-day is not to come off
without check and interruption--an ill omen, according to the lore
of all peoples. As the bridal party is mounting the Minster-steps,
there starts up in front of it, before the darkly gaping door,
the figure of Telramund. The crowd sways back as if from one who
should spread infection, so tainted did a man appear against whom
God through his ordeal had spoken judgment. "Oh, King, oh, deluded
princes, stand!" he cries, barring their way. He will not be silenced
by their indignant threats; he makes himself heard in spite of
shocked and angry prohibitions. "Hear me to whom grim injustice
has been done! God's judgment was perverted, falsified! By the
tricks of a sorcerer you have been beguiled!" The King's followers
are for seizing and thrusting him aside; but the soldier, famous
no longer ago than yesterday for every sort of superiority, stands
his ground and says what he is determined to say. "The man I see
yonder in his magnificence, I accuse of sorcery! As dust before
God's breath, let the power be dispersed which he owes to a black
art! How ill did you attend to the matters of the ordeal which was
to strip me of honour, refraining as you did from questioning him,
when he came to undertake God's fight! But you shall not prevent
the question now, I myself will put it to him. Of his name, his
station, his honours, I inquire aloud before the whole world. Who
is he, who came to shore guided by a wild swan? One who keeps in
his service the like enchanted animals is to my thi