ht,
pale sea-farer, find it! Pray to Heaven that a woman soon may keep
her troth to him!

"He casts anchor every seven years, and to woo a woman comes ashore.
But never yet has he found a faithful one.--Hui! Spread the sails!
Yohohey!--Hui! Lift the anchor! Yohohey!--Hui! False love, false
troth! Back to sea, without stop, without rest!..." Senta who has
been singing with a spirit and expressiveness full unusual as applied
to a threadbare old ballad, has at this point reached such a pitch of
emotion that her voice fails and she sinks in her chair exhausted.
The girls, whom her earnestness has impressed into a realisation of
the facts sung by her, who have for a moment had through her eyes
the vision of that lost soul's wretchedness, take up the ballad
where she drops it, and sing on in tones which confess the contagion
of her sympathy: "Ah, where tarries she, to whom God's angel might
guide you? Where shall you find her who will be your own true and
loyal love until death?" With an air of illumination, Senta starts
to her feet and finishes the song with words which rise inspired
to her lips: "Let me be that woman! My truth shall work your
deliverance! God's angel guide you to me! Through me you shall
reach salvation!" She speaks so passionately, appears so strangely,
that her companions feel a sort of puzzled alarm. The old nurse,
frightened, rushes to her side with the cry: "Heaven help us!"
and all together they try to bring her to her normal self, calling
in tones of protest, "Senta! Senta!"

Unnoticed of the rest, Erik, the huntsman, has during the last
moments been standing in the doorway. He has heard Senta's exclamation,
witnessed her strange condition, and affected by it differently
from all the others cries, heart-struck, "Senta, Senta, are you
determined to destroy me?"--"Oh, help us, Erik," the others appeal
to him; "She is out of her senses!" The nurse, who has felt her
blood unaccountably running chill, turns angrily to the picture
on the wall: "Abominable picture, out of the house you shall go
just as soon as the father comes home!"--"The father has arrived,"
Erik informs them; "From the cliff I saw his ship come in." All
minds veer promptly from the subject which had been engrossing
them, to this delightful one of the arrival. The girls are for
running to the harbour upon the instant. Mary prevents them. "Stop!
Stop! You shall remain quietly at home. The sailor-folk will be
arriving with hollow stomac