ing his sight. The boy at first is
charmed with the apparition, but cries in mortal terror as the Erl King
seizes him, while the father gallops at last into the courtyard, only to
find his child dead in his arms.

In the poem used by Gade it is the Erl King's daughter who tempts a
knight to his death. The prologue relates that Sir Oluf at eve stayed his
steed and rested beneath the alders by the brook, where he was visited by
two of the daughters, one of whom caressed him while the other invited
him to join their revels. At sound of the cock-crow, however, they
disappeared. It was the eve of Sir Oluf's wedding day. He arrives home in
a distraught condition, and in spite of his mother's appeals decides to
return to the alder grove in quest of the beauties who had bewitched him.
He finds the alder-maids dancing in the moonlight, singing and beckoning
him to join them. One of the fairest tempts him with a silken gown for
the bride and silver armor for himself. When he refuses to dance with
her, she seizes him by the arm and predicts his death on the morrow
morning. "Ride home to your bride in robe of red," she cries as he
hastens away. In the morning the mother anxiously waits his coming, and
at last beholds him riding desperately through "the waving corn." He has
lost his shield and helmet, and blood drips from his stirrups. As he
draws rein at the door of the castle he drops dead from his saddle. A
brief epilogue points the moral of the story in quaint fashion. It is to
the effect that knights who will on horseback ride should not like Oluf
stay in elfin groves with elfin maidens till morning. It is unnecessary
to specify the numbers in detail; as with the exception of the
melodramatic finale, where the music becomes quite vigorous, it is all of
the same graceful, flowing, melodic character, and needs no key to
explain it to the hearer.

The Crusaders.

"The Crusaders" is one of the most powerful as well as beautiful of
modern cantatas. It was written for performance in Copenhagen in 1866,
and ten years later was produced at the Birmingham Festival, under the
composer's direction. It is divided into three parts, and its story may
be told in a word. Its theme is the same as that which Wagner has treated
in "Lohengrin" and in "Taennhauser,"--the conflict of the human soul with
the powers of darkness, sensual beauty and sorcery, and its final
triumph. It is the story of the temptation of Rin