o the room. She glides up to the sleeping guest and
gently rouses him, bidding him escape while her husband is
still sound asleep under the influence of an opiate which she
has secretly administered:--

'It is I; behold what I say!
In heedless sleep is Hunding,
I set him a drink for his dreams,
The night for thy safety thou needest.'

Leading him to the oak, she then points out the sword, telling
him it was driven into the very heart of the tree by a one-eyed
stranger. He had come into the hall on her wedding day, and had
declared that none but the mortal for whom the gods intended
the weapon would ever be able to pull it out. She then goes
on to describe how many strong men have tried to withdraw it,
and warmly declares it must have been intended for him who had
so generously striven to protect a helpless maiden. Her tender
solicitude fills the poor outcast's famished heart with such
love and joy that he clasps her to his breast, and, the door
swinging noiselessly open to admit a flood of silvery moonbeams,
they join in the marvellous duet known as the 'Spring Song.'

As they gaze enraptured upon each other, they too perceive the
strong resemblance which has so struck Hunding, but still fail to
recognize each other as near of kin. To save Sieglinde from her
distasteful compulsory marriage, Siegmund now consents to fly,
providing she will accompany him, vowing to protect her till
death with the sword which he easily draws from the oak, and
which he declares he knows his father must have placed there,
as he recognizes him in the description which Sieglinde had
given of the stranger:--

'Siegmund the Volsung,
Seest thou beside thee!
For bridal gift
He brings thee this sword.
He woos with the blade
The blissfullest wife.
From the house of the foe
He hies with thee.
Forth from here
Follow him far,
Hence to the laughing
House of the Spring,
Where Nothung the sword defends thee,
Where Siegmund infolds thee in love!'

This passionate appeal entirely sweeps away Sieglinde's last
scruples; she yields rapturously to his wooing, and they steal
away softly, hand in hand, to go and seek their happiness
out in the wide world. Hunding, upon awaking on the morrow,
discovers the treachery of his guest and the desertion of his
wife. Almost beside himself with fury, he prepares to overtake
and punish the guilty pair.

As a fight is now imminent betwee