volition, seeing she cannot lure him to sin, and that he is
about to escape forever, shrieks frantically for help, cursing
him vehemently, and declaring that he will have to wander long
ere he can again find a way to the realm of the Holy Grail.
Her piercing screams bring the flower damsels and Klingsor
upon the scene, and the latter, standing upon the rampart,
flings the holy spear at Parsifal, expecting to wound him as
grievously as Amfortas. But the youth has committed no sin,
he is quite pure; so the spear remains poised above his head,
until he stretches out his hand, and, seizing it, makes a sign
of the cross, adjuring the magic to cease:--

'This sign I make, and ban thy cursed magic:
As the wound shall be closed
Which thou with this once clovest,--
To wrack and to ruin
Falls thy unreal display!'

At the holy sign, the enchanter's delusions vanish, maidens and
gardens disappear, and Kundry sinks motionless upon the arid
soil, while Parsifal springs over the broken wall, calling out
that they shall meet again.

The third act is played also upon the slopes of the mountain,
upon which the temple stands. Many years have elapsed, however,
and Gurnemanz, bent with age, slowly comes out of his hut at
the sound of a groan in a neighbouring thicket. The sounds are
repeated until the good old man, who has assumed the garb of
a hermit, searches in the thicket, and, tearing the brambles
aside, finds the witch Kundry in one of her lethargic states. He
has seen her so before in days gone by, and, dragging her
rigid form out from the thicket, he proceeds to restore her
to life. Wildly as of old her eyes roll about, but she has no
sooner come to her senses than she clamours for some work to
do for the Holy Grail, and proceeds to draw water and perform
sundry menial tasks. Gurnemanz, watching her closely, comments
upon her altered behaviour, and expresses a conviction that she
will ultimately be saved, since she has returned to the Grail
after many years on the morning of Good Friday.

He is so occupied in examining her that he does not notice
the approach of Parsifal, clad in black armour, with closed
helmet and lowered spear, and it is only when Kundry calls his
attention to the stranger that he welcomes him, but without
recognizing him in the least.

Parsifal, however, has not forgotten the old man whom he has
sought so long in vain, and is, so overcome by emotion that
he cannot speak. He obeys Gu