h does not in the least shake
her faith in her new lover, or change her resolution to live
and die for him alone. But the Dutchman, appearing suddenly,
mistakes her patience for regret, and, almost frantic with love
and despair, he bids her a passionate farewell and rushes off
toward his ship.

'To sea! To sea till time is ended!
Thy sacred promise be forgot,
Thy sacred promise and my fate!
Farewell! I wish not to destroy thee!'

But Senta has not ceased to love him. She runs after him,
imploring him to remain with her, protesting her fidelity
and renewing her vows in spite of Erik's passionate efforts
to prevent her from doing so. The Flying Dutchman at first
refuses to listen to her words, and rapidly gives his orders
for departure. She is about to embark, when he suddenly turns
toward her and declares that he is accursed, and that she has
saved herself, by timely withdrawal, from the doom which awaits
all those who fail to keep their troth:--

'Now hear, and learn the fate from which thou wilt be saved:
Condemned am I to bear a frightful fortune,--
Ten times would death appear a brighter lot.
A woman's hand alone the curse can lighten,
If she will love me, and till death be true.
Still to be faithful thou hast vowed,
Yet has not God thy promise?
This rescues thee; for know, unhappy, what a fate is theirs
Who break the troth which they to me have plighted:
Endless damnation is their doom!
Victims untold have fallen 'neath this curse through me.
Yet, Senta, thou shalt escape.
Farewell! All hope is fled forevermore.'

But Senta has known from the very beginning who this dark wooer
was, and is so intent upon saving him from his fate that she
fears no danger for herself. Passionately she clings to him,
protesting her affection, and when he looses her, and Erik
would fain detain her by force, she struggles frantically to
follow him.

Erik's cry brings Daland, Mary, and the Chorus to the rescue, and
they too strive to restrain Senta, when they hear the stranger
proclaim from the deck of his phantom ship that he is the Scourge
of the Sea,--the Flying Dutchman. The vessel sails away from
the harbour. Senta escapes from her friends, and rushes to a
projecting cliff, whence she casts herself recklessly into the
seething waves, intent only upon showing her love and saving him,
and thereby proving herself faithful unto death:--

'Praise thou thine