"Alas, with thy father's death, I lost all my magic power, my child. He gave his sevenfold Shield of the Sun to Sarastro, and I have been perfectly helpless since." "Then I have certainly lost Tamino," Pamina sobbed somewhat illogically. "No, take this dagger and slay Sarastro, my love, and take the shield. That will straighten matters out." Then the bloody Queen sang that the fires of hell were raging in her bosom. Indeed, she declared that if Pamina should not do as she was bidden and slay the priest, she would disown her. Thus Pamina had met with her temptation, and while she was rent between duty and a sense of decency--because she felt it would be very unpleasant to kill Sarastro--Monostatos entered and begged her to confide in him, that he of all people in the world was best able to advise her. "What shall I do, then?" the trusting creature demanded. "There is but one way in the world to save thyself and thy mother, and that is immediately to love me," he counselled. "Good heaven! The remedy is worse than the disease," she cried. "Decide in a hurry. There is no time to wait. You are all bound for perdition," he assured her, cheerfully. "Perdition then! I won't do it." Temptation number two, for Pamina. "Very well, it is your time to die!" Monostatos cried, and proceeded to kill her, but Sarastro entered just in time to encourage her. "Indeed it is not--your schedule is wrong, Monostatos," Sarastro assured him. "I must look after the mother, then, since the daughter has escaped me," Monostatos remarked, comforting himself as well as he could. "Oh don't chastise my mother," Pamina cried. "A little chastising won't hurt her in the least," Sarastro assured her. "I know all about how she prowls around here, and if only Tamino resists his temptations, you will be united and your mother sent back to her own domain where she belongs. If he survives the ordeals we have set before him, he will deserve to marry an orphan." All this was doubtless true, but it annoyed Pamina exceedingly. As soon as Sarastro had sung of the advantages of living in so delightful a place as the temple, he disappeared, not in the usual way, but by walking off, and the scene changed. _Scene III_ Tamino and the speaker who accompanied the priests and talked for them were in a large hall, and Papageno was there also. "You are again to be left here alone; and I caution ye to be silent," the speaker advised as he went out. The second priest said: "Papageno, whoever breaks the silence here, brings down thunder and lightning upon himself." He, too, went out. "That's pleasant," Papageno remarked. "You are only to think it is pleasant--not to mention it," Tamino cautioned. Meantime, Papageno, who couldn't hold his tongue to save his life, grew thirsty. And he no sooner became aware of it, than an old woman entered with a cup of water. "Is that for me?" he asked. "Yes, my love," she replied, and Papageno drank it.