Kundry appears, slowly rising from the shadows. Like a creature rudely awakened from a profound sleep, she utters a horrible cry of fear, which little by little becomes extinguished in a feeble moan of distress. It is she, it is the power of her beauty which should cause the ingenious youth to fall into the magicians power. Is it not in her arms that the King of the Grail forgot his holy duties? Is it not on her account that he now suffers and writhes in the cruel flame of guilty desire? In vain the temptress struggles and attempts to escape from the power which holds her in dominion; the impure fires which burn within her will force her to yield. Good and evil tumultuously dispute the possession of this soul, already several times incarnate. Like a feminine Ahasuerus, she formerly insulted Christ, and is condemned to be born again ceaselessly in sin's suffering. In vain she aspires to deliverance, she inevitably falls back again into the snares of the flesh. He who would resist the enchantress might perhaps save her; but before her beauty all are weak, all damn themselves with her. He, Klingsor, holds her in his power, and knows how to rouse her from the lethargic sleep, into which he plunges her at will. "For me alone, thy seductions are powerless," he says to her. "Ah! ah!" she cries with a harsh laugh, "would'st thou be chaste?" "What dost thou ask, cursed woman?" shrieks Klingsor in a rage. "Oh, cruel torment! It is thus that Satan scoffs me because I formerly struggled for holiness; cruel torment, torment of unsubdued desire, hellish urgency of horrible instincts, upon which I have imposed the silence of death. Does he laugh now, and does he jeer at me by thy month, thou bride of the devil? Beware, such scorn and raillery one has expiated already,--he who once cast me from him, proud in the strength of his sanctity; his race is to-day in my power, and the guardian of the holy of holies must languish un-redeemed. Soon, I think, I shall myself watch over the Grail! Ha! ha! he pleased thee, this Amfortas, the hero whom I assigned to thee for thy joy." "Oh, woe! woe!" groans Kundry, "he also weak, all are weak, all have fallen with me by my damnation. Oh, eternal sleep, thou only blessing, how attain thee?" "Ah! he who would resist thee would deliver thee; make thy trial upon the youth who approaches."