The lofty mission which he is destined to accomplish is now regaled to him; he must defy, like Amfortas, all the pleasures of guilty temptations, suffer all that he has suffered; but resist where he has yielded, and triumph where the other has succumbed; this is the price by which he will save him. Kundry, in a delirium of furious passion, sets loose in vain all the seductions of hell against him; in vain she endeavors to soften him: "Ah cruel one, if thou feelest naught in thy heart but the sufferings of others, feel also mine. If thou be the Saviour, why not unite thyself to me for my salvation; during eternities I have awaited thee. Oh! if thou couldst know the curse which sleeping and waking in torment and laughter invigorates me endlessly for new suffering. I saw Him, Him, and I laughed. His glance fell upon me. Since then I seek this glance from world to world, I shall meet it again yet; in the height of my distress I seem to see it, I feel it resting upon me. Then the cursed laughter seizes me again. A sinner falls into my arms, and I laugh, I laugh; I cannot weep. I can only cry out, carried deliriously into the night of folly ever renewed, from which penitence itself scarce arouses me. Him whom I ardently desire in the midst of my agony I recognize in thee; let me weep upon thy breast and unite myself to thee for a single hour, and though seemingly rejected by God and the world, let me be saved and redeemed in thee." "Thou wouldst be damned with me for all eternity if for one hour I should forget my mission in the embrace of thy arms."... "It was my kiss which rendered thy eyes clear? the full gift of my love would give thee divinity. Save the world if that is thy mission, and if this hour has made thee a god, let me suffer damnation forever. Only give me thy love." "Thee too will I save, sinner; show me but the road which I have lost, the way which leads to Amfortas." "Never, never! thou shalt not find him," cries Kundry, transported with rage. "Error, imposition, illusion, bar his war, entangle the paths that his feet may never enter upon the road which he seeks; may all ways be cursed that estrange him from me. Aberration! aberration! I dedicate him to thee, be thou his guide!" At Kundry's cries the young girls come forth from the palace. Klingsor, armed with the sacred lance, throws himself upon Parsifal, but the divine steel cannot harm him who has remained pure; it rests suspended miraculously above him. The young hero seizes the weapon and traces the sign of the cross in space. At this symbol the magic castle crumbles away and disappears, the garden withers, the young girls, like dying flowers, droop and sink to the earth; nothing is now seen save an arid desert, with mountains and snowy peaks in the distance. Parsifal, striding over the ruins, moves away, uttering a last word of hope to the sinner: "Thou knowest where alone thou wilt see me again." THIRD ACT.