In the third act we are again in the land of the Grail.  Parsifal has wandered for years trying to find Monsalvat, and at last encounters Gurnemanz, now a very old man, living as a hermit near a forest spring, and the saddened Kundry is serving him.  It is the Good Friday morning, and forests and fields are bright with flowers and the verdure of spring.  Gurnemanz recognizes him, and in reply to his question what makes the world so beautiful, the aged knight makes answer:—­

  “The sad repentant tears of sinners
     Have here with holy rain
     Besprinkled field and plain,
   And made them glow with beauty. 
     All earthly creatures in delight
     At the Redeemer’s trace so bright,
    Uplift their prayers of duty. 
  And now perceive each blade and meadow flower,
  That mortal foot to-day it need not dread.”

Kundry washes “the dust of his long wanderings” from his feet, and looks up at him with earnest and beseeching gaze.  Gurnemanz recognizes the sacred spear, hails him as the King of the Grail and offers to conduct him to the great hall where the holy rites are once more to be performed.  Before they leave, Parsifal’s first act as the redeemer is to baptize Kundry with water from the spring.  The sound of tolling bells in the distance announces the funeral of Titurel, and the scene changes to the hall where the knights are carrying the litter upon which Amfortas lies, awaiting the funeral procession approaching to the strains of a solemn march.  The knights demand he shall again uncover the Grail, but he refuses, and calls upon them to destroy him and then the Grail will shine brightly for them again.  Unobserved by them, Parsifal steps forward, touches the king’s wound with the spear, and it is immediately healed.  Then he proclaims himself King of the Grail, and orders it to be uncovered.  As Amfortas and Gurnemanz kneel to do him homage, Kundry dies at his feet in the joy of repentance.  Titurel rises from his coffin and bestows a benediction.  Parsifal ascends to the altar and raises the Grail in all its resplendent beauty.  A white dove flies down from the dome of the hall and hovers over his head, while the knights chant their praise to God, re-echoed by the singers in the dome, whose strains sound like celestial voices:—­

  “Miracle of supreme blessing,
  Redemption to the Redeemer.”

WALLACE.

William Vincent Wallace was born at Waterford, Ireland, in 1815.  He first studied music with his father, a bandleader, who afterwards sent him to Dublin, where he speedily became an excellent performer on the clarinet, violin, and piano.  At the early age of fifteen he was appointed organist at the Cathedral of Thurles, and soon afterwards was engaged as a theatre director and concert conductor.  At the age of eighteen he had a fit of sickness, and upon his recovery went to Australia for his health, and thence to Van Diemen’s