The gate-keeper was the fairest of the maidens, and her fingers were busy weaving a garland of roses, but she stopped her work long enough to smile a welcome to Sir Adelbert.  He thanked her gallantly and queried:  Was the pretty sight a May Day celebration?  Replied the winsome gate-keeper:  “Here Dame’ Venus holds court in honor of the noble knight Sir Tannhauser”; and she opened the gate and Adelbert entered.  Within he beheld a gay tent pitched in a grove of flowering shrubs, and out of it emerged a beauteous creature and advanced toward him.  Her robe was rose color, adorned with strings of pearls and festooned with fragrant blossoms.  A crown which glistened with gems rested lightly on her head.  In her right hand—­a dainty hand—­she carried a tiny kerchief of filmy white stuff embroidered with gold, and in her left a lute.  She sate herself down on a golden chair, bent her head over her left shoulder.  A dreamy, tender light came into her eyes, and her rosy fingers sought the strings of her lute—­strings of gold.  Would she sing?  Just then one of the maidens approached her, lisped musically into her ear, and pointed to the approaching knight.  Almost imperceptibly, but oh, so graciously, the lips of the vision moved.  As if in obedience to a command, the maiden approached, and said in rhythmical cadence:  “Greetings, Sir Knight, from Dame Venus, who sends you message that all who love gaming and fair women are welcome at her court.”  She gave him her hand to escort him, and when the knight pressed her fingers in gratitude he felt a gentle pressure in return.  The knight approached the dazzling queen of the palace and fell upon his knee; but she gave him her hand and she bade him arise, which he did after he had kissed her fingers.  And she called to a maiden, who fetched a golden horn filled to the brim with wine and handed it to the knight.  “Empty the goblet, like a true knight, to the health of all fair women who love and are beloved,” said the queen.  Sir Adelbert smiled obedience:  “To love, fair lady,” he said and drank the wine at a draught.  And thus he became a captive and a slave.

Long did he sojourn within the magic realm, in loving dalliance with Venus and her maidens, until one day a hermit entered the cave in the absence of the queen and bore him back to the outer world, where penance and deeds of piety restored him to moral health and saved him from the fate of Tannhauser.

Footnotes: 

{1} “Studies in the Wagnerian Drama,” by H. E. Krehbiel, pp. 35, 36.

CHAPTER XIII

“Tristan und Isolde”