got possession of all the chains but one, which had been wrought into a cup, and one day, when he heard the sound of wings, and six swans let themselves down into the water, he threw the chains around their necks, and they at once assumed the forms of his brothers.  Also how, one day, Helyas, from the window of his palace, saw a swan drawing a boat, and how he donned his armor, took a golden horn, and was drawn away to Nimwegen, where Emperor Otto was holding court.  There he found that the Count of Blankenbourg had accused his sister-in-law, the Duchess of Bouillon, of having poisoned her husband, and had laid claim to the duchy.  There was to be a trial by ordeal of battle, and while the duchess waited for the coming of a champion, lo! there was the sound of a horn, and Helyas came down the river in a boat drawn by a swan, undertook the cause of the innocent lady, slew her accuser, and married her daughter.  For long she was a good and faithful wife, and bore him a child who became the mother of Godfrey de Bouillon, Baldwin de Sebourg, and Eustace de Boulogne.  But one day she asked of her lord his name and race.  Then he bade her repair to Nimwegen, and commending her and her daughter to the care of the emperor, he departed thence in a swan-drawn boat and was never seen more.

Here we have the essentials of the story which Wagner wrought into his opera “Lohengrin” Only a few details need be added to make the plot complete.  The meeting of Lohengrin and Elsa takes place on the banks of the river Scheldt in Brabant.  The King has come to ask the help of the Brabantians against the Huns, who are invading Germany.  He finds Brabant in a disturbed state.  The throne is vacant; Count Frederick of Telramund, who has his eyes upon it, had offered his hand in marriage to Elsa, who, with her brother, Gottfried, had been left in his care on the death of their father, but had met with a refusal.  He had then married Ortrud, a Frisian princess.  She is the last of a royal line, but a pagan, and practises sorcery.  To promote the ambition of herself and her husband, she has changed Gottfried into a swan by throwing a magical chain about his neck, and persuaded Telramund to accuse Elsa of having murdered the boy in the hope of enjoying the throne together with a secret lover.  The King summons Elsa to answer the charge and decrees trial by ordeal of battle.  Commanded to name her champion, she tells of a knight seen in a dream:  upon him alone will she rely.  Not until the second call of the Herald has gone out and Elsa has fallen to her knees in prayer does the champion appear.  He is a knight in shining white armor who comes in a boat drawn by a swan.  He accepts the gage of battle, after asking Elsa whether or not she wants him to be her husband if victorious in the combat, and exacting a promise never to ask of him whence he came or what his name or race.  He overcomes Telramund, but gives him his life; the King, however, banishes the false accuser and sets the stranger over