Then, while the swan slowly sails down the river and out of
sight, the Swan Knight announces to the king that he has come
as Elsa's champion, and, turning to her, asks whether she will
be his wife if he proves victorious. Elsa gladly promises him
her hand, nor does she even offer to withdraw this promise when
he tells her that she must trust him entirely, and never ask
who he is or whence he comes:--

'Say, dost thou understand me?
Never, as thou dost love me,
Aught shall to question move thee
From whence to thee I came,
Or what my race and name.'

Elsa faithfully promises to remember all these injunctions, and
bids him do battle for her, whereupon he challenges Telramund,
with whom he begins fighting at a given signal. The Swan Knight
soon defeats his enemy, who is thus convicted of perjury by the
judgment of God, but he magnanimously refuses to take his life.

Then, turning to Elsa, who thanks him passionately for saving
her, he clasps her in his arms, while Telramund and Ortrud,
his wife, bewail their disgrace, for, according to the law of
the land, they are doomed to poverty and exile. Their sorrow,
however, is quite unheeded by the enthusiastic spectators, who
set Elsa and Lohengrin upon their shields, and then bear them
off in triumph, to the glad accompaniment of martial strains:--

'CHORUS.