fainting to the deck, just as King Mark appears and the curtain
falls upon the first act.

Several days are supposed to have elapsed, when the second act
begins. Ysolde after her fainting fit has been conveyed to the
king's palace, where she is to dwell alone until her marriage
takes place, and where she forgets everything except the passion
which she feels for Tristan, who now shares all her feelings.
In a hurried private interview the lovers have arranged a
code of signals, and it is agreed that as soon as the light
in Ysolde's window is extinguished her lover will join her as
speedily as possible.

It is a beautiful summer night, and the last echoes of
the hunting horn are dying away on the evening breeze, when
Ysolde turns to Brangeane, and impatiently bids her put out the
light. The terrified nurse refuses to do so, and implores Ysolde
not to summon her lover, declaring that she is sure that Melot,
one of the king's courtiers, noted her pallor and Tristan's
strange embarrassment. In vain she adds that she knows his
suspicions have been aroused, and that he is keeping close watch
over them both to denounce them should they do anything amiss.
Ysolde refuses to believe her.

The princess is so happy that she makes fun of her attendant's
forebodings, and, after praising the tender passion she feels,
she again bids her put out the light. As Brangeane will not
obey this command, Ysolde, too much in love to wait any longer,
finally extinguishes the light with her own hand, and bids her
nurse go up in the watch-tower and keep a sharp lookout.