Then the other maidens begged her also to join them in their spinning, and not to waste her sighs and thoughts on one who could never be her lover; but Senta said she was tired of the hum of spinning-wheels, and asked Dame Mary to tell them again the legend of the Flying Dutchman.
But Dame Mary would not do so; and then Senta herself sang the whole ballad through from beginning to end, in her sweet, soft voice.
She described the rash vow of the daring captain, and the awful doom it had brought upon him, and the song excited her to such passionate depths of pity that, at the end of it, she stretched out her arms and cried aloud, as though the spectral seaman himself stood before her:
"I am the one who through her love will save thee!
Oh, may the Angels hither guide thee!
Through me, may new-found joy betide thee!"
As she uttered these wild words, which caused Dame Mary and her maidens to cry out in horror, a handsome young huntsman, named Erik, entered the room, and heard all; and having loved the fair Senta from childhood, and believed himself beloved in return, he rushed to her side in alarm, imploring her not to forsake him.
He then announced that Daland's ship had just arrived, accompanied by another and unknown vessel; and when Dame Mary and the maidens had hastily departed to set food ready for their master's welcome, he turned again to Senta, and begged her to assure him once more of her love, and to help him to gain her father's consent to their marriage, knowing full well that Daland desired a wealthier suitor for his daughter than a poor huntsman.
The beautiful Senta only laughed at his doubts; and when he reproached her with gazing so constantly at the picture on the wall, she declared it was but pity that filled her heart for the subject of it.
But Erik was not satisfied, and he went on to describe a vision he had lately had, in which he had seen Senta give her hand to this very phantom captain, who embraced her rapturously, and led her to his vessel; and when Senta heard this, the glamour of her strange fascination came over her again, and she cried out wildly:
"He seeks for me, and I for him!
For him will I risk life and limb!"
Erik rushed away, wringing his hands with grief, feeling now that Senta must be under some strange and evil spell; and at this moment Daland entered the room with his mysterious guest, whom as yet he did not know to be the Flying Dutchman. He held out his arms lovingly, expecting his daughter to rush forward and embrace him as she had always done before on his return from sea; but Senta, with wide-open, intense eyes, was gazing fixedly beyond him at the stranger in the doorway.