But what has become of him? We have the one clue only, which will be known by all students in future as the "_Tod_und_Ho'lle_ Motiv," just given above: Bluebeard has gone where we will not follow him unless we are obliged. Is this asserting too much? Alas, it is only too evident. If it had been Wagner's intention to refer to the glorious immortality of a godlike hero, we should have had the exquisite strains of a heavenly harp, thus:

[rising arpeggios]

or the whir of angels' wings, thus:

[trills off the right-hand end of the keyboard]

And a final significant note, thus:

whose piercing sweetness and dizzy altitude would have symbolized Heaven, or at least Walhalla.

Alas, it is all too plain. We have this:

[1 inch below the bass staff]

enough in itself to show his whereabouts; and as if that were not enough, this: