lady's chamber, enjoying a night of ecstatic love-making. Suddenly their joy is interrupted: the dawn, announced by the song of birds or by the voice of the castle watchman resounding from the ramparts, has come to put an end to the night of love. The lovers, particularly the lady, protest. They berate the watchman, they curse the sun, they deny that day is really at hand. But in the end they must give way. With grief and tears at the separation, and with promises that they will soon meet again, they part; the knight goes off into the outer world