Act III. The first scene again plays in the forester's house. _Agathe

still is filled with forebodings. She is attired for the test shooting which also will make her _Max's_ bride, if he is successful. Faith dispels her gloom. The bridesmaids enter and wind the bridal garland.

The time arrives for the test shooting. But only the seventh bullet, the one which _Zamiel_ speeds whither he wishes, remains to _Max_. His others he has used up on the hunt in order to show off before the _Prince_. _Kaspar_ climbs a tree to watch the proceedings from a safe place of concealment. He expects _Max_ to be _Zamiel's_ victim. Before the whole village and the _Prince_ the test shot is to be made. The Prince points to a flying dove. At that moment _Agathe_ appears accompanied by a _Hermit_, a holy man. She calls out to _Max_ not to shoot, that she is the dove. But _Max_ already has pulled the trigger. The shot resounds. _Agathe_ falls--but only in a swoon. It is _Kaspar_ who tumbles from the tree and rolls, fatally wounded, on the turf. _Zamiel_ has had no power over _Max_, for the young forester had not come to the Wolf's Glen of his own free will, but only after being tempted by _Kaspar_. Therefore _Kaspar_ himself had to be the victim of the seventh bullet. Upon the _Hermit's_ intercession, _Max_, who has confessed everything, is forgiven by _Prince Ottokar_, the test shot is abolished and a year's probation substituted for it.

Many people are familiar with music from "Der Freischütz" without being aware that it is from that opera. Several melodies from it have been adapted as hymn tunes, and are often sung in church. In Act I, are _Kilian's_ song and the chorus in which the men and women, young and old, rally _Max_ upon his bad luck. There is an expressive trio for _Max_, _Kaspar_, and _Cuno_, with chorus "O diese Sonne!" (O fateful morrow.) There is a short waltz. _Max's_ solo, "Durch die Wälder, durch die Auen" (Through the forest and o'er the meadows) is a melody of great beauty, and this also can be said of his other solo in the same scene, "Jetzt ist wohl ihr Fenster offen" (Now mayhap her window opens), while the scene comes to a close with gloomy, despairing accents, as _Zamiel_, unseen of course by _Max_, hovers, a threatening shadow, in the background. There follows _Kaspar's_ drinking song, forced in its hilariousness and ending in grotesque laughter, _Kaspar_ being the familiar of _Zamiel_, the wild huntsman. His air ("Triumph! Triumph! Vengeance will succeed") is wholly in keeping with his sinister character.