Act I. Palace of the King. Count _Adolar_ chants the beauty and virtue

of his betrothed, _Euryanthe._ Count _Lysiart_ sneers and boasts that he can lead her astray. The two noblemen stake their possessions upon the result.

Garden of the Palace of Nevers. _Euryanthe_ sings of her longing for _Adolar_. _Eglantine_, the daughter of a rebellious subject who, made a prisoner, has, on _Euryanthe's_ plea, been allowed the freedom of the domain, is in love with _Adolar._ She has sensed that _Euryanthe_ and her lover guard a secret. Hoping to estrange _Adolar_ from her, she seeks to gain _Euryanthe's_ confidence and only too successfully. For _Euryanthe_ confides to her that _Adolar's_ dead sister, who lies in the lonely tomb in the garden, has appeared to _Adolar_ and herself and confessed that, her lover having been slain in battle, she has killed herself by drinking poison from her ring; nor can her soul find rest until someone, innocently accused, shall wet the ring with tears. To hold this secret inviolate has been imposed upon _Euryanthe_ by _Adolar_ as a sacred duty. Too late she repents of having communicated it to _Eglantine_ who, on her part, is filled with malicious glee. _Lysiart_ arrives to conduct _Adolar's_ betrothed to the royal palace.