Act I. In Säkkingen a great festival is being held, Fridolin's day.

Peasants from the suburbs have come to town for it. There is a suspicious agitation among them. _Konradin_ who is now in the service of the state has his hands full keeping order. What happiness when he sees his old comrade _Werner_. But now as _Maria_, daughter of the _Baron von Schönau_; together with her haughty aunt, the divorced wife of _Count von Wildenstein_, arrive at the church, insurrection breaks out. Who knows what the peasants would not have done to the ladies had not _Werner_ as knightly protector sprung between them. Love at first sight seized the two young people. (Change of scene.) Above in Schönau castle the old baron is again tormented by chills. Serving as a means of lessening his pain comes a letter from his brother-in-law, _Count von Wildenstein_, who announces that he is coming to visit him. He has a son, _Damian_, who would be just the right husband for _Schönau's_ daughter _Maria_. Moreover that would be an opportunity to bring about a reconciliation between the count and his divorced wife, none other than _Maria's_ aunt. The marriage was dissolved and their son was once stolen by gypsies. _Damian_ is a son of the second wife of _Count von Wildenstein_, who is dead. Out of his pleasant thoughts about his future son-in-law and protector of the castle in these evil days the _Baron_ is frightened by the reports of his women about the uprising of the peasants. In the praise that _Maria_ gives to the brave trumpeter is echoed his playing from the Rhine to here. That stirs the old baron like an elixir of youth in his bones. The trumpeter is summoned and a look in _Maria's_ love-warmed eyes is enough for him to accept the Baron's offer to become trumpeter of the castle. Of course the proximity of the young people will not please the aunt.