isolde collapses beside him as the appearance of another ship is announced. kurwenal sees melot, marke and brangaene arrive and furiously attacks melot because he had killed tristan. in the fight both melot and kurwenal are killed. marke and brangaene finally reach tristan and isolde. marke is terribly sad. he explains that he has heard about the love-potion from brangaene and he had come because he had decided that tristan and isolde should be united. isolde seems to wake but, in a last aria describing her vision of tristan risen again (the “liebestod”), then falls lifeless next to his body, uniting the two lovers in death.