“It is now about eight days ago since I rode into the free imperial city, which lies on the other side of the forest. Soon after my arrival, there was a splendid tournament and running at the ring, and I spared neither my horse nor my lance.Once when I was pausing at the lists, to rest after my merry toil, and was handing back my helmet to one of my squires, my attention was attracted by a female fgure of great beauty, who was standing richly attired on one of the galleries allotted to spectators.I asked my neighbor, and learned from him, that the name of the fair lady was Bertalda, and that she was the foster-daughter of one of the powerful dukes living in the country.I remarked that she also was looking at me, and, as it is wont to be with us young knights, I had already ridden bravely, and now pursued my course with renovated confdence and courage.In the dance that evening I was Bertalda's partner, and I remained so throughout the festival.”
A sharp pain in his left hand, which hung down by his side, here interrupted Huldbrand's narrative, and drew his attention to the aching part. Undine had fastened her pearly teeth upon one of his fingers, appearing at the same time very gloomy and angry.Suddenly, however, she looked up in his eyes with an expression of tender melancholy, and whispered in a soft voice：“It is your own fault.”Then she hid her face, and the knight, strangely confused and thoughtful, continued his narrative.
“This Bertalda was a haughty, wayward girl. Even on the second day she pleased me no longer as she had done on the frst, and on the third day still less.Still I continued about her, because she was more pleasant to me than to any other knight, and thus it was that I begged her in jest to give me one of her gloves.‘I will give it you when you have quite alone explored the ill-famed forest,'said she,‘and can bring me tidings of its wonders.'It was not that her glove was of such importance to me, but the word had been said, and an honorable knight would not allow himself to be urged a second time to such a proof of valor.”
“I think she loved you,”said Undine, interrupting him.
“It seemed so,”replied Huldbrand.
“Well,”exclaimed the girl, laughing,“she must be stupid indeed. To drive away any one dear to her.And moreover, into an ill-omened wood.The forest and its mysteries might have waited long enough for me!”
“Yesterday morning.”continued the knight, smiling kindly at Undine,“I set out on my enterprise. The stems of the trees caught the red tints of the morning light which lay brightly on the green turf, the leaves seemed whispering merrily with each other, and in my heart I could have laughed at the people who could have expected anything to terrify them in this pleasant spot.‘I shall soon have trotted through the forest there and back again,'I said to myself, with a feeling of easy gayety, and before I had even thought of it I was deep within the green shades, and could no longer perceive the plain which lay behind me.Then for the frst time it struck me that I might easily lose my way in the mighty forest, and that this perhaps was the only danger which the wanderer had to fear.I therefore paused and looked round in the direction of the sun, which in the mean while had risen somewhat higher above the horizon.While I was thus looking up I saw something black in the branches of a lofty oak.I thought it was a bear and I grasped my sword；but with a human voice, that sounded harsh and ugly, it called to me from above：‘If I do not nibble away the branches up here, Sir Malapert, what shall we have to roast you with at midnight?'And so saying it grinned and made the branches rustle, so that my horse grew furious and rushed forward with me before I had time to see what sort of a devil it really was.”
“You must not call it so,”said the old fsherman as he crossed himself；his wife did the same silently. Undine looked at the knight with sparkling eyes and said：“The best of the story is that they certainly have not roasted him yet；go on now, you beautiful youth!”
The knight continued his narration：“My horse was so wild that he almost rushed with me against the stems and branches of trees；he was dripping with sweat, and yet would not suffer himself to be held in. At last he went straight in the direction of a rocky precipice；then it suddenly seemed to me as if a tall white man threw himself across the path of my wild steed；the horse trembled with fear and stopped：I recovered my hold of him, and for the first time perceived that my deliverer was no white man, but a brook of silvery brightness, rushing down from a hill by my side and crossing and impeding my horse's course.”
“Thanks, dear Brook,”exclaimed Undine, clapping her little hands. The old man, however, shook his head and looked down in deep thought.
“I had scarcely settled myself in the saddle,”continued Huldbrand,“and seized the reins firmly, when a wonderful little man stood at my side, diminutive, and ugly beyond conception. His complexion was of a yellowish brown, and his nose not much smaller than the rest of his entire person.At the same time he kept grinning with stupid courtesy, exhibiting his huge mouth, and making a thousand scrapes and bows to me.As this farce was now becoming inconvenient to me, I thanked him briefy and turned about my still trembling steed, thinking either to seek another adventure, or in case I met with none, to fnd my way back, for during my wild chase the sun had already passed the meridian；but the little fellow sprang round with the speed of lightning and stood again before my horse.‘Room!'I cried, angrily；‘the animal is wild and may easily run over you.'—‘Ay, ay!'snarled the imp, with a grin still more horribly stupid.‘Give me frst some drink-money, for I have stopped your horse；without me you and your horse would be now both lying in the stony ravine；ugh!'—‘Don't make any more faces,'said I,‘and take your money, even if you are telling lies；for see, it was the good brook there that saved me, and not you, you miserable wight!And at the same time I dropped a piece of gold into his grotesque cap, which he had taken off in his begging.I then trotted on；but he screamed after me, and suddenly with inconceivable quickness wasat my side.I urged my horse into a gallop；the imp ran too, making at the same time strange contortions with his body, half-ridiculous, half-horrible, and holding up the gold-piece, he cried, at every leap,‘False money!false coin!false coin!false money!’—and this he uttered with such a hollow sound that one would have supposed that after every scream he would have fallen dead to the ground.
“His horrid red tongue moreover hung far out of his mouth. I stopped, perplexed, and asked：‘What do you mean by this screaming?take another piece of gold, take two, but leave me.'He then began again his hideous burlesque of politeness, and snarled out：‘Not gold, not gold, my young gentleman.I have too much of that trash myself, as I will show you at once?'
“Suddenly it seemed to me as if I could see through the solid soil as though it were green glass and the smooth earth were as round as a ball；and within, a multitude of goblins were ranking sport with silver and gold；head over heels they were rolling about, pelting each other in jest with the precious metals, and provokingly blowing the gold-dust in each other's eyes. My hideous companion stood partly within and partly without；he ordered the others to reach him up heaps of gold, and showing it to me with a laugh, he then fung it back again with a ringing noise into the immeasurable abyss.
“He then showed the piece of gold I had given him to the goblins below, and they laughed themselves half-dead over it and hissed at me. At last they all pointed at me with their metal-stained fngers, and more and more wildly, and more and more densely, and more and more madly, the swarm of spirits came clambering up to me.I was seized with terror as my horse had been before：I put spursto him, and I know not how far I galloped for the second time wildly into the forest.
“At length, when I again halted, the coolness of evening was around me. Through the branches of the trees I saw a white foot-path gleaming, which I fancied must lead from the forest toward the city.I was anxious to work my way in that direction；but a face perfectly white and indistinct, with features ever changing, kept peering at me between the leaves；I tried to avoid it, but wherever I went it appeared also.Enraged at this, I determined at last to ride at it, when it gushed forth volumes of foam upon me and my horse, obliging us half-blinded to make a rapid retreat.Thus it drove us step by step ever away from the foot-path, leaving the way open to us only in one direction.When we advanced in this direction, it kept indeed close behind us, but did not do us the slightest harm.
“Looking around at it occasionally, I perceived that the white face that had besprinkled us with foam belonged to a form equally white and of gigantic stature. Many a time I thought that it was a moving stream, but I could never convince myself on the subject.Wearied out, the horse and his rider yielded to the impelling power of the white man, who kept nodding his head, as if he would say,‘Quite right, quite right!'And thus at last we came out here to the end of the forest, where I saw the turf, and the lake, and your little cottage, and where the tall white man disappeared.”
“It's well that he's gone,”said the old fsherman；and now he began to talk of the best way by which his guest could return to his friends in the city. Upon this Undine began to laugh slyly to herself；Huldbrand observed it, and said：“I thought you were glad to see mehere；why then do you now rejoice when my departure is talked of?”
“Because you cannot go away,”replied Undine.“Just try it once, to cross that overfowed forest stream with a boat, with your horse, or alone, as you may fancy. Or rather don't try it, for you would be dashed to pieces by the stones and trunks of trees which are carried down by it with the speed of lightning.And as to the lake, I know it well；father dare not venture out far enough with his boat.”
Huldbrand rose, smiling, in order to see whether things were as Undine had said；the old man accompanied him, and the girl danced merrily along by their side. They found every thing, indeed, as Undine had described, and the knight was obliged to submit to remain on the little tongue of land, that had become an island, till the food should subside.As the three were returning to the cottage after their ramble, the knight whispered in the ear of the little maiden“Well, how is it, my pretty Undine—are you angry at my remaining?”
“Ah!”she replied, peevishly,“let me alone. If I had not bitten you, who knows how much of Bertalda would have appeared in your story?”