16 UNDINE.
at last remembered notiiing of his many objections to the name of Undine.
- ' Thus, then, was she baptised Undine ; and, during
the holy ceremony, she behaved with great projirietj'^ and gentleness, wild and wayward as at other times she inva- riably was ; for in this my wife was quite right, when she mentioned the anxiety the child has occasioned us. If I should relate to you" —
At this moment the knight interrupted the fisherman, to direct his attention to a deep sound as of a rushing Hood, which had caught his ear during the talk of the old man. And now the waters came pouring on with redoubled fury before the cottage-windows. Both sprang to the door. There they saw, by the light of the now risen moon, the brook which issued from the wood rushing wildly over its banks, and whirling onward with it both stones and branches of trees in its rapid course. The storm, as if awakened by the uproar, burst forth from the clouds, whose immense masses of vapour coursed over the moon with the swiftness of thought ; the lake roared beneath the wind that swept the foam from its waves; while the trees of this narrow peninsula groaned from I'oot to topmost branch as they bowed and swung above the torrent.
"Undine! in God's name. Undine!" cried the two men in an agony. No answer was returned. And now, regardless of every thing else, they hurried from the cot- tage, one in this direction, the other in that, searching and calling.
CHAPTER II.
The longer Huldbrand sought Undine beneath the shades of night, and failed to find her, the more anxious and confused he became. The im])ression that she was a mere
