xtjVdixe. 41
this sin2:le question, and that ahiiost ur)a', ares, escaped from his lips :
- ' Dearest Undine, tell lue this one thing : what was it
you meant by 'spirits of earth' and 'KUhleborii,' when the priest stood knocking at the door?"
"Tales! mere tales of children!" answered Undine, laughing, now quite restored to her wonted gaiety. " I first friirhtened you with them, and you frightened me. This is tlie end of the storj^ and of our nuptial evening."
" Nay, not so," replied the enamoured knight, extin- guishing the tapers, and a thousand times kissing his beautiful and beloved bride ; while, lighted by the moon that shone brightly through the windows, he bore her into their bridal apartment.
The fresh light of morning avoke the young married pair; but Huldbrand lay lost in silent reflection. Whenever during the night he had fallen asleep, strange and horrible dreams of specti'es Imd disturbed him ; and these shapes, grinning at him by stealth, strove to disguise themselves as beautiful females ; and from beautiful females they all at once assumed the appearance of dragons. And when be started up, aroused by the intrusion of these hideous forms, the moonlight shone pale and cold before the win- dows without. He looked affrighted at Undine, in whose arms he had fallen asleep ; and she was reposing in un- altered beauty and sweetness beside him. Then pressing her rosy lips with a light kiss, he again fell into a slumber, only to be awakened by new terrors.
When fully awake, he had thought over this connexion. He reproached himself for any doubt that could lead him into error in regard to his lovely wife. He also confessed to her his injustice ; but she only gave him her fair hand, sighed deeply, and remained silent. Yet a glance offer- vent tenderness, an expression of the soul beaming in her ej'es, such as he had never witnessed there before, left him in undoubting assurance that Undine bore him no ill-will.
42 UNDINE.
He then rose joyfully, and, leaA'ing her, went to the common apartment, where the inmates of the house had already met. The three were sitting round the hearth with an air of anxiety about them, as if they feared trust- ing themselves to raise their voice above a low, apprehen- sive undertone. The priest appeared to be praying in his inmost spirit, with a view to avert some fatal calamity. But when they observed the young husband come forth so cheerful, they dispelled the cloud that remained upon their brows: the old fisherman even began to laugh with the knight, till his aged wife herself could not help smil- ing with great good-humour.
Undine had in the mean time got ready, and now en- tered the room ; all rose to meet her, but remained fixed in perfect admiration — she was so changed, and yet the same. The priest, with paternal affection beaming from his countenance, first went up to her ; and as he raised his hand to pronounce a blessing, the beautiful bride sank on her knees before him with religious awe ; she begged his pardon in terms both respectful and submissive for any foolish things she might have uttered the evening before, and entreated him with emotion to pray for the welfare of her sold. She then rose, kissed her foster-parents, and, after thanking them for all the kindness they had shewn her, said :
" O, I now feel in my inmost heart how much, how infinitely much, you have done for me, you dear, dear friends of my childhood !"
At first she was wholly unable to tear herself away from their affectionate caresses ; but the moment she saw the good old mother busy in getting breakfast, she went to the hearth, applied herself to cooking the food and put- ting it on the table, and would not suffer her to take the least share in the work.
She continued in this frame of spirit the whole day: calm, kind, attentive — half niatroT'ly and half girlish. The three who had been longest acquainted with her expected
IJM)1XE. 43
every instant to see her capricious spirit break out in some whimsical change or sportive vagary. But their fears were quite unnecessary. Undine continued as mild and gentle as an angel. The priest found it all but impos- sible to remove his eyes from her ; and he often said to the bridegroom :
" The bounty of Heaven, sir, through me its unworthy instrument, entrusted to you yesterday an invaluable trea- sure ; cherish it as you ought, and it will promote your temporal and eternal welfare."
Toward evening Undine was hanging upon the knight's arm with lowly tenderness, while she drew him gently out bafore the door, where the setting sun shone richly over the fresh grass, and upon the high, slender boles of the trees. Her emotion was visible: the dew of sadness and love swam in her eyes, while a tender and fearful secret seemed to hover upon her lips, but was only made known by hardly breathed sighs. She led her husband farther and farther onv.ard without speaking. When he asked her questions, she replied only with looks, in which, it is true, there appeared to be no immediate answer to his inquiries, but a whole heaven of love and timid devotion. Thus they reached the margin of the swollen forest-stream, and the knight was astonished to see it glid- ing away with so gentle a murmuring of its waves, that no vestige of its former swell and wildness was now dis- cernible.
" By morning it will be vholly drained off," said the beautiful wife, almost weeping, " and you will then be able to travel, without any thing to hinder you, witherso- ever you will."
" Not without you, dear Undine,'" replied the knight, laughing ; " think, only, were I disposed to leave you, both the church and the spiritual powers, the emj^eror and the laws of the realm, would require the fugitive to be seized and restored to you."
" All this depends on you — all depends on you," whis-
44 rNDINE.
peretl ln's little companion, half weeping and half smiling. " But I still feel sure that you will not leave me ; I love you too deeply to fear that misery. Now bear me over to that little island which lies before us. There shall the •iecision be made. I could easily, indeed, glide through that mere rippling of the water without your aid, but it is so sweet to lie in your arms ; and should you determine to put me away, I shall have rested in them once more, .... for the last time."
Huldbrand was so full of strange anxiety and emotion, that he knew not what answer to make her. He took her in his arms and carried her over, now first realising the fact, that this was the same little island from which he had borne her back to the old fisherman, the first night of his arrival. On the farther side, he placed her upon the soft grass, and was throwing himself lovingly near his beautiful burden ; but she said to him, " Not here, but opposite me. I shall read my doom in j'our eyes, even before your lips pronounce it : now listen attentively to what I shall relate to you." And slie began :
" You must know, my own love, that there are beings in the elements which bear the strongest resemblance to the human race, and which, at the same time, but seldom become visible to j'^ou. The wonderful salamanders sparkle and sport amid the flames; deep in the earth the meagre and mulicious gnomes pursue their revels ; the forest- spirits belong to the air, and wander in the woods ; while in the seas, rivers, and streams, live the wide-spread race of water-spirits. These last, beneath resounding domes of crystal, through which the sky can shine with its sun and stars, inhabit a region of light and beauty ; lofty coral- trees glow with blue and crimson fruits in their gardens; they walk over the pure sand of the sea, among exrjuisitely variegated shells, and amid whatever of beauty the old «orld possessed, such as the present is no more worthy to enjoy — creations which the floods covered with their secret veils of silver ; and now these noble monuments sparkle
