The lord of Ringstetten would have certainly preferred the events of this day to have been different；but even as they were, he could scarcely regret them wholly, as they had exhibited his charming wife under such a good and sweet and kindly aspect.“If I have given her a soul,”he could not help saying to himself,“I have indeed given her a better one than my own；”and his only thought now was to speak soothingly to the weeping Undine, and on the following morning to quit with her a place which, after this incident, must have become distasteful to her. It is true that she was not estimated differently to what she had been.As something mysterious had long been expected of her, the strange discovery of Bertalda's origin had caused no great surprise, and every one who had heard the story and had seen Bertalda's violent behavior, was disgusted with her alone.Of this, however, the knight and his lady knew nothing as yet；and, besides, the condemnation or approval of the public was equally painful to Undine, and thus there was no better course to pursue than to leave the walls of the old city behind them with all the speed possible.
With the earliest beams of morning a pretty carriage drove upto the entrance gate for Undine：the horses which Huldbrand and his squires were to ride stood near, pawing the ground with impatient eagerness. The knight was leading his beautiful wife from the door, when a fsher-girl crossed their way.
“We do not need your fsh,”said Huldbrand to her,“we are now starting on our journey.”
Upon this the fsher-girl began to weep bitterly, and the young couple perceived for the first time that it was Bertalda. They immediately returned with her to their apartment, and learned from her that the duke and duchess were so displeased at her violent and unfeeling conduct on the preceding way, that they had entirely withdrawn their protection from her, though not without giving her a rich portion.The fsherman, too, had been handsomely rewarded, and had the evening before set out with his wife to return to their secluded home.
“I would have gone with them,”she continued,“but the old fsherman, who is said to be my father”—
“And he is so indeed, Bertalda,”interrupted Undine.“Look here, the stranger, whom you took for the master of the fountain, told me the whole story in detail. He wished to dissuade me from taking you with me to castle Ringstetten, and this led him to disclose the secret.”
“Well, then,”said Bertalda,“if it must be so, my father said,‘I will not take you with me until you are changed. Venture to come to us alone through the haunted forest；that shall be the proof whether you have any regard for us.But do not come to me as a lady；come only as a fsher-girl!'So I will do just as he has told me, for I amforsaken by the whole world, and I will live and die in solitude as a poor fsher-girl, with my poor parents.I have a terrible dread though of the forest.Horrible spectres are said to dwell in it, and I am so fearful.But how can I help it?I only came here to implore pardon of the noble lady of Ringstetten for my unbecoming behavior yesterday.I feel sure, sweet lady, you meant to do me a kindness, but you knew not how you would wound me, and in my agony and surprise, many a rash and frantic expression passed my lips.Oh forgive, forgive!I am already so unhappy.Only think yourself what I was yesterday morning, yesterday at the beginning of your banquet, and what I am now!”
Her voice became stifed with a passionate food of tears, and Undine, also weeping bitterly, fell on her neck. It was some time before the deeply agitated Undine could utter a word；at length she said：—
“You can go with us to Ringstetten；everything shall remain as it was arranged before；only do not speak to me again as‘noble lady.'You see, we were exchanged for each other as children；our faces even then sprang as it were from the same stem, and we will now so strengthen this kindred destiny that no human power shall be able to separate it. Only, frst of all, come with us to Ringstetten.We will discuss there how we shall share all things as sisters.”
Bertalda looked timidly toward Huldbrand. He pitied the beautiful girl in her distress, and offering her his hand he begged her tenderly to intrust herself with him and his wife.
“We will send a message to your parents,”he continued,“to tell them why you are not come；”and he would have added more withregard to the worthy fsherman and his wife, but he saw that Bertalda shrunk with pain from the mention of their name, and he therefore refrained from saying more. He then assisted her first into the carriage, Undine followed her；and he mounted his horse and trotted merrily by the side of them, urging the driver at the same time to hasten his speed, so that very soon they were beyond the confnes of the imperial city and all its sad remembrances；and now the ladies began to enjoy the beautiful country through which their road lay.
After a journey of some days, they arrived one exquisite evening, at castle Ringstetten. The young knight had much to hear from his overseers and vassals, so that Undine and Bertalda were left alone.They both repaired to the ramparts of the fortress, and were delighted with the beautiful landscape which spread far and wide through fertile Swabia.Presently a tall man approached them, greeting them respectfully, and Bertalda fancied she saw a resemblance to the master of the fountain in the imperial city.Still more unmistakable grew the likeness, when Undine angrily and almost threateningly waved him off, and he retreated with hasty steps and shaking head, as he had done before, and disappeared into a neighboring copse.Undine, however, said：
“Don't be afraid, dear Bertalda, this time the hateful master of the fountain shall do you no harm.”
And then she told her the whole story in detail, and who she was herself, and how Bertalda had been taken away from the fsherman and his wife, and Undine had gone to them. The girl was at frst terrifed with this relation；she imagined her friend must be seized with sudden madness, but she became more convinced thatall was true, for Undine's story was so connected, and ftted so well with former occurrences, and still more she had that inward feeling with which truth never fails to make itself known to us.It seemed strange to her that she was now herself living, as it were, in the midst of one of those fairy tales to which she had formerly only listened.She gazed upon Undine with reverence, but she could not resist a sense of dread that seemed to come between her and her friend, and at their evening repast she could not but wonder how the knight could behave so lovingly and kindly toward a being who appeared to her, since the discovery she had just made, more of a phantom than a human being.