When Huldbrand awoke from his sleep on the following morning, and missed his beautiful wife from his side, he began to indulge again in the strange thoughts, that his marriage and the charming Undine herself were but feeting and deceptive illusions. But at the same moment she entered the room, sat down beside him, and said：“I have been out rather early to see if my uncle keeps his word.He has already led all the waters back again into his own calm channel, and he now fows through the forest, solitarily and dreamily as before.His friends in the water and the air have also returned to repose：all will again go on quietly and regularly, and you can travel homeward when you will, dry-shod.”
It seemed to Huldbrand as though he were in a waking dream, so little could he reconcile himself to the strange relationship of his wife. Nevertheless he made no remark on the matter, and the exquisite grace of his bride soon lulled to rest every uneasy misgiving.When he was afterward standing before the door with her, and looking over the green peninsula with its boundary of clear waters, he felt so happy in this cradle of his love, that he exclaimed：“Why shall we travel so soon as to-day?We shall scarcely find more pleasantdays in the world yonder than those we have spent in this quiet little shelter.Let us yet see the sun go down here twice or thrice more.”
“As my lord wills,”replied Undine, humbly.“It is only that the old people will, at all events, part from me with pain, and when they now for the first time perceive the true soul within me, and how I can now heartily love and honor, their feeble eyes will be dimmed with plentiful tears. At present they consider my quietness and gentleness of no better promise than before, like the calmness of the lake when the air is still；and, as matters now are, they will soon learn to cherish a flower or a tree as they have cherished me.Do not, therefore, let me reveal to them this newly-bestowed and loving heart, just at the moment when they must lose it for this world；and how could I conceal it, if we remain longer together?”
Huldbrand conceded the point；he went to the aged people and talked with them over the journey, which he proposed to undertake immediately. The holy father offered to accompany the young married pair, and, after a hasty farewell, he and the knight assisted the beautiful bride to mount her horse, and walked with rapid step by her side over the dry channel of the forest-stream into the wood beyond.Undine wept silently but bitterly, and the old people gave loud expression to their grief.It seemed as if they had a presentiment of all they were now losing in their foster-child.
The three travellers had reached in silence the densest shades of the forest. It must have been a fair sight, under that green canopy of leaves, to see Undine's lovely form, as she sat on her noble and richly ornamented steed, with the venerable priest in the white garb of his order on one side of her, and on the other the blooming youngknight in his gay and splendid attire, with his sword at his girdle.Huldbrand had no eyes but for his beautiful wife Undine, who had dried her tears, had no eyes but for him, and they soon fell into a mute, voiceless converse of glance and gesture, from which they were only roused at length by the low talking of the reverend father with a fourth traveller, who in the mean while had joined them unobserved.
He wore a white garment almost resembling the dress of the priests order, except that his hood hung low over his face, and his whole attire foated round him in such vast folds that he was obliged every moment to gather it up, and throw it over his arm, or dispose of it in some way, and yet it did not in the least seem to impede his movements. When the young couple frst perceived him, he was just saying：“And so, venerable sir.I have now dwelt for many years here in the forest, and yet no one could call me a hermit, in your sense of the word.For, as I said, I know nothing of penance, and I do not think I have any especial need of it.I lose the forest only for this reason, that its beauty is quite peculiar to itself, and it amuses me to pass along in my fowing white garments among the eases and dusky shadows, while now and then a sweet sunbeam shines down unexpectedly upon me.”
“You are a very strange man,”replied the priest,“and I should like to be more closely acquainted with you.”
“And to pass from one thing to another, who may you be yourself?”asked the stranger.
“I am called Father Heilmann,”said the holy man；“and I come from the monastery of‘our Lady'which lies on the other side of thelake.”
“Indeed,”replied the stranger；“my name is Kuhleborn, and so far as courtesy is concerned I might claim the title of Lord of Kuhleborn, or free Lord of Kuhleborn；for I am as free as the birds in the forest and perhaps a little more so. For example, I have now something to say to the young lady there.”And before they were aware of his intention, he was at the other side of the priest, close beside Undine, stretching himself up to whisper something in her ear.
But she turned from him with alarm, and exclaimed：“I have nothing more to do with you.”
“Ho, ho,”laughed the stranger,“what is this immensely grand marriage you have made, that you don't know your own relations any longer?Have you forgotten your uncle Kuhleborn, who so faithfully bore you on his back through this region?”
“I beg you, nevertheless,”replied Undine,“not to appear in my presence again. I am now afraid of you；and suppose my husband should learn to avoid me when he sees me in such strange company and with such relations!”
“My little niece,”said Kuhleborn,“you must not forget that I am with you here as a guide；the spirits of earth that haunt this place might otherwise play some of their stupid pranks with you. Let me therefore go quietly on with you；the old priest there remembered me better than you appear to have done, for he assured me just now that I seemed familiar to him, and that I must have been with him in the boat, out of which he fell into the water.I was so, truly enough；for I was the water-spout that carried him out of it and washed himsafely ashore for your wedding.”
Undine and the knight turned toward Father Heilmann；but he seemed walking on, as in a sort of dream, and no longer to be conscious of all that was passing. Undine then said to Kuhleborn,“I see yonder the end of the forest.We no longer need your help, and nothing causes us alarm but yourself.I beg you, therefore, in all love and good-will, vanish, and let us proceed in peace.”
Kuhleborn seemed to become angry at this；his countenance assumed a frightful expression, and he grinned fercely at Undine, who screamed aloud and called upon her husband for assistance. As quick as lightning, the knight sprang to the other side of the horse, and aimed his sharp sword at Kuhleborn's head.But the sword cut through a waterfall, which was rushing down near them from a lofty crag；and with a splash, which almost sounded like a burst of laughter, it poured over them and wet them through to the skin.
The priest, as if suddenly awaking, exclaimed：“I have long been expecting that, for the stream ran down from the height so close to us. At first it really seemed to me like a man, and as if it could speak.”As the waterfall came rushing down, it distinctly uttered these words in Huldbrand's ear：—
Rash knight,
Brave knight,
Rage, feel I not,
Chide, will I not.
But ever guard thy little wife as well,
Rash knight, brave knight!Protect her well!
A few footsteps more, and they were upon open ground. The imperial city lay bright before them, and the evening sun, which gilded its towers, kindly dried the garments of the drenched wanderers.