This oak had, many years before, been struck by lightning; the top of the
tree had been shattered, and was withered up, but there was still life left
in it for centuries to come. As I was coming up to it, a cloud passed over
the moon: it was very dark under its thick branches. At first I noticed
nothing special; but I glanced on one side, and my heart fairly failed
me--a white figure was standing motionless beside a tall bush between the
oak and the forest. My hair stood upright on my head, but I plucked up my
courage and went towards the forest.
Yes, it was she, my visitor of the night. As I approached her, the moon
shone out again. She seemed all, as it were, spun out of half-transparent,
milky mist,--through her face I could see a branch faintly stirring in the
wind; only the hair and eyes were a little dark, and on one of the fingers
of her clasped hands a slender ring shone with a gleam of pale gold. I
stood still before her, and tried to speak; but the voice died away in my
throat, though it was no longer fear exactly I felt. Her eyes were turned
upon me; their gaze expressed neither distress nor delight, but a sort of
lifeless attention. I waited to see whether she would utter a word, but she
remained motionless and speechless, and still gazed at me with her deathly
intent eyes. Dread came over me again.
‘I have come!’ I cried at last with an effort. My voice sounded muffled and
strange to me.
‘I love you,’ I heard her whisper.
‘You love me!’ I repeated in amazement.
‘Give yourself up to me, ‘was whispered me again in reply.
‘Give myself up to you! But you are a phantom; you have no body even.’ A
strange animation came upon me. ‘What are you--smoke, air, vapour? Give
myself up to you! Answer me first, Who are you? Have you lived upon the
earth? Whence have you come?’
‘Give yourself up to me. I will do you no harm. Only say two words: “Take
me.”’
I looked at her. ‘What is she saying?’ I thought. ‘What does it all mean?
And how can she take me? Shall I try?’
‘Very well,’ I said, and unexpectedly loudly, as though some one had given
me a push from behind; ‘take me!’
I had hardly uttered these words when the mysterious figure, with a sort of
inward laugh, which set her face quivering for an instant, bent forward,
and stretched out her arms wide apart.... I tried to dart away, but I was
already in her power. She seized me, my body rose a foot from the ground,
and we both floated smoothly and not too swiftly over the wet, still grass.
V
At first I felt giddy, and instinctively I closed my eyes.... A minute
later I opened them again. We were floating as before; but the forest was
now nowhere to be seen. Under us stretched a plain, spotted here and there
with dark patches. With horror I felt that we had risen to a fearful
height.
‘I am lost; I am in the power of Satan,’ flashed through me like lightning.
Till that instant the idea of a temptation of the evil one, of the
possibility of perdition, had never entered my head. We still whirled on,
and seemed to be mounting higher and higher.
‘Where will you take me?’ I moaned at last.
‘Where you like,’ my companion answered. She clung close to me; her face
was almost resting upon my face. But I was scarcely conscious of her touch.
‘Let me sink down to the earth, I am giddy at this height.’
‘Very well; only shut your eyes and hold your breath.’
I obeyed, and at once felt that I was falling like a stone flung from the
hand ... the air whistled in my ears. When I could think again, we were
floating smoothly once more just above the earth, so that we caught our
feet in the tops of the tall grass.
‘Put me on my feet,’ I began. ‘What pleasure is there in flying? I’m not a
bird.’
‘I thought you would like it. We have no other pastime.’
‘You? Then what are you?’
There was no answer.
‘You don’t dare to tell me that?’
The plaintive sound which had awakened me the first night quivered in my
ears. Meanwhile we were still, scarcely perceptibly, moving in the damp
night air.
‘Let me go!’ I said. My companion moved slowly away, and I found myself
on my feet. She stopped before me and again folded her hands. I grew more
composed and looked into her face; as before it expressed submissive
sadness.
‘Where are we?’ I asked. I did not recognise the country about me.
‘Far from your home, but you can be there in an instant.’
‘How can that be done? by trusting myself to you again?’
‘I have done you no harm and will do you none. Let us fly till dawn, that
is all. I can bear you away wherever you fancy--to the ends of the earth.
Give yourself up to me! Say only: “Take me!”’
‘Well ... take me!’
She again pressed close to me, again my feet left the earth--and we were
flying.