OF THAT WHICH THE KNIGHT ENCOUNTERED IN THE WOOD.
"It is now about eight days ago since I rode into the free imperial
city, which lies on the other side of the forest. Soon after my
arrival, there was a splendid tournament and running at the ring,
and I spared neither my horse nor my lance. Once when I was pausing
at the lists, to rest after my merry toil, and was handing back my
helmet to one of my squires, my attention was attracted by a female
figure of great beauty, who was standing richly attired on one of
the galleries allotted to spectators."
"I asked my neighbor, and learned from him, that the name of the
fair lady was Bertalda, and that she was the foster-daughter of one
of the powerful dukes living in the country. I remarked that she
also was looking at me, and, as it is wont to be with us young
knights, I had already ridden bravely, and now pursued my course
with renovated confidence and courage. In the dance that evening I
was Bertalda's partner, and I remained so throughout the festival."
A sharp pain in his left hand, which hung down by his side, here
interrupted Huldbrand's narrative, and drew his attention to the
aching part. Undine had fastened her pearly teeth upon one of his
fingers, appearing at the same time very gloomy and angry. Suddenly,
however, she looked up in his eyes with an expression of tender
melancholy, and whispered in a soft voice: "It is your own fault."
Then she hid her face, and the knight, strangely confused and
thoughtful, continued his narrative.
"This Bertalda was a haughty, wayward girl. Even on the second day
she pleased me no longer as she had done on the first, and on the
third day still less. Still I continued about her, because she was
more pleasant to me than to any other knight, and thus it was that I
begged her in jest to give me one of her gloves. 'I will give it you
when you have quite alone explored the ill-famed forest,' said she,
'and can bring me tidings of its wonders.' It was not that her glove
was of such importance to me, but the word had been said, and an
honorable knight would not allow himself to be urged a second time
to such a proof of valor."
"I think she loved you," said Undine, interrupting him.
"It seemed so," replied Huldbrand.
"Well," exclaimed the girl, laughing, "she must be stupid indeed. To
drive away any one dear to her. And moreover, into an ill-omened
wood. The forest and its mysteries might have waited long enough for
me!"
"Yesterday morning." continued the knight, smiling kindly at Undine,
"I set out on my enterprise. The stems of the trees caught the red
tints of the morning light which lay brightly on the green turf, the
leaves seemed whispering merrily with each other, and in my heart I
could have laughed at the people who could have expected anything to
terrify them in this pleasant spot. 'I shall soon have trotted
through the forest there and back again,' I said to myself, with a
feeling of easy gayety, and before I had even thought of it I was
deep within the green shades, and could no longer perceive the plain
which lay behind me. Then for the first time it struck me that I
might easily lose my way in the mighty forest, and that this perhaps
was the only danger which the wanderer had to fear. I therefore
paused and looked round in the direction of the sun, which in the
mean while had risen somewhat higher above the horizon. While I was
thus looking up I saw something black in the branches of a lofty
oak. I thought it was a bear and I grasped my sword; but with a
human voice, that sounded harsh and ugly, it called to me from
above: 'If I do not nibble away the branches up here, Sir Malapert,
what shall we have to roast you with at midnight?' And so saying it
grinned and made the branches rustle, so that my horse grew furious
and rushed forward with me before I had time to see what sort of a
devil it really was."
"You must not call it so," said the old fisherman as he crossed
himself; his wife did the same silently. Undine looked at the knight
with sparkling eyes and said: "The best of the story is that they
certainly have not roasted him yet; go on now, you beautiful youth!"
The knight continued his narration: "My horse was so wild that he
almost rushed with me against the stems and branches of trees; he
was dripping with sweat, and yet would not suffer himself to be held
in. At last he went straight in the direction of a rocky precipice;
then it suddenly seemed to me as if a tall white man threw himself
across the path of my wild steed; the horse trembled with fear and
stopped: I recovered my hold of him, and for the first time
perceived that my deliverer was no white man, but a brook of silvery
brightness, rushing down from a hill by my side and crossing and
impeding my horse's course."
"Thanks, dear Brook," exclaimed Undine, clapping her little hands.
The old man, however, shook his head and looked down in deep
thought.
"I had scarcely settled myself in the saddle," continued Huldbrand.
"and seized the reins firmly, when a wonderful little man stood at
my side, diminutive, and ugly beyond conception. His complexion was
of a yellowish brown, and his nose not much smaller than the rest of
his entire person. At the same time he kept grinning with stupid
courtesy, exhibiting his huge mouth, and making a thousand scrapes
and bows to me. As this farce was now becoming inconvenient to me, I
thanked him briefly and turned about my still trembling steed,
thinking either to seek another adventure, or in case I met with
none, to find my way back, for during my wild chase the sun had
already passed the meridian; but the little fellow sprang round with
the speed of lightning and stood again before my horse. 'Room!' I
cried, angrily; 'the animal is wild and may easily run over you.'--
'Ay, ay!' snarled the imp, with a grin still more horribly stupid.
'Give me first some drink-money, for I have stopped your horse;
without me you and your horse would be now both lying in the stony
ravine; ugh!'--'Don't make any more faces,' said I, 'and take your
money, even if you are telling lies; for see, it was the good brook
there that saved me, and not you, you miserable wight! And at the
same time I dropped a piece of gold into his grotesque cap, which he
had taken off in his begging. I then trotted on; but he screamed
after me, and suddenly with inconceivable quickness was at my side.
I urged my horse into a gallop; the imp ran too, making at the same
time strange contortions with his body, half-ridiculous, half-horrible,
and holding up the gold-piece, he cried, at every leap,
'False money!, false coin!, false coin!, false money!'--and this he
uttered with such a hollow sound that one would have supposed that
after every scream he would have fallen dead to the ground."
"His horrid red tongue moreover hung far out of his mouth. I
stopped, perplexed, and asked: 'What do you mean by this screaming?
take another piece of gold, take two, but leave me.' He then began
again his hideous burlesque of politeness, and snarled out: 'Not
gold, not gold, my young gentleman. I have too much of that trash
myself, as I will show you at once?'"
"Suddenly it seemed to me as if I could see through the solid soil
as though it were green glass and the smooth earth were as round as
a ball; and within, a multitude of goblins were ranking sport with
silver and gold; head over heels they were rolling about, pelting
each other in jest with the precious metals, and provokingly blowing
the gold-dust in each other's eyes. My hideous companion stood
partly within and partly without; he ordered the others to reach him
up heaps of gold, and showing it to me with a laugh, he then flung
it back again with a ringing noise into the immeasurable abyss."
"He then showed the piece of gold I had given him to the goblins
below, and they laughed themselves half-dead over it and hissed at
me. At last they all pointed at me with their metal-stained fingers,
and more and more wildly, and more and more densely, and more and
more madly, the swarm of spirits came clambering up to me. I was
seized with terror as my horse had been before: I put spurs to him,
and I know not how far I galloped for the second time wildly into
the forest."
"At length, when I again halted, the coolness of evening was around
me. Through the branches of the trees I saw a white foot-path
gleaming, which I fancied must lead from the forest toward the city.
I was anxious to work my way in that direction; but a face perfectly
white and indistinct, with features ever changing, kept peering at
me between the leaves; I tried to avoid it, but wherever I went it
appeared also. Enraged at this, I determined at last to ride at it,
when it gushed forth volumes of foam upon me and my horse, obliging
us half-blinded to make a rapid retreat. Thus it drove us step by
step ever away from the foot-path, leaving the way open to us only
in one direction. When we advanced in this direction, it kept indeed
close behind us, but did not do us the slightest harm."
"Looking around at it occasionally, I perceived that the white face
that had besprinkled us with foam belonged to a form equally white
and of gigantic stature. Many a time I thought that it was a moving
stream, but I could never convince myself on the subject. Wearied
out, the horse and his rider yielded to the impelling power of the
white man, who kept nodding his head, as if he would say, 'Quite
right, quite right!' And thus at last we came out here to the end of
the forest, where I saw the turf, and the lake, and your little
cottage, and where the tall white man disappeared."
"It's well that he's gone," said the old fisherman; and now he began
to talk of the best way by which his guest could return to his
friends in the city. Upon this Undine began to laugh slyly to
herself; Huldbrand observed it, and said: "I thought you were glad
to see me here; why then do you now rejoice when my departure is
talked of?"
"Because you cannot go away," replied Undine. "Just try it once, to
cross that overflowed forest stream with a boat, with your horse, or
alone, as you may fancy. Or rather don't try it, for you would be
dashed to pieces by the stones and trunks of trees which are carried
down by it with the speed of lightning. And as to the lake, I know
it well; father dare not venture out far enough with his boat."
Huldbrand rose, smiling, in order to see whether things were as
Undine had said; the old man accompanied him, and the girl danced
merrily along by their side. They found every thing, indeed, as
Undine had described, and the knight was obliged to submit to remain
on the little tongue of land, that had become an island, till the
flood should subside. As the three were returning to the cottage
after their ramble, the knight whispered in the ear of the little
maiden "Well, how is it, my pretty Undine--are you angry at my
remaining?"
"Ah!" she replied, peevishly, "let me alone. If I had not bitten
you, who knows how much of Bertalda would have appeared in your
story?"