OF A NUPTIAL CEREMONY.
A low knocking at the door was heard in the midst of this stillness,
startling all the inmates of the cottage; for there are times when a
little circumstance, happening quite unexpectedly, can unduly alarm
us. But there was here the additional cause of alarm that the
enchanted forest lay so near, and that the little promontory seemed
just now inaccessible to human beings. They looked at each other
doubtingly, as the knocking was repeated accompanied by a deep
groan, and the knight sprang to reach his sword. But the old man
whispered softly: "If it be what I fear, no weapon will help us."
Undine meanwhile approached the door and called out angrily and
boldly: "Spirits of the earth, if you wish to carry on your
mischief, Kuhleborn shall teach you something better."
The terror of the rest was increased by these mysterious words; they
looked fearfully at the girl, and Huldbrand was just regaining
courage enough to ask what she meant, when a voice said without: "I
am no spirit of the earth, but a spirit indeed still within its
earthly body. You within the cottage, if you fear God and will help
me, open to me." At these words, Undine had already opened the door,
and had held a lamp out in the stormy night, by which they perceived
an aged priest standing there, who stepped back in terror at the
unexpected sight of the beautiful maiden. He might well think that
witchcraft and magic were at work when such a lovely form appeared
at such an humble cottage door: he therefore began to pray: "All
good spirits praise the Lord!"
"I am no spectre," said Undine, smiling; "do I then look so ugly?
Besides you may see the holy words do not frighten me. I too know of
God and understand how to praise Him; every one to be sure in his
own way, for so He has created us. Come in, venerable father; you
come among good people."
The holy man entered, bowing and looking round him, with a profound,
yet tender demeanor. But the water was dropping from every fold of
his dark garment, and from his long white beard and from his gray
locks. The fisherman and the knight took him to another apartment
and furnished him with other clothes, while they gave the women his
own wet attire to dry. The aged stranger thanked them humbly and
courteously, but he would on no account accept the knight's splendid
mantle, which was offered to him; but he chose instead an old gray
overcoat belonging to the fisherman. They then returned to the
apartment, and the good old dame immediately vacated her easy-chair
for the reverend father, and would not rest till he had taken
possession of it. "For," said she, "you are old and exhausted, and
you are moreover a man of God." Undine pushed under the stranger's
feet her little stool, on which she had been wont to sit by the side
of Huldbrand, and she showed herself in every way most gentle and
kind in her care of the good old man. Huldbrand whispered some
raillery at it in her ear, but she replied very seriously: "He is a
servant of Him who created us all; holy things are not to be jested
with." The knight and the fisherman then refreshed their reverend
guest with food and wine, and when he had somewhat recovered
himself, he began to relate how he had the day before set out from
his cloister, which lay far beyond the great lake, intending to
travel to the bishop, in order to acquaint him with the distress
into which the monastery and its tributary villages had fallen on
account of the extraordinary floods.
After a long, circuitous route, which these very floods had obliged
him to take, he had been this day compelled, toward evening, to
procure the aid of a couple of good boatmen to cross an arm of the
lake, which had overflowed its banks.
"Scarcely however," continued he, "had our small craft touched the
waves, than that furious tempest burst forth which is now raging
over our heads. It seemed as if the waters had only waited for us,
to commence their wildest whirling dance with our little boat. The
oars were soon torn out of the hands of my men, and were dashed by
the force of the waves further and further beyond our reach. We
ourselves, yielding to the resistless powers of nature, helplessly
drifted over the surging billows of the lake toward your distant
shore, which we already saw looming through the mist and foam.
Presently our boat turned round and round as in a giddy whirlpool; I
know not whether it was upset, or whether I fell overboard. In a
vague terror of inevitable death I drifted on, till a wave cast me
here, under the trees on your island."
"Yes, island!" cried the fisherman; "a short time ago it was only a
point of land; but now, since the forest-stream and the lake have
become well-nigh bewitched, things are quite different with us."
"I remarked something of the sort," said the priest, "as I crept
along the shore in the dark, and hearing nothing but the uproar
around me. I at last perceived that a beaten foot-path disappeared
just in the direction from which the sound proceeded. I now saw the
light in your cottage, and ventured hither, and I cannot
sufficiently thank my heavenly Father that after preserving me from
the waters, He has led me to such good and pious people as you are;
and I feel this all the more, as I do not know whether I shall ever
behold any other beings is this world, except those I now address."
"What do you mean?" asked the fisherman.
"Do you know then how long this commotion of the elements is to
last?" replied the holy man. "And I am old in years. Easily enough
may the stream of my life run itself out before the overflowing of
the forest-stream may subside. And indeed it were not impossible
that more and more of the foaming waters may force their way between
you and yonder forest, until you are so far sundered from the rest
of the world that your little fishing-boat will no longer be
sufficient to carry you across, and the inhabitants of the continent
in the midst of their diversions will have entirely forgotten you in
your old age."
The fisherman's wife started at this, crossed herself and exclaimed.
"God forbid." But her husband looked at her with a smile, and said
"What creatures we are after all! even were it so, things would not
be very different--at least not for you, dear wife--than they now
are. For have you for many years been further than the edge of the
forest? and have you seen any other human beings than Undine and
myself? The knight and this holy man have only come to as lately.
They will remain with us if we do become a forgotten island; so you
would even be a gainer by it after all."
"I don't know," said the old woman; "it is somehow a gloomy thought,
when one imagines that one is irrecoverably separated from other
people, although, were it otherwise, one might neither know nor see
them."
"Then you will remain with us! then you will remain with us!"
whispered Undine, in a low, half-singing tone, as she nestled closer
to Huldbrand's side. But he was absorbed in the deep and strange
visions of his own mind.
The region on the other side of the forest-river seemed to dissolve
into distance during the priest's last words: and the blooming
island upon which he lived grew more green, and smiled more freshly
in his mind's vision. His beloved one glowed as the fairest rose of
this little spot of earth, and even of the whole world, and the
priest was actually there. Added to this, at that moment an angry
glance from the old dame was directed at the beautiful girl,
because even in the presence of the reverend father she leaned so
closely on the knight, and it seemed as if a torrent of reproving
words were on the point of following. Presently, turning to the
priest, Huldbrand broke forth: "Venerable father, you see before you
here a pair pledged to each other: and if this maiden and these good
old people have no objection, you shall unite us this very evening."
The aged couple were extremely surprised. They had, it is true,
hitherto often thought of something of the sort, but they had never
yet expressed it, and when the knight now spoke thus, it came upon
them as something wholly new and unprecedented.
Undine had become suddenly grave, and looked down thoughtfully while
the priest inquired respecting the circumstances of the case, and
asked if the old people gave their consent. After much discussion
together, the matter was settled; the old dame went to arrange the
bridal chamber for the young people, and to look out two consecrated
tapers which she had had in her possession for some time, and which
she thought essential to the nuptial ceremony. The knight in the
mean while examined his gold chain, from which he wished to
disengage two rings, that he might make an exchange of them with his
bride.
She, however, observing what he was doing, started up from her
reverie, and exclaimed: "Not so! my parents have not sent me into
the world quite destitute; on the contrary, they must have
anticipated with certainty that such an evening as this would come."
Thus saving, she quickly left the room and reappeared in a moment
with two costly rings, one of which she gave to her bridegroom, and
kept the other for herself. The old fisherman was extremely
astonished at this, and still more so his wife, who just then
entered, for neither had ever seen these jewels in the child's
possession.
"My parents," said Undine, "sewed these little things into the
beautiful frock which I had on, when I came to you. They forbid me,
moreover, to mention them to anyone before my wedding evening, so I
secretly took them, and kept them concealed until now."
The priest interrupted all further questionings by lighting the
consecrated tapers, which he placed upon a table, and summoned the
bridal pair to stand opposite to him. He then gave them to each
other with a few short solemn words; the elder couple gave their
blessing to the younger, and the bride, trembling and thoughtful,
leaned upon the knight. Then the priest suddenly said: "You are
strange people after all. Why did you tell me you were the only
people here on the island? and during the whole ceremony, a tall
stately man, in a white mantle, has been looking at me through the
window opposite. He must still be standing before the door, to see
if you will invite him to come into the house."
"God forbid," said the old dame with a start; the fisherman shook
his head in silence, and Huldbrand sprang to the window. It seemed
even to him as if he could still see a white streak, but it soon
completely disappeared in the darkness. He convinced the priest that
he must have been absolutely mistaken, and they all sat down
together round the hearth.