e an arrow the knight sprang through the
gate-way in the direction indicated, without hearing Undine's voice of
agony as she called to him from the window: "To the Black Valley! Oh,
not there! Huldbrand, don't go there! or, for Heaven's sake, take me
with you!" But when she perceived that all her calling was in vain,
she ordered her white palfrey to be saddled immediately and rode after
the knight without allowing any servant to accompany her.

CHAPTER XIV

How Bertalda returned home with the Knight

The Black Valley lies deep within the mountains. What it is now called
we do not know. At that time the people of the country gave it this
appellation on account of the deep obscurity in which the low land
lay, owing to the shadows of the lofty trees, and especially firs,
that grew there. Even the brook which bubbled between the rocks wore
the same dark hue, and dashed along with none of that gladness with
which streams are wont to flow that have the blue sky immediately
above them. Now, in the growing twilight of evening, it looked
altogether wild and gloomy between the heights. The knight trotted
anxiously along the edge of the brook, fearful at one moment that
by delay he might allow the fugitive to advance too far, and, at the
next, that by too great rapidity he might overlook her in case she
were concealing herself from him. Meanwhile he had already penetrated
quite a ways into the valley, and might soon hope to overtake the
maiden if he were on the right track, but the fear that this might not
be the case made his heart beat with anxiety. Where would the tender
Bertalda tarry through the stormy night, which was so fearful in the
valley, should he fail to find her? At length he saw something white
gleaming through the branches on the slope of the mountain. He
thought he recognized Bertalda's dress, and turned his course in that
direction. But his horse refused to go forward; it reared impatiently;
and its master, unwilling to lose a moment, and seeing moreover that
the copse was impassable on horseback, dismounted; then, fastening his
snorting steed to an elm-tree, he worked his way cautiously through
the bushes. The branches sprinkled his forehead and cheeks with the
cold drops of the evening dew; a distant roll of thunder was heard
murmuring from the other side of the mountains; everything looked so
strange that he began to feel a dread of the white figure which now
lay only a short distance from him on th