is moment; he
caught the entrancing picture as if it were a vision from Heaven; his
brain reeled, his breath failed him, he would have fallen in a swoon;
but then he met Lenore's eyes, grave, calm, and searching. A wild
longing and deep melancholy seized on him. He rushed towards the lake,
and clutched hold of the branches of a young willow, only just in time
to prevent himself from falling into those treacherous depths.

With a weird cry and their white arms raised over their heads, the
nixies disappeared in the lake. The young man gazed as one bewitched;
crossed himself in fear; and gazed again. All was silent: no living
creature stirred; only the sunbeams fell athwart the lake, and little
cascades of water fell over the surface of the rock.

"I have seen the nixies of the pool," thought the young man, who was the
son of a rich peasant farmer in the village. "Surely that means that I
shall die ere long. I should not fear death," he continued, "if I were
to die in battle in honourable and open conflict; but to die young,
stricken by some awful and unaccountable fate, that would be terrible."

As he turned homewards, a wind arose that nearly hurled him into the
lake; so violent was the gust, and a storm burst forth, the like of
which he had never experienced before. Branches were torn from the
trees, and hurled in his path; the lightning was continuous and nearly
blinded him. Glancing fearfully back at the lake, the waters seemed to
have arisen in great waves, and he thought he saw the nixy King himself
raging and roaring like a wild creature, casting the storm winds forth
from their fortresses in the rocks, holding the lightning like fireworks
in his long fingers, and hurling it across the land. Terrified,
half-stunned by the thunder, and stupefied by the hail and rain, he at
last reached home, where his mother awaited him in great anxiety.
However he soon had off his wet, torn clothes, and casting himself on
his bed fell into a profound slumber. He slept for nearly a night and a
day, and when he awoke his adventures seemed to him a wild dream, and
like a dream were half-forgotten although they exerted a subtle
influence on his waking thoughts that he was unaware of.

Meanwhile the nixies, and especially Lenore, had been anxious as to his
fate. Not until she had sent their dwarf messenger into the village to
make inquiries as to his welfare, could she be at rest. Her wish to
visit the homes of men became a passion,