speaking he thrust his head into the waggon, and laughed with a
distorted visage. But the waggon remained a waggon no longer; the grey
horses were horses no longer; all was transformed to foam--all sank
into the waters that rushed and hissed around them; while the
waggoner himself, rising in the form of a gigantic wave, dragged the
vainly-struggling courser under the waters, then rose again huge as a
liquid tower, swept over the heads of the floating pair, and was on the
point of burying them irrecoverably beneath it. Then the soft voice of
Undine was heard through the uproar; the moon emerged from the clouds;
and by its light Undine was seen on the heights above the valley.
She rebuked, she threatened the floods below her. The menacing and
tower-like billow vanished, muttering and murmuring; the waters gently
flowed away under the beams of the moon; while Undine, like a hovering
white dove, flew down from the hill, raised the knight and Bertalda,
and bore them to a green spot, where, by her earnest efforts, she soon
restored them and dispelled their terrors. She then assisted Bertalda
to mount the white palfrey on which she had herself been borne to the
valley; and thus all three returned homeward to Castle Ringstetten.

CHAPTER 8

After this last adventure they lived at the castle undisturbed and in
peaceful enjoyment. The knight was more and more impressed with the
heavenly goodness of his wife, which she had so nobly shown by her
instant pursuit and by the rescue she had effected in the Black Valley,
where the power of Kuhleborn again commenced. Undine herself enjoyed
that peace and security which never fails the soul as long as it
knows distinctly that it is on the right path; and besides, in the
newly-awakened love and regard of her husband, a thousand gleams of hope
and joy shone upon her.

Bertalda, on the other hand, showed herself grateful, humble, and timid,
without taking to herself any merit for so doing. Whenever Huldbrand or
Undine began to explain to her their reasons for covering the fountain,
or their adventures in the Black Valley, she would earnestly entreat
them to spare her the recital, for the recollection of the fountain
occasioned her too much shame, and that of the Black Valley too much
terror. She learnt nothing more about either of them; and what would
she have gained from more knowledge? Peace and joy had visibly taken up
their abode at Castle Ringstetten. They enjoyed their pre