there alone and in the
agony of death.

He had already grasped a strong branch of a pine, and stood supporting
himself upon it in the whirling current, against which he could
with difficulty keep himself erect; but he advanced deeper in with a
courageous spirit. That instant a gentle voice of warning cried near
him, "Do not venture, do not venture!--that OLD MAN, the STREAM, is too
full of tricks to be trusted!" He knew the soft tones of the voice; and
while he stood as it were entranced beneath the shadows which had now
duskily veiled the moon, his head swam with the swelling and rolling
of the waves as he saw them momentarily rising above his knee. Still he
disdained the thought of giving up his purpose.

"If you are not really there, if you are merely gambolling round me like
a mist, may I, too, bid farewell to life, and become a shadow like you,
dear, dear Undine!" Thus calling aloud, he again moved deeper into
the stream. "Look round you--ah, pray look round you, beautiful young
stranger! why rush on death so madly?" cried the voice a second time
close by him; and looking on one side he perceived, by the light of
the moon, again cloudless, a little island formed by the flood; and
crouching upon its flowery turf, beneath the branches of embowering
trees, he saw the smiling and lovely Undine.

O how much more gladly than before the young man now plied his sturdy
staff! A few steps, and he had crossed the flood that was rushing
between himself and the maiden; and he stood near her on the little spot
of greensward in security, protected by the old trees. Undine half rose,
and she threw her arms around his neck to draw him gently down upon the
soft seat by her side.

"Here you shall tell me your story, my beautiful friend," she breathed
in a low whisper; "here the cross old people cannot disturb us; and,
besides, our roof of leaves here will make quite as good a shelter as
their poor cottage."

"It is heaven itself," cried Huldbrand; and folding her in his arms, he
kissed the lovely girl with fervour.

The old fisherman, meantime, had come to the margin of the stream, and
he shouted across, "Why, how is this, sir knight! I received you with
the welcome which one true-hearted man gives to another; and now you
sit there caressing my foster-child in secret, while you suffer me in my
anxiety to wander through the night in quest of her."

"Not till this moment did I find her myself, old father," cried the
knight ac