wilder and wilder, and thicker and thicker, and madder and madder,
the crowd were clambering up to where I sat gazing at these wonders.
Then terror seized me, as it had before seized my horse. I drove my
spurs into his sides, and how far he rushed with me through the forest,
during this second of my wild heats, it is impossible to say.

"At last, when I had now come to a dead halt again, the cool of evening
was around me. I caught the gleam of a white footpath through the
branches of the trees; and presuming it would lead me out of the forest
toward the city, I was desirous of working my way into it. But a face,
perfectly white and indistinct, with features ever changing, kept
thrusting itself out and peering at me between the leaves. I tried to
avoid it, but wherever I went, there too appeared the unearthly face. I
was maddened with rage at this interruption, and determined to drive my
steed at the appearance full tilt, when such a cloud of white foam came
rushing upon me and my horse, that we were almost blinded and glad to
turn about and escape. Thus from step to step it forced us on, and ever
aside from the footpath, leaving us for the most part only one direction
open. When we advanced in this, it kept following close behind us, yet
did not occasion the smallest harm or inconvenience.

"When at times I looked about me at the form, I perceived that the white
face, which had splashed upon us its shower of foam, was resting on a
body equally white, and of more than gigantic size. Many a time, too, I
received the impression that the whole appearance was nothing more than
a wandering stream or torrent; but respecting this I could never attain
to any certainty. We both of us, horse and rider, became weary as we
shaped our course according to the movements of the white man, who
continued nodding his head at us, as if he would say, 'Quite right!' And
thus, at length, we came out here, at the edge of the wood, where I saw
the fresh turf, the waters of the lake, and your little cottage, and
where the tall white man disappeared."

"Well, Heaven be praised that he is gone!" cried the old fisherman; and
he now began to talk of how his guest could most conveniently return to
his friends in the city. Upon this, Undine began laughing to herself,
but so very low that the sound was hardly perceivable. Huldbrand
observing it, said, "I thought you were glad to see me here; why, then,
do you now appear so happy when our talk turns upo