tful? And you see that I do not shrink from holy words. I too have
knowledge of God, and understand the duty of praising Him; every one, to
be sure, has his own way of doing this, for so He has created us. Come
in, father; you will find none but worthy people here."

The holy man came bowing in, and cast round a glance of scrutiny,
wearing at the same time a very placid and venerable air. But water was
dropping from every fold of his dark garments, from his long white beard
and the white locks of his hair. The fisherman and the knight took him
to another apartment, and furnished him with a change of raiment, while
they gave his own clothes to the women to dry. The aged stranger thanked
them in a manner the most humble and courteous; but on the knight's
offering him his splendid cloak to wrap round him, he could not be
persuaded to take it, but chose instead an old grey coat that belonged
to the fisherman.

They then returned to the common apartment. The mistress of the house
immediately offered her great chair to the priest, and continued urging
it upon him till she saw him fairly in possession of it. "You are old
and exhausted," said she, "and are, moreover, a man of God."

Undine shoved under the stranger's feet her little stool, on which at
all other times she used to sit near to Huldbrand, and showed herself
most gentle and amiable towards the old man. Huldbrand whispered some
raillery in her ear, but she replied, gravely:

"He is a minister of that Being who created us all; and holy things are
not to be treated with lightness."

The knight and the fisherman now refreshed the priest with food and
wine; and when he had somewhat recovered his strength and spirits, he
began to relate how he had the day before set out from his cloister,
which was situated far off beyond the great lake, in order to visit the
bishop, and acquaint him with the distress into which the cloister and
its tributary villages had fallen, owing to the extraordinary floods.
After a long and wearisome wandering, on account of the rise of the
waters, he had been this day compelled toward evening to procure the
aid of a couple of boatmen, and cross over an arm of the lake which had
burst its usual boundary.

"But hardly," continued he, "had our small ferry-boat touched the waves,
when that furious tempest burst forth which is still raging over our
heads. It seemed as if the billows had been waiting our approach only to
rush on us with a madness