up, saying that
he had met the lady riding toward the Black Valley. Like a shot the
Knight darted through the gate, and took that direction, without
heeding Undine's anxious cries from a window: "To the Black Valley?
oh, not there! Huldbrand, not there! Or take me with you for God's
sake!" Finding it vain to cry, she had her white palfrey saddled in
all haste, and galloped after her husband, without allowing anyone to
attend her.

XIV.--HOW BERTALDA DROVE HOME WITH THE KNIGHT

The Black Valley lay among the deepest recesses of the mountains. What
it is called now none can tell. In those times it bore that name among
the countrymen, on account of the deep gloom shed over it by many high
trees, mostly pines. Even the brook which gushed down between the
cliffs was tinged with black, and never sparkled like the merry
streams from which nothing intercepts the blue of heaven. Now, in the
dusk of twilight, it looked darker still as it gurgled between the
rocks. The Knight spurred his horse along its banks, now fearing to
lose ground in his pursuit, and now again, that he might overlook the
fugitive in her hiding-place, if he hurried past too swiftly. He
presently found himself far advanced in the valley, and hoped he must
soon overtake her, if he were but in the right track. Then again, the
thought that it might be a wrong one roused the keenest anxiety in
his breast. Where was the tender Bertalda to lay her head, if he
missed her in this bleak, stormy night, which was setting in, black
and awful, upon the valley? And now he saw something white gleaming
through the boughs, on the slope of the mountain; he took it for
Bertalda's robe and made for it. But the horse started back, and
reared so obstinately that Huldbrand, impatient of delay, and having
already found him difficult to manage among the brambles of the
thicket, dismounted, and fastened the foaming steed to a tree; he then
felt his way through the bushes on foot. The boughs splashed his head
and cheeks roughly with cold wet dew; far off, he heard the growl of
thunder beyond the mountains, and the whole strange scene had such an
effect upon him, that he became afraid of approaching the white
figure, which he now saw lying on the ground at a short distance. And
yet he could distinguish it to be a woman, dressed in long white
garments like Bertalda's, asleep or in a swoon. He came close to her,
made the boughs rustle, and his sword ring--but she stirred not.
"Bertald