“No,” I cried, running up to clasp her in my arms.

I awoke with a sudden shock.  I was lying on the top of the tower of Montlhery; the sun was rising, and the vast circle of country below me shone clear and distinct in the morning light.

“Was it a dream?” I said to myself.  “Surely not.  The earth is not the only home of life in the universe.  Urania, the celestial muse, is now unfolding before our astonished eyes the panoramas of infinity, and we know at last that we are not the children of the earth, but citizens of the heavens.”

* * * * *

DE LA MOTTE FOUQUE

Undine

Friedrich Heinrich Karl Fouque, Baron de la Motte, was born at Brandenburg, in Prussia, Feb. 12, 1777, and died in Berlin January 23, 1843.  The mixed nationality indicated by his name is accounted for by his descent from a French Huguenot family.  He served as a Prussian cavalryman in the two campaigns against Napoleon of 1792 and 1813, but during the long interval between devoted himself actively to intellectual culture and literary pursuits.  He began his career as an author by translating the “Numancia” of Cervantes, but his admiration of the ancient Norse sagas and the old German legends led him into the composition of exquisitely beautiful and tender, though exceedingly fantastic, romances which speedily gained immense popularity.  In these productions fairy and magical elements predominate.  His masterpiece is “Undine,” published in 1814, the other best-known works being “Sintram,” “Aslauga’s Knight,” and “The Two Captains.”  In all Fouque’s stories the marks of genius appear in his brilliant imagination and pure and fascinating diction.

I.—­The Water Sprite

About a century ago an aged fisherman sat mending his nets by his cottage door, in front of a lovely lake.  Behind his dwelling stretched a sombre forest, reputed to be haunted by goblin creatures.  Through this gloomy solitude the pious old fisherman frequently passed, religiously dispelling all terrors by singing hymns as he went with his fish to a town near the border of the forest.

One evening he heard the sound of a horse’s hoofs, and presently appeared a knight riding on a splendid steed, and clad in resplendent armour.  The stranger stopped, and besought shelter for the night, and the good old fisherman accorded him a most cheery welcome, taking him into the cottage, where sat his aged wife by a scanty fire.  Soon the three were freely conversing.  The knight told of his travels and revealed that he was Sir Huldbrand of Ringstetten, where he had a castle by the Rhine.

A splash against the window surprising the guest he was informed by his host, with some little show of vexation, that little tricks were often played by a foster-child of the old couple, named Undine, a girl of eighteen.

The door flew open, and a lovely girl glided, laughing, into the room.  Without the slightest token of shyness she gazed at the knight for a few moments, then asked why he had come to the poor cottage.