once more for the last time.”  Huldbrand, full as he was of strange fear and emotion, knew not what to reply.  He took her in his arms and carried her across, remembering now for the first time that this was the same little island from which he had borne her back to the old fisherman on that first night.  On the farther side he put her down on the soft grass, and was on the point of placing himself lovingly near his beautiful burden when she said, “No, there, opposite to me!  I will read my sentence in your eyes, before your lips speak; now, listen attentively to what I will relate to you!” And she began: 

“You must know, my loved one, that there are beings in the elements which appear almost like you mortals, and which rarely allow themselves to become visible to your race.  Wonderful salamanders glitter and sport in the flames; lean and malicious gnomes dwell deep within the earth; spirits, belonging to the air, wander through the forests; and a vast family of water spirits live in the lakes and streams and brooks.  In resounding domes of crystal, through which the sky looks in with its sun and stars, these latter spirits find their beautiful abode; lofty trees of coral, with blue and crimson fruits, gleam in the gardens; they wander over the pure sand of the sea, and among lovely variegated shells, and amid all exquisite treasures of the old world, which the present is no longer worthy to enjoy; all these the floods have covered with their secret veils of silver, and the noble monuments sparkle below, stately and solemn, and bedewed by the loving waters which allure from them many a beautiful moss-flower and entwining cluster of sea-grass.  Those, however, who dwell there, are very fair and lovely to behold, and for the most part are more beautiful than human beings.  Many a fisherman has been so fortunate as to surprise some tender mermaid, as she rose above the waters and sang.  He would then tell afar of her beauty, and such wonderful beings have been given the name of Undines.  You, moreover, are now actually beholding an Undine.”

The knight tried to persuade himself that his beautiful wife was under the spell of one of her strange humors and that she was taking pleasure in teasing him with one of her extravagant inventions.  But repeatedly as he said this to himself, he could not believe it for a moment; a strange shudder passed through him; unable to utter a word, he stared at the beautiful narrator with an immovable gaze.  Undine shook her head sorrowfully, drew a deep sigh, and then proceeded.

“Our condition would be far superior to that of you human beings—­for human beings we call ourselves, being similar to them in form and culture—­but there is one evil peculiar to us.  We and our like in the other elements vanish into dust and pass away, body and spirit, so that not a vestige of us remains behind; and when you mortals hereafter awake to a purer life we remain with the sand and the sparks and the wind and the waves.