The lovers were sitting hand in hand under a tree, with the thoughtful old man near them; as soon as they saw Father Heilmann, they rose eagerly and advanced to meet him.  But he, scarcely noticing their civilities, begged the Knight to come with him into the castle.  As he stared at this request, and hesitated to comply, the pious old Priest said, “Why, indeed, should I speak to you alone, my Lord of Ringstetten?  What I have to say equally concerns the Fisherman and Bertalda; and as they must sooner or later know it, it had better be said now.  How can you be certain, Lord Huldbrand, that your own wife is indeed dead?  For myself, I can hardly think so.  I will not venture to speak of things relating to her wondrous nature; in truth I have no clear knowledge about it.  But a godly and faithful wife she proved herself, beyond all about.  And these fourteen nights has she come to my bedside in dreams, wringing her poor hands in anguish, and sighing out, ’Oh stop him, dear father!  I am yet alive!  Oh save his life!  Oh save his soul!’ I understood not the meaning of the vision till your messenger came; and I have now hastened hither, not to join but to part those hands, which may not be united in holy wedlock.  Part from her, Huldbrand!  Part from him, Bertalda!  He belongs to another; see you not how his cheek turns pale at the thought of his departed wife?  Those are not the looks of a bridegroom, and the spirit tells me this.  If thou leavest him not now, there is joy for thee no more.”  They all three felt at the bottom of their hearts that Father Heilmann’s words were true but they would not yield to them.  Even the old Fisherman was so blinded as to think that what had been settled between them for so many days, could not now be relinquished.  So they resisted the Priest’s warnings, and urged the fulfilment of their wishes with headlong, gloomy determination, till Father Heilmann departed with a melancholy shake of the head, without accepting even for one night their proffered hospitalities, or tasting any of the refreshments they set before him.  But Huldbrand persuaded himself that the old Priest was a weak dotard; and early next morning he sent to a monk from the nearest cloister, who readily promised to come and marry them in a few days.

XVII.—­THE KNIGHT’S DREAM

The morning twilight was beginning to dawn, and the Knight lay half-awake on his couch.  Whenever he dropped asleep he was scared by mysterious terrors, and started up as if sleep were peopled by phantoms.  If he woke up in earnest, he felt himself fanned all around by what seemed like swans’ wings, and soothed by watery airs, which lulled him back again into the half-unconscious, twilight state.  At length he did fall asleep and fancied himself lifted by swans on their soft wings, and carried far away over lands and seas, all to the sound of their sweetest melody.  “Swans singing! swans singing!” thought he continually; “is not that the strain of Death?” Presently he found himself hovering above a vast sea.  A swan warbled in his ear that it was the Mediterranean; and as he looked down into the deep it became like clear crystal, transparent to the bottom.  This rejoiced him much, for he could see Undine sitting in a brilliant hall of crystal.