She was shedding tears, indeed, and looked sadly changed since the happy times which they had spent together at Ringstetten; happiest at first, but happy also a short time since, just before the fatal sail on the Danube.  The contrast struck Huldbrand deeply; but Undine did not seem to be aware of his presence.  Kuehleborn soon came up to her, and began rating her for weeping.  She composed herself, and looked at him with a firmness and dignity, before which he almost quailed.  “Though I am condemned to live under these deep waters,” said she, “I have brought my soul with me; therefore my tears cannot be understood by thee.  But to me they are blessings, like everything that belongs to a loving soul.”  He shook his head incredulously, and said, after a pause:  “Nevertheless, niece, you are still subject to the laws of our element; and you know you must execute sentence of death upon him as soon as he marries again, and breaks faith with you.”—­“To this hour he is a widower,” said Undine, “and loves and mourns me truly.”—­“Ah, but he will be bridegroom soon,” said Kuehleborn with a sneer; “wait a couple of days only; and the marriage blessing will have been given, and you must go up and put the criminal to death.”—­“I cannot!” answered the smiling Undine.  “I have had the fountain sealed up, against myself and my whole race.”  “But suppose he leaves his castle,” said Kuehleborn, “or forgets himself so far as to let them set the fountain ‘free,’ for he thinks mighty little of those matters.”—­“And that is why,” said Undine, still smiling through her tears, “that is why his spirit hovers at this moment over the Mediterranean, and listens to our conversation as in a dream.  I have contrived it on purpose, that he may take warning.”  On hearing this Kuehleborn looked up angrily at the Knight, scowled at him, stamped, and then shot upward through the waves like an arrow.  His fury seemed to make him expand into a whale.  Again the swans began to warble, to wave their wings, and to fly; the Knight felt himself borne high over alps and rivers, till he was deposited in the Castle of Ringstetten, and awoke in his bed.

He did awake in his bed, just as one of his squires entered the room, and told him that Father Heilmann was still lingering near the castle; for he had found him the evening before in the forest, living in a shed he had made for himself with branches and moss.  On being asked what he was staying for since he had refused to bless the betrothed couple?  He answered, “It is not the wedded only who stand in need of prayer, and though I came not for the bridal, there may yet be work for me of another kind.  We must be prepared for everything.  Sometimes marriage and mourning are not so far apart; and he who does not wilfully close his eyes may perceive it.”  The Knight built all manner of strange conjectures upon these words, and upon his dream.  But if once a man has formed a settled purpose, it is hard indeed to shake it.  The end of this was, that their plans remained unchanged.