“It is all your own fault.”

She then covered her face; and the knight, strangely embarrassed and thoughtful, went on with his story.

“This lady, Bertalda, of whom I spoke, is of a proud and wayward spirit.  The second day I saw her she pleased me by no means so much as she had the first, and the third day still less.  But I continued about her because she showed me more favour than she did any other knight, and it so happened that I playfully asked her to give me one of her gloves.  ‘When you have entered the haunted forest all alone,’ said she; ’when you have explored its wonders, and brought me a full account of them, the glove is yours.’  As to getting her glove, it was of no importance to me whatever, but the word had been spoken, and no honourable knight would permit himself to be urged to such a proof of valour a second time.”

“I thought,” said Undine, interrupting him, “that she loved you.”

“It did appear so,” replied Huldbrand.

“Well!” exclaimed the maiden, laughing, “this is beyond belief; she must be very stupid.  To drive from her one who was dear to her!  And worse than all, into that ill-omened wood!  The wood and its mysteries, for all I should have cared, might have waited long enough.”

“Yesterday morning, then,” pursued the knight, smiling kindly upon Undine, “I set out from the city, my enterprise before me.  The early light lay rich upon the verdant turf.  It shone so rosy on the slender boles of the trees, and there was so merry a whispering among the leaves, that in my heart I could not but laugh at people who feared meeting anything to terrify them in a spot so delicious.  ‘I shall soon pass through the forest, and as speedily return,’ I said to myself, in the overflow of joyous feeling, and ere I was well aware, I had entered deep among the green shades, while of the plain that lay behind me I was no longer able to catch a glimpse.

“Then the conviction for the first time impressed me, that in a forest of so great extent I might very easily become bewildered, and that this, perhaps, might be the only danger which was likely to threaten those who explored its recesses.  So I made a halt, and turned myself in the direction of the sun, which had meantime risen somewhat higher, and while I was looking up to observe it, I saw something black among the boughs of a lofty oak.  My first thought was, ‘It is a bear!’ and I grasped my weapon.  The object then accosted me from above in a human voice, but in a tone most harsh and hideous:  ’If I, overhead here, do not gnaw off these dry branches, Sir Noodle, what shall we have to roast you with when midnight comes?’ And with that it grinned, and made such a rattling with the branches that my courser became mad with affright, and rushed furiously forward with me before I had time to see distinctly what sort of a devil’s beast it was.”

“You must not speak so,” said the old fisherman, crossing himself.  His wife did the same, without saying a word, and Undine, while her eye sparkled with delight, looked at the knight and said, “The best of the story is, however, that as yet they have not roasted you!  Go on, now, you beautiful knight.”