But, owing to the wild apparition of Kuhleborn, the horse had become wholly unmanageable.  Rearing and wildly snorting as he was, the knight must have used uncommon effort to mount the beast himself; to place the trembling Bertalda upon him was impossible.  They were compelled, therefore, to return home on foot.  While with one hand the knight drew the steed after him by the bridle, he supported the tottering Bertalda with the other.  She exerted all the strengths in her power in order to escape speedily from this vale of terrors.  But weariness weighed her down like lead; and all her limbs trembled, partly in consequence of what she had suffered from the extreme terror which Kuhleborn had already caused her, and partly from her present fear at the roar of the tempest and thunder amid the mountain forest.

At last she slid from the arm of the knight; and sinking upon the moss, she said:  “Only let me lie here, my noble lord.  I suffer the punishment due to my folly; and I must perish here through faintness and dismay.”

“Never, gentle lady, will I leave you,” cried Huldbrand, vainly trying to restrain the furious animal he was leading, for the horse was all in a foam, and began to chafe more ungovernably than before, till the knight was glad to keep him at such a distance from the exhausted maiden as to save her from a new alarm.  But hardly had he withdrawn five steps with the frantic steed when she began to call after him in the most sorrowful accents, fearful that he would actually leave her in this horrible wilderness.  He was at a loss what course to take.  He would gladly have given the enraged beast his liberty; he would have let him rush away amid the night and exhaust his fury, had he not feared that in this narrow defile his iron-shod hoofs might come thundering over the very spot where Bertalda lay.

In this extreme peril and embarrassment he heard with delight the rumbling wheels of a waggon as it came slowly descending the stony way behind them.  He called out for help; answer was returned in the deep voice of a man, bidding them have patience, but promising assistance; and two grey horses soon after shone through the bushes, and near them their driver in the white frock of a carter; and next appeared a great sheet of white linen, with which the goods he seemed to be conveying were covered.  The greys, in obedience to a shout from their master, stood still.  He came up to the knight, and aided him in checking the fury of the foaming charger.

“I know well enough,” said he, “what is the matter with the brute.  The first time I travelled this way my horses were just as wilful and headstrong as yours.  The reason is, there is a water-spirit haunts this valley—­and a wicked wight they say he is—­who takes delight in mischief and witcheries of this sort.  But I have learned a charm; and if you will let me whisper it in your horse’s ear, he will stand just as quiet as my silver greys there.”