CHAPTER XVIII.
HOW THE KNIGHT HULDBRAND IS MARRIED.
If I were to tell you how the marriage-feast passed at castleRingstetten, it would seem to you as if you saw a heap of bright andpleasant things, but a gloomy veil of mourning spread over them all,the dark hue of which would make the splendor of the whole look lesslike happiness than a mockery of the emptiness of all earthly joys.It was not that any spectral apparitions disturbed the festivecompany, for we know that the castle had been secured from themischief of the threatening water-spirits. But the knight and thefisherman and all the guests felt as if the chief personage werestill lacking at the feast, and that this chief personage could benone other than the loved and gentle Undine. Whenever a door opened,the eyes of all were involuntarily turned in that direction, and ifit was nothing but the butler with new dishes, or the cup-bearerwith a flask of still richer wine, they would look down again sadly,and the flashes of wit and merriment which had passed to and fro,would be extinguished by sad remembrances. The bride was the mostthoughtless of all, and therefore the most happy; but even to her itsometimes seemed strange that she should be sitting at the head ofthe table, wearing a green wreath and gold-embroidered attire, whileUndine was lying at the bottom of the Danube, a cold and stiffcorpse, or floating away with the current into the mighty ocean.For, ever since her father had spoken of something of the sort, hiswords were ever ringing in her ear, and this day especially theywere not inclined to give place to other thoughts.
The company dispersed early in the evening, not broken up by thebridegroom himself, but sadly and gloomily by the joyless mood ofthe guests and their forebodings of evil. Bertalda retired with hermaidens, and the knight with his attendants; but at this mournfulfestival there was no gay, laughing train of bridesmaids andbridesmen.
Bertalda wished to arouse more cheerful thoughts; she ordered asplendid ornament of jewels which Huldbrand had given her, togetherwith rich apparel and veils, to be spread out before her, in orderthat from these latter she might select the brightest and mostbeautiful for her morning attire. Her attendants were delighted atthe opportunity of expressing their good wishes to their youngmistress, not failing at the same time to extol the beauty of thebride in the most lively terms. They were more and more absorbed inthese considerations, till Bertalda at length, looking in a mirror,said with a sigh: "Ah, but don't you see plainly how freckled I amgrowing here at the side of my neck?"
They looked at her throat, and found the freckles as their fairmistress had said, but they called them beauty-spots, and mere tinyblemishes only, tending to enhance the whiteness of her delicateskin. Bertalda shook her head and asserted that a spot was always adefect.
"And I could remove them," she sighed a last, "only the fountain isclosed from which I used to have that precious and purifying water.Oh! if I had but a flask of it to-day!"
"Is that all?" said an alert waiting-maid, laughing, as she slippedfrom the apartment.
"She will not be mad," exclaimed Bertalda, in a pleased andsurprised tone, "she will not be so mad as to have the stone removedfrom the fountain this very evening!" At the same moment they heardthe men crossing the courtyard, and could see from the window howthe officious waiting-woman was leading them straight up to thefountain, and that they were carrying levers and other instrumentson their shoulders. "It is certainly my will," said Bertalda,smiling, "if only it does not take too long." And, happy in thesense that a look from her now was able to effect what had formerlybeen so painfully refused her, she watched the progress of the workin the moonlit castle-court.
The men raised the enormous stone with an effort; now and thenindeed one of their number would sigh, as he remembered that theywere destroying the work of their former beloved mistress. But thelabor was far lighter than they had imagined. It seemed as if apower within the spring itself were aiding them in raising thestone.
"It is just," said the workmen to each other in astonishment, "as ifthe water within had become a springing fountain." And the stonerose higher and higher, and almost without the assistance of theworkmen, it rolled slowly down upon the pavement with a hollowsound. But from the opening of the fountain there rose solemnly awhite column of water; at first they imagined it had really become aspringing fountain, till they perceived that the rising form was apale female figure veiled in white. She was weeping bitterly,raising her hands wailingly above her head and wringing them, as shewalked with a slow and serious step to the castle-building. Theservants fled from the spring; the bride, pale and stiff withhorror, stood at the window with her attendants. When the figure hadnow come close beneath her room, it looked moaningly up to her, andBertalda thought she could recognize beneath the veil the palefeatures of Undine. But the sorrowing form passed on, sad,reluctant, and faltering, as if passing to execution.
Bertalda screamed out that the knight was to be called, but none ofher maids ventured from the spot; and even the bride herself becamemute, as if trembling at her own voice.
While they were still standing fearfully at the window, motionlessas statues, the strange wanderer had reached the castle, had passedup the well-known stairs, and through the well-known halls, ever insilent tears. Alas! how differently had she once wandered throughthem!
The knight, partly undressed, had already dismissed his attendants,and in a mood of deep dejection he was standing before a largemirror; a taper was burning dimly beside him. There was a gentle tapat his door. Undine used to tap thus when she wanted playfully totease him "It is all fancy," said he to himself; "I must seek mynuptial bed."
"So you must, but it must be a cold one!" he heard a tearful voicesay from without, and then he saw in the mirror his door openingslowly--slowly--and the white figure entered, carefully closing itbehind her. "They have opened the spring," said she softly, "and nowI am here, and you must die."
He felt in his paralyzed heart that it could not be otherwise, butcovering his eyes with his hands he said: "Do not make me mad withterror in my hour of death. If you wear a hideous face behind thatveil, do not raise it, but take my life, and let me see you not."
"Alas!" replied the figure, "will you then not look upon me oncemore? I am as fair as when you wooed me on the promontory."
"Oh, if it were so!" sighed Huldbrand, "and if I might die in yourfond embrace!"
"Most gladly, my loved one," said she; and throwing her veil back,her lovely face smiled forth divinely beautiful. Trembling with loveand with the approach of death, she kissed him with a holy kiss; butnot relaxing her hold she pressed him fervently to her, and as ifshe would weep away her soul. Tears rushed into the knight's eyes,and seemed to surge through his heaving breast, till at length hisbreathing ceased, and he fell softly back from the beautiful arms ofUndine, upon the pillows of his couch--a corpse.
"I have wept him to death," said she to some servants who met her inthe ante-chamber; and, passing through the affrighted group, shewent slowly out toward the fountain.