Softly, noiselessly she moved, so noiselessly that Bertalda neither
heard nor saw the phantom figure.

At length the mourners reached the churchyard and gathered around the
grave. Then Bertalda, looking up, saw the white-veiled figure standing
by her side, and knew that it was Undine.

Fear whispered to Bertalda to leave the veiled figure undisturbed,
anger bade Bertalda order that it should at once depart. And anger was
going to have its way, for Bertalda opened her lips to speak, but
Undine shook her head and held out her hands as though she begged for
mercy.

Then Bertalda remembered all the kindness Undine had shown toward her,
and especially how lovingly she had held out to her the coral
necklace as they were sailing on the Danube, and as she remembered her
hard heart melted, and she wept.

At that moment Father Heilman began to pray, and all the mourners
knelt around the grave, in which the coffin bearing the shield and
helmet of the knight had now been placed.

When the prayer was ended the company arose, but the white-veiled
figure was no longer to be seen.

Only on the spot where she had knelt a stream of crystal water gushed
out of the earth. Quietly it flowed around the grave of the knight and
then onward until it joined the river which ran past the little
village church.