denial, raised her hands towards Bertalda in lowly supplication, by
which she was greatly moved, and could not but remember with tears
how Undine had shown such sweetness of spirit on the Danube when she
held out to her the coral necklace.

Father Heilmann now motioned with his hand, and gave order for all to
observe perfect stillness, that they might breathe a prayer of silent
devotion over the body, upon which earth had already been thrown.
Bertalda knelt without speaking; and all knelt, even the grave-
diggers, who had now finished their work. But when they arose, the
white stranger had disappeared. On the spot where she had knelt, a
little spring, of silver brightness, was gushing out from the green
turf, and it kept swelling and flowing onward with a low murmur, till
it almost encircled the mound of the knight's grave; it then
continued its course, and emptied itself into a calm lake, which lay
by the side of the consecrated ground. Even to this day, the
inhabitants of the village point out the spring; and hold fast the
belief that it is the poor deserted Undine, who in this manner still
fondly encircles her beloved in her arms.