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