|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 41
"Perhaps I shall be able to prevent a sin; then sink not, withered
body, before I arrive at the end of my journey!" And with renewed
vigour he pressed forward, hurrying on without rest or repose, until,
late one evening, he entered the shady court-yard of the castle of
Ringstetten.
The betrothed were sitting side by side under the trees, and the aged
fisherman in a thoughtful mood sat near them. The moment they saw
Father Heilmann, they rose with a spring of joy, and pressed round
him with eager welcome. But he, in a few words, asked the bridegroom
to return with him into the castle; and when Huldbrand stood mute
with surprise, and delayed complying with his earnest request, the
pious preacher said to him--
"I do not know why I should want to speak to you in private; what I
have to say as much concerns Bertalda and the fisherman as yourself;
and what we must at some time hear, it is best to hear as soon as
possible. Are you, then, so very certain, Knight Huldbrand, that
your first wife is actually dead? I can hardly think it. I will say
nothing, indeed, of the mysterious state in which she may be now
existing; I know nothing of it with certainty. But that she was a
most devoted and faithful wife is beyond all dispute. And for
fourteen nights past, she has appeared to me in a dream, standing at
my bedside wringing her tender hands in anguish, and sighing out,
'Ah, prevent him, dear father! I am still living! Ah, save his
life! Ah, save his soul!'
"I did not understand what this vision of the night could mean, then
came your messenger; and I have now hastened hither, not to unite,
but, as I hope, to separate what ought not to be joined together.
Leave her, Huldbrand! leave him, Bertalda! He still belongs to
another; and do you not see on his pale cheek his grief for his lost
wife? That is not the look of a bridegroom; and the spirit says to
me, that 'if you do not leave him you will never be happy!'"
The three felt in their inmost hearts that Father Heilmann spoke the
truth; but they would not believe it. Even the old fisherman was so
infatuated, that he thought it could not be otherwise than as they
had latterly settled amongst themselves. They all, therefore, with a
determined and gloomy eagerness, struggled against the
representations and warnings of the priest, until, shaking his head
and oppressed with sorrow, he finally quitted the castle, not
choosing to accept their offered shelter even for a single night, or
indeed so much as to taste a morsel of the refreshment they brought
him. Huldbrand persuaded himself, however, that the priest was a
mere visionary; and sent at daybreak to a monk of the nearest
monastery, who, without scruple, promised to perform the ceremony in
a few days.
CHAPTER 9
It was between night and dawn of day that Huldbrand was lying on his
couch, half waking and half sleeping. Whenever he attempted to
compose himself to sleep, a terror came upon him and scared him, as
if his slumbers were haunted with spectres. But he made an effort to
rouse himself fully. He felt fanned as by the wings of a swan, and
lulled as by the murmuring of waters, till in sweet confusion of the
senses he sank back into his state of half-consciousness.
At last, however, he must have fallen perfectly asleep; for he seemed
to be lifted up by wings of the swans, and to be wafted far away over
land and sea, while their music swelled on his ear most sweetly.
"The music of the swan! the song of the swan!" he could not but
repeat to himself every moment; "is it not a sure foreboding of
death?" Probably, however, it had yet another meaning. All at once
he seemed to be hovering over the Mediterranean Sea. A swan sang
melodiously in his ear, that this was the Mediterranean Sea. And
while he was looking down upon the waves, they became transparent as
crystal, so that he could see through them to the very bottom.
At this a thrill of delight shot through him, for he could see Undine
where she was sitting beneath the clear crystal dome. It is true she
was weeping very bitterly, and looked much sadder than in those happy
days when they lived together at the castle of Ringstetten, both on
their arrival and afterward, just before they set out upon their
fatal passage down the Danube. The knight could not help thinking
upon all this with deep emotion, but it did not appear that Undine
was aware of his presence.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|