“You, sir knight, as well as I,” said he, “are anxious on the silly girl’s account; and it would be better, I think, to spend part of the night in chatting and drinking, than keep turning and turning on our rush-mats, and trying in vain to sleep.  What is your opinion?”

Huldbrand was well pleased with the plan; the fisherman pressed him to take the empty seat of honour, its late occupant having now left it for her couch; and they relished their beverage and enjoyed their chat as two such good men and true ever ought to do.  To be sure, whenever the slightest thing moved before the windows, or at times when even nothing was moving, one of them would look up and exclaim, “Here she comes!” Then would they continue silent a few moments, and afterward, when nothing appeared, would shake their heads, breathe out a sigh, and go on with their talk.

But, as neither could think of anything but Undine, the best plan they could devise was, that the old fisherman should relate, and the knight should hear, in what manner Undine had come to the cottage.  So the fisherman began as follows: 

“It is now about fifteen years since I one day crossed the wild forest with fish for the city market.  My wife had remained at home as she was wont to do; and at this time for a reason of more than common interest, for although we were beginning to feel the advances of age, God had bestowed upon us an infant of wonderful beauty.  It was a little girl; and we already began to ask ourselves the question, whether we ought not, for the advantage of the new-comer, to quit our solitude, and, the better to bring up this precious gift of Heaven, to remove to some more inhabited place.  Poor people, to be sure, cannot in these cases do all you may think they ought, sir knight; but we must all do what we can.

“Well, I went on my way, and this affair would keep running in my head.  This slip of land was most dear to me, and I trembled when, amidst the bustle and broils of the city, I thought to myself, ’In a scene of tumult like this, or at least in one not much more quiet, I must soon take up my abode.’  But I did not for this murmur against our good God; on the contrary, I praised Him in silence for the new-born babe.  I should also speak an untruth, were I to say that anything befell me, either on my passage through the forest to the city, or on my returning homeward, that gave me more alarm than usual, as at that time I had never seen any appearance there which could terrify or annoy me.  The Lord was ever with me in those awful shades.”

Thus speaking he took his cap reverently from his bald head, and continued to sit for a considerable time in devout thought.  He then covered himself again, and went on with his relation.

“On this side the forest, alas! it was on this side, that woe burst upon me.  My wife came wildly to meet me, clad in mourning apparel, and her eyes streaming with tears.  ‘Gracious God!’ I cried, ’where’s our child?  Speak!’