direction indicated, without hearing
Undine's voice of agony, as she called to him from the window:--

"To the Black Valley! Oh, not there! Huldbrand, don't go there! or,
for heaven's sake, take me with you!" But when she perceived that
all her calling was in vain, she ordered her white palfrey to be
immediately saddled, and rode after the knight, without allowing any
servant to accompany her.

CHAPTER XIV.

HOW BERTALDA RETURNED HOME WITH THE KNIGHT.

The Black Valley lies deep within the mountains. What it is now
called we do not know. At that time the people of the country gave
it this appellation on account of the deep obscurity in which the
low land lay, owing to the shadows of the lofty trees, and
especially firs, that grew there. Even the brook which bubbled
between the rocks wore the same dark hue, and dashed along with none
of that gladness with which streams are wont to flow that have the
blue sky immediately above them. Now, in the growing twilight of
evening, it looked wild and gloomy between the heights. The knight
trotted anxiously along the edge of the brook, fearful at one moment
that by delay he might allow the fugitive to advance too far, and at
the next that by too great rapidity he might overlook her in case
she were concealing herself from him. Meanwhile he had already
penetrated tolerably far into the valley, and might soon hope to
overtake the maiden, if he were on the right track. The fear that
this might not be the case made his heart beat with anxiety. Where
would the tender Bertalda tarry through the stormy night, which was
so fearful in the valley, should he fail to find her? At length he
saw something white gleaming through the branches on the slope of
the mountain. He thought he recognized Bertalda's dress, and he
turned his course in that direction. But his horse refused to go
forward; it reared impatiently; and its master, unwilling to lose a
moment, and seeing moreover that the copse was impassable on
horseback, dismounted; and, fastening his snorting steed to an
elm-tree, he worked his way cautiously through the bushes. The branches
sprinkled his forehead and cheeks with the cold drops of the evening
dew; a distant roll of thunder was heard murmuring from the other
side of the mountains; everything looked so strange that he began to
feel a dread of the white figure, which now lay only a short
distance from him on the ground. Still he could plainly see that it
was a female