"--"I cannot!"
answered the smiling Undine. "I have had the fountain sealed up,
against myself and my whole race." "But suppose he leaves his castle,"
said Kuehleborn, "or forgets himself so far as to let them set the
fountain 'free,' for he thinks mighty little of those matters."--"And
that is why," said Undine, still smiling through her tears, "that is
why his spirit hovers at this moment over the Mediterranean, and
listens to our conversation as in a dream. I have contrived it on
purpose, that he may take warning." On hearing this Kuehleborn looked
up angrily at the Knight, scowled at him, stamped, and then shot
upward through the waves like an arrow. His fury seemed to make him
expand into a whale. Again the swans began to warble, to wave their
wings, and to fly; the Knight felt himself borne high over alps and
rivers, till he was deposited in the Castle of Ringstetten, and awoke
in his bed.
He did awake in his bed, just as one of his squires entered the room,
and told him that Father Heilmann was still lingering near the castle;
for he had found him the evening before in the forest, living in a
shed he had made for himself with branches and moss. On being asked
what he was staying for since he had refused to bless the betrothed
couple? He answered, "It is not the wedded only who stand in need of
prayer, and though I came not for the bridal, there may yet be work
for me of another kind. We must be prepared for everything. Sometimes
marriage and mourning are not so far apart; and he who does not
wilfully close his eyes may perceive it.
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