Huldbrand smiled fondly at Undine. “Yester morning,” quoth he, “I set off on my enterprise. The morning was fair, and the red tints of sunrise caught the tree-stems and lay along the green turf. The leaves were whispering merrily together, and in my heart I could have laughed at the silly folk who were frightened at so beautiful a place. ‘Full soon shall I have passed and repassed the wood,’ said I to myself with confident gaiety, and ere I had had time to bethink myself of the matter I was deeply plunged into the thick glades, and could see no more the plain that lay behind me. Thereupon it came to my mind for the first time that I might easily lose my way in the forest, and that perchance this was the only peril the traveller had to face. So I paused awhile and looked round at the position of the sun, which meanwhile had risen higher in the heavens. As I looked I saw something black in the branches of a high oak. ‘A bear, maybe,’ I thought, and I felt for my sword. But it spoke with a human voice, all harsh and ugly, and called to me from above: ‘Sir Malapert,’ it cried, ‘an I fail to nibble away the branches up here, what shall we have to roast you with at midnight?’ And so saying it grinned and made the branches shake and rustle in such sort that my horse, grown wild with terror, galloped me away before I had time to see what kind of devil’s beast it might be.”
“Thou must not give him a name,” said the fisherman, and he crossed himself. His wife did the like with never a word.
But Undine looked at the knight with sparkling eyes. “The best of the story is,” quoth she, “that they have not roasted him! Go on, fair sir!”
So the knight went on with his tale.
“So wild was my horse that it went hard with me to stay him from charging the stems and branches of trees. He was dripping with sweat, and yet he would not suffer himself to be held in. At length he galloped straight towards a precipice. Whereupon it appeared to me as though a tall white man threw himself across the path. The horse, trembling with fear, stopped, and I regained my hold on him. Then for the first time did I become aware that what saved me was no man, but a brook, bright as silver, rushing down from a hill by my side, and crossing and stemming my horse’s path.”
“Thanks, dear Brook,” cried Undine, clapping her hands. But the old man shook his head and bent him thoughtfully over the ground.
Huldbrand continueth his tale. “Scarce,” quoth he, “had I settled myself in the saddle and taken a firm grip on the reins, when, lo, a marvellous little man, very small and hideous beyond measure, stood at my side. Tawny brown was his skin, and his nose almost as big as his whole body, while, grinning like a clown and stretching wide his huge mouth, he kept bowing and scraping over and over again. Since this fool’s play pleased me but ill, I gave him brief good-day, and turned about my horse which still quivered with fear. Methought I would find some other adventure or else I would bestir myself homeward, for, during my wild gallop, the sun had already passed the meridian. Whereupon, quick as lightning, the little fellow whipped round and again stood before my horse. ‘Make room there,’ I cried angrily, ‘the animal is fiery and may easily overrun thee.’ ‘Oh, ay,’ snarled the imp, grinning yet more hideously, ‘give me first some drink-money, for it was I who stopped your horse; without my aid both thou and he would now be lying in the stony ravine, Ugh!’ ‘Make no more faces,’ quoth I, ‘take your gold, albeit that thou liest, for see, it was the good brook that saved me and not thou, thou wretched wight!’ And therewith I dropped a piece of gold into the quaint cap which he held before me in his begging. And I made as though I would ride on. But he shrieked aloud, and swifter than can be imagined he was once more at my side. I urged my horse to a gallop; the imp ran too, and strange enough were the contortions he made with his body, half laughable and half horrible, the while he held up the gold piece, crying at each leap of his, ‘False gold! False coin! False coin! False gold!’ And these words he uttered in such sort, with so hollow a sound from out his breast, that one might well conceive that after each shriek he would fall dead to the ground.
