Just
then a page appeared, who assured him that he had met the lady on the
path to the Black Valley. Like an arrow the knight sprang through the
gate-way in the 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 saddled immediately 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
altogether 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.
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