And therefore I may weep, little as you can know what such tears are.

They are blessed, as everything is blessed to one gifted with a true soul." He shook his head incredulously; and after some thought, replied, "And yet, niece, you are subject to our laws, as a being of the same nature with ourselves; and should HE prove unfaithful to you and marry again, you are obliged to take away his life." "He remains a widower to this very hour," replied Undine, "and I am still dear to his sorrowful heart." "He is, however, betrothed," said Kuhleborn, with a laugh of scorn; "and let only a few days wear away, and then comes the priest with his nuptial blessing; and then you must go up to the death of the husband with two wives." "I have not the power," returned Undine, with a smile.

"I have sealed up the fountain securely against myself and all of my race." "Still, should he leave his castle," said Kuhleborn, "or should he once allow the fountain to be uncovered, what then?
for he thinks little enough of these things." "For that very reason," said Undine, still smiling amid her tears, "for that very reason he is at this moment hovering in spirit over the Mediterranean Sea, and dreaming of the warning which our discourse gives him.

I thoughtfully planned all this." That instant, Kuhleborn, inflamed with rage, looked up at the knight, wrathfully threatened him, stamped on the ground, and then shot like an arrow beneath the waves.

He seemed to swell in his fury to the size of a whale.