Alas, how different had she once passed through these rooms! The knight had in the meantime dismissed his attendants.

Half-undressed and in deep dejection, he was standing before a large mirror, a wax taper burned dimly beside him.

At this moment some one tapped at his door very, very softly.

Undine had formerly tapped in this way, when she was playing some of her endearing wiles.
"It is all an illusion!" said he to himself.

"I must to my nuptial bed." "You must indeed, but to a cold one!" he heard a voice, choked with sobs, repeat from without; and then he saw in the mirror, that the door of his room was slowly, slowly opened, and the white figure entered, and gently closed it behind her.
"They have opened the spring," said she in a low tone; "and now I am here, and you must die." He felt, in his failing breath, that this must indeed be; but covering his eyes with his hands, he cried: "Do not in my death-hour, do not make me mad with terror.