[Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouque]@TWC D-Link bookUndine CHAPTER 3 10/14
But now, since the forest stream and lake have become all but mad, it appears to be entirely changed." "I observed something of it," replied the priest, "as I stole along the shore in the obscurity; and hearing nothing around me but a sort of wild uproar, I perceived at last that the noise came from a point exactly where a beaten footpath disappeared.
I now caught the light in your cottage, and ventured hither, where I cannot sufficiently thank my Heavenly Father that, after preserving me from the waters, He has also conducted me to such pious people as you are; and the more so, as it is difficult to say whether I shall ever behold any other persons in this world except you four." "What mean you by those words ?" asked the fisherman. "Can you tell me, then, how long this commotion of the elements will last ?" replied the priest.
"I am old; the stream of my life may easily sink into the ground and vanish before the overflowing of that forest stream shall subside.
And, indeed, it is not impossible that more and more of the foaming waters may rush in between you and yonder forest, until you are so far removed from the rest of the world, that your small fishing-canoe may be incapable of passing over, and the inhabitants of the continent entirely forget you in your old age amid the dissipation and diversions of life." At this melancholy foreboding the old lady shrank back with a feeling of alarm, crossed herself, and cried, "God forbid!" But the fisherman looked upon her with a smile and said, "What a strange being is man! Suppose the worst to happen; our state would not be different; at any rate, your own would not, dear wife, from what it is at present.
For have you, these many years, been farther from home than the border of the forest? And have you seen a single human being beside Undine and myself? It is now only a short time since the coming of the knight and the priest.
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