How we shall share all things as sisters, we can talk of after we arrive." Bertalda looked up to Huldbrand with timid inquiry.

He pitied her in her affliction, took her hand, and begged her tenderly to entrust herself to him and his wife.
"We will send a message to your parents," continued he, "giving them the reason why you have not come;"-- and he would have added more about his worthy friends of the peninsula, when, perceiving that Bertalda shrank in distress at the mention of them, he refrained.

He took her under the arm, lifted her first into the carriage, then Undine, and was soon riding blithely beside them; so persevering was he, too, in urging forward their driver, that in a short time they had left behind them the limits of the city, and a crowd of painful recollections; and now the ladies could take delight in the beautiful country which their progress was continually presenting.
After a journey of some days, they arrived, on a fine evening, at Castle Ringstetten.

The young knight being much engaged with the overseers and menials of his establishment, Undine and Bertalda were left alone.

They took a walk upon the high rampart of the fortress, and were charmed with the delightful landscape which the fertile Suabia spread around them.
While they were viewing the scene, a tall man drew near, who greeted them with respectful civility, and who seemed to Bertalda much to resemble the director of the city fountain.