. Undine. CHAPTER XIV THE BLACK VALLEY Now the Black Valley lieth deep within the moun-tains. What name it may bear now I know not ; atthat time the country people gave it this title becauseof the deep gloom that the tall trees, chiefly fir-trees,threw over the ravine. Even the brook bubblingbetween the rocks had a black look, and was far lessjoyous in its flow than streams that have the blue skyover them. And now, in the darkening twilight, itran yet more wild and gloomy beneath the hills. With no little anxious care the knight rode alongthe edge of the brook; at one moment he feared thatby d
. Undine. CHAPTER XIV THE BLACK VALLEY Now the Black Valley lieth deep within the moun-tains. What name it may bear now I know not ; atthat time the country people gave it this title becauseof the deep gloom that the tall trees, chiefly fir-trees,threw over the ravine. Even the brook bubblingbetween the rocks had a black look, and was far lessjoyous in its flow than streams that have the blue skyover them. And now, in the darkening twilight, itran yet more wild and gloomy beneath the hills. With no little anxious care the knight rode alongthe edge of the brook; at one moment he feared thatby delay he might allow the fugitive to get too far inadvance, and at the next, that in his overhaste hemight pass her by in some hiding-place. He hadmeanwhile penetrated far into the valley and hopedsoon to win his quest, if so be that he were on the righttrack. The fear, indeed, that this might not be thecase, made his heart beat fast with dread. How, he Bertalda in the Black Valley ?. THE BLACK VALLEY 101 asked himself, might Bertalda fare, should he fail tofind her, throughout the stormy night which loweredso threateningly over the valley ? At length some-thing- white gleaming through the branches on theslope of the mountain caught his eye, and he thoughthe recognised Bertaldas dress. But when he turnedin that direction his horse refused to advance and rearedfuriously ; and the knight, because he was unwilling tolose a moment, and also because he saw that the brush-wood opened no passage for him on horseback, dis-mounted. Fastening his snorting and terrified horseto an elm-tree, he worked his way cautiously throughthe bushes. On his forehead and cheeks the branchesshed the cold drops of evening dew; distant thundergrowled beyond the mountains ; and all looked so wildthat he began to feel a dread of the white figure, nowlying only a short distance from him on the right plainly he could see that it was a woman,either asleep or in a swoon, and that she w
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