them. He called out for help; a man's voice answered, bidding him have patience but promising assistance; and soon after two grey horses appeared through the bushes, and beside them the driver in the white smock of a carter; next a great white tilt came into sight covering the goods that lay in the waggon. At a sign from their master the obedient horses halted, and the waggoner coming towards the knight helped him to soothe his frightened animal.
"Full well I see," quoth he, "what aileth the beast. When I first travelled this way it fared no better with my horses. An evil water-spirit in truth haunteth the place, and he taketh delight in mischief of this sort. But I have learned a spell: if thou wilt let me whisper it in thy horse's ear, he will forthwith stand as quiet as my greys yonder."
"Try thy spell and quickly!" cried the knight impatiently. Then the man drew down to him the head of the restive horse and whispered something in his ear. Straightway the animal stood still and subdued, and his heaving flanks bedewed with sweat alone bore witness to his former fury. Huldbrand had no time to inquire how all this had come about; he agreed with the carter that he should take Bertalda in his waggon–in which, so the man assured him, there were a quantity of soft cotton bales–and so bear her back to Castle Ringstetten. He himself was minded to follow on horseback, but the horse appeared too exhausted by his past fury to carry his master so
