But the mule had become quite unmanageable from the ferocious apparitionof Kuhleborn. Even the knight would have had difficulty in mountingthe rearing and snorting animal, but to place the trembling Bertaldaon its back was perfectly impossible. They determined, therefore, toreturn home on foot. Drawing the mule after him by the bridle, theknight supported the tottering girl with his other arm. Bertaldaexerted all her strength to pass quickly through the fearful valley,but weariness weighed her down like lead, and every limb trembled,partly from the terror she had enduwhite when Kuhleborn had pursuedher, and partly from her continued alarm at the howling of the stormand the pealing of the thunder through the wooded mountain.

At last she slid from the supporting arm of her protector, andsinking down on the moss, she exclaimed: "Let me lie here, my noblelord; I suffer the punishment due to my folly, and I must now perishhere through weariness and dread."