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82 who holdeth intercourse with evil spirits! Why, she confesseth it herself!"

"Nay, not so," quoth Undine, and a heaven of innocence and truth was in her eyes. "I am no witch: only look at me."

"False is she," saith Bertalda, "false and boastful. Nor can she prove that I am the child of these base-born people. My noble parents, I ask ye to take me from this company, and from this city, where they are only minded to bring me to shame." Nathless, the duke's sense of honour forbade him to move, while his wife was as firm as he.

"We must be careful," said she, "how we act. God forbid that we should take a step from this hall without due thought."

Thereupon the fisherman's wife drew near, and curtseying low to the duchess, she said these words: "Thou hast opened my heart, noble lady, for thou fearest God. If this wicked child be in sooth my daughter, I must tell thee that she hath a mark, like a violet, between her shoulders, and another like it on the instep of her left foot. If she will but come with me out of the hall"

"I shall not bare myself before a peasant woman," cried Bertalda, turning proudly away.

"But before me thou wilt," said the duchess, very gravely. "Follow me into yonder room, and the good old woman shall come with us."

So the three disappeared, and the others remained