He felt as if a judgment were coming on him, and a shameful degrading from his knightly rank.

Suddenly Folko drew him away from the shield, and taking him towards the rattling window, he asked: "Whence comes this tempest ?" Still Sintram kept silence.

His limbs began to tremble under him; and Gabrielle, pale and terrified, whispered, "O Folko, my knight, what has happened?
Oh, tell me; are we come into an enchanted castle ?" "The land of our northern ancestors," replied Folko with solemnity, "is full of mysterious knowledge.

But we may not, for all that, call its people enchanters; still this youth has cause to watch himself narrowly; he whom the evil one has touched by so much as one hair of his head..." Sintram heard no more; with a deep groan he staggered out of the room.
As he left it, he met old Rolf, still almost benumbed by the cold and storms of the night.

Now, in his joy at again seeing his young master, he did not remark his altered appearance; but as he accompanied him to his sleeping-room he said, "Witches and spirits of the tempest must have taken up their abode on the sea-shore.