Now the next day, when the fisherman lay at the point of death, he said to his wife; “Wife, I have something on my mind; it is a secret I have kept from you these many years.” And thereupon he told her of Carey’s godfather, the merman, and of how he had been present at the christening. “I charge you,” added the dying man, “not to deal harshly with our daughter on this account, since it was none of her doing. Moreover, it has brought us good fortune.” And having said these words, the sick man breathed his last.
But that very hour the fisherman’s widow said to Carey; “This is no light matter that your father has confessed to me. Swear to me that you have had no intercourse with this sea-monster.”
“That will I not,” said Carey staunchly, “for I have known him since I was a little maid, and he is no sea-monster at all, but the kindest godfather in the world.”
At that her mother flew into a frenzy of rage. “You deceitful hussy!” she screamed, “so behind my back you have had dealings with a wicked sprite that is without an immortal soul! Get you gone this instant!” And so saying she drove her from the house.
Then Carey went sadly along the beach till she reached the familiar creek, and there she sought her godfather in his wonted haunts, and when she could not find him she called to him many times, but he neither came nor answered. The sea was running high, and the weather was dark and lowering.
“He is angry with me because I did not heed his message yesterday,” thought Carey, “he too has forsaken me. I will go to the wood and meet the huntsman there, for he alone is left to love me.”
Now it happened that on her way inland Carey came across a horse-shoe, which she picked up and took with her for good luck. As soon as she had reached the green ride in the midst of the wood, she saw the stranger at the farther end of it, standing by the fallen tree-trunk, with a great coal-black steed at his side, and the two hounds with him. She held up the horse-shoe in token of welcome, and when she had drawn nearer she called to him merrily, “Only see what I have found! It will bring us good fortune!”
But even as she spoke, the horse reared and pawed the ground, the hounds whined and cowered at their master’s feet, and the huntsman himself held out both hands before his face, as though to avert a danger.
“Maid, if you bear me any love,” cried he, “throw the thing from you! I come of a race that is at enmity with iron!”
So Carey, though she understood him not at all, tossed the horse-shoe into a thicket hard by, and approached her lover. But he on a sudden sprang upon his horse, and caught her to him, and set her on the saddle before him. Then the great black steed rose up into the air, and the hounds with it, and Carey screamed aloud in her terror.