Toward evening Herr von Schoenau and Willibald returned to Fuerstenstein.
Before starting for Rodeck a telegram had been dispatched to the embassy
telling of the accident, and now the head forester sent another
announcing its fatal termination.
Fran von Eschenhagen remained at Rodeck with her brother's widow. The
corpse would be taken to the city early in the morning and until then
the two women would remain with it. Adelheid, who had faced the danger
so bravely, and had done her duty, though there was little to do at her
husband's death bed, now when all was over, seemed to lose her strength.
She was bewildered by the sudden and terrible occurrence.
Hartmut Rojanow stood at his window in the second story, and glanced
across the desolate, bare forest, which, with its snowy mantle, had a
ghostly, uncanny look.
The night came down quickly, and the stars shed a faint light over the
tall, leafless branches. Yesterday the first snow storm of the season
had come, and everything as far as eye could reach was enveloped in an
icy mantle. The great level park before the castle was knee deep with
snow, and the broad branches of the fir trees bent to the earth with
their heavy white burden. The stars came out one by one and dotted the
heavens with their clear, quiet light, while far to the north a faint
rosy glow tinted the distant horizon like a first morning greeting in
the eastern sky.
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