The poor baron won't live until night."

CHAPTER XIII.

The little hunting lodge of Rodeck, which lay so white and silent in the
snow of that first December day, had seldom been witness to so great an
excitement as that occasioned by Baron Wallmoden's accident. It was
about noon when the two foresters appeared with their unconscious burden
in their arms. Hartmut Rojanow had seen at a glance what was to be done.
He had the injured man taken at once to Prince Adelsberg's room, sent
off a messenger for the nearest physician, and gave intelligent orders
concerning the sick man's treatment until the doctor should arrive.

Then, when the physician told him there was no hope, he dispatched old
Stadinger to Fuerstenstein. Frau Regine only arrived in time to see her
brother die. Wallmoden never recovered consciousness after the fearful
shock of his fall; he lay upon the bed silent and motionless, breathing
with difficulty, and recognizing no one, and an hour later all was over.

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. But it was night, a cold, icy winter night, upon which
no gl