l range to conjure up all sorts of misfortunes. At length,
after many more posts had come in without a line to pacify Edward's
fears, without a word in reply to his earnest entreaties for some news,
he determined on taking a step which he had meditated before, and only
relinquished out of consideration for his friend's wishes. He wrote to
the officer commanding the regiment, and made inquiries respecting the
health and abode of Lieutenant von Hallberg, whose friends in the
capital had remained for nearly two months without news of him, he who
had hitherto proved a regular and frequent correspondent.

Another fortnight dragged heavily on, and at length the announcement
came in an official form. Lieutenant von Hallberg had been invited to
the castle of a nobleman whom he was in the custom of visiting, in order
to be present at the wedding of a lady; that he was indisposed at the
time, that he grew worse, and on the third morning had been found dead
in his bed, having expired during the night from an attack of apoplexy.

Edward could not finish the letter, it fell from his trembling hand. To
see his worst fears realized so suddenly, overwhelmed him at first. His
youth withstood the bodily illness which would have assailed a weaker
constitution, and perhaps mitigated the anguish of his grief. He was not
dangerously, ill, but they feared many days for his reason; and it
required all the kind solicitude of the director of the college,
combined with the most skillful medical aid, to stem the torrent of his
sorrow, and to turn it gradually into a calmer channel, until by degrees
the mourner recovered both health and reason. His youthful spirits,
however, had received a blow from which they never rebounded, and one
thought lay heavy on his mind which he was unwilling to share with any
other person, and which, on that account, grew more and more painful. It
was the memory of that holy promise which had been mutually contracted,
that the survivor was to receive some token of his friend's remembrance
of him after death. Now two months had already passed since Ferdinand's
earthly career had been arrested, his spirit was free, why no sign? In
the moment of death Edward had had no intimation, no message from the
passing spirit, and this apparent neglect, so to speak, was another deep
wound in Edward's breast. Do the affections cease with life? Was it
contrary to the will of the Almighty that the mourner should taste this
consolation?