was gasping for breath and groaning on the
floor,--a blow that would have completely done for him--when Rose, pale
as a corpse with fright, appeared in the shop-door. As soon as Conrad
observed her he stood as if turned to a pillar of stone, the adze
suspended in the air. Then he threw the tool away from him, struck his
hands together upon his chest, and cried in a voice that went to
everybody's heart, "Oh, good God! good God! what have I done?" and away
he rushed out of the shop. No one thought of following him.

Now poor Master Martin was after some difficulty lifted up; it was
found, however, that the adze had only penetrated into the thick fleshy
part of the arm, and the wound could not therefore be called serious.
Old Herr Holzschuer, whom Martin had involved with him in his fall, was
pulled out from beneath the shavings, and Dame Martha's children, who
ceased not to scream and cry over good Father Martin, were appeased as
far as that could be done. As for Martin himself, he was quite dazed,
and said if only that devil of a bad journeyman had not spoilt his fine
cask he should not make much account of the wound.

Sedan chairs were brought for the old gentlemen, for Holzschuer also
had bruised himself rather in his fall. He hurled reproaches at a trade
in which they employed such murderous tools, and conjured Frederick to
come back to his beautiful art of casting and working in the precious
metals, and the sooner the better.

As soon as the dusk of evening began to creep up over the sky,
Frederick, and along with him Reinhold, whom the hoop had struck rather
sharply, and who felt as if every limb was benumbed, strode back into
the town in very low spirits. Then they heard a soft sighing and
groaning behind a hedge. They stood still, and a tall figure at once
rose up; they immediately recognised Conrad, and began to withdraw
timidly. But he addressed them in a tearful voice, saying, "You need
not be so frightened at me, my good comrades; of course you take me for
a devilish murderous brute, but I am not--indeed I am not so. I could
not do otherwise; I _ought_ to have struck down the fat old master, and
by rights I ought to go along with you and do it _now_, if I only
could. But no, no; it's all over. Remember me to pretty Rose, whom I
love so above all reason. Tell her I will bear her flowers on my heart
all my life long, I will adorn myself with them when I--but she will
perhaps hear of me again some day. Farewel