He burst into a scornful laugh. "On the sea—on the ocean—" continued he, "there I wanted to be—I had to follow—I saw her fall—she was beautiful even in death—an enchantress—an enchantress!"
The physician beckoned to me; I knew what he meant. I asked him if he desired anything.
He stared at me.
"Yonder—give me that—give!"
He pointed to a beautiful heath-plant not far off. Adams had observed our look and the words. He tore up a whole bunch of ericas, and gave them into the hand of the dying man, who gazed at him with eyes almost starting out of his head. Then a smile came over his face; drawing himself up with a mighty energy, he fell back uttering one terrible shriek, and his limbs were straightened in death. He died with the heath-plants in his clenched hand.
Oh, how much I have gone through, how much I have been forced to suffer! Nothing harder can ever befall me.
As we buried him in the earth, and covered him over with heaths, I wept over a man whose vast powers had led him astray. What would have been his fate, if-—-
Here I was interrupted in the midst of my writing. Since those lines were penned, I have buried another corpse.
I was called to Adams, who had neglected having his wounds attended to, and now it was too late. He asked after me. I stood at his bed-side, and with a last exertion of strength, he asked me;—
"Herr Major, can any one steal a thing like that?"