"Do you mean Rojanow? I have not seen him since and shall not see him again. I shall spare myself and him that much. He is now at the forestry at Rodeck and awaits my answer there. I have notified him in three lines of what I learned, without adding a remark or a word. He has probably received the letter and will understand it sufficiently."
"Good God! that will drive him to his death," Adelaide burst forth. "How could you do it! How could you judge the unfortunate one without hearing him!"
"The unfortunate one!" repeated the Prince cuttingly. "Do you really consider him that?"
"Yes, for I do not hear these awful accusations for the first time. His father cast them in his face at that meeting."
"Well, if even his own father accuses him----"
"The deeply offended, deeply embittered man! He cannot have an unbiased judgment, but you--the friend of Hartmut--you, who stood so near him--you ought to have stepped in and defended him."
Egon looked with questioning surprise upon the excited lady.
"You appear to wish to do so now, Your Excellency," he said slowly. "I cannot do it, for there is too much in Hartmut's life which confirms the suspicion. It explains everything to me that has hitherto seemed mysterious. These are quite decided facts upon which the accusation is based----"
"Against the mother! She has ever been the doom--the ruin--of her son; but he did not know the shameful work to which she had fallen; he lived at her side ignorant of it. I saw how he broke down when his father uttered the awful words--how he struggled against it as in a death struggle. That was truth--that was the despair of a man who is being punished more deeply than he has transgressed. That flight--that breaking of his word--robs him now of the faith of those who stand nearest to him. But if his father and his friend both so judge him--I believe in him! It is not true! He is not guilty!"
She had drawn herself fully erect in her stormy excitement. Her cheeks glowed; her eyes sparkled, and her tone and words contained that convincing passion which only love knows when defending the loved one.