Then came back to the Prince's mind the pale, gloomy face of the man to-night--the friend who had once been so dear to him, and who must have suffered agonies of torture at this encounter, far exceeding his imagination. He well knew Hartmut's unbending pride, and this pride was now bowed low in the dust in that subordinate position day after day. He had heard it; how out there on the Capellenberg they often worked so hard that in spite of the icy weather the sweat poured in streams from their brows, and their hands bled. This was what the spoiled, famed Rojanow was doing; the man at whose feet the whole town laid its homage only a year ago, and whom the house of the reigning Prince had overwhelmed with distinction; and he was doing it of his own free will, when the success of his poetical work afforded him the richest revenues. And with it all, he was the son of General Falkenried!
Egon's breast rose under a deep but relieved breath. This view of it was giving him back slowly his lost faith; all torturing doubts fled before this. The old sin of the boy Hartmut was now being atoned for, and the other more awful sin was the mother's alone--not his.
CHAPTER LV.
It was toward nine o'clock in the evening when Prince Adelsberg left his quarters to go to the Commanding General. He was not obeying an official order, but an invitation, for the General had been close friends with his father, and had shown paternal attention to the son all during the campaign.
Egon would have given much to have been permitted to remain at home to-night, for the encounter with Hartmut had shaken him to the inmost heart, but the invitation of the superior could not be disregarded, and one could not follow one's inclinations in war-time.
An adjutant met the Prince upon the stairs, seeming to be in the greatest haste, and only dropping a hint of bad news, which Prince Adelsberg would probably hear from the General. Egon mounted the stairs shaking his head.
The General was alone, pacing the room in apparent excitement and with a face which boded no good.
"Good evening, Prince Adelsberg," he said, pausing in his walk at the entrance of the young officer. "I am sorry I cannot promise you a pleasant evening, but we have received news which will probably ruin every pleasure of being together."
"I just heard a hint about it," replied Egon; "but what has happened, Your Excellency? The dispatches of to-day noon sounded favorable."
"I have had this news but an hour. You yourself delivered the suspicious man who had been seized by our outposts to headquarters. Do you know what he had with him?"