Uttering a howl of rage, and brandishing high his stiletto, Antonio rushed upon him. But Ferdinanda had thrown herself between them before Ottomar could cross the threshold, shielding her lover with outspread arms, offering her own bosom to the fatal thrust, and falling without a groan into Ottomar's arms, as the murderer fled past them in cowardly, mad flight at sight of the crime that he had never intended, and that had broken through the night of his insanity as if by a flash of lightning--fled down the stairs, through the crowd below, who had been summoned by the clang of the alarm-bell and the cries of terror of the hasty passers-by from the tap-room and all parts of the house, and who now drew back in terror from the stranger with the wild black hair, brandishing a knife in his hand--out into the village street, overthrowing all that came in his way in the confused, shrieking, shouting crowd without--out into the howling darkness! And "Murder, murder!" "Stop him!" "Stop the murderer!" rang through the house.
CHAPTER XIII.
"Heavens and earth!" cried the Neuenfähr man, "I must go in here! One moment, sir!" and he ran into the house.
The gentleman who was just getting into the carriage drew back, and stamped his foot furiously.
"Is hell itself let loose against me?" he cried, and gnashed his teeth.
As he had made his way cautiously through the darkness a few minutes before to the inn, of which he had taken note as he drove through the village in the afternoon, and where he hoped to find some vehicle to convey him farther, he had met the Neuenfähr driver, who was just harnessing his horses again, for which the landlord, with the best of goodwill, could find no stable-room, at any rate not before a part of the outhouse was cleared out.
"The horses will catch cold," the man had said to himself; "the best thing after all will be to drive back."
He was still busying himself in the dark over the harness, which had got twisted, when some one who suddenly appeared beside him asked:
"Will you give me a lift, my man?"
"Where to, sir?"