He had recognized Hinrich Scheel, although he had only seen the square head, covered with gray curling hair, from which the cap had been knocked in pressing through the crowd; not the brutal face with the squinting green eyes, under whose fiendish power the frightened animal reared higher and higher, pawing the air with its steel-shod hoofs as if it would fain destroy its tormentor. And now one of the hoofs struck the head of the mysterious man, who fell as if a bullet had pierced his brain; but at the same moment the horse, again rearing, fell backwards, burying his rider under him. The crowd parted with shrieks of horror.
"A doctor, a doctor, is there no doctor here?"
There was none, but no physician could have been of any avail. The man who had tried to seize the horse's bridle, and in whom others also now recognized Brandow's former trainer, Hinrich Scheel, for whose arrest a warrant had been issued, lay dead on his back with crushed skull and horribly distorted face, from which the dim eyes glared frightfully; his master still lived, but Gotthold, who was supporting him in his arms, saw that his end was fast approaching. A deathlike pallor rested on the delicate, clear-cut features, and the white teeth gleamed with a strange, frightful expression from between livid lips. A shudder convulsed the whole body, and the head fell on Gotthold's breast.
"Here comes a doctor," cried several voices.
"He will find nothing to do," murmured Gotthold; "help me to carry him away."
As they raised the body, a lady in a blue veil, who had been standing near with her hands clenched convulsively, shrieked aloud, and sank fainting on the ground. No particular notice was taken of it. Several ladies had fainted.
CHAPTER XXXV.
A wondrously beautiful autumn, with mild golden days, and clear starry nights, brooded over the country. Everywhere summer roses bloomed in the gardens beside the asters, and the forests were very slow in decking themselves in brilliant hues. The air was so still that the floating threads of gossamer scarcely stirred, and when a leaf fell it remained just where it touched the ground. The birds of passage had paused in their migration, and chirped and--twittered among the fields and hedges with their merry little voices, while in the evening the wild swans, which usually, long ere this time, had soared away on their strong white wings, called to each other along the shore.
It was a wondrously beautiful autumn, which seemed marvellously like summer; "but it is only an illusion," said Cecilia, "the summer is over, winter is close at hand, and I must prepare for it."
She had been six weeks in Dollan, which she had never expected to enter, never hoped to see again. But the physicians had urgently desired that, to secure perfect recovery from her severe illness, if a winter's residence in the South was impracticable, Gretchen should at least spend the beautiful days of autumn on the sea-shore, in a sunny spot, sheltered from the cold winds; and what place could have fulfilled these requirements better than quiet, sunny Dollan? And, even if it were a sacrifice for her to return here, she made it unhesitatingly for the sake of her child and her old father.