"About what are we to deliberate?" finally asked Brother Rotgier.
Zygfried raised his head, looked at the speaker, and, awakening from thought, said:
"About the defeat, about what the master and the assembly will say, and about this, that our actions may not cause any loss to the Order." He was silent again, but after a while he looked around and moved his nostrils: "There is still a smell of blood here."
"No, count," replied Rotgier; "I ordered the floor to be scrubbed and the place to be fumigated with sulphur. It is the odor of sulphur."
And Zygfried looked at those present with a strange glance, and said:
"God have mercy upon the soul of our brothers Danveld and Godfried!"
They again understood that he implored God's mercy upon their souls, because, at the mention of sulphur, he thought of hell; therefore a chill ran through their bones and all at once replied: "Amen! amen! amen!" After a moment the howling of the wind and the rattling of the window-frames were heard again.
"Where are the bodies of the count and Brother Godfried?" inquired the old man.
"In the chapel: the priests are chanting the litany over them."
"Are they already in coffins?"
"In coffins, only the count's head is covered, because his skull and face are crushed."