“So you were awake.... Were you in your bedroom when you first perceived the glow of the fire?”
“No.”
“Where were you?”
A long pause. One could have heard a leaf falling to the ground it was so still in the court.
“You were not at home?”
“No.”
“Where then?”
“In—the garden—of—Helenenthal.”
A surpressed murmur arose, which grew into a tumult when old Douglas, who had sprung up from his chair, cried out in a voice that penetrated through the court, “What were you doing there?” Old Meyerhofer uttered a curse. Elsbeth turned pale, and her head sank heavily against the back of the bench.
The president seized the bell.