Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/167

 to Petersburg, where he was placed in a regiment, under the command of Suvarow. The grief which troubled him made him reflect seriously. He collected, with religious care, the rents of the estate, and sent to Geneva, under the fictitious name of a relation of the merchant DeBorn, abundant pecuniary aid, to provide for the maintenance of the young son of Wolfgang. As to the death of Wolfgang, it long remained a frightful mystery, that the madness of Daniel gave hardly a glimpse of. Here is the explanation given by the confession of Hubert.

On the night of his departure, Daniel, who doubtlessly wished to profit by the animosity which existed between the two brothers, retained him as he was mounting his horse, by saying that he ought not to abandon thus a magnificent inheritance to the avarice of Wolfgang.

"Well! what can I do about it?" exclaimed Hubert, angrily, striking his forehead; then he had added, making a menacing gesture with his carbine—"ah! why have I not been able, in the confusion of a hunt, to find the opportunity to send the sure lead!"

"Fortunate are you not to have committed this imprudence!" continued Daniel, pressing his arm. "But would you be decided upon taking possession of this domain, if you had not the responsibility of the means?"

"Yes, at any price," hoarsely murmured the savage Hubert.

"Remain then here, from this time," said Daniel: you are in your own house, baron of R—sitten; for the former lord of the castle is dead, crushed this night under the ruins of the turret!"

This is the manner in which this fatal drama was accomplished; Daniel, who was pursuing his project of appropriating a good sum of money, without counting the presents of the new baron, had observed that Wolfgang came every night to meditate on the edge of the abyss, that had been hollowed out by the fall of the key-stone to the vault of the turret. One night then, after being acquainted with the approaching