Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/60

56 came back to the city together on foot. On the way, as night was coming on, they heard groans on passing near a hedge, from a voice that they recognized. Suddenly a tall figure arose, which made them start back in surprise. It was Conrad, whom they thus found again, who was in despair for his rash act, and the irreparable results which it had created for the future. "Farewell, my friends," said he to them—"Farewell! we shall never see each other more! Only say to Rosa, that I love her, and conjure her not to curse my remembrance. Say to her, that as long as I live, her bouquet shall never quit the place in which I have put it on my heart. Farewell, farewell, my good comrades!"

He then disappeared across the fields.

Reinhold said to his friend—"This poor Conrad is not an evil-doer; but there is in that young man something strange and mysterious. His actions are not after the ordinary rules of morality. Perhaps we shall know sometime the secret which he has hidden from us."

Loneliness and sadness reigned after that day in the workshop of master Martin. Reinhold, disgusted with labor, remained whole hours shut up in his chamber. Martin, who carried his wounded arm in a sling, opened his mouth only to curse the wicked stranger. Rosa, dame Martha herself, and her little ones, no longer dared to go to the place that had witnessed this bloody scene; and as is heard sometimes, at the approach of winter, the blows of the solitary woodman, breaking the silence of the forest, so Frederick finished slowly and alone the bishop of Bamberg's tun, and his mallet alone resounded the livelong day.

By degrees discouragement and melancholy took possession of his soul. Rosa no longer appeared at the workshop, since Reinhold, under pretence of illness, remained in his room.