his road. But
peace! I pray you, peace!

"They are loaded--the clock strikes twelve. I say amen. Charlotte,
Charlotte! farewell, farewell!"

A neighbour saw the flash, and heard the report of the pistol; but, as
everything remained quiet, he thought no more of it.

In the morning, at six o'clock, the servant went into Werther's room
with a candle. He found his master stretched upon the floor, weltering
in his blood, and the pistols at his side. He called, he took him in
his arms, but received no answer. Life was not yet quite extinct. The
servant ran for a surgeon, and then went to fetch Albert. Charlotte
heard the ringing of the bell: a cold shudder seized her. She wakened
her husband, and they both rose. The servant, bathed in tears faltered
forth the dreadful news. Charlotte fell senseless at Albert's feet.

When the surgeon came to the unfortunate Werther, he was still lying
on the floor; and his pulse beat, but his limbs were cold. The bullet,
entering the forehead, over the right eye, had penetrated the skull. A
vein was opened in his right arm: the blood came, and he still continued
to breathe.

From the blood which flowed from the chair, it could be inferred that he
had committed the rash act sitting at his bureau, and that he afterward
fell upon the floor. He was found lying on his back near the window. He
was in full-dress costume.

The house, the neighbourhood, and the whole town were immediately in
commotion. Albert arrived. They had laid Werther on the bed: his head
was bound up, and the paleness of death was upon his face. His limbs
were motionless; but he still breathed, at one time strongly, then
weaker--his death was momently expected.

He had drunk only one glass of the wine. "Emilia Galotti" lay open upon
his bureau.

I shall say nothing of Albert's distress, or of Charlotte's grief.

The old steward hastened to the house immediately upon hearing the news:
he embraced his dying friend amid a flood of tears. His eldest boys
soon followed him on foot. In speechless sorrow they threw themselves on
their knees by the bedside, and kissed his hands and face. The eldest,
who was his favourite, hung over him till he expired; and even then he
was removed by force. At twelve o'clock Werther breathed his last. The
presence of the steward, and the precautions he had adopted, prevented
a disturbance; and that night, at the hour of eleven, he caused the body
to be interred in the place which Werther had