ther's death, was
sequestrated by a mandate of the court and added to the assets left
behind by Borgert. In addition, the state's attorney issued a
"_Steckbrief_"[20] against the ex-officer, in which he was charged
with a whole list of offences.

[20] "Steckbrief," a term in German law meaning a circular
demand on all domestic or foreign authorities to arrest and
hold in custody for extradition an escaped criminal.--TR.

The dwelling itself had the court seals attached to it, and even the
poor horses in the stable had fastened to their manes small, leaden
seals tied on with string, to denote that the state had taken
possession of them.

It stands to reason that all these interesting events travelled
through the little town on the wings of gossip, and no village or city
within a radius of ten miles failed to regard the matter as a
delicious bit of local scandal. The small penny sheets printed in a
number of these places were in clover. Nothing like such a genuine
sensation had come to their hands for some time.

Colonel von Kronau, the pompous and infallible, was very much cast
down. There were some smart gentlemen in the regiment who now claimed
to have suspected the facts for a long time, and to have seen such a
catastrophe approaching. But there are always such people, and as a
matter-of-fact neither these wiseacres nor their less astute comrades
had ever expected Borgert to turn out badly. For his case, although
somewhat worse, was substantially the epitome of their own cases, and
it is a truism that we never see ourselves as others see us.

The colonel remarked to Captain Koenig, shaking his head with a
melancholy smile, that this new turn of affairs was the "last nail in
his coffin," and henceforth he was seen going about with a face gloomy
and expectant of the worst. For gradually he came to the conclusion
that to keep in good order a garrison and its corps of officers, some
other methods must be employed than those to which he had clung, at
the advice of Frau Stark, for years. It dawned on him that his type of
discipline had wrought a train of evils which had grown
avalanche-like, and which now at last was likely to bury his official
head under a load of opprobrium.

The fact that Frau Leimann had followed the First Lieutenant became
known a few days later. This was when her husband returned from Berlin
and found a letter from her, in which she implored his forgiveness,
and assured him she had