s stunned by the blow. After fifteen
years of active service, during which he had never been charged with
anything contrary to good morals or manners, he was now accused of a
vulgar crime! And what was worse, the accusation against him was
entirely based on the irresponsible remarks of a man who was a moral
wreck at the time he made them, and who had since been legally
condemned as a convicted criminal. It was nothing less than an
outrage, it seemed to him.

Where was the confidence, the good comradeship, with which he had
formerly met on all sides? Was it not the duty of his superior, the
colonel, first closely to investigate the circumstances surrounding an
alleged fact which on its face seemed highly improbable, before
formulating such an accusation likely to ruin his reputation in the
whole regiment and in the entire army?

And, indeed, the good captain had sufficient reason for complaining of
the treatment he now met with. The ground had been well prepared by
the mischievous gossip that had preceded his arrest, and now he was
shunned as would have been a convicted criminal, an outcast, and the
very children in the street pointed the finger of scorn at him and his
family. Bleibtreu was the only exception. Firmly convinced of the
innocence of his friend, he did valiant service in trying to restore
the former universal confidence in Koenig's integrity.

He proved his unshaken belief in the captain by paying him daily
visits, and by spending every evening with him and his family. He
became the companion of Koenig's solitary walks; and he even persisted
in this after he had been warned of the consequences by the colonel,
and when his comrades punished him for his unselfish friendship by
likewise ostracising and assuming a hostile attitude towards him.

But all these machinations did not hinder the young man from doing
what he regarded as his duty. He would have deemed himself a poltroon
if he had abandoned his friend now that misfortune had overtaken him.

The entire body of non-commissioned officers of the regiment and the
whole rank and file of it felt deeply indignant at the manner in which
this popular officer was made a scapegoat by the colonel, and this
universal sentiment found its expression by numerous unofficial calls
which many of the captain's subordinates made on him during his time
of tribulation.

The same was true of the civilian circles, both in the garrison and in
the neighboring city: they all