Did individuality lose itself in death and with it memory?
Or did one stroke destroy spirit and body? These anxious doubts, which
have before now agitated many who reflect on such subjects, exercised
their power over Edward's mind with an intensity that none can imagine
save one whose position is in any degree similar.

Time gradually deadened the intensity of his affliction. The violent
paroxysms of grief subsided into a deep but calm regret; it was as if a
mist had spread itself over every object which presented itself before
him, robbing them indeed of half their charms, yet leaving them visible,
and in their real relation to himself. During this mental change, the
autumn arrived, and with it the long-expected commission. It did not
indeed occasion the joy which it might have done in former days, when it
would have led to a meeting with Ferdinand, or at all events to a better
chance of meeting, but it released him from the thralldom of college,
and it opened to him a welcome sphere of activity. Now it so happened
that his appointment led him accidentally into the very neighborhood
where Ferdinand had formerly resided, only with this difference, that
Edward's squadron was quartered in the lowlands, about a short day's
journey from the town and woodland environs in question.

He proceeded to his quarters, and found an agreeable occupation in the
exercise of his new duties.

He had no wish to make acquaintances, yet he did not refuse the
invitations that were pressed upon him, lest he should be accused of
eccentricity and rudeness; and so he found himself soon entangled in all
sorts of engagements with the neighboring gentry and nobility. If these
so-called gayeties gave him no particular pleasure, at least for the
time they diverted his thoughts; and, with this view, he accepted an
invitation (for the new year and carnival were near at hand) to a great
shooting-match which was to be held in the mountains--a spot which it
was possible to reach in one day with favorable weather and the roads in
a good state. The day was appointed, the air tolerably clear; a mild
frost had made the roads safe and even, and Edward had every expectation
of being able to reach Blumenberg in his sledge before night, as on the
following morning the match was to take place. But as soon as he got
near the mountains, where the sun retires so early to rest, snow-clouds
drove from all quarters, a cutting wind came roaring through the
ravines, and