ediately.

"I promise, I promise!" he cried to her; but he cried only after her;
she was already gone.

After a miserable night, the care of providing for the loved remains
fell upon Charlotte. The Major and Mittler assisted her. Edward's
condition was utterly pitiable. His first thought, when he was in any
degree recovered from his despair, and able to collect himself, was,
that Ottilie should not be carried out of the castle; she should be kept
there, and attended upon as if she were alive: for she was not dead; it
was impossible that she should be dead. They did what he desired; at
least, so far as that they did not do what he had forbidden. He did not
ask to see her.

There was now a second alarm, and a further cause for anxiety. Nanny,
who had been spoken to sharply by the physician, had been compelled by
threats to confess, and after her confession had been overwhelmed with
reproaches, had now disappeared. After a long search she was found; but
she appeared to be out of her mind. Her parents took her home; but the
gentlest treatment had no effect upon her, and she had to be locked up
for fear she would run away again.

They succeeded by degrees in recovering Edward from the extreme agony of
despair; but only to make him more really wretched. He now saw clearly,
he could not doubt how, that the happiness of his life was gone from him
for ever. It was suggested to him that if Ottilie was placed in the
chapel, she would still remain among the living, and it would be a calm,
quiet, peaceful home for her. There was much difficulty in obtaining his
consent; he would only give it under condition that she should be taken
there in an open coffin; that the vault in which she was laid, if
covered at all, should be only covered with glass, and a lamp should be
kept always burning there. It was arranged that this should be done, and
then he seemed resigned.

They clothed the delicate body in the festal dress, which she had
herself prepared. A garland of asters was wreathed about her head, which
shone sadly there like melancholy stars. To decorate the bier and the
church and chapel, the gardens were robbed of their beauty; they lay
desolate, as if a premature winter had blighted all their loveliness. In
the earliest morning she was borne in an open coffin out of the castle,
and the heavenly features were once more reddened with the rising sun.
The mourners crowded about her as she was being taken along. None would
go befo