His bedroom was to the right of the
dining-room. Liska had, as usual, knocked on the door exactly at
seven o'clock and continued knocking for some few minutes without
receiving any answer. Slightly alarmed, the girl had gone back
and told the housekeeper that the pastor did not answer.
Then the old woman asked the coachman to go up and see if anything
was the matter with the reverend gentleman. The man returned in
a few moments, pale and trembling in every limb and apparently
struck dumb by fright. He motioned the women to follow him, and
all three crept up the stairs. The coachman led them first to the
pastor's bed, which was untouched, and then to the pool of blood
in his study. The sight of the latter frightened the servants so
much that they did not notice at first that there was no sign of
the pastor himself, whom they now knew must have been murdered.
When they finally came to themselves sufficiently to take some
action, the man hurried off to call the magistrate, and Liska ran
to the asylum to fetch the old doctor; the pastor's intimate friend.
The aged housekeeper, trembling in fear, crept back to her own room
and sat there waiting the return of the others.
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