By eight o'clock next morning all Heidelberg was electrified with the
news. Daniel Van der Berg, dean of the woollen-drapers, possessed of
wealth and position such as few enjoyed, who could believe that he had
been the terrible assassin?
A hundred different explanations were offered. Some said the rich dean
had been a somnambulist, and therefore not responsible for his
actions--others, that he had murdered from pure love of blood--he could
have had no other motive for such a crime. Perhaps both theories were
true. In the somnambulist the will is dead, he is governed by his animal
instincts alone, be they pacific or sanguinary, and in Master Daniel Van
der Berg, the cruel face, the flat head swollen behind the ears--the
green eyes--the long bristling mustache, all proved that he unhappily
belonged to the feline family--terrible race, which kills for the
pleasure of killing.