The mourning banner was already waving on the roof of the Town Hall, towards which he turned.

Men in the service of the city were hoisting other black flags upon the almshouse, and now the Hegelein--[Proclaimer of decrees]--in mourning garments, mounted on a steed caparisoned with crepe, came riding by at the head of other horsemen clad in sable, proclaiming to the throng that Hartmann, the Emperor Rudolph's promising son, had found an untimely end.

The noble youth was drowned while bathing in the Rhine.
It seemed as if a frost had blighted a blooming garden.

The gay bustle in the market place was paralysed.

The loud sobs of many women blended with exclamations of grief and pity from bearded lips which had just been merrily bargaining for salt and fish, meat and game.