- When Ivar wakes up the next morning, he discovers Emil's horse, exhausted and with her bridle broken.
- He realizes something must have happened to Emil, because he would never have treated his horse like that.
- Ivar hurries across the fields to check with the neighbors.
- Meanwhile, the narrator describes the scene of violence. Emil died instantly, with a bullet to the heart. His face froze into a frown.
- Marie, on the other hand, was shot twice, once through the lung and another time in her carotid artery. A trail of blood shows that she first dragged herself to the hedge, and another, heavier trail of blood shows that she then managed to pull herself back to Emil's body. She took his hand in hers and bled to death, a look of happiness on her face.
- When Ivar passes by the hedge, he sees Frank's rifle. He looks through the branches and sees their bodies, groaning "Merciful God!"
- Alexandra wakes up early because she is anxious about Emil and his departure. She goes into Emil's room and sees Ivar running crazily back home.
- She assumes he's just having one of his "spells," so she goes down to intercept him and keep everyone from seeing him this way.
- When he sees her, he cries out, "it has fallen! Sin and death for the young ones! God have mercy upon us!" (4.8.6).