to the walls, to shelter
fugitives and horses, if need were. The windows of the lower story were
also strongly boarded; and as all the entrances were on this side of the
house, strangers were allowed as little ingress as possible. The well
that supplied the castle lay outside the fence, between the farm-yard
and the castle: on which account, a large water-butt was made and filled
each morning.

Next came tidings from Rosmin. The locksmith appeared, after being
repeatedly sent for, to strengthen bolts and bars. He brought with him
military greetings from the militia, and the fact that a company of
infantry had entered the town. "But there are but few of them," said he,
"and we militiamen have severe duty."

"And what have you done with your prisoners?" inquired Anton.

The locksmith scratched his ear and twitched his cap as he answered in a
crestfallen tone: "So you have not yet heard? The very first night came
a message from the enemy to the effect that if we did not give up the
nobleman at once, they would march upon us with their whole force and
set fire to our barns. I opposed the measure, and so did our captain;
but every one who had a barn raised an outcry, and the end of it was
that the town had to come to terms with Von Tarow. He gave his word that
he and his would undertake nothing further against us, and then we took
him over the bridge and let him go."

"So he is free, false man that he is!" cried Anton, in indignation.

"Yes, indeed," said the locksmith; "he is on his estate again, and has a
number of young gentlemen about him. They ride with their cockades over
the fields just as they did before. Tarowski is a cunning man, who can
open every castle door with a stroke of a pen, and get on with every
one. There's no reaching him."

Of course, farming suffered from these warlike preparations. Anton
insisted, indeed, upon what was absolutely necessary being done, but he
felt that a time was come when anxiety about individual profit and loss
vanished before graver terrors. The rumors, which grew daily more
threatening, kept him, and those around him, in ever-increasing
excitement; and at last they fell into a habitual state of feverish
suspense, in which the future was looked forward to with reckless
indifference, and the discomforts of the present endured as matter of
course.

But more strongly than on any of the men around did this general fever
seize upon Lenore. Since the day that she had waited for t