ce by its
means he would secure for his country a family distinguished for all
chivalrous virtues, and which had already begun to ramify into foreign
countries.

Neither Roderick's son Hubert, nor the next Roderick, who was so called
after his grandfather, would live in their ancestral castle; both
preferred Courland. It is conceivable, too, that, being more cheerful
and fond of life than the gloomy astrologer, they were repelled by the
grim loneliness of the place. Freiherr Roderick had granted shelter and
subsistence on the property to two old maids, sisters of his father,
who were living in indigence, having been but niggardly provided for.
They, together with an aged serving-woman, occupied the small warm
rooms of one of the wings; besides them and the cook, who had a large
apartment on the ground floor adjoining the kitchen, the only other
person was a worn-out _chasseur_, who tottered about through the lofty
rooms and halls of the main building, and discharged the duties of
castellan. The rest of the servants lived in the village with the
land-steward. The only time at which the desolated and deserted castle
became the scene of life and activity was late in autumn, when the snow
first began to fall and the season for wolf-hunting and boar-hunting
arrived. Then came Freiherr Roderick with his wife, attended by
relatives and friends and a numerous retinue, from Courland. The
neighbouring nobility, and even amateur lovers of the chase who lived
in the town hard by, came down in such numbers that the main building,
together with the wings, barely sufficed to hold the crowd of guests.
Well-served fires roared in all the stoves and fireplaces, while the
spits were creaking from early dawn until late at night, and hundreds
of light-hearted people, masters and servants, were running up and down
stairs; here was heard the jingling and rattling of drinking glasses
and jovial hunting choruses, there the footsteps of those dancing to
the sound of the shrill music,--everywhere loud mirth and jollity;
so that for four or five weeks together the castle was more like a
first-rate hostelry situated on a main highroad than the abode of a
country gentleman. This time Freiherr Roderick devoted, as well as he
was able, to serious business, for, withdrawing from the revelry of his
guests, he discharged the duties attached to his position as lord of
the entail. He not only had a complete statement of the revenues laid
before him, but h