e listened to every proposal for improvement and to
every the least complaint of his tenants, endeavouring to establish
order in everything, and check all wrongdoing and injustice as far as
lay in his power.

In these matters of business he was honestly assisted by the old
advocate V----, who had been law agent of the R---- family and
Justitiarius[2] of their estates in P---- from father to son for many
years; accordingly, V---- was wont to set out for the estate at least a
week before the day fixed for the arrival of the Freiherr. In the year
179- the time came round again when old V---- was to start on his
journey for R--sitten. However strong and healthy the old man, now
seventy years of age, might feel, he was yet quite assured that a
helping hand would prove beneficial to him in his business. So he said
to me one day as if in jest, "Cousin!" (I was his great-nephew, but he
called me "cousin," owing to the fact that his own Christian name and
mine were both the same)--"Cousin, I was thinking it would not be amiss
if you went along with me to R--sitten and felt the sea-breezes blow
about your ears a bit. Besides giving me good help in my often
laborious work, you may for once in a while see how you like the
rollicking life of a hunter, and how, after drawing up a neatly-written
protocol one morning, you will frame the next when you come to look in
the glaring eyes of such a sturdy brute as a grim shaggy wolf or a wild
boar gnashing his teeth, and whether you know how to bring him down
with a well-aimed shot." Of course I could not have heard such strange
accounts of the merry hunting parties at R--sitten, or entertain such a
true heartfelt affection for my excellent old great-uncle as I did,
without being highly delighted that he wanted to take me with him this
time. As I was already pretty well skilled in the sort of business he
had to transact, I promised to work with unwearied industry, so as to
relieve him of all care and trouble.

Next day we sat in the carriage on our way to R--sitten, well wrapped
up in good fur coats, driving through a thick snowstorm, the first
harbinger of the coming winter. On the journey the old gentleman told
me many remarkable stories about the Freiherr Roderick, who had
established the estate-tail and appointed him (V----), in spite of his
youth, to be his Justitiarius and executor. He spoke of the harsh and
violent character of the old nobleman, which seemed to be inherited by
all t