tumbling
down, at any rate suffering serious damage.

"Repair the tower?" the Freiherr interrupted the old servant curtly,
whilst his eyes flashed with anger, "Repair the tower? Never, never!
Don't you see, old man," he went on more calmly, "don't you see that
the tower could not fall in this way without some special cause? How if
it was my father's own wish that the place where he carried on his
unhallowed astrological labours should be destroyed--how if he had
himself made certain preparations by which he was enabled to bring down
the turret whenever he pleased and so occasion the ruin of the interior
of the tower! But be that as it may. And if the whole castle tumbles
down, I shan't care; I shall be glad. Do you imagine I am going to
dwell in this weird owls' nest? No; my wise ancestor who had the
foundations of a new castle laid in the beautiful valley yonder--he has
begun a work which I intend to finish." Daniel said crestfallen, "Then
will all your faithful old servants have to take up their bundles and
go?" "That I am not going to be waited upon by helpless, weak-kneed old
fellows like you is quite certain; but for all that I shall turn none
away. You may all enjoy the bread of charity without working for it."
"And am I," cried the old man, greatly hurt, "am I, the house-steward,
to be forced to lead such a life of inactivity?" Then the Freiherr, who
had turned his back upon the old man and was about to leave the room,
wheeled suddenly round, his face perfectly ablaze with passion, strode
up to the old man as he stretched out his doubled fist towards him, and
shouted in a thundering voice, "You, you hypocritical old villain, it's
you who helped my old father in his unearthly practices up yonder; you
lay upon his heart like a vampire; and perhaps it was you who basely
took advantage of the old man's mad folly to plant in his mind those
diabolical ideas which brought me to the brink of ruin. I ought, I tell
you, to kick you out like a mangy cur." The old man was so terrified at
these harsh terrible words that he threw himself upon his knees beside
the Freiherr; but the Baron, as he spoke these last words, threw
forward his right foot, perhaps quite unintentionally (as is frequently
the case in anger, when the body mechanically obeys the mind, and what
is in the thought is imitatively realised in action) and hit the old
man so hard on the chest that he rolled over with a stifled scream.
Rising painfully to his feet