r, "Daniel, Daniel,
what are you doing here at this hour?" But then Daniel shrieked wildly,
"Down with you, you mangy cur!" and with a powerful push of his foot he
hurled the unhappy man over into the deep chasm.

Terribly agitated by this awful deed, Freiherr Roderick found no peace
in the castle where his father had been murdered. He went to his
Courland estates, and only visited R--sitten once a year, in autumn.
Francis--old Francis--who had strong suspicions as to Daniel's guilt,
maintained that he often haunted the place at full moon, and described
the nature of the apparition much as V--- afterwards experienced it for
himself when he exorcised it. It was the disclosure of these
circumstances, also, which stamped his father's memory with dishonour,
that had driven young Freiherr Hubert out into the world.

This was my old great-uncle's story. Now he took my hand, and whilst
his eyes filled with tears, he said, in a broken voice, "Cousin,
cousin! And she too--the beautiful lady--has fallen a victim to the
dark destiny, the grim, mysterious power which has established itself
in that old ancestral castle. Two days after we left R--sitten the
Freiherr arranged an excursion on sledges as the concluding event of
the visit. He drove his wife himself; but as they were going down the
valley the horses, for some unexplained reason, suddenly taking fright,
began to snort and kick and plunge most savagely. 'The old man! The old
man is after us!' screamed the Baroness in a shrill, terrified voice.
At this same moment the sledge was overturned with a violent jerk, and
the Baroness was hurled to a considerable distance. They picked her up
lifeless--she was quite dead. The Freiherr is perfectly inconsolable,
and has settled down into a state of passivity that will kill him. We
shall never go to R--sitten again, cousin!"

Here my uncle paused. As I left him my heart was rent by emotion; and
nothing but the all-soothing hand of Time could assuage the deep pain
which I feared would cost me my life.

Years passed. V---- was resting in his grave, and I had left my native
country. Then I was driven northwards, as far as St. Petersburg, by the
devastating war which was sweeping over all Germany. On my return
journey, not far from K----, I was driving one dark summer night along
the shore of the Baltic, when I perceived in the sky before me a
remarkably large bright star. On coming nearer I saw by the red
flickering flame that what I