rmant,
the Baron von P----, a gentleman of a grave and earnest character, whose
manner, in repeating them to me, evinced sincerity and conviction. But
it is not merely upon his authority that the details of the narrative
rest. They are, it would seem, of public notoriety in Pomerania; and
hundreds of persons in the neighborhood, as my informant declared, can
yet be found to testify, from personal observation, to the general
accuracy of the above narration.[A]

The most salient point in this story is the practical and business part
of it,--the actual pulling down of the chateau, as a last resort, to get
rid of the disturbance. Mere fancy is not wont to lead to such a result
as that. The owner of a piece of valuable property is not likely to
destroy it for imaginary cause. Interest is a marvellous quickener of
the wits, and may be supposed to have left no stone unturned, before
assenting to such a sacrifice.

I inquired of the gentleman to whom I am indebted for the above
narrative if there were no skeptical surmises in regard to the origin of
the disturbance. He replied, that he had heard but one,--namely, that
the administrator of the deceased Baron's estate might, from motives of
interest and to have the field to himself, have resorted to a trick to
scare the owners from the premises.

It is beyond a doubt that such devices have been successfully employed
ere now for similar purpose. An example may be found in the story of the
monks of St. Bruno, and the shrewd device they employed to obtain from
King Louis the Saint the grant of one of his ancestral palaces. It was
in this wise.

Having heard his confessor speak in high terms of the goodness and
learning of the monks of St. Bruno, the King expressed a desire to found
a community of them near Paris. Bernard de la Tour, the superior, sent
six of the brethren; and Louis assigned to them, as residence, a
handsome dwelling in the village of Chantilly. It so happened, that from
their windows they had a fine view of the old palace of Vauvert,
originally erected for a royal residence by King Robert, but which had
been deserted for years. The worthy monks, oblivious of the Tenth
Commandment, may have thought the place would suit them; but ashamed,
probably, to make a formal demand of it from the King, they seem to have
set their wits to work to procure it by stratagem.

At all events, the palace of Vauvert, which had never labored under any
imputation against its charact