in
bows and arrows. Among the other articles of armor, the _schloss-vogt_
showed the party a _gauntlet_, as it is called; that is, an iron glove,
which was worn in ancient times to defend the hand from the cuts of
swords and sabres. The inside of the glove--I mean the part which
covered the inside of the hand--was of leather; but the back was formed
of iron scales made to slide over each other, so as to allow the hand to
open and shut freely, without making any opening in the iron. Mr. George
tried this glove on, and so, in fact, did Rollo and Minnie. They were
all surprised to find how well it fitted to the hand, and how freely
the fingers could be moved while it was on. The _schloss-vogt_ said that
a man could write with it; and Mr. George placed his hand, with the
glove upon it, in the proper position for writing, and then moved his
fingers to and fro, as if there had been a pen between them.

"Yes," said he, "I think I could write with it very well."

All the furniture of the rooms was of a very quaint and curious
description, while yet it was very rich and magnificent. There were
elegant bedsteads of carved ebony surmounted with silken curtains and
canopies of the most gorgeous description. There were cabinets inlaid
with silver and pearl, and elegant cameos and mosaics, and a profusion
of other such articles, all of which Rollo had very little time to
examine, as the _schloss-vogt_ led the party forward from one room to
another without much delay.

The rooms themselves, in respect to form and arrangement, were almost as
curious as the articles which they contained. Every one seemed different
from the rest. You were constantly coming into the strangest and most
unexpected places. There were cabinets, and wide halls, and intricate
winding corridors, and open courts, and vaulted passages, and balconies,
paved below and arched over above. At one place there was a light iron
staircase built on the outside of a round tower, and as the tower itself
was built on the pinnacle of an overhanging rock, you seemed, in
ascending the staircase, to be poised in the air, with the rocks that
lined the shore of the river beneath your feet, hundreds of feet below.

After rambling about the castle for half an hour, the party returned to
the gate where they had come in, and the _schloss-vogt_ bade them good
by. He gave Minnie a little bouquet of flowers as she came away. They
were flowers which he had gathered for her, one by one,