Though the relish in my task was done, I made all haste toward Dieppe.
Scarcely stopping for food, changing horses as often as I could, I
pushed on without adventure until I reached the Chateau Cartillon, then
a formless ruin.

Here my saddle girth broke and I was nearly thrown to the ground. I
scrambled off, walked to the little inn where I inquired how far I had
yet to go.

"Three leagues yet to Dieppe," the host replied, "but Monsieur can not
go on to-night; he must wait the morrow; he can go with comfort in the
morning."

I sent my groom for a new girth and found it would take quite an hour
to procure one from the village.

"Probably Monsieur would visit the castle upon the hill there,"
persisted the landlord, pointing across the way, "it is worth his
while. It is said to have been destroyed by the Great Henry in his
wars with the Duke of Mayenne. True it is that sounds of battle and
screams are yet heard there on stormy nights. Probably Monsieur would
rest here several days----."

I essayed to silence the fellow, for I was in no mood to listen to his
chatter. Yet there was something in his eulogy of the locality, which
he gave as a hawker crying his wares, that fixed my unwilling attention.

"And, Monsieur, perchance you may see old mad Michel. What! you know
naught of him? Country folk do say his grandam witnessed the murder of
the Count, and that it sent her feeble mind a-wandering. Her child
through all her life did fancy herself the Count, and made strange
speeches to the people's fear. And now this grandson of hers has grown
old in frenzy like his mother and grandam, possessed of an evil spirit
which speaks through him betimes--it is a curse of the blood, Monsieur,
a grievous curse of the blood."

It aroused something of a curiosity within me, yet I was loath to pause
upon my journey. Forced, though, to wait an hour, I thought to walk
over to the Chateau a couple of hundred yards distant. Taking a lad
who lounged about the inn, to show me the way, I sauntered up the path,
pausing a while at a long-disused spring, and idly plucked an apple
from a branch which over-hung it. A little further up, and mounting
the steep acclivity, I stood within the ancient fortress.

This castle, since rebuilded, you, my children, are of course familiar
with, for you were all born here. At that date the great central tower
alone stood erect amid the universal destruction. A black wolf's head
reared itsel