er of people were seated, while others bustled about, harnessing or
unharnessing horses. "Here we are, Herr Graf!" cried my postilion,
who called me Count in recognition of the handsome way in which I had
treated his predecessor. "This is Schloss Hunyadi."

CHAPTER XXVII. SCHLOSS HUNYADI

When I had made known my rank and quality, I was assigned a room--a very
comfortable one--in one wing of the castle, and no more notice taken
of me than if I had been a guest at an inn. The house was filled with
visitors; but the master, with some six or seven others, was away in
Transylvania boar-shooting. As it was supposed he would not return
for eight or ten days, I had abundant time to look about me, and learn
something of the place and the people.

Schloss Hunyadi dated from the fifteenth century, although now a single
square tower was all that remained of the early building. Successive
additions had been made in every imaginable taste and style, till
the whole presented an enormous incongruous mass, in which fortress,
farmhouse, convent, and palace struggled for the mastery, size alone
giving an air of dignity to what numberless faults would have condemned
as an outrage on all architecture.

If there was deformity and ugliness without, there was, however,
ample comfort and space within. Above two hundred persons could
be accommodated beneath the roof, and half as many more had been
occasionally stowed away in the out-buildings. I made many attempts, but
all unsuccessfully, to find out what number of servants the household
consisted of. Several wore livery, and many--especially such as waited
on guests humble as myself--were dressed in blouse, with the crest of
the house embroidered on the breast; while a little army of retainers
in Jager costume, or in the picturesque dress of the peasantry, lounged
about the courtyard, lending a hand to unharness or harness a team,
to fetch a bucket of water, or "strap down" a beast, as some weary
traveller would ride in, splashed and wayworn.

If there seemed no order or discipline anywhere, there was little
confusion, and no ill humor whatever. All seemed ready to oblige;
and the work of life, so far as I could see from my window, went on
cheerfully and joyfully, if not very regularly or well.

If there was none of the trim propriety, or that neatness that rises to
elegance, which I had seen in my father's household, there was a lavish
profusion here, a boundless abundance, that,