ut more homely, right wing, where were a few good rooms
fitted for domestic life, an excellent library, and the family vault
below. It contained no other secret staircase than the one which led
to the tombs of the departed members of the family. For the rest,
Countess Theudelinde had taken care to wall up all the passages which
led to either the centre or left wing of the castle, and there was no
means of communication between them and her apartments. All the
chimneys had iron gates to shut off any possible entrance that way;
every window was provided with strong iron bars. It would have been
impossible for even a cat to effect an entrance into this enchanted
castle.

The countess, meditating on all these precautions, came to the
conclusion that there was only one way by which the Abbe Samuel could
introduce himself into the house, and that was by a secret
understanding with some one of her household. But again, setting
altogether aside the high character borne by the priest, which would
render such an act upon his part improbable, the very nature of the
circumstances attending his visit made it impossible. He had never
been absent from the countess for a minute, except during his short
walk to the carriage, and then Herr Mahok had been his companion.
Theudelinde, therefore, dismissed the idea from her mind. She sent her
household early to bed; she complained to Fraulein Emerenzia of
suffering from pains on one side of her head. Immediately that
sympathetic companion complained of pains on the other side of her
head. When the countess thought she would try to sleep, Emerenzia felt
the like desire; she wrapped her whole head up in warm cotton wool,
and snored without mercy.

Theudelinde shut herself up in her bedroom and counted the minutes.
She tried to play Patience, but the cards would not come right; her
mind was too much disturbed. She took out her Bible, splendidly
illustrated by Dore. She looked at all the pictures; she counted the
figures of the different men and women upon those two hundred and
thirty large plates; then the horses and the camels, till she came to
the scenes of murders. Then she tried to pass the time by reading the
text. She counted which letter of the alphabet was repeated the most
frequently upon one side of the page. For the greater part the letter
_a_ was the favorite, _e_ came next, then _o_, also _u_; _i_ was the
worst represented. This was in the French print. In the Hungarian text
_e_