ad weather brought them together. Around an
old oak with wide-spreading branches was a strange looking hermitage,
the oak forming its single column of support; the entire hut had been
built of the skulls of boars taken in a single hunt. Finally, on a
hill somewhat higher than the rest, where the trees had been cleared
away stood the most modern building; it consisted of a small, tasteful
hunting-castle, with columns in front, tiled roof, marble terraces,
oriel windows and other features of mediaeval architecture. The
bastions near by, begun but left unfinished, the deep moats and the
walls stretching beyond all proportions, seemed to indicate that the
man who had begun the building had intended a stronghold, perhaps
against the Turks. Behind the building were still to be seen two long
culverins and a stout iron mortar with a Turkish inscription that
threw some light on their origin; but the times and the spirit of the
times had changed, and later comers had built a Tusculan villa upon
foundations intended for a fortress.

On one of the brightest days of the year in which our story begins, a
large hunting party was stirring at the castle. Hardly had the sun
sent his first rays through the dense trees when the boys of the
stable and kennel led out the horses and the hounds straining at the
leash and bounding to the shoulders of their keepers in their excited
anticipation. Long wagons, drawn by six to ten oxen, had already gone
to the meet to bring back the game. The villagers summoned to the
chase, variously armed with axes, forks, or occasional guns, were
divided into groups by the hunters. Some peasants, in parties of twos
and threes, carried on their shoulders boats hollowed from the trunks
of trees, to drive back the game if it escaped to the swamp. Men and
beasts alike showed signs of haste and impatience; only a few of the
older men took the time to sit over the fire and cook their bacon. At
last the hunting-horn sounded from the castle yard, the company sprang
with shouts of joy upon their snorting horses; the restless, yelping
pack dragged their keepers this way and that; the hunters armed
themselves,--in short, everything was ready and waited only for the
lords and ladies. In a few moments a group of riders came down the
hill attended by the squires; in front rode a tall, muscular man, the
lord of the castle; the rest seemed involuntarily to have fallen
behind him. His broad shoulders and well-rounded chest were