sts, were returning home together
from the harvest fields and from the grove, from the meadows and from the
pastures. Here a flock of bleating sheep squeezed into the lane and raised
a cloud of dust; behind them slowly stepped a herd of Tyrolese heifers
with brazen bells; there the horses neighing rushed home from the freshly
mown meadow. All ran to the well, of which the wooden sweep ceaselessly
creaked and filled the trough.

The Judge, though wearied, and though surrounded by guests, did not
neglect the weighty duties of his farm, but himself went to the well: at
evening a farmer can best see how his stable prospers, and never entrusts
that care to servants--for the Judge knew that the master's eye fattens the
horse.

The Seneschal and Protazy the Apparitor14 were standing in the hall,
lanterns in hand, and were arguing with some warmth, for in the
Seneschal's absence the Apparitor had secretly ordered the supper tables
to be carried out from the mansion and to be set up hastily in the old
castle of which the remains could be seen near the wood. Why this
transfer? The Seneschal made wry faces and begged the Judge's pardon; the
Judge was amazed, but the thing had been done; it was already late and
difficult to correct it; he preferred to make excuses to his guests and to
lead them to the ruins. On the way the Apparitor kept explaining to the
Judge why he had altered his master's arrangements: on the farm no room
was spacious enough for so many guests--and guests of such high station; in
the castle the great hall was still well preserved, the vaulted roof was
whole--to be sure one wall was cracked and the windows were without panes,
but in summer that would do no harm; the nearness of the cellars was
convenient for the servants. So speaking, he winked at the Judge; it was
evident from his mien that he had other, more important reasons, but
concealed them.

The castle stood two thousand paces from the mansion, of stately
architecture, and of imposing bulk, the ancestral home of the ancient
house of the Horeszkos. The owner had perished at the time of the
disorders in the country;15 the domain had been entirely ruined by the
sequestrations of the government, by the carelessness of the guardians,
and by the verdicts of the courts; part had fallen to distant relatives on
the female side, the rest had been divided among the creditors. No one
wished to take the castle, for a simple gentleman could hardly afford the
cost o