Transcriber's Notes:1. Page scan source:
https://books.google.com/books?id=1vhLAAAAcAAJ
(the Bavarian State Library)
It was an awfully dark and tempestuous night; the wind howled in furythrough the trees, and round the towers; the large drops of raindashed against the casements, the small lozenges of glass rattled andclattered in their leaden frames, and the thick boards of the oakenfloor heaved and shivered under the force of the tempest. From time totime a keen blue streak of lightning crossed the descending deluge,and for an instant the great black masses of the forest, and the highand broken rocks around, appeared like spectres of a gone-by world,and sank into Egyptian darkness again, almost as soon as seen; andthen the roar of the thunder was added to the scream of the blast,seeming to shake the whole building to its foundation.
In the midst of this storm, and towards one o'clock in the morning, ayoung man, of about one-and-twenty years of age, took his waysilently, and with a stealthy step, through the large old halls andlong passages of the castle of Ehrenstein. His dress was that of onemoving in the higher ranks of society, but poor for his class; andthough the times were unusually peaceful, he wore a heavy sword by hisside, and a poniard hanging by a ring from his girdle. Gracefully yetpowerfully formed, his frame afforded the promise of great futurestrength, and his face, frank and handsome without being strictlybeautiful, owed perhaps more to the expression than to the features.He carried a small brazen lamp in his hand, and seemed bound upon somegrave and important errand, for his countenance was serious andthoughtful, his eyes generally bent down, and his step quick,although, as we have said, light and cautious.
The room that he quitted was high up in the building, and, descendingby a narrow and steep staircase, formed of large square blocks of oak,with nothing but a rope to steady the steps, he entered a long widecorridor below, flanked on one side by tall windows like those of achurch, and on the other by numerous small doors. The darkness was soprofound that, at first, the rays of the lamp only served to dissipatethe obscurity immediately around it, while the rest of the corridorbeyond looked like the mouth of a yawning interminable vault, filledwith gloom and shadows. The next moment, however, as he advanced, ablazing sheet of electric flame glanced over the windows, displayingtheir long line upon the right, and the whole interior of thecorridor. Here and there an old suit of armour caught the light, andthe grotesque figures on two large antique stone benches seemed togrin and gibber in the flame. Still the young man walked on, pausingonly for one moment at a door on the left, and looking up at it with asmile somewhat melancholy.
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