Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/119

 with all the astronomical instruments known at that time. It was there that he often passed days and nights, in company with an old steward who partook of all his singularities. There was attributed to him in the country round about, very extended acquaintance with the science of magic, and some went so far as to say that he had been driven from Courland for having had open relations with the evil spirit.

Roderick had a superstitious love for the lordly ruins of his family; he had the idea of entailing this property, in order to give it its feudal importance. But neither Hubert, the son of this Roderick, nor the actual inheritor, who bore the same name as his grandfather Roderick, would follow the example of their parent; and, instead of residing with him in the ruins of R—sitten, they had established themselves in their domain in Courland, where life was easier and not so gloomy. The baron Roderick took care of two sisters of his father, wrecks of nobility, to whom he extended his hospitality. These two ladies had to serve them only an aged female servant; all three of whom occupied a wing of the castle. The kitchen occupied the basement: a kind of dilapidated pigeon house served as habitation to an infirm hunter who filled the office of guard. The remainder of the servants lived in the village with the steward.

Every year, towards the last days of autumn, the castle quitted the lugubrious silence which weighed upon it like a cold shroud. The packs of dogs shook its old walls with their long barkings, and the friends of baron Roderick joyously celebrated the hunting parties of their host, who gave them an opportunity of capturing a large quantity of wolves and wild boars. These celebrations lasted for six weeks, during which the castle resembled a hotel open to every comer. For the rest, the baron Roderick never neglected his paramount duties. He administered justice to the vassals, aided in this part of his attributes by lawyer V.

His family had exercised, from father to son, and from time almost immemorial, the jurisdiction of R—sitten. In the