Fiction > Book editions > London, 1885 - Prince Otto

6 PRINCE OTTO
tower or castle, built sheer upon the margin of
a formidable cliff, and commanding a vast pro-
spect of the skirts of Grilnewald and the busy
plains of Gerolstein. The Pelsenburg (so this
tower was called) served now as a prison, now
as a hunting-seat ; and for all it stood so lone-
some to the naked eye, with the aid of a good
glass the burghers of Brandenau could count
its windows from the lime-tree terrace where
they walked at night.
In the w^edge of forest hillside enclosed
between the roads, the horns continued all day
long to scatter tumult ; and at length, as the
sun began to draw near to the horizon of
the plain, a rousing triumph announced the
^laughter of the quarry. The first and second
nuntsman had drawn somewhat aside, and from
the summit of a knoll gazed down before them
on the drooping shoulders of the hill and across
the expanse of plain. They covered their eyes,
for the sun was in their faces. The glory of its
going down Avas somewhat pale. Through the
confused tracery of many thousands of naked
poplars, the smoke of so many houses, and the
evening steam ascending from the lields, the
sails of a windmill on a gentle eminence moved
very conspicuously, like a donkey's ears. And
hard by, like an open gash, the imperial liigh-
road ran straight sunward, an artery of travel.