Zustiniani's. Learning of Anzoleto's heartless unfaithfulness, and
pressed by Zustiniani, Consuelo had turned to her old master for help,
and had not been disappointed.


_II.--In Bohemia_


Among the mountains which separate Bohemia from Bavaria stood an old
country house, known as the Castle of the Giant, the residence of the
Lords of Rudolstadt. A strange mystery reigned over this ancient family.
Count Christian Rudolstadt, the head of the house, a widower, his elder
sister, the Canoness Wenceslawa, a venerable lady of seventy, and Count
Albert, the only son and heir, lived alone with their retainers, never
associating with their neighbours. The count's brother, Baron Frederick
Rudolstadt, with his daughter Amelia, had for some time past taken up
their abode in the Castle of the Giants, and it was the hope of the two
brothers that Albert and Amelia would become betrothed. But the silence
and gloom of the place were hateful to Amelia, and Albert's deep
melancholy and absent-mindedness were not the tokens of a lover.

Albert, in fact, had so brooded over the horrors of the old wars between
Catholic and Protestant in Bohemia, that when the fit was on him he
believed himself living and acting in those terrible times, and it was
this kind of madness in his son which made Count Christian shun all
social intercourse. Albert was now thirty, and the doctors had predicted
that this year he would either conquer the fancies which took such
fierce hold on him, or succumb entirely.

One night, when the family were assembled round the hearth, the castle