primeval which in the early days had covered all this part of South
Germany. Elsewhere in the land, railways had been built, until there was
scarcely a hamlet whose slumbers were undisturbed by the shrill scream
of the locomotive--but "the forest," as the people called it, remained
apart, cut off from the world, a vast territory many miles in width,
like a great, green island, unmoved by the waves of commotion and
progress from without.

Here and there amid the forest green a little village peeped out, or an
old castle reared its gray and weather-beaten battlements on high, as if
protesting against its impending decay. There was but one building in
the whole region which yet stood strong, intact and massive,
notwithstanding it was gray with age.

It was called Fürstenstein, and was originally built as a hunting box,
for the use of the sovereign. The duke's head forester occupied it all
the year round; and during the hunting season some members of the ducal
family always held court there for several weeks. It had been built in
the early part of the last century, with the lavish waste of room which
marked the style of that period. Standing on a high elevation, it
commanded a superb view over the surrounding country.

The approach to the castle allowed no view of its proportions, for woods
covered the hill upon which it stood, and in places tall fir trees threw
their shadows on tower and turret, so that one scarcely realized the
immensity of the building until he stood quite at the entrance gate.
There were also a number of little structures clustering around the main
edifice, which had been added at different periods. Time was not allowed
to make inroads here; everything was in perfect order and repair, and
the countless rooms on the second floor were always kept ready for the