2. MY QUARTERS
Two large panelled chambers on the first floor, in the northern wing of the castle, opposite the great court. The room in which I usually worked looked out on the terrace. Through the open window I could see the dark sea of foliage in a tawny sunlight. An overwhelming silence reigned.
The other, less melancholy, had two windows looking out on the ravine where the Melna plunged and roared, and beyond that the Königsplatz, the barracks of the 182nd Regiment and the Cathedral, a garish eyesore. A white trail of smoke floated on two shining bars—the Hanover express which had brought me.
I blessed the decision which had deposited me in this part of the building. It possessed an enormous open grate, with curious ironwork, and everything dated from the time when German taste was not yet hopelessly debased.
I was at the extreme end of the castle, immediately above the room known as the "Armoury." This was a very curious place, though it had been almost entirely stripped of its contents. The splendid suits of armour of the great burgraves had been removed, notably that of Goetz von Vertheidigen-Lautenburg, who was the right arm of Albert the Bear, that of Miltiades Bussmann, who wounded Henry the Lion, and that of Cadwalla, mentioned by Hugo, whose helm still bears the mark of the fearful blow dealt him at Bouvines by the mighty Guillaume des Barres.