“Your Excellenza is welcome to the castle,” said the old man, as he raised himself from the hearth, where he had laid the wood: “it has been a lonely place a long while; but you will excuse it, Signor, knowing we had but short notice. It is near two years, come next feast of St. Mark, since your Excellenza was within these walls.”
“You have a good memory, old Carlo,” said Montoni: “it is thereabout; and how hast thou contrived to live so long?”
“A-well-a-day, sir, with much ado; the cold winds, that blow through the castle in winter, are almost too much for me; and I thought sometimes of asking your Excellenza to let me leave the mountains, and go down into the lowlands. But I don’t know how it is—I am loth to quit these old walls I have lived in so long.”
“Well, how have you gone on in the castle, since I left it?” said Montoni.
“Why much as usual, Signor, only it wants a good deal of repairing. There is the north tower—some of the battlements have tumbled down, and had liked one day to have knocked my poor wife (God rest her soul!) on the head. Your Excellenza must know—”
“Well, but the repairs,” interrupted Montoni.
“Aye, the repairs,” said Carlo: “a part of the roof of the great hall has fallen in, and all the winds from the mountains rushed through it last winter, and whistled through the whole castle so, that there was no keeping one’s self warm, be where one would. There, my wife and I used to sit shivering over a great fire in one corner of the little hall, ready to die with cold, and—”
“But there are no more repairs wanted,” said Montoni, impatiently.
“O Lord! Your Excellenza, yes—the wall of the rampart has tumbled down in three places; then, the stairs, that lead to the west gallery, have been a long time so bad, that it is dangerous to go up them; and the passage leading to the great oak chamber, that overhangs the north rampart—one night last winter I ventured to go there by myself, and your Excellenza—”
“Well, well, enough of this,” said Montoni, with quickness: “I will talk more with thee tomorrow.”