"To behave thus to the Emperor's favorite! What a dreadful misfortune!" he cried. "Comrades, make no excuses, no recriminations! I would not care for the complaints of Italy. Frederic would credit nothing which was denied by an honest German. But this Erwin of Rechberg!--Oh, if I could atone for this stupid mistake!"
The travellers soon after reached a convent, whose reputation for hospitality was widely spread; for, in that century, the monasteries were the best, and indeed, almost the only hostelries.
After a brief rest they resumed their journey, and it was near nightfall when they entered a deep and narrow Alpine valley, through which they were obliged to pass.
"We are very near Castellamare," said Bonello, "and but for the windings of the road, should already have perceived the castle!"
"This is a magnificent country, my lord!" said Erwin, admiring the bold and wild landscape.
"It is almost the same as far as the shore," resumed Guido. "The valley gradually narrows into a defile overhung with immense masses of rock, and when we leave it, the wide expanse of the sea bursts, unexpectedly, upon the traveller's gaze."
The road narrowed visibly. The setting sun gilded the Alpine summits, and long, dark shadows darkened the lower slopes. At a turn of the road, the sunlight flashed brightly upon them, and Erwin, raising his dazzled eyes, beheld the fortress of Castellamare standing out from the giant boulders in bold relief.
"What a magnificent spectacle!" exclaimed Rechberg. "I have never seen a castle in a better or more commanding position!"
Following, for a short time, a steep mountain-path, they drew up before a gateway, hollowed in the solid rock, and soon after entered the fortress of Castellamare.