Such was the state of the matter when the Sovereign's packet arrived. The friends were occupied many hours with the trunks, and examined the records carefully. They found much that would be valuable for the history of the district, but nothing that led to the manuscript. At last, the Professor raised from the bottom of one of the trunks a thick bundle of reports, on sheets sewed together, which had been sent by the officials of Bielstein to the Government. Among them was the writing of a deputy-bailiff of the last century, in which he notified that he was hastening, in those times of suspense and danger, commanded by high authority, to convey to the royal country residence, Solitude, the chestful of hunting implements and old books which had up to that time been in his custody.
The writer of the letter had undoubtedly not foreseen what an excitement his faded scroll would produce in a later generation.
"This is the student's chest," cried the Professor, the color rising to his cheeks, while he held out the document to his friend.
"Remarkable!" said the Doctor. "It is impossible that this coincidence can be accidental."
"The student's chest was no will o' the wisp," cried the Professor to his wife, in her room; "here is the confirmation."
"Where is the chest?" inquired Ilse, skeptically.
"That is just what we do not know," replied the Professor, laughing. "Here is a new scent, indistinct, and in a new direction; but it may lead shortly to the vanished parchment." The friends hastened back eagerly to the bundle of records. "Old books!" exclaimed the Doctor; "the house was a hunting castle; a generation before this letter was written, the estate came first into the possession of this princely family; it is not probable that they themselves, in their short hunting visits, should have collected books there."
"Old books!" exclaimed also the Professor; "it is possible that hunting journals and accounts may be meant; but it is not impossible that the chest may also contain some few things of the property of the monastery. Ilse, where is the old castle belonging to your Sovereign called Solitude?"
Ilse knew nothing of such a castle.
"It is a fortunate coincidence that the Sovereign himself may give us an opportunity of obtaining more accurate information."