I should make wild work were I to attempt the
description of such an animal, so I will content myself with saying his
colour was jet black, without a hair of white, either on his face or feet.
For this reason, and the wildness of his disposition, his master had
termed him Apollyon; a circumstance which was secretly considered as
tending to sanction the evil reports which touched the house of Arnheim,
being, it was said, the naming of a favourite animal after a foul fiend.
"It chanced, one November day, that the baron had been hunting in the
forest, and did not reach home till night-fall. There were no guests with
him, for, as I hinted to you before, the castle of Arnheim seldom received
any other than those from whom its inhabitants hoped to gain augmentation
of knowledge. The baron was seated alone in his hall, illuminated with
cressets and torches. His one hand held a volume covered with characters
unintelligible to all save himself. The other rested on the marble table,
on which was placed a flask of Tokay wine. A page stood in respectful
attendance near the bottom of the large and dim apartment, and no sound
was heard save that of the night wind, when it sighed mournfully through
the rusty coats of mail, and waved the tattered banners which were the
tapestry of the feudal hall. At once the footstep of a person was heard
ascending the stairs in haste and trepidation; the door of the hall was
thrown violently open, and, terrified to a degree of ecstasy, Caspar, the
head of the baron's stable, or his master of horse, stumbled up almost to
the foot of the table at which his lord was seated, with the exclamation
in his mouth--'My lord, my lord, a fiend is in the stable!' 'What means
this folly?' said the baron, arising, surprised and displeased at an
interruption so unusual.
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