The marriage was immediately afterwards celebrated at the new castle of the Graf, with the greatest eclat. About five miles from the city lay, in the midst of a wood--a former hunting castle of the prince--a wide-stretching building. This the Graf had recently purchased. The Chief Forest-master thought indeed the castle much too solitary, and of too great an extent; but his son-in-law quieted him on that head, with the prospect of the noble hunting which they could here enjoy together. That the carriage was always at the command of his wife, and he hoped constantly to have company from the city with him. The extensive accommodation was, moreover, very convenient to him, as, on account of the not yet perfectly restored security of the country, he should send home for the greater part of his servants to attend him here. And it was not long, in fact, before the rooms of the castle were filled with about a score of fresh servants. They were altogether strong, wild-looking fellows; and the Graf said that he had selected these expressly, because people yet, here and there, talked of the robber band; and it was possible that they might some day attempt an attack on his house or property. It was the more necessary for him to do this, as he was himself a restless spirit, and could not live without now and then making a little expedition. But this he could not do unless he felt at the same time that he left his house in perfect security. The people in the city considered this all very reasonable, and conceived a still greater opinion of the affluence of the Graf, who was able to maintain so great an establishment. The Forest-master's daughter lived with her husband in the happiest manner; and when he sometimes, accompanied by some of his servants, made a little excursion into the country round, she invited always some of her friends from the city, and never sent them back without the most beautiful gifts. The Gräfin, indeed, wondered with herself, that her husband, who otherwise gratified all her desires the moment they were uttered, never took her with him on these little excursions; but she loved him too well to chagrin him by pressing entreaties. The winter was now come, and yet the excursions of the Graf did not cease. They were it is true, more seldom, but they often stretched themselves into weeks; and the young wife frequently felt herself excessively solitary when she, with her maid, the only other female who was in the castle, sate in the large room, and the wind without shook the naked branches of the trees fearfully.