It had a mighty trunk and a mighty spread of limb and foliage.

The limbs near the ground were nearly the thickness of a barrel.
That tree had witnessed the assaults of men in mail--how remote such a time seems, and how ungraspable is the fact that real men ever did fight in real armor!--and it had seen the time when these broken arches and crumbling battlements were a trim and strong and stately fortress, fluttering its gay banners in the sun, and peopled with vigorous humanity--how impossibly long ago that seems!--and here it stands yet, and possibly may still be standing here, sunning itself and dreaming its historical dreams, when today shall have been joined to the days called "ancient." Well, we sat down under the tree to smoke, and the captain delivered himself of his legend: THE LEGEND OF DILSBERG CASTLE It was to this effect.

In the old times there was once a great company assembled at the castle, and festivity ran high.

Of course there was a haunted chamber in the castle, and one day the talk fell upon that.

It was said that whoever slept in it would not wake again for fifty years.