Ové should have no pleasure in the prospect of living there. Idé and Anna
Dorthea wept bitterly. Johanné stood erect and composed; but she looked
very pale, and bit her lips till they bled. Much good would that do! Ové
Ramel vouchsafed his permission to Herr Daae to remain at the castle
during the rest of his days; but he got no thanks for the offer. I overheard all
that passed. I saw the homeless man draw himself up haughtily, and toss his
head; and I sent a blast against the castle and the old linden trees, so that the
thickest branch among them broke, though it was not rotten. It lay before
the gate like a broom, in case something had to be swept out; and to be sure
there was a clean sweep.
“It was a sad day, a cruel hour, a heavy trial to sustain; but the heart was
hard-the neck was stiff.
“They possessed nothing but the clothes they had on. Yes, they had a
newly-bought alchemist's glass, which was filled with what had been
wasted on the floor: it had been scraped up, the treasure promised, but not
yielded. Waldemar Daae concealed this near his breast, took his stick in his
hand, and the once wealthy man went, with his three daughters, away from
Borreby Castle. I blew coldly on his wan cheeks, and ruffled his grey beard
and his long white hair. I sang around them, 'Wheu-gh-wheu-gh!'
“There was an end to all their grandeur!
“Idé and Anna Dorthea walked on each side of their father; Johanné
turned round at the gate. Why did she do so? Fortune would not turn. She
gazed at the red stones of the wall, the stones from Marshal Stig's castle,
and she thought of his daughters:-
'The eldest took the younger's hand,
And out in the wide world they went.'
She thought upon that song. Here there were three, and their father was
with them. They passed as beggars over the same road where they had so
often driven in their splendid carriage to Smidstrup Mark, to a house with
mud floors that was let for ten marks a year-their new manor-house, with
bare walls and empty closets. The crows and the Jeandaws flew after them,
