A guard, who served also as a guide, stepped to their side before they had taken ten paces.  Where he came from they never knew, so instantaneous was his appearance.  He remained with them during the two hours spent in the wonderful park.

The palace stood in the northwestern part of the grounds, possibly a half mile from the base of the mountain.  Its front faced the mountain side.  The visitors were not permitted to go closer than a quarter of a mile from the structure, but attained a position from which it could be seen in all its massive, ancient splendor.  Anguish, who had studied churches and old structures, painted the castles on the Rhine, and was something of a connoisseur in architecture, was of the opinion that it had been standing for more than five hundred years.  It was a vast, mediaeval mass of stone, covered with moss and ivy, with towers, turrets and battlements.  There had been a moat in bygone days, but modern ideas had transformed the waterway into solid, level ground.  This they learned afterwards.  Broad avenues approached in several directions, the castle standing at the far side of a wide circle or parade ground.  The open space before the balconies was fully three hundred yards square, and was paved.  From each side stretched the velvety green with its fountains, its trees, its arbors, its flowers, its grottos and its red-legged soldiers.

The park was probably a mile square, and was surrounded by a high wall, on the top of which were little guard-houses and several masked cannon.  In all their travels the Americans had not seen a more delightful bit of artifice, and they wandered about with a serene content that would have appealed to anyone but their voiceless guide.  He led them about the place, allowing them to form their own conclusions, draw their own inferences and make their own calculations.  His only acts were to salute the guards who passed and to present arms when he had conducted his charges to the edge of forbidden territory.  When they had completed their tour of inspection their guide rapidly led the way to the wall that encircled the grounds, reaching it at a point not far from the castle itself.  Here was situated another large gate, through which they did not pass.  Instead, they ascended some steps and came out upon the high wall.  The top of this wall was several feet wide, and walking was comparatively safe.  They soon understood the guide’s design.  The object was to walk along this wall until they reached the main gate.  Why this peculiar course was to be taken they could not imagine at first.  Anguish’s fertile brain came to the rescue.  He saw a number of women in a distant part of the grounds, and, remembering their guide’s haste in conducting them to the wall, rightly conjectured that it was against custom for visitors to meet and gaze upon members of the royal household.  The men and women, none of whom could be plainly distinguished from the far-away wall, were undoubtedly a part of the castle’s family, and were not to be subjected to the curious gaze of sightseers.  Perhaps Her Royal Highness, the Princess of Graustark, was among them.