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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/32478-8.txt b/32478-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d4b0a4c --- /dev/null +++ b/32478-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9685 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales from the German. Volume I., by +Carl Franz van der Velde + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Tales from the German. Volume I. + Arwed Gyllenstierna + +Author: Carl Franz van der Velde + +Translator: Nathaniel Greene + +Release Date: May 22, 2010 [EBook #32478] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM THE GERMAN. VOLUME I. *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +1. Page scan source: + http://www.archive.org/details/talesfromgerman00greegoog +2. Footnote is located at the end of the book. +3. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe]. + + + + + + TALES + + + FROM THE GERMAN + + + TRANSLATED + + BY NATHANIEL GREENE. + + + + VOLUME I. + + + + + + BOSTON: + AMERICAN STATIONERS' COMPANY, + JOHN B. RUSSELL. + + 1837. + + + + + + + BOSTON: + Samuel N. Dickinson, Printer, + 52, Washington Street. + + + + + TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. + + +Most men, whatever the nature of their avocations, have, or may have, +occasional hours of leisure and relaxation. To spend those hours +profitably as well as pleasantly, should be a study: to spend them +harmlessly, is a duty. Among other recent employments of the little +leisure afforded me by absorbing official occupations, has been an +attempt to gain some knowledge of the language and literature of +Germany; and among the results of that attempt, are manuscript +translations of several pleasant and interesting tales from various +German authors, some of which I have been led to suppose might prove +acceptable to our reading public. Those now presented are taken almost +at random from the thirteen volumes of Van der Velde's works, of which +they are a fair specimen. Their principal value consists in their +faithful illustration of interesting portions of history not generally +familiar. They have, besides, the merit of a peculiarly simple and +unpretending style, that gives them an additional charm, and which I +have endeavored to preserve in the translation. Whether that endeavor +has been successful, however, and whether the English dress I have +substituted for the graceful German garb, is worthy of the author and +suited to the public taste, are questions upon which I feel somewhat +doubtful and apprehensive. Should the reader answer them in the +affirmative, I shall have the consolation of feeling that the leisure +devoted to the work has been harmlessly, if not profitably, employed. + +It is proper to add, that in a few cases I have taken the liberty to +omit some passages, and to alter others, that were deemed incompatible +with the ideas of propriety and decorum prevalent in this country. + +BOSTON, NOVEMBER, 1837. + + + + + + + ARWED GYLLENSTIERNA. + + A TALE OF THE EARLY PART OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. + + BY C. F. VAN DER VELDE, + + * * * * * + + PART FIRST. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + +In October of the year 1718, the royal counsellor, Nils count +Gyllenstierna, was sitting before his desk in his cabinet at Stockholm. +Behind him stood Arwed, his son, a tall Swedish youth with blue eyes +and golden hair, whose rosy countenance wore a decided expression of +courage and resolution. The father suddenly turned his moveable chair +so as to face the youth. + +'One word is as good as a thousand!' cried he, angrily; 'dismiss for +the present your heroic aspirations. You are too young for this war.' + +'Not younger than our king was,' quickly answered Arwed, 'when he beat +the Danes by Humblebeck and the Muscovites by the Narva!' + +'It is a great misfortune for a land when its king is a Don Quixote,' +grumbled the senator; 'every fool in the kingdom quotes his example as +authority.' + +'O, do not calumniate the hero,' entreated Arwed, feelingly. 'Sweden +has had no greater king since Gustavus Adolphus.' + +'Nor has she had one who has brought more misery upon the land replied +the senator. 'Do not suppose, my son,' proceeded he, calmly, 'that I +underrate the qualifications of our lord the king. He has given proof +of many, any one of which would render some other princes immortal. He +is firm, liberal, brave, just, and knows how to maintain the royal +dignity. But all these heroic virtues have, by excess, become more +dangerous in him than would be their opposite vices. His firmness, +becoming obstinacy, caused his misfortune at Pultowa and rendered him +for five painful years the dependant and prisoner of the Turks; his +liberality, degenerated into wastefulness, has ruined Sweden; his +courage, carried in most cases to the utmost extent of foolhardiness, +has led hundreds of thousands of his subjects to butchery or the +Siberian mines; his justice has often become cruelty, and the +maintenance of his royal prerogative, tyranny.' + +'Cruelty and tyranny!' repeated Arwed. 'Surely you judge the greatest +man in Europe too severely.' + +'Do you remember the Livonian, Patkul?' asked the father--'Patkul, who +was compelled, contrary to private right and international law, to make +such dreadful atonement for what he had done in behalf of his native +land? His horrible death is a dark stain upon Charles's character, and +no laurel wreath will ever so conceal the deed that posterity will not +discover it on the tablets of history.' + +'So also are there spots upon the sun,' said Arwed with some degree of +irritation. 'The spirit of the party to which you have attached +yourself, my father, permits you to see only the dark side of his +character.' + +'My party spirit will never sway my judgment,' indignantly replied the +senator. 'The true patriot is governed only by a desire to promote his +country's welfare, in choosing and adhering to his party. Were the +government of our king less arbitrary I would joyfully unite myself +with his party; but with monarchs like him, the public good requires an +opposition, and every honest-minded nobleman should take his stand upon +that side.' + +'It does not become me to dispute with you upon such topics,' said +Arwed, soothingly. 'As yet I have no voice in public affairs. My arm +only is needed. To that, however, in my opinion, my country has a +righteous claim; and the question now is, not whether, the king has +always chosen the best course for the welfare of his realm, but whether +the decision which he has now irrevocably made shall be maintained with +blood and treasure. Therefore permit me to go this time, my dear +father.' + +'Well argued, my son,' said the elder Gyllenstierna gruffly, turning +his attention again to his papers; 'but the father has a will of his +own, and considers himself as much a sovereign in his own house, as +Charles XII is in his kingdom. The king's sinful passion for war has +already made a sufficient number of childless parents. I will not make +to it the offering of my only son.' + +'What is my insignificant life in comparison with Sweden's welfare?' +cried Arwed with enthusiasm. + +'Sweden's welfare!' said the father, turning towards him again. 'How +can Sweden's welfare be promoted by this unholy war? Instead of +attempting to regain our blessed German territories, which our enemies +have divided among themselves, we go forth to the conquest of Norway, +which can never repay the blood and treasure she must cost, and will +never be truly loyal unless when garrisoned by our troops.' + +'To me it appears to be a noble attempt,' said Arwed, 'to conquer a +part of his own states from an enemy who has taken so much from us.' + +'It appears so to you,' answered his father, 'because you are a young +simpleton, who are dazzled by the brilliancy of the enterprise. Would +to God there were not even older fools who hold the same opinions. +However wise or foolish this expedition may be, you can take no part in +it. You have your answer, with which you will please retire and leave +me alone. I have pressing business.' + +He turned again to his table and immediately resumed his writing. Arwed +remained standing there with a sad countenance, his large blue veins +swelling almost to bursting. His lips were already parting to reply, +but he recollected himself and left the cabinet with passionate haste. + +Startled by the loud slamming of the door, the senator peevishly turned +his eyes in that direction;--near it he saw a little billet lying upon +the floor, which he took up and brought to his writing table. + +'A three-cornered billet,' murmured he, examining it. 'Fine gilt-edged +paper, redolent of perfume,--it must be a love-letter!' He cut the +delicate knot which served for a seal, and, as he read, his brows +became knitted with anger. Then seizing a silver bell which lay upon +the table before him, he rung it violently. 'My secretary!' cried he to +the servant who answered the bell. + +'Very tender,' said he, after having re-perused the note. 'An amorous +intrigue at court, and yet the youth desirous of engaging in the +Norwegian war! It is strange--but it pleases me.' + +Brodin, the count's secretary, an old, true, experienced, hereditary +servant, now stepped softly into the cabinet, gently closing the door +after him. + +'A billet-doux, that my son has just dropped here,' cried the senator, +advancing and handing the letter to him. 'It is signed with the name +only of Georgina. Who is this Georgina?' + +'I am not indeed so happy,' answered the secretary, with a satyr-like +smile, 'as to know the christian names of all the females with whom +count Arwed might possibly form tender connections. Nevertheless, I +have provided myself, partly from curiosity and partly that I might be +enabled to answer inquiries, with a genealogical list of those ladies +now resident at Stockholm, from which some pertinent information may +perhaps be gained. Fortunately I have the list now with me, if your +excellency will condescend to make present use of it,--however, I +cannot guarantee that you will find there the Georgina in question, as +the taste of my lord, your son, like that of other young cavaliers, may +possibly have led him into a lower circle, of which hitherto I have +been unable to find any tolerably correct catalogue.' + +'Produce it!' cried the senator, with ill-humor;--and the secretary +drew forth his geneological list. + +'H-m, h-m,' hummed he, perusing it. 'I cannot find any Georgina, and +yet the name must be very common at Stockholm. '_Eureka_!' he suddenly +exclaimed; 'here stands a Georgina! but whether it be the right one +must be determined by further evidence.' + +'Come, be expeditious!' impatiently cried old Gyllenstierna. + +'Georgina Henrike Dorothea Baroness von Goertz,' read Brodin, 'daughter +of George Heinrich Freiherrn von Goertz, privy counsellor and lord +marshal of the duke of Holstein Gottorp Durchlaucht, and temporary +prime minister and director of the finance commission of his royal +Swedish majesty.' + +'He is out of his senses!' loudly exclaimed Gyllenstierna, interrupting +his secretary in his tedious narration. 'The maiden is yet but a mere +child!' + +'According to my notes, past fourteen,' replied the secretary; 'but she +looks as if she were eighteen. She has been confirmed this year at the +time of Easter; and has thereby acquired, as it were, a privilege in +regard to such love affairs; besides, she is the only Georgina among +the ladies of this capital.' + +'Indeed!' cried the senator, 'the youth flies high--that cannot be +denied, and is most gratifying to me. But a Goertz! Never!' + +Startled by the vehemence of this _never_, the secretary shrunk back +for a moment--but, again approaching his master, 'might I presume,' +said he, submissively, in favor of the count Arwed, 'to state that a +connection with the family of the premier cannot diminish the lustre of +the house of Gyllenstierna, but on the contrary must conduce greatly to +its advantage.' + +'Heigh, heigh, Brodin!' exclaimed old Gyllenstierna. 'Have you grown +gray at court and yet understand no better how to make skilful +combinations? Could I forgive this foreigner that he has foisted +himself upon Sweden, that he rules her as tyrannically as her sovereign +himself, and that he would willingly grind her in the dust with his +chimerical experiments--yet would sound policy forbid every connection +with his family. His authority is ephemeral. He stands with the king +and must fall with him. The _living_ Charles might venture to send his +boot to Stockholm to preside in the council instead of himself. The +minister of the _deceased_ Charles will have a difficult task--and will +be compelled to exert himself to save honor and life in the catastrophe +which will doubtless occur.' + +'Our royal master is yet but thirty-six years of age,' observed Brodin: +'and is a giant in mental and physical strength.' + +'But he daily sets his life upon a cast in the dangerous game of war,' +answered Gyllenstierna. 'Instead of avoiding personal danger, as a +royal commander should, he seeks it more recklessly than the lowliest +soldier of his army. No, that guaranty is very unsafe. It would be +folly to confide in the fortunate star of Goertz, and senselessly bind +myself to him by the ties of blood. Arwed must give up his foolish +love.' + +'That,' said Brodin, rubbing his hands, 'will be likely to be rendered +difficult by the headstrong disposition of the young lord.' + +'I am aware of it,' said Gyllenstierna. 'Yet when I have the will and +the power, I never suffer an interruption of my course. Arwed has just +now been soliciting leave to join the Norwegian expedition. He shall +set off for Norway this very night, and thus will his attention be +directed to other affairs.' + +'But the precious life of the only heir of your noble house?' exclaimed +Brodin sorrowfully. + +'A Gyllenstierna must inure himself to the hardships of war,' answered +the senator resolutely. 'All bullets do not hit, and even the worst +that could happen would not be to me so severe an affliction as this +mad connection. See that Arwed's equipments are prepared, and let my +carriage be driven to the door. I will to the vice-regent. Call my son +hither, and prepare for him a letter of introduction to lieutenant +general Armfelt. I will sign it on my return.' + +Ominously shaking his head, Brodin left the room, and the senator again +carefully read through the love letter. 'His sudden passion for war is +now clear to me,' cried he at last. 'It is that he may soon become of +sufficient consequence to enable him to woo successfully the daughter +of the all-powerful favorite, who stands too high for the +undistinguished son of a simple count and senator of Sweden. I am sorry +for thee, poor youth, but thy plan must be abandoned.' + +'You have commanded my presence my father,' said Arwed, who with a +discontented face now entered the cabinet. + +'I have reflected further upon your request,' answered the senator. 'I +will for this time let the child have his way, to stop his weeping. As +soon as your letters of introduction are ready you will set off for the +army. From conquered Drontheim shall I expect your first letter.' + +'Am I going to Armfelt's corps?' asked Arwed aghast. + +'What a question!' observed the father. 'The lieutenant general is my +old friend. He will receive you with open arms, and give you an +advantageous position.' + +'I much regret,' said Arwed, 'that with my thanks for granting my first +request, I must prefer a new one. I cannot, indeed, take the letter of +recommendation, dear father, and I would not be indebted to old +friendship for a commission. What I can win upon the field of honor, +that may I thank myself for.' + +'Overstrained ideas,' murmured the father peevishly. You will regret +the want of patronage when, experience shall have taught you how far +merit can go without it.' + +'In war the good will of one's comrades is necessary,' proceeded Arwed. +'The soldier who is pushed forward through favoritism, must renounce +it; and under Armfelt I foresee that I could not avoid being improperly +favored. Wherefore I beg of you to let me go without recommendation to +our king before Frederickshall.' + +'Even to the most hopeless expedition of the whole campaign!' cried the +father. 'Before that unlucky city which during the last year has cost +Sweden her military renown, an entire third of her army, and very +nearly the life of her king,--where peasants and serving maids suddenly +became more furious than the hostile elements and put to flight the +conqueror of Moscow. How hast thou become possessed of this foolish +fancy?' + +'I desire that Sweden's hero should witness my first essay in arms,' +answered Arwed. + +'Overweening self confidence!' said the father. 'I trust that thou wilt +every where maintain the honor of our name, and the coolness of age +sees farther than the heat of youth. The king has not yet learned to be +sparing of his soldiers, as there is none but God to call him to +account for his conduct. The general has more restricted duties. And +although I appreciate eagerness for action and am disposed to satisfy +it, yet I cannot consent to place your life at the disposal of +Charles's mad humour. You go to Armfelt.' + +'Dear father!' implored Arwed, and at that moment the valet-de-chambre +entered with the count's hat and sword and announced that the carriage +was ready. + +'It is settled,' said the senator in the most decided manner to his +son, whilst he buckled on his sword. 'I will hear nothing further in +opposition to my determination.' + +He snatched his hat violently from the servant, and hastily sallied +forth. + +'This is hard!' said the afflicted Arwed. 'Must I obey?' he asked +himself after a moment's pause,--'Why torment myself!' cried he +finally. 'Gushes not for me, in one kind heart, the silver fountain of +goodness and wisdom? She shall tell me what is right in the struggle +between filial duty and my own better conviction. She shall decide.' + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + +Alone, with folded arms, on the following evening, Arwed wandered up +and down the northern bank of the Suedermalm in the new volunteer +uniform, anxiously glancing across lake Malar towards the magnificent +city of Stockholm, which there arose with its palaces, cupolas and +towers, proud and lordly as became the queen of those waters. The sun +had already gone down, but it yet glowed redly upon the waves of the +lake, gently ruffled by a soft west wind, and its last rays glistened +upon the knob of the high towers of St. Gertrude, which it lighted up +like a giant star shining through the incipient twilight. With earnest +attention the youth's eyes glided from tower to tower and from palace +to palace, until they finally remained fixed upon that of the royal +residence, which in consequence of the continued impoverishment of the +treasury had not been rebuilt since the fire that destroyed it twenty +years before. + +'What horrible desolation in the midst of so much splendor!' said Arwed +mournfully to himself. 'The ruins of the royal castle almost appear to +me to be symbols of the decay of this noble realm! Yet also this +palace,' proceeded he, consoling himself with the light-mindedness of +youth, 'will one day again rise from its ashes, perhaps more beautiful +than before. Lost lands can be conquered again, new generations will +come to fill up the vacancies caused by the sword, and soon perhaps +will Europe tremble again before the mighty roar of the Swedish lion.' + +A splash in the water interrupted the proud prophecy. A row-boat from +the Ritterholm cut through the stream and neared the bank. Two ladies +in plain dark cloaks and covered with white veils, stepped from the +boat. 'Georgina,' cried Arwed in ecstasy, springing towards her. With +light, nimble steps one of the ladies, a slender and delicately formed +figure, approached and affectionately extended to him her right hand, +while her left was employed in withdrawing the veil from her youthful +and lovely face. + +'My Georgina!' he joyfully repeated, leading her to a seat upon the +rocky bank, whilst the other lady remained standing at some distance, +sending from under her veil in every direction her scrutinizing +glances, so as to be enabled to warn the youthful pair betimes of any +troublesome witness who might interrupt the happy interview. + +The beauteous Georgina fixed her affectionate gaze upon the beloved +youth, but with softened feelings which filled her dark eyes with +tears. 'By your dress I see,' said she with emotion, 'that this is our +parting hour--and I thank thee that I have been hitherto kept in +ignorance of it, so that I was enabled to enjoy the anticipation of +this meeting without alloy.' + +'Yes, dearest maiden,' answered Arwed: 'my wishes are accomplished, my +father's kindness has opened to me the path of honor, which I dare to +hope will enable me to deserve and obtain thee. That I may hereafter be +entirely thine, I now leave thee. Thou wilt again see me, crowned with +the laurels of victory, or thou wilt hear that I have bravely fought +and fallen worthy of thee and myself.' + +'Oh, Arwed,' faintly murmured the almost breathless maiden, reclining +her beauteous head upon his breast and turning her eyes upon his face +with a look of gentle reproach. 'Must it then be so? Thou hast indeed +always asserted this sad necessity, but I could never bring myself to +believe it. Credit me, my father is good, and by no means so haughty +and violent as the Swedes consider him. Ungrateful men indeed, hate +him--but he loves his newly adopted country. Thy house is one of the +most honorable--and even if he had other plans respecting me, he would +not be able to withstand my prayers if I dutifully opened my heart to +him.' + +'I love thee with all my soul, Georgina,' said Arwed with flashing +eyes: 'but at the same time Swedish pride claims its rights. It would +be disgraceful to a Gyllenstierna to be indebted to the prayers and +tears of the daughter for the consent of the proud stranger. And if +your father should now ask me what I had hitherto done for the honor of +the name which his child is to bear, and I could answer him nothing +except that I had read Greek and Latin with my tutor and listened to a +few college lectures at Upsala, I should sink into the earth for shame. +Yet not for that cause alone do I grasp the sword. With it I hope to +gain the favor of the king and independence of my father, who, though +he truly loves me, will hardly with a good will consent to the proposed +connection. Besides, having long since decided on my course, I beg that +you will not make more difficult by your sorrow a step which is already +sufficiently afflicting, since it separates me from you.' + +'Cruel, perverse man!' said Georgina, kissing him. 'Yes, your sex are +our tyrants, and the worst of it is, that the more pitilessly you +torment us through your pride and severity, the more ardently we love +you. What can the poor feeble maiden do but submit to the hard fate +which her Arwed decrees--and henceforth weep, hope, wish, until her lot +is indissolubly united with his.' She dried her tears, and then with +assumed resolution asked; 'when do you leave?' + +'This night I depart for Norway,' answered Arwed, 'but whether for the +north or the south, you must decide for me.' + +'_I_?' asked Georgina, trembling: 'you mock me.' + +'You know the reasons,' proceeded Arwed, 'which induce me to desire to +repair to Frederickshall. But my father insists with inexorable +severity, that I shall go to Armfelt, which he prefers as the better +path for promotion, and from fear that the reckless temerity of the +king may expose my life to unnecessary danger. I believe, however, that +the aversion which the fiery old aristocrat retains so firmly against +the great Charles, is the principal cause of his obstinacy. Now counsel +me Georgina. Uninfluenced by party hatreds, and all the low springs of +action which prevail in this kingdom setting brother against brother, +standest thou there, like a good angel, above the thunder and the +death-cry of the battle field, and only lookest down compassionately +upon the wild tumult.--With thee I shall find the truth, or nowhere. +Shall I follow the conquering path of the great king, inspired by his +presence, and perhaps rewarded with his approbation whenever an +opportunity for good service may occur, and struggle to obtain the +chaplet of honor through my own deservings; or shall I, in obedience to +the arbitrary will of my father, repair to Armfelt's corps for the +purpose of supplanting meritorious warriors by means of a wicked +favoritism? Decide! What you advise, that will I do.' + +'Thou art magnanimous, Arwed,' said Georgina, smiling through her +tears. 'Thou wishest to flatter a maiden's vanity, so that she may the +less acutely feel the sorrow of parting. How shall I be so presumptuous +as to counsel a youth who is as headstrong as ever could have been the +king himself?' + +'Upon my honor!' cried Arwed impatiently, 'I desire thy counsel in real +earnest. My own feelings have long since decided,--but I wish to be +governed not by my own feelings, but by what is right, and that I find +only in thy clear soul.' + +'Thou demandest of me the performance of a delicate and responsible +duty,' said Georgina with emotion. 'Were I to obey only the voice of +anxiety which speaks so loudly for thee in a loving maiden's bosom, I +had quickly decided--as, with the king is undoubtedly the greatest +danger. But in this case the voice of honor must also be heard, and thy +honor is also mine.' + +'Such language is Worthy of a Swedish maiden!' cried Arwed, warmly +embracing her. + +'Nor is honor alone to be considered,' proceeded Georgina. 'The +question of filial duty is also an important one. Thy father hath +declared his will, and I am not presumptuous enough to counsel +disobedience to him.' + +'My God!' cried Arwed disconsolately. 'I now stand just where I did +before--and if I would ever come to a conclusion, like Alexander I must +cut the knot I cannot untie.' + +'Move not towards the north, young hero!' whispered, all of a sudden in +the evening stillness, a low hoarse voice, as if from heaven. + +Georgina shrieked with alarm and covered her eyes with her hands. Arwed +sprang in a rage from his rocky seat, and drew his sword. 'Who here +gives his counsel unasked?' thundered he among the rocks above him, on +whose top he observed through the fading twilight a tall human form, +wrapped in a gray mantle. + +'One wiser than thou,' answered the apparition, 'and who means thee +well.' + +'What have I to fear in the north?' hastily asked Arwed. + +'An inglorious death!' answered the unknown, and instantly vanished. + +'Strange,' said Arwed, slowly returning his sword to its scabbard. + +'Now am I to decide!' cried Georgina, tremblingly attaching herself to +him. 'Obey the voice, Arwed, it appeared to be that of a friend.' + +'Prophecies were always disagreeable to me,' said Arwed. 'Imposition or +fanaticism, it makes no difference. Now am I almost determined to go to +Armfelt, merely to prove that I give no heed to such jugglery.' + +'Hast thou forgotten what there awaits thee?' anxiously asked Georgina. + +'An inglorious death would indeed be the greatest calamity that could +befal me,' said Arwed; 'and the voice sounded so honest.' + +'If thou lovest me, obey it,' implored Georgina,--and at that moment +her companion approached to remind her that it was high time to return +to the city. + +'Fare thee well, my beloved life!' said Arwed, locking the sobbing +maiden in his arms. + +'Thou goest to Frederickshall?' inquired she, faintly. + +'Hast thou not united the wish with my love?' asked the youth in +return, and long and silently he pressed her beloved form to his bosom. + +'Hasten, baroness!' anxiously entreated her companion. + +Georgina finally forced herself from his embrace. 'I believe in a good +God!' exclaimed she with a sort of inspiration: 'we shall meet again.' + +The ladies proceeded to the boat which was waiting for them. Arwed +remained standing silently on the spot where he had received Georgina's +last kiss, gazing after the receding boat, until it disappeared in the +shadow which the old Gothic church of the Ritterholm, behind which the +moon was now rising, threw over the waters of the Malar. + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + +The Swedish trumpets were sounding and the drums beating an alarm, as +Arwed and his groom rode into the camp before Frederickshall. In every +direction the footsoldiers were parading before their barracks under +arms, and the cavalry were standing by their horses, ready to mount. +With great trouble Arwed pressed his steed through the warlike throng, +and finally arrived at the quarters of the king,--where he paused, +looking in every direction for some one to announce him. + +At length, an aged officer, in a general's uniform, came along the +passage-way between the tents, bending his steps towards the royal +barrack. The sentinel at the door presented arms to him. Acknowledging +the courtesy in a kindly manner, his glance fell upon Arwed. 'Do you +seek any one here, my son?' asked he in a friendly tone. + +'An audience of the king,' answered Arwed: 'of whom I have a personal +request to make.' + +'The king is now pressingly engaged,' said the general. 'The princes of +Hesse and Holstein-Gottorp are with him. If you are willing to entrust +your business with me I will faithfully communicate it to him.' + +'I thankfully acknowledge your goodness, general,' answered Arwed. 'I +am convinced that my request to be enrolled in the army might safely be +confided to your hands; but I am very desirous to see the face of my +king, a happiness which I have never yet enjoyed. I was not yet born +when he left Stockholm.' + +'Whither he has never since returned, I know,' said the general with a +heavy sigh. 'You look so fresh and true hearted that I will do what you +desire. Come with me.' + +Arwed followed the general. The door of the royal chamber at that +moment opened. A man was standing by a table, upon which were lying a +bible, a map of Norway and a plan of Frederickshall. His blue, +unornamented riding coat, with large brass buttons, his narrow black +neck-stock, his thin locks, which bristled in every direction, the +broad yellow leather shoulder-band, from which his long sword depended, +and his large cavalry boots, would have led to the conclusion that he +was a subaltern officer,--but his tall, noble figure, his beautiful +forehead, his large soft blue eyes, and his well formed nose, gave to +his whole appearance something so majestic, and so highly distinguished +him from two embroidered, starred and ribboned lords who were with him +in the room, that Arwed instantly recognized his hitherto unknown king. + +'The trenches opened on the fourth,' said the king, fretfully tracing +upon the plan with his finger. 'They ought to be further advanced!' + +'Certainly, your majesty!' answered Arwed's protector in a sad tone. +'One feels tempted to believe that he who conducts these works either +cannot or will not advance them, and it must be conceded that colonel +Megret understands his business.' + +'I know what you would say, Duecker,' said Charles with a severe +countenance. 'But I will give you a useful lesson. You must not speak +ill of any one when you are speaking with your king.' + +Making an effort to suppress his feelings, and followed by the scornful +smile of the eldest prince, Duecker retired,--whilst the other, a youth +of about Arwed's age, amused himself with examining the new comer with +a far from becoming hauteur. + +The king, following the glance of his nephew, perceived Arwed and +advanced towards him. + +'Who?' asked he with some embarrassment. + +'Gyllenstierna,' answered Arwed with a profound inclination: 'a Swedish +nobleman, who begs of your majesty that be may be permitted to fight +under your banners.' + +'Count Gyllenstierna?' inquired Charles, leaning on his giant sword, +'The father is a determined opponent of my administration!' said he to +his brother-in-law, as Arwed bowed affirmatively, and a convulsive +smile distorted the lips of his well-formed mouth. + +'Yet full of devotion for his king and his native land!' earnestly +interposed Arwed. 'If your majesty will but permit his son to prove +it.' + +The king gave him a complacent look. 'I am now about to take the +battery called the Golden Lion from the Danes,' said he: 'you can +remain by my side.' + +'Heaven reward your majesty!' cried Arwed in ecstasies, and seized the +hand of the hero to kiss it. + +'I like not that,' said the king, hastily withdrawing his hand,--and at +that moment adjutant general Siquier, a slender Frenchman, with a +cunning but wasted face, entered the room. + +'Every thing is in readiness for the attack, your majesty!' announced +he. + +'God with us, comrades!' exclaimed the king, putting on his immense +gauntlets of yellow leather. + +'This attack will cost many men!' said Duecker, in an under tone to the +young duke. + +'Oh!' whispered Siquier, who overheard the remark, 'a great French +general under whom I once served was accustomed to say before the +slaughter: 'If God will but remain neutral to-day, then shall these +Messieurs be finely flogged.'' + +The king, who was already at the door, once more returned. 'Your great +general,' said he to Siquier,--indignant at the quotation of the +irreverent speech,--'spoke then like a great fool.' + +With a countenance which badly concealed his rage at this unexpected +reproof, Siquier cast down his eyes, and the warriors silently followed +their heroic leader. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + +The entrenchments of the Golden Lion were thronged with red-coats. With +the battle cry, 'God with us!' the Swedish battalions charged upon +them. Then opened the battery upon its assailants, hurling death among +their ranks from twenty thundering throats of fire. Unmoved, at first, +the warriors saw their comrades falling on either hand, and pressed +bravely onward. Now, however, the grape and canister shot of the enemy +began its work of destruction, and in constantly increasing rapidity of +succession sank the victims in their blood, until finally the weakened +survivors gave ground and slowly retreated. + +The king, surrounded by his retinue, sat upon his charger, within the +range of the enemy's artillery, as quietly as if at a review. Arwed, at +his side, observed this new spectacle with a spirit-stirring pleasure. +Presently one of the weakened and retreating battalions came near the +king. With indignation in his eye he sprang to meet them. 'You are +Swedes,' thundered he, 'and do you fly? Back to the enemy!' + +'We have lost all our officers, your majesty!' cried an old corporal. + +Trembling with eager desire to enter the lists, Arwed instantly threw +himself out of his saddle, and asked, his foot still in the stirrup: +'may I lead these troops once more against the battery?' + +'You may make the attempt!' replied the king kindly to him, and +immediately galloped to the other side of the battery, where also the +Swedes had begun to give ground. In a transport of joy Arwed sprang +from his horse, drew his sword, and cried to the soldiers: 'in the +king's name, halt, left wheel!' + +The soldiers obeyed, and Arwed placed himself at their head. + +'Think of the hero whose soldiers you are,' cried he: 'and of your own +glory; and, in God's name, march!' + +'God be with us!' cried the newly encouraged band, rushing on after +their leader. Several lives were lost in the advance, but the main +part, strengthened by the fragments of the other battalions, soon stood +by the palisades safely sheltered from the fire of the enemy's cannon. +But now the little musket balls whistled from the breastworks, and +murderous grenades were bursting among them at almost every moment. + +'Force out the palisades and pass the trench!' commanded Arwed, and +with prodigious strength he removed some of the pales, which he placed +over the hard frozen ditch and pushed forward. The soldiers followed +the example, and the opposite side of the wall was soon covered with +the clambering troops. The Danes defended themselves with great fury, +and the dear victory was purchased with the sacrifice of many Swedish +lives. Two musket balls passed through Arwed's hat, but in an instant +thereafter, he stood upon the breastwork and pierced the heart of one +of the marksmen with his sword. A bayonet-thrust of the other grazed +his cheek. This one fell under the blows given by the clubbed muskets +of the closely following Swedes, and soon the Swedish banner floated +proudly over the stormed works. + +Meanwhile the king, who had been attempting an entrance on the other +side of the wall, hastened hither at the head of one of his battalions, +and the few remaining Danes threw down their arms and begged for +quarter. + +'What, before me, upon the walls!' cried the royal hero, embracing the +bleeding Arwed. 'There is yet a true Swede! You are a captain of the +guards, Gyllenstierna.' + +'We have two companies, prisoners,' said Siquier, stepping up to the +king with a sanguinary expression of countenance. They have compelled +us to storm the place, and their lives are forfeited. Does your majesty +command their execution?' + +'Right, Siquier,' answered Charles, affecting to misunderstand him, +'Let the poor creatures be fed in our camp,--and when they have +satiated their appetites, let them promise not to fight against me +again in this war--and then, in God's name, let them go in peace.' + +'As your majesty commands!' said Siquier, grating his teeth and +proceeding to the execution of the unwelcome commission. + +'If the lord has remitted ten thousand shekels to us,' said Charles, +turning graciously to Arwed, 'surely we can remit a trifling debt to +our fellow men;--can we not, my dear captain?' + +'Hail to the hero who knows how to pardon as well as to conquer!' +exclaimed Arwed with enthusiasm. + +'No flattery!' cried Charles, stamping angrily. 'I know that it was +fairly meant, but I do not like it.' + +He departed. Arwed leaned against the breastwork and observed the +trains of Danish prisoners who were being escorted into the camp. Then +glancing proudly upon the blood-besprinkled place he had conquered--and +afterwards towards the east, where Stockholm lay;--he sighed, 'had but +Georgina seen me!' + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + +Brightly shone the light of chandelier and gueridon through the plate +glass windows of the royal palace on the Ritterholm, and most +beautifully was its brilliancy reflected by the quiet waters of the +Malar lake. The princess Ulrika Eleonore, of Hesse, gave an assembly +and card patty--and the variously adorned nobility floated through the +gilded rooms, soothing, caressing, deceiving, calumniating, fondling +and boring each other. Behind the curtains of one of the most retired +windows leaned the affectionate Georgina, gazing with anxious interest +over the lake towards the Suedermalm, where in quiet obscurity lay +before her the place where she had met and parted with her lover. Near +her sat the princess, with the governor, Baron Taube, and the elder +Gyllenstierna, at a card table. + +'Is there any news from Norway?' asked Ulrika, shuffling the cards. + +'From Armfelt's corps,' answered Taube, 'we have been a long time +without intelligence,--but, as a friend writes me, the king has taken +an important battery before Frederickshall.' + +'It is well that some one yet holds correspondence in Sweden, said +Ulrika with bitterness, hastily dealing the cards. 'My husband is not +permitted to write openly upon the affairs of the campaign, and of the +communications of my brother nobody in the capital is permitted to have +a glimpse;--and least of all myself, who have the misfortune to be a +woman.' + +'Was our loss great?' asked old Gyllenstierna, assorting his cards. + +'They speak of seven hundred,' answered the governor: 'and the loss +would have been still greater and perhaps wholly in vain, had not the +king himself and a young volunteer placed themselves at the head of the +faltering troops and led them on to victory.' + +A delightful anticipation thrilled the bosom of the listening Georgina. +And in the self-forgetfulness of love, she was even upon the point of +stepping forward and asking the narrator the unbecoming question of the +name of the volunteer, when the father of her beloved spared her the +pain of witnessing the courtier's contemptuous smile, by himself +putting the question. + +'My informant named him Gyllenstierna,' answered Taube: 'but as your +excellency's son has gone to Armfelt's camp, I suppose I must have +misunderstood him.' + +'Who knows!' murmured the old count, calling to mind the last +unavailing request of his son; and in pondering upon all the +possibilities of the case he lost his game. + +'Were it not for that,' proceeded Taube, 'I should have much pleasure +in congratulating your excellency. The king advanced the brave +volunteer to the grade of captain of the guards upon the spot.' + +'My hero! my Arwed!' exulted Georgina in her heart, and her white hand +waved a fond kiss towards the west. + +'Such transient gleams of military success give me more anxiety than +pleasure,' said Ulrika. 'They decide not the main question, and serve +only to increase my brother's obstinacy. His game is lost beyond +remedy. Continued misfortune would finally open his eyes and induce him +to take the only course by which he can save himself.' + +'That would have happened long ago,' whispered Taube to her, 'did not +baron Goertz, through his _fata morgana_, know how to keep up his +sinking hopes.' + +'Very true!' said Gyllenstierna. 'And had it not been for his +experiment of debasing the coin, this campaign would have been +impossible.' + +'Indeed,' added Taube: 'were the old heathen gods, whom he has conjured +up from the vasty deep, to bring national bankruptcy upon Sweden, what +would the foreigner care?' + +'I know not among men one whom I so cordially hate as this Goertz,' +said Ulrica in an under tone, and her eyes gleamed so fiercely that +Georgina, who from her concealment saw the look, shrunk with fear, +although she did not hear the words that accompanied it. + +A chamberlain in service now announced to Ulrika that baron Goertz, who +had just arrived from Aland, and was passing through Stockholm on his +way to Frederickshall, begged permission to wait upon her royal +highness. + +'It is not granted!' said Ulrika with cold disdain. + +'I know not,' whispered Taube to her, 'if your highness would do well +to render your displeasure palpable to this cunning man. The mortified +ambition of a parvenu is revengeful, and Goertz proceeds hence directly +to his majesty.' + +'Am I not mistress even in my own apartment!' cried Ulrika with +vehemence. 'It has come to a fine pass!' She arose from the table and +laid down her cards. 'I am indisposed,' said she to the chamberlain: +'am about to withdraw to my chamber, and can see no one.' + +The servant bowed and retired to deliver the ungracious message. The +princess called her ladies and hurried from the saloon, which was soon +filled with the timid murmurs of the courtiers. Taube took the arm of +Gyllenstierna, and walked up and down the room in a low and anxious +conversation with him. + +'My poor father! how hast thou with thy warm, and generous heart, +strayed to this cold and hostile kind!' cried Georgina, who had closely +observed the last scene;--and, careless of the remarks which her +disregard of etiquette might elicit, she hastened from the assembly to +greet her beloved father. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + +The fieldmarshal Rhenskioeld sat waiting, upon the sofa in the cabinet +of baron von Goertz. The latter returned from the palace, and his +indignation at the offensive answer he had received, gave way to the +joy of again meeting his friend. + +'I thank you, my worthy friend,' said he, embracing Rhenskioeld, 'that +you have complied with my request so promptly. It was _my_ duty to +visit you, but my hours are all numbered. I shall be compelled to labor +through the whole night, and in the morning I shall be on my way +towards Frederickshall.' + +'You come from Aland?' eagerly asked Rhenskioeld: 'what news from +thence?' + +'Thank God!' cried Goertz with clasped hands: 'I bring you peace with +Russia.' + +'Peace!' exclaimed Rhenskioeld, springing from his seat. 'Peace between +the shrewd czar, who never fails to follow up an advantage, and our +Charles, whom misfortune only renders the more inflexibly? It is +impossible! Even could you really obtain tolerable conditions yet would +the king never accept them.' + +'The splendid conditions which I bring will certainly be ratified by +him,' answered Goertz. 'Peter retains nothing of his conquests except +Livonia, a part of Ingermanland and Caralia. He yields back all +besides.' + +'Peter give any thing back!' screamed Rhenskioeld, with astonishment. + +'Russia,' proceeded Goertz, 'binds herself with us, to set upon the +throne of Poland the same Stanislaus whom she formerly chased from it, +and furnishes 80,000 men to enthrone the same august personage against +whom she has been fighting the last ten years.' + +'You must be relating to me, a fable from the thousand and one nights!' +said Rhenskioeld incredulously. + +'Russia,' proceeded Goertz, 'is to furnish shipping for the conveyance +of 10,000 Swedes to England to sustain the Pretender. In connection +with Sweden, she seizes upon Hanover. We take Bremen and Verden, +re-establish the duke of Holstein, force Prussia to give up her booty, +and compel the emperor to observe the treaty of Altranstadt.' + +'And now are you awake?' asked the fieldmarshal with a satirical smile: +'for thus do such narrations usually terminate, when the narrator has +only been dreaming.' + +Goertz stopped, and gazed at his auditor. He however conquered his +impetuosity, went to his writing desk, took from it a manuscript, and +with the exclamation, 'read,' gave it to the fieldmarshal. + +Rhenskioeld read--and as he read his eyes opened wider and wider, while +in the same ratio his brow became knit with anger, and he appeared to +struggle with some highly unpleasant feeling. Finally, he silently gave +back the paper, rose up, and took his hat and sword. + +'You appear to be convinced, now, sir fieldmarshal,' said Goertz: 'but +the conviction does not seem to please you, notwithstanding you have +had a great share in bringing about the peace. Had you not brought the +king to better thoughts when already the whole negociation threatened +to miscarry, I should never have arrived where I am to-day.' + +'Yes,' answered Rhenskioeld, coldly: 'it gives me pleasure to learn +that I have been the ladder upon which you have mounted to the +pinnacle, and I wish you joy of it.' + +He bowed very formally and departed. Goertz himself lighted him out. +'Another friend lost!' said he as he came back. 'I already perceive +that this peace is too advantageous for Rhenskioeld not to envy my +instrumentality in its conclusion.' + +Directly, he heard a slight knock at the door, and a delicate voice +asked, 'may we now come in?' + +'Walk in!' cried Goertz, who well knew the little voice, with a smile +of paternal pleasure, and his little daughter Magdalena, led by +Georgina, skipped into the room. With impetuous, feeling, Georgina fell +upon his neck, whilst Magdalena climbed upon his knees and compelled +him to take her in his arms. + +'Où peut-on être mieux qu'au sein de sa famille?' said the father, +kissing the little Magdalena right heartily. 'My own house, I verily +believe, is the only place in Sweden where I can meet with sincere +affection.' + +'Yes, indeed, my father,' said Georgina with a sigh. 'I daily perceive +more and more clearly how little justice you have to expect in a +country you are laboring to save. The audience this evening denied you +is a fresh instance. The princess was not ill--she feigned illness that +she might have a pretext for refusing to see you.' + +'It will be indeed an evil day for me,' said Goertz, smiling, 'when my +destiny shall be in the hands of Ulrika. She can never forgive me that +her brother now places that confidence in me which he has always +withheld from her. But how comes it that you, Georgina, with your +fifteen years, evince such deep observation?' + +Long did he look at her in deep meditation. 'In truth,' proceeded he, +'it appears to me that you have shot up wonderfully tall, and that +which with you women they call reason has developed itself with +wonderful rapidity. Right beauteous are you, also, and in your eyes I +see a kindling of enthusiasm. You cannot yet by any means have learned +that you have a heart?' + +Georgina, who during this sharp review had kept her eyes cast down, now +raised them timidly up and sought to read the expression of her +father's face. The kindness and good nature which she found impressed +there, gave her courage, and pressing his hand to her lips she threw +herself at his feet. + +'What means this?' asked he indignantly, withdrawing his hand. 'I am no +tyrant such as they portray in French tragedies, nor am I fond of +theatrical scenes in real life. Stand up if you wish me to listen to +you.' + +'Never, until you forgive me,' sobbed Georgina: 'I love!' + +'So my observation did not deceive me,' said her father. 'You love? a +little too early, I must confess. But stand up, and tell me at once +whom you love.' + +'The count Gyllenstierna,' lisped Georgina, in a scarcely audible +voice. + +'Poor child!' exclaimed Goertz, compassionately. 'That will be a +troublesome affair to arrange.' + +'That is what we have feared!' cried Georgina, wringing her hands and +rising up. + +'I would not at any rate bring forward any objections against the young +man,' proceeded Goertz. 'But both of you have wholly overlooked the +fact, that his father is one of my most decided enemies. I would rather +undertake to bring about a peace between Sweden and Denmark than +between him and me. + +The little Magdalena then threw her small, white arms round her +father's neck. 'Pray, pray,' implored she, 'give to poor Georgina her +Arwed; she loves him so very much.' + +'Magdalena then is your confidant?' Goertz asked Georgina good +humoredly: 'she knows even the christian name of your chosen one. But +children, this affair, indeed, takes me by surprise. However, for the +present, at least, I shall not say no. To the _yes_, it will be +necessary to gain the consent of another besides the weak father of a +beloved daughter. Meanwhile, I should like to become a little +acquainted with your Corydon. So bring him in, Georgina, for no doubt +you hold him in ambuscade ready for the occasion.' + +'You do me great injustice, dear father,' said Georgina, whose maiden +sensibility was touched. 'Arwed is in the Swedish camp, before +Frederickshall. He has already conquered a battery, for which the king +has named him a captain in the guards.' + +'That, I confess, is being far on the way to a fieldmarshalship:' said +Goertz, jestingly, to conceal his surprise. 'At present I rejoice that +your choice does you honor every way: what further may come, is in the +hands of God. The idea is very agreeable to me, through the medium of a +beloved daughter to connect myself with one of the noble houses of the +country in which I hope to naturalize myself by my unceasing labors for +its welfare. If the other party would only think the same! But old Nils +Gyllenstierna will have many and strong objections.' + +'So Arwed also thought,' said Georgina sorrowfully. + +'Yes, yes,' said Goertz, looking sadly forward: 'I have now in all +Sweden but one only friend, and my sole happiness is that he wears +Sweden's crown.' Thus saying, he rose up and ardently embraced his +daughters 'Retire to rest now, children,' said he: 'go and build +your airy castles, as brightly colored and dazzling as you please. And +if time destroy them, still will you have enjoyed the pleasures of +hope,--and that is much in a world whose joys consist almost entirely +in anticipation and remembrance. Go! I must yet watch and labor for +Sweden and for you. Rewarded by this land with hatred, from your hearts +I expect love and gratitude, and will therewith consider myself +compensated.' + +'All will yet end well, dear father,' said Georgina, consolingly. +'Since I have confessed to you my secret, and since you have received +it so kindly, a heavy weight is removed from my breast. I breathe again +with ease and joy, and already feel as if my aim was attained and +nothing more could be wanting in this world.' + +The girls retired, and Goertz closed the door after them. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + +The afternoon service of the first Advent Sunday had ended in the camp +before Frederickshall. The warriors were dispersing, and, arm in arm +with adjutant Kolbert, Arwed sauntered towards the nearest sutler's +barrack, to play a game of chess. The place was wholly-unoccupied, and +the hostess was standing at the door, waiting for her guests, her +parti-colored holiday dress serving as a sign board. The two friends +sat themselves down, with a flask of Burgundy, to the bloodless battle. +The sleet was lightly drizzling upon the hard frozen ground out of +doors. From the walls of the city and from high Fredericksteen the +heavy artillery sent a dull sound through the storm, whilst, in the +camp, the besieging laborers ceased from work to honor the consecrated +day of rest. The Sabbath stillness was only interrupted now and then by +a crash in the barracks and a cry from the soldiers, when one of the +enemy's balls happened to take effect. But that did not interrupt the +players. They had become so deeply interested in their game that they +did not once perceive how the room gradually became filled with +officers, many of whom placed themselves behind their chairs to +overlook the game. + +Suddenly, with angry impetuosity, Arwed took one of his opponent's +knights with his king. + +'Stop!' cried Kolbert, holding fast his officer. 'Your bishop will by +that movement remain uncovered, and I shall immediately take him.' + +'Take him,' said Arwed. 'Your knight is troublesome to me, and must +die.' + +'A mere exchange, for the sake of exchanging,--that is manifestly +contrary to the etiquette of the game!' + +'It was not a mere exchange,' protested Arwed. 'You had a mischievous +plan. Had you led him out, I were lost. Your knight in the place where +he stood was worth more than an ordinary officer, and I could no longer +defend myself against him. Wherefore I exchanged to advantage, and I +should always do the same under like circumstances. Even if my opponent +lose no more than myself by the movement, yet I win temporary relief at +least, break up his attack, and compel him to resort to new +man[oe]uvres.' + +'And to use the king like a subaltern officer is not civil,' grumbled +Kolbert. + +'My king shall not keep himself behind the cannon, like a Persian +shah,' answered Arwed. 'Whenever necessity requires it, he must expose +himself as well as one of his soldiers.' + +'A regular Charles XIIth,' cried some one behind him, with a scornful +laugh. Arwed turned suddenly round and perceived the chief engineer, +Megret, a Frenchman by birth, who with a satyr-like face was leaning +over the back of his chair. + +'I thank you for the comparison, colonel, even though it was ironically +intended,' said the youth in a decidedly cutting tone. 'Would to God +that we all, not excepting even you, were able to imitate the elevated +character of our noble king in good and evil fortune; what accomplished +men should we then be!' + +Megret bit his lips and retired to another table, where he got up a +company to play pharo. + +'This is my first campaign,' proceeded Arwed with enthusiasm: 'and I +have seen the king in battle only twice in my life, but that has +furnished sufficient proof of his worth as a brave warrior and skilful +commander. He is always great, but when he has his sword in his hand he +is more than man--almost a demi-god--and one feels tempted to worship +him.' + +'Not so, young man,' answered a hollow voice. 'That was a very improper +speech.' + +Arwed recognised the voice as one he had heard before. Raising his +eyes, he saw behind Kolbert's chair a meagre man about thirty years of +age, in the dress of a civilian. His close-bodied coat, with broad +turned-up sleeves, his long waistcoat and his small clothes, all of one +colour, ash-gray velvet, together with his dark colored wig, gave him +an uncommonly strange and solemn appearance, which his fixed and +expressive eye rendered still more disagreeable. + +Indignant at the reproof conveyed by the words of the stranger, Arwed +abruptly and harshly asked the gray form, 'what do you mean by that, +sir?' + +'I mean,' answered the gray coat, 'that it always makes my flesh crawl +to hear a true hero so excessively praised. His renown cannot be +increased thereby, and the old _Fatum_ becomes easily jealous of such +idolatry and oftentimes wreaks its vengeance upon the idol. Think of +the anticipations of the great Gustavus Adolphus, to whom Germany did +slavish homage in the altitude of his fortunes, and recollect his sad +fate.' + +'I do not like these nursery tales,' said Arwed angrily; 'and +superstition, when it makes lofty pretensions, is highly offensive to +me.' + +'You cannot know the man to whom you speak,' said captain count Posse, +stepping forward to appease Arwed. 'That we are here so near to +Frederickshall, and that you have here acquired your first laurels, you +may thank him alone. Through his deep science was general Duecker +enabled to construct the wooden pier between the bays of Stevemstadt +and Idefiall, over which our ships were transported upon ingenious +machines from one navigable water to the other.' + +'Is it possible! Swedenborg?' quickly exclaimed the softened Arwed with +joyful surprise, offering the hand of peace to the gray-coat. +'Swedenborg! Swebenborg!' the murmur ran through the company, and the +officers pressed around to catch a glance at the wonderful man. + +'Swedenborg!' cried Megret, laughingly, from the other table, 'do you +find yourself here again? What news do you bring with you? How stand +affairs in the celestial and subterranean regions?' + +'The angels axe weeping and the devils laughing!' answered Swedenborg +with awful earnestness. + +'And what say your spirits thereto?' sneeringly added the Frenchman. + +'They are silent in the presence of impure souls,' resumed the prophet +in a tone of thunder, which closed the lips of the scorner. + +'Is captain Gyllenstierna here?' cried adjutant general Siquier, +putting his head in at the door. + +'He is here,' answered Arwed, rising from his seat. + +'In an hour the king will expect you at his quarters,' said Siquier, +stepping to the pharo table. + +'Most certainly, he wishes to say a friendly word in relation to your +conduct in the late action,' observed count Posse. 'Your enemies, even, +must acknowledge that you have deserved it.' + +'Thank you, captain, for the acknowledgment that I did my duty,' said +Arwed modestly. 'Yet there were many others who did as much, if not +more, in that action.' + +'Whoso abaseth himself shall be exalted,' said Swedenborg, with +benevolent kindness, laying his hand upon Arwed's shoulder. + +'You are come opportunely, Siquier,' said Megret derisively. 'You have +long been desirous of having your horoscope cast. There stands a +professor of the high art, the great Swedenborg. Give him a good word.' + +'It would occupy too much of my time,' answered Siquier. 'It takes +long, I have heard, to make the calculations, and I must shortly return +to the prince. But Swedenborg must also be an experienced chiromancer, +and can foretell my good fortune from my hand.' + +With malicious levity, he held out his hand to the insulted man. But +the latter threw it forcibly back, exclaiming, 'your hand smells of +blood. I have nothing to do with you!' + +The scoffer stood a long time, as if suddenly struck by a thunderbolt, +staring with amazement at the prophet. Soon collecting himself, +however, he strode out of the room. + +'What was that?' asked count Posse, looking inquiringly at Megret. The +latter, visibly disturbed, shuffled the cards anew, and at length said +with a forced smile, 'one fool makes many others.' + +'That was too much in earnest for folly,' thought Posse. + +'If it be agreeable to you,' said Arwed in ill humor to Kolbert, 'we +will leave our game unfinished. I have no longer the ability to play. +My head has become unusually disturbed by the strange conversation to +which I have been compelled to listen.' + +Kolbert, acquiescing, threw the chessmen in a heap. Arwed stepped to +the pharo table and seized some cards which were quickly thrown to him. + +'Take the king,' said Swedenborg to him: 'he is the banker's enemy.' + +Megret was evidently startled, and with a Vehemence vastly +disproportionate to the occasion, he asked Swedenborg, 'what do you +mean? Do you intend to insult me?' + +'He who is evil has evil thoughts,' answered Swedenborg quietly. 'I +gave to my young friend good advice, founded upon my calculations of +the game.' + +'I prefer to advise myself,' said Arwed,--impatient of the +obtrusiveness of the stranger,--retaining the old cards which +uninterruptedly fell from the banker. + +'Make the experiment with the king once, to gratify me,' begged Kolbert +in an under tone, 'if only from curiosity. If you lose we shall then be +enabled to ridicule your adviser.' + +'Not willingly,' said Arwed. Finally, however, he set the card which +had been recommended.--It won. + +'His majesty bears himself bravely,' said Kolbert, laughing; 'the +banker can obtain no advantage over him.' + +Megret angrily threw to Arwed his winnings, at the same time fixing his +rolling eyes upon the prophet. A passionate remark appeared to hover +upon his tongue, but he suppressed it and the playing proceeded. + +'How stands it now with our expedition against Drontheim?' asked +Kolbert at the close of the game. 'I am surprised that we have had no +well-founded intelligence from thence for so long a time.' + +'According to my calculations,' said Posse, 'Armfelt must have already +entered Drontheim. Have you no news from thence, Herr Swedenborg? What +is our army about?' + +'They are plundering the copper mines of Roeraas,' answered Swedenborg +coolly. + +'That would not be very agreeable to me!' said Posse jestingly, 'The +position is somewhat distant from the capital, and would give the +appearance of a retreat. This time, however, I firmly believe in a +glorious victory for our arms. Do you not, also?' + +'Excuse my answering,' said Swedenborg sorrowfully. 'The powerful +elements hate mankind, and they are the stronger!' + +The officers looked thoughtfully at each other, and a profound +stillness pervaded the assembly. + +'Let the Finlanders protect their own skins,' said Kolbert, finally +breaking the mournful silence. 'We will stick to Frederickshall, which +we have already in our hands. The golden lion battery has been won +after a brilliant engagement. When once the trenches are pushed a +little further, then with a resolute escalade, we shall be there.' + +'For God's sake, my dear friend!' said Swedenborg, anxiously, 'rely not +so confidently upon the uncertain fortune of war! Bound to the wild +steed of accident, the goddess of fortune ranges through the world--and +when she stops and looks back upon her bloody and smoking path, she +finds that she has only described a hopeless circle. She stands upon +the point whence she started, and all the life and happiness, which she +has trampled down in her furious course, is offered up in vain.' + +'You speak so learnedly that I cannot wholly understand you,' +laughingly observed Kolbert; 'but I gather from your conversation, that +you lack the true soldier's faith. You have done well, therefore, in +consecrating yourself to the pen. The sword would make you too deeply +anxious. We, on the contrary, when our king leads us forth, would +cheerfully grapple with the devil himself in his own dominions, and +sing over him the _te deum prænumerando_.' + +'And who can guarantee, proud man,' asked Swedenborg with a piercing +glance, 'that your king will see the breaking of another morning, to +lead you on to strife and victory?' + +He speedily withdrew. An indignant murmur arose among the officers; 'It +is almost too bad,' said count Posse. + +'Yes, indeed!' grumbled Megret. 'And the worst of it is, that they +should permit such fools to run about freely in the camp, exciting and +perplexing weak minds.' + +'Swedenborg certainly is not a fool,' said Posse; 'but a warning +example of the disorder which fanciful ideas may create in a clear and +ripe understanding.' + +'Besides, he is never once original,' said Kolbert. 'The prophecy of +the king's approaching death has been circulating through the camp for +several days.' + +'Original or copy,' said Megret, spitefully, 'one should not publish +his fanciful ideas on every occasion. And whatever of sound +understanding he may have, according to the count's opinion, might be +allowed by all parties to circulate freely, and no harm done.' + +At this moment Siquier re-entered with evident agitation, and whispered +to Megret, 'the king visits the trenches this evening.' + +'Diable!' cried Megret, snapping his fingers. 'Cannot you dissuade him +from it?' + +'Dissuade him!' said Siquier. 'Dost thou not know the king? Make your +preparations.' + +'To-morrow evening I shall have the honor to give the gentlemen their +revenge,' said Megret courteously, closing his box. 'I must now repair +to the trenches, Come, Siquier, our way lies in the same direction for +some distance, and I have yet much to say to you.' + +The two Frenchmen went, forth together, arm in arm. Arwed followed +them, out, and saw that they were engaged in very earnest conversation +and struck their hands together with much vehemence. The circumstance +surprised him, he knew not wherefore, and he made an effort to catch +something of their conversation, which was carried on in rather a loud +voice. The tones came distinctly to his ear in the stillness of the +evening, but he could not understand a word of it, and soon convinced +himself that they were conversing in a language whose barbarous sounds +were unknown to him. 'What can all this mean?' he asked himself, +looking dubiously after the two officers until they disappeared from +his eyes into the trenches. + +'The hour has elapsed,' suddenly observed some one near him. 'You may +as well go now to the king, sir captain.' + +Arwed peered about him through the evening dusk, and thought he +perceived near him the tall, meagre form of Swedenborg. + +'How came you here, sir, taking so active a part in my affairs?' asked +he morosely. + +'I have perceived in you a strong mind and a pure heart,' answered +Swedenborg: 'and for that reason I consider you as one of those chosen +vessels of the Lord, of whom he has need in these wicked times. +Therefore I conjure you to repair instantly to the king and stir not +from his side until this night is past. I am convinced that there is +danger of most fearful doings, as I have recently observed appalling +signs in the heavens.' + +'Spare me your astrological dreamings,' answered Arwed impatiently. 'So +long as God leaves me in possession of my senses, I can never give +credence to them.' + +'Do you always judge so hastily and uncharitably, my young warrior?' +asked Swedenborg, mildly reproaching him: 'and do you absolutely +despise and reject every thing that your weak understanding cannot +comprehend? Know you the central power of nature, that point in +infinite space whence issue the streams of power in an eternal spiral +motion, bringing forth the forms of life and activity in endless +succession? And while you remain ignorant of all these things, how can +you presume to reject calculations founded upon this eternal basis?' + +'I cannot argue with you,' answered Arwed, 'while I do not understand +you:--and, in the mean time, I must be permitted to consider as perfect +nonsense what you have been serving up to me as the highest wisdom.' + +'Hold me and my doctrines in what light you please,' said Swedenborg, +'so you but fulfill my request. Lose not sight of the king, during this +night. The powers of hell are busy.' + +'What can threaten the hero from which I may be able to defend him?' +asked Arwed. + +'He who eats my bread tramples me under foot,' chanted Swedenborg, with +a deep hollow voice. 'Thus it happened to Gustavus, by the fourth rider +who left the camp with him. Do you know the tale from the faithful +Hastenfeld, of his king's assassination?' + +'What mean you by that?' asked Arwed earnestly.--But the prophet had +disappeared. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + +Arwed arrived at the king's quarters.--Upon giving his name, the +ordnance officer on duty showed him into the royal chamber, without +further annunciation. With a prayer book in his lap, and a miniature in +his hand which he was attentively viewing, Charles sat by the chimney, +in which some sheets of paper were burning. A heap of glowing ashes +showed that a large quantity of paper had been previously destroyed in +the same manner.--Arwed approached the king, who, sitting with his back +towards him and absorbed in the contemplation of the miniature, was not +aware of his presence. Arwed saw and recognized the picture. It was the +portrait of Gustavus Adolphus. Then suddenly Swedenborg's prophecy came +into his mind, and a secret apprehension respecting the hero, drew from +him a deep sigh. + +The king looked around. 'Aha, captain Gyllenstierna!' said he, rising +up and carefully putting aside the prayer book and portrait. 'You +showed much bravery against the enemy in yesterday's action. You are +too young for the rank of major, and I do not like to give stars and +orders. Have you any favor to ask?' + +'This commendation from my king is the greatest favor that could be +conferred upon me,' answered Arwed. 'If your majesty will but continue +as kindly disposed towards me, I shall be more than rewarded.' + +'No!' said the king vehemently, 'I will not remain your debtor. God may +call me to himself to-day or to-morrow, and then must my earthly +accounts be balanced. Ask some favor of me. I am well disposed towards +you.' + +'Now or never!' said Arwed to himself, and turning to the king: 'I love +the daughter of your majesty's minister, baron von Goertz: the +animosity of our respective fathers opposes an insurmountable obstacle +to our union: vouchsafe, your majesty, to intercede for us.' + +'You are a simpleton!' replied the king scornfully, while with long and +rapid strides he paced up and down the chamber. 'Silly request!' +exclaimed he after a while, smiling in his peculiar manner: 'and I +think it unjust, since you know my opinion of matrimony.' After which, +he walked two or three times up and down the room, and then stopping +directly in front of Arwed, asked him, 'you are so good a soldier, +Gyllenstierna, how have you been able to attach yourself to a woman?' + +'Baroness von Goertz,' answered Arwed, 'is so lovely that your majesty +would find it natural enough were you once to see her.' + +'That may you very naturally believe,' answered the king smilingly. +After a pause, shaking his head, he observed, 'I only wish to know what +delight men can find in what is called love?' + +'It is indeed the greatest happiness in life, your majesty,' answered +Arwed with enthusiasm. + +'It would not be well for me that it should be so, for then should I +have missed the greatest good,' said the king. 'Yet will a place in +history always remain to me, and fame with posterity!' He walked to the +chimney, and, collecting the coals together with his foot, observed, 'I +will cause her father to be written to. I will speak to Goertz myself. +I expect him about this time from Aland.' + +'Your majesty!'--stammered the surprised and delighted youth. + +'It is very well!' said the king, interrupting him, and at that moment +Siquier entered. + +'Your majesty is now about to visit the trenches,' said Arwed, +recollecting Swedenborg's request. 'May I be allowed to accompany you? +I might, perhaps, learn something practically of the duties +appertaining to a siege.' + +The king kindly nodded assent. Siquier made a disagreeable face, and +they started. + +At the entrance of the trenches they were received by count Schwerin, +who commanded there, captain Posse and adjutant Kolbert; and not +without some embarrassment, came colonel Megret to meet them. The king +now sent away Posse and Kolbert upon some secret errand, and proceeded +with Megret and Siquier into the trench. Arwed followed at some +distance. It was a bitter cold, moonless night, but the stars shone +clear. The Danes fired incessantly from Frederickshall, and their balls +often struck within the walls of the trench; but the king, paying no +attention to it, proceeded quietly forward with his companions. They +now came to a place where the passage in the trench made an angle with +the parallel, and from beyond which the pickaxes and shovels of the +sappers could be heard. + +There the king suddenly stopped and leaned upon his long sword. 'No +farther advanced, Megret?' asked he, with evident displeasure. + +'The soil is frozen hard, your majesty!' apologized the latter, +somewhat perplexed. 'Were we compelled to open the trenches through +rocks, it would not be much more difficult.' + +'There has been time enough!' said Charles. 'I am very much +dissatisfied!' + +'I will pledge my head,' said Megret, 'that we have the fortress in +eight days!' + +'We shall see,' answered the king, kneeling upon the inner scarp; +leaning his head upon the parapet with his face turned towards the +enemy, he looked long and anxiously towards the sappers, who were +quietly and assiduously pursuing their labors. + +At this moment a confused noise was heard from the camp. 'Go and see +what is the matter, Gyllenstierna,' commanded the king: 'and bring me a +report.' + +'Do you command it, your majesty?' replied Arwed, with a heavy heart; +for at such a moment he dared not leave the king alone with the two +Frenchmen. + +'Hasten, captain,' whispered Siquier to him. 'The king loves not +loiterers, and to-day, especially, he is not in the best humor.' + +Arwed obeyed with a sigh. As he came out of the trenches all had become +still again, and from count Posse, whom he met, he learned that two +unruly horses had been the whole cause of the alarm. While they were +yet speaking of it Swedenborg came hastily up to them. With an ice-cold +hand he seized Arwed's and drew him hastily aside. + +'Where have you left the king?' asked he, with much earnestness. + +'At the extremity of the trench,' answered Arwed. 'Megret and Siquier +are with him.' + +'Oh, why have you absented yourself from your lord?' cried Swedenborg, +wringing his hands. 'I begged of you so earnestly!' + +'By his command;'--answered Arwed, now much alarmed. + +'For God's sake return immediately to him,' supplicated Swedenborg, +dragging him forward. 'God grant that we come not too late!' + +They both proceeded rapidly along the trench. In the narrow passage, +they were met by Siquier. + +'Where is the king?' quickly asked Arwed of him. + +'That is what I wished to ask of you!' returned Siquier, with an +insolent yet trembling voice. 'I left him soon after you did, and in +the darkness cannot find him again.' + +'That is strange!' said Arwed. 'You had better go with me, and let us +seek our lord where I left him in your company.' + +Siquier reluctantly obeyed. They came finally to the old place, which +was well known to Arwed. Already at some, distance he saw the king +still in the same position, leaning upon the parapet. At the same time +Megret, joining them, suddenly approached the king and bent over him. + +'He is dead!' said he after a while, very quietly. + +'The king dead!' shrieked Arwed, with wild amazement, and running to +the nearest guard post, he immediately returned with a blazing torch. +The light disclosed a horrid scene. Covered with blood, Charles's +beautiful hero-like form rested upon the inner scarp of the trench. +His head had sunk down upon the parapet. On the right temple was the +death-wound. The left eye was sunken in; the right, strained wholly out +of its orbit, stared horribly forth; and the right hand, which held the +hilt of his sword with a convulsive grasp, proved that the brave +spirit, even on the instant of its flight, was disposed to resist the +impending death. + +A long and fearful pause succeeded the discovery. 'The play is out!' +finally observed Megret, breaking the general silence: 'We may now go +to supper.' + +Arwed looked shudderingly upon the man who could treat the sudden and +awful death of his general and king with such cool insolence--and at +that moment a horrible suspicion pervaded his soul. + +'This sad occurrence must be concealed from the troops,' said Siquier. +'It would entirely dispirit them. I will merely inform the prince of +Hesse, and he can command what further is to be done.' + +He departed in haste. Megret followed him. Arwed remained with +Swedenborg by the corpse, holding fast its lifeless left hand, and +covering it with his kisses and tears. + +'So, it is thy fate to be destroyed by assassination, thou kingly +hero!' mourned the faithful Swedenborg. 'Why couldst thou not have +fallen worthy of thyself, by the hand of an honorable enemy, in the +open field of battle?' + +'Let us not judge too rashly and uncharitably,' said Arwed, combating, +in Swedenborg's, his own suspicions. 'That the king was hit by one of +the balls from the batteries of the enemy, is more probable than the +monstrous crime which you seem to conjecture.' + +'The king's face was turned toward the enemy,' said Swedenborg, with +grave significancy: 'and the ball hit him on the right side. The +calibre, to judge from the size of the wound, was too small for a heavy +gun, and no musket would reach this place from the walls of +Frederickshall.' + +'Impossible!' cried Arwed. 'Who could have projected such a crime--who +could have committed it?' + +'He who eats my bread tramples me under foot,--was done to Gustavus by +the fourth man who rode with him out of the camp:'--said Swedenborg in +a chanting tone, as if in answer to both questions. The trench had now +become illuminated with torches and filled with warriors. Through the +hastening crowd of officers pressed the prince of Hesse. + +'It is too true!' stammered he, palsied by the horrid spectacle, +and trembling in every limb. 'Who was present when my deceased +brother-in-law was struck?' asked he at length with a trembling voice. + +'God only can answer that question, your highness,' said Swedenborg. +'God, who with his heavenly, thousand-starred eyes has seen what has +happened here. We found the royal corpse alone.' + +'Alone,' cried the prince, 'alone has ended the life of the hero whose +warlike deeds have filled all Europe with fear and admiration! What is +human greatness?' + +Megret and Siquier now returned with four grenadiers of the guards, who +with sad, lingering steps, brought forward a litter. + +'Let the body be brought to head-quarters, Siquier,' commanded the +prince: 'and keep the king's death secret until we have taken such +measures as the occasion may require. The generals will in the mean +time assemble at my quarters in council of war. Let sentinels be placed +on every avenue towards Sweden, and let no one venture to leave the +camp until further orders.' + +'And general Duecker?'--asked Siquier, artfully, as if he wished to +remind the prince of something of importance. + +'He shall immediately depart with his corps,' answered the prince, +after a moment's reflection, 'and traverse the passes toward Denmark. +Bear to him the order,' Yet one look of horror cast he upon the dead +form of his brother-in-law, and then hastily departed. + +With pert insolence Siquier advanced to the corpse, threw over it a +soldier's gray cloak, placed his own hat upon the insensible head, and +made a sign to the grenadiers. The latter advanced weeping, and placing +the dead body in the litter, closed it. + +'If you are asked on the way whom you bear,' said Siquier, as they +raised the litter, 'answer captain Carlberg.' + +The mournful train moved forward. Siquier picked up the bloody hat of +the king, which lay upon the ground, and followed. With sad murmurs the +officers separated. Swedenborg also had disappeared. Arwed remained +standing alone, still mechanically holding the torch on high, staring +unconsciously upon the bloody ground from which its light was +reflected. At length recollecting himself, he angrily thrust the torch +in the snow upon the parapet until its sparkling and crackling flame +was extinguished. 'Die! thou paltry flame!' exclaimed he, with +uncontrollable grief: 'die! This night Sweden's light is extinguished +and never, never more will my poor country see the dawn of happiness.' + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + +As Arwed emerged from the trenches he was met by adjutant Kolbert. 'It +is well that I have found you,' said he eagerly: 'I have been some time +seeking you. Come directly with me.' + +'Where?' asked Arwed with moody apathy. + +'To general Duecker's,' quickly answered Kolbert. + +'There are collected all those who in their hearts were truly devoted +to our fallen hero. The meeting relates to matters of the highest +consequence, which must be discussed in all haste. It is asked, who now +shall wear the crown in our good Sweden?' + +'Has the army to decide that question?' asked Arwed earnestly. + +'Certainly!' said Kolbert, 'and that according to the anciently +consecrated right of the sword, as formerly exercised by the prætorians +of Rome. Only come with me. There you will not only hear the _how_, but +the _wherefore_, about which, pedantlike, you always first ask.' + +He drew Arwed with him towards general Duecker's quarters. They were +already crowded with generals and officers, who were engaged in low and +eager conversation. Suddenly they separated, forming a large circle, +into the middle of which stepped the worthy old Duecker. + +'The king is dead!' said he with an agitated voice. 'In the midst of +your affliction for this great loss, I waive until a more suitable time +the important question,--How has the hero fallen? Our present duty is, +faithfully to guard the vacant throne as becomes faithful vassals and +warriors, and to take care that the crown be set upon a worthy head. +You know, comrades, that there are two hands which will be stretched +out for it, and in the opinion of many it is yet doubtful whether the +nephew or the sister of Charles has the best right. I am indeed +entirely convinced, that the son of the elder sister should take +precedence of the younger. But the heroes of the quill may hereafter +fight out these subtleties, if it should become necessary. At present I +abide simply by the will of my king, who has so often been our guiding +star in battle, as the pole star of heaven guides the mariner through +opposing storms. Charles had a father's love for his nephew, and was +reverenced with filial tenderness by him in return. He took him with +himself to the field, that he might under his own eyes train him to +become his worthy successor. For his sister he always had an aversion, +and the thought of female government was as hateful to him, as, since +the days of the apostate Christina, it must be to every true Swede. +Wherefore I believe we fulfill the unwritten testament of the great +departed in raising the duke of Holstein to Sweden's throne. He already +has so far deserved it, that his connection with this realm has cost +him his possessions. + +'But whatever be done must be done quickly--for the husband of the +other pretender to the crown is in the camp, and already very active in +availing himself of his field-marshalship to aid her pretensions. I, in +whom he least confides, have already been ordered to depart with my +corps, and I dare not venture to disobey, unless protected by a counter +order from the king. I therefore propose that a deputation from +ourselves repair immediately to the duke, and beg of him to show +himself to the troops. We will have the regiments under arms, proclaim +him king in front of them, and for the rest depend upon our good +swords. Is that your will, my friends?' + +'Long live our king Charles XIIIth!' cried the assembled warriors with +one voice, and every sword leaped from its scabbard. While most of the +officers distributed themselves through the soldiers' barracks, to +prepare them for the great movement, Duecker chose, from among those +who remained, the ambassadors who should accompany him to the duke. +Arwed found himself one of the number, and the delegates immediately +repaired to the duke's quarters. The sentinels refused them entrance. +The discussion which this occasioned brought out the valet-de-chambre, +Koepstorf, the favorite and confidant of the young prince. + +'It is impossible, your excellency, to announce you now,' said he to +Duecker. 'His grace is so shaken by the intelligence of the king's +death that he has yielded himself up entirely to his sad feelings, and +cannot turn his attention to anything else. The gentlemen must come +again to-morrow morning.' + +'My God!' cried Duecker, 'you desire a delay of many hours, when +Sweden's fate, perhaps, hangs upon as many moments. In consequence of +the king's death, the duke is lawful heir to the crown. We have opened +the way to the throne for him. The army is upon his side. He has only +to make his appearance and harangue the troops, and they will call him +to the royal station, in the possession of which he will be protected +by his good right. But if he delay, his aunt will gain possession; and, +once upon the throne, she will thence obtain the power to maintain +herself there. I conjure you, friend, to present all this to your lord, +and beseech him to hear the representations of his true supporters, and +not neglect the favorable moment which for him, perhaps, may never +occur again.' + +'I will do what I can,' answered Koepstorf, shrugging his shoulders and +going in. + +There stood the well disposed warriors, patiently waiting to ascertain +if the young prince would stoop to take the crown which they were +desirous of laying at his feet. The valet-de-chambre was gone a long +time. The cold morning wind blew keenly from the direction of Sweden, +and they wrapped themselves close in their mantles. At length they +heard the trampling of horses near them, and a troop of some ten +horsemen trotted hastily by them and took the way towards Stroemstadt. + +'Do you know what that means?' asked Kolfaert of the general. 'It is +colonel Baumgardt, who, by the command of the fieldmarshal, goes to +meet and arrest the baron von Goertz.' + +'Right!' cried Duecker with bitterness. 'A crime more or less, is of no +consequence, when a crown is to be usurped, and it is highly politic to +rob the prince of his best supporters. He is, however, little troubled +by all this, as it seems, and will perhaps patiently wait until he is +himself arrested in his own quarters.' + +The valet-de-chambre now again came out. 'My exertions have not been +successful,' said he despondingly. 'I have placed the whole subject +before the prince, but have not obtained a favorable hearing. He merely +allows me to say to your excellency that he cannot speak with any +person now.' + +Great dissatisfaction was expressed by the whole company, and Duecker +angrily stamped his foot. 'It is a pity we have taken so much pains and +incurred so much danger,' said he. 'Nothing indeed now remains for us +but obedience, as I have no desire to set my gray head upon a cast for +an ungrateful man. Bear to my regiments the order for their departure,' +said he to his adjutant, and, cursing and swearing by the way, he +returned to his quarters. + +Oppressed with concern for the father of his beloved, Arwed followed +the general. 'Grant me one request,' said he urgently as they entered +the quarters of the latter. 'There will now be very little to do here +in the way of fighting, and my presence is no longer necessary. Procure +me a furlough to ride back to Stockholm.' + +'To Stockholm?' asked Duecker, startled. 'Now, directly? For what +purpose, captain? Do you wish to become one of the wheels in the +machinery of politics which are now destructively working in opposition +to each other? You appear to me to be much too honest-hearted for +that.' + +'From Charles's best friend I will conceal nothing,' said Arwed +resolutely. 'According to my calculation Goertz must now either be in +Stockholm or will soon arrive there. I would warn that true servant of +our late king, that he may be able to escape from the hands of his +revengeful enemies.' + +'For which thought may heaven reward you!' cried Duecker, 'but I fear +the issue. In the first place, the prince of Hesse is your chief, and +it will be difficult to procure from him the desired permission, and +secondly, you will hardly be able to outstrip the speed of the officers +already under way for the arrest of Goertz.' + +'Obtain me but the permission, general,' persisted Arwed: 'the rest +shall be my care. I ride a Norman of unequalled speed and bottom.' + +'I will make the effort,' said Duecker; 'but hardly hope for success. +Since Charles's death I am only the _late_ Duecker, and my influence +has become a shadow.' + +He had proceeded as far as the door when he was met by colonel Brenner. +'I come to take leave of you, my old friend,' said the latter, heartily +embracing the general. 'I go this moment with post-horses to the +capital.' + +'Every body seems to wish to go to Stockholm tonight,' said Duecker. +'What hast thou to ask there?' + +'His royal highness the prince of Hesse, as he already suffers himself +to be called,' answered Brenner ironically, 'has already sent forward +his beloved and trusty Siquier with the mournful news. It might +afterwards, however, have occurred to him that it would not seem +exactly proper to leave the communication of so important an event to +the equivocal Frenchman. Wherefore must an honorable Swede follow him +as the messenger of death; and as I might perhaps be troublesome here, +I am in mercy selected for that duty.' + +'Will you do me a pleasure and take the captain with you?' said +Duecker. 'He has a sudden and urgent call to Stockholm, and may not in +any other way be able to obtain leave of absence.' + +'The prince has allowed me to choose my companion,' answered Brenner; +'and what would I not do to pleasure you? We set off directly, captain. +Farewell till happier times, my Duecker!' + +He hastened forth. Arwed gratefully pressed the general's hand, who in +return drew him to his heart. 'God protect you and bless your +undertaking!' said the latter with emotion--and Arwed rushed forth in +the cold, gray dawn of the awakening mom. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + +Courtiers and lacqueys were running about and jostling each other in +confusion and alarm, when colonel Brenner with Arwed mounted the broad +stone steps of the royal palace upon the Ritterholm. With great trouble +they found a valet-de-chambre, who announced them to the princess +Ulrika. As they entered the ante-chamber, the folding doors of the +princess' room opened, and Siquier, with shy glances, brushed past +them. At a motion of the valet they entered the audience room. Ulrika +was standing by a pier-table, upon which lay the king's perforated and +bloody hat, holding, with a decent appearance of grief, a handkerchief +before her dry eyes. + +'I have the melancholy honor,' said Brenner, drawing his despatches +from his bosom, 'to present to your royal highness these letters from +your princely husband.' + +'Siquier has already informed me of the sad occurrence,' answered +Ulrika, taking the despatch with great coolness: 'nevertheless I thank +you for the zeal with which you have executed the commission of the +hereditary prince.' + +'This officer,' continued Brenner, pointing to Arwed, 'was one of the +first who found the hero's corpse. He can inform your royal highness of +all the circumstances accompanying this so wholly unexpected death.' + +'Wherefore the details?' cried Ulrika, 'which serve no purpose but to +lacerate my heart. If my maternal love for this land forces upon me the +conviction that this death is fortunate for Sweden, yet will the ties +of blood claim their holy rights--and although I could never boast of +my royal brother's love, yet my heart feels his loss with a sorrow +which needs no additional poignancy.' + +At this moment the chief governor, baron Taube, entered the room with a +face in which alarm, feigned sorrow, and ill-concealed joy, struggled +for mastery. + +'You know it already, governor?' cried Ulrika, advancing hastily to +meet him. + +He silently bowed assent. + +'I am confident that in you I have a truly devoted friend,' said she to +him with a gracious stateliness, extending her hand for him to kiss. + +'My life for your royal highness!' cried Taube with graceful +enthusiasm, tenderly kissing the proffered hand. + +'What should be done first, think you?' she asked him confidentially. + +'I advise that the senate should be assembled this evening,' answered +Taube. 'To be sure its numbers are not complete. Three of its members +are with the army as generals, but in their stead the royal counsellors +are devoted to your royal highness with their lives and fortunes.' + +'If ever I have a voice in these lands,' said Ulrika, warmly, 'these +good gentlemen shall not much longer wear these titles. I have never +approved of my father's course in making them servants of his own will, +instead of counsellors of the empire.' + +'The senate know the gracious intuitions of your royal highness,' +answered Taube; 'and I am certain of the happy consequences. If any +thing could make me fear, it would be the cabals which baron Goertz +will not fail to set on foot for the young duke.' + +'Goertz is taken care of!' cried Ulzika, with a look of hate. 'While we +are now speaking here, all power to do further mischief is, as I hope, +taken from him. Let only his house be promptly occupied and his papers +and property secured.' + +'Then there are his Holstein accomplices,' added Taube: 'Dernath, +Ecklef, Paulsen, Sallern----' + +'They must all be arrested this night,' decided Ulrika; 'all at the +same hour, so that no one may be warned by the fate of the others. See +to it, dear governor.' + +'I will have the whole garrison under arms,' answered Taube, bowing. +'This business must be carried through with rapidity and decision, as +every thing depends upon the proper employment of the present moment.' + +'And tell me, dear baron,' asked Ulrika, grasping both of his hands +with the most winning kindness, 'the senate will not compel me to buy +the crown at too high a price, will they?' + +'In relation to that,' answered Taube, with a warning glance towards +the officers, who in the heat of the conversation had been overlooked +until now; 'in relation to that, I will lay my humble opinions before +your royal highness at a more private audience.' + +Somewhat alarmed, Ulrika turned towards Brenner, and her glance fell +directly upon Arwed's large blue eyes, sparkling with displeasure, +which were fixed steadily upon her. She started back, and, with +difficulty summoning composure, asked, 'who is that moody young man?' + +'My companion, the captain count Gyllenstierna,' answered Brenner for +his silent friend. 'A brave soldier. He was the first upon the walls of +the Golden Lion, and won the particular approbation of our late blessed +king.' + +'Gyllenstierna?' asked Taube, eagerly. 'He is then the son of the +senator, and was sent by his father to Armfelt's army.' + +'The worthy old man was always one of our truest friends,' said Ulrika, +interrupting him, and bowing graciously to Arwed. And it will be most +agreeable to us to learn that the son follows in the father's +footsteps. We shall remember to bestow upon him some peculiar mark of +our favor.' + +She held out her hand for him to kiss. But Arwed, highly incensed at +all he had heard, would not be compelled to show this mark of reverence +to a woman whom he hated. He stood stiff and motionless, and the hand +of the queen remained in expectancy, unclasped and unkissed, suspended +in the air. + +Shocked at the gross impropriety, the chief governor hemmed +emphatically. Colonel Brenner anxiously endeavored to push Arwed +forward, but he would not move a limb, and the hand of the princess +finally sank down by her side. + +'The young man is certainly not well!' said Ulrika, with much +bitterness. + +'After his long and forced journey it would not be strange,' said +Brenner, apologetically. 'He has need of rest. Is it the pleasure of +your royal highness that we now retire?' + +'You can receive your despatches early in the morning from the +governor,' answered Ulrika with displeasure; 'and for your companion, +may he in time learn the courtesy due from every gentleman to a lady, +even though she were not the sister of his king.' + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + +'Most assuredly,' said Brenner to Arwed, as soon as they had left the +palace behind them, 'you have a very peculiar talent for making your +way at court. You ought, at the least, to be made a master of +ceremonies. I have taken you with me to an audience once, but I would +never do it again.' + +'Had you left me behind you, as I earnestly begged of you, colonel,' +answered Arwed, 'you would have spared me the pain of witnessing the +thoroughly disgusting scene, and yourself the mortification of my +awkwardness.' + +'You do not understand the matter,' blustered Brenner. 'It was proper +for me to present my companion; and in doing so I was actuated by the +best intentions towards you. If our own hearts bled at the sad news we +brought, yet I knew well that it would be right welcome here; and the +face that brings good news may expect to win the good will of those in +authority. And every thing was going on so well, and the warm sun of +favor was beginning to shine clear and bright upon you, when satan must +come all at once into your back so that you could not bend it, into +your arm that you could not stretch it out, and into your lips that you +could not kiss,--and now the opportunity has passed for time and +eternity!' + +'Let it be past!' cried Arwed, 'I cannot outwardly honor what I +inwardly despise.' + +'You will soon leave the royal service then;' grumbled the colonel: +'for in that service cases of the kind may often occur.' + +'Have you any further need of me, colonel?' asked Arwed, his glance +impatiently turning towards the palace of Goertz. + +'For to-night, no,' answered Brenner. 'But come to my quarters early in +the morning. We will then make arrangements for our return, I will not +trouble you to go with me to the governor's. After the captious remarks +which he let fall he might have various dangerous questions to ask +you--and if your hitherto passive awkwardness should become active, I +might in the end have cause to repent my willingness to take you with +me.' + +'If I, however,' asked Arwed, seized with a sudden presentiment, +'should have occasion to set out upon a journey to-night, would you +give me a furlough upon my word of honor to appear at the camp before +Frederickshall in eight days?' + +'Come not to me with such a strange request!' cried the colonel with +vehemence. 'I have no authority nor power to grant you such a +furlough.' + +'But when the object is to save a good man?' asked Arwed earnestly, +seizing the colonel's hand and looking anxiously in his face with his +beautiful clear eyes. + +The colonel gave him a piercing glance from under his gray bushy +eye-brows. But the severity of his eye soon melted into a more kindly +expression. 'My old friend Duecker is well disposed towards you,' said +he: 'and there is no falsehood in your face. I see that you are one who +will keep your word. Go upon your own terms whither you will.' + +'May God reward you!' cried Arwed, hastening away. + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + +Dark and gigantic in the evening dusk arose the proud palace of the +baron von Goertz, and the unlighted windows and the perfect silence +which reigned in and about it gave it the unpleasant appearance of a +deserted spectre-castle. Only in one room shone a dull light which +resembled the blue flame that burns in ruins over buried treasures. + +'That is Georgina's light,' said Arwed to himself, agitated with the +conflicting emotions of sorrow and joy. He pushed open a little side +door near the great portal, and creeping softly up the deserted stairs +passed through the echoing corridors towards Georgina's chamber. As he +entered he saw his beloved sitting at a table and with streaming eyes +reading the note in which he had warned her of her father's danger. Her +right hand supported her drooping head,--her left had been taken +possession of by the little Magdalena, who was endeavoring to +administer friendly and childlike consolation. + +'Heaven be praised!' said Arwed. 'Thou hast received my letter in time, +and thy father is saved!'-- + +'Would to God it were so!' cried Georgina, with a sorrow so deep that +it left no room in her heart for joy at again seeing her lover. 'My +father departed yesterday for Frederickshall. He is accustomed to +travel with rapidity, and before my courier can overtake him he will be +already in the hands of his enemies.' + +'That depends upon who the courier is,' said Arwed encouragingly. 'I +have determined to save the father of my beloved, and to spare my +country the commission of a crime. I will set forth, and should a +couple of horses fall dead under me it will be a small matter. I am +only held back for the moment by my concern for thee. This palace will +soon be occupied, and thy father's property confiscated. What a scene +will await thee if thou remainest without a protector in the desolated +house!' + +'Be not anxious for me,' said Georgina, ringing the bell. 'I will +immediately repair, with my sister, to the count Dernath's, where we +are certain of a right friendly reception. + +'Dernath and all thy father's friends will be arrested this night!' +cried Arwed, in deep anguish. + +'I nevertheless can find some place of refuge in Stockholm,' answered +Georgina; 'and thou canst with confidence devote thyself to the +discharge of a duty to which thy heart impels thee.' + +Meanwhile the governess of Georgina entered, clasping her hands in +astonishment at finding a strange young officer in the bed-room of her +pupil. + +'Do not alarm yourself respecting my companion, dear governess!' cried +Georgina. 'Your attention is now required by affairs of more +importance. Instantly call the women and the two Holstein, lacqueys. +Let some of the best of mine and Magdalena's things be packed up, and +send the steward to provide a boat. We will immediately repair to +Blasius Holm, to the old invalid post-captain who was, three years ago, +ransomed at Ystad by my father.' + +'Accompanied by this cavalier?' cried the terrified governess. 'This +looks like an elopement, baroness!' + +'Would to God it were!' said Georgina sorrowfully. 'But this cavalier's +way lies in quite another direction. The king is dead, my father a +prisoner if he be not saved by scarcely less than a miracle, and during +this very night will this palace be stormed as though it were a strong +hold of the Danes. Therefore hasten, for our moments are counted!' + +Wringing her hands, and followed by the weeping Magdalena, the +governess retired. + +'Will you not also save your father's papers and valuables?' asked +Arwed. 'The hands which will rummage here will be none of the purest.' + +'No!' answered Georgina after some reflection. 'Let the commissioners +do that for which they may be able to answer to God and their own +honor. I will not venture to touch my father's property. Besides, I am +too proud to take any thing with me out of Sweden which might be +claimed as the property of the state. Hasten you, now, to the rescue of +my beloved father. He was to proceed through Westgothland and to pass +by Stroemstadt. I can give you no more precise information of his +route.' + +'Let me first accompany you to your asylum,' said Arwed. 'Before that, +I cannot leave you in peace.' + +'God knows how great a consolation your attendance upon me would be,' +answered Georgina: 'but the question now is not of my consolation or +your peace, dear Arwed,--but of my father's rescue. An hour's delay may +be death to him. Therefore go at once, Arwed, fly, save, and there is +no reward which you may not demand of me in exchange for the life of my +beloved parent.' + +Saying this, she threw her white arms about his neck, printed a fervent +kiss upon his lips, and gently thrust him out of the door. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + +The wearied Arwed pushed the little gothlander, which he had purchased +at the Rakalse inn instead of his overridden Norman, into a smart trot +upon the high road to Stroemstadt. The rider was almost exhausted, but +his determined spirit, animated by love and generosity, impelled the +obedient body to renewed exertions of its diminishing powers. At length +lie caught a glance of a fast rolling carriage, relieved against the +border of a snow-clad forest. 'Now is the crisis!' cried he, burying +his spurs so unmercifully in his horse's flanks that he flew with him +in furious career over the frozen ground. After a hard ride of a +quarter of an hour he overtook the carriage. In it sat baron Goertz, +wrapped in a fur cloak, and so attentively reading some papers that he +did not perceive the approaching horseman. 'I bless my fate,' called +out the latter, as he reached the carriage, 'that I have found your +excellency in good time. I bring you important intelligence.' + +'Who are you, sir?' asked Goertz, disturbed in his occupation, with a +tone of displeasure. + +'Captain Gyllenstierna,' answered Arwed. 'I have ridden after you from +Stockholm to give you warning and save you from a great misfortune.' + +'Gyllenstierna!' cried Goertz with a friendly smile, leaning back that +he might hear his voice above the rattling of the carriage. 'Then you +bring me news from my daughter, or a message from her. You cannot well +deliver it from your saddle; therefore be pleased to hitch your horse +to mine and take a seat by me in the carriage.' + +'I accept your invitation with thanks,' answered Arwed, and attaching +his reins to the collar of a saddle-horse, he sprang into the carriage. +'Have the goodness,' said he, 'to change the direction of your journey +immediately, and on the way I will tell you the cause.' + +'What are you dreaming of?' asked Goertz with an angry brow. + +'There comes a whole troop of dragoons to meet us,' cried the coachman, +'and they are pressing forward under whip and spur.' Arwed examined +them attentively for a moment. 'My God, I have come too late!' +stammered he, recognizing the gray coat of colonel Baumgardt advancing +at their head. + +'Are you in your right mind, young man, or rather are you not some +other than the person you pretend to be?' asked Goertz yet more +angrily, drawing a pistol from the pocket of the carriage. + +'For God's sake!' untreated Arwed, grasping his hand, 'reserve your +weapons for your enemies, who are coming to meet us. By you sits your +friend, who is ready to die in your defence. Turn back instantly, +perhaps we may yet avoid them.' + +As Goertz sharply examined his countenance his features relaxed into a +milder expression at the perusal of his honest face. 'I have no longer +an ill opinion of you,' said he smilingly. 'It is my impression, +however, that you desire to increase your importance with me a little +by pressing upon me your protection against a pretended danger; and I +can pardon something on account of your youth and the motive by which +you are impelled. Another time, however, you must find some more +probable pretence. That the horsemen who are approaching us are no +robbers, but honest Swedish dragoons, a child may see; and, if I +mistake not, that is colonel Baumgardt, whom I well know, riding at +their head.' + +In a moment the troops had reached the carriage. + +'Good evening, your excellency!' cried Baumgardt, wheeling about his +horse and raising his hat. Three other officers, who followed him, +likewise wheeled about and remained, courteously greeting the baron, +before and on both sides of the carriage, while the dragoons trotted +past and closed up behind it. + +'Good evening, colonel!' answered Goertz serenely. 'Whither so late?' + +'To meet your excellency,' said the colonel politely. 'We lost our way +in the driving snow, and have been riding about in a state of +perplexity for two days. We bring with us important news from the +camp.' + +'Whatever it may be,' answered Goertz, 'I bring you from Aland yet +better and more important. But it can all be more conveniently told in +a warm room with a bottle of old wine. I shall stop for the night at +the parsonage of Tanum, and bear with me a good bottle case. Will the +gentlemen be my guests? We will pass a pleasant evening together, and +in the morning I will proceed to Frederickshall under your safeguard.' + +'It will be an honor to myself and officers,' said the colonel. The +other officers bowed silently, and the carriage rolled rapidly onward, +surrounded by its armed escort, towards the solitary parsonage which, +an old dark-gray mass of stone, with tall dark fir trees rustling about +it, offered no very tempting shelter even in that desert region. + +The travellers alighted, and the minister entered one of the lower +rooms of the house. Arwed followed him, prepared for the tragic scene +which was approaching. With impetuous haste, that their victim might +not escape them, the officers pressed in after him, and the last one +closed the door. + +'What means this?' asked Goertz, rising, as he remarked it. + +The colonel then replaced his hat upon his head and drew his sword, +exclaiming in the roughest military tone, 'in the name of the king, +Goertz, I demand of you the surrender of your sword!' + +With surprise and astonishment Goertz started back. At first, unable to +speak, he looked around upon the officers who surrounded him with drawn +swords and insultingly triumphant glances. + +This unknightly conduct excited Arwed; his blood boiled, and forgetful +of the mischief that a powerless opposition must cause, he fixed upon +Goertz his eager, enquiring eyes, in which the question was plainly +asked if he should draw the sword, whose hilt he firmly grasped, for +the deliverance of his friend. But, as with dignified earnestness the +minister motioned him to desist from his intention, he withdrew his +hand, and leaned against a window in silent despair at witnessing the +perpetration of a wrong which he had not power to prevent. + +'In the name of the king?' asked Goertz, after a long pause, unbuckling +his sword; 'that word is a falsehood! From Charles I might expect any +thing rather than the offering up of his truest friend. This destiny is +not decreed by him! Nevertheless I see that I must yield to necessity. +Take my sword! I have long expected something of the kind. It is the +reward for all the service I have rendered to the crown of Sweden!' + +'The right reward yet awaits you at Stockholm!' said colonel Baumgardt +with bitterness. Then turned he to Arwed and roughly asked him, 'how +came you here, captain Gyllenstierna!' + +'From Stockholm,' answered the latter: 'whither I accompanied colonel +Brenner as a courier, and am upon my return to the camp.' + +'And you have deserted your superior officer?' asked Baumgardt in +reply: 'and we find you in the carriage with Goertz. That is +suspicious!' + +'It was but a moment before you met us,' hastily interposed Goertz, +'that the captain first overtook me, bringing me a message from my +daughter. His horse now stands without, tied to mine.' + +Baumgardt walked to the window, as if to ascertain the truth of the +assertion. + +'If you, however, yet think the affair suspicious, colonel,' cried +Arwed, vehemently, 'I propose to you to take me as a prisoner, together +with the minister, to Stockholm. Then will you at least be secured +against the imputation of having acted with too great mildness.' + +'That would be perhaps very agreeable to you,' answered Baumgardt, +scornfully. 'But I am not accustomed to receive directions from +subalterns, and prudence requires that I should pursue a course +directly opposite to that proposed by a suspected person. It is +desirable rather, to ensure your safe return to the camp. Myself, with +lieutenant colonel Bioernskioeld will accompany you there. Adjutant +general Rosenhahn and lieutenant Loewen with their followers will +proceed to Stockholm with the prisoner, and thus each one of us will be +in his right place.' + +Arwed gnashed his teeth at this injurious treatment, but the iron chain +of subordination held the young lion fast bound, and he remained +silent. + +'Forward, Herr von Goertz,' cried the adjutant general, pointing +towards the door. + +'Farewell, my son!' cried Goertz, embracing Arwed affectionately. And, +while embracing, whispered to him, 'I now understand your true +intentions and your real friendship for me. Be certain that you shall +be satisfied with my gratitude if my enemies leave me the power of +proving it.' + +He went forth and stepped into his carriage, upon the box of which one +of the dragoons was seated, and which was now employed to convey its +former owner to a dungeon, Rosenhahn seated himself by the minister's +side. The other officers, together with Arwed, threw themselves upon +their horses,--Lieutenant Loewen made a sign to his dragoons, who +surrounded the carriage with their swords drawn, and the prisoner, with +his escort, galloped quickly towards the south, whilst Arwed, with his +unwelcome companions, rode sadly towards the north. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + +Deserted and empty stood the camp before Frederickshall, as Arwed and +the two other officers rode into it. Baggage-men and other camp +followers swarmed about the barracks, searching for whatever their late +inhabitants might have left behind them worth the finding. The flag of +Denmark waved from the Golden Lion, and some companies in the Danish +hunting dress were leveling the Swedish embankments and closing up the +trenches which it had cost so much time and trouble to open. + +'What is that?' cried Arwed with surprise and displeasure. 'Has our +army been beaten, that they have raised the siege whose successful +termination was so near?' + +'I had expected it,' answered lieutenant Bioernskioeld with a lowering +countenance: 'but not so soon. The army has marched back to Sweden.' + +'How have the times changed!' said Arwed sorrowfully. 'Ninety years +ago, the dead Gustavus Adolphus inspired his army and urged it to +continual contests and glorious victories,--and now it seems that old +Swedish courage and the heroic spirit of her king have flown together, +and that the laurels gained under his guidance are yielded in shameful +flight.' + +'I hope, captain,' said Baumgardt, scornfully, 'that you do not presume +to deride the commands of the fieldmarshal. Presumptuous censure of a +commander, is in the army called mutiny, and according to our articles +of war the punishment therefor is death.' + +'You are now on duty, colonel,' said Arwed, with difficulty suppressing +his anger. 'I shall therefore hold myself prepared to answer your +reproach on a more suitable occasion.' + +Some Danish rifle balls from the trenches at this moment whistling +about their heads, broke off the conversation. The horsemen silently +hastened out of the precincts of the deserted camp, and trotted briskly +towards the east, after the retreating army. + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + +They found the army near the city of Amal, upon lake Dalboe, beyond the +borders of Norway. Baumgardt rode with his companions directly towards +Amal, where the head quarters were established. At the gates they +encountered colonel Brenner. + +'Is it here we again meet, my dear traveling companion?' cried he to +Arwed. 'I am sorry for it.' + +'The soldier is indeed but a mere machine,' answered Arwed, 'who may +not venture to love or regret any thing; yet is our present meeting of +some importance to me, as I need your evidence to clear myself in the +eyes of colonel Baumgardt. He is disposed to consider me a marauder or +something worse, because he encountered me traveling without you on the +road towards Frederickshall.' + +'I gave the captain a furlough,' said Brenner to Baumgardt; 'and the +fieldmarshal is already informed of it.' Baumgardt bowed in silence. + +'Is there now any further hindrance to my taking leave of you?' said +Arwed politely to the colonel. 'As soon as I am relieved from my +present situation I will not fail to wait upon you for some further +explanations.' + +Baumgardt rode onward without deigning a word in reply. + +'Come directly with me to my old friend Duecker,' said Brenner to +Arwed. 'He arrived at head quarters, as I hear, early this morning, and +I have come into the city on purpose to seek him. You must give to him +and me an account of what has happened during your journey.' + +When they arrived at Duecker's quarters they found he was not at home. +Swedenborg was sitting in the room, in his traveling cloak, awaiting +his return; and so busily studying some leaves of parchment full of +signs and figures, that he did not observe the entrance of the new +comers. + +'God greet you, Swedenborg!' said Arwed with sad cordiality, extending +his hand. + +Swedenborg stared steadily at him for a long time, his eye indicating +his entire absence of mind. Finally, a remembrance of Arwed's face +seemed to return to him--he finished the notes he was making upon his +parchments, put them aside, and then for the first time seized the +proffered hand. + +'Thereto art thou chosen, young man,' cried he pathetically with his +hollow spirit-voice: 'always to be present when the weightiest events +are occurring in the army, without being able to do any thing for the +common good. At this moment is to be decided who is to rule over +Sweden, and you can neither aid nor prevent, as it happened to you at +the death of the king.' + +'Is this a question yet to be decided?' asked Brenner. 'I think there +is no longer any doubt that Ulkrika will be queen.' + +'That is not so certain as you may think,' answered Swedenborg. 'The +princess has indeed received the premature homage of the senate, and +lavished rewards upon the generals; but the army has a voice in this +business, and the superior right of the young duke is as clear as the +sun. According to the Nordkioping compact of inheritance, no woman can +become heir to the throne unless she be either unmarried, or married +with the consent of the states to a Lutheran prince. But Ulrika has, +without the consent of the states, married the prince of Hesse, who +professes the Calvinistic faith.' + +'Ulrika will nevertheless purchase the crown by surrendering a portion +of its sovereignty,' retorted Brenner; 'and at this price they will let +her off.' + +'Hardly, if the young duke bids the same,' answered Swedenborg. +'General Duecker is even now with him for the purpose of prompting him +to it. May God give efficacy to his words, for Sweden will have a bad +government under this Ulrika.' + +At this moment old Duecker entered with furious haste, threw his plumed +hat angrily upon the floor, and paced rapidly up and down the room +without perceiving the officers. + +'Nothing accomplished?' asked Swedenborg dejectedly. + +'What can be accomplished,' indignantly replied the general, 'when one +has to do with a boy who is governed by fools? He relies confidently +upon the strength of his party. He will inherit the royal power wholly +unimpaired or not at all. And it is most certain that with his +confidence and indolence he will be compelled to accept the latter +alternative.' + +'The last effort vain!' said Swedenborg, taking his hat. 'God preserve +your excellency! I am going.' + +'Will you also desert me, my dear ally?' asked Duecker despairingly. + +'How can I be further useful in this place?' said Swedenborg. 'The +siege is raised; my knowledge can never more be needed here. I go again +to the examination of the mines. Under the present circumstances this +upper air will no longer exactly agree with me, and I must see whether +that of the mines will not be better for my constitution.' He now +turned to Arwed. 'We shall meet again!' said he with a mysterious +emphasis. + +'Who knows!' answered Arwed, who looked to the future with sad +misgivings. + +'We shall meet again!' cried Swedenborg with greater emphasis; 'It is +revealed to me by a dark, voiceless feeling which is vouchsafed to me +by the Lord rather as a chastisement than as a mercy-gift. We shall +meet again, and if I do not deceive myself, in the heaviest hour of +your life. God give you strength to bear it.' He strode forth. + +'Did you accomplish your object, Gyllenstierna?' Duecker now anxiously +asked. + +'Had I but reached Goertz an hour earlier,' answered Arwed. 'I +witnessed his arrest.' + +'That was the last hope!' cried Duecker, sorrowfully. 'Now is Goertz +lost, as is also Sweden to the duke, beyond remedy!' + +'Hast thou hoped until now?' asked Brenner with astonishment. + +'Of what was not his spirit capable?' retorted Duecker. 'I have just +now learned to know him aright from a letter of his to the king. Had +Goertz saved himself, he had sufficient influence with the czar to have +the occupation of the throne by the duke made the condition of peace. +We can hardly imagine what he could not have accomplished. He was the +man for Charles's gigantic plans; he was the man to save the tottering +kingdom. Now will the sick in their paroxysms call upon the physician +for cure, and who will help them?' + +'Your fears carry you too far, general,' said Arwed. 'The enemies of +Goertz may not be so embittered but that his life may be respected, if +only from a holy fear of the manes of their fallen king.' + +'You are too young to understand your nation thoroughly,' retorted +Duecker. 'The proud senators will never forgive the foreigner for +annihilating the last remains of their power by his bold measures; the +people, who never dared to impeach their adored king, sought in Goertz +the source of his misfortunes. Ulrika hates him, as she hates her +nephew,--she fears his activity in the cause of the latter, and she can +make an agreeable sacrifice to their prejudices by offering him up. He +is a dead man!' + +'Then must you assist in procuring my immediate discharge from the +service, dear general,' said Arwed earnestly. + +'Wherefore?--What has entered your head?' asked Duecker. 'You choose an +unsuitable time. A great number of promotions will be immediately made, +to win the army; your father is a strong supporter of the queen, and +you may perhaps leap the rank of major and obtain a regiment.' + +'I fear on the contrary,' answered Arwed gloomily, 'that I can no +longer honorably remain a Swedish officer. But that is the least. A +being, dearer to me than all others, can now hope for help and +consolation from me alone. I must instantly proceed to Stockholm, even +should I be compelled to desert from the army for that purpose.' + +'There is yet no necessity for that,' said Duecker. 'The guards break +up to-day for Stockholm, and will proceed there in advance of the +remainder of the forces. Therefore do nothing precipitately. If your +wish for a discharge should continue, I will endeavor to obtain its +accomplishment at a proper time. Such a request, just at this time, +would only render you suspected and hated, and would probably be +unsuccessful.' + +'That is the voice of a father,' said Arwed feelingly, 'You best know +what is the most proper course for me, and I willingly hearken to you.' + +At that moment the field music was heard in the distance sounding a +wild alarm, and the thunder of the artillery through the city +accompanied the peal like a powerful bass. + +'What is that?' asked Brenner with surprise. + +'The prince has operated suddenly and powerfully,' answered Duecker; +'more suddenly and energetically to obtain Sweden's crown for his wife, +than to obtain a victory over Sweden's enemies. The army is won, and +Ulrika is queen. That is what the thunder of the cannon denotes.' + + + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + +The guards had marched into Stockholm. Arwed had performed all the +duties of his service, and now flew towards the Blasiusholm to the +house of the post-captain who had freely received and sheltered the +deserted daughters of the unhappy Goertz. The moment he mentioned his +name he was shown into Georgina's room. With a pale face and wasted +frame she came forward to meet him. Ardently would he have folded her +in his arms, but she held back and merely presented to him her thin +white hand, whose icy coldness filled him with alarm. + +'Thou hast not saved my father?' asked she with a trembling voice. + +'By my honor!' cried Arwed, grieved at the silent reproach conveyed by +the question; 'I did every thing in my power, but hard fate was +stronger than my honest endeavors.' + +'I must believe it,' answered Georgina, 'and thank you for your good +intentions. If you are yet willing to make further efforts in my +behalf, procure for me through your influence an interview with my +father. They have hitherto rejected all my petitions with inhuman +severity.' + +'Whatever lies in my power I will essay for the accomplishment of your +wish,' replied Arwed with much agitation. + +'Leave me then for the present,' said Georgina. 'Go and make the effort +and bring me word that they will extend towards my father a privilege +which even robbers and murderers would not be denied.' + +'Do you drive me from you so soon, Greorgina?' asked Arwed mournfully. +'Is this the welcome of a beloved and loving betrothed?' + +'Betrothed?' sighed Georgina with a melancholy smile. 'Ah, dear Arwed! +that is a subject upon which we must speak no more. The daughter of the +man whom Sweden accuses of high treason, can never give her hand in +marriage to a Swede.' + +'Thinkest thou so meanly of me?' cried Arwed, with great earnestness. +'But no, you do not really think so. You only pretend indignation to +conceal your want of affection. From the youth whom you once deemed +worthy of your love, you must at least expect that your present +misfortunes will bind him to you with still stronger chains.' + +A faint blush flitted over Georgina's pale cheeks, and her eyes +glistened. She hastily approached Arwed and laid her hand upon his +breast. 'I know,' said she proudly, 'that whatever love and honor may +demand of a Gyllenstierna, you will obey their voice in every +circumstance of life. But a noble German maiden dares not forget what +concerns her own honor,--and this commands me to refuse you my hand so +long as your own countrymen can with propriety pronounce your union +with me a misalliance.' + +'You no longer love me!' complained Arwed. + +Georgina gave him a glance in which shone all the glow of her first +love, and, unconsciously, her eyes filled with tears. At last the +all-powerful passion conquered. She threw her arms about his neck and +pressed him to her bosom. 'Go, and strive!' sobbed she, retreating into +a side cabinet. + +Arwed wished to follow her, but hearing her draw the bolt on the inner +side, he departed, bitterly afflicted with a confused throng of +contending feelings. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + +While the new royal counsellor, Nils count Gyllenstierna was sitting, +as two months before, employed at his writing table, Arwed timidly +entered the room. + +'Aha!' said he satirically, 'the brave captain has at last the +goodness, after my repeated requests, to grant me an interview. I beg +you will take a seat upon the sofa, and I will be at your service +directly.' + +Arwed, however, remained standing with a sad and resigned countenance, +as he had determined to submit patiently to the censures of his +passionate father, whose political ambition had now attained its utmost +gratification. + +The old counsellor continued writing for a short time, and then, +signing his name with an energetic stroke of the pen, he arose and +stepped immediately in front of his son, with folded arms and an angry +countenance. + +'Where shall I begin with my reproaches!' blustered he at length. 'You +have committed so many excesses in so short a time, that it is +difficult for me to select, and I can only fix my mind upon the +result--that you are a ruined, yes, in the strictest sense, a _lost +son_, with whom I am destined to have much trouble and sorrow.' + +'That I went to the king's army against your will...?' commenced Arwed, +pleadingly. + +'That is the least!' proceeded the father, interrupting him. 'You have +proceeded so far in your evil way, that even so shameless an act of +disobedience has become a mere trifle, unworthy of consideration in +comparison with your ulterior conduct. Besides, you may find some +excuse for that act, in what has recently happened. According to +despatches this day received, Armfelt's corps has been miserably frozen +up in the ice mountains on its retreat towards Jemtland, and although +you have caused me much sorrow, I am yet glad that your obstinacy has +this time saved you from an inglorious death.' + +'Thanks to thee, true warner,' said Arwed tremblingly to himself;--then +addressing his father: 'if that be not the cause of your anger, may I +beg of you to name my other transgressions. From your justice I have a +right to hope that I shall be allowed to exculpate myself.' + +'Bold and insolent as usual!' grumbled the old man. '_Quasi re bene +gesta_ comes he before me, while he thinks I am not acquainted with his +conduct. Who joined himself to the deputation which endeavored to have +the duke of Holstein proclaimed in the camp as king of Sweden? Who +obtruded himself as a companion upon colonel Brenner, that he might +insult the queen and warn Goertz of his well-deserved fate? Who +threatened colonel Baumgardt with a challenge for doing his duty? Who +has been this very day to visit the daughter of the arch-traitor, for +whom the scaffold is already preparing?' + +'You are very accurately informed, my father,' answered Arwed. 'I am +too proud to deny what I have done, nor do I believe it deserves your +anger. The king, when he appointed me a captain in the royal service, +thereby rendered me independent of parental authority, and thenceforth +free to follow the dictates of my own judgment. You yourself must +concede, that the right was doubtful between the princess and the duke. +I, however, am firmly convinced that it is entirely on the side of the +latter, and have acted accordingly. I wished to save Goertz, because I +believed him innocent. His crime is, that the king, so little in the +habit of receiving advice from others, honored him with his exclusive +confidence; that he is a foreigner, and the capable and dreaded servant +of a young prince who is a candidate for a crown which you think he +ought not to have.' + +'You believe all this, because you love his daughter!' remarked the +father. + +'Colonel Baumgardt,' proceeded Arwed, 'has injured me personally, and +we shall settle that matter as is usual among men of honor, as soon as +my cares for Georgina may leave me time.' + +'Arwed!' cried the father, 'do you then really entertain a hope that I +will give my consent to this foolish connection?' + +'Do as you think proper, my father,' answered Arwed. 'My resolution is +taken, whatever may betide. Nor could you yourself approve my conduct +if, now that the storm is breaking over her innocent head, I should +desert the maiden whose heart I won when the sun of prosperity shone +brightly upon her.' + +'The queen will forbid the union,' said the old man. + +'And were it the bold Margaret herself,' cried Arwed with passionate +warmth, 'who united upon her own head the three northern crowns, and +held them there with a strong hand, she would not dare attempt to +regulate the impulses of our hearts! How much less, then, this poor +Ulrika, whose only crown, to which she has no right, was shamefully +bought with the costliest jewel of royalty, the sovereignty.' + +'You are deep in constitutional principles,' said the counsellor +peevishly--but his strong displeasure was already melted into secret +satisfaction with the talent and spirit of his son. He appeared, +standing there before him with his flashing blue eyes, his scarred +cheek and noble bearing, as if he were about to plant again the Swedish +standard upon a stormed wall. 'Upon honor!' at length exclaimed the old +man, 'if you had not conducted yourself so bravely before +Frederickshall, I would reckon with you in another fashion. But the +deed of arms which Charles the XIIth rewarded with an embrace, must be +considered as truly heroic--and to a hero much must be forgiven. To +that, we Swedes have long been accustomed.' + +'Nor was that embrace the best of the king's favors,' said Arwed +eagerly. 'For beating back a sally of the Danes, I had his word for my +marriage with Greorgina. And surely you would not have resisted the +request of Charles.' + +'Yes,' answered his father, turning away from him; 'and now all that +has been changed forever by one bullet! I pity you, poor youth, but +your case cannot be helped!' + +'I do not yet give up every hope,' said Arwed. 'They dare not murder +Goertz without a trial, and if they will but give him a fair one he +must be acquitted.' + +'Do you think so?' murmured the old man; 'so do not we think here in +Stockholm, and all Sweden cries out guilty against him.' + +'The voice of the people is not always the voice of God,' said Arwed. +'I still trust in holy justice. But I have a favor to ask of you, my +father. The baron's daughter wishes to see her father. Give me the +necessary permission.' + +'That is not to be thought of for the present,' answered the father. +'Perhaps it may be obtained a little later, after the sentence has been +pronounced. Besides I am not the person who has power to grant it. Upon +such a request the president of the special commission, landmarshal +Ribbing, must decide.' + +'Alas, that heart of stone!' cried Arwed. 'Give me at least a letter of +introduction to him, that he may do from favor what is only a duty.' + +'I can have nothing to do with the affair,' said the father angrily. +'You presume upon my forbearance.' + +He pointed towards the door. Arwed wished to speak to him yet once +again, but the counsellor, turning his back upon him, walked to his +writing-table and the son in sadness departed. + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + +Every effort to move, to win, to alarm, which the eloquence of the soul +could inspire, had Arwed lavished upon landmarshal Ribbing. But +powerless as the waves against the rocks, were his words with the +immovable man; and, with anger at the refusal rankling at his heart, +the young man now stood in the high arched basement story of the +council house upon the Suedermalm, where Goertz was held in +confinement, seeking, with his open purse in his hand, and not without +secret reluctance, to try the effect of gross corruption upon the +gaoler. + +But the gaoler shook his head suspiciously. 'God knows,' said he, +clinking the keys attached to his waist-belt, 'God knows how willingly +I would take your gold. But one must have discretion, captain, and use +the little judgment God has given him. Your purse would be very useful +to me, but my head is still more so, and it is that which I should +peril. Therefore have the goodness to retire, that I may not suffer +inconvenience from being seen talking to you here.' With this he opened +a little wicket by the side of the great gate, and pointing the way +out, made at the same time a very low bow. + +Arwed angrily complied with the hard necessity, and, as he now +considered the rejected purse as unworthy of being returned to his +pocket, he threw it to an invalid soldier who limped past him on his +crutches, and was on the point of hastening away. + +'Take me with you, count Gyllenstierna!' cried a low, melodious voice, +behind him. He turned around, and saw a man of about forty years of +age, with an intelligent, bold and honest face, in a clerical dress, +who had followed him out of the house. + +'Do you know me, reverend sir?' asked Arwed with surprise. + +'Only from the conversations of the unfortunate man to whom you just +now wished to purchase admission,' answered the clergyman, proceeding +with him towards the city. 'But your whole manner and bearing told me +that you must be captain Gyllenstierna, and there is no one to whom I +could better appeal than you. I am preacher to the German community in +this place. Baron von Goertz has requested my spiritual assistance, +which I have truly rendered to him with both joy and sorrow. But the +undeserved fate of my unhappy countryman has so affected me that I am +determined to do something more for him. His immortal soul is well +prepared by a blameless life, and by a true and genuine faith which I +have perceived in him. I would also gladly save his mortal body, that +the intelligent and well disposed man may be enabled yet further to +labor for the benefit of this country, or for some other, if Sweden is +unwise enough to repudiate him.' + +'Worthy servant of God!' exclaimed Arwed, with a sudden pressure of his +hand. + +'First of all,' proceeded the preacher, 'I will make an effort with the +queen. I have been to the palace three times already. Her majesty, +however, was never to be spoken with, which I attribute to the numerous +enemies which Goertz has made amongst the courtiers.' + +'You might as well attribute it to the ill will of the queen herself,' +said Arwed. + +'So much the better!' cried the preacher. 'That would be a good sign +for me. Then does she shun the truth, which she would hear from me; and +if I can only succeed in obtaining an audience, I augur the happiest +consequences. You are well acquainted at the palace, count. Procure me +an audience of the queen, and the rest shall be my care. She is, at any +rate, a woman, and must have a compassionate heart.' + +'You have chosen a bad protector, sir pastor,' said Arwed, with a sad +smile. 'But I will procure for you an audience with the queen, if I +have to open a path to her with my sword.' + +While they were thus conversing they had passed the bridge connecting +the Suedermalm with the city, the streets of which they threaded until +they approached the Ritterholm. + +'Announce us to the queen,' begged Arwed of the valet-de-chambre whom +they found before the door of the queen's apartments, flipping some +pieces of gold into his hands. 'The count Gyllenstierna and pastor +Conradi beg that she will graciously grant them a short audience upon a +most pressing concern.' + +'I will do my best,' said the valet-de-chambre in the most friendly +manner, going in. + +After a short time he returned. 'It was all succeeding well,' said he, +'but the name of the black coat spoiled all. By that was the attention +of her majesty arrested, and she then asked whether it was the younger +or elder Gyllenstierna who had requested to be announced. She cannot +see you now, and the gentlemen may hand in their request in writing, by +the chamberlain in waiting.' + +'Perdition!' cried Arwed, indignant at his own helplessness. + +'This amounts to a refusal,' stammered Conradi. 'When the great of the +earth demand that a petitioner shall put the all-powerful words of his +mouth into cold, dead characters upon paper, and hamper the strength of +his good cause by a submission to prescribed formulas, it is because +they are determined not to grant his request, and wish to avoid +pronouncing with their lips the refusal of which in their hearts they +are ashamed.' Meanwhile it had become night, and the servants lighted +the lamps in the ante-chamber. + +A high officer entered the ante-room for the purpose of passing through +it into the audience chamber. + +'Who is this gentleman?' whispered Conradi to the valet-de-chambre. + +'Lieutenant general Rank,' answered the latter. + +'Goertz has named him to me as his last friend,' said Conradi to Arwed; +'perhaps he can do something for us.' + +'Have the goodness to grant us a word, general,' said Arwed hastily to +him.--He turned and approached them. + +'We are here,' said Arwed in a moving tone, 'to present a petition in +favor of baron Goertz. The queen has refused us an audience. You are +going directly to her majesty, and therefore we beg of you to endeavor, +if possible, to obtain for us a hearing. We are indeed unknown to you, +but your own heart will be our advocate.' + +'To whom is the brave Gyllenstierna unknown,' said Rank in the kindest +manner; 'neither is this worthy pastor a stranger to me. What little +influence I may have, I will willingly exert for you; but I know the +queen, and doubt a favorable result.' + +He went in. The two confederates stood waiting in the ante-room until +he returned. 'The queen,' said he, 'will pass through here when she +repairs to the grand hall, and will hear you as she passes. Speak +submissively and briefly, and may God guide your tongues.' + +The folding doors flew open. Two bedizened pages lighted the way with +torches. Between two richly embroidered and highly scented +chamberlains, rustled forth the proud Ulrika, oppressed by a heavy +silken and gold-embroidered hoop petticoat, with clouds of lace about +her bosom, and her arms, hands, breast and ears overloaded with jewels, +and above her high, frizzed curls glistened the little crown of +brilliants. Pages bore her long train, and her maids of honor followed. +The queen looked displeasedly towards the unwelcome petitioners. +Conradi approached, fell upon one knee, pressed the hem of her robe to +his lips, and then with a soft and winning dignity of manner said, 'I +beg a hearing of your majesty upon a question of mercy.' + +'Stand up and speak,' answered Ulrika, stopping, and causing her train +of attendants to halt. + +'Your majesty,' said Conradi, without changing his position, 'has +inherited the crown of Sweden from your deceased royal brother....' + +'Inherited! quite right!' interposed Ulrika quickly: 'and it is +unaccountable to us,' she proceeded, looking at her companions, +'that doubt upon that subject can yet be entertained in any quarter.' + +'It is not to be doubted,' said the pastor, astonished at this +unexpected episode, 'that your majesty heartily honors the memory of +our late glorious king, as you were so nearly connected with him by the +ties of blood. Nevertheless, his truest servant, the man upon whom he +bestowed unlimited confidence, now languishes in undeserved chains. A +criminal court is now sitting upon him, and all, who are convinced of +his innocence, shudder at the possibility: that Sweden may be guilty of +shedding that noble blood.' + +'The number of them will not be great,' said Ulrika, coolly. 'Have you +any thing further to say to us?' + +'I beg of your majesty mercy for unhappy Goertz,' said Conradi with +increasing warmth. 'I appeal to the softer feelings of your sex, to the +magnanimity of the princess, to the forgiving spirit of the christian. +By the God in whom we all believe, Goertz is innocent. And if he has +done any thing wrong, and so brought any misfortune upon Sweden, which +I do not know, he has but acted in obedience to his lord, like a true +vassal, and that lord was entitled to the unreserved obedience of all, +whilst he reigned over this land as an absolute sovereign.' + +'Sweden will have cause to remember that unlimited sovereignty for some +generations,' remarked Ulrika, glancing at the splendid watch hanging +at her girdle. 'Please to come to an end.' + +'I have nothing more to add,' said the preacher dejectedly, 'except to +implore your majesty to signalize the commencement of your reign by an +act of mercy, rather than by the shedding of blood.' + +'Mercy for Goertz!' cried Arwed, throwing himself at the queen's feet, +and pressing her once scorned hand passionately to his lips. + +Ulrika, surprised by the sudden movement, withdrew her hand with a look +of pride and scorn, and motioned him to rise. Without deigning to +answer him, she turned again to the still kneeling preacher. 'My good +man,' said she, with cold friendliness, 'I would willingly forgive the +baron for all the evil he has done to me. The queen has no memory for +injuries suffered by the princess. But the decision lies not with me. +Next to God, have I from my true states received the crown, and without +their voice I neither can nor will decide upon crimes against the +nation, of which Goertz is accused.' She made a sign to her attendants, +and moved proudly forward. + +'All in vain!' cried Conradi, rising. 'And this affected mildness, +beneath which the queen conceals her implacable hatred, is to me more +frightful than if she had poured forth her anger in passionate words. +Here is a coolly devised plan to destroy an innocent man, against which +even the eloquence of the apostle Paul himself would fail to succeed. +Let us go.' + +Sadly they turned towards the door. Fieldmarshal, the prince of Hesse, +entering at that moment, met them. + +'Is my wife yet here?' asked he of lieutenant general Rank. 'I come to +lead her to the court.' + +'She has just gone,' answered Rank. 'Her majesty was pleased to grant +an audience here before she went.' + +The prince looked at both of the supplicants. 'Captain Gyllenstierna!' +said he, playfully, 'what affair could bring you to the ante-chamber, +which is certainly a ground upon which you have not yet learned to +man[oe]uvre?' + +'So our ill-success has proved,' answered Arwed, with suppressed rage. +'We have been vainly pleading for the life of the unhappy Goertz.' + +'For Goertz's life?' asked the prince with an appearance of interest. +'I can guess what prompts you to the effort, and pity you from the +bottom of my heart. It is a very bad case.' + +'If your royal highness will graciously condescend to interest +yourself, we shall have new grounds for hope, and all may yet end +well,' said Conradi. + +'Trouble not his royal highness with your intercessions, Conradi,' said +Arwed bitterly. 'Upon his high command was the baron arrested; +consequently he has already decided upon his guilt, and mercy here is +not to be thought of.' + +'You deceive yourself, captain,' said the prince, mildly correcting the +excited youth. 'I hate not the unfortunate man. Powerless he must +become, and powerless he must remain, but his death would be contrary +to my wish and my advice. If his sentence depended upon me, I would +banish him from the country, and so settle all.' + +'Ah, if your royal highness will exert your influence in favor of a +mild sentence,' cried Conradi in raptures, 'God will be your rich +rewarder.' + +'My dear pastor,' answered the prince graciously, 'this case will +probably be decided by the diet. The power of my wife is circumscribed, +and I am only her first subject.' + +'Yet,' interposed Arwed, 'the delightful privilege remains to your +royal highness of alleviating the last hours of the unhappy man whom +you cannot save. His daughter wishes to be permitted to speak to him. I +wish to conduct her there, but the president of the special commission +is inexorable.' + +'That is hard!' said the prince. 'A criminal is still a man. Go +directly to Ribbing, my dear Rank, and say to him that it is my wish.' + +'God bless your royal highness for the deed!' cried the preacher. + +'But that no trouble may arise from this exercise of my kind feelings,' +proceeded the prince, 'I require your word of honor, and your knightly +hand, Gyllenstierna, that this permission shall in no way be abused.' + +Arwed started. The thought, how advantage might be taken of such a +permission, now for the first time arose in his honest soul. + +His hand shrunk as if he would have drawn it back; but the prince +extended his, and Arwed finally took it. + +'Adieu,' said the prince, dismissing them in the most friendly manner, +and the two petitioners left the palace. + + + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + +'What is now to be done to advance the main object?' asked Conradi of +the sullenly silent Arwed. 'I think we had better send a pressing +petition to the diet, although I should hope nothing from it. They will +leave every thing to the special commission,--and from the people, who +are congratulating each other and rejoicing that they have become +coadjutors in this business, we have nothing to expect.' + +'Have they done that?' asked Arwed eagerly. + +'Yes,' answered Conradi. 'Some among them have presumed openly to say, +if Goertz does not lose his head this time, we shall lose ours.' + +'Miserable spirit of party!' cried Arwed; 'under whose shield the judge +may venture unpunished to throw his own hatred into the scale against +the accused.' + +For a while they walked on silently together. All at once Arwed +stopped. 'God has given me a thought!' said he. 'The young duke arrived +here yesterday. Goertz has never ceased to be his servant. He was only +_loaned_ to Sweden, and the duke must interfere in his favor. The +officer of a foreign sovereign cannot be judged here.' + +'It is undeniable,' said Conradi thoughtfully, 'that the duke has the +right and it is also his duty to interfere. The question is, however, +has he the will? This prince still flatters himself that he has yet a +chance of ascending the Swedish throne, and will not, therefore, be +willing to lessen his influence with the diet.' + +'The attempt must be made,' cried Arwed resolutely. 'I will hasten to +him. Have the goodness to send information to the baroness Goertz upon +the Blasiusholm, that she will, as I hope, be permitted to visit her +father; and, God willing, we will meet in the morning at the Suedermalm +council house.' + +They shook hands and separated, Arwed flew to the palace of the duke of +Holstein Gottorp. He was immediately announced and admitted. With an +irresolute face, wherein hope and fear alternately prevailed, came the +young prince to meet him, asking in an effeminate tone, 'what is your +pleasure?' + +'One of the officers,' answered Arwed, 'who, in the camp before +Frederickshall, was anxious to have your grace proclaimed king of +Sweden, ventures to bring the name of the unhappy Goertz to your +remembrance.' + +'I do not wish to hear any thing of this man,' said the duke, looking +timidly about him. 'My interference in the case might be misconstrued +by the Swedes, and it behoves me at this moment to avoid every thing +which might occasion a misunderstanding.' + +'Goertz is without aid and in prison,' proceeded Arwed, with manly +earnestness, 'because they fear his ability, his activity and his +devotion to your grace. Through this imprisonment of your servant, your +sovereign rights are infringed. His life is in danger. To save it, it +is only necessary for your grace to claim him of the Swedish government +with princely energy. However great the animosity against him, party +rage cannot withstand your demand, without violating the law of +nations. They must deliver the unhappy man to you, and you will have +the satisfaction of gratifying the feelings of your heart by this +exercise of your rightful power, and of preserving for yourself an able +supporter.' + +'You would have spared yourself this long exposition, captain,' said +the duke, with an unmeaning smile, 'had you known that Goertz has +ceased to be my servant.' + +An indignant 'ah!' escaped from the youth, and the duke proceeded.--'A +man whom the whole Swedish nation as with one voice accuses, could not +remain in my service. He has been dismissed from the offices which he +held under me. And, being wholly surrendered, the laws of the country +which he has offended must decide his fate.' + +'I understand!' exclaimed Arwed with great excitement.--'Your grace +hopes to win the love of Sweden by the desertion of your truest friend, +and by publicly offering him up to gratify her vengeance. But if I may +venture to judge of my native country, this sad expedient will entirely +fail. It will only cause you to be hated. And your ingratitude will +again with ingratitude be rewarded.' + +Overwhelmed with despair at the wreck of this last hope, he rushed into +the street. + + + + + CHAPTER XX. + + +At the council house upon the Suedermalm, in the arched and grated room +occupied by Goertz, the pale Georgina sat waiting, her weary head +resting upon Arwed's shoulder. With a melancholy glance the youth +surveyed the mean table and wooden stool which composed all the +furniture in the dwelling-place of the once all-powerful prime +minister. At length a confused noise was heard without, and from the +midst of the crowd of soldiers by whom he was surrounded, the worthy +Goertz entered the room. He was accompanied by lieutenant general Rank +and the pastor Conradi, A clerk of the court followed, who remained +upon the threshold with a timepiece in his hand, while the gaoler +bolted the door behind him on the outside. + +Georgina rushed with a loud scream to meet her father, pressing his +chained hand to her lips. + +'Behold, my Georgina,' said the old man encouragingly, 'a joyful moment +after so many sad days! God disposes all things for the best. But you +must not weep, my daughter. Your tears move me powerfully, and I have +need of repose. I am harassed in mind as well as in body. Standing up +through a six hours' examination has much weakened me.' + +'How!' asked Arwed indignantly, 'did they not allow you to be seated?' + +'I requested it,' answered Goertz, sinking down upon his wooden stool, +'but the lords were of opinion that they could not allow a man like me +to sit in their presence. The words were yet harder than the refusal +itself. But let that pass. What is your sister about, Georgina? She is +well? Why did you not bring her with you?' + +'The permission was only allowed to myself and Arwed,' said Georgina. +'They would not allow the child to come in, and I was compelled to send +her back from the door.' + +'They are very strict with me in every respect,' said Goertz, 'whilst +they permit themselves every latitude to my disadvantage. This day's +examination furnishes sufficient proof of this.' + +'I must hope, my old friend,' said Rank much moved, 'that the +commission will allow you every legal and proper indulgence.' + +'A copy of the accusation has never once been laid before me,' answered +Goertz. 'I begged that my process might not be overhastened. I begged +also for permission to make a written defence. Both were denied me. I +begged to be allowed the assistance of professional counsel. This legal +aid also, which every murderer enjoys, was withheld from me.' + +'Unheard of!' cried Rank indignantly. 'The queen cannot refuse these +requests consistently with her own honor. I will speak to her about +it.' + +'My good Rank,' said Goertz, extending his hand to him with a smile of +gratitude, 'put not yourself to any inconvenience on my account. I am +not to be saved. When the blood of my king flowed, the same moment was +my sentence pronounced. Sweden thirsts for my blood, and it must be +drunken. This conviction has its benefits. It raises me above delusive +hopes, and confers upon me the quiet repose of resignation.' + +'My dear father!' sobbed Georgina, who had sunk down before him, with +her head resting upon his knees. + +'My good child!' said Goertz, lifting up her face and looking at her +with an expression of unutterable tenderness. 'Thou hast thy mother's +eyes,' added he, laying his hand softly upon her cheek. 'I must take a +long look that every lineament may remain in my memory. For this +enjoyment may never again be allowed to me.' + +'This is the only interview which I could prevail upon the inexorable +Ribbing to grant,' said Rank sadly. 'They will not, however, refuse you +a farewell conversation with your daughters after the trial.' + +Goertz kissed the tears from his daughter's eyes. But his parental +feelings became too strong for him. 'Leave me!' said he springing up: +'this trial is too great for me!' and he walked up and down the room +with hasty strides. + +'One satisfaction,' resumed he suddenly, as if wishing to divert his +thoughts to other objects by the observation: 'one satisfaction have I +yet had in those hours when every one seemed to aim at my utter +prostration. Fehmann, my accuser, read, as a proof that I had +calumniated his subjects to the king, a letter, in which I had +complained to Charles of the neglect of his duty by a governor of a +province, and recommended his dismission. When he had read thus far he +laid the letter aside. I requested that the remainder might be read; +the commission decided in my favor, and Fehmann was now compelled to +read a description of himself as an able and faithful man whom I +recommended to the king for the place.' + +'And did not the wretch throw himself at your feet overwhelmed with +shame and contrition?' cried Arwed in a rage. + +'My good captain,' answered Goertz, 'the minds of the people who pursue +me are so perfectly settled, that they are incapable of such emotions.' + +'Can I then do nothing, nothing at all, for you?' sobbed Georgina. 'I +will go with Magdalena to all your judges, clasp their knees and +entreat for mercy; the prayers and tears of innocent children, whom +they are about to make orphans, will, perhaps, move their flinty, +hearts.' + +'I forbid your doing that!' answered Goertz with decision. 'What you +could ask for me has already been attempted by true friends, and +attempted in vain.' + +At this moment the court scribe held out the watch in his hand, and +cried, 'the time has expired!' + +'My God! the time has expired!' shrieked Georgina: 'and I had so many +things to say, and so many questions to ask you, my father, but your +sufferings have put them all out of my head. Have you nothing to charge +me with?' + +'The crown of Sweden,' answered Goertz with a melancholy smile, 'has +relieved me of the care of my earthly possessions. My palace is +plundered, my funds and papers are all seized, and will probably be +confiscated for the benefit of the royal treasury. What it may be +necessary for you to know, in relation to these affairs you will find +in my testament, which I hope to be able to finish in the course of the +next few days.' + +'And have you nothing else to say?' cried she, weeping upon his neck. + +'We shall meet once more before my last hour,' answered Goertz with a +failing voice. 'Leave me now, my dear daughter.' He gently disengaged +himself from her arms and walked to the grated window, concealing his +face in his handkerchief. + +'Father!' shrieked Georgina with desperation, and, springing after him, +again clasped him in her arms. + +'Really, two minutes have already elapsed beyond the time, your +excellency,' said the clerk importunately, holding up his watch to +lieutenant general Rank. 'I shall be made answerable for any further +delay.' + +'Take her hence!' cried Goertz, placing Georgina in Arwed's arms. +'Obey, my daughter!'--and Arwed bore the fainting sufferer out. + + + + + CHAPTER XXI. + + +The diet of Sweden had assembled at the capital. To the house of +assembly hastened the Swedish lords, counts and barons, the knights, +the lower nobility, and the good men of the kingdom, to deliberate upon +her welfare in the _pleno plenorum_. Arwed rode gloomily through the +files of carriages and masses of people who filled the Ritter square in +crowds. His way led him past the statue of the great Gustavus Vasa, +which adorned the place. 'Oh that thou wert now alive, noble hero!' +sighed he, as he came in view of it. 'Then, truly, the despotism of +vassals would not dare to deck itself with the robes of righteousness!' +As if desirous of fleeing from the grief which preyed upon him, he gave +the spur to his horse, and hastily passed the bridge which connects +Holy-Ghost island and the city with the Norrmalm, and followed the +south bank towards Blasiusholm, the refuge of Georgina. At the door he +met the preacher Conradi, in whose countenance he observed with +surprise an expression of hope and serenity, mingled with some degree +of excitement. They entered the room of the young sufferer together. + +'Sister is praying in her chamber,' whispered the little Magdalena to +them. 'We must not disturb her.' + +'May God hear the prayer of the pious maiden,' said Conradi. 'Since +yesterday a small gleam of hope has arisen.' + +'Hope?' asked Arwed. 'You have seen the cold, inimical, hypocritical +face of the queen, and dream you yet of hope?' + +'If Ulrika remain queen,' answered Conradi, 'then indeed is Goertz +lost; but she has received as yet but the allegiance of the senate and +army, and not that of the country. Before she obtains the latter many +things may happen. I spoke yesterday with the counsellor count Tessin, +who is most favorably disposed towards our poor friend. The queen has +committed a great political error. She has, in convoking the members of +the diet, styled herself hereditary queen. This has injured her cause. +The senate has been severely reproached on account of the readiness +with which it acknowledged her hereditary right. They have also sought +to awaken dissatisfaction among the people; and in the last sitting of +the senate, the president, count Horn, did not hesitate to desire of +the queen that she should surrender the conferring of the royal dignity +to the decision of the diet. That only would insure her the crown, +which she else may lose.' + +'Elected or hereditary queen! is it not all one?' asked Arwed. + +'Not for the diet,' answered Conradi; 'and as little for the queen. The +hereditary king is indebted only to God and his forefathers; the +elected king is the creature of the electors, and must be dependent +upon them.' + +'And if Ulrika should now stand upon her hereditary right?' asked Arwed +further. + +'Then,' answered Conradi, 'she would by this exercise of arbitrary +power, provoke the diet to inquire into the hereditary right of the +duke of Holstein, which would perhaps stand the scrutiny much better +than her's.' + +'That would little help the good cause!' replied Arwed. 'What can be +expected of a prince who is capable of giving up his faithful minister +to the rage of his enemies?' + +'Or the throne would be declared vacant,' proceeded Conradi, 'and a +regent of the empire seated upon it. To that end are many Swedish lords +laboring, as I am well informed from good sources. At all events let +there be a change in the government, and there may be also a change of +feeling in relation to Goertz, to his advantage.' + +'I doubt that,' observed Arwed. 'Though the contending parties may +oppose each other ever so bitterly on other subjects, all unite in +their hatred of the foreigner. He is the common enemy against whom they +all, as one man, array themselves.' + +'You shall not thus frivolously deprive me of my best joy,' said +Conradi, struck by the weight of his objection. + +'All your suppositions,' continued Arwed, 'are founded upon the +hypothesis that the queen will persevere in maintaining her hereditary +right. But she will not persevere. As soon as it clearly appears to her +that she can purchase the crown only at this price, she will become an +elective queen, or charity queen, or whatever else it may please the +diet to name her.' + +'Do you think so?' asked Conradi with alarm. + +'Has she not already yielded the sovereignty?' asked Arwed. 'She who +can lend herself to become a state puppet, to be decked out with crown +and sceptre on festival days, that the people may imagine they have a +queen, will, not be obstinate upon minor points. Let her but retain the +title of queen, and that will be enough for a vain-glorious woman.' + +'Destroy not so cruelly my last air-built castle, Arwed!' said +Georgina, stepping out of her chamber, her eyes red with weeping. 'I +have enjoyed to-day the first cheerful moment for months, through the +intelligence brought me by the good Conradi, and your contradiction of +it cuts me to the heart.' + +'Do not lose courage yet, baroness!' said Conradi, consolingly. +'Notwithstanding the captain despairs of every thing, the anchor of my +hopes still holds fast in this tempest. Let the _plenum plenorum_ be +only once held, and then will Gyllenstierna hold another language.' + +'Then may we very soon expect their decision,' said Arwed. 'The _plenum +plenorum_ is already organized. May its deliberations result +differently from my anticipations!' + +'Organized to-day?' asked Conradi with great astonishment. 'I thought +that to-day would be occupied in examining credentials and establishing +forms of procedure.' + +'That had been previously done,' answered Arwed. 'I know for a +certainty, by means of my father's secretary, that the full action of +the diet commences to-day.' + +'Then count Tessin has not dealt fairly with me,' murmured Conradi, +shaking his head. 'Probably he wished to lull me to sleep and find out +what further means might be at my command. That is not cavalier-like. +When the lion creeps and watches like the cat, it becomes only a common +animal.' + +A long pause ensued, during which each one was occupied with his own +thoughts. Georgina leaned her head upon the back of her chair, whilst +her breast labored with the anguish of fearful expectation. Arwed stood +there with his arms folded, casting glances of love and compassion upon +the maiden. The little Magdalena, unaware of the importance of the +moment, was innocently playing with his sword knot; while Conradi had +stepped to the window, and was listening attentively to every sound +from without. + +'Did you not hear something like the sound of a distant bell?' he asked +Arwed. The latter hastened anxiously to the window, and listened to the +faint sounds. Directly more distinct tones fell upon his ear. + +'Those are the bells of Jacob's church!' cried Georgina, springing up. +'What means this general ringing of the bells at so unusual an hour?' + +'Something of importance either for good or evil,' said Conradi. 'I +think the diet must have decided, and these bells are to celebrate +their choice.' + +'Arwed!' sighed Georgina, stretching out her hands imploringly towards +the youth. + +'I will go into the city and procure intelligence,' said he, seizing +his hat. 'God grant that I may bring you back good news.' + +He hastened out, threw himself upon his horse, and coursed back to the +city. From every tower rung out the merry peal of the bells, and in all +the streets through which he rode, floated joyous multitudes of people. +In the great square they were crowded head to head, and ten thousand +hands pointed towards the capitol. 'The hour of decision has arrived,' +said Arwed to himself. Leaping from his horse, and throwing the bridle +reins to his servant, he pushed his way through the crowd to the portal +of the building. + +There stood the pompous equipage of the duke of Holstein. The duke sat +therein, viewing the windows of the hall of assembly with a countenance +expressive of sorrow and offended pride. An elderly gentleman in the +uniform of a Holstein general, and with a pensive air, stepped out of +the door of the capitol.' + +'Now, Bauer?' cried the duke to him impatiently, throwing open the door +of the carriage. + +'All in vain, your grace!' said Bauer, stepping into the carriage. 'I +did not even obtain an opportunity to read your protest to the end.' + +'Sweden, Sweden, to whom I have offered up every thing,' growled the +duke, 'is this your gratitude!' Hastily catching hold of the general, +he drew him into the carriage and shut the door, crying, 'forward!' The +carriage soon rattled out of Arwed's view. + +Trumpets now sounded from the balcony of the capitol, attracting +Arwed's attention to the place. The president of the senate, count +Horn, accompanied by many of the senators, stepped out upon the +balcony. 'Silence!' cried he to the crowd below, waving his hand. +'Silence!' cried the people in return, and all was still. + +'Free Swedes!' cried the orator, 'the royal council and the assembled +diet of this kingdom, by virtue of the elective right vested in them, +in consequence of the throne having become vacant without immediate +heirs, have elected to be queen of the Swedes and Goths the full sister +of our immortal lord, her royal highness and princely grace the +landgravine Ulrika Eleonora of Hesse. This gracious princess having +solemnly renounced the sovereignty, so named, or unlimited sovereign +power, we hereby declare the said unlimited power to be forever +alienated from the throne, and will hold as an enemy to the kingdom +whoever may hereafter, by secret artifice or the open exertion of +force, attempt the assumption or exercise of absolute power. Long live +her majesty, queen Ulrika Eleonora!' + +'Long live her majesty Ulrika Eleonora!' roared the numberless throng, +mingling their voices with the trumpet blasts; and, as if raised by a +whirlwind, their hats and caps flew high in air. + +'All is lost!' cried Arwed indignantly, as he opened a way for himself +through the crowd. + + + + + CHAPTER XXII. + + +On the twenty-first day of February, 1719, Arwed entered the prison of +the unhappy Goertz, in company with lieutenant general Rank. + +'I bring to you a suppliant, my poor friend,' said Rank, with a +melancholy smile, to Goertz. 'The captain has not ceased to besiege his +royal highness, until he obtained his permission for this interview +with you. He has a great favor to ask, and if my word is entitled to +any weight, I am his witness that he has well deserved it. He has, +through his ceaseless activity in your behalf, drawn down upon himself +the hatred of the Swedish nobility; and could he purchase your life +with his own, I am fully satisfied that he would make the sacrifice +with joy.' + +'Good man!' said Goertz much agitated, extending his hand to Arwed. +'God grant that you may have something to ask of me that my duty will +allow me to perform.' + +'You know my love for your Georgina, my father,' said Arwed, pressing +the old man's hand upon his heart. 'I beg your benediction upon our +union.' + +'I have anticipated this request,' sighed Goertz. 'It does you honor +under the present circumstances, but I must not say yes to it.' + +'Oh retract those hard words!' begged Arwed. 'You yourself just now +called me a good man. By heaven I am so. Your daughter loves me--and +our glorious king, the evening before his death, promised to crown my +wishes.' + +'I know it all,' said Goertz, 'but I can give no other answer.' + +'You hate the Swede in me,' said Arwed in a tone of the deepest sorrow; +'nor can I blame you for it.' + +'Have you no better opinion of the father of your beloved?' asked +Goertz, with mild reproach. 'I love the man in you, and you may learn +of my daughter that I was not opposed to your wishes, when I yet stood +in my former elevated position. But what would the world say of me, +should I willfully make you unhappy by consenting to your marriage with +the daughter of an unfortunate man whom your father hates, and whose +life and honor will soon be destroyed by one sharp stroke. If, when my +fate shall have been sealed, my daughter's passion remain stronger than +her remembrance of it, she is then at liberty to follow the dictates of +her own heart. I neither advise nor forbid the connection, and shall +earnestly pray to God that all may go well with you, and that you may +never have cause to repent the inconsiderate step.' + +'Ah, that is a comfortless consent,' said Arwed sorrowfully. +'Georgina's overstrained delicacy induces her to take the same ground +against me, and I have now come to beg your intercession with her, +which is necessary to my success.' + +'My daughter feels as a Goertz must feel,' answered the old man, 'It is +noble in you to persist in your request. Concede to us also the +generosity of the refusal.' + +'You make not me alone unhappy!' cried Arwed with vehemence. 'I may, +indeed, in time become reconciled to it. But your daughter will also be +made miserable at the same time. Her love is stronger than she, in the +depth of her filial sorrow, at present supposes it. She may, indeed, +give me up, but she can never forget me.' + +'The consciousness of having done right will help her to bear much, my +son,' answered Goertz. 'Let us talk of it no more.' + +'You rend my heart,' said Rank with weeping eyes. 'But I thank you for +this sorrow. It is a high and holy privilege to behold virtue +struggling with heavy and undeserved affliction.' + +At this moment the keys were heard rattling in the prison door. It +creaked upon its hinges, and in stepped, with the proud dignity of his +black official robes, and with deep traces of hidden malice and bodily +suffering in his yellow face, the speaker Hylten, delegate of the +citizens to the imperial diet of the realm, and a member of the +commission instituted for the trial of the prisoner.--He was followed +by one of the clerks of the court, with his arm full of documents. + +'I come, von Goertz,' unceremoniously commenced Hylten, 'to make known +to you the sentence of the special commission. Receive it with becoming +respect.' + +'I must indeed,' answered Goertz with a bitter smile, slightly rattling +his chains. He rose up, and Hylten took a large sealed document from +the hands of the clerk. + +'Do you wish that we should retire, sir commissioner?' asked Rank. + +'You may remain here forever, if you please, sir lieutenant general,' +answered Hylten contemptuously. 'The crimes of this man are notorious, +as his punishment will also be, and where justice is sustained by the +general voice, there can be no necessity for avoiding publicity.' + +'The royal commission,' read he, with a sharp and discordant voice, +'having heard and considered all the accusations brought by the +attorney general, Fehmann, and also the replications of the baron von +Goertz thereto....' + +'Without consenting to receive my written defence!' interposed Goertz. + +'And all the plots and devices of the said Goertz,' proceeded Hylten +without noticing the interruption, since his coming into this kingdom, +having for their object to bring by wicked means the subjects of the +said kingdom into great discredit with the king ...' + +'All?' asked Goertz. 'He who affirms too much, affirms nothing.' + +'And how he,' proceeded Hylten, 'represented them as evil-minded and +idle persons, who were unwilling to contribute towards the general +welfare.' + +'Could that have been a crime?' asked Goertz. + +'And also,' read Hylten, 'endeavored to destroy the confidence of the +king in the senators, counsellors and others of his true servants, +removing the same from all important public employments, so that the +whole patronage of the government should go through his own hands, +contrary to the laws and statutes of this country....' + +'I was the minister of an absolute sovereign,' interposed Goertz. 'How +can I be made answerable for the decisions of his iron will?' + +'And moreover,' proceeded Hylten, 'such schemes brought to light as +could serve no other end than to rob the king's subjects of all their +property....' + +'The stamped tokens and notes of the mint had already been issued +before the time of my administration,' cried Goertz indignantly. + +'And finally,' read Hylten, 'according to letters of his, which have +been discovered, he has not ceased to labor for the prolongation of the +war, thereby placing the king and the country in a very embarrassing +and dangerous situation....' + +'Who dares assert these lies?' cried Goertz with indignation. 'For +fourteen years had Sweden carried on an uninterrupted, and for six +years an unsuccessful war, when Charles confided the helm of state to +me. Since that time, I have honestly labored to extinguish the fire +which destroyed the prosperity of our country. A glorious peace with +our most fearful enemy was brought by me near to a conclusion, when the +king's sudden death changed....' + +'You appear to forget,' said Hylten angrily, 'that you have here only +to listen, and not to speak.' + +'Then in God's name read to the end,' said Goertz, becoming calm. 'I +wilt interrupt you no more.' + +'Satisfied of the truth of these charges,' resumed Hylten, 'without +examining further into the evil conduct of the said Goertz, a full +investigation of which certain causes will not allow, it appears clear +to us that he is the dishonest cause of all the misfortunes which this +country has suffered, and also that through the above named employments +he has become a citizen of this kingdom, and subject to its laws; upon +which the royal commission, having weighed these and other crimes, have +decided and adjudged, that the said Goertz, for the punishment of his +evil deeds, and for an example to other false counsellors and +disturbers of the peace of the kingdom, shall be beheaded and +afterwards buried at the place of execution.' + +'Ha! this sentence....' began Arwed with ungovernable rage, but Rank +gently laid his hand upon his mouth. + +Goertz had accompanied the close of the reading with only a sigh and +shrug of the shoulders. At length he observed, 'that is, in every point +of view, a monstrous sentence, informal, unjust, void, and repugnant to +common sense. The grounds upon which it is supported are unimportant or +untrue; the most unheard of circumstance, however, is, that they take +away my life for transgressions which are not specified. From this +fault, at least, the legal knowledge of the members of the commission +should have preserved them.' + +'I am not here to listen to your complaints,' answered Hylten, +pettishly. 'The sentence of the commission is unalterable, and will be +executed as soon as it is approved by the diet and royal council, and +ratified by the queen.' + +'So I supposed,' said Goertz; 'and submit to power, which, alas! is +every where above right. I only wish to make one remark. They have +passed over my management of the national revenue in perfect silence. I +beg to be allowed time to prepare my accounts and lay them before the +diet, and thus at least inform the world that I have managed the +finances like an honest man. Should this request be refused, however, I +yet hope at least from the magnanimity of the diet, that they will +demand of my heirs no settlement of my accounts, of which they can know +nothing.' + +'I doubt,' said Hylten with some apparent mortification, 'whether the +diet will grant you this delay. I will, however, lay your request +before them, and have only to advise you to prepare yourself in the +meanwhile for your approaching death.' + +'Wo to me,' cried Goertz, 'if my whole life has not been a preparation +for death! Yet I thank you for your counsel. My blood be not upon your +head!' + +Hylten hastened away in confusion, and the weeping Rank threw himself +upon the breast of his friend. Arwed fell upon his knee before him, and +clasping his hand exclaimed, 'give me Georgina for my wife, my father. +She needs strong support in her trying situation, and I feel myself +capable of affording it to her.' + +'Even now?' cried Goertz, heartily embracing the youth, 'thou true +heart! But I must still answer with a decided negative. The only sprout +of one of the noblest houses of Sweden must never, under any +circumstances, connect himself with the daughter of a condemned and +dishonored traitor, whose body must moulder under the gallows.' + +His voice was broken by the excess of his feelings. Arwed, despairing, +rose up. 'Can I then do nothing for you?' asked Rank, wringing his +hands. + +'I cannot be saved,' said Goertz, 'and have already been long prepared +for death. Only the ignominy of a public execution, and the outrage +which awaits my mortal remains, trouble me; not on my own account, but +on that of my poor children and innocent connexions. If you are +disposed to give me a last proof of your love, you will on my behalf, +petition the queen that I may die in my prison and have an honorable +grave.' + +'I will immediately speak with the prince,' said Rank. 'He was never +your enemy. His wife loves him more tenderly than one would suppose her +cold heart capable of loving. I hope to be able to render you this +service.'--He departed. + +'I will throw myself at my father's feet,' cried Arwed, 'and never +cease my supplications until he shall promise me to aid in the +accomplishment of your last wish.--Oh, my God! that I cannot save you! +It is only through this infamous sentence that your purity has become +fully clear to me. Your blood be upon the heads of your unworthy +murderers.' + +He strode forth. Goertz, however, folded his hands, raised his eyes to +heaven, and prayed with silent resignation. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII. + + +Accompanied by the trusty Brodin, on the next day, Arwed stood +trembling as with a paroxysm of ague, in the ante-chamber of the hall +in which the royal council held its sittings. The chief clerk of the +council approached them with a protecting air. + +'This is the young man of whom I spoke to you, my worthy friend,' said +Brodin to him, at the same time slipping a heavy purse into his hand; +'let me recommend him to your kindness.' + +Brodin departed. The chief clerk led Arwed to the door which +communicated with the grand saloon, and opened it. 'Between the door +and the inner drapery,' said he, 'you can see and hear every thing that +takes place, without being observed. But remember my stipulation. Keep +yourself quiet, and if you are discovered, recollect that we have never +known each other, and that you slipped in here behind my back.' + +'How can I possibly involve you in my fate?' answered Arwed, proceeding +to conceal himself in the designated lurking place. + +'Not yet,' said the chief clerk, pulling him back: 'the lords of the +council must first assemble there, and might easily discover you as +they pass.' + +At that moment the outer folding doors opened, and in their solemn +official dresses, in long, red velvet cloaks and red caps of the same +material, the loyal counsellors passed in couples through the +ante-chamber into the saloon. They were the counts Gyllenstierna, +Rhenskioeld, Stromberg, Horn, Cronhielm, Tessin, Meierfed and Moerner, +and the barons Duecker, Taube, Sparre, and Banner. + +'They are all here to-day for once,' said the chief clerk. 'Count Spens +alone is absent. Indeed the business is of too much importance, and +they cannot expedite the ex-minister too hastily!' + +One of the queen's chamberlains again threw open the doors, and, in +full dress, stiff and stately as the image of the virgin in some place +of pilgrimage, with a countenance in which deep hatred vainly sought to +conceal itself under assumed dignity, the queen passed by them into the +hall. Arwed then slipped into his hiding place, and the chief clerk +shut the door after him. + +After the ceremony of the queen's reception was over, and the members +had taken their seats, the governor, baron Taube, took the floor. + +'The special royal commission,' said he, 'has sentenced von Goertz to +lose his head under the gallows, and there be buried. The diet has, by +a majority of voices, concurred in this verdict, and by her majesty's +command the royal council is now assembled to decide whether the +sentence shall be carried into full effect, or whether Goertz shall +have the benefit of some mitigation of its severity.' + +'I consider it dangerous to deal so hardly with Goertz,' said count +Cronhielm. 'The late king reposed great confidence in him, and I fear +that it may injure the Swedish nation abroad, since Goertz has many +adherents and a highly respected family.' + +'A man who has endeavored to overthrow the whole kingdom,' cried the +passionate Horn, 'who has committed the crimes detailed in the report +of the commissioners, is not too severely judged. Clemency towards him +may seduce many others to enter upon a similar course, to the great +injury of the realm. Besides, he has been tried and sentenced by +conscientious men, who, if they have done him injustice, must answer it +to their God.' + +'It is not my wish that he should go unpunished,' answered Cronhielm. +'But it may be well to remember, that the commencement of our political +career will be closely scrutinized, and that the manner of the +execution may injure us with the nation, and particularly with our +nobility. He may be beheaded, but to bury under the gallows a man who +has been employed in so many important affairs by our late king, +appears to me to be bad policy.' + +'Any Swede who may conduct himself as he has,' cried Horn, exasperated, +'may be punished in the same manner.' + +'These altercations do not accomplish our object,' remarked Ulrika. 'I +desire the lords counsellors to speak in their due order.' + +'When I heard the sentence read,' said baron Banner, 'I expected a +harder punishment. When, however, I view the question in relation to +the general welfare, it appears to me that the end is attained when the +criminal is deprived of life. It can in no way concern the public +interests whether he be buried under the gallows or not, I consider it +a matter of indifference where he lies.' + +'That is also our opinion,' said the three other barons and the counts +Cronhielm and Meierfeld, simultaneously. + +'As he has been judged by so learned and discriminating a commission,' +observed count Tessin, 'and as the knighthood and nobility have +approved the sentence, it should be carried into full and complete +effect. Should I advise any clemency, it must be in harmony with those +who have a more minute knowledge of all the individual views presented +by the commission, which are said to be very exact and to comprehend +the particulars of Goertz' crimes. The Italian proverb indeed says: +_Morta la bestia, morto il veneno_--but something is necessary by way +of example, that others may be deterred from meddling with the business +of state--and I know not but it might be well to think of another +expedient, which is often resorted to in other places, viz; the +erection of a monument, which shall inform posterity of his conduct and +his fate, and which may prove a warning to foreigners not to intrude +themselves into this kingdom, exciting its subjects to such violence as +he has instigated. Yet I only throw out these ideas for the gracious +and favorable consideration of your majesty and your excellencies.' + +'I still adhere to the opinion I before advanced,' said count Horn; +'and God knows that I am not influenced by any prejudice. But I am +convinced that smaller offences are oftentimes more severely punished. +From affection to my native country must I adhere to the sentence.' + +'If we examine the circumstances of this case,' remarked count +Stromberg deliberately, 'we find them very bad. I am therefore +compelled to support the opinion of count Horn.' + +'For his pernicious projects,' said count Rhenskioeld, 'Goertz has well +deserved the punishment of death. I suggest however for the gracious +consideration of your majesty, whether mercy should not be extended to +him in consideration of his family.' + +'As it appears to me,' said count Gyllenstierna, taking up the +argument, 'the present question is only whether the condemned shall be +buried under the gallows. That he must die, is already decided by a +majority of the voices. Now, the object being accomplished by his +death, I see no objection to his being buried any where else, so that +his family may be spared too great suffering through such ignominy.' + +'He is disgraced sufficiently when he falls under the hands of the +executioner,' said the queen in her most scornful tone. 'As for the +rest, the diet may do what they please with him.' + +'It must be confessed,' said Cronhielm timidly, 'that he was not +permitted to exercise the right of defence so fully as the law allows, +and that he had not the benefit of legal counsel. Besides, he is a +member of the Franconian nobility, who are very jealous of their +privileges. They will maintain that the accused could not be legally +judged here, and, to avoid irritating them, it appears to me that it +would be well not to deal too severely with him.' + +'I know nothing to induce me to suppose,' said Horn, 'that Goertz had +not the privilege of defending himself.' + +'If he had not,' said Tessin, 'he must be allowed a new trial.' + +'I call for the votes of the special commission,' said Cronhielm. +'Stiernkrona has explicitly declared it contrary to law and equity to +deprive Goertz of the means of defending himself.' + +'Let the record of the commission be brought here,' said the queen +angrily, to baron Banner. He hastened into the ante-chamber and sent +the chief clerk to bring it, while slight hopes were once more raised +in the bosom of the listening Arwed. Meanwhile there was a long pause +in the council room, during which count Cronhielm was compelled to bear +the inconvenient criticisms of his brother counsellors for his last +speech. + +'As governor of Stockholm,' said Baron Taube, interrupting the general +silence, 'it is my duty to inquire how the execution shall be +conducted?' + +'The conclusion is,' answered the queen impatiently, 'that the governor +is to deal with baron von Goertz according to the sentence of the +commission, as confirmed by the diet.' + +'It is quite superfluous, then,' cried Cronhielm, rising up with +feelings of resentment, 'that we should further discuss an affair in +relation to which her majesty has already issued her commands.' + +'Certainly, wholly superfluous,' said Horn, likewise rising. The others +followed his example. The council broke up its sitting without waiting +for the record of the commission, and, reverentially conducted by her +attendants, the queen, like a thunder cloud which had ignited and +exploded with wide spread desolation, proudly moved through the +ante-chamber. + +'_Stat pro ratione voluntas!_' cried Arwed with suppressed rage. 'Wo to +the country where the holy halls of justice can be profaned by such a +sentence!' + + + + + CHAPTER XXIV. + + +On the 12th March, all Stockholm was stirring with unusual commotion. +The streets leading to the place of execution were thronged with people +impelled by strongly excited curiosity. Cavalry and infantry were drawn +up before the council house on the Suedermalm, before the principal +door of which stood the carriage destined for the conveyance of the +baron von Goertz. + +Arwed entered Goertz' prison, supporting the faltering steps of +Georgina with one arm, whilst with the other hand he led the wailing +Magdalena. Lieutenant general Rank was sitting alone in the room, +reading a paper which he had taken from among others which lay upon the +table. + +'Is it you, my good captain?' exclaimed he, taking Arwed's hand. Then, +looking at his companions, he sighed, 'Alas! poor, poor, children!' + +'Where is my father?' asked Georgina in an almost inaudible tone, +sinking down upon a stool. + +'In the next room,' answered Rank. 'Conradi is with him.' + +'What are you reading there, general?' asked Arwed without interest, +merely to break the painful silence. + +'The epitaph of our friend,' answered Rank, handing the paper to him. +'He sketched it himself.' + +Georgina had sprung from her seat, and hanging upon Arwed's arm, looked +with him upon the manuscript. + +'Read aloud,' said she. 'Something like a dense cloud waves before my +eyes. I cannot see the letters.' + +'Will it not prove too great a trial for you?' asked Arwed with tender +care. + +'I am here,' she answered, 'to take a last leave of my father, before +his death by the sword of the executioner. What else can shake me?' + +Struggling to suppress his tears, Arwed proceeded to read: + +'A la veille de conclure un grand traite de paix, mon héros périt, la +royauté avec lui. Dieu veuille qu'il n'arrive pis! Je meurs aussi. +C'est toujours mourir en magnifique compagnie, quand on meurt avec son +roi et la royauté.' + +'Very true!' exclaimed Georgina. 'The ruins of royalty are a worthy +mausoleum for the great man; but his children despair.' + +Arwed continued: + +'Mors regis, fidesque in regem et ducem, mors mea.' + +'That means?' asked Georgina in a faint voice. + +'The death of the king and fidelity to him and to the duke are the +cause of his death.' + +'Alas, how true!' sighed Georgina, and, breaking out in a flood of +tears, she sunk upon Arwed's shoulder. + +The door of the adjoining room now opened, and Goertz entered with a +serene countenance, followed by the weeping Conradi. 'Father!' shrieked +his daughters, throwing themselves into his arms. + +'My dear children!' cried he, joyfully pressing them to his bosom, and +kissing them tenderly. + +'If that adamantine heart were here,' said Arwed to Conradi, with deep +emotion, 'this scene would yet melt it.' + +'I thank God that the queen is not here,' answered the latter. 'She +would remain inexorable, and thus aggravate her responsibility in the +next world.' + +The outer prison door was now opened, and with a brutal air colonel +Baumgardt walked into the room. He was followed by chief judge Hylten, +who appeared yet more miserable than before, leaning upon his clerk. +The outer hall was soon filled with Swedish grenadiers. + +'Goertz, your time has come!' cried Baumgardt, roughly. + +'In God's name, your blessing, my father!' cried Greorgina, kneeling +and drawing Magdalena down with her to his feet. + +'Continue good!' cried Goertz in a broken voice, laying his hands upon +their heads, 'so that I may give a good account of you to your mother, +and that you may say joyfully to your God, when you come after me, +Father, here am I, and here are those whom thou hast given me.' + +'Amen!' said Conradi, moving towards the door. + +'Thanks for your love,' said Goertz, embracing Rank and Arwed, and then +turning to follow his spiritual assistant. + +'Now let us forth,' cried Georgina wildly, grasping the hands of the +youth and of the little Magdalena, 'that we may arrive before him!' + +'You cannot support the scene!' said Arwed anxiously to her. + +'And should I die in his last moments,' answered Georgina, 'what a +happy death!' + +Goertz had overheard this conversation, and turned once more towards +his daughters. 'You will go hence directly back to your dwelling,' said +he earnestly. + +'Father!' stammered Georgina, 'shall I not see you once more?' + +'It is your father's last command!' cried Goertz. 'Wouldst thou bind my +soul to earth, through sorrow for thee, when its wings were already +joyfully raised to take its flight to its creator? Take my daughters +home, Gyllenstierna!' + +'Forward!' growled Baumgardt. 'God bless you, my loves!' cried Goertz +with a stronger voice, and followed his guards. + + + + + CHAPTER XXV. + + +Nine days had passed, since the ground under the Swedish gallows had +drunk the blood of the worthy German. The evening was closing in, all +the bells of the capital were tolling, and the thunder of cannon was +heard from the Ritterholm, in honor of the royal hero who at this hour +was committed to the tomb of his fathers. Arwed entered Georgina's +room. He found her with Magdalena and her only maid, (whom she still +retained,) in their traveling dresses. + +'I thank you for coming so punctually,' said Georgina. 'You are now to +render me the last service. It is not without danger, but I know you, +and therefore demand it without hesitation.' + +'Every thing for thee!' cried Arwed passionately. + +'Then accompany me,' said she, 'upon my way to the performance of a +difficult duty, in which I need a man's aid. Have every thing ready,' +said she to her maid servant. 'If heaven favor our attempt, we shall +soon return, directly to leave this horrible country!' + +She took Arwed's arm and proceeded with him to the bank of the +Norderstrom. There a boat was in waiting, in which were Goertz' +Holstein servants. The oars moved and the boat soon floated forth upon +the peaceful lake. Georgina, wrapped in her cloak, sat upon the deck +observing the stars which here and there discovered themselves in the +deepening gloom of the evening. + +'What project have you in hand, Georgina?' at length asked Arwed +anxiously. + +'I will now make it known to you,' answered she. 'I am going for my +father's corpse. Ungrateful Sweden shall not hold his bones.' + +'My God, you risk your life!' cried Arwed with alarm. + +'I think not,' she calmly answered. 'Public duty and curiosity have +drawn all Stockholm to witness the funeral solemnities of the king, and +I hope to find the place deserted. And of what consequence would be my +life? I risk it joyfully in the performance of my filial duty! If you +fear the service, say where I shall land you.' + +'You afflict me undeservedly!' complained Arwed. 'Sooner should the +royal council affix my name to the gallows from which you are about to +tear its prey, than I would desert your side. Only for you was I +anxious. Even if every thing succeed, this undertaking is unsuited to +your years and sex.' + +'Ah, dear Arwed!' said Georgina, 'I have lived long in a short time, +and great afflictions give new strength to the heart. Seek not to +dissuade me.' + +Both remained silent while the convoy moved rapidly and undisturbedly +onward. At length the boat landed, and they got out. Two of the +servants drew a litter from beneath the deck, and bore it ashore. The +others followed with cords, shovels and pick-axes. + +'Remain here,' said Arwed to Georgina. 'I will superintend the labor +and spare you at least that pain.' + +'No,' answered she, 'it must all be fulfilled. But you may accompany +me, that I may have a friend to lean upon if the body should prove +weaker than the will.' + +The melancholy company moved silently forward through the stillness of +the night. At length the gallows arose awfully before them in huge and +undefined outline. + +'It was here,' whispered one of the servants, stopping. + +'Here?' sobbed Georgina, falling down and kissing the holy ground. + +'Now to the work, faithful friends,' said she, rising up. + +With restless zeal the labor was commenced with pick-axe and shovel, +and soon the silver clamps upon the black coffin glistened from the +depth. Two of the servants sprang into the grave and made room for +themselves on each side until they succeeded in passing the cords under +the coffin. It was slowly drawn up and placed upon the litter. + +During the time which had thus elapsed, Georgina had stood by with +folded hands, engaged in prayer. The litter was quickly raised, and the +little train moved silently back to the shore with its sad burden. +Georgina followed, requiring all of Arwed's strength to sustain her +tottering steps. The coffin was placed in the boat, which immediately +put off. + +'It is done!' cried Georgina, convulsively clasping Arwed's hand. 'I +thank thee.' + +'And now?' asked the faithful youth. + +'You will soon learn,' answered Georgina, remaining buried in +reflection until they landed at the Blasiusholm. A merchant ship lay at +anchor near by. The maiden now arose, as in the golden times of her +happy love, and throwing her arms about Arwed's neck, pressed her +ice-cold lips to his. 'Farewell forever, dear Arwed!' breathed she in a +scarcely articulate tone. + +'What say you?' cried Arwed in alarm, encircling her with his arms. + +'It cannot be otherwise,' answered she, extricating herself from his +embrace. 'This ship takes me and my father's corpse to Hamburg.' + +'Not without me, faithless one!' angrily exclaimed Arwed. 'Fly to the +new world--fly from life, if you will--and still I will accompany you!' + +'Let us not revive our former sad strife,' said she sorrowfully. 'I +must not become yours. You may pain me, but you cannot shake my +determination, which is as unmovable as are my misfortunes.' + +'Georgina!' implored Arwed, clasping her knees. 'You have always +conducted towards me with such a knightly delicacy, my Arwed,' said +Georgina, laying her cold hand upon his heated brow, 'that I may safely +compare you with any of the lofty exemplars of former times. My love +for you is, indeed, yet stronger than in the moments of its first +confession,--but the blot which rests upon my name forbids my uniting +myself with the son of him who sentenced my innocent father to a +criminal's death. Believe me, even were I weak enough to yield to your +request, we could not be happy together. The remembrance of all that +has occurred would, like a fearful spectre, stand between us, and +self-contempt would follow me even to your arms. Now, the consciousness +of having offered up my love upon the altar of duty, will raise me +above myself and give me strength worthily to bear the afflictions laid +upon me by my God. Wherefore, my friend, I demand of you our separation +as your last love-service, and a true knight must obey his mistress, +when with tearful eyes and broken accents she says to him, _Let us +part!_' + +'I go!' exclaimed Arwed, clasping Georgina once more to his bosom and +to his lips, and rushing forth. + +'That was the death of the heart!' cried the unhappy maiden, pressing +her clasped hands upon her bosom.--' What may hereafter come is not +worth consideration. Let me but satisfy the world of my father's +innocence, just God, and then take me to thyself and to him in thy +heavenly kingdom.' + + + + + CHAPTER XXVI. + + +The next morning, as lieutenant general Rank was mounting the steps to +Arwed's quarters, the latter, coming furiously out, rushed directly +against him. + +'Whither so hasty, my good Gyllenstierna?' cried Rank, grasping his +arm. 'I was coming to seek you, and have something of importance to +say.' + +'And I have something of yet greater importance to do, sir general,' +answered Arwed in a singular tone. 'I shall take upon myself to act as +a lawyer, and talk to the judges about a second appeal.' + +'I fear you are planning some evil, and shall not suffer you to go +out!' cried Rank, dragging the youth entirely up the steps. When they +had reached his room he gave him a searching look. From Arwed's pale +countenance, wild glaring eyes and disordered dress, it was evident +that he had not been in bed the preceding night, and the handles of a +pair of pistols were seen projecting from the bosom of his coat. + +'Young man, what do you intend?' asked Rank. 'I have become your +friend, and cannot allow you to make yourself unhappy.' + +'The injustice,' answered Arwed, 'which conducted Goertz to the +scaffold, has robbed me of all the happiness of my existence. Georgina +has rejected me and bidden an eternal farewell to Sweden. I will now +devote the rest of my miserable life to some useful purpose, and assume +the office of Nemesis. The judges who condemned the innocent, shall +answer it to me before the mouth of my pistol or the point of my sword, +and with their worthy president will I make a beginning!' + +'Calm yourself,' said Rank. Count Ribbing cannot be called to account +by you.' + +'He shall, he must!' cried Arwed, with flashing eyes. 'The wretch, by +signing the sentence, has declared that Goertz had lived dishonorably +and should therefore die ignominiously! It will be honor enough for him +to die as a cavalier by the hands of an honorable man!' + +'He can no longer be held answerable to you,' repeated Rank. 'He is +dead!' + +'Dead!' reiterated Arwed, shuddering. + +'Even before the execution of Goertz, was he attacked by apoplexy,' +pursued Rank, 'and instantly expired. His death was for a time kept a +secret from the people, who might have drawn various sinister +conclusions from the occurrence, but I cannot understand how you could +have remained so long ignorant of it.' + +'I have paid no attention to the news of the capital during the last +week,' answered Arwed in a low tone of voice. 'Dead! The executioner +gone before the victim! I am sorry for it. I will then seek the public +prosecutor, and thank him for the gratitude he evinced towards his +patron.' + +'Would you contend with a cripple? Fehmann also has been smitten. He +now lies very low, and, if he ever recover, he will, nevertheless, +remain a maimed man the remainder of his life. The living body of the +wretched Hylten is daily consumed by worms, and doctor Molin has fallen +backwards from his seat and broken his neck.' + +'And thus all the ringleaders escape me!' cried Arwed, stamping with +his foot. 'Stiernkrona is innocent, and the rest were little more than +miserable tools.' + +'You see, my young friend,' said Rank, seizing Arwed's hand, 'that God +himself will fulfill the duties of judge in this case. Assume not the +office of avenger with bold presumption!' + +'Only one of them now remains,' cried Arwed fiercely; 'but he shall not +escape me!' + +'Whom do you mean?' anxiously asked Rank. + +'Colonel Baumgardt,' answered Arwed, 'who arrested the martyr, in +obedience to the commands of a man who at that time had no authority to +issue such an order. Had it not been for his shameful readiness on that +occasion, the noble blood of Goertz would not have flowed.' + +'You are right, but I warn you,' said Rank. 'Directly by means of that +arrest has Baumgardt acquired great favor with the queen. A challenge +upon that ground would not be accepted by him, and would bring you to a +prison.' + +'I thank you for the warning,' answered Arwed. 'But fortunately the +colonel has injured me personally, and is therefore prepared to receive +a challenge from me.' + +'If that be the case,' said Rank, 'and you are not provided with a +second, I offer you my services in that capacity.' + +'You, general!' cried Arwed with astonishment. + +'I am your friend,' said Rank, 'and will openly prove it, and at the +same time abjure my political faith. Let it be considered as settled. +Before the duel, however, I advise you to resign your commission. +Indeed it was for that purpose I came to seek you. You have made many +and powerful enemies. Nothing but your father's power and influence has +hitherto preserved you, and even he is angry with you now. If he also +should give you up, you would be lost without redemption.' + +'Only he who gives himself up, is lost,' said Arwed. 'Yet will I follow +your good counsel. Under the present circumstances there is no longer +honor nor pleasure for me in the Swedish service.' + +'It is unfortunate for you, Gyllenstierna,' cried Rank dejectedly. You +have in you the metal for a Horn or a Torstenson, and it is to be +regretted that your talents cannot be devoted to the service of your +country. Whenever you need my services in your proposed affair, you +know where to find me.' + +He took his leave, and Arwed accompanied him to the door. On his return +he passed a mirror, and the reflection of his disordered figure caught +his attention. + +'I look as bad,' cried he, 'as a highway robber, going forth in pursuit +of his prey. This is not as it should be. Even the just anger of an +honorable man should not wear this appearance. Stern business should be +sternly executed; but with a due regard to outward appearances, so that +the wretch whom I am about to punish may not be able to complain that I +have neglected what good manners prescribe.' + +He drew the pistols from his bosom, and laid them aside. Then ringing +for his servant, he dressed himself with unusual care. The rich gala +uniform contrasted strangely and frightfully with the suppressed anger +upon his beautiful pale face. He buckled on his sword again, and +proceeded to the Ritterholm in search of his antagonist. + +The parade before the palace had commenced. The troops were already +marched to the square, and the officers were walking to and fro in +masses, or conversing together in isolated groups. 'Have you heard of +it?' asked adjutant Kolbert, slopping up to Arwed; Baumgardt has become +a major general, and had conferred upon him the order of the seraphim. +It will be announced to-day in general orders.' + +'There he comes already,' scoffingly observed count Posse, who had +joined the group; 'and his face shines as did that of Moses when he +retired from the presence of the Most Holy.' + +'I am glad of it,' said Arwed, 'I shall have an opportunity to +congratulate him upon the spot.' + +Meanwhile Baumgardt had descended the palace steps with a stately air, +and now approached them. Already, at a distance, glistened the star and +band upon his breast, and with proud condescension he bowed right and +left to the subaltern officers who gathered round for the purpose of +congratulating him. + +With firm and rapid strides Arwed stepped directly in front of the +fortunate man. The latter was somewhat surprised when he recognised +him, and turned pale upon observing the frightful earnestness expressed +by his features. 'I must most respectfully request a short conversation +with you, sir major general,' said Arwed very courteously. 'You will +have the goodness to remember that I reserved this claim when we +separated at Amal.' + +'I know not....' stammered Baumgardt, in the embarrassment of his +surprise. + +'You allowed yourself,' proceeded Arwed, 'in the parsonage at Tanum and +in the camp before Frederickshall, to use certain expressions injurious +to my honor, and my situation now for the first time allows me to ask +an explanation of them.' + +'Whatever I may have said,' answered Baumgardt sullenly, 'was in the +discharge of my official duty, and therefore I am not to be called to +account for it by any person.' + +'According to my view,' said Arwed coolly, 'on that occasion you +overstepped the bounds of your duty. You will therefore have the +goodness to give me the satisfaction due to a man of honor.' + +'I do not know,' answered Baumgardt, 'whether I as a general am bound +to fight with a captain.' + +'But as a cavalier you dare not refuse satisfaction to the count +Gyllenstierna,' cried Arwed warmly. 'If, however, you have any doubts +upon that point, the corps of officers at the capitol may decide the +matter.' + +'I doubt only,' said Baumgardt scornfully, 'whether you can find any +one willing to act as your second in so extraordinary an affair, in +which I see only the quixotism of youth, which I am willing to pardon.' + +'I have consented to act as the count's second,' said Rank, who had +just joined them. + +'Your excellency!' exclaimed Baumgardt with surprise. 'That is indeed +quite another affair. I fight with pistols, and fire advancing,' said +he to Arwed, after a moment's reflection. + +'The choice was yours,' answered Arwed, bowing. 'I thank you for +meeting my wishes in this manner. When shall it be?' + +'To-morrow morning at ten o'clock, upon the Peckholm, opposite the +park,' answered Baumgardt, gloomily. + +'I shall have the honor to await you there,' said Arwed, with a very +low bow, and turned upon his heel. + + + + CHAPTER XXVII. + + +The next morning Arwed was walking silently up and down the banks of +the Peckholm with lieutenant general Rank, awaiting the arrival of the +boat which was to bring his adversary. Arwed's pistols with their +apparatus were lying upon his cloak, which was spread out under a tall +pine tree. + +'You are so tranquil, my friend!' said Rank, breaking the long silence; +'indeed, the moments passed in awaiting a duel are most intolerable. I +know it by my own experience. Perhaps you begin to regret your +proceeding? It is not to be doubted that the pistol shot which you are +about to exchange will be the burial salute of your happiness in this +kingdom--for the queen will never pardon you. Therefore, if your +resolution has become somewhat weaker, it is yet time. Major general +Baumgardt is too happy with his new promotion and his new orders, not +to wish to wear his honors some years yet, and will very willingly +agree to any other reparation.' + +'No, general,' answered Arwed; 'God forbid that I should meanly convert +an honorable combat into a piece of buffoonery. A reconciliation +between a challenge and a duel, I have always deemed a contemptible +proceeding. It was the firmness, even, of my resolution, that made me +still, as it places me near the gates of death, which to me is a +consideration of great solemnity, and as I shall contend for the +innocence of our friend before the eyes of all Europe.' + +'Brave youth!' cried Rank, embracing him with much emotion. 'In +heaven's name fight. If you fall, I will revenge your death as a good +second should.' + +At this moment the clock of St. Katharine's tower struck ten, and +directly afterwards Baumgardt's boat landed through the splashing waves +of the lake. In company with another officer he jumped ashore, and gave +a coldly polite greeting to those who had been waiting his arrival. +With silent activity the two assistants placed the barriers, and, +thrusting their swords into the ground some distance apart, stretched a +cord from one to the other. + +'How many paces, general?' asked Rank, stepping midway of the cord. + +'Twenty!' answered Baumgardt morosely. + +'That is a great distance!' calmly remarked Arwed, and each measured +twenty paces from the cord and marked the points. + +'Here, Gyllenstierna!' cried Rank, and Arwed took his place, whilst +Baumgardt stepped to the opposite point, which his second had marked. +Both stood eyeing each other with folded arms. The weapons were not yet +placed in their hands, but the glances of hatred exchanged were more +deadly than the bullets. + +The seconds had loaded the pistols, and the combatants now received +them from their hands. 'Let him prevail who has the right!' whispered +Rank to Arwed, stepping aside. + +'It is yet proper to ask,' said Baumgardt's second, 'whether this +affair may not be arranged in some other way?' + +'In no other possible way!' cried Arwed. 'In this the major general +will certainly agree with me.' + +'In no other way!' muttered the general. His second then left his side, +and the two combatants began slowly advancing, and with each step +mentally measuring the distance which divided them from each other. +They had advanced scarcely five steps, when with Baumgardt the fear of +death prevailing, and with Arwed his eagerness for the fight conquering +all prudence and discretion, they both fired almost at the same moment. +Arwed's ball struck Baumgardt's hat from his head, and his opponent's +grazed Arwed's left arm. But the latter, throwing away the discharged +pistol, and taking the loaded one in his right hand, cautiously +advanced. + +Baumgardt followed his example, and advanced with a pale face, blue +lips and bristling hair. While Arwed was observing the alteration which +extreme anxiety caused in the countenance of his adversary, the latter +elevated his weapon and continued slowly to approach, with his eye +intently fixed upon Arwed's breast. Then swelled Arwed's heart, and the +thirst for blood which now sparkled in Baumgardt's eyes, reminded him +of the fiendlike expression of his face on the morning of the execution +of Goertz. + +'Your time has come! Forward!' cried the youth, in the same words +Baumgardt had used on that occasion, raising his arm at the same +moment. With sudden terror Baumgardt fired and missed--whilst his arm, +struck and shattered by Arwed's ball, fell helplessly by his side. + +'My God!' cried his second, springing to his side, and supporting the +fainting man. + +'My arm is gone!' said Baumgardt, grating his teeth and sinking upon +the grass over which his blood was streaming. 'I am an invalid for +life. Why could not the booby's bullet have struck my heart or head, +and so have ended the matter at once!' + +Arwed now approached his adversary with Rank, who had bound a +handkerchief upon his bleeding arm. + +'I am sorry, general,' said he, kindly, 'and my anger vanishes with +your running blood. May this misfortune awaken in you a true and +heartfelt repentance for what you have done. I am appeased,--make your +peace with God!' + +'What are you chattering there?' cried Rank indignantly, whilst +Baumgardt scornfully rejected Arwed's proffered hand. + +'Take my hand,' said Arwed; 'it is the hand of reconciliation. Imagine +that it is offered to you by the innocent Goertz, whom your conduct led +to the scaffold.' + +'Did not I tell you,' cried Baumgardt to his second, 'that this +senseless quarrel had a political origin? You will be a witness for me +with her majesty.' + +Overcome by pain, he fell back powerless. + +'Your thoughtless words will cost you your head,' said Rank, hastily +dragging the youth with him down to the shore. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +Arwed was sitting in his quarters, and his regimental surgeon had just +finished bandaging the wound in his arm, when old Brodin entered in +great perplexity. + +'His excellency, your father,' whispered he, 'desires to speak with you +alone. He will be here directly.' + +'It will not be a very pleasant interview,' sighed Arwed, motioning the +surgeon to absent himself. + +'You are not far out of the way,' said Brodin, after the surgeon had +retired. 'His excellency is very angry with you. I have, therefore, +hastened here before him to prepare you for his visit and to beg of +you, as an old, true and zealous servant of your house--if the anger of +the old gentleman should carry him too far, that you will still +remember that he is your father, and listen to what he may please to +say to you, not as a captain of the guards, but as a son.' + +'I thank you for the warning, worthy friend, and will obey you,' +answered Arwed. + +The door now opened, and with a flaming, red face, the old counsellor +entered. + +'The old tell-tale already here,' cried he, 'plotting with the lost +son? I would be alone with the captain.' + +Brodin made a submissive, exculpatory gesture, whereby he at the same +time seemed to beg permission to remain--but the old man pointed +angrily towards the door, and Brodin unwillingly retired. + +'So, you have fought to-day with major general Baumgardt?' asked the +father with assumed calmness. + +'Yes,' answered the son, 'but without any important consequences. I am +but slightly injured, and his life is also out of danger.' + +'Right!' cried the father, with somewhat increasing vehemence. 'So the +trifle of rendering a general, who is particularly valued by the queen, +a cripple for life, is a mere ordinary affair.' + +He walked two or three times up and down the room, and then opened a +window and looked out. After a while he turned again towards Arwed. + +'God is my witness,' cried he, shutting the window with great violence, +'God is my witness, that I have been forbearing as an angel, but your +conduct would make an Epictetus furious. To challenge the major general +just at the moment when the queen, by promotion and knighthood, had +declared him her favorite--to shatter his arm, and then confidentially +to tell him that it was on account of his arresting Goertz, to which +arrest Ulrika is probably indebted for her crown! Would it indeed be +possible, by the widest stretch of fancy, to imagine a proceeding more +senseless and ruinous than yours?' + +'The party spirit,' answered Arwed, 'which divides our country, early +teaches every Swede to choose his side; and, in a land so disturbed by +political storms, a peculiar disgrace seems to rest upon neutrality. +Blame me not then, my dear father, if I also have formed my principles; +and be not angry because they are not exactly like yours. If you have +nothing to pardon me for, except that, having once chosen my party, I +have remained true to it in every emergency, that circumstance should, +as I think, honor me in your eyes.' + +'_Honor!_' cried the counsellor angrily. '_You_ dare to talk of honor, +_you!_' + +'What mean you by that? 'asked Arwed with vehemence. + +'Where were you on the evening of the king's funeral solemnities?' +thundered the father. + +'With Georgina,' answered he, not without great astonishment at the +question. + +'The body of Goertz,' said the counsellor, with fierce energy, 'was on +that very night stolen from the place of execution. You, perhaps, can +tell how it happened.' + +'I find it very natural,' answered Arwed, 'that those who loved the +unhappy man, and are firmly convinced of the injustice of his +condemnation, should, at least, have borne off his remains from the +unworthy resting place in which he was left by the malice of his +enemies.' + +'And if,' proceeded the counsellor, in a slow, cutting tone, 'if a +Swedish officer had commanded this nocturnal expedition, what fate do +you think would await him under the present government?' + +Arwed, by this question, perceiving with a secret shudder that his +father knew all, remained silent. + +'Dishonorable dismission!' sternly exclaimed the counsellor; 'and +possibly, as an especial mercy, imprisonment for life!' + +'If the senate require only my confession to enable it to pass the +sentence,' cried Arwed with violence, 'you may be the bearer of that +confession to it. I am too proud to deny what my heart impelled me to +do.' + +The father stood a long time looking at his son with powerful emotion. +'Yes!' he finally broke forth, 'yes, you are a Gyllenstierna! With our +failings you unite all the virtues of our family. Holding fast that +which has been once chosen--noble even in our errors--so were we +always. And so much the deeper is my regret that so many good qualities +must be forever lost to the country.' + +'From these expressions,' said Arwed, 'I must infer that you bring me +already the decision of my fate. If so, speak it without hesitation. I +am prepared to receive it.' + +'The queen was beside herself,' answered the counsellor, 'when she +heard of your last misdeed; and had she obeyed the first suggestions of +her rage, you would now have been in chains, awaiting a decision +involving life or death.' + +'Little souls are generally cruel,' observed Arwed. + +'As a father I pleaded for my disobedient son,' continued the +counsellor; 'and it is not strange that the man, whose duty it will be +to place the crown upon Ulrika's head at Upsala, should not plead +entirely in vain. A full pardon was not, indeed, to be thought of. Yet +have I succeeded so far in the business, that she has left the +designation of your punishment to her husband. To him I shall now lead +you; and what he thinks proper to inflict, must be received by you with +humility and thankfulness.' + +'If consistent with honor,' answered Arwed, taking his hat; 'otherwise +I shall demand a court martial.' + +They went forth together. In the entrance-hall they were joined by two +officers of the guards, who, with them, entered a carriage which was +waiting at the door. They soon arrived at the palace upon the +Ritterholm. The two Gyllenstiernas, with their companions, ascended the +steps to the apartments of the prince of Hesse, who came forward to +meet them with a sealed paper in his hand. Only lieutenant general Rank +was with him, who gave an encouraging wink to Arwed. + +'You have deeply erred, captain Gyllenstierna,' said the prince, +earnestly. 'The severe letter of the law must inevitably crush you, +were not the hand of mercy interposed. But my wife wishes to convince +the nobles of the land that her royal heart gladly inclines to mercy, +willingly pardoning when it is in her power to do so, and she also +wishes to evince her respect for your worthy father, by even undeserved +kindness towards his son. Yet must you be informed, that a man who has +declared open war against the state through his audacious acts, +cannot remain in his country's service, and that the government +must be secured from any repetition of his offences. Therefore receive +from me your dismission from the Swedish army. You may thank your +heroism before Frederickshall, and the distinction of which my royal +brother-in-law thought you worthy, that this dismissal is united with +the title of major, which you will henceforth be entitled to bear. Yet +your crime must not go entirely unpunished. Wherefore the queen +banishes you forever from the limits of the capital, and exacts from +you a promise that you will never pass the frontier of the nation, and +that you will never again meddle with the political affairs of this +kingdom, under pain of death. Your father will receive your promise, +and will determine your future place of residence. May time make you +wiser!' + +Handing to the youth the paper containing his discharge from the +service, he departed and was followed by Rank. 'God bless your royal +highness!' cried the elder Gyllenstierna after him. + +'So, I am a prisoner of state in Sweden,' said Arwed with a bitter +smile. 'It is fortunate that my prison is tolerably spacious. Where is +it your pleasure that I shall go, my father?' + +'To Gyllensten, to my brother,' answered the counsellor, 'after you +have signed the required promise, which I must return to her majesty.' + +He pointed to a paper lying upon the marble table. Arwed hastily run +his eye through the written promise, and subscribed his name to it; +upon which the two officers, who had hitherto guarded the door, +immediately left the room. + +'To Gyllensten!' exclaimed Arwed, gratefully kissing his father's hand, +'to the loved resort of my childhood, to my good old-uncle! How good +you still are, my father, even when you punish. How deeply do I regret +that I have caused you so much sorrow.' + +'You bad boy!' cried the father with strong emotion, pressing him to +his bosom. 'And if I pardon you every thing else, I will not pardon you +for depriving yourself of the power of serving your father-land, whose +golden age is just commencing.' + +'May heaven grant,' answered Arwed, 'that Sweden may not soon wish back +the departed _iron_ age! I shall always think that the strong will of +one only ruler can direct the government more consistently and happily, +than the constantly divided opinions of the four and twenty little +kings who are now to rule the country, even though you yourself are one +of these kings, my father.' + +'Silence! you are incorrigible!' cried the old counsellor, drawing his +son with him out of the palace. + + + + + + ARWED GYLLENSTIERNA. + + A TALE OF THE EARLY PART OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. + + BY C. F. VAN DER VELDE. + + + + PART SECOND. + + + + CHAPTER XXIX. + + +Directly northward, by the west coast of the gulf of Bothnia, through +Gestrikland, Helsingland, Medelpat, and Angermannland, Arwed rapidly +pursued his expiatory journey, until he reached the southern boundary +of the province of West Bothnia, in which Nicodemus, count +Gyllenstierna, the counsellor's elder brother, presided as governor. On +arriving at the broad river Umea, which here empties its floods into +the gulf of Bothnia, Arwed reined in his horse, and, while his groom +made a signal for the ferry-boat stationed on the opposite side, +reviewed the scenery which had always remained impressed upon his +memory, and which now called up a thousand reminiscences of his early +childhood. To the right, on the sea-shore, and at the mouth of the +broad stream, lay the capital of the poor, depopulated province, the +little town of Umea, to which only its harbor with its clustering +masts, gave any importance. To the left arose the lofty Gyllensten, the +old ancestral castle of the house of Gyllenstierna throned proudly upon +its massive rocks, and bordered by a forest of dark pines. The broad +plain which intervened between the higher elevations and the river, +exhibited evidence of unusual fruitfulness for these northern regions. +The magnificent, clear, blue arch, which, in the west rested upon +Lapland's distant snow-clad mountains, and in the east upon the dark +mirror of the sea, completed the picture which nature, rich even in her +poverty and gorgeous in her simplicity, offered to the eye of the +observer. + +'My fatherland is every where beautiful!' exclaimed he with emotion; +'and this solitary nook, how well suited to my feelings! Yes, I feel +that here I can again be happy!' + +The ferry-boat came, and Arwed sprang upon the floating bridge. The +groom carefully led up the spirited horses, which were somewhat +frightened, and made a vigorous resistance when they heard the hollow +sound of their footsteps upon the boards. Arwed seized the bridle of +his gallant steed, caressed him into a state of quietude, and leaning +upon the glossy neck of the animal, extended his view over the waves of +the stream upon which the boat was now moving to Gyllensten, whose old, +gothic walls and towers were every moment more and more distinctly seen +between the lofty pines and rocks in the intermediate distance. + +'That is the balcony,' said he to Knut, the faithful old boatman, 'from +which I and my little cousin Christine used formerly to watch the ships +as they entered the port. The child will be much pleased to see me +again. She was always very much attached to me.' + +'The _child_!' exclaimed Knut laughing. 'She was at that time eight +years old, as well as yourself, major. Eleven years have passed since +then. Do you think that you alone have increased in stature during that +long period? The child must have become a stately young lady.' + +'You are right,' said Arwed with a melancholy smile, 'I have +experienced so many vicissitudes lately, that my computation of time is +a little disturbed.' + +Leaning his head upon his arm, and resting the latter upon his horse's +saddle, he sank into a profound reverie. 'I shall find a grown up +daughter in my uncle's house,' said he to himself. 'Possibly a right +beauteous maiden, with whom my near relationship must bring me into +familiar intercourse. Did this really enter into my father's plans? Did +he hope that I should here sever old ties and form new ones? If so, he +has deceived himself! But one Georgina blooms for me in this world! +while she lives, lives also my hope, and the mere remembrance of her is +sufficient to steel my heart against the attractions of all the women +upon earth.' + +The sudden shock with which the boat struck the shore aroused the youth +from his contemplations. He threw himself upon his horse and briskly +trotted towards Gyllensten. When he had reached its base, and was +slowly riding up the steep and rocky ascent, a little flag, displaying +the golden star, the escutcheon of Gyllenstierna, suddenly waved from +the pinnacle of the tower. Two falconets then exploded so briskly to +the right and left from the walls, that his horse made three powerful +leaps; and a flourish of trumpets and kettle drums followed. + +'Is it possible that this can be intended for me?'--and putting his +horse to a quick gallop, he soon sprang through the high gothic arched +gateway into the court of the castle. Again was heard a merry trumpet +blast, a window of the castle hall was opened, and a massive silver +goblet was extended towards the new comer by the old governor. + +'Welcome, brave Swede!' cried he joyously to the guest below; 'welcome +to Gyllensten! Down from your horse and come up and pledge me in the +hall of our forefathers!' + +Arwed, obeying, soon entered the long, high-vaulted, echoing knight's +hall, in whose niches on either side of the worthy old Gyllenstierna, +stood colossal statues, in complete armor chased in copper. The shining +metal reflected upon him the last rays of the setting sun so brightly, +that he was compelled to protect his eyes with his hand from their +blinding red brilliancy. + +Meanwhile the uncle, who Was afflicted with the gout, had trundled his +movable chair toward his nephew. 'Aha!' exclaimed he, laughing, 'the +old lords shine a brilliant greeting upon thee, as they should upon so +worthy a descendant of their house. So is it also my duty to do; and if +I do not perform it with quite so much grace, the fault must be +attributed to this rascally gout, which rages in my bones as if the +whole Russian army were marauding there.' + +Arwed, kissing the old count's hand, protested against all ceremony; +the latter, however, would not be persuaded, but slowly raised himself +from his chair, suppressing the pain it gave him, until he stood +upright before his nephew. His purple velvet cap, from under which his +thin white locks escaped, his sharply delineated, intelligent, good +humored, and withal bold face, which the lines of age and experience +had but ennobled, his tall and powerful frame, set off with an +ermine-lined green hunting dress, altogether gave him the appearance of +one of the old Norman princes of long forgotten times, and Arwed +involuntarily started back before the noble figure. + +'My dear nephew!' said the old man with his deep and thrilling voice, +and holding aloft the silver goblet with solemn dignity, 'once again I +welcome thee to the castle of our ancestors, and from this goblet I +drink to thy welfare and to our common lineage.' + +He drank, and then handed the goblet to the youth, who, after draining +it, tenderly embraced his worthy uncle. Sinking back into his chair, +the old man pointed to the window, where stood a table replenished with +wine and drinking cups. + +Arwed wheeled him to it, and, sitting down, filled his goblet afresh. + +'Now, what news do you bring, captain?' asked the uncle with a hearty +shake of the hand; 'or perhaps a yet higher title--hey?' + +'I am dismissed, with the rank of major,' answered Arwed, with a slight +shrug of the shoulders. + +'I understand,' cried the uncle. 'Punishment and reward, wound and +balsam, all in a breath. One may see by this, that a woman governs in +Sweden. She holds to the doctrine according to the excellent German +proverb, of washing the fur without wetting it. With Charles XII you +would not have escaped so easily! All that has occurred redounds to +your credit, and the 'out of service,' attached to your rank of major, +is as honorable to you as would be the order of the seraphim.' + +'Where is cousin Christine?' asked Arwed, to interrupt his uncle's +praises, which covered his cheeks with blushes. + +'She rode out to meet you,' answered the old man, 'I should have +accompanied her, but my gouty feet forbade it. The king's death and my +anxiety for its consequences, have so pulled me down that I came this +time very near going, and shall never entirely recover from the shock. +I cannot imagine how the maiden could have missed you.' + +'May she not have met with some accident?' cried Arwed apprehensively. +'I will mount my horse again and seek her.' + +'Do not trouble yourself,' said his uncle smilingly, and holding him +back. 'She is no timid maiden, who needs protection. She is a virago, +who can take care of herself in every exigence. Beasts of prey and +robbers fear her, not she them. Besides, she is not alone. A military +comrade of your's accompanies her.' + +'A military comrade of mine?' asked Arwed with astonishment. 'Who can +it be?' + +'That I may the better enjoy your surprise, I shall not name him to +you. He is a good soldier,--so much I will say for him,--and especially +valued by me as a witness of the heroism of our king. We made his +acquaintance when I was at the coronation at Upsala with Christine. +Appearing to feel an interest for the maiden, he has availed himself of +the short truce to obtain a furlough, and will spend some weeks with +us. You will be much pleased to meet him. He speaks of you with great +respect, and has related to us your warlike deeds in so vivid a manner +that we feel as though we had been present during their performance.' + +'Singular!' said Arwed,--and at that moment the rapid footsteps of a +horse resounded in the court. He hastened to the window. A slender +maiden, almost as tall as Arwed himself, in a dark green riding-habit, +her face partly concealed by a plumed casque, was just then reining in +her foaming courser. + +'Send to the wolf den in the cluster of fir-trees to the left of the +road, and bring the venison which lies there,' said she to the groom +who was running to meet her; then, throwing herself from the saddle +with the grace of a riding-master, and with her hand wafting a greeting +up to the windows of the hall, she hastened into the castle. + +'You will hardly recognise the girl,' said the uncle. 'She has much +changed, and not altogether according to my wishes. Men are incapable +of rearing and educating women properly, as I have learned too late.' + +The amazon now entered the hall. The removal of her casque, which she +held in her hand, permitted a full view of a blooming face of classic +beauty, which her rich golden locks surrounded like a glory. A bold +spirit flashed from her magnificent blue eyes, and her cheeks glowed +with the heat of violent exercise. + +Without noticing Arwed she strode hastily past him, and, precipitating +herself upon her father's bosom, impetuously embraced him. + +'Madcap girl!' said the latter with evident pleasure, to his beautiful +and lively daughter; 'do you not see who is with me in the hall?' + +She drew up her beautiful form to its full height, and measured the +youth with a searching glance, in which no expression, other than that +of maiden pride, accompanied by a slight appearance of displeasure, was +discoverable, and Arwed looked in vain for that joy with which he had +expected to be received by his little cousin Christine. + +'Is not this the guest whom you have been expecting, my father?' she +asked, after a long pause,--and, as her father nodded assent, she +turned to Arwed, saying with great coldness, 'I am happy to see you at +Gyllensten, captain.' + +'Shame upon you, Christine!' said the old man, angrily. 'Is that a +reception for so near a kinsman, or for the playmate of your childhood? +Fall directly upon his neck, give him a hearty kiss, and say, welcome +cousin Arwed!' + +The beauteous prude started back with a sinister expression, and, +spoiled by indulgence, she suffered it to be plainly seen that she had +no desire to obey the parental command. + +'Do not annoy my cousin, uncle,' said Arwed, offended by her +uncourteous manners. 'Christine may already have seen many fops who +have availed themselves of their relationship to intrude upon ladies. +Since I have not the honor to be known to her, I cannot blame her for +thus taking care to insure herself against so disagreeable an +occurrence at the outset.' + +Christine tossed her head and bit her lips. + +'You have deserved this,' said her father, 'and may congratulate +yourself that your cousin has let you off with so mild a punishment. +Tell us now how it was you failed to encounter him on his way to the +castle.' + +'We saw a wolf in a thicket,' answered Christine, 'and I could not deny +myself the pleasure of hunting him.' + +'Only two of you--without hounds?' said the father with asperity. 'That +was another of those hazardous undertakings to which you have +accustomed me.' + +'He appeared to be hungry and made a stand,' said Christine, by way of +excuse. 'My saddle pistols were ready loaded, and I hit him directly in +the head.' + +'You know I do not like these Nimrod tricks,' murmured the old man. +'Why hazard your life in a contest with such an animal?' + +'What would life be, father,' cried Christine with thoughtless levity, +'if one never dared gaily and joyfully to hazard it?' + +'I would willingly hear such a sentiment from Arwed,' answered her +father, shaking his head; 'but it does not sound well from your lips. +What has become of your companion?' + +'On our way back, he offered me a wager,' said Christine, laughing, 'as +to which of us would be first at Gyllensten; I gave my horse a loose +rein, and have not seen the good colonel since.' + +'You ought to have been a Cossack,' said the old man chidingly; and at +that moment a Swedish officer entered the now darkening hall. + +'Megret!' exclaimed Arwed with amazement. + +'You have lost, colonel!' cried Christine, to the new comer. + +'A second Thalestris,' answered Megret, gallantly kissing her hand. 'I +yield myself in disgrace to your mercy. Once have I ridden with you +upon a wager, but never will I again! Though, at all events, I know how +to ride, I have never yet learned to fly.' + +'I have the pleasure to present my nephew to you, colonel,' said the +governor, interrupting them. + +'What a happy encounter!' said Megret, pretending to derive much +pleasure from the meeting, and embracing the youth. 'How delightful it +is to me, to greet my dear brother in arms, in a kinsman of this dear +family!' + +A sensation of the deepest disgust oppressed Arwed's bosom at the +embrace of the insincere and suspected man. He could not so far control +himself as to repay the dissembler in the same coin, and only answered +with a silent bow. + +'As we shall probably have the pleasure of seeing you here for a long +time, my worthy friend,' said Megret, jestingly, and familiarly +pointing to Christine, 'you will consider it the friendly service of a +true knight when I warn you against this lady.' + +'How so?' asked Arwed, and Christine satirically added, 'the colonel +probably wishes to inform you, how inexhaustible is his fund of sweet +phrases, which mean nothing and which he himself does not believe.' + +'How beautiful she is,' continued Megret gaily, 'I need not remark to a +blooming youth like you. Her mind, nourished by the manna of the old +classics, is a giant that would find its pleasure in storming heaven, +and yet she does not lack the graces. Whenever she is in the humor to +be amiable, she is irresistible. In short she has every quality +requisite to set a man's heart in a flame, and yet I advise every brave +man to guard against her, watchfully, as against something which is at +the same time the most beautiful and dangerous in all the three +kingdoms of nature,--for one all-important quality she lacks!' + +'Now this is enough!' suddenly exclaimed Christine, in a tone of great +irritation. + +'She lacks a heart!' continued Megret, laughing and without suffering +himself to be interrupted. 'She can only _wound_, not _heal_. She is a +female Charles the XIIth. She holds the amiable weakness of loving in +utter detestation, and if Hymen does not perform a miracle upon her, +the epitaph must some day be inscribed upon her grave-stone, which +England's Elizabeth desired for herself--Here rests the virgin....' + +'Shameful!' exclaimed Christine in anger, and striking a heavy blow +upon Megret's cheek, the amazon disappeared. + +'The girl is mad!' exclaimed the governor. 'Excuse the impropriety, +colonel; you shall receive full satisfaction.' + +'Never mind, governor,' answered Megret with a courtly smile and +rubbing his cheek. 'A cavalier must be content to receive the like from +a lady's hand. I shall occasionally take opportunities to revenge +myself upon the little savage.' + +'The table is served,' announced the steward, and two huntsmen placed +themselves behind the wheeled chair of the lord of the castle. 'Follow +me, dear gentlemen and friends,' cried the old man, and then, +commanding his men to move him forward, he led the way to the dining +room. + +Megret, however, remained behind, still rubbing his flaming cheek, and +conceitedly smiling at his own reflections. + +'I am glad you take the ill-behaviour of my cousin so lightly,' said +Arwed; 'but I wonder at it, almost as much as at the blow itself, +struck so suddenly, and without sufficient cause.' + +'It is even that,' said Megret, interrupting him, 'which makes me so +tolerant. An entirely indifferent person would not have caused so +violent, a passion. A girl like her must be allowed to behave somewhat +rudely when she is angry. That is perfectly as it should be. If she +supposed that my penetration had discovered her feelings, my jest must +have been considered by her as a bitter mockery. Under these +circumstances I take the angry blow as a declaration according to the +custom of the country, and have only to regret that the ladies of the +north have such heavy hands.' + +He proceeded towards the dining-room. 'Happy self-conceit!' cried +Arwed, following him; 'to what may not thy genius give a favorable +construction!' + + + + CHAPTER XXX. + + +In the dining room, innumerable dishes were already smoking upon the +supper table as Megret and Arwed entered; yet the governor was sitting +at the sideboard, in accordance with an old Norman custom, amusing +himself with the favorite Swedish preliminary to a good meal, knakebrod +and whiskey. Occasionally he cast an impatient glance towards the door. +'Where is my daughter?' asked he of a servant, who had just entered. + +'The countess is ill,' he answered, 'and begs you will receive her +apology for not being able to appear at the table.' + +'This is another of her whims,' said the old man angrily, 'of which she +has more than my Polish charger. Go again to her, Rasmus, and say, I +command her to be instantly well, and to come and preside at the +table.' + +Megret advanced to speak a kind word in behalf of the capricious +beauty--but the governor motioned him back, and the servant departed. + +Christine soon made her appearance, her eyes cast down and her face +glowing with displeasure. She silently took her place by her chair, and +motioned to the persons present to seat themselves. + +'Before we are seated,' said her father, sternly, 'the affair between +you and the colonel must be adjusted. You will ask his pardon.' + +'Spare me, my father!' implored Christine. 'If the colonel requires +satisfaction I will exchange shots with him; but sooner may you drive +me from the castle than I will ask the pardon of any man upon earth.' + +'Que Dieu m'en garde!' cried Megret laughing. 'Your eyes are accustomed +to hitting and wounding men's hearts, and you would have a manifest +advantage over me. A blow from so beauteous a hand can as little +inflict dishonor as the knight-creating stroke of a king's sword upon a +victorious battle-field.' + +'You have more luck than understanding,' remarked the governor, at the +same time causing himself to be conveyed to the table. For the future, +however, I shall expect that you will not forget the treatment which is +due to thy father's worthy guests.' + +The maiden submissively kissed her father's hand and took her place on +his left; Megret seated himself on his right, and Christine nodded to +Arwed to sit by her; but he went round the table and seated himself by +Megret. + +Christine observed this movement with great surprise. 'I love free +conversation at the table,' whispered he smilingly to her, 'and have no +helmet to protect me.' + +'Insufferable!' murmured she, and in her anger at his unsparing irony, +filled her father's goblet so full, that the good old burgundy +overflowed and colored the exquisite damask table cloth. + +Her father was again reproving her for this new impropriety, when the +servant announced sir Mac Donalbain, and Christine started with a look +of mingled joy and alarm. + +'He is heartily welcome!' cried the governor, and a tall, well built +man, about thirty years old, entered the hall. He wore a short, green +overcoat with copper buttons. At his broad leather girdle, in which two +pistols were inserted, hung a broad sabre, and in his hand he carried a +double-barrelled gun. His sunburnt face was not regularly handsome, but +the spirit and boldness which characterized it, rendered it +interesting. The wild black eyes, however, which peered from under his +dark brows, and a few wrinkles on his forehead and about his mouth, +gave him a grim and disagreeable expression. Arwed, who glanced now at +him and now at the polished Frenchman, compared the two, and came to +the conclusion that he was not in the very best of company. + +'Whence do you come so late, sir Mac Donalbain?' kindly asked the +governor. + +'I have been hunting in the Asele Lappmark,' answered the guest, laying +aside his weapons and boldly seating himself near Christine. 'I had got +belated, and the light of your hospitable castle shone so invitingly +that I concluded to ask of you entertainment for the night.' + +'This worthy Scot is in a certain sense a brother sufferer of yours, +dear major, in so far as the death of our king has destroyed his +prosperity as well as yours. He had the assurance of an advantageous +post in our army, made a long journey to come here, found his hopes +annihilated by the death of the king, and for the present lives upon +his income, at Hernoesand, awaiting better times.' + +'Singular!' remarked Megret, whilst the brother sufferers bowed +silently to each other. 'I was lately at Hernoesand, and could hear +nothing of you there, although I took particular pains to find you.' + +'I reside there no longer,' answered Mac Donalbain, not without some +embarrassment. 'A difficulty which I had there, induced me to remove to +Arnaes.' + +'A difficulty?' asked Megret, smiling. 'I am sorry for that. I hope it +was not with the public authorities?' + +'One readily perceives, colonel,' interfered Christine, with +bitterness, 'that you are a foreigner. In hospitable Sweden, such +questions are not allowable, even from the host himself, much less from +one guest to another.' + +'Why so excited, countess?' asked Megret with his customary cold smile. +'If sir Mac Donalbain _will_ not or _cannot_ answer my question, I +shall be content. He has my sympathy, notwithstanding; and, in my +journey back to Stockholm, I should be pleased to go round by Arnaes to +take personal leave of him.' + +'However agreeable that might be to me,' said Mac Donalbain +equivocally, 'I must yet by anticipation regret that probably you would +not meet me. The amusement of the chase is my passion, and I am almost +always abroad.' + +'So it appears,' said Megret with a piercing glance, and, turning to +the governor, he commenced a conversation with him, respecting the +preparations for war making by Denmark and Russia, which threatened +poor Sweden anew. Arwed who took a part in this discussion, could not +forbear casting an occasional scrutinizing glance at Mac Donalbain, who +had commenced a low and apparently interesting conversation with +Christine. He saw how the dark eyes of the Scot flashed upon the +angelic countenance of the maiden, saw how the latter regarded her wild +neighbor with a mixture of fear and anger, of passion and aversion, and +he thought, 'what a pity it would be, if this beautiful and innocent +creature should have thrown away her heart upon such a man!' + +The table was at length cleared. Megret and Mac Donalbain bade their +host good night and went to their chambers. Christine kissed her father +with humble tenderness, and in a low voice asked him, 'are you still +angry?' + +'Amend yourself, perverse girl,' said the old man; and gently parting +the golden locks from her fair forehead, impressed upon it an +affectionate parental kiss. + +'My kind, kind father! indeed I do not deserve so much love,' cried the +maiden, with deep emotion, pressing his hand to her heaving bosom. She +then arose and departed, giving an unfriendly glance and a slighting +nod as she passed Arwed. He also wished to seek his bed; but his uncle +drew him into a chair near him and filled his goblet again. + +'You must help me finish the last bottle, major,' said he. 'I have not +at all enjoyed your company yet, and must say to you once more, now we +are alone, how dear you are to me. Truly you have come to my house in a +good hour! and I hope at some future time to have much to thank you +for.' + +'How mean you that, dear uncle?' asked Arwed, with some surprise, and +partly anticipating the point to which the old man was leading. + +'Why should I dissemble with you?' burst forth the old man. 'Your +father, indeed, gave me long and broad instructions at Upsala, how I +should conduct myself toward you; but this spying and tacking and +managing may be all very proper in the royal council, and yet not with +so clear and honorable a Swedish mind as yours. Therefore, short and +round, you are the right man for my Christine,--you or none.' + +'I, dear uncle!' answered Arwed, laughing. 'The commencement of our +renewed acquaintance did not seem like it.' + +'That indeed, I observed with regret,' confessed the uncle. 'But who +regards women's humors, which change as quickly as the fashion of their +garments. Bucephalus was a wild and vicious horse, and yet he found his +man who knew how to manage him.' + +'That was the great Alexander, however,' replied Arwed, continuing the +jest. 'I have not vanity enough to put myself on a par with that hero; +and, even if I were compelled to attempt the one or the other, I should +rather undertake the taming of Bucephalus than of my fair cousin.' + +'She is headstrong,' sighed the uncle; 'that, alas! I must myself +acknowledge; I, her father, who have permitted her to grow up without +proper restraints. But, nevertheless, I believe you would succeed in +rendering her submissive. You have, to-day, said such things to her as +she has not been accustomed to hear. Because she is handsome, every one +who has seen has flattered and indulged her caprices, and, in that way, +she has been spoiled. You will let nothing pass without its just +comment, I see plainly. She will consequently at first fear, and then +respect you, and, after that, between people of your stamp, love will +find its way of itself.' + +'It occasions me much regret,' said Arwed with sudden earnestness, +'that I am compelled to interpose an insurmountable obstacle to the +accomplishment of a hope which, in the fulness of parental love, you so +feelingly express. But, in this case, unreserved candor is the holiest +duty. My heart is no longer free, good uncle, and my choice is made for +life.' + +'Your father has already made me acquainted with that affair,' answered +the uncle fretfully; 'but I did not suppose that foolish passion, which +can hardly endure long, could reasonably interpose any obstacle. The +daughter of an executed criminal....' + +'An innocent offering at the shrine of contemptible party interests,' +said Arwed, with great vehemence, interrupting him; 'truly a martyr to +his honesty and to the gigantic plans of his king.' + +'And as your father says,' continued the uncle, 'the maiden has herself +given you up and bidden an eternal farewell to Sweden.' + +'She was compelled by the necessity of satisfying her own conscience; +but that cannot release _me_ from the performance of my duty. So long +as Georgina lives, so long shall I continue to hope, and truly will I +keep my troth.' + +'Such troth is senseless,' answered the uncle, suppressing his emotion. +'However, there is something in your constancy which pleases me. Do as +you will. I hope at any rate, you will place so much confidence in me +as to believe that I would not urge my daughter upon you, in opposition +to your feelings. I am firmly persuaded, however, that the affair will +gradually work itself right. Rank, figure, affinity, wealth, all +fitting. By heaven! you were created for each other or no couple ever +were. Sleep before you determine. As for the rest, what has been said +upon these matters must remain within the walls of this room--to that +promise give me your hand.' + +Arwed gave the required pledge. The governor rang for his attendants, +bade Arwed good night, and was rolled to his sleeping room. + +'This is a strange entanglement in which I shall henceforth be obliged +to act!' said Arwed to himself, while the servants were waiting at the +door, with branched silver candlesticks, to show him to his room; +'Georgina and myself--I and my uncle, and Christine--and Christine and +Megret--and Mac Donalbain and Christine!--and this Megret and Mac +Donalbain, who again appear to stand in hostile constellations; and I, +who, as I already foresee, shall at some future time be compelled to +encounter both of them--this Mac Donalbain who spears to me like the +serpent in paradise endeavoring to seduce the poor innocent, foolish +mother of mankind. This Megret!--ah, this Megret! I will go to bed. God +preserve me from wicked dreams.' + + + + CHAPTER XXXI. + + +The hunting bugle-call and the baying of hounds awoke Arwed from his +morning slumbers. As he opened his eyes they were greeted by the imaged +orb with which the rays of the morning sun announced its rising, +glowingly and tremblingly reflected from the bosom of the sea. Arwed +sprang from his bed, threw his cloak over his shoulders, and raised the +window to enjoy the beauty of awakening nature. In the court below, the +huntsmen, horses and hounds were moving about with loud and joyous +tumult, and old Knut, who had saddled Arwed's black charger, was now +leading him from the stable. + +'By whose command is this?' asked Arwed of the man below. + +'The countess Christine!' cried Knut. + +'Lead him back to his stall and take the saddle off,' commanded Arwed. +'I shall not ride this morning.' + +Shaking his head, the faithful servant obeyed, and at same moment the +door was thrown open and his beautiful cousin, whose fresh charms +almost outshone the morning's splendor, entered his room in her hunting +dress. + +'I am going upon a bear hunt,' said she in a more friendly manner than +on the preceding evening. 'Will you accompany me, cousin Arwed?' + +'I am much obliged to you,' answered Arwed, 'but I prefer remaining in +the house.' + +Christine started, apparently surprised and perplexed by a cold refusal +which she had not anticipated as possible, 'Perhaps you are not fond of +this kind of chase?' she satirically asked. + +'Yes!' answered Arwed, quietly; 'but not in your company, cousin.' + +'Now, I confess!'--cried Christine, making a powerful effort to +suppress the last part of the sentence which was at her tongue's end, +'May one venture to ask, wherefore, major?' + +'Oh yes, one may venture, countess,' answered Arwed, 'and I will most +willingly respond to the question. I do not like to see women pursuing +employments unsuited to their sex. The riding and hunting and baiting +and shooting of ladies, always excites in me intolerable displeasure.' + +'That is nothing but the quite common pride and selfishness of your +sex,' said Christine with bitterness, 'which would have our's always +feeble that you may the more easily keep us under the yoke.' + +'Woe to you, poor women,' exclaimed Arwed, laughing, 'if you had no +better defence against our imperiousness than your physical strength; +you would every where come off the worse. Nevertheless, countess, your +sex is more powerful than you believe it. Your most powerful talisman +is your womanhood; and it is a bad exchange, when you give it up for +the fame of a rifleman or hussar.' + +'_Give it up?_' repeated Christine with great excitement. + +'Nothing less,' answered Arwed. 'To override horses, to chase and +kill animals, is a rough business. A man may pursue it without +suffering in his character, for nature has destined him forcibly to +oppose its hostile powers by contending with them for his safety and +his food,--and, in doing so, he but fulfills his destiny. More tender +and delicate woman has other duties. God created women to be the +protegés, the tender companions of men, to soften and ennoble their +fierce and intractable natures, and to be the loving mothers and +guardians of their children.' + +'Silence!' cried Christine, angrily. + +'All the peculiar qualities, however, which naturally belong to you,' +continued Arwed pleasantly, seizing Christine's hands and holding them +fast, as if he feared Megret's fate, 'all, and they are the noblest +which adorn your sex, must be lost in the masculine woman, and she will +be very fortunate if she preserve the purity of her soul, which is in +great danger, when the restraint of modest, maidenly customs is once +thrown off.' + +Christine started with a sudden shudder. Tears burst from her beautiful +eyes, and she withdrew her hands from his. + +'What is the matter, cousin?' he exclaimed, with deep sympathy. + +'You despise me, Arwed!' sobbed the maiden. + +'What an unfortunate idea!' answered Arwed. 'Whoever fears the contempt +of another, feels that he deserves it, and that can never be the case +with the countess Christine.' + +'You are right!' exclaimed Christine, with a firm tone, applying her +handkerchief to her eyes to remove all traces of her tears, and +proceeding to the window to cool her flushed face in the morning air. + +'You will not accompany me to the chase, then?' she finally asked, as +if nothing had occurred between them. + +'No!' answered Arwed. + +'Then I will also remain at home,' said she; and, calling to the +servants from the window, she directed them to give over their +preparations, as she was indisposed; after which she threw herself into +a seat opposite Arwed. + +'This chase was in reality only devised to obtain an opportunity for an +undisturbed conversation with you,' said she, 'and that object can be +attained as well here. My father has had a bad night and now sleeps +soundly.' + +'Well, speak on!' answered Arwed, placing himself in a listening +attitude. 'If what you wish to say be something good, it will give me +great pleasure to hear it.' + +'Not altogether good,' said Christine, casting her eyes upon the floor +in great embarrassment. + +'So I should imagine,' answered Arwed. 'The feelings you have +manifested toward me since my arrival have not been of the most +friendly kind.' + +'By heaven, Arwed, you do me injustice!' exclaimed. Christine, +springing up and holding out her beautiful hand to him. 'My feelings +are as kind toward you now as formerly, when we, two joyous children, +sought shells together on the beach; and I would be on yet better terms +with you; only you appear not to desire it.' + +'How do you mean?' asked the ingenuous Arwed, who understood his cousin +but too well. + +'In one word,' she suddenly exclaimed, 'my father destines my hand for +you, and I shall be compelled to oppose his determination.' + +'That is indeed no very flattering communication,' said Arwed. 'It +explains the unmannerly reception you gave me, however. It was nothing +but your fear of my tenderness; but as you know your father's +intentions, so you should also know the impediments, on my side, in the +way of their accomplishment. I love another maiden.' + +'That I knew,' said Christine, 'but I was afraid....' + +'That your cousin's truth would not be able to withstand these powerful +attractions,' said Arwed completing the sentence for her. 'You are +either very vain of your charms, beauteous cousin, or have made +acquaintance with very bad specimens of our sex.' + +A deep sigh escaped from the oppressed bosom of Christine. + +'Now, so long as I remain here,' continued Arwed, 'it shall be my most +anxious endeavor to restore my sex to your good opinion. In the first +place I shall quiet your apprehensions by the assurance, that my heart +is entirely filled by a distant and beloved object,--that I shall never +become troublesome to you as a suitor,--and that I will decline the +proposed connection with so much decision, that the anger of our +parents shall fall entirely on myself. I would love you as a brother +should love a sister; but I would also be allowed the brother's right +to tell you the truth whenever I may think it necessary to your +welfare,--would counsel you,--warn you....' + +'Yes, Arwed, be my brother!' cried Christine, with a convulsive +pressure of his hand. 'Ah, that you could always have been so!' + +'By this, however,' said Arwed, 'I must consider myself as having +acquired some claim to your sisterly confidence. I am glad to know that +you can feel no other sentiment for me, as it would give me pain to be +compelled to reject your heart as well as your hand. But I cannot +possibly believe that your coldness extends to the whole sex. That, +indeed, would be still more unnatural than your horse-racing and +bear-hunting; No, no! your heart is not insensible. The glance of your +eye, like the diamond, now flashing fire, and now dissolving in +crystals, has already revealed it. You know what it is to love!' + +'You afflict me cruelly, cousin!' cried Christine, holding her hand +before her traitorous eyes. + +'Confide in me,' entreated Arwed, affectionately withdrawing her hand +from her face. 'Go back with me to the times of our happy childhood, +when we mutually imparted all our little secrets, when we laid our +hearts before each other like open books. Let me once more read in +yours: who is the man of your choice?' + +'You _shall_ read it, Arwed,' cried Christine; 'by heaven you shall +read it! But not now,--only not to-day.' + +'Why not now?' urged Arwed. 'The present is precisely the right moment. +Your heart is now softened and open. Pour it out towards me before +caprice and false shame shall again harden and close it. Name the man +of your choice to me, and take my word that I will honestly do whatever +I can to promote your happiness. Surely, Christine can have no reason +to be ashamed of her choice!' + +'Pity me!' cried she; and, again bursting into tears, she fled from the +room. + +'Strange!' said Arwed, looking after her. 'The maiden is not at peace +with herself; that is evident from the violence and eccentricity of her +behaviour. There is a wounded spot in her heart which smarts at the +least touch. Pray heaven it be not Mac Donalbain! It would be a pity +for so magnificent a creature.' + + + + CHAPTER XXXII. + + +Arwed had soon become accustomed and reconciled to his exile at +Gyllensten. Excursions among its environs under the pretext of hunting, +afforded him ample enjoyment of the beauties of nature and free scope +for the play of his imagination; and these, together with the business +of the governor's bureau, in which, at his own request, he was +permitted to take a part, occupied his days; while the evenings were +employed in reading to the family circle, and in playing chess, a +favorite game with his uncle. Thus, by means of constant and varied +occupation, the time passed rapidly and pleasantly at the solitary +castle. Meanwhile Megret, who had already obtained two extensions of +his furlough, continued to besiege the heart of the fair Christine, and +to submit with patient resignation to all the caprices by which that +eccentric maiden chose to prove the constancy and perseverance of her +adorer. He was, indeed, almost the only one at Gyllensten who had to +suffer from them; for Arwed, true to the brotherly character which he +had assumed, did not spare his beautiful sister, and every instance of +arrogance in which the unevenness of her humor led her to indulge, was +quietly though earnestly reproved, until she was oftentimes brought to +despair. These little quarrels usually ended with tears and +supplications on the part of Christine, which were so touching that it +required all the influence of Georgina's memory and the conviction of +Christine's secret love for another, to cool his youthful heart to that +degree of circumspection necessary in his peculiar circumstances. Mac +Donalbain's frequent visits to Gyllensten, moreover, seemed to exercise +a great and unhappy influence upon the disposition of the otherwise so +lovely maiden. During his presence she exhibited a constant excitement +which immediately after his departure changed to a deep melancholy, out +of which she emerged only to torment all who would suffer themselves to +be tormented by her, with her caprices. From her father she concealed +the state of her feelings as much as possible, and if it occasionally +occurred to him that all was not as it should be, the business of his +office, in consequence of the critical situation of the country, +prevented his looking too deeply into the affairs of his household or +his daughter's heart; and Arwed, though Christine still remained +indebted to him for her promised confidence, could not bring himself to +betray her to his uncle. + +In this manner the summer had arrived, when one evening at the supper +table, in Megret's and Mac Donalbain's presence, the governor asked +Arwed if he had a desire to see a natural curiosity, to visit which +Charles XI did not hesitate to make a long journey. + +Arwed joyfully assured him that he regarded the wonders of the natural +world as a spectacle, in comparison with which the greatest efforts of +human ingenuity were of little value,--and that it was, indeed, one of +his favorite occupations to contemplate them. + +'The Tornea-Laplanders have lately made many complaints to me,' said +the governor. 'They complain especially of the collectors of the royal +taxes, and of the excesses of the Finlanders, attracted within their +boundaries by the chase. Since my gout has left me, I will myself ride +to Tornea, to examine and adjust all these affairs upon the spot; and +have selected the longest day in the year for that purpose. It is their +court day, and also the day of their annual fair, which collects +together the inhabitants of the whole country surrounding Tornea; and +we can at the same time enjoy the rare and beautiful spectacle of the +sun, which on this day does not set at all, enabling the king of Sweden +in a certain sense to claim the same honor of which the sovereign of +Spain and the Indies makes his boast.' + +'I thank you heartily for offering me this rare enjoyment,' said Arwed, +and Christine timidly requested to be allowed to make one of the party. + +'Certainly, if it will afford you pleasure, and you prefer going with +us to staying at home,' answered her father significantly. 'We have for +some time past become somewhat strange to each other, without my being +able to guess precisely what is the cause of it.' + +Christine cast a melancholy and complaining glance upon her neighbor, +Mac Donalbain, and Megret eagerly begged to be added to the company. + +'Your society is always agreeable to me,' answered the governor. 'How +stands it with you, sir Mac Donalbain?' he kindly asked the Scot, 'will +you also be of our party? Rich as your Scotland is in natural wonders, +you cannot see this spectacle there. Scandinavia is the only country of +Europe which exhibits it, with the exception of poor Iceland, which +hardly deserves to be regarded as belonging to our part of the world.' + +'I do not know when you intend to undertake the excursion,' answered +Mac Donalbain with some embarrassment. + +'We start to-morrow morning at day-break,' answered the governor. + +'My engagements will not allow me to join the interesting expedition so +soon,' said Mac Donalbain. 'It is barely possible that I may so manage +my affairs as to be able to meet and pay my respects to you at Tornea.' + +'It must be a strange business,' said Megret, 'which prevents your +accompanying us, and at the same time permits you to meet us at the end +of our journey.' + +'I do not consider, colonel,' cried Mac Donalbain, with a look of +deadly hate and a low bow to the scoffer, 'that I am under any +obligation to account to you for my business, or the manner in which it +is pursued.' + +'By no means, sir Mac Donalbain,' answered Megret, returning his bow; +'I am not one of the police-officers of this province, and have no +official inducement to trouble myself about your pursuits.' + +'Death and hell! what mean you by that?' exclaimed Mac Donalbain, +springing from his seat,--but Christine pulled him down again and +anxiously whispered to him some words of entreaty. + +'Forget not, gentlemen,' cried the governor in an authoritative tone of +voice, 'that you are both my guests, and that it does not become you to +quarrel upon my hearth, where you have both been freely welcomed. I +esteem you both and would resign the society of neither, but I have a +right to demand that you respect this castle, and seek a more suitable +place for the indulgence of the secret enmity which you appear to bear +toward each other. This time, colonel, you are in the wrong. I regret +to be compelled to say to you that, if sir Mac Donalbain took your +remark somewhat too sharply, yet you gave occasion therefor by the +scornful tone in which it was made. Therefore you owe it to me and to +him to take the first step toward a reconciliation; and you cannot be +considered my friend, if you refuse to drink the health of this noble +Scot, which I now propose.' + +A struggle was now seen in the proud Frenchman, between the hatred he +bore his enemy and the respect due from him to the father of Christine. +He cast a tiger glance upon Mac Donalbain, which was met by one equally +fierce, and not being able to come to a determination what to do, he +waited in moody silence, neither accepting nor rejecting the goblet +offered to him by the governor. + +'Do you hesitate?' earnestly asked the governor. 'As yet neither of you +has said any thing to the other which can be considered injurious to +the honor of a gentleman. This is only a misunderstanding, which must +be completely reconciled. If you refuse this, you thereby confess an +intention to offend sir Mac Donalbain, and it will become my duty as +host to resent it as if the offence were intended for me.' + +Megret seized the goblet, 'The lord of this castle,' said he with +suppressed rage to Mac Donalbain, 'calls you a noble Scot. As I have +not the pleasure of an intimate acquaintance with you, I am willing to +consider the statement which has so noble a voucher as true, and upon +that supposition I drink your health.' + +'I receive the toast and return it with as much sincerity as it was +offered,' answered Mac Donalbain, emptying his glass. + +The governor, observing that the anger of the two belligerents still +remained, in spite of the constrained and ambiguous reconciliation, +thought it prudent to give the signal for retiring. + +'That we may be able to start early in the morning,' said he, rising, +'I hope my worthy guests will excuse me if I break up the sitting +earlier than usual. I intend to seek my bed betimes, that I may be the +better prepared for the fatigues of the journey, and therefore wish you +a good night.' + +'I shall have the honor to be at the door of your carriage by sunrise, +ready for the journey,' said Megret, bowing and retiring. + +'As I must start this evening for Arnaes,' said Mac Donalbain, 'allow +me to wish you a pleasant ride. At Tornea I hope to meet you again.' + +He departed with a significant glance at Christine, who followed him +out, and Arwed was left alone with his uncle. + +The governor remained some time in a deep reverie, rubbing the wrinkles +from his forehead, which as constantly reappeared there, and finally +asked Arwed: 'what think you of our two guests?' + +'You must long since have observed that neither of them is particularly +agreeable to me. Being your guests, I would have said nothing against +them; but since you expressly ask my opinion, I will give it honestly: +they appear to me like two wolves engaged tooth and nail in fighting +for a noble deer. God grant that the victim may save herself during the +contest, and both the monsters have an empty reckoning.' + +'Your comparison appears to me to be overstrained; you may not, however +be wholly wrong. As soon as I return from Tornea I will adopt different +measures. I begin to think it would have been better had I done so at +an earlier period. Good night.' + + + + CHAPTER XXXIII. + + +The rising sun of the next morning found every one busy at Gyllensten, +and the travelers prepared for their excursion. Christine, who had +hoped to fly in advance of the rest of the company on her swift dun +courser, was compelled to take a seat in the carriage with her father, +who feared his gout, and her noble horse was led after her by the +domestics, who accompanied the expedition in another carriage. Arwed +and Megret, with their grooms, were in the saddle. The company set +forth in a northerly direction, having the gulf of Bothnia on their +right, and the mountains of Lapland on their left, passing the stations +Beygde and Skelleste until they arrived at the little port of Pitea, +which, yet poorer than Umea, lay at the mouth of the Pitea Elf. There, +with the relay horses, six Swedish dragoons, furnished by the bailiwick +and led by the sheriff, marched up with drawn swords to perform escort +duty for the remainder of the governor's journey. + +'Wherefore trouble these people, Mr. Sheriff?' said the governor. 'The +road is safe, as far as I know, and for that reason I took no escort +with me from Umea.' + +'For some time past,' answered the sheriff, 'a band of robbers have +beset this neighborhood. Two well planned and successfully executed +burglaries, in quick succession, have created much alarm; and +yesterday, a man who attempted to travel to Tornea, was found slain +upon the road between here and Lulea.' + +'And you have yet made no effort to apprehend the perpetrators of the +deed?' asked the governor discontentedly. 'If the police do their duty +such transgressors cannot long escape the vengeance of the laws.' + +'The waste and desolate condition of that region,' said the sheriff by +way of excuse, 'facilitates the flight of the robbers and renders +pursuit difficult. The inhabitants of the scattered houses and small +hamlets fear to seize a single robber while their helpless situation +exposes them to the vengeance of the whole band, which numbers thirty +men. Their leader is called Black Naddock, and always has his face +colored black when he goes out upon his predatory excursions.' + +'You must cause strict search to be made,' directed the governor. +'Write to the sheriff of Umea, in my name, for as many men as he can +spare. Until they arrive you must do the best you can with your +dragoons. They need not accompany us. We are numerous and used to +danger. Should the robbers venture to attack us, we should suffer less +from the encounter than they.' + +He entered his carriage and the whole company continued their route, +still in a northerly direction, by the little town of Lulea, where the +greater and less Lulea Elf roll their mingled waters into the sea, +until they arrived at Ranea, where the gulf of Bothnia forms an angle +and the road turns off to the east. So far nothing had occurred to +justify the apprehensions of the sheriff, and the caution of the +travelers, which had hitherto kept them in close companionship, that +they might be ready to aid each other, began to relax. Megret, whom +Christine jestingly accused of riding near the carriage not for hers +but his own safety, had angrily ridden forward; and Arwed, giving way +to his own reflections, had turned into a fir-wood on the left, in +which he followed a foot-path leading toward the north. He might have +followed this path for the space of an hour, when he heard at a +distance ahead of him a sudden cry for help. Giving the spur to his +horse, he flew in the direction whence the voice came. He soon came in +view of Megret contending with four ill-looking fellows, who had seized +his horse by the bridle and furiously beset him with cudgels and +cutlasses. + +'However little he may deserve it,' said the youth to himself, 'one +must help him in his extremity!' and, with a pistol in his left, and a +drawn sword in his right hand, he rushed into the fight. This attack +called the attention of the ruffians from Megret, who, taking advantage +of the circumstance, recovered his bridle and made off with all +possible speed. + +Angry at the escape of their prey, the robbers now fell upon Arwed. The +latter, having fired and missed, soon had full employment for his sword +and the activity of his horse, in keeping off the ruffians, who +attacked him on all sides, and appeared to be well accustomed to such +combats. He made an attempt to wheel his horse suddenly to the right +and thus make an opening for escape; but here two other men, who by +their appearance belonged to the gang, met him with well aimed rifles. + +'I could have wished a more honorable death,' he murmured, and at that +moment a tall man in a green hunting dress sprang from a neighboring +thicket. A red plume waved from his hat, and his face was black as a +Moor's. He spoke some angry words in an unintelligible jargon to the +robbers, upon which they immediately abandoned Arwed and disappeared in +the bushes, and the Moor motioned to Arwed to depart. + +'Thanks, captain!' said Arwed, rejoiced at this unexpected rescue, and +pushing forward, he soon found himself upon the highway. + +There he met Megret, with both of their servants, coming to seek for +him. 'Here you are, then!' said Megret out of breath, 'and, as I hope, +not wounded. I should never have forgiven myself if you had been +injured in rescuing me!' + +'God be praised that you are alive, Arwed!' cried the beauteous +Christine, flying to meet him upon her favorite dun courser, and her +blue eyes flashed upon him so affectionately as to cause a fluttering +at his heart. + +'You see, major,' said Megret flatteringly, 'how instantaneously all +were hastening to your assistance.' + +'Your promptness is worthy of all thanks, colonel,' answered Arwed; +'but your help would have been of little service to me had I not been +so fortunate as to make the acquaintance of Black Naddock. His command +caused the fiends by whom I was hard pressed, to vanish. Had he not +appeared most opportunely, you would in all probability have found only +my dead body.' + +'That would indeed have been purchasing the safety of a man who could +leave his preserver in the danger which had been incurred for his sake, +at too dear a rate,' remarked Christine, with bitterness. + +Megret did not notice the sarcasm, as at that moment he was begging of +Arwed, with singular eagerness, that he would describe the personal +appearance of the robber-captain. + +'He was a tall, well made man,' answered Arwed, 'about Mac Donalbain's +size, in a hunting dress, well armed, and with a black face.' + +'But the features of that face?' asked Megret, anxiously. 'Bore they no +resemblance to any you have heretofore seen?' + +'Really!' answered Arwed with a smile, 'I did not give myself time to +examine the blackamoor. In leaving him with all convenient haste I did +what you surely will excuse, as you set the first example of a resort +to the spur.' + +'You ought to have shot him down!' continued Megret venomously, 'and +then we should have been no longer in the dark with regard to his +identity.' + +'At the moment when he had just saved my life?' asked Arwed, with +earnestness. 'Surely, that cannot be your true meaning, colonel!' + +'The countess is fainting!' screamed old Knut, spurring his horse to +Christine's side, and catching the pale maiden in his arms. + +'Fainting! such a heroine fainting upon so slight an occasion!' +sneeringly remarked Megret. 'There must be some especial and secret +cause for it! Whether that cause rides here upon the highway, or skulks +there in the woods?--that is the question.' + +Arwed, who had listened in silent wonder to Megret's observations, +which were wholly unintelligible to him, had in the meantime ridden to +the other side of Christine, and there assisted Knut in supporting the +poor girl in her saddle while they slowly returned to the carriage, +from which the governor had taken the horses in order to send the +coachman to the belligerents, as a reinforcement. + +'Thank heaven, it is not necessary!' cried he, glancing at Arwed, and, +extending his hand, he affectionately exclaimed, 'my brave son!' + + +'We bring you a patient,' said Arwed, lifting Christine from her horse, +with Knut's assistance, and placing her in the carriage by her father's +side. + +'Yes, no dissuasion could prevent it,' answered the governor. She would +go. She has had her way, and I am glad the unmanageable girl has for +once been compelled to yield to the weakness of her sex.' + +At this moment Christine opened her eyes. Her glance at first fell upon +Arwed with inexpressible tenderness. She then shrunk and trembled as +though her soul was subdued by some horrible fear. Terror and dismay +were depicted in her features, and she hid her face in the bosom of her +astonished father. + + + + CHAPTER XXXIV. + + +The sun of the longest summer day shone brightly in the horizon, as the +governor and his companions approached Tornea, the end of their +journey, and the meanest among the (so called) cities of West Bothnia. +It lies near the boundary of East Bothnia, upon the delta of the united +rivers Tornea and Muonio, whose waters here again divide into two +branches before falling into the gulf of Bothnia. The little place, +with its towers, its handsome shops, and green shaded walks, +nevertheless presented itself under a very pleasant aspect in the clear +sunshine. In the city itself, however, the whole population of West +Bothnia and its Lapponian districts appeared to have been concentrated, +and in the streets and public square swarmed and pressed the joyous +multitude, who were pouring in to obtain a redress of their grievances, +to be relieved from their taxes, to buy and sell, and to enjoy +themselves in so numerous a company. The thick-set and bold Finlanders, +with flat yellow faces and dull gray eyes, their thin beards and dusky +yellow hair, in their short coats, dome-shaped caps, and fur-trimmed +half boots--the timid, short Laplanders, with their broad brown faces, +large mouths, blear eyes, and dark brown hair, with their leather coats +reaching to their knees, their small caps, and pointed, fur-trimmed +sandals,--all were here,--bringing with them fat cattle, venison, +sheepskins, bearskins, fish, reindeer cheeses, utensils carved from +wood, reindeer's horns, and pine bark meal, in great quantities, for +sale. Here came the wife of one of the poor fishermen of Lapland, in +her high conical cap, turning out of the way for the reindeer upon +which the wives of some of the rich mountain Laplanders proudly +flaunted by, in their curved conical head-dresses. There, a Laplandish +burgher-maiden ostentatiously displayed herself in her fine cloth +dress, decorated with silver buttons from the girdle to the feet, as +was the black bodice, and also rendered stiff and unbending with +buckles and spangles. High over these rather diminutive figures towered +here and there the majestic forms of the blond natives of Sweden, who +were moving about like giants among a race of pigmies. + +The travelers alighted before the door of the sheriff's residence, and +the governor immediately entered upon business, which crowded upon him +like the unceasing rush of the storm-lashed waves. Megret, with a few +internally muttered oaths, was seeking Christine, who had disappeared +from his view soon after their arrival, and Arwed remained standing at +the house door, amusing himself with watching the confused crowd in the +public square. While he was thus employed, a sudden movement occurred +among the living masses, as if an island of human heads was forming in +one particular spot. Arms, with and without clubs, were ever and anon +raised above the thickly crowded heads, and a confused cry arose, in +which Arwed soon plainly distinguished the words, 'stop him! stop him!' +The next moment a man in a green hunting dress rushed from the square +towards the door of the sheriff's house, ran by Arwed with such +impetuosity that he came near throwing him down, and hastily entered +the room where the governor was holding his official sitting. While the +astonished Arwed was looking after the fugitive, a Lapland village +constable (or magistrate) came puffing and blowing from the same +direction in the square. A dozen other Laplanders followed in his wake, +armed with hunting spears, oars and cudgels. With the timidity to which +the oppressed are early accustomed by their oppressors, the little +constable looked up to the tall Swedish warrior, took off his cap, and +with cringing humility asked him if he knew what had become of the +green-coat who had just before fled into the house. + +'Impossible!' cried he, as Arwed pointed towards the session room; 'how +could such a thievish fox seek refuge in the tent of the huntsman? Not +that I in the least doubt the truth of your intimation, noble sir,' +added he, courteously, 'but Enontekis must have mistaken the man, and +he cannot be the one whom we seek.' + +'He is the same,' asseverated one of the Laplanders; 'I have marked the +features of his face but too well, and should know him among a +thousand.' + +'So then we must pluck up fresh courage,' said the constable in a very +dispirited tone, 'and request an audience of the gentlemen within. Come +with me, Enontekis, to enter your complaint; and you others, guard the +door, that this beast of prey may not escape.' + +The two Laplanders entered the session room. Arwed followed them with +highly excited curiosity. The first object that met his eye was the +huntsman, whom he now for the first time recognised as Mac Donalbain, +in close and friendly conversation with the governor. While he was +vainly endeavoring to find the key to these singular occurrences, the +constable and his companion, afraid to speak aloud in the presence of +their superiors, were disputing in vehement pantomime, the former +denying and the latter affirming, although with constantly increasing +uncertainty and anxiety. Finally, the constable approached the bar and +slightly touched the arm of the sheriff. + +'With your leave, respected sir,' asked he, as the latter turned toward +him, 'does the stranger huntsman there enjoy the acquaintance of the +lord governor?' + +'So it would seem,' answered the sheriff, 'as the governor has just now +invited him to dinner.' + +At that moment the governor shook the Scot kindly by the hand, and the +Laplander started back in affright. + +'Do you not now perceive that you must have been blind?' whispered he +to the good Enontekis. 'My God! what trouble might I not have prepared +for myself through my zeal for the discharge of my official duty! To +follow a friend and guest of our most noble governor as a criminal! But +happily the gentlemen have not perceived us, and we cannot do better +than to make a speedy retreat.' + +With anxious haste he drew his somewhat reluctant companion out of the +room. Meanwhile Mac Donalbain had taken his leave of the governor, and +now quickly, but with a courteous greeting, dashed past Arwed, who +followed him to the door of the room. There he saw him cast a wild +glance toward the crowd assembled before the front door, and then turn +off to the right toward the back door, which opened into the garden. +The constable was standing there, engaged in a warm dispute with poor +Enontekis, who was still unsatisfied that he could have been mistaken. +Their armed followers, whose thirst for battle did not appear to be +very strong, were standing solemnly around them. Mac Donalbain stood +for a moment regarding the group as if considering what course to take, +and then marched boldly up to his pursuers. + +'Out of the way, Laplanders!' thundered he, hurling them to the right +and left; and in this manner he passed through the assemblage and +disappeared. + +'That was very uncourteous, sir Swede!' cried the terrified constable +after him when he had got out of hearing. 'We call ourselves Samolazes, +and not Laplanders. Our enemies only call us so, when they wish to +insult us; but we poor people are treated justly nowhere upon earth, +and must be patient under all our injuries until we appear before the +final judgment seat!' + +The tone of the little man grew constantly weaker and weaker during +this speech. Weeping, he went forth; weeping, Enontekis followed him; +and sobbing and wiping their eyes, the twelve warriors followed them. + +'What can all this mean?' Arwed asked himself, as he returned to the +session room. + +'Mac Donalbain,' observed he to the governor, 'appeared to seek you +with great haste; had he any very important favor to ask?' + +'Not that I know of,' answered the governor. 'He came here only for a +moment, to fulfill his promise that he would greet me at Tornea. He was +obliged to decline my invitation to dinner because of an engagement +with a hunting party.' + +'Has Mac Donalbain been here?' asked Megret, hastily entering the room. + +'But a moment since,' answered Arwed, 'and he cannot now be far off. +What do you wish of him?' + +'A crowd of Laplanders,' said Megret, 'are seeking, with spears and +poles, in all the streets of Tornea for a huntsman, who, according to +their description, can be no other than Mac Donalbain; and I should be +very happy to place the noble gentleman before the good people, so that +I might learn precisely what they want of him.' + +'We shall probably find him in the garden,' answered Arwed, and they +hastened there together. But the garden was empty. 'Incomprehensible!' +exclaimed the sheriff, who had followed them. 'The garden gate leading +to the street is closed, and I have the key with me.' + +'Not so incomprehensible as you may suppose,' rejoined Megret, pointing +to a hedge-row by the garden wall whose freshly broken and trampled +branches plainly showed that some one had recently clambered over them. + +'Your pardon, sir officer,' stammered the sheriff, examining the +damaged hedge, 'that is still more incomprehensible,--for what could +have induced the gentleman to climb over the wall, and thus do me so +great an injury?' + +'That, master sheriff,' answered Megret, 'is to me most comprehensible, +if I am right in my suspicions.' + +'What do you mean by that?' asked Arwed; but Megret, who was busily +examining the marks of injury upon the hedge, did not hear him. 'So the +weasel has escaped me,' said he, grating his teeth; 'but, by my honor, +he is lost if he again venture into my snare.' + + + + CHAPTER XXXV. + + +'The royal taxes were raised, the constantly recurring lawsuits of the +Finns and Laplanders about pasturage, the chase and the fishery, were +settled in some way, by power and with mildness, the sun was +approaching the horizon, and the hum of the crowd in the market place +grew fainter and fainter. + +'My business is finished,' said the governor to Arwed, 'and it will +soon be time to view the spectacle for which you have given yourself +the trouble to come here. Seek Christine. We shall set out +immediately.' + +Arwed searched the house, garden, and the whole of the little town, +without being able to find her. As he was returning in the ill humor +naturally consequent upon his want of success, he was met by the +sheriff's little daughter. + +'Perhaps you can tell me, my child,' he asked, 'where I can find the +governor's daughter?' + +The little thing gave him an arch look and placed her finger on her +nose. 'That indeed can I,' answered she; 'but I know not whether I may +venture to do so.' + +'I will answer for it that you may,' Arwed jestingly assured her. 'I am +a messenger from her father--' + +'And possibly for that reason I may not. Fathers must not be allowed to +know every thing. The countess told me that, should a handsome slender +man in a green hunting dress ask for her, I might direct him where she +was. Now you are indeed handsome and slender, but the green dress is +wanting.' + +'Who knows if she will be able to see the green coat to-day,' answered +Arwed significantly. 'Lead me to her. Perhaps she will be willing to +receive, for once, a blue coat instead of the green.' + +'Well, at your own risk!' cried the child, leading him by some deserted +passages through the house and garden into the open fields, where the +waters of a meandering stream glistened among the trees in the evening +sun. + +'She is there behind that thicket of alder bushes upon the border of +the stream!' whispered the child. 'Good success to you, sir officer!' +and she ran back to the house. + +'Even at the north pole,' said Arwed, proceeding forward, 'the sex +indulge in amorous intrigues, and promote those of others when they +have none of their own.' He came to the bushes, and was not a little +astonished when, instead of Christine, he beheld a Finnish peasant +girl, who sat angling on the bank with her back towards him. But the +disguise was soon betrayed by the beauteous golden locks of the girl, +and the deep reverie into which she had fallen,--and he silently +approached through the bushes, that he might surprise his fair cousin. + +The latter discovered by the slight movements of the foliage that some +one was approaching; but, pretending not to have remarked it, she sang +in her sweetest tones a Finnish song, in keeping with her assumed +character. The words were as follows: + + Oh! if the dear and only loved + Might by some magic art appear, + Though on his mouth the wolfs blood hung, + My lips should kiss its beauty clear! + Though round his hand a serpent's coil + Envious, had twined its venom'd ring, + Would not all-powerful love defy + The danger of the reptile's sting! + + Why lacks the wind a fervent soul + Like that which glows within my breast? + Why lives not language in its sigh? + Then could it speed my fond request! + Then, truant, then the whisp'ring breeze + Thy thoughts might interchange with mine; + And, faithful carrier, swiftly bear + The throbbings of this heart to thine! + +'Poor maiden!' sighed Arwed with fearful misgivings. 'God grant that +the man thy heart has chosen, drip only with the blood of the wolf, +that the serpents of hell be not coiled around the hand which thou +wouldst press so tenderly in thine!' + +Meanwhile Christine, having ended her song, listened a moment, and then +turning towards the thicket, exclaimed, 'tease me no longer, Mac +Donalbain, it is you--I hear your breathing.' + +'The lover hears acutely, but not always rightly,' said Arwed +advancing. 'It is only the breathing of your insignificant kinsman.' + +'My God, what have I done!' shrieked the terrified Christine, covering +her face with her hands. + +'Lost the secret,' answered Arwed 'that you once promised to confide to +me. I am indebted to accident for what I now know, and not to your +confidence.' + +'Can that be any excuse for your betraying me?' asked Christine, +grasping his hand and searching deeply into his soul with her beautiful +blue eyes. + +'Do I look like a betrayer?' asked Arwed, indignantly withdrawing his +hand. 'The knowledge of what I only conjectured till now, at least +authorises me to exercise the fraternal right which you have conceded +to me, and earnestly to warn you against this Scot, who, by the mildest +judgment, is only an adventurer. Even if the garb in which you have +to-day so strangely clothed yourself did actually belong to you, you +could not hope to derive any especial honor from such a connection; the +countess Gyllenstierna degrades her rank and reputation when she throws +herself away upon a suspected vagabond.' + +'Then cast I from me both rank and reputation,' cried the maiden, with +the defiance of desperation, 'and retain the garb which brings me +nearer to him, and in which I am allowed to love him.' + +'Has it gone so far with you, cousin? Then indeed must this masquerade +have some secret object, and you were at least willing to try, how it +would become you against the time when it may be adopted for life. +There is too much meaning in this, and I should but discharge the duty +of a guest and kinsman by informing your father of the affair.' + +Christine gave the youth a piercing glance, and sprung upon a rock +which jutted out far over the stream. 'Give me your word of honor, +Arwed,' cried she from her place of refuge, 'that you will remain +silent to every one upon this matter, or I will instantly throw myself +into the stream.' + +'What madness!' cried Arwed, advancing to take her from her dangerous +situation. + +'Back!' screamed she wildly. 'The first step you take toward me shall +plunge me in a cold and watery grave. By my mother's ashes, I will keep +my word! In any event life has henceforth no joy for me.' + +'Well, come down!' cried Arwed, angrily; 'by my honor I will be +silent.' + +'Thanks, thanks!' said Christine descending; 'you are a Gyllenstierna +and will keep your word. And now, nothing more upon this unpleasant +subject. Let us return to our companions. My disguise is a jest I +played off upon you. Do you understand me, Arwed?' + +'Perfectly!' answered the latter; and, troubled by the cloud hanging +over the maiden's fate, as well as vexed that he had taken upon himself +the thankless office of confidant, he gave his arm to the beauteous +Finlander, and they proceeded back to the house in moody silence. + + + + CHAPTER XXXVI. + + +At ten o'clock in the evening, which, however, was no evening there, +the whole party found themselves assembled in the church of Tornea. The +governor was standing near the altar in earnest contemplation of a +suspended tablet which narrated in golden letters how Charles XI had +observed the midnight sun from the tower of that church, in the year +1694. At the same time the pastor of the church, a venerable old man, +was calling the attention of Christine to a medal which had been struck +upon that occasion. Looking over her shoulder Arwed read the +inscription: _Soli inocciduo sol obvius alter_,--and asked if this +metaphor were not too much in the oriental style for Charles XI. + +'Charles XI,' answered Megret, approaching the group, 'left to his son +a throne well supported at home and respected abroad; with a full +treasury, and many flourishing provinces, besides the hereditary +states. How happy would it have been for Sweden had his son been +willing to rest contented with the glory of having preserved his +paternal inheritance.' + +The uncle and nephew simultaneously turned towards the speaker, with +noble indignation, to defend the character of their adored king against +his foreign traducer;--but before they could find words, the pastor, +accustomed to speak in that house, and stirred by the occasion, took +the answer upon himself. 'The judgment,' cried he, in his deep, +resounding voice, 'which you have passed upon our immortal king is as +unjust as it is harsh. You forget that his first wars were purely +defensive; that even his victories, which rendered Sweden illustrious +in the eyes of all Europe, involved him in circumstances which at last +brought misfortunes upon his head. You judge him by the situation in +which he left his realm when God removed him from it in the bloom of +manhood, and entirely overlook what he would have accomplished for +Sweden had he been allowed time for the fulfilment of his designs for +her prosperity. It is a sad truth that the country now finds itself on +the brink of misery; but far be it from us to complain of our immortal +king, on that account. Let us rather curse the murderous villain whose +bullet ended that great man's life before Frederickshall! Him, him +alone, has the kingdom to thank for its calamities; and may all the +tears and blood which have flowed since that black night, and which +must flow hereafter, be poured into the balance of his sins, until he +may sink down to the regions of everlasting torment, overborne by their +weight!' + +'So you are one of those,' said Megret, with embarrassed mockery, 'who, +from your passion for the romantic and marvellous, will have it that no +man of consequence can die except by assassination! In consequence of +the rashness with which the king exposed himself to the fire of the +enemy, it would rather have been matter of astonishment had he escaped +alive. The balls flew so thick, that the agency of assassins was not +necessary to account for his death.' + +'I have my convictions!' cried the pastor, in the heat of his +indignation, 'and those convictions are neither to be sneered nor +subtilized away! God, however, who proves the heart and the reins, must +pass judgment upon the concealed guilt, and punish the murderer +according to his deserts--here, through the worm that never dies, and +there, in the fire that is never quenched! Amen.' + +'You are pale, colonel!' cried Arwed, suddenly giving Megret a +searching look. 'Are you ill?' + +'I was heated when I entered the church,' answered Megret in a faint +voice, placing his hand upon his forehead; 'and this place seems to me +to be very cold. I feel as though suffering from an ague fit, which +however a few moments in the open air will dissipate.' + +He retired with uncertain steps. All followed him with looks of +surprise and inquiry, and a long pause ensued. + +'Is it now your excellency's pleasure,' said the pastor to the +governor, 'to ascend the church tower and thence, like Charles XI, +observe the circular course of the day-star?' + +'I thank you, sir pastor,' answered the governor. 'I have already +looked me out a place upon the level ground, where we can better enjoy +the beauties of nature together with this rare spectacle, than from so +high a point of view, and you will do me a pleasure by accompanying +us.' + +The pastor accepted the invitation. The party left the church, and, +without encountering Megret on their way, entered a boat in readiness +for the occasion, and were conveyed to a small island which appeared to +swim in the stream, opposite the town of Tornea. A solitary house, +surrounded by some small huts, and a wind-mill, stood near the +landing-place. The travelers, ascending, laid themselves upon the bank, +their faces turned towards the sun, and silently enjoyed the view, at +once attractive and awful, there presented to them. + +The still, clear waters of the Tornea and Munio, upon which white +fishing sails were gliding here and there, blushed in the rays of the +evening sun, and were adorned on either side by high bushy banks. In +the middle ground, the city, with its spires, was sweetly reflected in +the peaceful waters. The back ground was closed by bare and sterile +heights which were linked into each other like a chain, and concealed +the opening through which the united streams rolled on in their course +toward the sea. + +At the edge of the horizon, behind the city, shone the nocturnal sun +with rays that with difficulty dissipated the vapors collected by the +evening air, as the forerunners of a night, which, on this occasion, +was not permitted to make its appearance. The illumination had +something dismal about it, for the magnificent sphere seemed to have +lost the substance of its splendor as at the time of an annular +eclipse, and threw, but a pale light upon land and water. The silence +of death prevailed over the face of all nature. The mills upon the +height behind Tornea, as well as that upon the island, were standing +still,--the bewildered birds had flown to their roosts,--and the whole +less resembled an actual world, than a landscape in a magic glass, +lighted by a magic sun, which lacked the powerful life of nature. +Meanwhile Tornea's church bell tolled the midnight hour. + +'Great and wonderful are the works of the Lord!' suddenly exclaimed the +devout pastor; 'and he, who considers them aright, has great pleasure +therein.' + +'I also adore the great Creator in the exhibition of his terrors,' said +Arwed. 'But I must acknowledge that the silent, friendly, and dusky +star-lit night of my own Upland, is dearer to me than this wonderful +day. A sun which seems always to approach its setting, and yet never +sets, but remains mournfully suspended between life and death, is in +truth no joyous sight.' + +'An image of my poor native country!' said the governor, soliloquising. + +'And of my fate!' whispered Christine, almost inaudibly, as she leaned +her weeping face upon Arwed's shoulder. + +At this moment a row-boat from Tornea approached the island. Megret +sprang out of it. 'Despatches from Umea!' cried he. 'The courier +appeared to come in great haste; wherefore I took it upon myself to +bring them directly to you.' + +'You bring me nothing good,' said the governor, forebodingly, as he +hastily opened the letter. 'As I conjectured! Let us start! We must +this night commence our homeward journey.' + +'In heaven's name, father, what is the matter?' asked Christine, in +sympathy with her father's alarm. + +'The Danes have invaded Bahuslehn,' answered the governor; 'the +Russians have landed in Upland. Unless God perform miracles in our +favor, Sweden is lost. Let us hence to Umea.' + + + + CHAPTER XXXVII. + + +As Arwed entered the castle of Gyllensten he was met by old Brodin, +who, with a face highly expressive of sorrow and condolence, bowed to +him in silence. + +'What do you bring me, old honesty?' asked Arwed, with alarm' 'Not sad +news, I hope? How does my father?' + +'The lord counsellor's excellency,' answered Brodin, 'is as well as +could be desired, and sends his kind regards to you. I am charged with +an important commission, for the execution of which I must beg a +private audience.' + +'It concerns Georgina!' cried Arwed, with a sudden presentiment, and +without awaiting Brodin's answer he led him into his private chamber. +'Now speak!' cried he with vehemence. 'I am prepared to hear all.' + +'Were you a weak-nerved lady,' commenced Brodin, slowly drawing a +letter from the pocket of his traveling coat, 'it might be necessary to +preface the unpleasant intelligence of which I am the bearer with a +fitting preamble. But you are a stout young man, as well as a brave +soldier, and therefore I may venture to spare you the torment of fear +and expectation.' + +'Silence!' cried Arwed, tearing the letter from his hand. 'It is her +writing!' he exclaimed, breaking the seal, and then proceeded to read: + + +'MY NOBLE GYLLENSTIERNA! + +'The sympathy you continue to evince for the poor Georgina, blesses, +while it rends her heart. Notwithstanding the clearness with which I +explained myself, you are yet unwilling to consider our connection +dissolved. Nothing therefore remains for me but to effect a last and +eternal separation. I could have desired to spend the remainder of my +life wedded to the remembrance of my first and only love; but you have +yourself rendered this impossible. 'While I live, lives also your hope +of one day possessing me!' By this resolution of your true heart, you +have made it my duty to become dead to you for this world. Your father +wishes to place the hand of his only son in that of his love-deserving +niece, and thereby secure a continuation of the power and splendor of +your noble house. I was the only obstruction to the accomplishment of +this rational wish. I must not so continue. I could not answer to +myself for destroying the welfare of a youth, whom I would so willingly +have made happy by my faithful love, by my irresolution. To make you +free, I have bound myself. To spare you the sacrifice you were +determined to make, I have sacrificed myself. Since yesterday I have +been the wife of a worthy man, whose character I must respect, and whom +I could have loved, had I never known you. In his arms I may find, with +the peace which results from the performance of duty, that quiet +happiness which can result from a marriage, in the contracting of which +passion had no voice. May you also be truly happy! May you deserve that +happiness through obedience to your father's wishes! Believe me, Arwed, +there is something better in this life than the intoxication of +passion. I feel it in this heavy hour. Think of me sometimes, not only +without anger, but with tranquil kindness, as you would of a beloved +being who has preceded you to that eternal world where you hope to see +her once again. I shall never forget you. + + 'GEORGINA VON EYBEN.' + + +Poor Arwed sank upon a seat as if annihilated. The faithful Brodin +observed him with looks of the deepest sympathy. All at once the +youth's eyes began to flash with savage fury. He sprung up, and, +seizing the old man with a lion's rage, thundered in his ears, 'this +whole affair is a fable devised for my deception!' + +'Holy Savior! what is it you think?' cried the trembling Brodin. + +'I have read in many old tales,' cried Arwed, with bitter anguish, 'of +pretended marriages, and forged letters of renunciation, by which +hearts have been artfully torn asunder, that would else have remained +eternally united.' + +'Why, hey, count Arwed,' said Brodin chidingly, 'how can you so +misjudge your noble father as to suppose him guilty of such an +offence?' + +'I know,' answered Arwed, 'that my father considers the dissolution of +my connection with Georgina a matter of the utmost importance. A +counsellor of the realm stands high enough to permit himself to do many +things that would carry a common citizen to a criminal's dungeon. The +whole may be a specimen of the newest Swedish political management.' + +'Believe what you please, major!' angrily exclaimed Brodin. 'The letter +you have just read, I received from the hands of the writer, when I was +with her in obedience to your father's command.' + +'Brodin!' said the agitated Arwed, 'you are an old man! So near the +grave, you will not defile your soul with a lie; therefore answer me, +honest and true, as you have been through the whole course of your long +life--is Georgina actually married?' + +'By my God and his holy gospel!' cried the gray old man, solemnly +placing his hand upon his heart, 'I was myself, by her command, in the +cathedral church of Lubec, and saw her married to the imperial +counsellor von Eyben.' + +'It is then true!' sighed Arwed, again sinking back into his seat. + +Brodin approached, with humid eyes, to speak some words of +consolation,--but Arwed motioned him back, and the old man left the +room in silent sorrow. + + + + CHAPTER XXXVIII. + + +As Arwed was still sitting in his chamber, his arms convulsively folded +upon his breast, as if he would stifle his inward grief by the outward +pressure, with large tear-drops occasionally rolling down his pallid +cheeks, a stranger suddenly entered the room. He was enveloped in a +gray traveling cloak, and his hat was drawn down over his eyes. +Stepping directly in front of Arwed, he threw off his cloak and cap. + +'Swedenborg!' exclaimed Arwed, in a languid tone. + +'The old _Fatum_,' spoke the seer, 'has again most unhappily kept troth +with my presentiments. I see you again in the heaviest hour of your +life, as I expected. But what I could not have expected is, to see you +sinking under your sorrow. It becomes a man to struggle manfully +against this evil fiend, and gloriously to vanquish; not to lay down +his arms before him, like a wounded and disabled combatant.' + +'You have never loved!' ejaculated Arwed; 'you cannot know the anguish +which rends my heart.' + +'I have loved!' exclaimed Swedenborg, with radiant eyes; 'I yet love, +and with a passion which shall be eternal! Not, indeed, a perishable +woman, but the celestial _Sophiam_! Would to God that you also would +choose her for your bride. How vain and trifling would all the earthly +sorrows which now afflict you, then appear.' + +'Do you know the stroke I have received?' asked Arwed, passionately. + +'I know it,' answered Swedenborg mysteriously, 'as well as most things +which concern you. Your image has often floated before my inward +vision, and the spirits have often conversed with me of you.' + +'All my misery,' rejoined Arwed, 'comes from the cold, malicious +Ulrika. Her barbarity has torn from my brows the garland with which +true love would have crowned me.' + +'Sweden's vassal,' cried Swedenborg with solemn earnestness; 'blaspheme +not Sweden's queen!' + +'How!' cried Arwed, with astonishment, '_You_ take her part? You, who +prophecied wo to Sweden under her reign?' + +'That is still my opinion,' rejoined Swedenborg. 'But since Ulrika, by +the unanimous voice of the people, sits upon her father's throne, she +must be to us an object of veneration only. If she has done evil, she +will not escape its punishment; and as the Lord oftentimes takes care +to punish the sinner directly in that wherein he sinned, so perhaps +will the man for whom she has done every thing, at some time become an +instrument of divine wrath and take the crown from her head to place it +on his own, repaying her with the basest treachery.' + +'Alas, her crimes had wings,' complained Arwed; 'and this requital +creeps snail-like after them.' + +'Know then, you, who are so eager for vengeance,' indignantly rejoined +Swedenborg, 'that the fate of Sweden aids you. Your country is at this +moment the prey of her two bitterest enemies, and Ulrika may soon be a +queen without a realm.' + +'I had already heard of the threatened invasions of the Danes and +Russians,' answered Arwed; 'but I did not apprehend such disastrous +results.' + +'They have already entered,' rejoined Swedenborg. 'Bahuslehn is as good +as conquered. Stroemstadt and Marstrand have already surrendered to the +Danes; Carlsten has by this time fallen; and the Russians are raging +like wild beasts in the eastern part of the kingdom. Norrkoeping, +Nykoeping, and many other cities, hundreds of noblemen's seats, and +thousands of hamlets, are already in ashes. Heaps of slaughtered +animals infect the atmosphere; the youths of our land are borne by +Russian ships to ignominious slavery; and, while we are speaking, +general Lascy is moving with a strong army directly upon Stockholm.' + +Arwed's blue eyes flashed. His heroic form became more erect. He +involuntarily grasped the hilt of his sword, and moved towards the +door. + +'Whither would you go?' Swedendorg asked, in a kindly tone. + +'To the garden, into the free air!' quickly answered Arwed. 'It is +becoming too warm for me here. Besides, I need solitude, that I may be +able to form a proper determination.' + +'I know it,' said Swedenborg. 'You will resolve as becomes you, and so, +farewell. The Lord be with your sword!' + +'We shall see each other again before I go,' said Arwed. + +'I must travel still further to-day,' answered Swedenborg. 'I am now +going to the Nasaalpe lead mines. I must afterwards visit the iron and +copper mines in Tornea-Lappmark, and in a month I must be on my way +back.' + +'Possibly we may meet in Stockholm,' said Arwed, forgetting his +banishment, 'and heaven grant it may be under better auspices!' + +'_Quo fata trahunt, retrahuntque sequamur!_' cried Swedenborg with +unction, and the youth hastened out. + +'A noble spirit!' said Swedenborg, looking with complacency at his +retreating form. 'It lay prostrate, sickened with love's pain and +bitter hate; and behold, with only two drops of that steel-tincture, +and his country's need, its strength revives, and labors, and throws +off the _materiam peccantem_, and his heart is as pure, and fresh, and +strong, as ever it was. Hail to the physician of the soul, who finds +the seat of the disease; but thrice hail to the patient whose good +disposition aids the cure.' + + + + CHAPTER XXXIX. + + +As Arwed was striding back and forth in the most remote and darkly +shaded avenue of the garden, buried in his own reflections, colonel +Megret met him with a disturbed countenance. 'Time presses,' said he +with eagerness; 'I must speak openly with you, major. That I love your +cousin, you must long since have known--yet how fervently, you could +not know. The delicate gallantry which we Frenchmen dedicate to the +ladies, and the fear of affrighting or distressing her by the +outbreaking of my passion, have thrown a veil over the fire which +consumes me. I now confess to you that I could commit murder to possess +her; I must win her hand or die.' + +'Nevertheless, colonel, I do not understand,' answered Arwed with +displeasure, 'why you confide all this _to me_, nor why you confide it +_now_.' + +'The new emergencies of the war call me back to the army,' said Megret. +'I set out even this very night. Meanwhile I wish to secure to myself +here at least the _statum quo_. You love me not, major; that I very +well know, but at any rate you are not my rival; you are Christine's +near relative and a man of honor. Whatever you may think of me, we must +agree in this, that Mac Donalbain is not deserving of your cousin.' + +'That I am very willing to allow,' answered Arwed. 'But, I hope, there +can never be a question of such a connection. Had Christine really a +weakness for that man, so noble and strong a mind as hers would be +easily reclaimed from such an aberration.' + +'You consider the matter too lightly,' said Megret with great +earnestness. 'I myself hoped and doubted long, and left unemployed the +means at my command for banishing that bad man. I was indeed thereto +prompted by that miserable vanity which induces a man to wish to +conquer by his own merits and to scorn the use of other weapons. But +the real state of affairs is now placed in so clear a light that my +eyes are pained by it. This Mac Donalbain is a monster, and Christine +loves him. Forbearance would now be madness, as the honor and happiness +of this house hang upon a hair.' + +'And what would you do?' anxiously asked Arwed. + +'That shall you directly hear,' answered Megret; 'for there, most +opportunely, comes the Scot. His destiny leads him towards me. May I +only gain sufficient composure to roast the villain _à petit feu_, as +we call it. It would yet be some little satisfaction for the constant +torments of jealousy for which I may thank him since I first sighed for +the countess.' + +'Megret turned away and proceeded some steps down the avenue, and on +his return all traits of anger had disappeared from his face, and a +cold, smooth smile was substituted. Meanwhile the Scot approached and +courteously greeted them. + +'You come just in time, sir Mac Donalbain,' said Megret in an +apparently friendly manner, 'to enlighten me upon a matter of some +interest. According to your name and your own assurance you are indeed +a Scot, and can give us information from the best sources relative to +the manners and customs of your dear fatherland.' + +'Why not!' asked the Scot with a forced smile. + +'Now will you please to inform me, worthy sir,' said Megret, familiarly +approaching him, 'what, in your highlands, is the exact meaning of the +term, 'children of the mist?' + +Starting and shrinking at this question, Mac Donalbain answered only +with a deadly glance. + +'They also call them 'children of night,' added Megret in a quiet and +seemingly friendly manner. 'The terms are said to apply to those poor +people who, at variance with the civil authorities, shelter themselves +in rocks and caves, occasionally making excursions into the lowlands, +plundering and burning dwellings, driving off cattle, now and then +perpetrating a murder, and getting hanged at last.' + +'You speak of the robber clans of the highlands,' said Mac Donalbain, +struggling to preserve his equanimity. + +'_C'est cela!_' cried Megret, nodding waggishly; 'and I reckon upon +your goodness for some details about them. It would be very interesting +to me to compare your children of the mist with a somewhat similar +class in this country. In Scotland, I am told, even the nobility do not +consider it disreputable to march at the head of such expeditions +against the flocks and herds of the lowlands. They make no secret of +them, and hold the gallows to be as good a bed of honor as the battle +field. Every country has its peculiar customs and code of morals. The +leaders of our robber bands are far more delicate. They, at least +blacken their faces, renouncing the glory due to their heroic deeds, +and wash them clean again when they go into honest company.' + +With these words Mac Donalbain's face became pale as death. His eyes +rolled as if they would start from their sockets, and his teeth audibly +chattered. At length he indistinctly stammered, 'I do not, indeed, +understand your words; but your envenomed glances are the true +interpreters of your meaning. They at least make it clear that you +intend to insult me; and more is unnecessary to induce a noble Scot to +demand instant satisfaction.' + +'It is very flattering to me, noble sir,' answered Megret, 'to receive +an invitation to the field of honor from you; but before I can accept +it, you must satisfy me that I shall really preserve, and not lose my +honor, by going out with you. My comrades in the army are somewhat nice +in such matters, and certain occupations render a man forever unworthy +a gentleman's sword.' + +'Do you refuse to give me satisfaction?' fiercely asked Mac Donalbain, +stepping toward Megret, with his hand, apparently grasping a weapon, in +his bosom. + +Meanwhile Megret had drawn a pistol from his pocket, cocked it, and +presented its muzzle to Mac Donalbain. 'One step nearer, a suspicious +movement even,' cried he, 'and this bullet pierces your heart. You know +the accuracy of my aim.' + +Mac Donalbain drew back, fixing his eyes upon his relentless enemy with +a wild and vacant stare. + +'We will quickly put an end to this unpleasant interview,' continued +Megret, with frightful coolness. 'By all this you must perceive that I +know you. Long since might I have denounced you to the civil +authorities, and I have had more than one personal inducement to do so. +Because I became troublesome to you, your myrmidons attempted my murder +during the ride to Tornea, and, had it not been for the major's +interference, would have succeeded. But magnanimity is the weakness of +Frenchmen. You are pardoned, and I merely command you instantly to +leave this castle, never to return. If I ever again behold you here, or +within a circuit of fifty miles from this, the robber-captain shall be +brought to justice and suffer the penalties of the laws.' + +Unable to speak, and with a countenance such as satan might be supposed +to have assumed directly after his fall into the abyss, Mac Donalbain +rushed forth, and Megret proceeded in triumph to the castle. + +'It is still problematical,' soliloquized Arwed, 'with which of the two +Christine would be most miserable. I become more and more doubtful with +regard to Megret. The Scot received but his deserts, although it is no +honest man who assumes the duty of executioner,--for no one but a +finished villain could have taken such pleasure in stretching his +victim upon the rack.' + +His uncle now hastily approached him from the castle, with an open +letter in his hand, and a face expressive of delighted anticipation. + +'Have you spoken with old Brodin?' he anxiously asked. + +'I have,' answered Arwed; and the recollection of the loss of Georgina +drew a deep sigh from his bosom. + +'You are now wholly free, Arwed,' cried the uncle, with heartfelt love. +'May I hope that in a beloved nephew I may soon embrace a son-in-law?' + +Arwed, perceiving whither this question must lead, foresaw the +unpleasant scene which the contest between his uncle's will and +Christine's passion would produce, and remained silent. + +'Do not fear,' his uncle anxiously added, 'that your consent will be +extorted. Read this letter. Your father desires this union, but he +leaves your will free. Yet should I think, that as your beloved has +loosed the chains which bound you, you certainly would make some effort +to gratify an old man who loves you with his whole heart, and knows not +better how to secure the happiness of his only child than by placing +her hand in yours.' + +'I gratefully acknowledge your paternal goodness,' answered Arwed, +evasively. 'But I beg of you to leave me time for self-examination. My +sorrow is yet new, and for Christine I may safely affirm that a union +with me is very far from her thoughts. Besides, I need time to +familiarize myself with my new position, and enable me to come to a +decision.' + +'I know my daughter,' cried the uncle. 'There was for a time something +strange and adverse in her conduct which often perplexed me; but in the +main her heart is good; and a thousand trifling things have convinced +me that she likes you. Upon the word of a knight, she will not say +nay!' + +'Consider at least the circumstances of the times,' said Arwed. 'The +moment when Sweden is bleeding under the swords of her enemies, when +she is struggling for her very existence, is surely no time for tying +love-knots. Besides, I am resolved to depart to-morrow morning for the +army. Should I come back after the close of the war, it will then be +time to speak of this affair.' + +'_You_ going to the army!' exclaimed the uncle, with astonishment. +'Have you forgotten that you have been dismissed the service and +banished from the capital?' + +'I will serve as a volunteer,' cried Arwed with patriotic zeal, 'in one +of the lowest grades--as a common soldier--if it must be so. If I may +not live for Sweden, they cannot but permit me to die for her!' + +'Die! and for this queen?' asked the uncle. + +'What care I for the queen?' answered Arwed. 'I fight for my +father-land, and to protect the tomb of that heroic king whose life I +was not allowed by fate to defend.' + +'Noble man!' cried the uncle. 'You shame me. The prospect of good +fortune for my house caused me to forget the miseries of my country, +while you are ready to shed your blood in the service of a government +which has thwarted your dearest hopes. Well, act according to the +dictates of your heart. Something must also be done to satisfy mine, +before you leave us, and that even now, for here comes my daughter.' + +'Alas!' sighed Arwed, as the pale and trembling maiden slowly +approached them. + +'My father, you have commanded my presence,' said she, with a failing +voice. + +'Arwed's beloved,' answered the governor, 'has married another. He +leaves us in the morning, once more to meet the enemies of Sweden. You +know my wishes, Christine. He must leave Gyllensten only as your +affianced lover; the marriage can follow in more peaceable and happier +times. So extend to him your hand and give him the troth-kiss.' + +'Oh, my God!' stammered Christine, wringing her hands. + +'Why this affectation?' asked her father with displeasure. + +'You afflict your daughter,' said Arwed, and then turning to Christine, +'calm yourself, cousin! this storm has not been raised by me. Bound or +free, I will never permit your heart to be constrained.' + +'Nothing is more intolerable,' angrily interposed the governor, 'than a +young knight's feigning a coldness towards the other sex which is +foreign to his heart. However strong have been, or may now be, your +feelings for Georgina, yet it has not escaped a father's eye that my +daughter is not an object of indifference to you. The glances which you +now and then cast upon her when you think yourself unobserved, the warm +interest which you take in her conversation, even the reproofs you +often give her, have but the more clearly proved the state of your +feelings.' + +Arwed cast his eyes bashfully down. + +'And, not to mention many other indications,' continued the old man, +addressing himself to Christine, 'what impelled you to mount your horse +so quickly when Megret brought us the news of Arwed's danger? When a +maiden breaks through all obstacles to fight for a young man, one may +confidently swear she has an attachment for him.' + +'Oh, my father!' cried Christine in the deepest affliction, hiding her +face in his bosom. + +'Then give him the hand which would have fought for him,' commanded the +father, moving to lead his daughter to Arwed's arms. She tore herself +from him. 'I cannot! by heaven, I cannot!' shrieked the despairing +girl. + +'You cannot?' asked the governor, angrily. 'And that you are in +earnest, is confirmed by your looks. Now, then, my daughter, give your +father a reason why you cannot obey his will, which was never swayed by +warmer affection than at this moment. I may bear the contradiction if +it be supported upon reasonable grounds, but I am not disposed to +become the plaything of your caprice and obstinacy. Therefore answer, +what have you against this union?' + +Christine remained silently sobbing and wringing her hands. + +'This silence answers me more clearly than you may wish,' said the +governor with grave significancy. 'It is an acknowledgment that you are +ashamed of the cause of your refusal, and clearly explains many things +which have hitherto appeared dark to me. These tears confess your +conviction that your foolish wishes can never be realized, and save me +the trouble of proving it to you. I spare you the reproaches your +conduct merits. Let the past be buried in oblivion. Render yourself +worthy of this kindness by obedience. Give your hand to Arwed, my +daughter.' + +Christine gave Arwed an imploring look, but neither moved nor spoke. + +The old man knit his eye-brows. His eyes flashed, and he angrily lifted +up his hands. 'Shall I curse my disobedient child?' he thundered in her +ears. + +'Father!' groaned Christine, sinking to his feet. + +'No further, my uncle!' cried Arwed, with generous anger. 'I should not +deserve the name of a man if I could permit a noble maiden to be forced +into my arms by a father's curse. The first severe word addressed to +your daughter on my account, banishes me forever from Gyllensten. You +have my word of honor for it!' + +'Can you withstand such generosity, my daughter?' asked the governor, +bending over Christine with mingled anger, love and anxiety. + +'God is my witness,' cried the maiden, 'how willingly my heart would +reconcile itself with your desire. Grant me a short respite for +reflection. In the morning you shall know my determination.' + +'Grant her the respite,' earnestly begged Arwed. 'Overhastening is a +species of compulsion.' + +The governor raised his daughter and looked sharply into her eyes. +'Does no artifice lie hidden in this request?' asked he with emphasis. +'Will you really explain yourself in the morning, openly and honestly, +without equivocation, as becomes a noble Swedish maiden and my +daughter?' + +'By the holy evangelists!' cried Christine, almost out of her senses, +'in the morning you shall learn my determination, and with God be the +result.' + +'Respite the poor maiden for to-night,' entreated Arwed. 'The struggles +of her soul have agitated her too violently, and your words were too +sharp and heavy. Should your daughter's health give way under her +sufferings, you would repent it too late.' + +'Go, then, Christine,' said the governor, 'and bring me in the morning +such a decision as I may be able to receive.' + +Christine kissed his hand in silence, and then leaned, weeping, against +a tree. + +'Yes! children are the gift of heaven!' said the old man to Arwed, 'and +the joys they bring us are the best in life. But when they are given in +anger, they become the most terrible scourges in his hands, through the +sorrows they cause.' + +He walked slowly towards the castle, and Christine suddenly approached +Arwed, threw her arms passionately around him, impressed a burning kiss +upon his lips, and sobbed, 'farewell, Arwed,--do not despise me! Oh +that we had sooner met!' + +She hastened away, and Arwed found himself alone. + + + + CHAPTER XL. + + +The morning had dawned. The governor, with Arwed, had accompanied +Megret down to the courtyard, where his horses stood ready saddled for +the journey, and the traveler held out his hand to the governor to say +farewell. + +'Allow me to give you a well meant warning at parting,' said the +colonel, dejectedly. 'Suffer not this Scot to remain longer at the +castle,--he is not worthy of breathing the same air with you. If you +would know more of him, ask your nephew. He witnessed a conversation +which I held yesterday with that man. My duty calls me to the tumult of +war. Should I ever return, I shall have a request to prefer to your +heart, and shall rely upon the friendship of which you have hitherto +deemed me worthy, for its favorable reception. Commend the remembrance +of a man who adores her to your charming daughter. Say to her: +notwithstanding the cruelty with which she has refused me a last +farewell, her image will accompany me to the field of danger and incite +me to victory or bless me in death!' + +He overlooked the doubting shake of the head which preceded the answer +the governor was about to make, threw himself upon his horse and rode +rapidly out of the castle gate. + +'The evening of my life will be clouded,' said the governor to Arwed; +'and already I seem to see the lightning flash which is to destroy my +last earthly happiness. God's will be done! Is Mac Donalbain yet in the +castle?' he asked of his steward, who approached at that moment. + +'When he came out of the garden yesterday evening,' answered the +steward, 'he merely took his gun and sporting pouch from the dining +room, spoke a few words to the countess, and then rushed like a madman +down the mountain. Since then I have seen no more of him. Something +very disagreeable must have happened to him, for no one could look upon +his face without terror.' + +'You must relate to me the conversation which Megret had with Mac +Donalbain,' said the governor; and then turning to the steward he asked +him, 'is my daughter yet awake?' + +'All is yet still in the chamber of the countess,' answered the latter. + +'Let her be awakened,' commanded the governor. 'The breakfast waits for +her.' + +The steward departed, and the governor returned with Arwed to the lower +hall. There, for a long time, they walked up and down the room +together. Arwed dreaded lifting the veil under which the trouble was +concealed, and his uncle, who remarked his reluctance, had not courage +to repeat his request. Meanwhile the breakfast was brought in. The +governor silently filled the goblets, looked occasionally toward the +door, sighed, seized the cup mechanically and raised it to his lips, +and then set it down again without drinking. + +'Am I not like a child who is trembling with fear in anticipation of a +ghost story?' he at length said, with a forced jest. 'Courage! narrate +it Arwed.' + +Arwed was about to obey, when an anxious movement was heard without, +and, pale as death, the steward re-entered with a billet in his hand. + +'The countess is nowhere to be found,' stammered he. 'Her bed has not +been disturbed. She was in the garden late last evening, and sent her +chambermaid to bed.' + +'What is that?' cried the governor rushing upon the steward. 'What +holdest thou there?' + +'A billet for your excellency,' answered the latter, 'I found it in the +chamber of the countess.' + +The governor seized, opened, and read it. As the oak of a thousand +years yields to the force of its own weight when the axe has severed +its roots, wavers, and finally rushes crackling to the ground; so +wavered and fell that noble old man, whose mental agony was happily +relieved by a suspension of consciousness. + +Whilst the steward and hastening servants were endeavoring to recall +him to life, Arwed raised the paper which had fallen from his trembling +hand, and read as follows: + +'Alike unworthy to call myself Arwed's wife and your daughter, I have +not courage to meet your just anger. I therefore follow the man whose +wife I already am in the sight of God. By the memory of my noble mother +I conjure you curse me not. May you pardon me in another world!' + +'Unhappy parent!' sighed Arwed with deep emotion. + +Meantime the strong old man, who had partially recovered, raised +himself up in his chair, and his first glance fell upon Arwed. + +'You have read?' he asked, and as Arwed answered in the affirmative, he +stretched out his hand to receive the billet, which Arwed with some +hesitation handed to him. Having motioned to his people to withdraw, he +again read it through. + +'No, I will not curse thee, unhappy girl!' said he coldly, and tearing +the note. 'An ungrateful child bears already the curse of heaven in her +heart, and where love is dead the flames of anger find no nourishment. +You hope I shall pardon you in another world! It is possible I may, if +in that world earthly conceptions of honor disappear, and a woman +without virtue is no longer a disgrace to her sex.' + +'Will you not make an attempt,' asked Arwed, 'to tear the poor victim +from her seducer? Let us seek her! Your arm reaches further than she +can have flown in the course of the night.' + +'Why should I?' said the governor, with listless anger. 'Should I bring +her back, I should be compelled to take the life of the villain, whose +wife she already is in the sight of God, and she would have nothing +left on earth. Let them go!' + +A deep and awful silence followed. The clattering steps of Arwed's +horses, which Knut was leading out, awoke the uncle from his +stupefaction. + +'Your horses are ready,' said he, rising up. 'Go, and God be with you!' + +'It is hard for me to leave you in this state of mind,' said Arwed. + +'Your country calls you,' answered the governor, 'and I may venture to +call myself a man. I have given proof of it. I have experienced the +worst that can befall me, and sorrow has not killed me.' + +'My noble, my unhappy uncle!' cried Arwed, sinking upon the old man's +bosom. + +'Fight bravely, Arwed,' said the uncle, 'but risk not your life with +foolhardiness. You are my only heir. I know your disposition, that you +disregard wealth, but the fact will serve to remind you that here lives +an unhappy father of whom you are the last earthly prop.' + +'God send you peace!' cried Arwed, overpowered by sorrow, and rushing +forth, he soon, with his faithful servant, found himself upon the high +road. + + + + CHAPTER XLI. + + +Late in the autumn of the same year the governor was again sitting in +the hall of his forefathers, whose statues remained, hung with mourning +crape. Before him stood a chess board, and, having no companion, he was +amusing himself by playing the games contained in a book which he held +in his hand. The unhappy man had altered much. Each successive week had +left the wrinkles of a year upon his face, and it was a sad sight to +see how he exerted himself to dispel painful recollections by a forced +attention to the intricate course of the game. + +At that moment the footsteps of horses were heard in the court, and +before he could hasten to the window, Arwed entered the hall and rushed +into his arms. + +'Welcome, my son!' cried the uncle, perusing his features with intense +interest; 'though I am sorry to see the expression of dark despondency +which hangs upon your face. The warrior who has done his duty, must +return home from the strife with joy.' + +'That depends upon the nature and result of the strife, my good uncle. +But my whole life has been nothing but a long chain of frustrated +wishes and abortive plans. The myrtle-wreath was torn from my brow, the +laurel withers even while I grasp it, and I have failed to obtain the +cypress crown.' + +'Is the war over?' asked the uncle. + +'For the present, yes,' answered Arwed, 'until it may please our +enemies to recommence it--for there is no talk of peace either with the +Danes or Russians.' + +'Not with the nearest and most powerful of our enemies?' indignantly +cried the governor. 'Woman's rule is everywhere the same--too weak for +resistance, too wilful for reconciliation. Poor Sweden!' + +'Rhenskioeld,' said Arwed, 'was already in full retreat before the +Danes, when I joined him. I went also to the army which covered +Stockholm; but when I arrived the Russians were drawing off their +forces. Desolation and pillage was the object of their landing, and +most fully and fearfully was it accomplished. We indeed followed the +retiring enemy and had some trifling contests with the rear guard, but +when the English fleet under Norris approached our coasts, the +barbarians quickly embarked and left the country with immense booty.' + +'To have had the desire and to have made an effort to save your +country, is deserving of honor!' cried the uncle, extending his hand. +'Therefore once again welcome, my young hero.' + +Arwed gave him his left hand, and the awkwardness with which he did it, +drew the attention of his uncle to the fact. + +'Why do you withhold from me the hand which has wielded the sword in +defence of Sweden?' he asked with surprise. + +'The impossibility of using it must be my excuse,' answered Arwed with +a sorrowful glance towards his right arm, which was concealed under his +coat. + +'What is this?' cried the governor aghast. 'Are you wounded in the +arm?' + +'A Russian canister-shot shattered my hand in the last engagement,' +answered Arwed, 'and I was compelled to have it taken off at the +wrist.' + +'My poor son!' exclaimed the sympathizing uncle. 'That is a great +misfortune. The laurels of victory are some compensation for wounds +received in battle; but to be crippled in a miserable unimportant +skirmish, is the most dreadful thing imaginable.' + +'It is indeed, uncle!' cried Arwed; 'and I can now say with the king of +France at Pavia, that I have lost every thing but honor!' + +'You are right,' replied the old man with a tremulous voice, his +thoughts recurring to his fugitive daughter. 'Happy they who can say as +much!' and with a deep sigh his white head sank upon his laboring +bosom. + +New footsteps in the court yard interrupted the sad pause, and +immediately afterwards Megret entered the hall, with a face yet more +gloomy than Arwed's. + +'I have returned once more,' said he, in a singular tone, as he greeted +the uncle and nephew. + +'I am glad to see you, colonel,' answered the governor. 'Gyllensten has +become very lonesome and desolate, and I am glad you have once more +obtained a furlough in these warlike times.' + +'The queen's grace has given me leave of absence forever,' answered +Megret with bitterness. 'I am dismissed the service.' + +'Dismissed the service!' repeated the governor. 'It must be as major +general then. I congratulate you.' + +'I cannot accept your congratulations,' said Megret. + +'I have received my dismission unwished for, without advancement, and +without pension.' + +'You jest!' cried the governor; 'how could it be possible?' + +'I know no other reason,' answered Megret, 'than the obligations under +which I have laid the queen and her husband. Great obligations! It has +cost me much to serve them, very much! perhaps too much! The queen +might possibly have despaired of being able suitably to reward me, and +has therefore chosen the most convenient way in which the great of the +earth reward past services. She repays with ingratitude!' + +'These are strange observations, colonel,' said Arwed distrustfully, +'and you would do us a favor by giving a commentary upon the mysterious +text.' + +'Let us speak of something more agreeable,' said Megret, drawing his +hand over his forehead, as though he would have wiped something from +it. 'How does the charming countess?' + +The governor trembled with agitation, and looked beseechingly at Arwed, +as if he would have called him to his aid. + +Just as Arwed was about to answer for him the servant entered to +announce a Laplander from the parish of Lyksale, who had a secret and +important communication to make to the governor. + +'Conduct him to my cabinet!' commanded the latter, rising from his +seat, and glad of the interruption. + +'You have not yet answered my question,' said Megret; but the governor +merely pointed to Arwed as he went out. + +'Am I directed to you for my answer?' he asked Arwed with anxious +interest. 'This evasion of my simple question surprises me, and would +seem to indicate some misfortune. I hope no mischance has befallen +Christine?' + +'She left the castle on the night of your departure,' answered Arwed. + +'She must have fled, then, with the miserable Mac Donalbain!' cried the +enraged Megret. + +'Probably,' answered Arwed. 'She did not indeed name her seducer in her +farewell note to her father, but all appearances point to him as the +guilty one.' + +'And has no attempt been made to bring her back and punish the +miscreant for his villany?' asked Megret. + +'The father has renounced his daughter forever,' answered Arwed, 'and I +must beseech you never more to mention her in his presence. It +overpowers the unhappy man to be reminded of her.' + +'This is a consequence of my fatal delay!' cried Megret wildly, and +beating his forehead. 'There is now nothing, nothing more in this world +which can give me joy. My honor wounded by unworthy treatment, my love +scorned and betrayed, what now remains for me?' + +'A consciousness of rectitude, colonel,' said Arwed earnestly. 'It is a +firm rock of safety amid the storms of life.' + +'Consciousness of rectitude!' cried Megret with frightful vehemence, +and then drawing a deep sigh, he hastened from the apartment. + +'Some horrid secret lies in this man's breast, like a sleeping tiger in +his lair,' said Arwed. 'Wo to me, if I should be called to draw it +forth.' + + + + CHAPTER XLII. + + +Arwed had just risen the next morning, when the old steward came to him +with a troubled countenance. 'By your permission,' asked he with great +deference, 'did my lord inform you when he should return?' + +'Is my uncle absent?' asked Arwed with astonishment. 'I knew nothing of +it. When he declined coming to the table, last evening, I supposed it +was merely because he wished to be alone.' + +'After the private audience which he granted the Laplander last +evening,' proceeded the steward, 'he ordered a horse to be given him, +and had his favorite brown saddled for himself with great privacy. The +Laplander was to go before him and show him the way. He charged me +strictly to keep his absence secret from every one. But as the night +has passed and he is not yet returned, my anxiety got the better of me, +and I felt compelled to inform you of the circumstance, even at the +risk of his displeasure. You will know better than I what is necessary +to be done in the case.' + +'What direction did my uncle take?' eagerly asked Arwed, putting on his +hunting coat. + +'Along the right bank of the river,' answered the steward, 'upon the +road which leads by Umea. Some Laplanders who were fishing in the river +state that they saw both of the riders as they passed the ford of the +Lais Elf, and then struck off to the right into the pine forest on the +borders of our Lappmark.' + +'And you really have no conjecture as to the object of this journey?' +Arwed further asked. + +'Conjecture, indeed!' answered the steward. 'I suspect that our lord's +object was to obtain information of the robber band, who are again +spreading confusion and dismay through the border forests. Who knows +but he is on the look-out for Black Naddock himself?' + +'Impossible!' cried Arwed with alarm. 'That is no business for his +years. It is too dangerous.' + +'Ah, dear major,' said the steward, sorrowfully, 'since the countess +Christine has left us, our poor lord no longer cares any thing about +his life, and perhaps a bullet from one of the brigands' rifles would +be right welcome to him.' + +'May God and our true service preserve the noble man from such an end!' +cried Arwed, taking his gun, hunting-knife and shooting-bag. 'I will go +and reconnoitre. If it be God's will, I shall return in the morning +with some definite intelligence. Until then, let every one keep perfect +silence. If my uncle has fallen into wicked hands, every thing will +depend upon taking the villains by surprise. Should I not come back by +the time I mentioned, you will then inform the sheriff of what has +occurred, that he may save or avenge his worthy chief.' + +'God bless your undertaking, noble count!' cried the steward, kissing +Arwed's hand, as he hastened from the castle. + + + + CHAPTER XLIII. + + +Arwed had waded through the Lais Elf about a thousand yards from where +it falls into the Umea, and turning into the pine forest to the right +from the road, he proceeded onward upon a winding path. All was silent +and dreary around him, with the exception of the rustling of the cold +autumn breeze in the tops of the tall pines, and this dismal stillness +added yet more to the feeling of desolation in his soul. 'No trace of +animals or men!' said he to himself. 'No sign or token which tells me I +am upon the right track! Is this silence of nature an omen that this +well intended undertaking, like all its elder brothers, will die in its +birth?' + +During this soliloquy he had arrived at a larger opening in the midst +of the forest, and now the dull tinkling of a small bell and the +unharmonious singing of many voices, struck upon his ear. 'That must be +a horde of reindeer Laplanders!' he joyfully exclaimed. 'They come +opportunely.' The nomades soon broke forth from the thickest part of +the wood. More than a hundred tawny-brown reindeer, headed by the +leading buck, with his far-sounding bell, discovered themselves. The +kind and useful animals followed quietly, with their mane-like beards +and strangely formed horns, with outstretched necks, staring out of +their honest looking eyes upon their leader; and if a young one +occasionally attempted to stray from the line of march, the well taught +hounds would immediately overhaul and return him to the ranks. The +owner closed the procession, with his wives, his daughters and sons, +children-in-law and grand-children, serving men and maidens, all riding +upon reindeer, and howling an ill-sounding Laplandish song. The train +spread itself out upon the meadow and made a halt, the burthened +reindeer were unladen, and some cone-shaped huts, composed of limbs of +trees and covered with mats and skins, soon arose over the green earth, +which afforded immediate refreshment to the flocks. + +The preparation for their meal was immediately begun in these huts, +from the tops of which the curling smoke cheerfully floated up into the +clear heavens. + +Arwed approached the patriarch of this numerous family, who had seated +himself upon the grass near his favorite animal, and had just received +from his women a wooden goblet full of reindeer's milk. + +'Greetings to you, good Samolazes,' said Arwed in a friendly manner. +'Where from?' + +'We have come down from Dofrefield,' answered the Laplander, 'seeking +better pasturage for our animals.' + +'Has any thing unusual occurred during your journey?' Arwed asked in +continuation, by way of approaching the particular object of his +inquiries. + +The old Laplander tossed his head, examined the youth mistrustfully +with his dull red eyes, and coldly and gruffly answered, 'nothing has +happened to us.' + +'They say the roads are not entirely safe,' continued Arwed; 'that +Black Naddock has again suffered himself to be seen in these regions.' + +'I know nothing of the man,' anxiously protested the Laplander; 'in my +whole life I never before heard of him.' + +'That is a lie!' said Arwed angrily. 'How is it possible that you +should be so ignorant about the scourge of this whole country? You +distrust me very unjustly. I ask with good intentions. It is of the +utmost consequence that I should discover the lurking hole in which +this band of dangerous villains conceal themselves, that they may be +annihilated by one bold stroke. Upon this, perhaps, depends the rescue +of a very noble man from the clutches of the monsters.' + +'The arts of men are as multiform as the clouds which ride upon the +winds,' answered the Laplander, with a shake of the head. 'It is very +possible that you yourself belong to the gang, and only wish to spy out +how much I have learned of their proceedings, and how I am disposed +towards them. It is not well however to speak of the fiery-eyed wolf. +My herd is dear to me, and therefore I am the most ignorant man on +earth of all that upon which you would question me.' + +'For shame, Juckas Jervis!' now cried the Laplander's elderly better +half, who had hitherto listened in silence, but with evident interest, +to the conversation. 'How can you be so suspicious and disingenuous? +This Swede is surely an honest man, who is well disposed towards us +all. Only look at his handsome and honest face. What he asks is for our +common good, and we should honestly answer him according to our best +ability. The tribute we have been compelled to pay the thieves for the +safety of our herds, has long troubled me.' + +'On your own responsibility!' grumbled the old man, drawing Arwed +mysteriously aside. 'You will find the robbers' camp,' he whispered to +him, 'by turning to the left and then proceeding straight forward to +the foot of the mountains. You will then turn to the right into a +ravine, and again to the left, following the banks of a glacier rivulet +until you discover what you seek. You will know the place by the swarms +of carrion birds who scent their future prey there, and consequently +never leave the rocks.' + +'Your description may appear very plain to you, friend Jervis,' said +Arwed, 'but it is nevertheless hardly intelligible to me. Grant me a +guide to the place. I will richly reward him.' + +'Jackmock!' cried the Laplander's wife, and a short, thick, nine-pin +looking fellow sprang forward, whom Jervis directed to guide the +Swedish gentleman to the Ravensten in the mountains. + +'Certainly!' answered the fellow. 'If not entirely there, yet so near +that he can see it at a distance.' Whereupon he hastened to get his +staff and traveling bag, and soon again stood before Arwed, ready for +the march. + +'I am already under great obligations to you,' said Arwed to the woman. +'Yet--yet one more question I wish to ask in the strictest confidence. +You come from where I wish to go. Perhaps you have accidentally learned +something of a fine, tall old gentleman who, since yesterday, may have +fallen into wicked hands?' + +'You wish to know much, and require us to do dangerous things!' +grumbled the patriarch. + +'You have already told me so much,' urged Arwed, 'why not unreservedly +tell me all? By my God, I will not abuse your confidence.' + +'Who can deny you any thing?' whispered the woman, laughing. 'According +to the information we received yesterday about sunset, you will indeed +find him whom you seek upon the Ravensten; but whether living or dead, +I cannot undertake to say.' + +Arwed turned to go. + +'Take care of yourself,' said the good woman in bidding him God speed. +'Naddock shows no mercy to an enemy. If you fall into his hands as an +opponent, you are lost.' + +'We are all in the hands of God,' answered Arwed with confidence; and, +shaking hands with Jervis, he followed his guide into the forest. + + + + CHAPTER XLIV. + + +They had been traveling silently for some hours, when the forest +opened, and an arm of the mountain which divides the Umea Lappmark lay +before them, in all its awful magnificence. Naked rocks and icebergs +stretched up into the clouds, and the pale green vallies interspersed +between the masses of stone, ice and snow, appeared as if nature was +here already preparing for her long winter's repose. + +At the moment when the wanderers had arrived at the foot of the first +ascent, Arwed's guide, giving a shriek of terror, and pointing with a +trembling hand towards a black fir-tree in the road, turned and fled so +suddenly into the forest, that Arwed was soon obliged to give up all +thoughts of calling him back. Surprised, he now looked toward the +fir-tree which had caused the Laplander's panic. The view was +sufficiently horrible. The bloody head of a Laplander was affixed to +one of the under branches of the tree. Near it was suspended a tablet, +upon which in large letters was inscribed--'Punishment of treachery to +Naddock and his brethren.' + +'Shameless insolence!' exclaimed Arwed, with indignation at the +impudence of the robber, who, to screen his own crimes, had here +executed a lawless penal judgment with Turkish barbarity. Approaching +the tree, he long and sorrowfully examined the mute, pale, yellow face. +'Poor victim,' he exclaimed, 'how mournfully thou lookest down upon me, +as if thou wouldst warn me from the path which probably led thee to +death. It would indeed be hard for me so to end my life. Yet my second +father must be saved, and it is unbecoming a man to turn back from an +enterprise which he has once commenced. No, fearlessly and cheerfully +will I go on, and if my undertaking succeed, thy death also shall find +an avenger!' + +A clattering, as if from the approach of many people, interrupted the +earnest monologue. Arwed slipped among the bushes beside the way, +and about ten men, of wild and ferocious aspect, armed with knives, +iron-mounted cudgels, and some of them with muskets, came down from the +mountain and passed directly by him, gabbling among themselves in their +unintelligible gibberish, without being aware of his near proximity. + +They had no sooner showed him their backs, than he hastily arose and +proceeded up the mountain with rapid strides. + +With toilsome efforts Arwed succeeded in following the Laplander's +directions. At length he found the glacier brook, and at the same time +the end of his journey. A huge mass of bare, dark-gray rocks, +surrounded by ice-mountains, towered up into the clouds in terrible +majesty. Upon their summit lay the ruins of an ancient castle, of which +only a couple of towers with their connecting wall were standing, and +above them swarmed innumerable multitudes of rooks and daws, some of +which sat in thick rows upon the battlements, while others fluttered in +flocks about them in wild commotion. Their harsh croakings resounded +amid the deep stillness of the place, boding misfortune. 'Truly, not +alone in the battlefield is the courage of man called into exercise!' +said he to himself, while seeking the way which led up to the ruins. At +length he had found a foot-path, when a rough voice cried out to him, +'Halt!' He looked up, and upon a high rock hardly ten steps before him +stood a brigand, whose rifle was aimed at his head. + +'What may be the matter?' cried Arwed, roughly, taking his gun from his +shoulder. + +'Lay aside your arms, or I will shoot you down!' commanded the robber. + +'That is not my custom,' answered Arwed. 'Shoot, rascal! But be sure to +hit, or you are lost.' + +And presenting his gun with his left hand, as he would have presented a +pistol, he rushed towards his adversary. The latter, daunted by his +boldness, fired and missed; and instantly afterwards, with Arwed's +bullet in his head, he fell upon the rock, whence, yet struggling with +death, he tumbled down a neighboring and unfathomable abyss. Frightened +by the firing, the whole flock of funereal birds arose croaking from +the summit, with the rustling of a thousand wings, and fluttered like a +dark rushing cloud in the air, for some minutes obscuring the light of +the sun. + +'Those villanous birds will alarm the garrison and bring the whole gang +in an uproar upon me,' thought Arwed, as he reloaded his gun. 'I would +willingly have ascended further, but now I must not venture it. Every +thing depends upon my safely reaching Gyllensten with the knowledge I +have acquired. I have obtained the necessary information concerning the +enemy's position. It has indeed cost one man's life, but he is no great +loss to the world.' + +He hastened homeward. Soon the dangerous mountain lay far behind him; +and, just as the stars began to twinkle in the firmament, he reached +Gyllensten in safety. + + + + CHAPTER XLV. + + +Under the direction of Megret and Arwed, the preparations for breaking +up the nest of robbers were made with great ability and circumspection. +The ten dragoons stationed at Umea were privately summoned to +Gyllensten, and the neighboring peasantry, who were collected together +under the pretext of a grand wolf-hunt, were distributed among them and +the governor's foresters and gamekeepers. The little force thus +collected, numbering about eighty men, were divided into two commands +under Megret and Arwed, and started the next night in many separate +divisions, which, though connected by patroles, presented no one +conspicuous mass which could excite the suspicions of the brigands. +Whilst Megret proceeded in this manner directly towards Ravensten, +Arwed sought to reach the other side of the rocks by a circuitous +route, so as to cut off any attempted retreat to the neighboring +mountains. The movement was successfully accomplished. Just before +sun-rise the two divisions almost simultaneously reached the foot of +the Ravensten, and slowly and cautiously ascended the narrow rocky +passes. They arrived at the summit without meeting with any +obstruction. There, one of the robber sentinels, being aroused, made a +stand and shot down one of the dragoons by Arwed's side. The shot not +only awakened the winged denizens of Ravensten, who rose affrighted and +screaming into the air, but also occasioned a movement in the towers, +and about twenty of the half naked brigands rushed out with such arms +as they could first seize in the confusion of the moment, and fell upon +the assailants. The strife was furious on both sides, but victory +finally inclined in favor of the greater number of the assailing +party;--want of experience was compensated by the circumspection and +bravery of their leaders, and the brigands were yielding ground, when a +small, fresh band, came forth to the battle and renewed the fight. At +their head was a tall, well-formed man, with a dark-colored face, who +first fired his pistols among the assailants, and then with great fury +fell upon the peasants, sword in hand, 'That is Black Naddock!' +they cried, every where retreating before him. The dragoons and +foresters, however, kept their ground, and the battle raged with +increased fierceness. + +'That is the man who saved my life on the road to Tornea!' cried Arwed +to Megret. + +'It is Mac Donalbain, artificially blackened!' exclaimed the latter +with envenomed scorn, attempting to fight his way to his hated rival; +but some of the brigands threw themselves before him, and kept him +fully employed; whilst Arwed constantly pressed nearer and nearer to +the blackamoor, and soon discovered the well-known features through his +disguise. + +'Yield, Mac Donalbain, the victory is ours!' cried Arwed, attacking +him. + +'It is better to die by the sword of a brave nobleman than upon the +scaffold!' exclaimed Mac Donalbain, suddenly exposing his uncovered +breast to Arwed's blade. + +'God forbid!' cried Arwed, checking the descending blow. 'I am no +murderer!' But at that moment Megret, having disencumbered himself of +his troublesome opponents, hurled the Scot to the earth. + +'At last!' triumphantly exclaimed Megret, setting his foot upon the +breast of his fallen foe and slowly raising his sword for the +death-stroke with an infernal smile.... + +At that moment a woman in a peasant's dress and with a child in her +arms, rushed forward with an agonizing shriek. Wildly floated the rich +blond locks about her white forehead, which strangely contrasted with +the bloom of the rosy faced infant. 'Christine!' cried the terrified +Arwed. + +'Mercy!' shrieked the unhappy woman. 'Mercy for my husband, for the +father of this child!' + +'You know not what you ask, madam Mac Donalbain!' said Megret, +scornfully. 'Whoever is well disposed towards you and your house, +cannot do a better thing than speedily to help you to a widow's veil.' +He aimed a blow,--but Arwed opportunely struck up his sword and forced +him back. + +'Mac Donalbain is a prisoner!' cried the youth with noble indignation. +'From this moment he stands under the protection of the law, to which +he is amenable, and you have no right to take his life.' + +'Ah, Arwed, you are indeed always yourself!' sobbed Christine, falling +at his feet with her child. + +'Such generous subtlety,' said Megret, putting up his sword, 'becomes +loathsome to me when practically applied in the important affairs of +life.' + +'In this case, generosity is more cruel than malignity!' cried Mac +Donalbain, closing his eyes from exhaustion by loss of blood. + +Meantime the right had fully conquered. Fifteen of the robbers had +fallen in the fight, and seven had madly thrown themselves from the +summit and found the death they hoped to escape, upon the sharp cliffs +of Ravensten. The remainder, twelve in number, struck with terror by +the fall of their chief, threw down their arms and begged for mercy. + +Whilst Megret caused the prisoners to be bound together in couples, Mac +Donalbain was by Arwed's direction conveyed into the lower vault of the +tower, and his wounds taken care of. + +Arwed then turned to Christine, who had followed them to the tower. +'Wretched woman,' cried he, grasping her powerfully, 'where is thy +father?' + +Christine pointed speechlessly to a corner of the cave-like room, and +then threw herself in silent wretchedness upon Mac Donalbain's couch of +sorrow. + +Arwed hastened to the designated spot, found and sprung a trap door +there, which opened into the rocky cellar of the castle. A long, +winding staircase conducted him to a subterranean but well lighted +room, where, still paler and weaker than when he last saw him, his poor +old uncle met his view. + +'My son! my preserver!' cried the old man, with outspread arms. + +'Thank God, my object is accomplished!' exclaimed Arwed, with heartfelt +joy. 'Yet once more has my melancholy existence been rendered really +useful in the world.' + +'Alas, that it has been accomplished!' cried the uncle with deep +despondency, 'Rather would I have found, here an unknown and unhonored +grave, than meet the overwhelming shame which must henceforth rest upon +my noble name in my native land!' + + + + CHAPTER XLVI. + + +Under the directions of Megret the towers and walls of Ravensten were +blown up, to render them forever after incapable of serving as a place +of shelter for similar bands. The wounded Mac Donalbain and his +companions were secured in the prisons of Umea, and Christine with her +child conveyed to Gyllensten, where her aged father, his iron +constitution finally overpowered by his sorrows, lay dangerously ill. +The chief judge had summoned the associate justices of his court to the +sessions-chamber of the city hall of Umea, for the trial of the +criminals. Arwed and Megret were present; the former at his uncle's +request, and the latter, that he might witness the entire outpouring of +the cup of vengeance; and, supported by his keeper and laden with +chains, Mac Donalbain appeared before his judges. Harassed and +tormented by his wounds, he staggered here and there, with difficulty +holding himself upright; but his spirit remained unbroken, and his dark +eyes flashed upon the assembly with all their former fierceness. Megret +beheld the scene with a smile of internal satisfaction. Arwed gave a +look of sympathy to the unhappy man, and then whispered a request to +the judge. The latter nodded. The bailiffs took off Mac Donalbain's +chains and placed a stool for him, upon which he seated himself with a +look of gratitude towards Arwed. + +'Tell us your true name, your rank, and your native country,' commenced +the judge with solemn earnestness. + +'Gregor Mac Donalbain,' answered the prisoner; 'a nobleman of the +highlands of Scotland.' + +'Do you still continue, with shameless effrontery, to make that +assertion?' interposed Megret. + +'Forget not, colonel,' cried Mac Donalbain with vehemence, 'that here +you have no right to question me, and that I do not acknowledge any +obligation to answer you.' + +'Neither should you forget,' said Megret, with bitterness, 'that pride +and insolence will make your bad cause still worse, and forever close +the door of mercy which true repentance and humility may perhaps +otherwise open for you.' + +'You would indeed very willingly see me, overpowered by the fear of +death, begging my life at your feet,' rejoined Mac Donalbain, +disdainfully. 'But you may as well resign all hope of that pleasure. I +reject and scorn all mercy for which I must be indebted to you.' + +The judge commanded both of them to be silent. 'Admitting the +correctness of your statement,' said he to Mac Donalbain, 'how is it +possible that you could stain your nobility by abandoning yourself to +so horrible and reprobate a profession?' + +'It was my fate!' answered Mac Donalbain doggedly, and casting his eyes +upon the ground. + +'So, but too often, does man name the consequences of his passions and +his crimes!' remarked the judge. + +'So,' said Mac Donalbain, 'may this name be often applied to the +injustice which an unfortunate man suffers from his brethren, when that +injustice impels him to deeds which else would have been abhorrent to +his soul. A cruel injury to my honor, which I suffered in the service +of the British king, threw me into the arms of the English buccaneers. +My name became known and feared in both the eastern and western oceans. +The lords of the earth, however they may indulge in similar enterprizes +on a great scale for the accomplishment of their projects, array +themselves against little private exploits. Excluded from the ports of +all civilized nations, we were at length compelled to seek an asylum in +Africa. We found one in Madagascar. There we heard of the return of the +hero of the north to his own country. We hoped that this prince, fond +of war, and compelled as he was to engage in it, would receive us with +open arms. Offering to him our services, we proposed to enter the port +of Gottenburg with sixty sail of vessels. Two of his nobility closed a +treaty with us in his name. I was sent here before the arrival of the +fleet to prepare every thing for its reception; but a fever seized me +at Gottenburg; and before my recovery the king fell before +Frederickshall. Storms, and Europe's _licensed_ pirates, annihilated +our fleet upon its way hither, and when at length I arose from my bed +of sickness I was a beggar. There was no longer any hope of the +fulfilment of the royal promise. With Charles's seal and signature for +the rank of colonel, I could not even obtain a company. Then again +awoke in me the bitter hatred of mankind. My last hope to live and fall +as an honorable soldier, was destroyed. The country which denied me my +well acquired rights, threw me back to the state of nature, in which +every man sustains and defends himself by his own natural powers. I +then felt myself authorized to make war upon my enemies, and take what +I needed with the strong hand. A band of unfortunates, who like me had +nothing to lose, chose me for their leader, and the struggle between +myself and the crown of Sweden began. I have been overcome and am +therefore in the wrong;--for which reason I pray you quickly to break +the staff of justice over my head. I am ready to die.' + +'Dreadful man!' cried the judge. 'Have you also such sophisms in +readiness to excuse the misery and shame you have brought upon a noble +house within whose walls you were hospitably received?' + +'That is the curse of my life,' cried Mac Donalbain, repentantly, 'for +which I cannot answer. For that must I call down justice upon myself. +However hard your sentence may fall upon me, by that alone have I +deserved it, and willingly bow myself before the chastening hand of the +law.' + +'It is the request of my uncle,' said Arwed to the judge, 'that all the +wrongs which Mac Donalbain has perpetrated against our house should be +passed over without investigation.' + +'What, even the attempt against his excellency's person?' indignantly +asked the judge, whilst Megret in silent anger ground the floor with +his spurred heel. + +'The band,' said Arwed, 'among whom the governor had accidentally +fallen, wished to murder him for their own safety. Mac Donalbain +preserved the old man's life by risking his own. Even the imprisonment +was but a measure resorted to for that purpose. I also have to thank +this man for the preservation of my life. He would have a strong +counter reckoning to make with us. Therefore let one account be +considered as balanced by the other.' + +'I am astonished,' spitefully observed Megret, 'that my lord the +governor has not proposed an amnesty for his dear son-in-law.' + +'My uncle,' answered Arwed with earnestness, 'can pardon injuries +personal to himself; but he will never allow himself to interrupt the +just operation of the laws. With us Mac Donalbain has made his peace. +He has now to reconcile himself with the laws and satisfy the demands +of public justice, if need be, with his blood!' + +'Oh, would to God it might be so!' cried Mac Donalbain. 'With my +present feelings life would be to me a most sad and unwelcome gift.' + +A disturbance was now heard without the session-room. The door flew +open, and the breathless Christine, with her child in her arms, pressed +irresistibly through the crowd of officers who sought to hold her +back. + +'This trial also!' sighed Mac Donalbain, turning away his face. + +'In God's name, the countess Gyllenstierna!' cried the astonished +judge. + +'I was the countess Gyllenstierna,' said Christine. 'I am now the +wedded wife of the brigand leader, Mac Donalbain, and my place is by +his side, in chains or upon the gallows.' + +'Christine! how could you afflict your father by this second shameful +flight?' Arwed reproachingly asked. + +'My father's life,' answered Christine, 'was already empoisoned beyond +remedy by my guilt. Therefore allow me the merit of having fulfilled my +duty towards at least _one_ being in the world, my husband. He is a +prisoner, and suffering in body and mind. He needs care and +consolation; and from whom can he expect either, if not from her who +has bound her fate with his for this life by a solemn oath before God's +altar.' + +'Have you then really married the criminal?' Megret anxiously asked. + +Christine gave him a scornful look and remained silent; but when the +question was repeated by the judge, she drew a sealed paper from her +bosom and laid it upon his table. + +'A Gyllenstierna can never wholly fall,' said she proudly. 'The old +curate of Lyksale, constrained by my tears, secretly married us a short +time before his death.' + +'This evidence,' said the judge, 'speaks _against_ your wish to share +the criminal's chains. Bound to him by the holy ties of marriage, you +become guiltless of the crimes in which he is implicated, in which your +will had no part. There is no reasonable ground for your detention, and +nothing remains but to send you back to your father.' + +'Torture me not with this well-meant chicanery!' exclaimed Christine. +'Would you counsel me to ascertain which is deepest, the Umea or my +misery? Or would you that I should strangle myself with the braids of +my hair? So true as the Lord liveth, I will not be torn living from my +husband.' + +'Let it be as she wishes,' begged Arwed of the judge. + +'I shall perhaps take a heavy responsibility upon myself,' answered the +latter with strong emotion. 'But who could withstand her intercession? +Be it so.' + +'Courage, Mac Donalbain!' now exhorted Christine. 'We have men for our +judges. They will listen to your defence with merciful hearts, and thus +at least your life will be saved.' + +'I desire not life, nor will I ask for mercy!' cried Mac Donalbain, +wildly. 'My deeds are my own, and the son of my father is not +accustomed to excuse or palliate them, especially to save a miserable +life!' + +'You speak as becomes a man and a Scottish nobleman,' said Christine; +'yet must I be allowed to speak for you as becomes your truly wedded +wife. Therefore I beg of you, my lords, give that gracious hearing +which you hope God will one day give you!' + +'What can you offer in defence of a convicted highway robber?' asked +the judge, with some appearance of sympathy. + +'The heaven-crying injustice of the government!' eagerly exclaimed +Christine, 'which forcibly impelled the unhappy man upon his criminal +career. The indulgence which has been shown to similar transgressions. +The case of the Danish deserter, who received from Charles XII great +rewards and a license to rob for his own benefit, proves how mildly +such transgressions have hitherto been judged in our father-land.' + +'However clear may be the precedent you cite to us,' said the judge, +'it cannot be applied to the present case. Neither was this absolute +sovereign authorised to grant such unheard of privileges, which, if +true, owes its origin but to one of Charles's strange caprices; as the +property of the subjects must be deemed sacred by the king, who is +indeed their natural protector.' + +'My maternal inheritance shall repair the wrong which Mac Donalbain has +inflicted upon the country!' cried Christine. + +'Can you make reparation for the innocent blood which has been shed by +your husband's hand?' asked the judge with impressive solemnity. + +'The resistance he opposed to the attack was self-defence!' cried +Christine; 'besides, none of the assailants fell by his sword; and with +that exception he has preserved his hands pure from the blood of his +fellow men.' + +'By no means!' answered the judge. 'The traveler upon the road to +Lulea, and the unhappy Laplander, who conducted the governor to that +den of murderers, are dumb witnesses of your husband's guilt.' + +'By the God of heaven, Mac Donalbain is not guilty of their death!' +cried Christine in tones of the deepest anguish. 'Ask the band, and, if +either of them accuse my husband, let us both die the shameful death of +criminals.' + +'We would indeed very willingly hear the truth, at last, from his +companions. But in their examinations they have denied all knowledge of +the crimes of which they have been guilty, with unparalleled +impudence.' + +'The knaves deny!' cried Mac Donalbain, springing upon his feet. 'They +must consider me dead or as having escaped, else they would not dare to +do it, for they know me. Let them be brought here,--let them be placed +before my eyes. I will reckon with them in a manner which shall change +their minds.' + +'It may not be advisable,' observed Megret; 'it may give them an +opportunity for secret collusion.' + +'I am of a different opinion, colonel,' answered the judge, directing +the bailiff to bring in the band. 'This man is so bold and frank that +we need not fear artifice.' + +A long, deep silence ensued. Christine, weeping in silence, had seated +herself upon Mac Donalbain's stool, and was absorbed in the +contemplation of the blooming child, which with an angel smile was +sleeping on her bosom. The brigand leader had kneeled down and hid his +face in her lap, whilst her white fingers wandered among his black and +curled locks. Megret looked with dark burning glances, and Arwed with +the deepest sympathy upon the group, while the judge said, sighing; +'the office of a judge is sometimes very difficult to administer!' + +A noise was now heard in the ante-room. Arms and chains rattled, and +twelve fiend-like ruffians, in heavy chains and strongly guarded by +bailiffs and soldiers, stepping in exact time, without recognizing or +noticing Mac Donalbain, marched in and formed in exact line on the +space before the bench. + +'We have again summoned you,' began the chief judge, 'to repeat our +exhortations to confess the truth, and once more to lead your minds to +the conviction, that by persisting in your shameless denials, you only +prolong the examination and your own imprisonment--that you expose +yourselves to the torture of the rack, and moreover increase the +severity of your punishment, the mitigation of which you can only hope +from a free and full confession. Consider, unhappy men, that my present +request is made with the kindest intentions. He, only, who honestly +acknowledges and repents of his sins can hope for a merciful judgment +here or hereafter.' + +'It is quite pathetic and affecting to hear,' answered the most +hardened of the prisoners, 'that such a lord as you should so far +condescend to us miserable people, as to beg where you are accustomed +only to command. We cannot indeed particularly wish to hasten an +examination which with us is to end with the gallows, especially if we +should say yes to all of which we are suspected to be guilty. The +mitigation of punishment, with which judges always embellish their +promises to prisoners, in requital of candid confessions, appears to me +like the little book mentioned in the revelations of St. John, 'sweet +in the mouth and bitter in the belly.' We know of many examples where +prisoners have fared worse for speaking than for keeping silent. +However it may be with others, we have not the least desire to talk +away our own lives. Concerning the rack, which judges always present as +the other alternative, we must submit to it as well as we may, all of +us having strong frames and stout hearts. Nevertheless we would give +you every information without the rack, if any we had. What we do know, +we have honestly related; and it certainly is not our fault if you will +not believe us.' + +'Do you persist, then, in denying the robberies of which you are +already as good as convicted?' asked the judge. + +'We deny nothing,' insolently answered the prisoner, 'nor do we +acknowledge anything; for we have committed no crime. We are honest +Finlanders, who follow hunting through half the Lappmark, and had our +head quarters upon the Ravensten.' + +'And do you really know nothing of Black Naddock?' further asked the +judge. + +'We have heard some tales about the arrant rogue,' answered the +brigand, 'but the devil knows more about him than we. There was indeed +a Moor, who begged a lodging of us last night, and I thought I saw him +again in the morning, when we were attacked by the dragoons and their +companions; but whether he was or was not Naddock, is more than I can +say. I do not know the man.' + +'You do not know me, rascal?' cried Mac Donalbain, springing forward, +and striking his brother robber to the earth with his fist. + +'The captain!' was murmured along the ranks, and, fronting their chief, +the robbers laid their right hands upon their hearts, in token of +respectful greeting. + +'Must I suffer this from people whom I have commanded?' angrily +exclaimed Mac Donalbain. 'You have held out like heroes, against men +and elements, and do you now, equivocate like common thieves from a +miserable fear of death? Know that I have disclosed everything to the +court, and further, that I will freely answer every question they can +put to me. Do you wish to give the lie to your captain?' + +'God forbid!' stammered one of the band. 'We should be disgraced for +life!' cried another; and the former speaker, who by this time had +risen from the floor, cried, 'let your crook-backed secretary nib his +pen afresh, sir judge. We will now sing the song that you lords will +but too willingly hear from such poor devils as we. Write! Everything +that our captain has confessed is true from the beginning to the end.' + +'Well now,' cried Megret, who could restrain himself no longer; 'you +see that you may now, if you please, repay your captain for all the +misfortunes he has brought upon you. The sinful ties which connected +you with him are cut asunder, and you have no reason to spare him in +the least. So tell the court freely and frankly--'who murdered the +traveler on the road to Lulea?' + +'That,' answered the robber with eagerness and proud satisfaction, 'was +done by a brace of gallows-birds who did not belong to our band, but +marauded on their own account, and we beg not to be confounded with +them. Had we caught them we should ourselves have hung them upon the +nearest tree; for we could not with indifference have permitted such +good-for-nothing fellows to injure our reputation.' + +'And who killed the poor Laplander, who was found hung upon the +fir-tree before the entrance to your den?' asked the judge. + +'Red Hialf,' answered the prisoner; 'but without orders. In consequence +of which our captain arrested him, and on the morning when we were +attacked, he was to have had his trial. He must have been found locked +up in the vault of the second tower.' + +'That place was not searched!' cried Arwed, with a shudder. + +'He must have been blown into the air with the tower,' said Megret. +'There can be no question of it.' + +'You must now be convinced,' said Christine, approaching the judge, +'that my husband is innocent of every murderous deed. Can you now give +me any hope for him?' + +'I should consider it great presumption to give you any,' answered the +judge, 'and unjust to withhold it entirely. Our laws are severe and my +duties strict. Yet can the queen pardon. Leave the decision to God!' + +He directed the bailiffs to replace Mac Donalbain's chains. Christine +watched the proceeding in silent sadness, bowed with a sweet and +melancholy grace to the judges, and, supporting her child with one arm +and her husband with the other, she moved with him from the room. Arwed +and Megret followed her. + +'Is it really your unalterable resolution, countess,' whispered the +latter to her, 'to share the imprisonment of a villain, instead of +fulfilling a daughter's duty by the sick bed of your noble father?' + +But Christine turned away without answering him, and approached Arwed. +'Thy spirit breathed upon me in the court room,' said she with strong +emotion. 'For the kindness I met there, I am indebted to thy benignant +heart. Tire not! I well know that we are not worthy of all you are +doing for us; but you are accustomed to the performance of all that is +good and great, and will of yourself consummate your work, for its own +sake, regardless of the object. Save but the life of this unhappy man, +and you shall have my eternal gratitude.' + +'Listen not to her prayer, count,' cried Mac Donalbain, 'but suffer me +to seek in the grave that peace which life can henceforth never give +me.' + +The conversation was interrupted by the guards whose duty it was to +conduct the prisoners to their dungeon. Christine, shuddering, left +Arwed, to follow her husband, '_Diable! Elle aime le larron, et elle +l'aimera jusqu'à la potence!_' cried the enraged and despairing Megret +as he rushed out. + + + + CHAPTER XLVII. + + +It was already deep winter, and the judges were again assembled in the +town hall of Umea. Once more Arwed leaned against the window, an +interested spectator. Through his interposition Megret was this time +denied entrance. With recovered health Mac Donalbain, his faithful +nurse, his child, and his twelve comrades, were placed before the +judgment seat. The chief judge showed the seal of the envelope covering +the final decision, which had been received from Stockholm. After +satisfying all present that the seal was still inviolate, he proceeded +to break it and drew out the portentous document, through which he +rapidly ran his eye. + +'Your lives are spared!' cried he to Mac Donalbain with heartfelt joy. +'The mercy of the queen has commuted the death-sentence of you all into +confinement to labor in the mines for life.' + +'Oh my God! that is hard!' sighed Mac Donalbain. + +'That is heart-breaking mercy,' dryly observed the humorous brigand, +'which compels us, who were never fond of labor, again to begin to move +our bones like patient asses day after day, until happily relieved by +death. However, something is always better than nothing, and we are +duly grateful.' + +Meanwhile Christine had fallen upon her knees in silent thanksgiving to +God. She quickly arose however, and quietly asked the judge, 'what is +the decision with regard to myself!' + +'As was foreseen,' he answered. 'You are pronounced free from all guilt +and punishment, and you are left at liberty to dissolve your marriage +with the prisoner.' + +'What a good thing it is to have a royal counsellor for one's uncle!' +cried Christine, with derisive scorn. + +'You can leave this place and go wherever you please without delay or +hindrance. Yet you are expected at Gyllensten, and your noble kinsman +is present to accompany you there.' + +'That means, that I am to be separated from my husband by persuasion or +force!' said Christine with intense anxiety, while a sudden resolution +seemed all at once to re-animate her soul. 'You then are my master, +Arwed,' she at length said to him. 'Against that I have no complaint to +make. You will not be an unkind one, and therefore I confidently expect +from you a compliance with my request. Allow me to accompany my husband +to his place of destination.' + +'Your father expects you to-day,' said Arwed impatiently; 'and I must +not comply with your request.' + +'Dear Arwed,' said she, hanging affectionately upon him, 'let me at +least take a final leave of the wretched man before he parts forever +from the blessed light of day. Then will I follow you to Gyllensten, or +where else you please, patiently, as a lamb follows its mother. Do not +this time say no. It is the last request I shall ever make of you.' + +'So all-powerful is the magic of this singular being,' said Arwed to +the judge, 'that she compels me to consent to what I ought to refuse. +Yours is a sad case, Christine; you might have prepared an earthly +heaven for some worthy man, through your love.' + +'That she might!' cried Mac Donalbain, agonized with sorrow and +repentance, 'that she might, had she not thrown away her love upon me. +She is a cheerful sun which has lavished its rays upon a desert waste, +full of monsters, instead of ripening wholesome fruits for the +nourishment of men.' + +'You say yes? I can prepare for the journey, can I not?' once more +asked Christine, and kissing his hand as he nodded assent, she flew to +make her preparations. + + + + CHAPTER XLVIII. + + +The wagons of the prisoners, together with Arwed's carriage containing +Christine and her child, were approaching the end of their journey. On +one side of them the smelting furnace of Oesterby was rolling its +clouds of smoke high into the winter sky; before them towered the bald, +dark-gray iron mountains of Danemora-Gruben, and already the few +buildings which animate this desolate and uncomfortable region had +become visible. A dragoon, who had been sent forward to announce their +approach to the superintendent of the mines, now returned and led them +to the nearest shaft, where a number of the miners had already +assembled to receive the new comers and expedite them to their destined +location under ground. + +While the young miners were taking their stations at the windlass, and +others were removing the robbers from the wagons, Christine drew Arwed +aside. + +'Arwed,' said the broken-hearted woman, 'you have always conducted +yourself towards me in the noblest manner. Give me one more proof of +your generosity and kindness, and thus crown your work. Allow me to +descend into the mine with Mac Donalbain. My anxiety for him will be +less painful when I am made acquainted with his new residence.' + +'What an insensate request!' cried Mac Donalbain, who had overheard it, +'It will be much better that we take our last farewell here above +ground.' + +'Because I have once yielded to your importunities,' replied Arwed, +'you hold me for a weak simpleton, and think you can move and turn me +at your pleasure. I have fulfilled your last request, and now I must +obey your father's commands. Take your last leave of Mac Donalbain, and +then return with me according to your solemn promise.' + +'Hold me not so closely to my word,' entreated Christine. 'What would I +not have promised for the happiness of beholding my husband some days +longer! Let me descend with him.' + +'You must now take your leave,' said Arwed sternly, 'and then +immediately return with me to Gyllensten. My resolution is +unchangeable.' + +Christine looked wildly about her. The robbers were all in the tub +ready to descend, and waited only for Mac Donalbain, who now embraced +his wife with frantic sorrow. 'Farewell, and forgive me!' he cried, and +hurried to the shaft. + +'If thou hast ever loved,' shrieked Christine, clinging to Arwed's +knees, 'suffer yourself this time, only this time, to be softened. Let +me follow my husband. For this shall a wife leave father and mother. +Hold God's word in honor, and permit an unhappy woman to descend into +the bosom of the earth, from which she sprung.' + +'I must do my duty; you remain behind!' decided Arwed. Meantime the +windlass had commenced its revolutions, and the prisoners had +disappeared in the dark and yawning gulf. + +'He is gone!' moaned Christine. 'Thou hast done thy duty, barbarian; +now will I do mine!' + +She took the suckling from her breast, and placed it in Arwed's arms. +'Be its father!' she cried, springing to the shaft. + +'Back! the tubs have already descended!' shrieked a miner, whilst Arwed +hastened after her to hold her back. + +'In God's name!' she exclaimed, and, grasping with both hands the +tub-rope which hung suspended in the abyss, and boldly swinging herself +over the shaft, she descended with frightful rapidity, and in a moment +was lost to view. + +'Holy God!' cried Arwed in amazement, staring with stupefaction into +the horrible deep. + +'She will never reach the bottom alive,' cried one of the miners at the +windlass: 'God have mercy on her soul!' + +Arwed had handed over the child to one of the miners' wives, and +availed himself of the first tub which again came up, to descend into +the pit for the purpose of looking after the unhappy mother, and doing +every thing in his power for her welfare. The brave youth felt a slight +shudder, when, by the celerity of his movement, the black, rocky walls +around him, as if raised by some magic power, appeared to fly up into +the air so swiftly as soon to shut out the light of day from the +entrance, which appeared like a distant star shining down upon him; +and, as his eyes gradually became accustomed to the obscurity, the +terrors of the subterranean world became more and more distinctly and +fearfully perceptible. Nothing was to be seen around him but dark gray +rocks in gigantic masses, and occasionally caves and depths so +immeasurable that they appeared to open into endless space. In singular +contrast with the death-like appearance of all nature in these immense +regions, appeared the active and busy movements of living men, who +cheerfully labored to rend by force from old mother earth, that which +she has so carefully hidden, and so pertinaciously withholds, from the +curiosity and avarice of her children. There, upon an isolated group of +projecting rocks, were the begrimmed miners, with their mining lamps, +appearing in the far distance like so many fire-flies, assiduously +digging with mallets and drills into the iron walls, for the purpose of +gaining, in the least dangerous, though most tedious manner, the useful +metal, which others then removed in troughs, baskets and handbarrows, +and finally conveyed to the regions of day. Here, large fires were +burning under the overhanging rocks, for the purpose of softening the +hard stone by their heat, until they could be detached by their iron +crow-bars. Upon slender rafters, supported by inserting their ends into +the fissures of the rocks over unfathomable abysses, solitary +individuals were composedly boring holes in the rocks for the purpose +of blasting them; and near and far to a great distance, the darkness +was illuminated by explosions which re-echoed through the natural +arches of the pit like a subterranean battery of cannon. + +'A true earthly hell!' said Arwed, while going down, 'furnished with +all the terrors and torments which mortals can suffer without quickly +succumbing. How can Christine prefer servitude in this eternal night to +freedom in the blessed light of day? But indeed love will endure all +things.' + +The tub landed at the bottom of the shaft, Arwed stepped from it, and +immediately perceived, by the light of a torch, the poor Christine +lying exhausted upon the ground in a recess in one side of the pit. Mac +Donalbain was standing by her in silent despair, and the clergyman of +the mines was bandaging the bleeding hands of the suffering woman, from +which the cord had torn the flesh as it slipped through them. + +'So thou hast come after me, Arwed!' cried she, with a glance of +heavenly kindness, and extending towards him her already bandaged right +hand. 'You have always acted toward me with the best feelings and +intentions.' + +'My God, what desperation!' said Arwed. 'This descent might have cost +you your life. At all events you have accomplished your wish. So give +to Mac Donalbain your farewell kiss, and let us again return to your +child and to your father.' + +'Not so, Arwed!' answered Christine with determined resolution. 'My +child is confided to good hands. My presence can afford neither joy nor +comfort to my father. I remain with my husband. You have reason to know +what will be my alternative if compulsion is used. You would not +constrain me to self-murder. Therefore take my last farewell, and with +it my thanks for your truly fraternal love.' + +'It is now your duty to interfere, Mac Donalbain,' cried Arwed, +earnestly. 'Without Christine I dare not appear before her father. The +intelligence that she has persisted in remaining here would cause the +old man's death, and he has not deserved that from you. Therefore +dissolve the magic spell you have cast around her, and give back the +daughter to her father.' + +'My crimes have forever loosed the bands which bound us,' said Mac +Donalbain, with almost suffocating sorrow, to his wife. 'Therefore +leave me now, Christine. It would only increase my misery to know that +it was shared by you.' + +'I do not believe it, Mac Donalbain,' answered the resolute woman. +'That the society, the sympathy, the consolations, of a being who +stands in so near a relation that henceforth she will only live and +breathe for you, must lighten your sufferings, I am fully convinced; +and in despite of your generous untruth I remain your companion.' + +'Well, then,' cried Mac Donalbain, wildly, 'if you will at all events +remain the wife of a condemned criminal, you must respect the husband's +authority. The wife owes obedience to the husband, and I command you to +return to your father!' + +'You cannot command me to do that,' answered Christine. 'I am your +wedded wife. I have never given you cause to be dissatisfied with me, +but have always faithfully adhered to you, up to this sad moment. You +have no right to separate yourself from me without my consent, and by +Almighty God I will never give it!' + +'Be merciful, as our Father in Heaven is merciful!' +said the preacher to the weeping Arwed. 'So far as I understand this +sad history, it appears, even to me, better to permit the unhappy woman +to remain with her husband. What but severe reproof and bitter scorn +can she now expect in the upper world? Here, on the contrary, she can +perhaps preserve a distracted mind from despair and lead it to true +repentance and amendment, which is always a commendable work and +acceptable to God.' + +'How can I venture,' rejoined Arwed, 'to leave the poor woman here, +helpless, amid the horrors of nature and the outcasts of society, whose +destiny her husband must share?' + +'She shall reside in my house,' promised the preacher; 'and together +with my good wife I will make every possible effort to render her yoke +easy and her burden light. Confide her to me, sir officer, and I will +have a father's care of her.' + +'Do so, reverend sir,' said Arwed, somewhat relieved by this promise, +and placing a purse in the preacher's hand. 'The governor of West +Bothnia will gratefully acknowledge whatever kindness you may show to +his daughter.' + +The preacher raised his hands in astonishment on thus learning the high +rank of the person committed to his care. 'I will plead for you with +your father!' said Arwed to Christine,--and, to shorten the painful +scene, he hastened to re-enter the tub. The signal was given, and Arwed +soon mounted to the regions of day, accompanied by the grateful prayers +of those he left behind. + + + + CHAPTER XLIX. + + +Arwed sat by his uncle's sick bed, and, not without some embarrassment +and hesitation, gave an account of Christine's artifice, his weakness, +and her final resolution. The old man exhibited no sign of anger, as +Arwed had anticipated, but on the contrary nodded his assent to the +arrangement. 'She knows what is proper for her,' he at length said in a +trembling voice. 'Her honor is lost beyond redemption, and I therefore +consider it but reasonable and proper that she should hide herself in a +place so little different from the grave. Direct my steward to send a +hundred ducats to Oesterby yearly, for her use, that she may not suffer +from want, and henceforth name her to me no more. With her child you +will do what you think proper; you have an open treasury here, but +never let it come into my presence. I cannot acknowledge a child of Mac +Donalbain as my grandson.' + +'Is Megret still here?' asked Arwed, for the purpose of changing the +subject. + +'He is,' answered the governor, 'and I wish to have some conversation +with you respecting him. A great change has come over him since the +Ravensten expedition, and he has daily become more and more seriously +misanthropic. Since he clearly ascertained that the----person was +determined at all events to accompany her husband to Danemora, it seems +as if an evil spirit had entered him, and obtained entire possession of +his heart. I really believe the fool did not, until then, give up all +hope of gaining her hand. His presence here has become disagreeable to +me. He daily harasses his poor hounds, who howl about the castle like +damned spirits,--shamefully over-rides his noble horses from mere +caprice, and I have frequently caught him in smiling and pleased +contemplation of his bloody spurs. His groom leads a miserable life +with him, and I have on that account already once or twice upbraided +him severely for his eccentric and irregular course. His plan of +purchasing and settling himself in this vicinity seems to be wholly +given up, and he has become burdensome to every living creature at the +castle, but most of all to himself. I feel that my days are numbered, +and would willingly die in peace. I must therefore beg of you, Arwed, +in my name and in a courteous manner, to dismiss him from the castle. +Should he take it ill, a duel may indeed be the consequence; but you +would not hesitate to exchange a few passes for the love of your old +uncle,--would you?' + +'I will set about it immediately,' said Arwed, leaving the room, +rejoiced to have an opportunity of forever ridding himself of the hated +Frenchman. + + + + CHAPTER L. + + +In answer to his inquiries for Megret, Arwed learned that he had +retired into the garden in company with a strange officer. He followed +him there, and their voices guided him through the leafless and snow +covered walks to a thick grove of yew-trees, in which Megret and the +stranger were sitting. A glance through an opening in the branches of +the trees discovered to him the face of Siquier, pale and wasted by +disease and affliction; and the interest of a conversation which now +commenced between them, chained him with irresistible power to the +spot. + +'What is it that you particularly want of me?' asked Megret, with +mingled embarrassment and vexation. 'We have both of us so long and so +carefully avoided each other, that this unexpected visit may well +excite my wonder.' + +'I am about to leave Sweden forever,' answered Siquier, in a desponding +tone, 'and have come to take my leave of you, and to procure money for +my traveling expenses.' + +'Money for traveling?' murmured Megret. 'We settled with each other +long since, and balanced our accounts. Above all, how came you to form +the resolution of leaving Sweden?' + +'You know,' answered Siquier, in a low voice and looking carefully +about him, 'with what ignominy common report has branded my honor since +the king's death. I still hoped that those suspicions would gradually +die away, but they continued daily to strengthen and increase, and I +learned that my enemies with witty insolence pronounced my once +honorable name, _Sicaire_,[1] thus, by a slight change of sound +expressing the accusation with that atrocious word. Two duels followed, +and still the rumor continued to spread. Had I fought half the army, it +would have been unavailing. Finally my mental sufferings overpowered my +physical strength. A raging fever seized me, and...' He ceased. + +'And then?' asked Megret, with painful anxiety. + +'In the paroxysms,' stammered Siquier, almost inaudibly, 'I am said to +have accused myself of Charles's murder, and to have thrown up my +windows and begged Sweden's pardon for the crime.' + +'What consequence could they attach to such silly phantasies?' asked +Megret, turning deadly pale. + +'The government,' continued Siquier, 'had me confined in a mad-house, +and when I recovered I received my dismission, with an injunction to +leave the kingdom.' + +'Are you also, like myself, dismissed?' cried Megret, with a ferocious +laugh. 'They are right! The lemons have been squeezed, why should they +not sweep out the useless peels?' + +'It is dreadful to have no means of escaping the gnawing worm in the +heart,' said Siquier, 'but, between ourselves, Megret, have we deserved +anything better?' + +While saying this he seized Megret's hand and gave him a piercing +glance. The latter angrily tore himself from his grasp. + +'You know our former agreement,' said he moodily, 'never to allude to +bye-gone occurrences, even in our most secret conversations.' + +'You are right,' said Siquier, with a look and tone of horror. 'The +past is, for us, a black night, full of blood and flames! Let us wait +until it re-appear in eternal futurity!' + +'Here is money,' said Megret, placing a heavy purse of gold in his +hand. 'Go and prosper.' + +'It contains more than thirty pieces of silver,' said Siquier, weighing +the purse in a sort of mental abstraction. 'There is more than enough +to purchase a potter's field for a wanderer's grave!' + +'The fever has weakened you, poor Siquier!' exclaimed Megret, with +forced laughter. 'You have grown learned in the scriptures, and will no +doubt become one of the professing brothers of La Trappe, in your old +age. Do hasten to get there.' + +'Mock me not, seducer!' said Siquier, grating his teeth and grasping +the hilt of his sword. After a few moments he observed, 'you are right! +I believe in a hereafter,--I believe in future rewards and punishments, +and may I therefore live to repent and reform. You entertain a +different belief, and you have only to shoot yourself when your +conscience awakens from its death-sleep!' + +'That may become advisable!' said Megret, in a low tone, and both +remained sitting near each other, their arms resting on their knees, +and their faces buried in their hands. They remained silent, each +absorbed in his own reflections, while the thickly falling flakes of +snow gradually wrapped them in white mantles, without attracting +notice. + +At length a heavy sigh escaped from Siquier's laboring breast. He rose +up, threw the purse of gold before Megret's feet, and suddenly left the +garden, without bidding him farewell. Megret, uttering no word, +remained sitting in the same posture, and Arwed was detained motionless +for some time, by the feelings which this singular and dreadful +disclosure awakened, and by a want of decision, which of the two first +to call to account for their hidden deed of horror. He finally +concluded: 'why should I contend with the miserable man, whom the +judgment of God has already stricken, whose marrow has been already +consumed by sickness and remorse, who has neither strength nor courage +to oppose me, and who, perhaps, would welcome death from my hand? No, +the insolent transgressor, in all the pride and bloom of life, shall be +the object of my wrath--the _seducer_! as his accomplice called him. I +will punish not the _knife_, but the _hand_!'--and he quickly +approached the entrance to the grove, which Megret was that moment +leaving. + +The latter shrunk before the indignant glance of the youth. The flush +of anger and the paleness of terror alternately played upon his +countenance, and it was dreadful to see the two manly forms confronting +each other with looks of enmity and defiance. + +The fearful silence was interrupted by Arwed. 'I have overheard your +conversation with Siquier, colonel,' said he, 'and, as you know how +strong was the love I bore the king, you will not be surprised when I +declare to you that we must fight!' + +'You have an especial passion for pistol-shooting!' calmly and +jestingly replied Megret. 'Probably you wish to revive the custom of +the ancient pagans, with whom the companions in arms of a hero prince +reciprocally slaughtered each other on his grave; as an evidence of +their love and respect for him.' + +'Name your time and place!' cried Arwed, whose anger was increased by +his insolent witticisms. + +'Eight days from this, about the same hour,' answered Megret, after +some little reflection, 'in the first iron mine of Danemora.' + +'That is a late and distant rendezvous,' said Arwed. 'You will not let +me wait for you there in vain?' + +The Frenchman's eyes flashed, and in his anger he resembled an evil +spirit in the human form. 'Young man!' he cried, 'doubt every +thing--doubt even of Megret's eternal salvation--but doubt not his word +or his courage,--or you will compel him to annihilate you even against +his will.' And with a proud step he left the garden. + + + + CHAPTER LI. + + +Some days later, Arwed, prepared for his journey, approached the sick +bed of his uncle to take leave of him. + +'You are going once more to Danemora?' asked the old man. 'What +occasion calls you there?' + +'I wish to see how it goes with the poor Christine,' answered Arwed, +unwilling to disturb the sick man by naming the true motive. + +'You are deceiving me,' said the old man reprovingly. 'Your business is +of a more unpleasant nature. You have executed the charge I gave you. +Megret has left us, and your journey relates to him. Danemora is only a +pretext to keep me in ignorance.' + +'Truly no,' answered Arwed. 'Megret has appointed it for our place of +meeting.' + +'Is it so!' cried the old man. 'I am sorry for it, and have a thousand +times repented of the charge I gave you. It would be a dreadful thing +if you should fall in this miserable combat. You can and must yet +become right useful to your father-land. Promise me at least that you +will pursue this affair no further than honor absolutely demands.' + +'Forgive me, dear uncle,' said Arwed. 'I cannot give you that promise. +But one of us will leave the field alive. Yet quiet yourself with the +assurance that it was not your request, with which indeed there was no +necessity for my compliance, which occasions this duel; it has a more +weighty cause. + +'What can that be?' doubtingly replied the uncle. + +'Excuse my naming it to you,' answered Arwed. 'I fight not for our +house, nor for my own honor. I fight for Sweden!' + +'Go then, bold combatant, and may God fight with you!' cried the old +man. 'It is possible you may not find me alive when you return. For +which reason receive now my thanks for your filial love and truth. That +I consider myself your father in the full sense of the word, my +testament, which I have already deposited with the high court at +Stockholm, will inform you. I have also written to your father and to +the queen. You must become my successor in the government of West +Bothnia.' + +'Never!' cried Arwed, impetuously. + +'You must!' persisted his uncle. 'Not for love of the queen, nor for +your own advantage; but for the welfare of this province. I may be +permitted to say that with me the office has been in good hands, and I +am unwilling that an unworthy courtier or unfeeling soldier should +demolish what has cost me so many long years to build up. You are +intelligent, brave and good; and you have, with me, become familiar +with the civil duties. You are the most suitable person, and you must +be governor; where the happiness of the people is concerned, anger, +vindictiveness, and similar trifling hindrances, must not dare to raise +their heads in such a heart as yours.' + +'My dear uncle!' said the yielding Arwed, and kneeling down before the +bed, he kissed the invalid's wasted hand. + +'God bless thee, my son!' said the latter, laying his hand upon the +youth's head. + +'And also the poor Christine! is it not so?' asked Arwed.' + +'Tell her--I--do not curse her!' cried the old man with a severe +struggle; 'and now leave me. These feelings are too strong for my +exhausted powers.' + +He turned his face to the wall, and Arwed departed in sadness. + + + + CHAPTER LII. + + +At the appointed hour Arwed entered the shaft of the first mine in +Danemora, with his pistols under his arm. In consequence of the perfect +mental repose with which he proceeded upon his bloody business, he had +this time a better opportunity to look about him and observe the +peculiarities of the monstrous cavity. A strange feeling seized him +when he took a nearer view of the active operations of this +subterranean world. The miserable huts and wooden booths here and there +erected among the rocks; the larger hut with a small belfry which +denoted the church of the immense abyss; the market, which the venders +of the indispensable necessaries of life, attracted by all-powerful +avarice, held here below; the ceaseless prosecution of the mining +operations--gave to the whole scene the appearance of an abortive +attempt to create a subterranean city; while the black dresses and +earth colored faces of the perpetual residents of these melancholy +regions were well calculated to strengthen the illusion. The whole was +lighted only by pans of pitch which fumed and smoked here and there in +their elevated niches. No glimmer of daylight penetrated there. The +firmament of these abodes was the roof of the mines, which, indeed, had +no sun, but had its fixed and wandering stars in the fires, torches and +lamps of the workmen--and, in the frequent explosions which took place, +their thunder and lightning, like the upper world. Arwed bent his +course directly to the little edifice which served for the church, and +upon reaching it discovered in its rear a small building, which rather +more than the others deserved the name of a house. It was the dwelling +of the clergyman. Upon entering he discovered Christine, whom sorrow +and confinement had rendered still more pale and emaciated, busily +plying her needle by lamp light. + +'Ah, Arwed!' cried she overjoyed, and springing towards him she held +out her bandaged hand as before. A dark cloud soon flitted over her +beautiful countenance, and she asked distrustfully, 'have you no secret +object in this visit?' + +'A very secret and serious one,' answered Arwed--'from which, however, +you have nothing to fear. On the contrary, I bring you your father's +permission to remain here, the consolation that your child is well +attended to, and the assurance of a pecuniary allowance sufficient to +preserve you from want.' + +'And I have to thank you, still you, for all these blessings!' cried +Christine with grateful enthusiasm. 'Ah, how happy you make me, and at +the same time how inexpressibly unhappy!' + +'Poor Christine!' said he with deep sympathy--'How miserable has the +vehemence of thy nature rendered thee!' + +He laid his pistols upon, the table, and listened to ascertain if any +one was approaching. + +'You said just now,' remarked Christine sorrowfully, 'that a secret and +serious purpose brought you here. I hope those weapons which you have +brought with you into this peaceful hut, have no connection with it?' + +Arwed walked silently to the window and looked impatiently out into the +eternal night. + +'Do you apprehend any further malice from my husband?' Christine +anxiously asked. 'I will be answerable for him with my life. He reveres +you as our guardian angel. Moreover he has become much better in this +abode of darkness than he was in the upper world; and should I with the +aid of time be enabled to banish the deep sorrow which still constantly +hovers about him, I have reason to hope that we may once more attain to +something like happiness.' + +Arwed, who had scarcely listened to the poor sufferer, now suddenly +asked, 'has not Megret been recently here?' + +'Do you then seek him?' cried Christine with astonishment. 'Yes, he was +here scarcely an hour since. He caused Mac Donalbain to be called from +his labor, and retired far into the mine in private and earnest +conversation with him. I had already become somewhat alarmed on account +of their long absence. Megret is a fiend, and bears the most bitter +hatred towards my husband.' + +At this moment Arwed heard voices from without. He raised the window, +and to his astonishment saw Megret arm in arm with Mac Donalbain and in +earnest conversation with an old clerk of the mine. + +'I repeat it my friend,' said Megret, 'your way of exploding is bad. +Greater results may be produced with half the labor and powder, when +one begins right.' + +'I have all proper respect for your mathematical sciences, sir +officer,' the clerk peevishly answered; 'but still I think that we, who +are in constant practice here, must better understand how to obtain the +ore than you can by theoretical calculations.' + +'Must not the engineer be also familiar with the practice?' asked +Megret. 'Our mines traverse every variety of earth, and we are often +under the necessity of calculating the resistance of walls and masses +of stone.' + +The clerk, who adhered as pertinaciously to old customs as the ore to +its native mountains, shook his head in token of disbelief. + +'You want proof,' said Megret, with some apparent irritation. 'Show me +a suitable place and let me spring a mine in my way. I will pay for the +labor and powder if I do not make my words good.' + +'Vivat!' cried the clerk, confident of victory; at that moment Arwed +stepped directly in front of Megret, with his pistols in his hand and +bowed in silence. + +'I rejoice to find you here,' said Megret with great equanimity, +courteously returning his greeting. 'Allow me but to settle a contest +between the old practice and the new science, and I shall immediately +afterwards have the pleasure to be at your service.' + +During these few moments Mac Donalbain had hastened into the house, and +now returning in a state of great excitement, seized Megret by the arm +and drew him away. + +The clerk followed them, talking to himself and gesticulating with +great animation, and they all soon disappeared in the dark windings of +the mine. + +Christine now came out, casting her troubled glances in every +direction. As soon as she perceived Arwed she hastened to him. 'Mac +Donalbain was with me just now,' said she anxiously. 'He pressed me +silently to his bosom, and then rushed forth as if frantic! Where is +he? where is Megret?' + +'Megret is essaying a new method of springing mines,' answered Arwed, +'and will soon be here again.' + +'And Mac Donalbain has accompanied him!' cried the trembling wife. 'I +fear some mischief is on foot here.' + +'Causeless apprehension!' said Arwed; 'the clerk is with them. Megret's +undertaking will require the presence of several workmen, and his honor +as an officer is pledged for his speedy return.' + +'What have you to do with that bad man?' asked the still suspicious +Christine--but the approach of two men prevented a reply. They were +Swedenborg and the superintendent of the mines. The latter separated +from Swedenborg with a respectful inclination, and passed on in +obedience to the calls of duty to some other portion of the mine. +Swedenborg however advanced towards Arwed. + +'I greet you, vigorous swimmer upon the sea of misfortune,' said +Swedenborg to Arwed, offering his hand in a most friendly manner. + +'Welcome to your kingdom, sir mining-counsellor!' answered Arwed. 'What +news do you bring from the upper world into this abyss?' + +'I bring news of a diet which will take Ulrika's crown and place it +upon her husband's head,' said Swedenborg; 'of an armistice with +Denmark, and peace with Poland and Prussia.' + +'And Russia?' asked Arwed hastily. + +'Remains implacable, and is making new preparations,' answered +Swedenborg, shrugging his shoulders. + +'These false steps are a great misfortune to my father-land!' cried +Arwed despondingly. 'Peace with powerful Russia should have been the +first object.' + +Swedenborg had meantime kept his eyes immovably fixed upon the youth, +and now appeared to have subjected the lineaments of his face to a +sufficient trial. He became so gloomy, and the glances of his black +eyes so piercing, that Arwed could hardly support it. + +'How came you by this love of peace?' he finally asked the youth in a +reproachful tone, 'when your heart is destitute of it, and you have +descended into this mine with bloody intentions?' + +'If your spiritual eyes are sharp enough to read my heart,' answered +Arwed, with surprise, 'you must know and honor the motives which +actuate me.' + +'Every motive is blameworthy,' answered Swedenborg, with an elevated +voice, 'which induces an earthworm to endeavor to anticipate the +dispensations of Providence. Yet will His mercy spare you this sin; for +behold, the arm of the fearful Nemesis is already raised, and at the +Lord's command it will fall in destruction upon the criminal.' + +Christine had drawn close to Arwed during this conversation, and he now +perceived the feverish trembling of her frame, caused by Swedenborg's +prophecy. + +At this moment a young miner came and asked, 'where shall I find major +Gyllenstierna.' + +'Here he stands!' answered Arwed, 'probably you wish to bring me to the +officer who was just now here.' + +'No, he merely sends you this billet,' said the young man, departing. + +'What can he have to write to me about, situated as we are?' Arwed +peevishly exclaimed. Unfolding the billet, which was written in pencil, +and stepping to the nearest pitch-pan, he read as follows: + + +'To appease the manes of your king, you have demanded satisfaction of +me. I had however previously promised it to myself and to myself +therefore, precedence is due. From you I have only to expect a +_possible_ death. I shall inflict it upon myself with a surer hand. Mac +Donalbain shares my fate. In gratitude to the countess Gyllenstierna +for the manner in which she rejected my addresses, I have persuaded her +husband that he belongs to this earth as little as myself. Many will +think the manner of my death strange; but I wish to die in the way of +my profession, and at the same time to preserve my body from the +ignominy of a judicial investigation. I have the honor to greet you. +_Au revoir_, I dare not say. + MEGRET.' + + +The horror-stricken Arwed had hardly read to the end, when suddenly the +whole broad space swam in a sea of fire. A terrible explosion, as of a +powder magazine, of which echo increased the frightful roar a thousand +fold, shook the ground under Arwed's feet, and displaced heavy masses +of stone from the sides of the cavern which fell with a crash to the +bottom of the mine. Loud screams suddenly arose on all sides, to which +a mournful silence immediately succeeded, and from the direction in +which Megret and Mac Donalbain had gone, came rolling in a dense +white-gray powder-smoke, which twirled in waving clouds along the top +of the arch, and soon filling the whole mine, wrapped every object in +its impenetrable veil. + +'What was that?' stammered Christine, clinging to Arwed for support. + +'God's judgment!' solemnly and majestically answered Swedenborg. 'Wo to +the sinner who wickedly and presumptuously draws it down upon his head +before the appointed time.' + +'Let us go and see if it be possible to render any assistance,' +proposed Arwed; and proceeded with Swedenborg toward the place whence +the smoke issued. Christine followed them with a misgiving heart. They +were met by the old clerk, who ran up to them with a black and +disfigured face. + +'You appear to have been near the scene of the accident,' said Arwed to +him. 'Are there many people injured?' + +'Thank God only two; who, moreover, are no great loss!' answered the +clerk, turning again to show them the way. 'An officer, wishing to +instruct us how to blow out the ore, so managed that instead of the ore +he blew himself into the air, and a piece of the roof of the mine with +him.' + +'The explosion was too violent for a mere removal of ore,' remarked +Swedenborg. + +'Very true, most honored sir,' answered the clerk. 'There also went +with it a small cask of powder which was standing near.' + +By this time they had arrived at the place. The thick smoke almost +suffocated them. The torches of the miners, hurrying to and fro, like +nebulous stars, faintly lighted the scene of destruction. A monstrous +mountain mass, consisting mostly of rocks and stones, had become +loosened by the force of the shock, and covered the bottom to a great +height with fragments, through the fissures of which little flames were +seen playing. + +'They will lie quietly in this coffin until the last day!' observed the +clerk. + +'In God's name!' shrieked Christine, 'who is the other sufferer?' + +'The brigand leader, who was sentenced here for life,' answered the +clerk, with indifference. + +'Mac Donalbain!' murmured the poor wife, sinking lifeless to the earth. + + + + CHAPTER LIII. + + +Christine lay at the parsonage in that last hard struggle which +releases the soul from its earthly imprisonment. At her bed-side sat +Arwed, with humid eyes, his hands in the cold grasp of hers. Near her +pillow stood Swedenborg, with his piercing prophet-glance fixed +immovably upon the sufferer. + +'The symptoms of death are already observable,' whispered he to the +weeping curate. 'Her end is near.' + +'She has suffered so much,' said Arwed, 'that if her heart were iron it +must break under these hard and repeated blows.' + +At this moment Christine suddenly rose in her bed, turned her beauteous +eyes with heavenly tenderness upon Arwed, and eagerly pressed his hand +to her bosom. + +'At the brink of the grave,' said she, 'all false appearances must +vanish. So near the source of eternal truth, I may now speak the truth +to you. I have loved you, Arwed, loved you with all the powers of my +passionate soul, from the moment when you stood before me in the +knight's hall in the full perfection of youth and manliness. But this +love was my misery, for I was already secretly married. The caprices +with which I often tormented you, alas, they came from a bleeding +heart! At Ravensten did Mac Donalbain's infamous profession first +become fully clear to me, and I made every possible effort to withdraw +him from it. But the chains of vice hold strong! Only by slow and +gentle degrees could my husband disengage himself from his associates; +and, before he had time to accomplish the work, his punishment overtook +him. What I have done for him was but the performance of a wife's duty. +His self-murder is my divorce for this world and the next, and now my +only consolation is, that I shall be able to extend to you a FREE hand +when we hereafter meet in eternal light.' + +As she proceeded, her voice had increased in clearness and fulness of +tone, her eye became bright and flashing, and purple roses burned upon +her wasted cheeks. + +'You have spoken too fast and too earnestly, countess,' said the +curate. 'In your present situation this excitement may cause your +death.' + +'I have it already in my heart, reverend sir,' said the invalid in a +low voice; 'and I know but too well that it is too late to preserve +life. Yet I thank you for this care, as well as for the religious +consolation you have afforded me in this last heavy trial.' + +She held out her hand to him, which the weeping man pressed to his +lips, and the deep silence which followed, was only broken by the sobs +of those present. + +'I have now but one wish in this world,' resumed Christine. 'Alas, but +one, the fulfilment of which would soften the pangs of death; but I +dare not hope.' + +'Thy son is mine!' cried Arwed. 'By God and my own honor, I will adopt +him and he shall bear the name and arms of Gyllenstierna.' + +'I know,' answered Christine, 'that you will do whatever is great and +good, and I have ceased to be anxious about the fate of my child since +I confided it to you. But my poor old father--' and here her voice +faltered,--'that I may not once more kneel before him and implore his +pardon, that, that alone embitters my death.' + +'Poor woman!' cried Arwed, who witnessed the extent of her sorrow with +the perfect conviction that no consolation could be offered. + +'Hope, sinner!' cried Swedenborg with emotion, laying his hand upon +Christine's head. 'True repentance may do much; a weeping, penitent +child, it presses strongly against the gates of heaven; and behold! the +ruby gates fly open, and the eternal mercy, sitting upon a throne woven +of rays of light, takes the weeping child softly to her bosom and dries +her tears with maternal love!' + +He stepped apart, folded his hands, and silently and fervently raised +his eyes on high. Christine also folded her hands and moved her lips in +a murmured prayer. + +'Thou art heard!' suddenly exclaimed Swedenborg; and at the same +instant Christine sprang up, and with outspread arms joyfully cried, +'my father!' + +A white ray floated through the room, and the strings of the piano +reverberated like the dying harmony of an Eolian harp. + +'He has pardoned me, he has preceded me, he expects me there!' cried +Christine in ecstasy, and immediately sank back upon her pillow. + +Swedenborg approached her, and as his glance fell upon her fixed eyes, +he exclaimed with emotion: 'she is dead!' + +And the clock struck the third hour of the morning. + + + + CHAPTER LIV. + + +The black funereal flag was waving from the towers of Gyllensten as +Arwed slowly approached it with the remains of poor Christine. The +tolling of bells was heard from the castle chapel and from Umea, and +the domestics of the family surrounded the carriage with weeping eyes. + +'How is my uncle?' asked Arwed, with fearful apprehension. + +'I bring you his last greeting,' said the gray old steward, with a +trembling voice. 'He went to his God early on the day before yesterday, +about the third hour. His last word was, 'Christine!'' + + + + CHAPTER LV. + + +Long years had passed, and Gustavus the third sat firmly upon Sweden's +throne, as at Lubec a noble dame, upon whose pure beauty time had left +no traces, sat upon a sofa in her cabinet. She had leaned her +thoughtful head upon her full white arm, while the strong heaving of +her bosom and the mild fire of her large brown eyes betrayed the sad +and absorbing nature of the reminiscences which occupied her mind. The +door was softly opened, and a blooming maiden cautiously protruded her +head into the room and was about to withdraw it again. + +'Come in, Georgina!' cried the dame. 'I am not yet asleep. Have you any +thing to say to me!' + +'A young officer wishes to speak with you, mamma,' answered the +beautiful maiden, entering. + +'An officer?--of the city militia?' asked the mother with some +surprise. + +'No mamma,' answered the maiden, laughing. 'He appears altogether +different from them. He wears a short blue jacket with straw-colored +facings turned up, a white band upon his arm, the sword belt over the +shoulder, and a round hat looped up, with a black plume.' + +'It is a Swede?' cried the mother with great vehemence. 'His name?' + +'He will only tell it to yourself,' answered Georgina; 'which I +consider particularly ill-bred.' + +'It is very wonderful,' said the mother:--'ask him to come in.' + +Georgina went, and soon returned, ushering in a well formed youth with +the head of an Apollo, who reverently bowed to the dame, and +immediately resumed his erect military position. + +He would have spoken; but his eyes had wandered from the elder form to +the younger, and the lovely maiden's face and figure embarrassed him so +much that it cost him time and effort to collect himself. + +'My father begs to assure your grace of his high respect,' he finally +faltered out, 'and requests permission to place in your own hands an +autograph from his majesty the king of Sweden.' + +'Who is your father?' asked the lady with a trembling voice, whilst her +eyes seemed to be seeking for remembered features in the unknown face. + +'A noble Swede,' answered the youth. + +'And his name?' asked the lady, with a movement as if she would fly to +him. + +'He has the honor to be an old acquaintance of your grace,' continued +the officer. + +'And his name?' cried she, with a fire which seemed inconsistent with +her years. + +'The governor of West Bothnia, count Gyllenstierna,' was the answer. + +The lady turned pale and sank back upon the sofa. Her bosom labored +powerfully, and the anxious daughter hastened to her with Cologne +water. + +'Leave me,' said she, averting her head. 'My nerves are yet strong. I +faint not so easily.' + +With tottering steps she advanced towards the youth and examined his +features yet more intently than before. + +'A certain family likeness,' said she, 'is undoubtedly to be found in +his face; yet I wonder that it does not appear more distinctly.' + +'I am only the adopted son of the count Gyllenstierna, whose name I +bear,' answered the youth. 'The count has always remained unmarried.' + +The lady sighed and motioned him to retire. + +'When may my father wait upon your grace?' courteously asked the youth. + +'In an hour I hope to have sufficiently recovered,' answered she--and, +with a glance at the charming daughter which called a blush into her +cheek, he took his leave. + +'Mamma,' said she at length, in a tone of timid remonstrance, 'if the +Swedish count is your old acquaintance, you ought to have invited the +young count to come with him. He is at any rate his foster son, and +such a modest young man.' + +'You appear to be pleased with him, Georgina?' said the mother, looking +earnestly at her daughter. The latter dropped her eyes to the floor, +blushed deeply, and remained silent. + +'It is our duty to suffer ourselves to be sought,' said the matron to +the maiden. 'It is proper for the other sex to seek. If the young man's +heart speak as prematurely as yours, he will come, even without an +invitation.' + +'You are wholly right, mamma!' cried the daughter, as if now first +struck by an important truth, passionately kissing her hand. + +'Leave me alone, my child,' said the mother. 'I have need of solitude +to prepare myself for a sweet, sad hour. Seat yourself meantime, at +your piano, and practise the bass of that beautiful sonata for four +hands. + +'Now?' cried Georgina, clasping her hands in despair. 'Ah, mamma! I +positively cannot practise now.' + +'It may perhaps cost you some effort,' said the mother, smiling, 'but +it will do you good. Go to your practice, my daughter.' + +Georgina departed, shrugging her shoulders, and the storm of emotion, +so long restrained, once again floated over the face of the mother, who +had hitherto struggled with all her power, to conceal her feelings from +the eyes of observers. 'God give me strength for the sorrow and the joy +of this interview!' cried she, sinking upon the sofa. + + + + CHAPTER LVI. + + +The hour had struck. The daughter opened the door of the cabinet, and, +accompanied by his adopted son, Arwed count Gyllenstierna entered. +Neither years nor sufferings had been able to bow his tall figure. The +lineaments of his face, however, told of sad mental struggles and +glorious victories. His locks of gold were bleached to silver, and +upon his newly made black national uniform shone the magnificent +seraphim-order, and with the sword and crown of the order of military +merit, the peaceful sheaf of the order of Vasa. He remained standing, +and cast upon the beloved of his youth, from his large blue and still +brilliant eyes, a glance which cut her to the soul. Lady baroness von +Eyben!' said he, in a tone in which love and anger, reproach and +rapture, were strangely mingled. + +It was too much for the heart of the matron. 'Not so, Arwed, not so!' +cried she, beseechingly, and attempted to approach him; but, her heart +impelling her forward while profound respect held her back, she +remained irresolutely standing in the centre of the room. + +'Please to permit, baroness,' said Arwed, 'that my son and your +daughter retire to the ante-chamber. My communication requires no +witnesses.' + +The young pair seemed to be well pleased with the proposition. The +baroness looked doubtingly at Arwed, as if she feared a private +interview; but finally her heart conquered. She nodded permission to +Georgina, and the two disappeared with a celerity that astonished the +mother. + +The former youthful lovers were alone. Georgina motioned Arwed to a +seat upon the sofa, placed herself beside him, and both remained a long +time silent, whilst the past was loudly speaking in their hearts. + +'Georgina!' at length Arwed exclaimed, seizing her hand. + +'Be tranquil, dear Arwed!' said she. 'If the strong man cannot control +his feelings, how can a feeble woman command hers? Let us first speak +of the present. Have you not a letter for me from the king?' + +'Cruel!' sighed Arwed, drawing forth a letter and solemnly rising from +his seat, 'You have petitioned his majesty for the restoration of your +father's confiscated property in the German provinces. I bring you the +king's answer.' + +'The person selected as its bearer is a guaranty of a merciful +decision,' said Georgina, also rising. With trembling hands she took +the letter, unfolded and attempted to read it,--but her vision became +indistinct, her hands shook, and at length amid streaming tears she +cried, 'I cannot! Read the letter for me, dear Arwed.' + +He read: + + +'I esteem the memory of the renowned and unfortunate baron von Goertz +too much to receive without emotion the intelligence that there is yet +remaining one of those children who were made orphans by the tyranny +and shocking injustice of the queen Ulrika Eleonore and of the persons +who presided in her courts and councils. His innocent blood has +remained too long unavenged. Sweden, through long, unhappy, desolating, +distracting years, has paid the tribute demanded by the anger of heaven +for the crime committed against a great and unfortunate man. I +therefore wish, as first citizen of my native land, in the name of that +native land, to hasten the reparation of the injustice of my +predecessors. To this title, which I look upon as one of the fairest +granted to me by Providence, I add that of my family, for whom Goertz +was made an offering. You may easily judge, madam, how very much I am +disposed to grant you that justice which you claim as daughter and +heiress of the deceased baron von Goertz.' + + +Georgina, almost frantic with joy, snatched the letter from Arwed's +hand, and pressed it to her lips and heart. 'Lord God, we praise +thee,--Lord God, we thank thee!' she shouted in her exultation, sinking +upon her knee, and raising the paper towards heaven in her clasped +hands. + +'It is truly a royal letter,' said the deeply moved Arwed; 'but such a +letter from him would surprise no one who knew him.' + +'Oh, my father!' cried Georgina, holding the writing up towards heaven, +'learn in thy place of bliss that thy honor is restored before the +world, and that thy happy daughter has been instrumental in its +accomplishment!' + +'You see, my dear Georgina,' said Arwed, 'that Sweden is not unjust. +The public character of a people can only appear through its +government. That justice which the cruel Ulrika, the weak Frederick, +the chained Adolphus Frederick, derided or denied, the worthy Gustavus, +now that his hands are free, grants in the fullest measure.' + +'Much,' said Georgina, endeavoring by the introduction of new topics of +conversation to allay the violence of her emotions, 'much was said in +Germany of the revolution which delivered the crown from the usurped +supremacy of the royal council, and I, at least, have cause to bless +the Nemesis who guided it.' + +'That occurrence,' remarked Arwed, 'stands like a rare and brilliant +meteor in the horizon of Europe. A national revolution, originating +with the king himself, accomplished in a few days, without bloodshed, +and calculated to promote the welfare of the whole country, is perhaps +unparalleled in the history of the world!' + +Both remained a long time silent. At length Arwed inquired, 'how is +your sister, the good little Magdalena?' + +'She died many years since, in Hamburgh, the wife of the privy +counsellor von Laffert,' answered Georgina. + +'And you--are a widow?' he asked in a low tone. + +'Since four years,' she answered with downcast eyes. + +'It is the penalty of age,' cried he, sorrowfully, 'that, one by one, +all whom we have loved go before us to the eternal world. Life's way +becomes every day more dreary and desolate, and wo to the unhappy being +to whom remains not even one companion of the good old times. His is a +solitary death, with none to drop a tear of regret upon his grave.' + +'Very true!' said Georgina with deep feeling, and wiping the tears from +her eyes. + +'Georgina!' cried Arwed, suddenly and with vehemence; 'in my youth I +was never able to subdue or conceal the emotions of my heart. Age has +not changed me in that respect. That I might see you once again, and +have an opportunity to lay before you my last request, I have obtained +the king's permission to be the bearer of this letter. Hear me with +kindness.' + +'Spare me,' said she, greatly agitated. + +'Your father's honor is restored to all its original brightness,' +continued Arwed, without heeding her remark. 'My father has long slept +in his grave. The causes no longer exist which once forbade my earthly +happiness. I have sacredly kept my truth. You are again free. Do not +now refuse me your hand.' + +'Oh, my God!' cried the terrified Georgina. 'No, it is not possible!' + +'Refuse me not your hand, Georgina!' said Arwed with all his former +tenderness of tone. + +'Dear Arwed,' answered she, with a smile, 'what would our children say? +_Theirs_ is the season of love.' + +'How happy is youth!' exclaimed Arwed, sighing. + +'Honorable age has also its pleasures and enjoyments,' said Georgina, +placing her hand in his. + +'When it wanders arm in arm with the chosen companion of its youth,' +answered Arwed with emotion. 'But when it is compelled to creep alone +to a solitary grave, then are honors and riches a miserable +compensation for a life without an object.' + +'Arwed!' exclaimed Georgina in the sweet tone of former times. + +'Wilt thou be mine?' cried Arwed, passionately. + +'Thine, eternally!' murmured she, while a faint blush threw the glow of +undying youth over her cheeks, and she sank sobbing upon his bosom. + + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[Footnote 1: A French word, signifying _assassin_.] + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales from the German. Volume I., by +Carl Franz van der Velde + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM THE GERMAN. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/32478-8.zip b/32478-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0c25b72 --- /dev/null +++ b/32478-8.zip diff --git a/32478-h.zip b/32478-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..403db7a --- /dev/null +++ b/32478-h.zip diff --git a/32478-h/32478-h.htm b/32478-h/32478-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..22a80e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/32478-h/32478-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11270 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>Tales from the German Vol. I.: Arwed Gyllenstierna: A Tale of the Early +Part of the Eighteenth Century.</title> +<meta name="Author" content="C. F. Van der Velde"> +<meta name="Publisher" content="American Stationers' Company"> +<meta name="Date" content="1837"> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> +<style type="text/css"> +body {margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; background-color:#FFFFFF;} + + + +p.normal {text-indent:.25in; text-align: justify;} +p.center {text-align:center; margin-top:9pt;} + + +p.section {letter-spacing:1em; text-align:center; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt;} +p.right {text-align:right; margin-right:10%;} + +p.continue {text-indent: 0in; margin-top:9pt;} +.text10 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:10%; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;} +.text20 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:20%; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;} + +.t6 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:3em; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;} +.t8 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:4em; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;} +.quote {font-size:90%} + + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5 {text-align: center;} + +span.sc {font-variant: small-caps;} +.space {letter-spacing: 1em; text-align:center; margin-bottom:24pt; margin-top:24pt;} + + +hr.W10 {width:10%; margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; + color:black;} + +hr.W20 {width:20%; margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; + color:black;} + +hr.W50 {width:50%; margin-top:12pt; color:black;} + + +p.hang1 {margin-left:3em; text-indent:-3em;} +p.hang2 {margin-left:3em; text-indent:-3em; margin-bottom:24pt; font-size:90%; margin-top:24pt} + +.poem { + margin-top: 24pt; + margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 10%; + text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt + } + .poem .stanza { + margin : 1em 0; + margin-top:24pt; + } + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales from the German. Volume I., by +Carl Franz van der Velde + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Tales from the German. Volume I. + Arwed Gyllenstierna + +Author: Carl Franz van der Velde + +Translator: Nathaniel Greene + +Release Date: May 22, 2010 [EBook #32478] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM THE GERMAN. VOLUME I. *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p>Transcriber's Notes:</p> + +<p class="hang1">1. Page scan source:<br> +http://www.archive.org/details/talesfromgerman00greegoog<br> +2. Footnote is located at the end of the book.</p> + + +<br> + +<br> + +<h2>TALES</h2> +<br> +<h1>FROM THE GERMAN</h1> +<br> +<h3>TRANSLATED</h3> +<br> +<h2>BY NATHANIEL GREENE.</h2> + +<br> + +<h3>VOLUME I.</h3> + +<br> + +<br> + +<h2>BOSTON:<br> +AMERICAN STATIONERS' COMPANY,</h2> +<h3>JOHN B. RUSSELL.</h3> + +<h3>1837.</h3> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div style="margin-left:50%; margin-right:10%"> +<h4>BOSTON:<br> +Samuel N. Dickinson, Printer,<br> +52, Washington Street.</h4> +</div> +<br> + +<h2>TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Most men, whatever the nature of their avocations, have, or +may have, +occasional hours of leisure and relaxation. To spend those hours +profitably as well as pleasantly, should be a study: to spend them +harmlessly, is a duty. Among other recent employments of the little +leisure afforded me by absorbing official occupations, has been an +attempt to gain some knowledge of the language and literature of +Germany; and among the results of that attempt, are manuscript +translations of several pleasant and interesting tales from various +German authors, some of which I have been led to suppose might prove +acceptable to our reading public. Those now presented are taken almost +at random from the thirteen volumes of Van der Velde's works, of which +they are a fair specimen. Their principal value consists in their +faithful illustration of interesting portions of history not generally +familiar. They have, besides, the merit of a peculiarly simple and +unpretending style, that gives them an additional charm, and which I +have endeavored to preserve in the translation. Whether that endeavor +has been successful, however, and whether the English dress I have +substituted for the graceful German garb, is worthy of the author and +suited to the public taste, are questions upon which I feel somewhat +doubtful and apprehensive. Should the reader answer them in the +affirmative, I shall have the consolation of feeling that the leisure +devoted to the work has been harmlessly, if not profitably, employed.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is proper to add, that in a few cases I have taken the +liberty to +omit some passages, and to alter others, that were deemed incompatible +with the ideas of propriety and decorum prevalent in this country.</p> + +<p class="normal"><span class="sc">Boston, November, 1837</span>.</p> + +<br> + +<br> + +<h1>ARWED GYLLENSTIERNA.</h1> +<br> +<h3>A TALE OF THE EARLY PART OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.</h3> +<br> +<h2>BY C. F. VAN DER VELDE,</h2> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<h2>PART FIRST.</h2> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<p class="normal">In October of the year 1718, the royal counsellor, Nils count +Gyllenstierna, was sitting before his desk in his cabinet at Stockholm. +Behind him stood Arwed, his son, a tall Swedish youth with blue eyes +and golden hair, whose rosy countenance wore a decided expression of +courage and resolution. The father suddenly turned his moveable chair +so as to face the youth.</p> + +<p class="normal">'One word is as good as a thousand!' cried he, angrily; +'dismiss for +the present your heroic aspirations. You are too young for this war.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not younger than our king was,' quickly answered Arwed, 'when +he beat +the Danes by Humblebeck and the Muscovites by the Narva!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is a great misfortune for a land when its king is a Don +Quixote,' +grumbled the senator; 'every fool in the kingdom quotes his example as +authority.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'O, do not calumniate the hero,' entreated Arwed, feelingly. +'Sweden +has had no greater king since Gustavus Adolphus.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nor has she had one who has brought more misery upon the land +replied +the senator. 'Do not suppose, my son,' proceeded he, calmly, 'that I +underrate the qualifications of our lord the king. He has given proof +of many, any one of which would render some other princes immortal. He +is firm, liberal, brave, just, and knows how to maintain the royal +dignity. But all these heroic virtues have, by excess, become more +dangerous in him than would be their opposite vices. His firmness, +becoming obstinacy, caused his misfortune at Pultowa and rendered him +for five painful years the dependant and prisoner of the Turks; his +liberality, degenerated into wastefulness, has ruined Sweden; his +courage, carried in most cases to the utmost extent of foolhardiness, +has led hundreds of thousands of his subjects to butchery or the +Siberian mines; his justice has often become cruelty, and the +maintenance of his royal prerogative, tyranny.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Cruelty and tyranny!' repeated Arwed. 'Surely you judge the +greatest +man in Europe too severely.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you remember the Livonian, Patkul?' asked the +father--'Patkul, who +was compelled, contrary to private right and international law, to make +such dreadful atonement for what he had done in behalf of his native +land? His horrible death is a dark stain upon Charles's character, and +no laurel wreath will ever so conceal the deed that posterity will not +discover it on the tablets of history.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'So also are there spots upon the sun,' said Arwed with some +degree of +irritation. 'The spirit of the party to which you have attached +yourself, my father, permits you to see only the dark side of his +character.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My party spirit will never sway my judgment,' indignantly +replied the +senator. 'The true patriot is governed only by a desire to promote his +country's welfare, in choosing and adhering to his party. Were the +government of our king less arbitrary I would joyfully unite myself +with his party; but with monarchs like him, the public good requires an +opposition, and every honest-minded nobleman should take his stand upon +that side.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It does not become me to dispute with you upon such topics,' +said +Arwed, soothingly. 'As yet I have no voice in public affairs. My arm +only is needed. To that, however, in my opinion, my country has a +righteous claim; and the question now is, not whether, the king has +always chosen the best course for the welfare of his realm, but whether +the decision which he has now irrevocably made shall be maintained with +blood and treasure. Therefore permit me to go this time, my dear +father.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well argued, my son,' said the elder Gyllenstierna gruffly, +turning +his attention again to his papers; 'but the father has a will of his +own, and considers himself as much a sovereign in his own house, as +Charles XII is in his kingdom. The king's sinful passion for war has +already made a sufficient number of childless parents. I will not make +to it the offering of my only son.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is my insignificant life in comparison with Sweden's +welfare?' +cried Arwed with enthusiasm.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Sweden's welfare!' said the father, turning towards him +again. 'How +can Sweden's welfare be promoted by this unholy war? Instead of +attempting to regain our blessed German territories, which our enemies +have divided among themselves, we go forth to the conquest of Norway, +which can never repay the blood and treasure she must cost, and will +never be truly loyal unless when garrisoned by our troops.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'To me it appears to be a noble attempt,' said Arwed, 'to +conquer a +part of his own states from an enemy who has taken so much from us.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It appears so to you,' answered his father, 'because you are +a young +simpleton, who are dazzled by the brilliancy of the enterprise. Would +to God there were not even older fools who hold the same opinions. +However wise or foolish this expedition may be, you can take no part in +it. You have your answer, with which you will please retire and leave +me alone. I have pressing business.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned again to his table and immediately resumed his +writing. Arwed +remained standing there with a sad countenance, his large blue veins +swelling almost to bursting. His lips were already parting to reply, +but he recollected himself and left the cabinet with passionate haste.</p> + +<p class="normal">Startled by the loud slamming of the door, the senator +peevishly turned +his eyes in that direction;--near it he saw a little billet lying upon +the floor, which he took up and brought to his writing table.</p> + +<p class="normal">'A three-cornered billet,' murmured he, examining it. 'Fine +gilt-edged +paper, redolent of perfume,--it must be a love-letter!' He cut the +delicate knot which served for a seal, and, as he read, his brows +became knitted with anger. Then seizing a silver bell which lay upon +the table before him, he rung it violently. 'My secretary!' cried he to +the servant who answered the bell.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Very tender,' said he, after having re-perused the note. 'An +amorous +intrigue at court, and yet the youth desirous of engaging in the +Norwegian war! It is strange--but it pleases me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Brodin, the count's secretary, an old, true, experienced, +hereditary +servant, now stepped softly into the cabinet, gently closing the door +after him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'A billet-doux, that my son has just dropped here,' cried the +senator, +advancing and handing the letter to him. 'It is signed with the name +only of Georgina. Who is this Georgina?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am not indeed so happy,' answered the secretary, with a +satyr-like +smile, 'as to know the christian names of all the females with whom +count Arwed might possibly form tender connections. Nevertheless, I +have provided myself, partly from curiosity and partly that I might be +enabled to answer inquiries, with a genealogical list of those ladies +now resident at Stockholm, from which some pertinent information may +perhaps be gained. Fortunately I have the list now with me, if your +excellency will condescend to make present use of it,--however, I +cannot guarantee that you will find there the Georgina in question, as +the taste of my lord, your son, like that of other young cavaliers, may +possibly have led him into a lower circle, of which hitherto I have +been unable to find any tolerably correct catalogue.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Produce it!' cried the senator, with ill-humor;--and the +secretary +drew forth his geneological list.</p> + +<p class="normal">'H-m, h-m,' hummed he, perusing it. 'I cannot find any +Georgina, and +yet the name must be very common at Stockholm. '<i>Eureka</i>!' he suddenly +exclaimed; 'here stands a Georgina! but whether it be the right one +must be determined by further evidence.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Come, be expeditious!' impatiently cried old Gyllenstierna.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Georgina Henrike Dorothea Baroness von Goertz,' read Brodin, +'daughter +of George Heinrich Freiherrn von Goertz, privy counsellor and lord +marshal of the duke of Holstein Gottorp Durchlaucht, and temporary +prime minister and director of the finance commission of his royal +Swedish majesty.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is out of his senses!' loudly exclaimed Gyllenstierna, +interrupting +his secretary in his tedious narration. 'The maiden is yet but a mere +child!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'According to my notes, past fourteen,' replied the secretary; +'but she +looks as if she were eighteen. She has been confirmed this year at the +time of Easter; and has thereby acquired, as it were, a privilege in +regard to such love affairs; besides, she is the only Georgina among +the ladies of this capital.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Indeed!' cried the senator, 'the youth flies high--that +cannot be +denied, and is most gratifying to me. But a Goertz! Never!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Startled by the vehemence of this <i>never</i>, the secretary +shrunk back +for a moment--but, again approaching his master, 'might I presume,' +said he, submissively, in favor of the count Arwed, 'to state that a +connection with the family of the premier cannot diminish the lustre of +the house of Gyllenstierna, but on the contrary must conduce greatly to +its advantage.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Heigh, heigh, Brodin!' exclaimed old Gyllenstierna. 'Have you +grown +gray at court and yet understand no better how to make skilful +combinations? Could I forgive this foreigner that he has foisted +himself upon Sweden, that he rules her as tyrannically as her sovereign +himself, and that he would willingly grind her in the dust with his +chimerical experiments--yet would sound policy forbid every connection +with his family. His authority is ephemeral. He stands with the king +and must fall with him. The <i>living</i> Charles might venture to send his +boot to Stockholm to preside in the council instead of himself. The +minister of the <i>deceased</i> Charles will have a difficult task--and will +be compelled to exert himself to save honor and life in the catastrophe +which will doubtless occur.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Our royal master is yet but thirty-six years of age,' +observed Brodin: +'and is a giant in mental and physical strength.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But he daily sets his life upon a cast in the dangerous game +of war,' +answered Gyllenstierna. 'Instead of avoiding personal danger, as a +royal commander should, he seeks it more recklessly than the lowliest +soldier of his army. No, that guaranty is very unsafe. It would be +folly to confide in the fortunate star of Goertz, and senselessly bind +myself to him by the ties of blood. Arwed must give up his foolish +love.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That,' said Brodin, rubbing his hands, 'will be likely to be +rendered +difficult by the headstrong disposition of the young lord.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am aware of it,' said Gyllenstierna. 'Yet when I have the +will and +the power, I never suffer an interruption of my course. Arwed has just +now been soliciting leave to join the Norwegian expedition. He shall +set off for Norway this very night, and thus will his attention be +directed to other affairs.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But the precious life of the only heir of your noble house?' +exclaimed +Brodin sorrowfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">'A Gyllenstierna must inure himself to the hardships of war,' +answered +the senator resolutely. 'All bullets do not hit, and even the worst +that could happen would not be to me so severe an affliction as this +mad connection. See that Arwed's equipments are prepared, and let my +carriage be driven to the door. I will to the vice-regent. Call my son +hither, and prepare for him a letter of introduction to lieutenant +general Armfelt. I will sign it on my return.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Ominously shaking his head, Brodin left the room, and the +senator again +carefully read through the love letter. 'His sudden passion for war is +now clear to me,' cried he at last. 'It is that he may soon become of +sufficient consequence to enable him to woo successfully the daughter +of the all-powerful favorite, who stands too high for the +undistinguished son of a simple count and senator of Sweden. I am sorry +for thee, poor youth, but thy plan must be abandoned.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have commanded my presence my father,' said Arwed, who +with a +discontented face now entered the cabinet.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have reflected further upon your request,' answered the +senator. 'I +will for this time let the child have his way, to stop his weeping. As +soon as your letters of introduction are ready you will set off for the +army. From conquered Drontheim shall I expect your first letter.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Am I going to Armfelt's corps?' asked Arwed aghast.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What a question!' observed the father. 'The lieutenant +general is my +old friend. He will receive you with open arms, and give you an +advantageous position.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I much regret,' said Arwed, 'that with my thanks for granting +my first +request, I must prefer a new one. I cannot, indeed, take the letter of +recommendation, dear father, and I would not be indebted to old +friendship for a commission. What I can win upon the field of honor, +that may I thank myself for.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Overstrained ideas,' murmured the father peevishly. You will +regret +the want of patronage when, experience shall have taught you how far +merit can go without it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'In war the good will of one's comrades is necessary,' +proceeded Arwed. +'The soldier who is pushed forward through favoritism, must renounce +it; and under Armfelt I foresee that I could not avoid being improperly +favored. Wherefore I beg of you to let me go without recommendation to +our king before Frederickshall.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Even to the most hopeless expedition of the whole campaign!' +cried the +father. 'Before that unlucky city which during the last year has cost +Sweden her military renown, an entire third of her army, and very +nearly the life of her king,--where peasants and serving maids suddenly +became more furious than the hostile elements and put to flight the +conqueror of Moscow. How hast thou become possessed of this foolish +fancy?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I desire that Sweden's hero should witness my first essay in +arms,' +answered Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Overweening self confidence!' said the father. 'I trust that +thou wilt +every where maintain the honor of our name, and the coolness of age +sees farther than the heat of youth. The king has not yet learned to be +sparing of his soldiers, as there is none but God to call him to +account for his conduct. The general has more restricted duties. And +although I appreciate eagerness for action and am disposed to satisfy +it, yet I cannot consent to place your life at the disposal of +Charles's mad humour. You go to Armfelt.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Dear father!' implored Arwed, and at that moment the +valet-de-chambre +entered with the count's hat and sword and announced that the carriage +was ready.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is settled,' said the senator in the most decided manner +to his +son, whilst he buckled on his sword. 'I will hear nothing further in +opposition to my determination.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He snatched his hat violently from the servant, and hastily +sallied +forth.</p> + +<p class="normal">'This is hard!' said the afflicted Arwed. 'Must I obey?' he +asked +himself after a moment's pause,--'Why torment myself!' cried he +finally. 'Gushes not for me, in one kind heart, the silver fountain of +goodness and wisdom? She shall tell me what is right in the struggle +between filial duty and my own better conviction. She shall decide.'</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Alone, with folded arms, on the following evening, Arwed +wandered up +and down the northern bank of the Suedermalm in the new volunteer +uniform, anxiously glancing across lake Malar towards the magnificent +city of Stockholm, which there arose with its palaces, cupolas and +towers, proud and lordly as became the queen of those waters. The sun +had already gone down, but it yet glowed redly upon the waves of the +lake, gently ruffled by a soft west wind, and its last rays glistened +upon the knob of the high towers of St. Gertrude, which it lighted up +like a giant star shining through the incipient twilight. With earnest +attention the youth's eyes glided from tower to tower and from palace +to palace, until they finally remained fixed upon that of the royal +residence, which in consequence of the continued impoverishment of the +treasury had not been rebuilt since the fire that destroyed it twenty +years before.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What horrible desolation in the midst of so much splendor!' +said Arwed +mournfully to himself. 'The ruins of the royal castle almost appear to +me to be symbols of the decay of this noble realm! Yet also this +palace,' proceeded he, consoling himself with the light-mindedness of +youth, 'will one day again rise from its ashes, perhaps more beautiful +than before. Lost lands can be conquered again, new generations will +come to fill up the vacancies caused by the sword, and soon perhaps +will Europe tremble again before the mighty roar of the Swedish lion.'</p> + +<p class="normal">A splash in the water interrupted the proud prophecy. A +row-boat from +the Ritterholm cut through the stream and neared the bank. Two ladies +in plain dark cloaks and covered with white veils, stepped from the +boat. 'Georgina,' cried Arwed in ecstasy, springing towards her. With +light, nimble steps one of the ladies, a slender and delicately formed +figure, approached and affectionately extended to him her right hand, +while her left was employed in withdrawing the veil from her youthful +and lovely face.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My Georgina!' he joyfully repeated, leading her to a seat +upon the +rocky bank, whilst the other lady remained standing at some distance, +sending from under her veil in every direction her scrutinizing +glances, so as to be enabled to warn the youthful pair betimes of any +troublesome witness who might interrupt the happy interview.</p> + +<p class="normal">The beauteous Georgina fixed her affectionate gaze upon the +beloved +youth, but with softened feelings which filled her dark eyes with +tears. 'By your dress I see,' said she with emotion, 'that this is our +parting hour--and I thank thee that I have been hitherto kept in +ignorance of it, so that I was enabled to enjoy the anticipation of +this meeting without alloy.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, dearest maiden,' answered Arwed: 'my wishes are +accomplished, my +father's kindness has opened to me the path of honor, which I dare to +hope will enable me to deserve and obtain thee. That I may hereafter be +entirely thine, I now leave thee. Thou wilt again see me, crowned with +the laurels of victory, or thou wilt hear that I have bravely fought +and fallen worthy of thee and myself.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh, Arwed,' faintly murmured the almost breathless maiden, +reclining +her beauteous head upon his breast and turning her eyes upon his face +with a look of gentle reproach. 'Must it then be so? Thou hast indeed +always asserted this sad necessity, but I could never bring myself to +believe it. Credit me, my father is good, and by no means so haughty +and violent as the Swedes consider him. Ungrateful men indeed, hate +him--but he loves his newly adopted country. Thy house is one of the +most honorable--and even if he had other plans respecting me, he would +not be able to withstand my prayers if I dutifully opened my heart to +him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I love thee with all my soul, Georgina,' said Arwed with +flashing +eyes: 'but at the same time Swedish pride claims its rights. It would +be disgraceful to a Gyllenstierna to be indebted to the prayers and +tears of the daughter for the consent of the proud stranger. And if +your father should now ask me what I had hitherto done for the honor of +the name which his child is to bear, and I could answer him nothing +except that I had read Greek and Latin with my tutor and listened to a +few college lectures at Upsala, I should sink into the earth for shame. +Yet not for that cause alone do I grasp the sword. With it I hope to +gain the favor of the king and independence of my father, who, though +he truly loves me, will hardly with a good will consent to the proposed +connection. Besides, having long since decided on my course, I beg that +you will not make more difficult by your sorrow a step which is already +sufficiently afflicting, since it separates me from you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Cruel, perverse man!' said Georgina, kissing him. 'Yes, your +sex are +our tyrants, and the worst of it is, that the more pitilessly you +torment us through your pride and severity, the more ardently we love +you. What can the poor feeble maiden do but submit to the hard fate +which her Arwed decrees--and henceforth weep, hope, wish, until her lot +is indissolubly united with his.' She dried her tears, and then with +assumed resolution asked; 'when do you leave?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'This night I depart for Norway,' answered Arwed, 'but whether +for the +north or the south, you must decide for me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'<i>I</i>?' asked Georgina, trembling: 'you mock me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You know the reasons,' proceeded Arwed, 'which induce me to +desire to +repair to Frederickshall. But my father insists with inexorable +severity, that I shall go to Armfelt, which he prefers as the better +path for promotion, and from fear that the reckless temerity of the +king may expose my life to unnecessary danger. I believe, however, that +the aversion which the fiery old aristocrat retains so firmly against +the great Charles, is the principal cause of his obstinacy. Now counsel +me Georgina. Uninfluenced by party hatreds, and all the low springs of +action which prevail in this kingdom setting brother against brother, +standest thou there, like a good angel, above the thunder and the +death-cry of the battle field, and only lookest down compassionately +upon the wild tumult.--With thee I shall find the truth, or nowhere. +Shall I follow the conquering path of the great king, inspired by his +presence, and perhaps rewarded with his approbation whenever an +opportunity for good service may occur, and struggle to obtain the +chaplet of honor through my own deservings; or shall I, in obedience to +the arbitrary will of my father, repair to Armfelt's corps for the +purpose of supplanting meritorious warriors by means of a wicked +favoritism? Decide! What you advise, that will I do.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thou art magnanimous, Arwed,' said Georgina, smiling through +her +tears. 'Thou wishest to flatter a maiden's vanity, so that she may the +less acutely feel the sorrow of parting. How shall I be so presumptuous +as to counsel a youth who is as headstrong as ever could have been the +king himself?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Upon my honor!' cried Arwed impatiently, 'I desire thy +counsel in real +earnest. My own feelings have long since decided,--but I wish to be +governed not by my own feelings, but by what is right, and that I find +only in thy clear soul.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thou demandest of me the performance of a delicate and +responsible +duty,' said Georgina with emotion. 'Were I to obey only the voice of +anxiety which speaks so loudly for thee in a loving maiden's bosom, I +had quickly decided--as, with the king is undoubtedly the greatest +danger. But in this case the voice of honor must also be heard, and thy +honor is also mine.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Such language is Worthy of a Swedish maiden!' cried Arwed, +warmly +embracing her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nor is honor alone to be considered,' proceeded Georgina. +'The +question of filial duty is also an important one. Thy father hath +declared his will, and I am not presumptuous enough to counsel +disobedience to him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My God!' cried Arwed disconsolately. 'I now stand just where +I did +before--and if I would ever come to a conclusion, like Alexander I must +cut the knot I cannot untie.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Move not towards the north, young hero!' whispered, all of a +sudden in +the evening stillness, a low hoarse voice, as if from heaven.</p> + +<p class="normal">Georgina shrieked with alarm and covered her eyes with her +hands. Arwed +sprang in a rage from his rocky seat, and drew his sword. 'Who here +gives his counsel unasked?' thundered he among the rocks above him, on +whose top he observed through the fading twilight a tall human form, +wrapped in a gray mantle.</p> + +<p class="normal">'One wiser than thou,' answered the apparition, 'and who means +thee +well.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What have I to fear in the north?' hastily asked Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'An inglorious death!' answered the unknown, and instantly +vanished.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Strange,' said Arwed, slowly returning his sword to its +scabbard.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Now am I to decide!' cried Georgina, tremblingly attaching +herself to +him. 'Obey the voice, Arwed, it appeared to be that of a friend.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Prophecies were always disagreeable to me,' said Arwed. +'Imposition or +fanaticism, it makes no difference. Now am I almost determined to go to +Armfelt, merely to prove that I give no heed to such jugglery.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hast thou forgotten what there awaits thee?' anxiously asked +Georgina.</p> + +<p class="normal">'An inglorious death would indeed be the greatest calamity +that could +befal me,' said Arwed; 'and the voice sounded so honest.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If thou lovest me, obey it,' implored Georgina,--and at that +moment +her companion approached to remind her that it was high time to return +to the city.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Fare thee well, my beloved life!' said Arwed, locking the +sobbing +maiden in his arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thou goest to Frederickshall?' inquired she, faintly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hast thou not united the wish with my love?' asked the youth +in +return, and long and silently he pressed her beloved form to his bosom.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hasten, baroness!' anxiously entreated her companion.</p> + +<p class="normal">Georgina finally forced herself from his embrace. 'I believe +in a good +God!' exclaimed she with a sort of inspiration: 'we shall meet again.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The ladies proceeded to the boat which was waiting for them. +Arwed +remained standing silently on the spot where he had received Georgina's +last kiss, gazing after the receding boat, until it disappeared in the +shadow which the old Gothic church of the Ritterholm, behind which the +moon was now rising, threw over the waters of the Malar.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The Swedish trumpets were sounding and the drums beating an +alarm, as +Arwed and his groom rode into the camp before Frederickshall. In every +direction the footsoldiers were parading before their barracks under +arms, and the cavalry were standing by their horses, ready to mount. +With great trouble Arwed pressed his steed through the warlike throng, +and finally arrived at the quarters of the king,--where he paused, +looking in every direction for some one to announce him.</p> + +<p class="normal">At length, an aged officer, in a general's uniform, came along +the +passage-way between the tents, bending his steps towards the royal +barrack. The sentinel at the door presented arms to him. Acknowledging +the courtesy in a kindly manner, his glance fell upon Arwed. 'Do you +seek any one here, my son?' asked he in a friendly tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">'An audience of the king,' answered Arwed: 'of whom I have a +personal +request to make.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The king is now pressingly engaged,' said the general. 'The +princes of +Hesse and Holstein-Gottorp are with him. If you are willing to entrust +your business with me I will faithfully communicate it to him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I thankfully acknowledge your goodness, general,' answered +Arwed. 'I +am convinced that my request to be enrolled in the army might safely be +confided to your hands; but I am very desirous to see the face of my +king, a happiness which I have never yet enjoyed. I was not yet born +when he left Stockholm.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Whither he has never since returned, I know,' said the +general with a +heavy sigh. 'You look so fresh and true hearted that I will do what you +desire. Come with me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed followed the general. The door of the royal chamber at +that +moment opened. A man was standing by a table, upon which were lying a +bible, a map of Norway and a plan of Frederickshall. His blue, +unornamented riding coat, with large brass buttons, his narrow black +neck-stock, his thin locks, which bristled in every direction, the +broad yellow leather shoulder-band, from which his long sword depended, +and his large cavalry boots, would have led to the conclusion that he +was a subaltern officer,--but his tall, noble figure, his beautiful +forehead, his large soft blue eyes, and his well formed nose, gave to +his whole appearance something so majestic, and so highly distinguished +him from two embroidered, starred and ribboned lords who were with him +in the room, that Arwed instantly recognized his hitherto unknown king.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The trenches opened on the fourth,' said the king, fretfully +tracing +upon the plan with his finger. 'They ought to be further advanced!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Certainly, your majesty!' answered Arwed's protector in a sad +tone. +'One feels tempted to believe that he who conducts these works either +cannot or will not advance them, and it must be conceded that colonel +Megret understands his business.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I know what you would say, Duecker,' said Charles with a +severe +countenance. 'But I will give you a useful lesson. You must not speak +ill of any one when you are speaking with your king.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Making an effort to suppress his feelings, and followed by the +scornful +smile of the eldest prince, Duecker retired,--whilst the other, a youth +of about Arwed's age, amused himself with examining the new comer with +a far from becoming hauteur.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king, following the glance of his nephew, perceived Arwed +and +advanced towards him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who?' asked he with some embarrassment.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Gyllenstierna,' answered Arwed with a profound inclination: +'a Swedish +nobleman, who begs of your majesty that be may be permitted to fight +under your banners.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Count Gyllenstierna?' inquired Charles, leaning on his giant +sword, +'The father is a determined opponent of my administration!' said he to +his brother-in-law, as Arwed bowed affirmatively, and a convulsive +smile distorted the lips of his well-formed mouth.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yet full of devotion for his king and his native land!' +earnestly +interposed Arwed. 'If your majesty will but permit his son to prove +it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The king gave him a complacent look. 'I am now about to take +the +battery called the Golden Lion from the Danes,' said he: 'you can +remain by my side.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Heaven reward your majesty!' cried Arwed in ecstasies, and +seized the +hand of the hero to kiss it.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I like not that,' said the king, hastily withdrawing his +hand,--and at +that moment adjutant general Siquier, a slender Frenchman, with a +cunning but wasted face, entered the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Every thing is in readiness for the attack, your majesty!' +announced +he.</p> + +<p class="normal">'God with us, comrades!' exclaimed the king, putting on his +immense +gauntlets of yellow leather.</p> + +<p class="normal">'This attack will cost many men!' said Duecker, in an under +tone to the +young duke.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh!' whispered Siquier, who overheard the remark, 'a great +French +general under whom I once served was accustomed to say before the +slaughter: 'If God will but remain neutral to-day, then shall these +Messieurs be finely flogged.''</p> + +<p class="normal">The king, who was already at the door, once more returned. +'Your great +general,' said he to Siquier,--indignant at the quotation of the +irreverent speech,--'spoke then like a great fool.'</p> + +<p class="normal">With a countenance which badly concealed his rage at this +unexpected +reproof, Siquier cast down his eyes, and the warriors silently followed +their heroic leader.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The entrenchments of the Golden Lion were thronged with +red-coats. With +the battle cry, 'God with us!' the Swedish battalions charged upon +them. Then opened the battery upon its assailants, hurling death among +their ranks from twenty thundering throats of fire. Unmoved, at first, +the warriors saw their comrades falling on either hand, and pressed +bravely onward. Now, however, the grape and canister shot of the enemy +began its work of destruction, and in constantly increasing rapidity of +succession sank the victims in their blood, until finally the weakened +survivors gave ground and slowly retreated.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king, surrounded by his retinue, sat upon his charger, +within the +range of the enemy's artillery, as quietly as if at a review. Arwed, at +his side, observed this new spectacle with a spirit-stirring pleasure. +Presently one of the weakened and retreating battalions came near the +king. With indignation in his eye he sprang to meet them. 'You are +Swedes,' thundered he, 'and do you fly? Back to the enemy!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We have lost all our officers, your majesty!' cried an old +corporal.</p> + +<p class="normal">Trembling with eager desire to enter the lists, Arwed +instantly threw +himself out of his saddle, and asked, his foot still in the stirrup: +'may I lead these troops once more against the battery?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You may make the attempt!' replied the king kindly to him, +and +immediately galloped to the other side of the battery, where also the +Swedes had begun to give ground. In a transport of joy Arwed sprang +from his horse, drew his sword, and cried to the soldiers: 'in the +king's name, halt, left wheel!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The soldiers obeyed, and Arwed placed himself at their head.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Think of the hero whose soldiers you are,' cried he: 'and of +your own +glory; and, in God's name, march!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'God be with us!' cried the newly encouraged band, rushing on +after +their leader. Several lives were lost in the advance, but the main +part, strengthened by the fragments of the other battalions, soon stood +by the palisades safely sheltered from the fire of the enemy's cannon. +But now the little musket balls whistled from the breastworks, and +murderous grenades were bursting among them at almost every moment.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Force out the palisades and pass the trench!' commanded +Arwed, and +with prodigious strength he removed some of the pales, which he placed +over the hard frozen ditch and pushed forward. The soldiers followed +the example, and the opposite side of the wall was soon covered with +the clambering troops. The Danes defended themselves with great fury, +and the dear victory was purchased with the sacrifice of many Swedish +lives. Two musket balls passed through Arwed's hat, but in an instant +thereafter, he stood upon the breastwork and pierced the heart of one +of the marksmen with his sword. A bayonet-thrust of the other grazed +his cheek. This one fell under the blows given by the clubbed muskets +of the closely following Swedes, and soon the Swedish banner floated +proudly over the stormed works.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile the king, who had been attempting an entrance on the +other +side of the wall, hastened hither at the head of one of his battalions, +and the few remaining Danes threw down their arms and begged for +quarter.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What, before me, upon the walls!' cried the royal hero, +embracing the +bleeding Arwed. 'There is yet a true Swede! You are a captain of the +guards, Gyllenstierna.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We have two companies, prisoners,' said Siquier, stepping up +to the +king with a sanguinary expression of countenance. They have compelled +us to storm the place, and their lives are forfeited. Does your majesty +command their execution?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Right, Siquier,' answered Charles, affecting to misunderstand +him, +'Let the poor creatures be fed in our camp,--and when they have +satiated their appetites, let them promise not to fight against me +again in this war--and then, in God's name, let them go in peace.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'As your majesty commands!' said Siquier, grating his teeth +and +proceeding to the execution of the unwelcome commission.</p> + +<p class="normal">'If the lord has remitted ten thousand shekels to us,' said +Charles, +turning graciously to Arwed, 'surely we can remit a trifling debt to +our fellow men;--can we not, my dear captain?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hail to the hero who knows how to pardon as well as to +conquer!' +exclaimed Arwed with enthusiasm.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No flattery!' cried Charles, stamping angrily. 'I know that +it was +fairly meant, but I do not like it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He departed. Arwed leaned against the breastwork and observed +the +trains of Danish prisoners who were being escorted into the camp. Then +glancing proudly upon the blood-besprinkled place he had conquered--and +afterwards towards the east, where Stockholm lay;--he sighed, 'had but +Georgina seen me!'</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Brightly shone the light of chandelier and gueridon through +the plate +glass windows of the royal palace on the Ritterholm, and most +beautifully was its brilliancy reflected by the quiet waters of the +Malar lake. The princess Ulrika Eleonore, of Hesse, gave an assembly +and card patty--and the variously adorned nobility floated through the +gilded rooms, soothing, caressing, deceiving, calumniating, fondling +and boring each other. Behind the curtains of one of the most retired +windows leaned the affectionate Georgina, gazing with anxious interest +over the lake towards the Suedermalm, where in quiet obscurity lay +before her the place where she had met and parted with her lover. Near +her sat the princess, with the governor, Baron Taube, and the elder +Gyllenstierna, at a card table.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is there any news from Norway?' asked Ulrika, shuffling the +cards.</p> + +<p class="normal">'From Armfelt's corps,' answered Taube, 'we have been a long +time +without intelligence,--but, as a friend writes me, the king has taken +an important battery before Frederickshall.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is well that some one yet holds correspondence in Sweden, +said +Ulrika with bitterness, hastily dealing the cards. 'My husband is not +permitted to write openly upon the affairs of the campaign, and of the +communications of my brother nobody in the capital is permitted to have +a glimpse;--and least of all myself, who have the misfortune to be a +woman.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Was our loss great?' asked old Gyllenstierna, assorting his +cards.</p> + +<p class="normal">'They speak of seven hundred,' answered the governor: 'and the +loss +would have been still greater and perhaps wholly in vain, had not the +king himself and a young volunteer placed themselves at the head of the +faltering troops and led them on to victory.'</p> + +<p class="normal">A delightful anticipation thrilled the bosom of the listening +Georgina. +And in the self-forgetfulness of love, she was even upon the point of +stepping forward and asking the narrator the unbecoming question of the +name of the volunteer, when the father of her beloved spared her the +pain of witnessing the courtier's contemptuous smile, by himself +putting the question.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My informant named him Gyllenstierna,' answered Taube: 'but +as your +excellency's son has gone to Armfelt's camp, I suppose I must have +misunderstood him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who knows!' murmured the old count, calling to mind the last +unavailing request of his son; and in pondering upon all the +possibilities of the case he lost his game.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Were it not for that,' proceeded Taube, 'I should have much +pleasure +in congratulating your excellency. The king advanced the brave +volunteer to the grade of captain of the guards upon the spot.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My hero! my Arwed!' exulted Georgina in her heart, and her +white hand +waved a fond kiss towards the west.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Such transient gleams of military success give me more +anxiety than +pleasure,' said Ulrika. 'They decide not the main question, and serve +only to increase my brother's obstinacy. His game is lost beyond +remedy. Continued misfortune would finally open his eyes and induce him +to take the only course by which he can save himself.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That would have happened long ago,' whispered Taube to her, +'did not +baron Goertz, through his <i>fata morgana</i>, know how to keep up his +sinking hopes.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Very true!' said Gyllenstierna. 'And had it not been for his +experiment of debasing the coin, this campaign would have been +impossible.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Indeed,' added Taube: 'were the old heathen gods, whom he has +conjured +up from the vasty deep, to bring national bankruptcy upon Sweden, what +would the foreigner care?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I know not among men one whom I so cordially hate as this +Goertz,' +said Ulrica in an under tone, and her eyes gleamed so fiercely that +Georgina, who from her concealment saw the look, shrunk with fear, +although she did not hear the words that accompanied it.</p> + +<p class="normal">A chamberlain in service now announced to Ulrika that baron +Goertz, who +had just arrived from Aland, and was passing through Stockholm on his +way to Frederickshall, begged permission to wait upon her royal +highness.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is not granted!' said Ulrika with cold disdain.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I know not,' whispered Taube to her, 'if your highness would +do well +to render your displeasure palpable to this cunning man. The mortified +ambition of a parvenu is revengeful, and Goertz proceeds hence directly +to his majesty.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Am I not mistress even in my own apartment!' cried Ulrika +with +vehemence. 'It has come to a fine pass!' She arose from the table and +laid down her cards. 'I am indisposed,' said she to the chamberlain: +'am about to withdraw to my chamber, and can see no one.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The servant bowed and retired to deliver the ungracious +message. The +princess called her ladies and hurried from the saloon, which was soon +filled with the timid murmurs of the courtiers. Taube took the arm of +Gyllenstierna, and walked up and down the room in a low and anxious +conversation with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My poor father! how hast thou with thy warm, and generous +heart, +strayed to this cold and hostile kind!' cried Georgina, who had closely +observed the last scene;--and, careless of the remarks which her +disregard of etiquette might elicit, she hastened from the assembly to +greet her beloved father.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The fieldmarshal Rhenskioeld sat waiting, upon the sofa in the +cabinet +of baron von Goertz. The latter returned from the palace, and his +indignation at the offensive answer he had received, gave way to the +joy of again meeting his friend.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I thank you, my worthy friend,' said he, embracing +Rhenskioeld, 'that +you have complied with my request so promptly. It was <i>my</i> duty to +visit you, but my hours are all numbered. I shall be compelled to labor +through the whole night, and in the morning I shall be on my way +towards Frederickshall.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You come from Aland?' eagerly asked Rhenskioeld: 'what news +from +thence?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thank God!' cried Goertz with clasped hands: 'I bring you +peace with +Russia.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Peace!' exclaimed Rhenskioeld, springing from his seat. +'Peace between +the shrewd czar, who never fails to follow up an advantage, and our +Charles, whom misfortune only renders the more inflexibly? It is +impossible! Even could you really obtain tolerable conditions yet would +the king never accept them.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The splendid conditions which I bring will certainly be +ratified by +him,' answered Goertz. 'Peter retains nothing of his conquests except +Livonia, a part of Ingermanland and Caralia. He yields back all +besides.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Peter give any thing back!' screamed Rhenskioeld, with +astonishment.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Russia,' proceeded Goertz, 'binds herself with us, to set +upon the +throne of Poland the same Stanislaus whom she formerly chased from it, +and furnishes 80,000 men to enthrone the same august personage against +whom she has been fighting the last ten years.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You must be relating to me, a fable from the thousand and one +nights!' +said Rhenskioeld incredulously.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Russia,' proceeded Goertz, 'is to furnish shipping for the +conveyance +of 10,000 Swedes to England to sustain the Pretender. In connection +with Sweden, she seizes upon Hanover. We take Bremen and Verden, +re-establish the duke of Holstein, force Prussia to give up her booty, +and compel the emperor to observe the treaty of Altranstadt.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And now are you awake?' asked the fieldmarshal with a +satirical smile: +'for thus do such narrations usually terminate, when the narrator has +only been dreaming.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Goertz stopped, and gazed at his auditor. He however conquered +his +impetuosity, went to his writing desk, took from it a manuscript, and +with the exclamation, 'read,' gave it to the fieldmarshal.</p> + +<p class="normal">Rhenskioeld read--and as he read his eyes opened wider and +wider, while +in the same ratio his brow became knit with anger, and he appeared to +struggle with some highly unpleasant feeling. Finally, he silently gave +back the paper, rose up, and took his hat and sword.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You appear to be convinced, now, sir fieldmarshal,' said +Goertz: 'but +the conviction does not seem to please you, notwithstanding you have +had a great share in bringing about the peace. Had you not brought the +king to better thoughts when already the whole negociation threatened +to miscarry, I should never have arrived where I am to-day.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' answered Rhenskioeld, coldly: 'it gives me pleasure to +learn +that I have been the ladder upon which you have mounted to the +pinnacle, and I wish you joy of it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He bowed very formally and departed. Goertz himself lighted +him out. +'Another friend lost!' said he as he came back. 'I already perceive +that this peace is too advantageous for Rhenskioeld not to envy my +instrumentality in its conclusion.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Directly, he heard a slight knock at the door, and a delicate +voice +asked, 'may we now come in?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Walk in!' cried Goertz, who well knew the little voice, with +a smile +of paternal pleasure, and his little daughter Magdalena, led by +Georgina, skipped into the room. With impetuous, feeling, Georgina fell +upon his neck, whilst Magdalena climbed upon his knees and compelled +him to take her in his arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Où peut-on être mieux qu'au sein de sa famille?' said the +father, +kissing the little Magdalena right heartily. 'My own house, I verily +believe, is the only place in Sweden where I can meet with sincere +affection.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, indeed, my father,' said Georgina with a sigh. 'I daily +perceive +more and more clearly how little justice you have to expect in a +country you are laboring to save. The audience this evening denied you +is a fresh instance. The princess was not ill--she feigned illness that +she might have a pretext for refusing to see you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It will be indeed an evil day for me,' said Goertz, smiling, +'when my +destiny shall be in the hands of Ulrika. She can never forgive me that +her brother now places that confidence in me which he has always +withheld from her. But how comes it that you, Georgina, with your +fifteen years, evince such deep observation?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Long did he look at her in deep meditation. 'In truth,' +proceeded he, +'it appears to me that you have shot up wonderfully tall, and that +which with you women they call reason has developed itself with +wonderful rapidity. Right beauteous are you, also, and in your eyes I +see a kindling of enthusiasm. You cannot yet by any means have learned +that you have a heart?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Georgina, who during this sharp review had kept her eyes cast +down, now +raised them timidly up and sought to read the expression of her +father's face. The kindness and good nature which she found impressed +there, gave her courage, and pressing his hand to her lips she threw +herself at his feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What means this?' asked he indignantly, withdrawing his hand. +'I am no +tyrant such as they portray in French tragedies, nor am I fond of +theatrical scenes in real life. Stand up if you wish me to listen to +you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Never, until you forgive me,' sobbed Georgina: 'I love!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'So my observation did not deceive me,' said her father. 'You +love? a +little too early, I must confess. But stand up, and tell me at once +whom you love.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The count Gyllenstierna,' lisped Georgina, in a scarcely +audible +voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Poor child!' exclaimed Goertz, compassionately. 'That will be +a +troublesome affair to arrange.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is what we have feared!' cried Georgina, wringing her +hands and +rising up.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I would not at any rate bring forward any objections against +the young +man,' proceeded Goertz. 'But both of you have wholly overlooked the +fact, that his father is one of my most decided enemies. I would rather +undertake to bring about a peace between Sweden and Denmark than +between him and me.</p> + +<p class="normal">The little Magdalena then threw her small, white arms round +her +father's neck. 'Pray, pray,' implored she, 'give to poor Georgina her +Arwed; she loves him so very much.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Magdalena then is your confidant?' Goertz asked Georgina good +humoredly: 'she knows even the christian name of your chosen one. But +children, this affair, indeed, takes me by surprise. However, for the +present, at least, I shall not say no. To the <i>yes</i>, it will be +necessary to gain the consent of another besides the weak father of a +beloved daughter. Meanwhile, I should like to become a little +acquainted with your Corydon. So bring him in, Georgina, for no doubt +you hold him in ambuscade ready for the occasion.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You do me great injustice, dear father,' said Georgina, whose +maiden +sensibility was touched. 'Arwed is in the Swedish camp, before +Frederickshall. He has already conquered a battery, for which the king +has named him a captain in the guards.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That, I confess, is being far on the way to a +fieldmarshalship:' said +Goertz, jestingly, to conceal his surprise. 'At present I rejoice that +your choice does you honor every way: what further may come, is in the +hands of God. The idea is very agreeable to me, through the medium of a +beloved daughter to connect myself with one of the noble houses of the +country in which I hope to naturalize myself by my unceasing labors for +its welfare. If the other party would only think the same! But old Nils +Gyllenstierna will have many and strong objections.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'So Arwed also thought,' said Georgina sorrowfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, yes,' said Goertz, looking sadly forward: 'I have now in +all +Sweden but one only friend, and my sole happiness is that he wears +Sweden's crown.' Thus saying, he rose up and ardently embraced his +daughters 'Retire to rest now, children,' said he: 'go and build +your airy castles, as brightly colored and dazzling as you please. And +if time destroy them, still will you have enjoyed the pleasures of +hope,--and that is much in a world whose joys consist almost entirely +in anticipation and remembrance. Go! I must yet watch and labor for +Sweden and for you. Rewarded by this land with hatred, from your hearts +I expect love and gratitude, and will therewith consider myself +compensated.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'All will yet end well, dear father,' said Georgina, +consolingly. +'Since I have confessed to you my secret, and since you have received +it so kindly, a heavy weight is removed from my breast. I breathe again +with ease and joy, and already feel as if my aim was attained and +nothing more could be wanting in this world.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The girls retired, and Goertz closed the door after them.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The afternoon service of the first Advent Sunday had ended in +the camp +before Frederickshall. The warriors were dispersing, and, arm in arm +with adjutant Kolbert, Arwed sauntered towards the nearest sutler's +barrack, to play a game of chess. The place was wholly-unoccupied, and +the hostess was standing at the door, waiting for her guests, her +parti-colored holiday dress serving as a sign board. The two friends +sat themselves down, with a flask of Burgundy, to the bloodless battle. +The sleet was lightly drizzling upon the hard frozen ground out of +doors. From the walls of the city and from high Fredericksteen the +heavy artillery sent a dull sound through the storm, whilst, in the +camp, the besieging laborers ceased from work to honor the consecrated +day of rest. The Sabbath stillness was only interrupted now and then by +a crash in the barracks and a cry from the soldiers, when one of the +enemy's balls happened to take effect. But that did not interrupt the +players. They had become so deeply interested in their game that they +did not once perceive how the room gradually became filled with +officers, many of whom placed themselves behind their chairs to +overlook the game.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly, with angry impetuosity, Arwed took one of his +opponent's +knights with his king.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Stop!' cried Kolbert, holding fast his officer. 'Your bishop +will by +that movement remain uncovered, and I shall immediately take him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Take him,' said Arwed. 'Your knight is troublesome to me, and +must +die.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A mere exchange, for the sake of exchanging,--that is +manifestly +contrary to the etiquette of the game!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It was not a mere exchange,' protested Arwed. 'You had a +mischievous +plan. Had you led him out, I were lost. Your knight in the place where +he stood was worth more than an ordinary officer, and I could no longer +defend myself against him. Wherefore I exchanged to advantage, and I +should always do the same under like circumstances. Even if my opponent +lose no more than myself by the movement, yet I win temporary relief at +least, break up his attack, and compel him to resort to new +manœuvres.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And to use the king like a subaltern officer is not civil,' +grumbled +Kolbert.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My king shall not keep himself behind the cannon, like a +Persian +shah,' answered Arwed. 'Whenever necessity requires it, he must expose +himself as well as one of his soldiers.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A regular Charles XIIth,' cried some one behind him, with a +scornful +laugh. Arwed turned suddenly round and perceived the chief engineer, +Megret, a Frenchman by birth, who with a satyr-like face was leaning +over the back of his chair.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I thank you for the comparison, colonel, even though it was +ironically +intended,' said the youth in a decidedly cutting tone. 'Would to God +that we all, not excepting even you, were able to imitate the elevated +character of our noble king in good and evil fortune; what accomplished +men should we then be!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Megret bit his lips and retired to another table, where he got +up a +company to play pharo.</p> + +<p class="normal">'This is my first campaign,' proceeded Arwed with enthusiasm: +'and I +have seen the king in battle only twice in my life, but that has +furnished sufficient proof of his worth as a brave warrior and skilful +commander. He is always great, but when he has his sword in his hand he +is more than man--almost a demi-god--and one feels tempted to worship +him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not so, young man,' answered a hollow voice. 'That was a very +improper +speech.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed recognised the voice as one he had heard before. Raising +his +eyes, he saw behind Kolbert's chair a meagre man about thirty years of +age, in the dress of a civilian. His close-bodied coat, with broad +turned-up sleeves, his long waistcoat and his small clothes, all of one +colour, ash-gray velvet, together with his dark colored wig, gave him +an uncommonly strange and solemn appearance, which his fixed and +expressive eye rendered still more disagreeable.</p> + +<p class="normal">Indignant at the reproof conveyed by the words of the +stranger, Arwed +abruptly and harshly asked the gray form, 'what do you mean by that, +sir?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I mean,' answered the gray coat, 'that it always makes my +flesh crawl +to hear a true hero so excessively praised. His renown cannot be +increased thereby, and the old <i>Fatum</i> becomes easily jealous of such +idolatry and oftentimes wreaks its vengeance upon the idol. Think of +the anticipations of the great Gustavus Adolphus, to whom Germany did +slavish homage in the altitude of his fortunes, and recollect his sad +fate.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do not like these nursery tales,' said Arwed angrily; 'and +superstition, when it makes lofty pretensions, is highly offensive to +me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You cannot know the man to whom you speak,' said captain +count Posse, +stepping forward to appease Arwed. 'That we are here so near to +Frederickshall, and that you have here acquired your first laurels, you +may thank him alone. Through his deep science was general Duecker +enabled to construct the wooden pier between the bays of Stevemstadt +and Idefiall, over which our ships were transported upon ingenious +machines from one navigable water to the other.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is it possible! Swedenborg?' quickly exclaimed the softened +Arwed with +joyful surprise, offering the hand of peace to the gray-coat. +'Swedenborg! Swebenborg!' the murmur ran through the company, and the +officers pressed around to catch a glance at the wonderful man.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Swedenborg!' cried Megret, laughingly, from the other table, +'do you +find yourself here again? What news do you bring with you? How stand +affairs in the celestial and subterranean regions?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The angels axe weeping and the devils laughing!' answered +Swedenborg +with awful earnestness.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And what say your spirits thereto?' sneeringly added the +Frenchman.</p> + +<p class="normal">'They are silent in the presence of impure souls,' resumed the +prophet +in a tone of thunder, which closed the lips of the scorner.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is captain Gyllenstierna here?' cried adjutant general +Siquier, +putting his head in at the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is here,' answered Arwed, rising from his seat.</p> + +<p class="normal">'In an hour the king will expect you at his quarters,' said +Siquier, +stepping to the pharo table.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Most certainly, he wishes to say a friendly word in relation +to your +conduct in the late action,' observed count Posse. 'Your enemies, even, +must acknowledge that you have deserved it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thank you, captain, for the acknowledgment that I did my +duty,' said +Arwed modestly. 'Yet there were many others who did as much, if not +more, in that action.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Whoso abaseth himself shall be exalted,' said Swedenborg, +with +benevolent kindness, laying his hand upon Arwed's shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are come opportunely, Siquier,' said Megret derisively. +'You have +long been desirous of having your horoscope cast. There stands a +professor of the high art, the great Swedenborg. Give him a good word.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It would occupy too much of my time,' answered Siquier. 'It +takes +long, I have heard, to make the calculations, and I must shortly return +to the prince. But Swedenborg must also be an experienced chiromancer, +and can foretell my good fortune from my hand.'</p> + +<p class="normal">With malicious levity, he held out his hand to the insulted +man. But +the latter threw it forcibly back, exclaiming, 'your hand smells of +blood. I have nothing to do with you!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The scoffer stood a long time, as if suddenly struck by a +thunderbolt, +staring with amazement at the prophet. Soon collecting himself, +however, he strode out of the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What was that?' asked count Posse, looking inquiringly at +Megret. The +latter, visibly disturbed, shuffled the cards anew, and at length said +with a forced smile, 'one fool makes many others.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That was too much in earnest for folly,' thought Posse.</p> + +<p class="normal">'If it be agreeable to you,' said Arwed in ill humor to +Kolbert, 'we +will leave our game unfinished. I have no longer the ability to play. +My head has become unusually disturbed by the strange conversation to +which I have been compelled to listen.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Kolbert, acquiescing, threw the chessmen in a heap. Arwed +stepped to +the pharo table and seized some cards which were quickly thrown to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Take the king,' said Swedenborg to him: 'he is the banker's +enemy.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Megret was evidently startled, and with a Vehemence vastly +disproportionate to the occasion, he asked Swedenborg, 'what do you +mean? Do you intend to insult me?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He who is evil has evil thoughts,' answered Swedenborg +quietly. 'I +gave to my young friend good advice, founded upon my calculations of +the game.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I prefer to advise myself,' said Arwed,--impatient of the +obtrusiveness of the stranger,--retaining the old cards which +uninterruptedly fell from the banker.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Make the experiment with the king once, to gratify me,' +begged Kolbert +in an under tone, 'if only from curiosity. If you lose we shall then be +enabled to ridicule your adviser.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not willingly,' said Arwed. Finally, however, he set the card +which +had been recommended.--It won.</p> + +<p class="normal">'His majesty bears himself bravely,' said Kolbert, laughing; +'the +banker can obtain no advantage over him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Megret angrily threw to Arwed his winnings, at the same time +fixing his +rolling eyes upon the prophet. A passionate remark appeared to hover +upon his tongue, but he suppressed it and the playing proceeded.</p> + +<p class="normal">'How stands it now with our expedition against Drontheim?' +asked +Kolbert at the close of the game. 'I am surprised that we have had no +well-founded intelligence from thence for so long a time.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'According to my calculations,' said Posse, 'Armfelt must have +already +entered Drontheim. Have you no news from thence, Herr Swedenborg? What +is our army about?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'They are plundering the copper mines of Roeraas,' answered +Swedenborg +coolly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That would not be very agreeable to me!' said Posse +jestingly, 'The +position is somewhat distant from the capital, and would give the +appearance of a retreat. This time, however, I firmly believe in a +glorious victory for our arms. Do you not, also?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Excuse my answering,' said Swedenborg sorrowfully. 'The +powerful +elements hate mankind, and they are the stronger!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The officers looked thoughtfully at each other, and a profound +stillness pervaded the assembly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Let the Finlanders protect their own skins,' said Kolbert, +finally +breaking the mournful silence. 'We will stick to Frederickshall, which +we have already in our hands. The golden lion battery has been won +after a brilliant engagement. When once the trenches are pushed a +little further, then with a resolute escalade, we shall be there.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'For God's sake, my dear friend!' said Swedenborg, anxiously, +'rely not +so confidently upon the uncertain fortune of war! Bound to the wild +steed of accident, the goddess of fortune ranges through the world--and +when she stops and looks back upon her bloody and smoking path, she +finds that she has only described a hopeless circle. She stands upon +the point whence she started, and all the life and happiness, which she +has trampled down in her furious course, is offered up in vain.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You speak so learnedly that I cannot wholly understand you,' +laughingly observed Kolbert; 'but I gather from your conversation, that +you lack the true soldier's faith. You have done well, therefore, in +consecrating yourself to the pen. The sword would make you too deeply +anxious. We, on the contrary, when our king leads us forth, would +cheerfully grapple with the devil himself in his own dominions, and +sing over him the <i>te deum prænumerando</i>.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And who can guarantee, proud man,' asked Swedenborg with a +piercing +glance, 'that your king will see the breaking of another morning, to +lead you on to strife and victory?'</p> + +<p class="normal">He speedily withdrew. An indignant murmur arose among the +officers; 'It +is almost too bad,' said count Posse.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, indeed!' grumbled Megret. 'And the worst of it is, that +they +should permit such fools to run about freely in the camp, exciting and +perplexing weak minds.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Swedenborg certainly is not a fool,' said Posse; 'but a +warning +example of the disorder which fanciful ideas may create in a clear and +ripe understanding.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Besides, he is never once original,' said Kolbert. 'The +prophecy of +the king's approaching death has been circulating through the camp for +several days.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Original or copy,' said Megret, spitefully, 'one should not +publish +his fanciful ideas on every occasion. And whatever of sound +understanding he may have, according to the count's opinion, might be +allowed by all parties to circulate freely, and no harm done.'</p> + +<p class="normal">At this moment Siquier re-entered with evident agitation, and +whispered +to Megret, 'the king visits the trenches this evening.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Diable!' cried Megret, snapping his fingers. 'Cannot you +dissuade him +from it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Dissuade him!' said Siquier. 'Dost thou not know the king? +Make your +preparations.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'To-morrow evening I shall have the honor to give the +gentlemen their +revenge,' said Megret courteously, closing his box. 'I must now repair +to the trenches, Come, Siquier, our way lies in the same direction for +some distance, and I have yet much to say to you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The two Frenchmen went, forth together, arm in arm. Arwed +followed +them, out, and saw that they were engaged in very earnest conversation +and struck their hands together with much vehemence. The circumstance +surprised him, he knew not wherefore, and he made an effort to catch +something of their conversation, which was carried on in rather a loud +voice. The tones came distinctly to his ear in the stillness of the +evening, but he could not understand a word of it, and soon convinced +himself that they were conversing in a language whose barbarous sounds +were unknown to him. 'What can all this mean?' he asked himself, +looking dubiously after the two officers until they disappeared from +his eyes into the trenches.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The hour has elapsed,' suddenly observed some one near him. +'You may +as well go now to the king, sir captain.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed peered about him through the evening dusk, and thought +he +perceived near him the tall, meagre form of Swedenborg.</p> + +<p class="normal">'How came you here, sir, taking so active a part in my +affairs?' asked +he morosely.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have perceived in you a strong mind and a pure heart,' +answered +Swedenborg: 'and for that reason I consider you as one of those chosen +vessels of the Lord, of whom he has need in these wicked times. +Therefore I conjure you to repair instantly to the king and stir not +from his side until this night is past. I am convinced that there is +danger of most fearful doings, as I have recently observed appalling +signs in the heavens.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Spare me your astrological dreamings,' answered Arwed +impatiently. 'So +long as God leaves me in possession of my senses, I can never give +credence to them.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you always judge so hastily and uncharitably, my young +warrior?' +asked Swedenborg, mildly reproaching him: 'and do you absolutely +despise and reject every thing that your weak understanding cannot +comprehend? Know you the central power of nature, that point in +infinite space whence issue the streams of power in an eternal spiral +motion, bringing forth the forms of life and activity in endless +succession? And while you remain ignorant of all these things, how can +you presume to reject calculations founded upon this eternal basis?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I cannot argue with you,' answered Arwed, 'while I do not +understand +you:--and, in the mean time, I must be permitted to consider as perfect +nonsense what you have been serving up to me as the highest wisdom.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hold me and my doctrines in what light you please,' said +Swedenborg, +'so you but fulfill my request. Lose not sight of the king, during this +night. The powers of hell are busy.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What can threaten the hero from which I may be able to defend +him?' +asked Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He who eats my bread tramples me under foot,' chanted +Swedenborg, with +a deep hollow voice. 'Thus it happened to Gustavus, by the fourth rider +who left the camp with him. Do you know the tale from the faithful +Hastenfeld, of his king's assassination?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What mean you by that?' asked Arwed earnestly.--But the +prophet had +disappeared.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Arwed arrived at the king's quarters.--Upon giving his name, +the +ordnance officer on duty showed him into the royal chamber, without +further annunciation. With a prayer book in his lap, and a miniature in +his hand which he was attentively viewing, Charles sat by the chimney, +in which some sheets of paper were burning. A heap of glowing ashes +showed that a large quantity of paper had been previously destroyed in +the same manner.--Arwed approached the king, who, sitting with his back +towards him and absorbed in the contemplation of the miniature, was not +aware of his presence. Arwed saw and recognized the picture. It was the +portrait of Gustavus Adolphus. Then suddenly Swedenborg's prophecy came +into his mind, and a secret apprehension respecting the hero, drew from +him a deep sigh.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king looked around. 'Aha, captain Gyllenstierna!' said he, +rising +up and carefully putting aside the prayer book and portrait. 'You +showed much bravery against the enemy in yesterday's action. You are +too young for the rank of major, and I do not like to give stars and +orders. Have you any favor to ask?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'This commendation from my king is the greatest favor that +could be +conferred upon me,' answered Arwed. 'If your majesty will but continue +as kindly disposed towards me, I shall be more than rewarded.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No!' said the king vehemently, 'I will not remain your +debtor. God may +call me to himself to-day or to-morrow, and then must my earthly +accounts be balanced. Ask some favor of me. I am well disposed towards +you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Now or never!' said Arwed to himself, and turning to the +king: 'I love +the daughter of your majesty's minister, baron von Goertz: the +animosity of our respective fathers opposes an insurmountable obstacle +to our union: vouchsafe, your majesty, to intercede for us.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are a simpleton!' replied the king scornfully, while with +long and +rapid strides he paced up and down the chamber. 'Silly request!' +exclaimed he after a while, smiling in his peculiar manner: 'and I +think it unjust, since you know my opinion of matrimony.' After which, +he walked two or three times up and down the room, and then stopping +directly in front of Arwed, asked him, 'you are so good a soldier, +Gyllenstierna, how have you been able to attach yourself to a woman?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Baroness von Goertz,' answered Arwed, 'is so lovely that your +majesty +would find it natural enough were you once to see her.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That may you very naturally believe,' answered the king +smilingly. +After a pause, shaking his head, he observed, 'I only wish to know what +delight men can find in what is called love?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is indeed the greatest happiness in life, your majesty,' +answered +Arwed with enthusiasm.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It would not be well for me that it should be so, for then +should I +have missed the greatest good,' said the king. 'Yet will a place in +history always remain to me, and fame with posterity!' He walked to the +chimney, and, collecting the coals together with his foot, observed, 'I +will cause her father to be written to. I will speak to Goertz myself. +I expect him about this time from Aland.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your majesty!'--stammered the surprised and delighted youth.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is very well!' said the king, interrupting him, and at +that moment +Siquier entered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your majesty is now about to visit the trenches,' said Arwed, +recollecting Swedenborg's request. 'May I be allowed to accompany you? +I might, perhaps, learn something practically of the duties +appertaining to a siege.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The king kindly nodded assent. Siquier made a disagreeable +face, and +they started.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the entrance of the trenches they were received by count +Schwerin, +who commanded there, captain Posse and adjutant Kolbert; and not +without some embarrassment, came colonel Megret to meet them. The king +now sent away Posse and Kolbert upon some secret errand, and proceeded +with Megret and Siquier into the trench. Arwed followed at some +distance. It was a bitter cold, moonless night, but the stars shone +clear. The Danes fired incessantly from Frederickshall, and their balls +often struck within the walls of the trench; but the king, paying no +attention to it, proceeded quietly forward with his companions. They +now came to a place where the passage in the trench made an angle with +the parallel, and from beyond which the pickaxes and shovels of the +sappers could be heard.</p> + +<p class="normal">There the king suddenly stopped and leaned upon his long +sword. 'No +farther advanced, Megret?' asked he, with evident displeasure.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The soil is frozen hard, your majesty!' apologized the +latter, +somewhat perplexed. 'Were we compelled to open the trenches through +rocks, it would not be much more difficult.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'There has been time enough!' said Charles. 'I am very much +dissatisfied!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will pledge my head,' said Megret, 'that we have the +fortress in +eight days!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We shall see,' answered the king, kneeling upon the inner +scarp; +leaning his head upon the parapet with his face turned towards the +enemy, he looked long and anxiously towards the sappers, who were +quietly and assiduously pursuing their labors.</p> + +<p class="normal">At this moment a confused noise was heard from the camp. 'Go +and see +what is the matter, Gyllenstierna,' commanded the king: 'and bring me a +report.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you command it, your majesty?' replied Arwed, with a heavy +heart; +for at such a moment he dared not leave the king alone with the two +Frenchmen.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hasten, captain,' whispered Siquier to him. 'The king loves +not +loiterers, and to-day, especially, he is not in the best humor.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed obeyed with a sigh. As he came out of the trenches all +had become +still again, and from count Posse, whom he met, he learned that two +unruly horses had been the whole cause of the alarm. While they were +yet speaking of it Swedenborg came hastily up to them. With an ice-cold +hand he seized Arwed's and drew him hastily aside.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where have you left the king?' asked he, with much +earnestness.</p> + +<p class="normal">'At the extremity of the trench,' answered Arwed. 'Megret and +Siquier +are with him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh, why have you absented yourself from your lord?' cried +Swedenborg, +wringing his hands. 'I begged of you so earnestly!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'By his command;'--answered Arwed, now much alarmed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'For God's sake return immediately to him,' supplicated +Swedenborg, +dragging him forward. 'God grant that we come not too late!'</p> + +<p class="normal">They both proceeded rapidly along the trench. In the narrow +passage, +they were met by Siquier.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where is the king?' quickly asked Arwed of him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is what I wished to ask of you!' returned Siquier, with +an +insolent yet trembling voice. 'I left him soon after you did, and in +the darkness cannot find him again.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is strange!' said Arwed. 'You had better go with me, and +let us +seek our lord where I left him in your company.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Siquier reluctantly obeyed. They came finally to the old +place, which +was well known to Arwed. Already at some, distance he saw the king +still in the same position, leaning upon the parapet. At the same time +Megret, joining them, suddenly approached the king and bent over him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is dead!' said he after a while, very quietly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The king dead!' shrieked Arwed, with wild amazement, and +running to +the nearest guard post, he immediately returned with a blazing torch. +The light disclosed a horrid scene. Covered with blood, Charles's +beautiful hero-like form rested upon the inner scarp of the trench. +His head had sunk down upon the parapet. On the right temple was the +death-wound. The left eye was sunken in; the right, strained wholly out +of its orbit, stared horribly forth; and the right hand, which held the +hilt of his sword with a convulsive grasp, proved that the brave +spirit, even on the instant of its flight, was disposed to resist the +impending death.</p> + +<p class="normal">A long and fearful pause succeeded the discovery. 'The play is +out!' +finally observed Megret, breaking the general silence: 'We may now go +to supper.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed looked shudderingly upon the man who could treat the +sudden and +awful death of his general and king with such cool insolence--and at +that moment a horrible suspicion pervaded his soul.</p> + +<p class="normal">'This sad occurrence must be concealed from the troops,' said +Siquier. +'It would entirely dispirit them. I will merely inform the prince of +Hesse, and he can command what further is to be done.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He departed in haste. Megret followed him. Arwed remained with +Swedenborg by the corpse, holding fast its lifeless left hand, and +covering it with his kisses and tears.</p> + +<p class="normal">'So, it is thy fate to be destroyed by assassination, thou +kingly +hero!' mourned the faithful Swedenborg. 'Why couldst thou not have +fallen worthy of thyself, by the hand of an honorable enemy, in the +open field of battle?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Let us not judge too rashly and uncharitably,' said Arwed, +combating, +in Swedenborg's, his own suspicions. 'That the king was hit by one of +the balls from the batteries of the enemy, is more probable than the +monstrous crime which you seem to conjecture.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The king's face was turned toward the enemy,' said +Swedenborg, with +grave significancy: 'and the ball hit him on the right side. The +calibre, to judge from the size of the wound, was too small for a heavy +gun, and no musket would reach this place from the walls of +Frederickshall.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Impossible!' cried Arwed. 'Who could have projected such a +crime--who +could have committed it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He who eats my bread tramples me under foot,--was done to +Gustavus by +the fourth man who rode with him out of the camp:'--said Swedenborg in +a chanting tone, as if in answer to both questions. The trench had now +become illuminated with torches and filled with warriors. Through the +hastening crowd of officers pressed the prince of Hesse.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is too true!' stammered he, palsied by the horrid +spectacle, +and trembling in every limb. 'Who was present when my deceased +brother-in-law was struck?' asked he at length with a trembling voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">'God only can answer that question, your highness,' said +Swedenborg. +'God, who with his heavenly, thousand-starred eyes has seen what has +happened here. We found the royal corpse alone.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Alone,' cried the prince, 'alone has ended the life of the +hero whose +warlike deeds have filled all Europe with fear and admiration! What is +human greatness?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Megret and Siquier now returned with four grenadiers of the +guards, who +with sad, lingering steps, brought forward a litter.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Let the body be brought to head-quarters, Siquier,' commanded +the +prince: 'and keep the king's death secret until we have taken such +measures as the occasion may require. The generals will in the mean +time assemble at my quarters in council of war. Let sentinels be placed +on every avenue towards Sweden, and let no one venture to leave the +camp until further orders.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And general Duecker?'--asked Siquier, artfully, as if he +wished to +remind the prince of something of importance.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He shall immediately depart with his corps,' answered the +prince, +after a moment's reflection, 'and traverse the passes toward Denmark. +Bear to him the order,' Yet one look of horror cast he upon the dead +form of his brother-in-law, and then hastily departed.</p> + +<p class="normal">With pert insolence Siquier advanced to the corpse, threw over +it a +soldier's gray cloak, placed his own hat upon the insensible head, and +made a sign to the grenadiers. The latter advanced weeping, and placing +the dead body in the litter, closed it.</p> + +<p class="normal">'If you are asked on the way whom you bear,' said Siquier, as +they +raised the litter, 'answer captain Carlberg.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The mournful train moved forward. Siquier picked up the bloody +hat of +the king, which lay upon the ground, and followed. With sad murmurs the +officers separated. Swedenborg also had disappeared. Arwed remained +standing alone, still mechanically holding the torch on high, staring +unconsciously upon the bloody ground from which its light was +reflected. At length recollecting himself, he angrily thrust the torch +in the snow upon the parapet until its sparkling and crackling flame +was extinguished. 'Die! thou paltry flame!' exclaimed he, with +uncontrollable grief: 'die! This night Sweden's light is extinguished +and never, never more will my poor country see the dawn of happiness.'</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<p class="normal">As Arwed emerged from the trenches he was met by adjutant +Kolbert. 'It +is well that I have found you,' said he eagerly: 'I have been some time +seeking you. Come directly with me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where?' asked Arwed with moody apathy.</p> + +<p class="normal">'To general Duecker's,' quickly answered Kolbert.</p> + +<p class="normal">'There are collected all those who in their hearts were truly +devoted +to our fallen hero. The meeting relates to matters of the highest +consequence, which must be discussed in all haste. It is asked, who now +shall wear the crown in our good Sweden?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Has the army to decide that question?' asked Arwed earnestly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Certainly!' said Kolbert, 'and that according to the +anciently +consecrated right of the sword, as formerly exercised by the prætorians +of Rome. Only come with me. There you will not only hear the <i>how</i>, but +the <i>wherefore</i>, about which, pedantlike, you always first ask.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He drew Arwed with him towards general Duecker's quarters. +They were +already crowded with generals and officers, who were engaged in low and +eager conversation. Suddenly they separated, forming a large circle, +into the middle of which stepped the worthy old Duecker.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The king is dead!' said he with an agitated voice. 'In the +midst of +your affliction for this great loss, I waive until a more suitable time +the important question,--How has the hero fallen? Our present duty is, +faithfully to guard the vacant throne as becomes faithful vassals and +warriors, and to take care that the crown be set upon a worthy head. +You know, comrades, that there are two hands which will be stretched +out for it, and in the opinion of many it is yet doubtful whether the +nephew or the sister of Charles has the best right. I am indeed +entirely convinced, that the son of the elder sister should take +precedence of the younger. But the heroes of the quill may hereafter +fight out these subtleties, if it should become necessary. At present I +abide simply by the will of my king, who has so often been our guiding +star in battle, as the pole star of heaven guides the mariner through +opposing storms. Charles had a father's love for his nephew, and was +reverenced with filial tenderness by him in return. He took him with +himself to the field, that he might under his own eyes train him to +become his worthy successor. For his sister he always had an aversion, +and the thought of female government was as hateful to him, as, since +the days of the apostate Christina, it must be to every true Swede. +Wherefore I believe we fulfill the unwritten testament of the great +departed in raising the duke of Holstein to Sweden's throne. He already +has so far deserved it, that his connection with this realm has cost +him his possessions.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But whatever be done must be done quickly--for the husband of +the +other pretender to the crown is in the camp, and already very active in +availing himself of his field-marshalship to aid her pretensions. I, in +whom he least confides, have already been ordered to depart with my +corps, and I dare not venture to disobey, unless protected by a counter +order from the king. I therefore propose that a deputation from +ourselves repair immediately to the duke, and beg of him to show +himself to the troops. We will have the regiments under arms, proclaim +him king in front of them, and for the rest depend upon our good +swords. Is that your will, my friends?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Long live our king Charles XIIIth!' cried the assembled +warriors with +one voice, and every sword leaped from its scabbard. While most of the +officers distributed themselves through the soldiers' barracks, to +prepare them for the great movement, Duecker chose, from among those +who remained, the ambassadors who should accompany him to the duke. +Arwed found himself one of the number, and the delegates immediately +repaired to the duke's quarters. The sentinels refused them entrance. +The discussion which this occasioned brought out the valet-de-chambre, +Koepstorf, the favorite and confidant of the young prince.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is impossible, your excellency, to announce you now,' said +he to +Duecker. 'His grace is so shaken by the intelligence of the king's +death that he has yielded himself up entirely to his sad feelings, and +cannot turn his attention to anything else. The gentlemen must come +again to-morrow morning.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My God!' cried Duecker, 'you desire a delay of many hours, +when +Sweden's fate, perhaps, hangs upon as many moments. In consequence of +the king's death, the duke is lawful heir to the crown. We have opened +the way to the throne for him. The army is upon his side. He has only +to make his appearance and harangue the troops, and they will call him +to the royal station, in the possession of which he will be protected +by his good right. But if he delay, his aunt will gain possession; and, +once upon the throne, she will thence obtain the power to maintain +herself there. I conjure you, friend, to present all this to your lord, +and beseech him to hear the representations of his true supporters, and +not neglect the favorable moment which for him, perhaps, may never +occur again.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will do what I can,' answered Koepstorf, shrugging his +shoulders and +going in.</p> + +<p class="normal">There stood the well disposed warriors, patiently waiting to +ascertain +if the young prince would stoop to take the crown which they were +desirous of laying at his feet. The valet-de-chambre was gone a long +time. The cold morning wind blew keenly from the direction of Sweden, +and they wrapped themselves close in their mantles. At length they +heard the trampling of horses near them, and a troop of some ten +horsemen trotted hastily by them and took the way towards Stroemstadt.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you know what that means?' asked Kolfaert of the general. +'It is +colonel Baumgardt, who, by the command of the fieldmarshal, goes to +meet and arrest the baron von Goertz.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Right!' cried Duecker with bitterness. 'A crime more or less, +is of no +consequence, when a crown is to be usurped, and it is highly politic to +rob the prince of his best supporters. He is, however, little troubled +by all this, as it seems, and will perhaps patiently wait until he is +himself arrested in his own quarters.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The valet-de-chambre now again came out. 'My exertions have +not been +successful,' said he despondingly. 'I have placed the whole subject +before the prince, but have not obtained a favorable hearing. He merely +allows me to say to your excellency that he cannot speak with any +person now.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Great dissatisfaction was expressed by the whole company, and +Duecker +angrily stamped his foot. 'It is a pity we have taken so much pains and +incurred so much danger,' said he. 'Nothing indeed now remains for us +but obedience, as I have no desire to set my gray head upon a cast for +an ungrateful man. Bear to my regiments the order for their departure,' +said he to his adjutant, and, cursing and swearing by the way, he +returned to his quarters.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oppressed with concern for the father of his beloved, Arwed +followed +the general. 'Grant me one request,' said he urgently as they entered +the quarters of the latter. 'There will now be very little to do here +in the way of fighting, and my presence is no longer necessary. Procure +me a furlough to ride back to Stockholm.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'To Stockholm?' asked Duecker, startled. 'Now, directly? For +what +purpose, captain? Do you wish to become one of the wheels in the +machinery of politics which are now destructively working in opposition +to each other? You appear to me to be much too honest-hearted for +that.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'From Charles's best friend I will conceal nothing,' said +Arwed +resolutely. 'According to my calculation Goertz must now either be in +Stockholm or will soon arrive there. I would warn that true servant of +our late king, that he may be able to escape from the hands of his +revengeful enemies.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'For which thought may heaven reward you!' cried Duecker, 'but +I fear +the issue. In the first place, the prince of Hesse is your chief, and +it will be difficult to procure from him the desired permission, and +secondly, you will hardly be able to outstrip the speed of the officers +already under way for the arrest of Goertz.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Obtain me but the permission, general,' persisted Arwed: 'the +rest +shall be my care. I ride a Norman of unequalled speed and bottom.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will make the effort,' said Duecker; 'but hardly hope for +success. +Since Charles's death I am only the <i>late</i> Duecker, and my influence +has become a shadow.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He had proceeded as far as the door when he was met by colonel +Brenner. +'I come to take leave of you, my old friend,' said the latter, heartily +embracing the general. 'I go this moment with post-horses to the +capital.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Every body seems to wish to go to Stockholm tonight,' said +Duecker. +'What hast thou to ask there?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'His royal highness the prince of Hesse, as he already suffers +himself +to be called,' answered Brenner ironically, 'has already sent forward +his beloved and trusty Siquier with the mournful news. It might +afterwards, however, have occurred to him that it would not seem +exactly proper to leave the communication of so important an event to +the equivocal Frenchman. Wherefore must an honorable Swede follow him +as the messenger of death; and as I might perhaps be troublesome here, +I am in mercy selected for that duty.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Will you do me a pleasure and take the captain with you?' +said +Duecker. 'He has a sudden and urgent call to Stockholm, and may not in +any other way be able to obtain leave of absence.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The prince has allowed me to choose my companion,' answered +Brenner; +'and what would I not do to pleasure you? We set off directly, captain. +Farewell till happier times, my Duecker!'</p> + +<p class="normal">He hastened forth. Arwed gratefully pressed the general's +hand, who in +return drew him to his heart. 'God protect you and bless your +undertaking!' said the latter with emotion--and Arwed rushed forth in +the cold, gray dawn of the awakening mom.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Courtiers and lacqueys were running about and jostling each +other in +confusion and alarm, when colonel Brenner with Arwed mounted the broad +stone steps of the royal palace upon the Ritterholm. With great trouble +they found a valet-de-chambre, who announced them to the princess +Ulrika. As they entered the ante-chamber, the folding doors of the +princess' room opened, and Siquier, with shy glances, brushed past +them. At a motion of the valet they entered the audience room. Ulrika +was standing by a pier-table, upon which lay the king's perforated and +bloody hat, holding, with a decent appearance of grief, a handkerchief +before her dry eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have the melancholy honor,' said Brenner, drawing his +despatches +from his bosom, 'to present to your royal highness these letters from +your princely husband.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Siquier has already informed me of the sad occurrence,' +answered +Ulrika, taking the despatch with great coolness: 'nevertheless I thank +you for the zeal with which you have executed the commission of the +hereditary prince.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'This officer,' continued Brenner, pointing to Arwed, 'was one +of the +first who found the hero's corpse. He can inform your royal highness of +all the circumstances accompanying this so wholly unexpected death.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Wherefore the details?' cried Ulrika, 'which serve no purpose +but to +lacerate my heart. If my maternal love for this land forces upon me the +conviction that this death is fortunate for Sweden, yet will the ties +of blood claim their holy rights--and although I could never boast of +my royal brother's love, yet my heart feels his loss with a sorrow +which needs no additional poignancy.'</p> + +<p class="normal">At this moment the chief governor, baron Taube, entered the +room with a +face in which alarm, feigned sorrow, and ill-concealed joy, struggled +for mastery.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You know it already, governor?' cried Ulrika, advancing +hastily to +meet him.</p> + +<p class="normal">He silently bowed assent.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am confident that in you I have a truly devoted friend,' +said she to +him with a gracious stateliness, extending her hand for him to kiss.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My life for your royal highness!' cried Taube with graceful +enthusiasm, tenderly kissing the proffered hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What should be done first, think you?' she asked him +confidentially.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I advise that the senate should be assembled this evening,' +answered +Taube. 'To be sure its numbers are not complete. Three of its members +are with the army as generals, but in their stead the royal counsellors +are devoted to your royal highness with their lives and fortunes.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If ever I have a voice in these lands,' said Ulrika, warmly, +'these +good gentlemen shall not much longer wear these titles. I have never +approved of my father's course in making them servants of his own will, +instead of counsellors of the empire.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The senate know the gracious intuitions of your royal +highness,' +answered Taube; 'and I am certain of the happy consequences. If any +thing could make me fear, it would be the cabals which baron Goertz +will not fail to set on foot for the young duke.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Goertz is taken care of!' cried Ulzika, with a look of hate. +'While we +are now speaking here, all power to do further mischief is, as I hope, +taken from him. Let only his house be promptly occupied and his papers +and property secured.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then there are his Holstein accomplices,' added Taube: +'Dernath, +Ecklef, Paulsen, Sallern----'</p> + +<p class="normal">'They must all be arrested this night,' decided Ulrika; 'all +at the +same hour, so that no one may be warned by the fate of the others. See +to it, dear governor.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will have the whole garrison under arms,' answered Taube, +bowing. +'This business must be carried through with rapidity and decision, as +every thing depends upon the proper employment of the present moment.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And tell me, dear baron,' asked Ulrika, grasping both of his +hands +with the most winning kindness, 'the senate will not compel me to buy +the crown at too high a price, will they?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'In relation to that,' answered Taube, with a warning glance +towards +the officers, who in the heat of the conversation had been overlooked +until now; 'in relation to that, I will lay my humble opinions before +your royal highness at a more private audience.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Somewhat alarmed, Ulrika turned towards Brenner, and her +glance fell +directly upon Arwed's large blue eyes, sparkling with displeasure, +which were fixed steadily upon her. She started back, and, with +difficulty summoning composure, asked, 'who is that moody young man?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My companion, the captain count Gyllenstierna,' answered +Brenner for +his silent friend. 'A brave soldier. He was the first upon the walls of +the Golden Lion, and won the particular approbation of our late blessed +king.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Gyllenstierna?' asked Taube, eagerly. 'He is then the son of +the +senator, and was sent by his father to Armfelt's army.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The worthy old man was always one of our truest friends,' +said Ulrika, +interrupting him, and bowing graciously to Arwed. And it will be most +agreeable to us to learn that the son follows in the father's +footsteps. We shall remember to bestow upon him some peculiar mark of +our favor.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She held out her hand for him to kiss. But Arwed, highly +incensed at +all he had heard, would not be compelled to show this mark of reverence +to a woman whom he hated. He stood stiff and motionless, and the hand +of the queen remained in expectancy, unclasped and unkissed, suspended +in the air.</p> + +<p class="normal">Shocked at the gross impropriety, the chief governor hemmed +emphatically. Colonel Brenner anxiously endeavored to push Arwed +forward, but he would not move a limb, and the hand of the princess +finally sank down by her side.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The young man is certainly not well!' said Ulrika, with much +bitterness.</p> + +<p class="normal">'After his long and forced journey it would not be strange,' +said +Brenner, apologetically. 'He has need of rest. Is it the pleasure of +your royal highness that we now retire?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You can receive your despatches early in the morning from the +governor,' answered Ulrika with displeasure; 'and for your companion, +may he in time learn the courtesy due from every gentleman to a lady, +even though she were not the sister of his king.'</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">'Most assuredly,' said Brenner to Arwed, as soon as they had +left the +palace behind them, 'you have a very peculiar talent for making your +way at court. You ought, at the least, to be made a master of +ceremonies. I have taken you with me to an audience once, but I would +never do it again.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Had you left me behind you, as I earnestly begged of you, +colonel,' +answered Arwed, 'you would have spared me the pain of witnessing the +thoroughly disgusting scene, and yourself the mortification of my +awkwardness.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You do not understand the matter,' blustered Brenner. 'It was +proper +for me to present my companion; and in doing so I was actuated by the +best intentions towards you. If our own hearts bled at the sad news we +brought, yet I knew well that it would be right welcome here; and the +face that brings good news may expect to win the good will of those in +authority. And every thing was going on so well, and the warm sun of +favor was beginning to shine clear and bright upon you, when satan must +come all at once into your back so that you could not bend it, into +your arm that you could not stretch it out, and into your lips that you +could not kiss,--and now the opportunity has passed for time and +eternity!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Let it be past!' cried Arwed, 'I cannot outwardly honor what +I +inwardly despise.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You will soon leave the royal service then;' grumbled the +colonel: +'for in that service cases of the kind may often occur.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Have you any further need of me, colonel?' asked Arwed, his +glance +impatiently turning towards the palace of Goertz.</p> + +<p class="normal">'For to-night, no,' answered Brenner. 'But come to my quarters +early in +the morning. We will then make arrangements for our return, I will not +trouble you to go with me to the governor's. After the captious remarks +which he let fall he might have various dangerous questions to ask +you--and if your hitherto passive awkwardness should become active, I +might in the end have cause to repent my willingness to take you with +me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If I, however,' asked Arwed, seized with a sudden +presentiment, +'should have occasion to set out upon a journey to-night, would you +give me a furlough upon my word of honor to appear at the camp before +Frederickshall in eight days?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Come not to me with such a strange request!' cried the +colonel with +vehemence. 'I have no authority nor power to grant you such a +furlough.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But when the object is to save a good man?' asked Arwed +earnestly, +seizing the colonel's hand and looking anxiously in his face with his +beautiful clear eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">The colonel gave him a piercing glance from under his gray +bushy +eye-brows. But the severity of his eye soon melted into a more kindly +expression. 'My old friend Duecker is well disposed towards you,' said +he: 'and there is no falsehood in your face. I see that you are one who +will keep your word. Go upon your own terms whither you will.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'May God reward you!' cried Arwed, hastening away.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Dark and gigantic in the evening dusk arose the proud palace +of the +baron von Goertz, and the unlighted windows and the perfect silence +which reigned in and about it gave it the unpleasant appearance of a +deserted spectre-castle. Only in one room shone a dull light which +resembled the blue flame that burns in ruins over buried treasures.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is Georgina's light,' said Arwed to himself, agitated +with the +conflicting emotions of sorrow and joy. He pushed open a little side +door near the great portal, and creeping softly up the deserted stairs +passed through the echoing corridors towards Georgina's chamber. As he +entered he saw his beloved sitting at a table and with streaming eyes +reading the note in which he had warned her of her father's danger. Her +right hand supported her drooping head,--her left had been taken +possession of by the little Magdalena, who was endeavoring to +administer friendly and childlike consolation.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Heaven be praised!' said Arwed. 'Thou hast received my letter +in time, +and thy father is saved!'--</p> + +<p class="normal">'Would to God it were so!' cried Georgina, with a sorrow so +deep that +it left no room in her heart for joy at again seeing her lover. 'My +father departed yesterday for Frederickshall. He is accustomed to +travel with rapidity, and before my courier can overtake him he will be +already in the hands of his enemies.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That depends upon who the courier is,' said Arwed +encouragingly. 'I +have determined to save the father of my beloved, and to spare my +country the commission of a crime. I will set forth, and should a +couple of horses fall dead under me it will be a small matter. I am +only held back for the moment by my concern for thee. This palace will +soon be occupied, and thy father's property confiscated. What a scene +will await thee if thou remainest without a protector in the desolated +house!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Be not anxious for me,' said Georgina, ringing the bell. 'I +will +immediately repair, with my sister, to the count Dernath's, where we +are certain of a right friendly reception.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Dernath and all thy father's friends will be arrested this +night!' +cried Arwed, in deep anguish.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I nevertheless can find some place of refuge in Stockholm,' +answered +Georgina; 'and thou canst with confidence devote thyself to the +discharge of a duty to which thy heart impels thee.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile the governess of Georgina entered, clasping her +hands in +astonishment at finding a strange young officer in the bed-room of her +pupil.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do not alarm yourself respecting my companion, dear +governess!' cried +Georgina. 'Your attention is now required by affairs of more +importance. Instantly call the women and the two Holstein, lacqueys. +Let some of the best of mine and Magdalena's things be packed up, and +send the steward to provide a boat. We will immediately repair to +Blasius Holm, to the old invalid post-captain who was, three years ago, +ransomed at Ystad by my father.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Accompanied by this cavalier?' cried the terrified governess. +'This +looks like an elopement, baroness!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Would to God it were!' said Georgina sorrowfully. 'But this +cavalier's +way lies in quite another direction. The king is dead, my father a +prisoner if he be not saved by scarcely less than a miracle, and during +this very night will this palace be stormed as though it were a strong +hold of the Danes. Therefore hasten, for our moments are counted!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Wringing her hands, and followed by the weeping Magdalena, the +governess retired.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Will you not also save your father's papers and valuables?' +asked +Arwed. 'The hands which will rummage here will be none of the purest.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No!' answered Georgina after some reflection. 'Let the +commissioners +do that for which they may be able to answer to God and their own +honor. I will not venture to touch my father's property. Besides, I am +too proud to take any thing with me out of Sweden which might be +claimed as the property of the state. Hasten you, now, to the rescue of +my beloved father. He was to proceed through Westgothland and to pass +by Stroemstadt. I can give you no more precise information of his +route.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Let me first accompany you to your asylum,' said Arwed. +'Before that, +I cannot leave you in peace.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'God knows how great a consolation your attendance upon me +would be,' +answered Georgina: 'but the question now is not of my consolation or +your peace, dear Arwed,--but of my father's rescue. An hour's delay may +be death to him. Therefore go at once, Arwed, fly, save, and there is +no reward which you may not demand of me in exchange for the life of my +beloved parent.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Saying this, she threw her white arms about his neck, printed +a fervent +kiss upon his lips, and gently thrust him out of the door.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The wearied Arwed pushed the little gothlander, which he had +purchased +at the Rakalse inn instead of his overridden Norman, into a smart trot +upon the high road to Stroemstadt. The rider was almost exhausted, but +his determined spirit, animated by love and generosity, impelled the +obedient body to renewed exertions of its diminishing powers. At length +lie caught a glance of a fast rolling carriage, relieved against the +border of a snow-clad forest. 'Now is the crisis!' cried he, burying +his spurs so unmercifully in his horse's flanks that he flew with him +in furious career over the frozen ground. After a hard ride of a +quarter of an hour he overtook the carriage. In it sat baron Goertz, +wrapped in a fur cloak, and so attentively reading some papers that he +did not perceive the approaching horseman. 'I bless my fate,' called +out the latter, as he reached the carriage, 'that I have found your +excellency in good time. I bring you important intelligence.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who are you, sir?' asked Goertz, disturbed in his occupation, +with a +tone of displeasure.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Captain Gyllenstierna,' answered Arwed. 'I have ridden after +you from +Stockholm to give you warning and save you from a great misfortune.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Gyllenstierna!' cried Goertz with a friendly smile, leaning +back that +he might hear his voice above the rattling of the carriage. 'Then you +bring me news from my daughter, or a message from her. You cannot well +deliver it from your saddle; therefore be pleased to hitch your horse +to mine and take a seat by me in the carriage.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I accept your invitation with thanks,' answered Arwed, and +attaching +his reins to the collar of a saddle-horse, he sprang into the carriage. +'Have the goodness,' said he, 'to change the direction of your journey +immediately, and on the way I will tell you the cause.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What are you dreaming of?' asked Goertz with an angry brow.</p> + +<p class="normal">'There comes a whole troop of dragoons to meet us,' cried the +coachman, +'and they are pressing forward under whip and spur.' Arwed examined +them attentively for a moment. 'My God, I have come too late!' +stammered he, recognizing the gray coat of colonel Baumgardt advancing +at their head.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Are you in your right mind, young man, or rather are you not +some +other than the person you pretend to be?' asked Goertz yet more +angrily, drawing a pistol from the pocket of the carriage.</p> + +<p class="normal">'For God's sake!' untreated Arwed, grasping his hand, 'reserve +your +weapons for your enemies, who are coming to meet us. By you sits your +friend, who is ready to die in your defence. Turn back instantly, +perhaps we may yet avoid them.'</p> + +<p class="normal">As Goertz sharply examined his countenance his features +relaxed into a +milder expression at the perusal of his honest face. 'I have no longer +an ill opinion of you,' said he smilingly. 'It is my impression, +however, that you desire to increase your importance with me a little +by pressing upon me your protection against a pretended danger; and I +can pardon something on account of your youth and the motive by which +you are impelled. Another time, however, you must find some more +probable pretence. That the horsemen who are approaching us are no +robbers, but honest Swedish dragoons, a child may see; and, if I +mistake not, that is colonel Baumgardt, whom I well know, riding at +their head.'</p> + +<p class="normal">In a moment the troops had reached the carriage.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Good evening, your excellency!' cried Baumgardt, wheeling +about his +horse and raising his hat. Three other officers, who followed him, +likewise wheeled about and remained, courteously greeting the baron, +before and on both sides of the carriage, while the dragoons trotted +past and closed up behind it.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Good evening, colonel!' answered Goertz serenely. 'Whither so +late?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'To meet your excellency,' said the colonel politely. 'We lost +our way +in the driving snow, and have been riding about in a state of +perplexity for two days. We bring with us important news from the +camp.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Whatever it may be,' answered Goertz, 'I bring you from Aland +yet +better and more important. But it can all be more conveniently told in +a warm room with a bottle of old wine. I shall stop for the night at +the parsonage of Tanum, and bear with me a good bottle case. Will the +gentlemen be my guests? We will pass a pleasant evening together, and +in the morning I will proceed to Frederickshall under your safeguard.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It will be an honor to myself and officers,' said the +colonel. The +other officers bowed silently, and the carriage rolled rapidly onward, +surrounded by its armed escort, towards the solitary parsonage which, +an old dark-gray mass of stone, with tall dark fir trees rustling about +it, offered no very tempting shelter even in that desert region.</p> + +<p class="normal">The travellers alighted, and the minister entered one of the +lower +rooms of the house. Arwed followed him, prepared for the tragic scene +which was approaching. With impetuous haste, that their victim might +not escape them, the officers pressed in after him, and the last one +closed the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What means this?' asked Goertz, rising, as he remarked it.</p> + +<p class="normal">The colonel then replaced his hat upon his head and drew his +sword, +exclaiming in the roughest military tone, 'in the name of the king, +Goertz, I demand of you the surrender of your sword!'</p> + +<p class="normal">With surprise and astonishment Goertz started back. At first, +unable to +speak, he looked around upon the officers who surrounded him with drawn +swords and insultingly triumphant glances.</p> + +<p class="normal">This unknightly conduct excited Arwed; his blood boiled, and +forgetful +of the mischief that a powerless opposition must cause, he fixed upon +Goertz his eager, enquiring eyes, in which the question was plainly +asked if he should draw the sword, whose hilt he firmly grasped, for +the deliverance of his friend. But, as with dignified earnestness the +minister motioned him to desist from his intention, he withdrew his +hand, and leaned against a window in silent despair at witnessing the +perpetration of a wrong which he had not power to prevent.</p> + +<p class="normal">'In the name of the king?' asked Goertz, after a long pause, +unbuckling +his sword; 'that word is a falsehood! From Charles I might expect any +thing rather than the offering up of his truest friend. This destiny is +not decreed by him! Nevertheless I see that I must yield to necessity. +Take my sword! I have long expected something of the kind. It is the +reward for all the service I have rendered to the crown of Sweden!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The right reward yet awaits you at Stockholm!' said colonel +Baumgardt +with bitterness. Then turned he to Arwed and roughly asked him, 'how +came you here, captain Gyllenstierna!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'From Stockholm,' answered the latter: 'whither I accompanied +colonel +Brenner as a courier, and am upon my return to the camp.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And you have deserted your superior officer?' asked Baumgardt +in +reply: 'and we find you in the carriage with Goertz. That is +suspicious!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It was but a moment before you met us,' hastily interposed +Goertz, +'that the captain first overtook me, bringing me a message from my +daughter. His horse now stands without, tied to mine.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Baumgardt walked to the window, as if to ascertain the truth +of the +assertion.</p> + +<p class="normal">'If you, however, yet think the affair suspicious, colonel,' +cried +Arwed, vehemently, 'I propose to you to take me as a prisoner, together +with the minister, to Stockholm. Then will you at least be secured +against the imputation of having acted with too great mildness.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That would be perhaps very agreeable to you,' answered +Baumgardt, +scornfully. 'But I am not accustomed to receive directions from +subalterns, and prudence requires that I should pursue a course +directly opposite to that proposed by a suspected person. It is +desirable rather, to ensure your safe return to the camp. Myself, with +lieutenant colonel Bioernskioeld will accompany you there. Adjutant +general Rosenhahn and lieutenant Loewen with their followers will +proceed to Stockholm with the prisoner, and thus each one of us will be +in his right place.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed gnashed his teeth at this injurious treatment, but the +iron chain +of subordination held the young lion fast bound, and he remained +silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Forward, Herr von Goertz,' cried the adjutant general, +pointing +towards the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Farewell, my son!' cried Goertz, embracing Arwed +affectionately. And, +while embracing, whispered to him, 'I now understand your true +intentions and your real friendship for me. Be certain that you shall +be satisfied with my gratitude if my enemies leave me the power of +proving it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He went forth and stepped into his carriage, upon the box of +which one +of the dragoons was seated, and which was now employed to convey its +former owner to a dungeon, Rosenhahn seated himself by the minister's +side. The other officers, together with Arwed, threw themselves upon +their horses,--Lieutenant Loewen made a sign to his dragoons, who +surrounded the carriage with their swords drawn, and the prisoner, with +his escort, galloped quickly towards the south, whilst Arwed, with his +unwelcome companions, rode sadly towards the north.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Deserted and empty stood the camp before Frederickshall, as +Arwed and +the two other officers rode into it. Baggage-men and other camp +followers swarmed about the barracks, searching for whatever their late +inhabitants might have left behind them worth the finding. The flag of +Denmark waved from the Golden Lion, and some companies in the Danish +hunting dress were leveling the Swedish embankments and closing up the +trenches which it had cost so much time and trouble to open.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is that?' cried Arwed with surprise and displeasure. +'Has our +army been beaten, that they have raised the siege whose successful +termination was so near?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I had expected it,' answered lieutenant Bioernskioeld with a +lowering +countenance: 'but not so soon. The army has marched back to Sweden.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'How have the times changed!' said Arwed sorrowfully. 'Ninety +years +ago, the dead Gustavus Adolphus inspired his army and urged it to +continual contests and glorious victories,--and now it seems that old +Swedish courage and the heroic spirit of her king have flown together, +and that the laurels gained under his guidance are yielded in shameful +flight.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I hope, captain,' said Baumgardt, scornfully, 'that you do +not presume +to deride the commands of the fieldmarshal. Presumptuous censure of a +commander, is in the army called mutiny, and according to our articles +of war the punishment therefor is death.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are now on duty, colonel,' said Arwed, with difficulty +suppressing +his anger. 'I shall therefore hold myself prepared to answer your +reproach on a more suitable occasion.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Some Danish rifle balls from the trenches at this moment +whistling +about their heads, broke off the conversation. The horsemen silently +hastened out of the precincts of the deserted camp, and trotted briskly +towards the east, after the retreating army.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">They found the army near the city of Amal, upon lake Dalboe, +beyond the +borders of Norway. Baumgardt rode with his companions directly towards +Amal, where the head quarters were established. At the gates they +encountered colonel Brenner.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is it here we again meet, my dear traveling companion?' cried +he to +Arwed. 'I am sorry for it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The soldier is indeed but a mere machine,' answered Arwed, +'who may +not venture to love or regret any thing; yet is our present meeting of +some importance to me, as I need your evidence to clear myself in the +eyes of colonel Baumgardt. He is disposed to consider me a marauder or +something worse, because he encountered me traveling without you on the +road towards Frederickshall.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I gave the captain a furlough,' said Brenner to Baumgardt; +'and the +fieldmarshal is already informed of it.' Baumgardt bowed in silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is there now any further hindrance to my taking leave of +you?' said +Arwed politely to the colonel. 'As soon as I am relieved from my +present situation I will not fail to wait upon you for some further +explanations.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Baumgardt rode onward without deigning a word in reply.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Come directly with me to my old friend Duecker,' said Brenner +to +Arwed. 'He arrived at head quarters, as I hear, early this morning, and +I have come into the city on purpose to seek him. You must give to him +and me an account of what has happened during your journey.'</p> + +<p class="normal">When they arrived at Duecker's quarters they found he was not +at home. +Swedenborg was sitting in the room, in his traveling cloak, awaiting +his return; and so busily studying some leaves of parchment full of +signs and figures, that he did not observe the entrance of the new +comers.</p> + +<p class="normal">'God greet you, Swedenborg!' said Arwed with sad cordiality, +extending +his hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">Swedenborg stared steadily at him for a long time, his eye +indicating +his entire absence of mind. Finally, a remembrance of Arwed's face +seemed to return to him--he finished the notes he was making upon his +parchments, put them aside, and then for the first time seized the +proffered hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thereto art thou chosen, young man,' cried he pathetically +with his +hollow spirit-voice: 'always to be present when the weightiest events +are occurring in the army, without being able to do any thing for the +common good. At this moment is to be decided who is to rule over +Sweden, and you can neither aid nor prevent, as it happened to you at +the death of the king.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is this a question yet to be decided?' asked Brenner. 'I +think there +is no longer any doubt that Ulkrika will be queen.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is not so certain as you may think,' answered +Swedenborg. 'The +princess has indeed received the premature homage of the senate, and +lavished rewards upon the generals; but the army has a voice in this +business, and the superior right of the young duke is as clear as the +sun. According to the Nordkioping compact of inheritance, no woman can +become heir to the throne unless she be either unmarried, or married +with the consent of the states to a Lutheran prince. But Ulrika has, +without the consent of the states, married the prince of Hesse, who +professes the Calvinistic faith.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ulrika will nevertheless purchase the crown by surrendering a +portion +of its sovereignty,' retorted Brenner; 'and at this price they will let +her off.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hardly, if the young duke bids the same,' answered +Swedenborg. +'General Duecker is even now with him for the purpose of prompting him +to it. May God give efficacy to his words, for Sweden will have a bad +government under this Ulrika.'</p> + +<p class="normal">At this moment old Duecker entered with furious haste, threw +his plumed +hat angrily upon the floor, and paced rapidly up and down the room +without perceiving the officers.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nothing accomplished?' asked Swedenborg dejectedly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What can be accomplished,' indignantly replied the general, +'when one +has to do with a boy who is governed by fools? He relies confidently +upon the strength of his party. He will inherit the royal power wholly +unimpaired or not at all. And it is most certain that with his +confidence and indolence he will be compelled to accept the latter +alternative.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The last effort vain!' said Swedenborg, taking his hat. 'God +preserve +your excellency! I am going.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Will you also desert me, my dear ally?' asked Duecker +despairingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'How can I be further useful in this place?' said Swedenborg. +'The +siege is raised; my knowledge can never more be needed here. I go again +to the examination of the mines. Under the present circumstances this +upper air will no longer exactly agree with me, and I must see whether +that of the mines will not be better for my constitution.' He now +turned to Arwed. 'We shall meet again!' said he with a mysterious +emphasis.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who knows!' answered Arwed, who looked to the future with sad +misgivings.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We shall meet again!' cried Swedenborg with greater emphasis; +'It is +revealed to me by a dark, voiceless feeling which is vouchsafed to me +by the Lord rather as a chastisement than as a mercy-gift. We shall +meet again, and if I do not deceive myself, in the heaviest hour of +your life. God give you strength to bear it.' He strode forth.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Did you accomplish your object, Gyllenstierna?' Duecker now +anxiously +asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Had I but reached Goertz an hour earlier,' answered Arwed. 'I +witnessed his arrest.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That was the last hope!' cried Duecker, sorrowfully. 'Now is +Goertz +lost, as is also Sweden to the duke, beyond remedy!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hast thou hoped until now?' asked Brenner with astonishment.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Of what was not his spirit capable?' retorted Duecker. 'I +have just +now learned to know him aright from a letter of his to the king. Had +Goertz saved himself, he had sufficient influence with the czar to have +the occupation of the throne by the duke made the condition of peace. +We can hardly imagine what he could not have accomplished. He was the +man for Charles's gigantic plans; he was the man to save the tottering +kingdom. Now will the sick in their paroxysms call upon the physician +for cure, and who will help them?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your fears carry you too far, general,' said Arwed. 'The +enemies of +Goertz may not be so embittered but that his life may be respected, if +only from a holy fear of the manes of their fallen king.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are too young to understand your nation thoroughly,' +retorted +Duecker. 'The proud senators will never forgive the foreigner for +annihilating the last remains of their power by his bold measures; the +people, who never dared to impeach their adored king, sought in Goertz +the source of his misfortunes. Ulrika hates him, as she hates her +nephew,--she fears his activity in the cause of the latter, and she can +make an agreeable sacrifice to their prejudices by offering him up. He +is a dead man!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then must you assist in procuring my immediate discharge from +the +service, dear general,' said Arwed earnestly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Wherefore?--What has entered your head?' asked Duecker. 'You +choose an +unsuitable time. A great number of promotions will be immediately made, +to win the army; your father is a strong supporter of the queen, and +you may perhaps leap the rank of major and obtain a regiment.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I fear on the contrary,' answered Arwed gloomily, 'that I can +no +longer honorably remain a Swedish officer. But that is the least. A +being, dearer to me than all others, can now hope for help and +consolation from me alone. I must instantly proceed to Stockholm, even +should I be compelled to desert from the army for that purpose.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'There is yet no necessity for that,' said Duecker. 'The +guards break +up to-day for Stockholm, and will proceed there in advance of the +remainder of the forces. Therefore do nothing precipitately. If your +wish for a discharge should continue, I will endeavor to obtain its +accomplishment at a proper time. Such a request, just at this time, +would only render you suspected and hated, and would probably be +unsuccessful.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is the voice of a father,' said Arwed feelingly, 'You +best know +what is the most proper course for me, and I willingly hearken to you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">At that moment the field music was heard in the distance +sounding a +wild alarm, and the thunder of the artillery through the city +accompanied the peal like a powerful bass.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is that?' asked Brenner with surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The prince has operated suddenly and powerfully,' answered +Duecker; +'more suddenly and energetically to obtain Sweden's crown for his wife, +than to obtain a victory over Sweden's enemies. The army is won, and +Ulrika is queen. That is what the thunder of the cannon denotes.'</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The guards had marched into Stockholm. Arwed had performed all +the +duties of his service, and now flew towards the Blasiusholm to the +house of the post-captain who had freely received and sheltered the +deserted daughters of the unhappy Goertz. The moment he mentioned his +name he was shown into Georgina's room. With a pale face and wasted +frame she came forward to meet him. Ardently would he have folded her +in his arms, but she held back and merely presented to him her thin +white hand, whose icy coldness filled him with alarm.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thou hast not saved my father?' asked she with a trembling +voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">'By my honor!' cried Arwed, grieved at the silent reproach +conveyed by +the question; 'I did every thing in my power, but hard fate was +stronger than my honest endeavors.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I must believe it,' answered Georgina, 'and thank you for +your good +intentions. If you are yet willing to make further efforts in my +behalf, procure for me through your influence an interview with my +father. They have hitherto rejected all my petitions with inhuman +severity.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Whatever lies in my power I will essay for the accomplishment +of your +wish,' replied Arwed with much agitation.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Leave me then for the present,' said Georgina. 'Go and make +the effort +and bring me word that they will extend towards my father a privilege +which even robbers and murderers would not be denied.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you drive me from you so soon, Greorgina?' asked Arwed +mournfully. +'Is this the welcome of a beloved and loving betrothed?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Betrothed?' sighed Georgina with a melancholy smile. 'Ah, +dear Arwed! +that is a subject upon which we must speak no more. The daughter of the +man whom Sweden accuses of high treason, can never give her hand in +marriage to a Swede.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thinkest thou so meanly of me?' cried Arwed, with great +earnestness. +'But no, you do not really think so. You only pretend indignation to +conceal your want of affection. From the youth whom you once deemed +worthy of your love, you must at least expect that your present +misfortunes will bind him to you with still stronger chains.'</p> + +<p class="normal">A faint blush flitted over Georgina's pale cheeks, and her +eyes +glistened. She hastily approached Arwed and laid her hand upon his +breast. 'I know,' said she proudly, 'that whatever love and honor may +demand of a Gyllenstierna, you will obey their voice in every +circumstance of life. But a noble German maiden dares not forget what +concerns her own honor,--and this commands me to refuse you my hand so +long as your own countrymen can with propriety pronounce your union +with me a misalliance.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You no longer love me!' complained Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Georgina gave him a glance in which shone all the glow of her +first +love, and, unconsciously, her eyes filled with tears. At last the +all-powerful passion conquered. She threw her arms about his neck and +pressed him to her bosom. 'Go, and strive!' sobbed she, retreating into +a side cabinet.</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed wished to follow her, but hearing her draw the bolt on +the inner +side, he departed, bitterly afflicted with a confused throng of +contending feelings.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">While the new royal counsellor, Nils count Gyllenstierna was +sitting, +as two months before, employed at his writing table, Arwed timidly +entered the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Aha!' said he satirically, 'the brave captain has at last the +goodness, after my repeated requests, to grant me an interview. I beg +you will take a seat upon the sofa, and I will be at your service +directly.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed, however, remained standing with a sad and resigned +countenance, +as he had determined to submit patiently to the censures of his +passionate father, whose political ambition had now attained its utmost +gratification.</p> + +<p class="normal">The old counsellor continued writing for a short time, and +then, +signing his name with an energetic stroke of the pen, he arose and +stepped immediately in front of his son, with folded arms and an angry +countenance.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where shall I begin with my reproaches!' blustered he at +length. 'You +have committed so many excesses in so short a time, that it is +difficult for me to select, and I can only fix my mind upon the +result--that you are a ruined, yes, in the strictest sense, a <i>lost +son</i>, with whom I am destined to have much trouble and sorrow.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That I went to the king's army against your will...?' +commenced Arwed, +pleadingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is the least!' proceeded the father, interrupting him. +'You have +proceeded so far in your evil way, that even so shameless an act of +disobedience has become a mere trifle, unworthy of consideration in +comparison with your ulterior conduct. Besides, you may find some +excuse for that act, in what has recently happened. According to +despatches this day received, Armfelt's corps has been miserably frozen +up in the ice mountains on its retreat towards Jemtland, and although +you have caused me much sorrow, I am yet glad that your obstinacy has +this time saved you from an inglorious death.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thanks to thee, true warner,' said Arwed tremblingly to +himself;--then +addressing his father: 'if that be not the cause of your anger, may I +beg of you to name my other transgressions. From your justice I have a +right to hope that I shall be allowed to exculpate myself.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Bold and insolent as usual!' grumbled the old man. '<i>Quasi re +bene +gesta</i> comes he before me, while he thinks I am not acquainted with his +conduct. Who joined himself to the deputation which endeavored to have +the duke of Holstein proclaimed in the camp as king of Sweden? Who +obtruded himself as a companion upon colonel Brenner, that he might +insult the queen and warn Goertz of his well-deserved fate? Who +threatened colonel Baumgardt with a challenge for doing his duty? Who +has been this very day to visit the daughter of the arch-traitor, for +whom the scaffold is already preparing?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are very accurately informed, my father,' answered Arwed. +'I am +too proud to deny what I have done, nor do I believe it deserves your +anger. The king, when he appointed me a captain in the royal service, +thereby rendered me independent of parental authority, and thenceforth +free to follow the dictates of my own judgment. You yourself must +concede, that the right was doubtful between the princess and the duke. +I, however, am firmly convinced that it is entirely on the side of the +latter, and have acted accordingly. I wished to save Goertz, because I +believed him innocent. His crime is, that the king, so little in the +habit of receiving advice from others, honored him with his exclusive +confidence; that he is a foreigner, and the capable and dreaded servant +of a young prince who is a candidate for a crown which you think he +ought not to have.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You believe all this, because you love his daughter!' +remarked the +father.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Colonel Baumgardt,' proceeded Arwed, 'has injured me +personally, and +we shall settle that matter as is usual among men of honor, as soon as +my cares for Georgina may leave me time.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Arwed!' cried the father, 'do you then really entertain a +hope that I +will give my consent to this foolish connection?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do as you think proper, my father,' answered Arwed. 'My +resolution is +taken, whatever may betide. Nor could you yourself approve my conduct +if, now that the storm is breaking over her innocent head, I should +desert the maiden whose heart I won when the sun of prosperity shone +brightly upon her.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The queen will forbid the union,' said the old man.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And were it the bold Margaret herself,' cried Arwed with +passionate +warmth, 'who united upon her own head the three northern crowns, and +held them there with a strong hand, she would not dare attempt to +regulate the impulses of our hearts! How much less, then, this poor +Ulrika, whose only crown, to which she has no right, was shamefully +bought with the costliest jewel of royalty, the sovereignty.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are deep in constitutional principles,' said the +counsellor +peevishly--but his strong displeasure was already melted into secret +satisfaction with the talent and spirit of his son. He appeared, +standing there before him with his flashing blue eyes, his scarred +cheek and noble bearing, as if he were about to plant again the Swedish +standard upon a stormed wall. 'Upon honor!' at length exclaimed the old +man, 'if you had not conducted yourself so bravely before +Frederickshall, I would reckon with you in another fashion. But the +deed of arms which Charles the XIIth rewarded with an embrace, must be +considered as truly heroic--and to a hero much must be forgiven. To +that, we Swedes have long been accustomed.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nor was that embrace the best of the king's favors,' said +Arwed +eagerly. 'For beating back a sally of the Danes, I had his word for my +marriage with Greorgina. And surely you would not have resisted the +request of Charles.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' answered his father, turning away from him; 'and now +all that +has been changed forever by one bullet! I pity you, poor youth, but +your case cannot be helped!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do not yet give up every hope,' said Arwed. 'They dare not +murder +Goertz without a trial, and if they will but give him a fair one he +must be acquitted.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you think so?' murmured the old man; 'so do not we think +here in +Stockholm, and all Sweden cries out guilty against him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The voice of the people is not always the voice of God,' said +Arwed. +'I still trust in holy justice. But I have a favor to ask of you, my +father. The baron's daughter wishes to see her father. Give me the +necessary permission.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is not to be thought of for the present,' answered the +father. +'Perhaps it may be obtained a little later, after the sentence has been +pronounced. Besides I am not the person who has power to grant it. Upon +such a request the president of the special commission, landmarshal +Ribbing, must decide.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Alas, that heart of stone!' cried Arwed. 'Give me at least a +letter of +introduction to him, that he may do from favor what is only a duty.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I can have nothing to do with the affair,' said the father +angrily. +'You presume upon my forbearance.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He pointed towards the door. Arwed wished to speak to him yet +once +again, but the counsellor, turning his back upon him, walked to his +writing-table and the son in sadness departed.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Every effort to move, to win, to alarm, which the eloquence of +the soul +could inspire, had Arwed lavished upon landmarshal Ribbing. But +powerless as the waves against the rocks, were his words with the +immovable man; and, with anger at the refusal rankling at his heart, +the young man now stood in the high arched basement story of the +council house upon the Suedermalm, where Goertz was held in +confinement, seeking, with his open purse in his hand, and not without +secret reluctance, to try the effect of gross corruption upon the +gaoler.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the gaoler shook his head suspiciously. 'God knows,' said +he, +clinking the keys attached to his waist-belt, 'God knows how willingly +I would take your gold. But one must have discretion, captain, and use +the little judgment God has given him. Your purse would be very useful +to me, but my head is still more so, and it is that which I should +peril. Therefore have the goodness to retire, that I may not suffer +inconvenience from being seen talking to you here.' With this he opened +a little wicket by the side of the great gate, and pointing the way +out, made at the same time a very low bow.</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed angrily complied with the hard necessity, and, as he now +considered the rejected purse as unworthy of being returned to his +pocket, he threw it to an invalid soldier who limped past him on his +crutches, and was on the point of hastening away.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Take me with you, count Gyllenstierna!' cried a low, +melodious voice, +behind him. He turned around, and saw a man of about forty years of +age, with an intelligent, bold and honest face, in a clerical dress, +who had followed him out of the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you know me, reverend sir?' asked Arwed with surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Only from the conversations of the unfortunate man to whom +you just +now wished to purchase admission,' answered the clergyman, proceeding +with him towards the city. 'But your whole manner and bearing told me +that you must be captain Gyllenstierna, and there is no one to whom I +could better appeal than you. I am preacher to the German community in +this place. Baron von Goertz has requested my spiritual assistance, +which I have truly rendered to him with both joy and sorrow. But the +undeserved fate of my unhappy countryman has so affected me that I am +determined to do something more for him. His immortal soul is well +prepared by a blameless life, and by a true and genuine faith which I +have perceived in him. I would also gladly save his mortal body, that +the intelligent and well disposed man may be enabled yet further to +labor for the benefit of this country, or for some other, if Sweden is +unwise enough to repudiate him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Worthy servant of God!' exclaimed Arwed, with a sudden +pressure of his +hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">'First of all,' proceeded the preacher, 'I will make an effort +with the +queen. I have been to the palace three times already. Her majesty, +however, was never to be spoken with, which I attribute to the numerous +enemies which Goertz has made amongst the courtiers.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You might as well attribute it to the ill will of the queen +herself,' +said Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'So much the better!' cried the preacher. 'That would be a +good sign +for me. Then does she shun the truth, which she would hear from me; and +if I can only succeed in obtaining an audience, I augur the happiest +consequences. You are well acquainted at the palace, count. Procure me +an audience of the queen, and the rest shall be my care. She is, at any +rate, a woman, and must have a compassionate heart.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have chosen a bad protector, sir pastor,' said Arwed, +with a sad +smile. 'But I will procure for you an audience with the queen, if I +have to open a path to her with my sword.'</p> + +<p class="normal">While they were thus conversing they had passed the bridge +connecting +the Suedermalm with the city, the streets of which they threaded until +they approached the Ritterholm.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Announce us to the queen,' begged Arwed of the +valet-de-chambre whom +they found before the door of the queen's apartments, flipping some +pieces of gold into his hands. 'The count Gyllenstierna and pastor +Conradi beg that she will graciously grant them a short audience upon a +most pressing concern.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will do my best,' said the valet-de-chambre in the most +friendly +manner, going in.</p> + +<p class="normal">After a short time he returned. 'It was all succeeding well,' +said he, +'but the name of the black coat spoiled all. By that was the attention +of her majesty arrested, and she then asked whether it was the younger +or elder Gyllenstierna who had requested to be announced. She cannot +see you now, and the gentlemen may hand in their request in writing, by +the chamberlain in waiting.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Perdition!' cried Arwed, indignant at his own helplessness.</p> + +<p class="normal">'This amounts to a refusal,' stammered Conradi. 'When the +great of the +earth demand that a petitioner shall put the all-powerful words of his +mouth into cold, dead characters upon paper, and hamper the strength of +his good cause by a submission to prescribed formulas, it is because +they are determined not to grant his request, and wish to avoid +pronouncing with their lips the refusal of which in their hearts they +are ashamed.' Meanwhile it had become night, and the servants lighted +the lamps in the ante-chamber.</p> + +<p class="normal">A high officer entered the ante-room for the purpose of +passing through +it into the audience chamber.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who is this gentleman?' whispered Conradi to the +valet-de-chambre.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Lieutenant general Rank,' answered the latter.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Goertz has named him to me as his last friend,' said Conradi +to Arwed; +'perhaps he can do something for us.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Have the goodness to grant us a word, general,' said Arwed +hastily to +him.--He turned and approached them.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We are here,' said Arwed in a moving tone, 'to present a +petition in +favor of baron Goertz. The queen has refused us an audience. You are +going directly to her majesty, and therefore we beg of you to endeavor, +if possible, to obtain for us a hearing. We are indeed unknown to you, +but your own heart will be our advocate.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'To whom is the brave Gyllenstierna unknown,' said Rank in the +kindest +manner; 'neither is this worthy pastor a stranger to me. What little +influence I may have, I will willingly exert for you; but I know the +queen, and doubt a favorable result.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He went in. The two confederates stood waiting in the +ante-room until +he returned. 'The queen,' said he, 'will pass through here when she +repairs to the grand hall, and will hear you as she passes. Speak +submissively and briefly, and may God guide your tongues.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The folding doors flew open. Two bedizened pages lighted the +way with +torches. Between two richly embroidered and highly scented +chamberlains, rustled forth the proud Ulrika, oppressed by a heavy +silken and gold-embroidered hoop petticoat, with clouds of lace about +her bosom, and her arms, hands, breast and ears overloaded with jewels, +and above her high, frizzed curls glistened the little crown of +brilliants. Pages bore her long train, and her maids of honor followed. +The queen looked displeasedly towards the unwelcome petitioners. +Conradi approached, fell upon one knee, pressed the hem of her robe to +his lips, and then with a soft and winning dignity of manner said, 'I +beg a hearing of your majesty upon a question of mercy.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Stand up and speak,' answered Ulrika, stopping, and causing +her train +of attendants to halt.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your majesty,' said Conradi, without changing his position, +'has +inherited the crown of Sweden from your deceased royal brother....'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Inherited! quite right!' interposed Ulrika quickly: 'and it +is +unaccountable to us,' she proceeded, looking at her companions, +'that doubt upon that subject can yet be entertained in any quarter.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is not to be doubted,' said the pastor, astonished at this +unexpected episode, 'that your majesty heartily honors the memory of +our late glorious king, as you were so nearly connected with him by the +ties of blood. Nevertheless, his truest servant, the man upon whom he +bestowed unlimited confidence, now languishes in undeserved chains. A +criminal court is now sitting upon him, and all, who are convinced of +his innocence, shudder at the possibility: that Sweden may be guilty of +shedding that noble blood.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The number of them will not be great,' said Ulrika, coolly. +'Have you +any thing further to say to us?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I beg of your majesty mercy for unhappy Goertz,' said Conradi +with +increasing warmth. 'I appeal to the softer feelings of your sex, to the +magnanimity of the princess, to the forgiving spirit of the christian. +By the God in whom we all believe, Goertz is innocent. And if he has +done any thing wrong, and so brought any misfortune upon Sweden, which +I do not know, he has but acted in obedience to his lord, like a true +vassal, and that lord was entitled to the unreserved obedience of all, +whilst he reigned over this land as an absolute sovereign.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Sweden will have cause to remember that unlimited sovereignty +for some +generations,' remarked Ulrika, glancing at the splendid watch hanging +at her girdle. 'Please to come to an end.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have nothing more to add,' said the preacher dejectedly, +'except to +implore your majesty to signalize the commencement of your reign by an +act of mercy, rather than by the shedding of blood.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Mercy for Goertz!' cried Arwed, throwing himself at the +queen's feet, +and pressing her once scorned hand passionately to his lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ulrika, surprised by the sudden movement, withdrew her hand +with a look +of pride and scorn, and motioned him to rise. Without deigning to +answer him, she turned again to the still kneeling preacher. 'My good +man,' said she, with cold friendliness, 'I would willingly forgive the +baron for all the evil he has done to me. The queen has no memory for +injuries suffered by the princess. But the decision lies not with me. +Next to God, have I from my true states received the crown, and without +their voice I neither can nor will decide upon crimes against the +nation, of which Goertz is accused.' She made a sign to her attendants, +and moved proudly forward.</p> + +<p class="normal">'All in vain!' cried Conradi, rising. 'And this affected +mildness, +beneath which the queen conceals her implacable hatred, is to me more +frightful than if she had poured forth her anger in passionate words. +Here is a coolly devised plan to destroy an innocent man, against which +even the eloquence of the apostle Paul himself would fail to succeed. +Let us go.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Sadly they turned towards the door. Fieldmarshal, the prince +of Hesse, +entering at that moment, met them.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is my wife yet here?' asked he of lieutenant general Rank. 'I +come to +lead her to the court.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'She has just gone,' answered Rank. 'Her majesty was pleased +to grant +an audience here before she went.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The prince looked at both of the supplicants. 'Captain +Gyllenstierna!' +said he, playfully, 'what affair could bring you to the ante-chamber, +which is certainly a ground upon which you have not yet learned to +manœuvre?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'So our ill-success has proved,' answered Arwed, with +suppressed rage. +'We have been vainly pleading for the life of the unhappy Goertz.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'For Goertz's life?' asked the prince with an appearance of +interest. +'I can guess what prompts you to the effort, and pity you from the +bottom of my heart. It is a very bad case.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If your royal highness will graciously condescend to interest +yourself, we shall have new grounds for hope, and all may yet end +well,' said Conradi.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Trouble not his royal highness with your intercessions, +Conradi,' said +Arwed bitterly. 'Upon his high command was the baron arrested; +consequently he has already decided upon his guilt, and mercy here is +not to be thought of.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You deceive yourself, captain,' said the prince, mildly +correcting the +excited youth. 'I hate not the unfortunate man. Powerless he must +become, and powerless he must remain, but his death would be contrary +to my wish and my advice. If his sentence depended upon me, I would +banish him from the country, and so settle all.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ah, if your royal highness will exert your influence in favor +of a +mild sentence,' cried Conradi in raptures, 'God will be your rich +rewarder.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My dear pastor,' answered the prince graciously, 'this case +will +probably be decided by the diet. The power of my wife is circumscribed, +and I am only her first subject.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yet,' interposed Arwed, 'the delightful privilege remains to +your +royal highness of alleviating the last hours of the unhappy man whom +you cannot save. His daughter wishes to be permitted to speak to him. I +wish to conduct her there, but the president of the special commission +is inexorable.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is hard!' said the prince. 'A criminal is still a man. +Go +directly to Ribbing, my dear Rank, and say to him that it is my wish.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'God bless your royal highness for the deed!' cried the +preacher.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But that no trouble may arise from this exercise of my kind +feelings,' +proceeded the prince, 'I require your word of honor, and your knightly +hand, Gyllenstierna, that this permission shall in no way be abused.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed started. The thought, how advantage might be taken of +such a +permission, now for the first time arose in his honest soul.</p> + +<p class="normal">His hand shrunk as if he would have drawn it back; but the +prince +extended his, and Arwed finally took it.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Adieu,' said the prince, dismissing them in the most friendly +manner, +and the two petitioners left the palace.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<p class="normal">'What is now to be done to advance the main object?' asked +Conradi of +the sullenly silent Arwed. 'I think we had better send a pressing +petition to the diet, although I should hope nothing from it. They will +leave every thing to the special commission,--and from the people, who +are congratulating each other and rejoicing that they have become +coadjutors in this business, we have nothing to expect.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Have they done that?' asked Arwed eagerly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' answered Conradi. 'Some among them have presumed openly +to say, +if Goertz does not lose his head this time, we shall lose ours.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Miserable spirit of party!' cried Arwed; 'under whose shield +the judge +may venture unpunished to throw his own hatred into the scale against +the accused.'</p> + +<p class="normal">For a while they walked on silently together. All at once +Arwed +stopped. 'God has given me a thought!' said he. 'The young duke arrived +here yesterday. Goertz has never ceased to be his servant. He was only +<i>loaned</i> to Sweden, and the duke must interfere in his favor. The +officer of a foreign sovereign cannot be judged here.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is undeniable,' said Conradi thoughtfully, 'that the duke +has the +right and it is also his duty to interfere. The question is, however, +has he the will? This prince still flatters himself that he has yet a +chance of ascending the Swedish throne, and will not, therefore, be +willing to lessen his influence with the diet.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The attempt must be made,' cried Arwed resolutely. 'I will +hasten to +him. Have the goodness to send information to the baroness Goertz upon +the Blasiusholm, that she will, as I hope, be permitted to visit her +father; and, God willing, we will meet in the morning at the Suedermalm +council house.'</p> + +<p class="normal">They shook hands and separated, Arwed flew to the palace of +the duke of +Holstein Gottorp. He was immediately announced and admitted. With an +irresolute face, wherein hope and fear alternately prevailed, came the +young prince to meet him, asking in an effeminate tone, 'what is your +pleasure?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'One of the officers,' answered Arwed, 'who, in the camp +before +Frederickshall, was anxious to have your grace proclaimed king of +Sweden, ventures to bring the name of the unhappy Goertz to your +remembrance.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do not wish to hear any thing of this man,' said the duke, +looking +timidly about him. 'My interference in the case might be misconstrued +by the Swedes, and it behoves me at this moment to avoid every thing +which might occasion a misunderstanding.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Goertz is without aid and in prison,' proceeded Arwed, with +manly +earnestness, 'because they fear his ability, his activity and his +devotion to your grace. Through this imprisonment of your servant, your +sovereign rights are infringed. His life is in danger. To save it, it +is only necessary for your grace to claim him of the Swedish government +with princely energy. However great the animosity against him, party +rage cannot withstand your demand, without violating the law of +nations. They must deliver the unhappy man to you, and you will have +the satisfaction of gratifying the feelings of your heart by this +exercise of your rightful power, and of preserving for yourself an able +supporter.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You would have spared yourself this long exposition, +captain,' said +the duke, with an unmeaning smile, 'had you known that Goertz has +ceased to be my servant.'</p> + +<p class="normal">An indignant 'ah!' escaped from the youth, and the duke +proceeded.--'A +man whom the whole Swedish nation as with one voice accuses, could not +remain in my service. He has been dismissed from the offices which he +held under me. And, being wholly surrendered, the laws of the country +which he has offended must decide his fate.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I understand!' exclaimed Arwed with great excitement.--'Your +grace +hopes to win the love of Sweden by the desertion of your truest friend, +and by publicly offering him up to gratify her vengeance. But if I may +venture to judge of my native country, this sad expedient will entirely +fail. It will only cause you to be hated. And your ingratitude will +again with ingratitude be rewarded.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Overwhelmed with despair at the wreck of this last hope, he +rushed into +the street.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<p class="normal">At the council house upon the Suedermalm, in the arched and +grated room +occupied by Goertz, the pale Georgina sat waiting, her weary head +resting upon Arwed's shoulder. With a melancholy glance the youth +surveyed the mean table and wooden stool which composed all the +furniture in the dwelling-place of the once all-powerful prime +minister. At length a confused noise was heard without, and from the +midst of the crowd of soldiers by whom he was surrounded, the worthy +Goertz entered the room. He was accompanied by lieutenant general Rank +and the pastor Conradi, A clerk of the court followed, who remained +upon the threshold with a timepiece in his hand, while the gaoler +bolted the door behind him on the outside.</p> + +<p class="normal">Georgina rushed with a loud scream to meet her father, +pressing his +chained hand to her lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Behold, my Georgina,' said the old man encouragingly, 'a +joyful moment +after so many sad days! God disposes all things for the best. But you +must not weep, my daughter. Your tears move me powerfully, and I have +need of repose. I am harassed in mind as well as in body. Standing up +through a six hours' examination has much weakened me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'How!' asked Arwed indignantly, 'did they not allow you to be +seated?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I requested it,' answered Goertz, sinking down upon his +wooden stool, +'but the lords were of opinion that they could not allow a man like me +to sit in their presence. The words were yet harder than the refusal +itself. But let that pass. What is your sister about, Georgina? She is +well? Why did you not bring her with you?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The permission was only allowed to myself and Arwed,' said +Georgina. +'They would not allow the child to come in, and I was compelled to send +her back from the door.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'They are very strict with me in every respect,' said Goertz, +'whilst +they permit themselves every latitude to my disadvantage. This day's +examination furnishes sufficient proof of this.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I must hope, my old friend,' said Rank much moved, 'that the +commission will allow you every legal and proper indulgence.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A copy of the accusation has never once been laid before me,' +answered +Goertz. 'I begged that my process might not be overhastened. I begged +also for permission to make a written defence. Both were denied me. I +begged to be allowed the assistance of professional counsel. This legal +aid also, which every murderer enjoys, was withheld from me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Unheard of!' cried Rank indignantly. 'The queen cannot refuse +these +requests consistently with her own honor. I will speak to her about +it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My good Rank,' said Goertz, extending his hand to him with a +smile of +gratitude, 'put not yourself to any inconvenience on my account. I am +not to be saved. When the blood of my king flowed, the same moment was +my sentence pronounced. Sweden thirsts for my blood, and it must be +drunken. This conviction has its benefits. It raises me above delusive +hopes, and confers upon me the quiet repose of resignation.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My dear father!' sobbed Georgina, who had sunk down before +him, with +her head resting upon his knees.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My good child!' said Goertz, lifting up her face and looking +at her +with an expression of unutterable tenderness. 'Thou hast thy mother's +eyes,' added he, laying his hand softly upon her cheek. 'I must take a +long look that every lineament may remain in my memory. For this +enjoyment may never again be allowed to me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'This is the only interview which I could prevail upon the +inexorable +Ribbing to grant,' said Rank sadly. 'They will not, however, refuse you +a farewell conversation with your daughters after the trial.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Goertz kissed the tears from his daughter's eyes. But his +parental +feelings became too strong for him. 'Leave me!' said he springing up: +'this trial is too great for me!' and he walked up and down the room +with hasty strides.</p> + +<p class="normal">'One satisfaction,' resumed he suddenly, as if wishing to +divert his +thoughts to other objects by the observation: 'one satisfaction have I +yet had in those hours when every one seemed to aim at my utter +prostration. Fehmann, my accuser, read, as a proof that I had +calumniated his subjects to the king, a letter, in which I had +complained to Charles of the neglect of his duty by a governor of a +province, and recommended his dismission. When he had read thus far he +laid the letter aside. I requested that the remainder might be read; +the commission decided in my favor, and Fehmann was now compelled to +read a description of himself as an able and faithful man whom I +recommended to the king for the place.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And did not the wretch throw himself at your feet overwhelmed +with +shame and contrition?' cried Arwed in a rage.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My good captain,' answered Goertz, 'the minds of the people +who pursue +me are so perfectly settled, that they are incapable of such emotions.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Can I then do nothing, nothing at all, for you?' sobbed +Georgina. 'I +will go with Magdalena to all your judges, clasp their knees and +entreat for mercy; the prayers and tears of innocent children, whom +they are about to make orphans, will, perhaps, move their flinty, +hearts.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I forbid your doing that!' answered Goertz with decision. +'What you +could ask for me has already been attempted by true friends, and +attempted in vain.'</p> + +<p class="normal">At this moment the court scribe held out the watch in his +hand, and +cried, 'the time has expired!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My God! the time has expired!' shrieked Georgina: 'and I had +so many +things to say, and so many questions to ask you, my father, but your +sufferings have put them all out of my head. Have you nothing to charge +me with?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The crown of Sweden,' answered Goertz with a melancholy +smile, 'has +relieved me of the care of my earthly possessions. My palace is +plundered, my funds and papers are all seized, and will probably be +confiscated for the benefit of the royal treasury. What it may be +necessary for you to know, in relation to these affairs you will find +in my testament, which I hope to be able to finish in the course of the +next few days.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And have you nothing else to say?' cried she, weeping upon +his neck.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We shall meet once more before my last hour,' answered Goertz +with a +failing voice. 'Leave me now, my dear daughter.' He gently disengaged +himself from her arms and walked to the grated window, concealing his +face in his handkerchief.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Father!' shrieked Georgina with desperation, and, springing +after him, +again clasped him in her arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Really, two minutes have already elapsed beyond the time, +your +excellency,' said the clerk importunately, holding up his watch to +lieutenant general Rank. 'I shall be made answerable for any further +delay.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Take her hence!' cried Goertz, placing Georgina in Arwed's +arms. +'Obey, my daughter!'--and Arwed bore the fainting sufferer out.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The diet of Sweden had assembled at the capital. To the house +of +assembly hastened the Swedish lords, counts and barons, the knights, +the lower nobility, and the good men of the kingdom, to deliberate upon +her welfare in the <i>pleno plenorum</i>. Arwed rode gloomily through the +files of carriages and masses of people who filled the Ritter square in +crowds. His way led him past the statue of the great Gustavus Vasa, +which adorned the place. 'Oh that thou wert now alive, noble hero!' +sighed he, as he came in view of it. 'Then, truly, the despotism of +vassals would not dare to deck itself with the robes of righteousness!' +As if desirous of fleeing from the grief which preyed upon him, he gave +the spur to his horse, and hastily passed the bridge which connects +Holy-Ghost island and the city with the Norrmalm, and followed the +south bank towards Blasiusholm, the refuge of Georgina. At the door he +met the preacher Conradi, in whose countenance he observed with +surprise an expression of hope and serenity, mingled with some degree +of excitement. They entered the room of the young sufferer together.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Sister is praying in her chamber,' whispered the little +Magdalena to +them. 'We must not disturb her.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'May God hear the prayer of the pious maiden,' said Conradi. +'Since +yesterday a small gleam of hope has arisen.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hope?' asked Arwed. 'You have seen the cold, inimical, +hypocritical +face of the queen, and dream you yet of hope?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If Ulrika remain queen,' answered Conradi, 'then indeed is +Goertz +lost; but she has received as yet but the allegiance of the senate and +army, and not that of the country. Before she obtains the latter many +things may happen. I spoke yesterday with the counsellor count Tessin, +who is most favorably disposed towards our poor friend. The queen has +committed a great political error. She has, in convoking the members of +the diet, styled herself hereditary queen. This has injured her cause. +The senate has been severely reproached on account of the readiness +with which it acknowledged her hereditary right. They have also sought +to awaken dissatisfaction among the people; and in the last sitting of +the senate, the president, count Horn, did not hesitate to desire of +the queen that she should surrender the conferring of the royal dignity +to the decision of the diet. That only would insure her the crown, +which she else may lose.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Elected or hereditary queen! is it not all one?' asked Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not for the diet,' answered Conradi; 'and as little for the +queen. The +hereditary king is indebted only to God and his forefathers; the +elected king is the creature of the electors, and must be dependent +upon them.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And if Ulrika should now stand upon her hereditary right?' +asked Arwed +further.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then,' answered Conradi, 'she would by this exercise of +arbitrary +power, provoke the diet to inquire into the hereditary right of the +duke of Holstein, which would perhaps stand the scrutiny much better +than her's.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That would little help the good cause!' replied Arwed. 'What +can be +expected of a prince who is capable of giving up his faithful minister +to the rage of his enemies?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Or the throne would be declared vacant,' proceeded Conradi, +'and a +regent of the empire seated upon it. To that end are many Swedish lords +laboring, as I am well informed from good sources. At all events let +there be a change in the government, and there may be also a change of +feeling in relation to Goertz, to his advantage.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I doubt that,' observed Arwed. 'Though the contending parties +may +oppose each other ever so bitterly on other subjects, all unite in +their hatred of the foreigner. He is the common enemy against whom they +all, as one man, array themselves.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You shall not thus frivolously deprive me of my best joy,' +said +Conradi, struck by the weight of his objection.</p> + +<p class="normal">'All your suppositions,' continued Arwed, 'are founded upon +the +hypothesis that the queen will persevere in maintaining her hereditary +right. But she will not persevere. As soon as it clearly appears to her +that she can purchase the crown only at this price, she will become an +elective queen, or charity queen, or whatever else it may please the +diet to name her.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you think so?' asked Conradi with alarm.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Has she not already yielded the sovereignty?' asked Arwed. +'She who +can lend herself to become a state puppet, to be decked out with crown +and sceptre on festival days, that the people may imagine they have a +queen, will, not be obstinate upon minor points. Let her but retain the +title of queen, and that will be enough for a vain-glorious woman.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Destroy not so cruelly my last air-built castle, Arwed!' said +Georgina, stepping out of her chamber, her eyes red with weeping. 'I +have enjoyed to-day the first cheerful moment for months, through the +intelligence brought me by the good Conradi, and your contradiction of +it cuts me to the heart.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do not lose courage yet, baroness!' said Conradi, +consolingly. +'Notwithstanding the captain despairs of every thing, the anchor of my +hopes still holds fast in this tempest. Let the <i>plenum plenorum</i> be +only once held, and then will Gyllenstierna hold another language.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then may we very soon expect their decision,' said Arwed. +'The <i>plenum +plenorum</i> is already organized. May its deliberations result +differently from my anticipations!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Organized to-day?' asked Conradi with great astonishment. 'I +thought +that to-day would be occupied in examining credentials and establishing +forms of procedure.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That had been previously done,' answered Arwed. 'I know for a +certainty, by means of my father's secretary, that the full action of +the diet commences to-day.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then count Tessin has not dealt fairly with me,' murmured +Conradi, +shaking his head. 'Probably he wished to lull me to sleep and find out +what further means might be at my command. That is not cavalier-like. +When the lion creeps and watches like the cat, it becomes only a common +animal.'</p> + +<p class="normal">A long pause ensued, during which each one was occupied with +his own +thoughts. Georgina leaned her head upon the back of her chair, whilst +her breast labored with the anguish of fearful expectation. Arwed stood +there with his arms folded, casting glances of love and compassion upon +the maiden. The little Magdalena, unaware of the importance of the +moment, was innocently playing with his sword knot; while Conradi had +stepped to the window, and was listening attentively to every sound +from without.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Did you not hear something like the sound of a distant bell?' +he asked +Arwed. The latter hastened anxiously to the window, and listened to the +faint sounds. Directly more distinct tones fell upon his ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Those are the bells of Jacob's church!' cried Georgina, +springing up. +'What means this general ringing of the bells at so unusual an hour?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Something of importance either for good or evil,' said +Conradi. 'I +think the diet must have decided, and these bells are to celebrate +their choice.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Arwed!' sighed Georgina, stretching out her hands imploringly +towards +the youth.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will go into the city and procure intelligence,' said he, +seizing +his hat. 'God grant that I may bring you back good news.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He hastened out, threw himself upon his horse, and coursed +back to the +city. From every tower rung out the merry peal of the bells, and in all +the streets through which he rode, floated joyous multitudes of people. +In the great square they were crowded head to head, and ten thousand +hands pointed towards the capitol. 'The hour of decision has arrived,' +said Arwed to himself. Leaping from his horse, and throwing the bridle +reins to his servant, he pushed his way through the crowd to the portal +of the building.</p> + +<p class="normal">There stood the pompous equipage of the duke of Holstein. The +duke sat +therein, viewing the windows of the hall of assembly with a countenance +expressive of sorrow and offended pride. An elderly gentleman in the +uniform of a Holstein general, and with a pensive air, stepped out of +the door of the capitol.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Now, Bauer?' cried the duke to him impatiently, throwing open +the door +of the carriage.</p> + +<p class="normal">'All in vain, your grace!' said Bauer, stepping into the +carriage. 'I +did not even obtain an opportunity to read your protest to the end.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Sweden, Sweden, to whom I have offered up every thing,' +growled the +duke, 'is this your gratitude!' Hastily catching hold of the general, +he drew him into the carriage and shut the door, crying, 'forward!' The +carriage soon rattled out of Arwed's view.</p> + +<p class="normal">Trumpets now sounded from the balcony of the capitol, +attracting +Arwed's attention to the place. The president of the senate, count +Horn, accompanied by many of the senators, stepped out upon the +balcony. 'Silence!' cried he to the crowd below, waving his hand. +'Silence!' cried the people in return, and all was still.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Free Swedes!' cried the orator, 'the royal council and the +assembled +diet of this kingdom, by virtue of the elective right vested in them, +in consequence of the throne having become vacant without immediate +heirs, have elected to be queen of the Swedes and Goths the full sister +of our immortal lord, her royal highness and princely grace the +landgravine Ulrika Eleonora of Hesse. This gracious princess having +solemnly renounced the sovereignty, so named, or unlimited sovereign +power, we hereby declare the said unlimited power to be forever +alienated from the throne, and will hold as an enemy to the kingdom +whoever may hereafter, by secret artifice or the open exertion of +force, attempt the assumption or exercise of absolute power. Long live +her majesty, queen Ulrika Eleonora!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Long live her majesty Ulrika Eleonora!' roared the numberless +throng, +mingling their voices with the trumpet blasts; and, as if raised by a +whirlwind, their hats and caps flew high in air.</p> + +<p class="normal">'All is lost!' cried Arwed indignantly, as he opened a way for +himself +through the crowd.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">On the twenty-first day of February, 1719, Arwed entered the +prison of +the unhappy Goertz, in company with lieutenant general Rank.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I bring to you a suppliant, my poor friend,' said Rank, with +a +melancholy smile, to Goertz. 'The captain has not ceased to besiege his +royal highness, until he obtained his permission for this interview +with you. He has a great favor to ask, and if my word is entitled to +any weight, I am his witness that he has well deserved it. He has, +through his ceaseless activity in your behalf, drawn down upon himself +the hatred of the Swedish nobility; and could he purchase your life +with his own, I am fully satisfied that he would make the sacrifice +with joy.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Good man!' said Goertz much agitated, extending his hand to +Arwed. +'God grant that you may have something to ask of me that my duty will +allow me to perform.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You know my love for your Georgina, my father,' said Arwed, +pressing +the old man's hand upon his heart. 'I beg your benediction upon our +union.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have anticipated this request,' sighed Goertz. 'It does you +honor +under the present circumstances, but I must not say yes to it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh retract those hard words!' begged Arwed. 'You yourself +just now +called me a good man. By heaven I am so. Your daughter loves me--and +our glorious king, the evening before his death, promised to crown my +wishes.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I know it all,' said Goertz, 'but I can give no other +answer.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You hate the Swede in me,' said Arwed in a tone of the +deepest sorrow; +'nor can I blame you for it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Have you no better opinion of the father of your beloved?' +asked +Goertz, with mild reproach. 'I love the man in you, and you may learn +of my daughter that I was not opposed to your wishes, when I yet stood +in my former elevated position. But what would the world say of me, +should I willfully make you unhappy by consenting to your marriage with +the daughter of an unfortunate man whom your father hates, and whose +life and honor will soon be destroyed by one sharp stroke. If, when my +fate shall have been sealed, my daughter's passion remain stronger than +her remembrance of it, she is then at liberty to follow the dictates of +her own heart. I neither advise nor forbid the connection, and shall +earnestly pray to God that all may go well with you, and that you may +never have cause to repent the inconsiderate step.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ah, that is a comfortless consent,' said Arwed sorrowfully. +'Georgina's overstrained delicacy induces her to take the same ground +against me, and I have now come to beg your intercession with her, +which is necessary to my success.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My daughter feels as a Goertz must feel,' answered the old +man, 'It is +noble in you to persist in your request. Concede to us also the +generosity of the refusal.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You make not me alone unhappy!' cried Arwed with vehemence. +'I may, +indeed, in time become reconciled to it. But your daughter will also be +made miserable at the same time. Her love is stronger than she, in the +depth of her filial sorrow, at present supposes it. She may, indeed, +give me up, but she can never forget me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The consciousness of having done right will help her to bear +much, my +son,' answered Goertz. 'Let us talk of it no more.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You rend my heart,' said Rank with weeping eyes. 'But I thank +you for +this sorrow. It is a high and holy privilege to behold virtue +struggling with heavy and undeserved affliction.'</p> + +<p class="normal">At this moment the keys were heard rattling in the prison +door. It +creaked upon its hinges, and in stepped, with the proud dignity of his +black official robes, and with deep traces of hidden malice and bodily +suffering in his yellow face, the speaker Hylten, delegate of the +citizens to the imperial diet of the realm, and a member of the +commission instituted for the trial of the prisoner.--He was followed +by one of the clerks of the court, with his arm full of documents.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I come, von Goertz,' unceremoniously commenced Hylten, 'to +make known +to you the sentence of the special commission. Receive it with becoming +respect.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I must indeed,' answered Goertz with a bitter smile, slightly +rattling +his chains. He rose up, and Hylten took a large sealed document from +the hands of the clerk.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you wish that we should retire, sir commissioner?' asked +Rank.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You may remain here forever, if you please, sir lieutenant +general,' +answered Hylten contemptuously. 'The crimes of this man are notorious, +as his punishment will also be, and where justice is sustained by the +general voice, there can be no necessity for avoiding publicity.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The royal commission,' read he, with a sharp and discordant +voice, +'having heard and considered all the accusations brought by the +attorney general, Fehmann, and also the replications of the baron von +Goertz thereto....'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Without consenting to receive my written defence!' interposed +Goertz.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And all the plots and devices of the said Goertz,' proceeded +Hylten +without noticing the interruption, since his coming into this kingdom, +having for their object to bring by wicked means the subjects of the +said kingdom into great discredit with the king ...'</p> + +<p class="normal">'All?' asked Goertz. 'He who affirms too much, affirms +nothing.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And how he,' proceeded Hylten, 'represented them as +evil-minded and +idle persons, who were unwilling to contribute towards the general +welfare.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Could that have been a crime?' asked Goertz.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And also,' read Hylten, 'endeavored to destroy the confidence +of the +king in the senators, counsellors and others of his true servants, +removing the same from all important public employments, so that the +whole patronage of the government should go through his own hands, +contrary to the laws and statutes of this country....'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I was the minister of an absolute sovereign,' interposed +Goertz. 'How +can I be made answerable for the decisions of his iron will?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And moreover,' proceeded Hylten, 'such schemes brought to +light as +could serve no other end than to rob the king's subjects of all their +property....'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The stamped tokens and notes of the mint had already been +issued +before the time of my administration,' cried Goertz indignantly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And finally,' read Hylten, 'according to letters of his, +which have +been discovered, he has not ceased to labor for the prolongation of the +war, thereby placing the king and the country in a very embarrassing +and dangerous situation....'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who dares assert these lies?' cried Goertz with indignation. +'For +fourteen years had Sweden carried on an uninterrupted, and for six +years an unsuccessful war, when Charles confided the helm of state to +me. Since that time, I have honestly labored to extinguish the fire +which destroyed the prosperity of our country. A glorious peace with +our most fearful enemy was brought by me near to a conclusion, when the +king's sudden death changed....'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You appear to forget,' said Hylten angrily, 'that you have +here only +to listen, and not to speak.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then in God's name read to the end,' said Goertz, becoming +calm. 'I +wilt interrupt you no more.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Satisfied of the truth of these charges,' resumed Hylten, +'without +examining further into the evil conduct of the said Goertz, a full +investigation of which certain causes will not allow, it appears clear +to us that he is the dishonest cause of all the misfortunes which this +country has suffered, and also that through the above named employments +he has become a citizen of this kingdom, and subject to its laws; upon +which the royal commission, having weighed these and other crimes, have +decided and adjudged, that the said Goertz, for the punishment of his +evil deeds, and for an example to other false counsellors and +disturbers of the peace of the kingdom, shall be beheaded and +afterwards buried at the place of execution.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ha! this sentence....' began Arwed with ungovernable rage, +but Rank +gently laid his hand upon his mouth.</p> + +<p class="normal">Goertz had accompanied the close of the reading with only a +sigh and +shrug of the shoulders. At length he observed, 'that is, in every point +of view, a monstrous sentence, informal, unjust, void, and repugnant to +common sense. The grounds upon which it is supported are unimportant or +untrue; the most unheard of circumstance, however, is, that they take +away my life for transgressions which are not specified. From this +fault, at least, the legal knowledge of the members of the commission +should have preserved them.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am not here to listen to your complaints,' answered Hylten, +pettishly. 'The sentence of the commission is unalterable, and will be +executed as soon as it is approved by the diet and royal council, and +ratified by the queen.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'So I supposed,' said Goertz; 'and submit to power, which, +alas! is +every where above right. I only wish to make one remark. They have +passed over my management of the national revenue in perfect silence. I +beg to be allowed time to prepare my accounts and lay them before the +diet, and thus at least inform the world that I have managed the +finances like an honest man. Should this request be refused, however, I +yet hope at least from the magnanimity of the diet, that they will +demand of my heirs no settlement of my accounts, of which they can know +nothing.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I doubt,' said Hylten with some apparent mortification, +'whether the +diet will grant you this delay. I will, however, lay your request +before them, and have only to advise you to prepare yourself in the +meanwhile for your approaching death.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Wo to me,' cried Goertz, 'if my whole life has not been a +preparation +for death! Yet I thank you for your counsel. My blood be not upon your +head!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Hylten hastened away in confusion, and the weeping Rank threw +himself +upon the breast of his friend. Arwed fell upon his knee before him, and +clasping his hand exclaimed, 'give me Georgina for my wife, my father. +She needs strong support in her trying situation, and I feel myself +capable of affording it to her.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Even now?' cried Goertz, heartily embracing the youth, 'thou +true +heart! But I must still answer with a decided negative. The only sprout +of one of the noblest houses of Sweden must never, under any +circumstances, connect himself with the daughter of a condemned and +dishonored traitor, whose body must moulder under the gallows.'</p> + +<p class="normal">His voice was broken by the excess of his feelings. Arwed, +despairing, +rose up. 'Can I then do nothing for you?' asked Rank, wringing his +hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I cannot be saved,' said Goertz, 'and have already been long +prepared +for death. Only the ignominy of a public execution, and the outrage +which awaits my mortal remains, trouble me; not on my own account, but +on that of my poor children and innocent connexions. If you are +disposed to give me a last proof of your love, you will on my behalf, +petition the queen that I may die in my prison and have an honorable +grave.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will immediately speak with the prince,' said Rank. 'He was +never +your enemy. His wife loves him more tenderly than one would suppose her +cold heart capable of loving. I hope to be able to render you this +service.'--He departed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will throw myself at my father's feet,' cried Arwed, 'and +never +cease my supplications until he shall promise me to aid in the +accomplishment of your last wish.--Oh, my God! that I cannot save you! +It is only through this infamous sentence that your purity has become +fully clear to me. Your blood be upon the heads of your unworthy +murderers.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He strode forth. Goertz, however, folded his hands, raised his +eyes to +heaven, and prayed with silent resignation.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Accompanied by the trusty Brodin, on the next day, Arwed stood +trembling as with a paroxysm of ague, in the ante-chamber of the hall +in which the royal council held its sittings. The chief clerk of the +council approached them with a protecting air.</p> + +<p class="normal">'This is the young man of whom I spoke to you, my worthy +friend,' said +Brodin to him, at the same time slipping a heavy purse into his hand; +'let me recommend him to your kindness.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Brodin departed. The chief clerk led Arwed to the door which +communicated with the grand saloon, and opened it. 'Between the door +and the inner drapery,' said he, 'you can see and hear every thing that +takes place, without being observed. But remember my stipulation. Keep +yourself quiet, and if you are discovered, recollect that we have never +known each other, and that you slipped in here behind my back.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'How can I possibly involve you in my fate?' answered Arwed, +proceeding +to conceal himself in the designated lurking place.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not yet,' said the chief clerk, pulling him back: 'the lords +of the +council must first assemble there, and might easily discover you as +they pass.'</p> + +<p class="normal">At that moment the outer folding doors opened, and in their +solemn +official dresses, in long, red velvet cloaks and red caps of the same +material, the loyal counsellors passed in couples through the +ante-chamber into the saloon. They were the counts Gyllenstierna, +Rhenskioeld, Stromberg, Horn, Cronhielm, Tessin, Meierfed and Moerner, +and the barons Duecker, Taube, Sparre, and Banner.</p> + +<p class="normal">'They are all here to-day for once,' said the chief clerk. +'Count Spens +alone is absent. Indeed the business is of too much importance, and +they cannot expedite the ex-minister too hastily!'</p> + +<p class="normal">One of the queen's chamberlains again threw open the doors, +and, in +full dress, stiff and stately as the image of the virgin in some place +of pilgrimage, with a countenance in which deep hatred vainly sought to +conceal itself under assumed dignity, the queen passed by them into the +hall. Arwed then slipped into his hiding place, and the chief clerk +shut the door after him.</p> + +<p class="normal">After the ceremony of the queen's reception was over, and the +members +had taken their seats, the governor, baron Taube, took the floor.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The special royal commission,' said he, 'has sentenced von +Goertz to +lose his head under the gallows, and there be buried. The diet has, by +a majority of voices, concurred in this verdict, and by her majesty's +command the royal council is now assembled to decide whether the +sentence shall be carried into full effect, or whether Goertz shall +have the benefit of some mitigation of its severity.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I consider it dangerous to deal so hardly with Goertz,' said +count +Cronhielm. 'The late king reposed great confidence in him, and I fear +that it may injure the Swedish nation abroad, since Goertz has many +adherents and a highly respected family.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A man who has endeavored to overthrow the whole kingdom,' +cried the +passionate Horn, 'who has committed the crimes detailed in the report +of the commissioners, is not too severely judged. Clemency towards him +may seduce many others to enter upon a similar course, to the great +injury of the realm. Besides, he has been tried and sentenced by +conscientious men, who, if they have done him injustice, must answer it +to their God.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is not my wish that he should go unpunished,' answered +Cronhielm. +'But it may be well to remember, that the commencement of our political +career will be closely scrutinized, and that the manner of the +execution may injure us with the nation, and particularly with our +nobility. He may be beheaded, but to bury under the gallows a man who +has been employed in so many important affairs by our late king, +appears to me to be bad policy.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Any Swede who may conduct himself as he has,' cried Horn, +exasperated, +'may be punished in the same manner.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'These altercations do not accomplish our object,' remarked +Ulrika. 'I +desire the lords counsellors to speak in their due order.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'When I heard the sentence read,' said baron Banner, 'I +expected a +harder punishment. When, however, I view the question in relation to +the general welfare, it appears to me that the end is attained when the +criminal is deprived of life. It can in no way concern the public +interests whether he be buried under the gallows or not, I consider it +a matter of indifference where he lies.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is also our opinion,' said the three other barons and +the counts +Cronhielm and Meierfeld, simultaneously.</p> + +<p class="normal">'As he has been judged by so learned and discriminating a +commission,' +observed count Tessin, 'and as the knighthood and nobility have +approved the sentence, it should be carried into full and complete +effect. Should I advise any clemency, it must be in harmony with those +who have a more minute knowledge of all the individual views presented +by the commission, which are said to be very exact and to comprehend +the particulars of Goertz' crimes. The Italian proverb indeed says: +<i>Morta la bestia, morto il veneno</i>--but something is necessary by way +of example, that others may be deterred from meddling with the business +of state--and I know not but it might be well to think of another +expedient, which is often resorted to in other places, viz; the +erection of a monument, which shall inform posterity of his conduct and +his fate, and which may prove a warning to foreigners not to intrude +themselves into this kingdom, exciting its subjects to such violence as +he has instigated. Yet I only throw out these ideas for the gracious +and favorable consideration of your majesty and your excellencies.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I still adhere to the opinion I before advanced,' said count +Horn; +'and God knows that I am not influenced by any prejudice. But I am +convinced that smaller offences are oftentimes more severely punished. +From affection to my native country must I adhere to the sentence.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If we examine the circumstances of this case,' remarked count +Stromberg deliberately, 'we find them very bad. I am therefore +compelled to support the opinion of count Horn.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'For his pernicious projects,' said count Rhenskioeld, 'Goertz +has well +deserved the punishment of death. I suggest however for the gracious +consideration of your majesty, whether mercy should not be extended to +him in consideration of his family.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'As it appears to me,' said count Gyllenstierna, taking up the +argument, 'the present question is only whether the condemned shall be +buried under the gallows. That he must die, is already decided by a +majority of the voices. Now, the object being accomplished by his +death, I see no objection to his being buried any where else, so that +his family may be spared too great suffering through such ignominy.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is disgraced sufficiently when he falls under the hands of +the +executioner,' said the queen in her most scornful tone. 'As for the +rest, the diet may do what they please with him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It must be confessed,' said Cronhielm timidly, 'that he was +not +permitted to exercise the right of defence so fully as the law allows, +and that he had not the benefit of legal counsel. Besides, he is a +member of the Franconian nobility, who are very jealous of their +privileges. They will maintain that the accused could not be legally +judged here, and, to avoid irritating them, it appears to me that it +would be well not to deal too severely with him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I know nothing to induce me to suppose,' said Horn, 'that +Goertz had +not the privilege of defending himself.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If he had not,' said Tessin, 'he must be allowed a new +trial.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I call for the votes of the special commission,' said +Cronhielm. +'Stiernkrona has explicitly declared it contrary to law and equity to +deprive Goertz of the means of defending himself.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Let the record of the commission be brought here,' said the +queen +angrily, to baron Banner. He hastened into the ante-chamber and sent +the chief clerk to bring it, while slight hopes were once more raised +in the bosom of the listening Arwed. Meanwhile there was a long pause +in the council room, during which count Cronhielm was compelled to bear +the inconvenient criticisms of his brother counsellors for his last +speech.</p> + +<p class="normal">'As governor of Stockholm,' said Baron Taube, interrupting the +general +silence, 'it is my duty to inquire how the execution shall be +conducted?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The conclusion is,' answered the queen impatiently, 'that the +governor +is to deal with baron von Goertz according to the sentence of the +commission, as confirmed by the diet.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is quite superfluous, then,' cried Cronhielm, rising up +with +feelings of resentment, 'that we should further discuss an affair in +relation to which her majesty has already issued her commands.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Certainly, wholly superfluous,' said Horn, likewise rising. +The others +followed his example. The council broke up its sitting without waiting +for the record of the commission, and, reverentially conducted by her +attendants, the queen, like a thunder cloud which had ignited and +exploded with wide spread desolation, proudly moved through the +ante-chamber.</p> + +<p class="normal">'<i>Stat pro ratione voluntas!</i>' cried Arwed with suppressed +rage. 'Wo to +the country where the holy halls of justice can be profaned by such a +sentence!'</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">On the 12th March, all Stockholm was stirring with unusual +commotion. +The streets leading to the place of execution were thronged with people +impelled by strongly excited curiosity. Cavalry and infantry were drawn +up before the council house on the Suedermalm, before the principal +door of which stood the carriage destined for the conveyance of the +baron von Goertz.</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed entered Goertz' prison, supporting the faltering steps +of +Georgina with one arm, whilst with the other hand he led the wailing +Magdalena. Lieutenant general Rank was sitting alone in the room, +reading a paper which he had taken from among others which lay upon the +table.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is it you, my good captain?' exclaimed he, taking Arwed's +hand. Then, +looking at his companions, he sighed, 'Alas! poor, poor, children!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where is my father?' asked Georgina in an almost inaudible +tone, +sinking down upon a stool.</p> + +<p class="normal">'In the next room,' answered Rank. 'Conradi is with him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What are you reading there, general?' asked Arwed without +interest, +merely to break the painful silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The epitaph of our friend,' answered Rank, handing the paper +to him. +'He sketched it himself.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Georgina had sprung from her seat, and hanging upon Arwed's +arm, looked +with him upon the manuscript.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Read aloud,' said she. 'Something like a dense cloud waves +before my +eyes. I cannot see the letters.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Will it not prove too great a trial for you?' asked Arwed +with tender +care.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am here,' she answered, 'to take a last leave of my father, +before +his death by the sword of the executioner. What else can shake me?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Struggling to suppress his tears, Arwed proceeded to read:</p> + +<p class="normal">'A la veille de conclure un grand traite de paix, mon héros +périt, la +royauté avec lui. Dieu veuille qu'il n'arrive pis! Je meurs aussi. +C'est toujours mourir en magnifique compagnie, quand on meurt avec son +roi et la royauté.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Very true!' exclaimed Georgina. 'The ruins of royalty are a +worthy +mausoleum for the great man; but his children despair.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed continued:</p> + +<p class="normal">'Mors regis, fidesque in regem et ducem, mors mea.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That means?' asked Georgina in a faint voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The death of the king and fidelity to him and to the duke are +the +cause of his death.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Alas, how true!' sighed Georgina, and, breaking out in a +flood of +tears, she sunk upon Arwed's shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">The door of the adjoining room now opened, and Goertz entered +with a +serene countenance, followed by the weeping Conradi. 'Father!' shrieked +his daughters, throwing themselves into his arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My dear children!' cried he, joyfully pressing them to his +bosom, and +kissing them tenderly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'If that adamantine heart were here,' said Arwed to Conradi, +with deep +emotion, 'this scene would yet melt it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I thank God that the queen is not here,' answered the latter. +'She +would remain inexorable, and thus aggravate her responsibility in the +next world.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The outer prison door was now opened, and with a brutal air +colonel +Baumgardt walked into the room. He was followed by chief judge Hylten, +who appeared yet more miserable than before, leaning upon his clerk. +The outer hall was soon filled with Swedish grenadiers.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Goertz, your time has come!' cried Baumgardt, roughly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'In God's name, your blessing, my father!' cried Greorgina, +kneeling +and drawing Magdalena down with her to his feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Continue good!' cried Goertz in a broken voice, laying his +hands upon +their heads, 'so that I may give a good account of you to your mother, +and that you may say joyfully to your God, when you come after me, +Father, here am I, and here are those whom thou hast given me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Amen!' said Conradi, moving towards the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thanks for your love,' said Goertz, embracing Rank and Arwed, +and then +turning to follow his spiritual assistant.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Now let us forth,' cried Georgina wildly, grasping the hands +of the +youth and of the little Magdalena, 'that we may arrive before him!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You cannot support the scene!' said Arwed anxiously to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And should I die in his last moments,' answered Georgina, +'what a +happy death!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Goertz had overheard this conversation, and turned once more +towards +his daughters. 'You will go hence directly back to your dwelling,' said +he earnestly.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Father!' stammered Georgina, 'shall I not see you once more?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is your father's last command!' cried Goertz. 'Wouldst +thou bind my +soul to earth, through sorrow for thee, when its wings were already +joyfully raised to take its flight to its creator? Take my daughters +home, Gyllenstierna!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Forward!' growled Baumgardt. 'God bless you, my loves!' cried +Goertz +with a stronger voice, and followed his guards.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Nine days had passed, since the ground under the Swedish +gallows had +drunk the blood of the worthy German. The evening was closing in, all +the bells of the capital were tolling, and the thunder of cannon was +heard from the Ritterholm, in honor of the royal hero who at this hour +was committed to the tomb of his fathers. Arwed entered Georgina's +room. He found her with Magdalena and her only maid, (whom she still +retained,) in their traveling dresses.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I thank you for coming so punctually,' said Georgina. 'You +are now to +render me the last service. It is not without danger, but I know you, +and therefore demand it without hesitation.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Every thing for thee!' cried Arwed passionately.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then accompany me,' said she, 'upon my way to the performance +of a +difficult duty, in which I need a man's aid. Have every thing ready,' +said she to her maid servant. 'If heaven favor our attempt, we shall +soon return, directly to leave this horrible country!'</p> + +<p class="normal">She took Arwed's arm and proceeded with him to the bank of the +Norderstrom. There a boat was in waiting, in which were Goertz' +Holstein servants. The oars moved and the boat soon floated forth upon +the peaceful lake. Georgina, wrapped in her cloak, sat upon the deck +observing the stars which here and there discovered themselves in the +deepening gloom of the evening.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What project have you in hand, Georgina?' at length asked +Arwed +anxiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will now make it known to you,' answered she. 'I am going +for my +father's corpse. Ungrateful Sweden shall not hold his bones.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My God, you risk your life!' cried Arwed with alarm.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I think not,' she calmly answered. 'Public duty and curiosity +have +drawn all Stockholm to witness the funeral solemnities of the king, and +I hope to find the place deserted. And of what consequence would be my +life? I risk it joyfully in the performance of my filial duty! If you +fear the service, say where I shall land you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You afflict me undeservedly!' complained Arwed. 'Sooner +should the +royal council affix my name to the gallows from which you are about to +tear its prey, than I would desert your side. Only for you was I +anxious. Even if every thing succeed, this undertaking is unsuited to +your years and sex.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ah, dear Arwed!' said Georgina, 'I have lived long in a short +time, +and great afflictions give new strength to the heart. Seek not to +dissuade me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Both remained silent while the convoy moved rapidly and +undisturbedly +onward. At length the boat landed, and they got out. Two of the +servants drew a litter from beneath the deck, and bore it ashore. The +others followed with cords, shovels and pick-axes.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Remain here,' said Arwed to Georgina. 'I will superintend the +labor +and spare you at least that pain.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No,' answered she, 'it must all be fulfilled. But you may +accompany +me, that I may have a friend to lean upon if the body should prove +weaker than the will.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The melancholy company moved silently forward through the +stillness of +the night. At length the gallows arose awfully before them in huge and +undefined outline.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It was here,' whispered one of the servants, stopping.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Here?' sobbed Georgina, falling down and kissing the holy +ground.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Now to the work, faithful friends,' said she, rising up.</p> + +<p class="normal">With restless zeal the labor was commenced with pick-axe and +shovel, +and soon the silver clamps upon the black coffin glistened from the +depth. Two of the servants sprang into the grave and made room for +themselves on each side until they succeeded in passing the cords under +the coffin. It was slowly drawn up and placed upon the litter.</p> + +<p class="normal">During the time which had thus elapsed, Georgina had stood by +with +folded hands, engaged in prayer. The litter was quickly raised, and the +little train moved silently back to the shore with its sad burden. +Georgina followed, requiring all of Arwed's strength to sustain her +tottering steps. The coffin was placed in the boat, which immediately +put off.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is done!' cried Georgina, convulsively clasping Arwed's +hand. 'I +thank thee.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And now?' asked the faithful youth.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You will soon learn,' answered Georgina, remaining buried in +reflection until they landed at the Blasiusholm. A merchant ship lay at +anchor near by. The maiden now arose, as in the golden times of her +happy love, and throwing her arms about Arwed's neck, pressed her +ice-cold lips to his. 'Farewell forever, dear Arwed!' breathed she in a +scarcely articulate tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What say you?' cried Arwed in alarm, encircling her with his +arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It cannot be otherwise,' answered she, extricating herself +from his +embrace. 'This ship takes me and my father's corpse to Hamburg.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not without me, faithless one!' angrily exclaimed Arwed. 'Fly +to the +new world--fly from life, if you will--and still I will accompany you!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Let us not revive our former sad strife,' said she +sorrowfully. 'I +must not become yours. You may pain me, but you cannot shake my +determination, which is as unmovable as are my misfortunes.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Georgina!' implored Arwed, clasping her knees. 'You have +always +conducted towards me with such a knightly delicacy, my Arwed,' said +Georgina, laying her cold hand upon his heated brow, 'that I may safely +compare you with any of the lofty exemplars of former times. My love +for you is, indeed, yet stronger than in the moments of its first +confession,--but the blot which rests upon my name forbids my uniting +myself with the son of him who sentenced my innocent father to a +criminal's death. Believe me, even were I weak enough to yield to your +request, we could not be happy together. The remembrance of all that +has occurred would, like a fearful spectre, stand between us, and +self-contempt would follow me even to your arms. Now, the consciousness +of having offered up my love upon the altar of duty, will raise me +above myself and give me strength worthily to bear the afflictions laid +upon me by my God. Wherefore, my friend, I demand of you our separation +as your last love-service, and a true knight must obey his mistress, +when with tearful eyes and broken accents she says to him, <i>Let us +part!</i>'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I go!' exclaimed Arwed, clasping Georgina once more to his +bosom and +to his lips, and rushing forth.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That was the death of the heart!' cried the unhappy maiden, +pressing +her clasped hands upon her bosom.--' What may hereafter come is not +worth consideration. Let me but satisfy the world of my father's +innocence, just God, and then take me to thyself and to him in thy +heavenly kingdom.'</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The next morning, as lieutenant general Rank was mounting the +steps to +Arwed's quarters, the latter, coming furiously out, rushed directly +against him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Whither so hasty, my good Gyllenstierna?' cried Rank, +grasping his +arm. 'I was coming to seek you, and have something of importance to +say.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And I have something of yet greater importance to do, sir +general,' +answered Arwed in a singular tone. 'I shall take upon myself to act as +a lawyer, and talk to the judges about a second appeal.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I fear you are planning some evil, and shall not suffer you +to go +out!' cried Rank, dragging the youth entirely up the steps. When they +had reached his room he gave him a searching look. From Arwed's pale +countenance, wild glaring eyes and disordered dress, it was evident +that he had not been in bed the preceding night, and the handles of a +pair of pistols were seen projecting from the bosom of his coat.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Young man, what do you intend?' asked Rank. 'I have become +your +friend, and cannot allow you to make yourself unhappy.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The injustice,' answered Arwed, 'which conducted Goertz to +the +scaffold, has robbed me of all the happiness of my existence. Georgina +has rejected me and bidden an eternal farewell to Sweden. I will now +devote the rest of my miserable life to some useful purpose, and assume +the office of Nemesis. The judges who condemned the innocent, shall +answer it to me before the mouth of my pistol or the point of my sword, +and with their worthy president will I make a beginning!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Calm yourself,' said Rank. Count Ribbing cannot be called to +account +by you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He shall, he must!' cried Arwed, with flashing eyes. 'The +wretch, by +signing the sentence, has declared that Goertz had lived dishonorably +and should therefore die ignominiously! It will be honor enough for him +to die as a cavalier by the hands of an honorable man!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He can no longer be held answerable to you,' repeated Rank. +'He is +dead!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Dead!' reiterated Arwed, shuddering.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Even before the execution of Goertz, was he attacked by +apoplexy,' +pursued Rank, 'and instantly expired. His death was for a time kept a +secret from the people, who might have drawn various sinister +conclusions from the occurrence, but I cannot understand how you could +have remained so long ignorant of it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have paid no attention to the news of the capital during +the last +week,' answered Arwed in a low tone of voice. 'Dead! The executioner +gone before the victim! I am sorry for it. I will then seek the public +prosecutor, and thank him for the gratitude he evinced towards his +patron.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Would you contend with a cripple? Fehmann also has been +smitten. He +now lies very low, and, if he ever recover, he will, nevertheless, +remain a maimed man the remainder of his life. The living body of the +wretched Hylten is daily consumed by worms, and doctor Molin has fallen +backwards from his seat and broken his neck.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And thus all the ringleaders escape me!' cried Arwed, +stamping with +his foot. 'Stiernkrona is innocent, and the rest were little more than +miserable tools.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You see, my young friend,' said Rank, seizing Arwed's hand, +'that God +himself will fulfill the duties of judge in this case. Assume not the +office of avenger with bold presumption!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Only one of them now remains,' cried Arwed fiercely; 'but he +shall not +escape me!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Whom do you mean?' anxiously asked Rank.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Colonel Baumgardt,' answered Arwed, 'who arrested the martyr, +in +obedience to the commands of a man who at that time had no authority to +issue such an order. Had it not been for his shameful readiness on that +occasion, the noble blood of Goertz would not have flowed.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are right, but I warn you,' said Rank. 'Directly by means +of that +arrest has Baumgardt acquired great favor with the queen. A challenge +upon that ground would not be accepted by him, and would bring you to a +prison.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I thank you for the warning,' answered Arwed. 'But +fortunately the +colonel has injured me personally, and is therefore prepared to receive +a challenge from me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If that be the case,' said Rank, 'and you are not provided +with a +second, I offer you my services in that capacity.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You, general!' cried Arwed with astonishment.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am your friend,' said Rank, 'and will openly prove it, and +at the +same time abjure my political faith. Let it be considered as settled. +Before the duel, however, I advise you to resign your commission. +Indeed it was for that purpose I came to seek you. You have made many +and powerful enemies. Nothing but your father's power and influence has +hitherto preserved you, and even he is angry with you now. If he also +should give you up, you would be lost without redemption.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Only he who gives himself up, is lost,' said Arwed. 'Yet will +I follow +your good counsel. Under the present circumstances there is no longer +honor nor pleasure for me in the Swedish service.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is unfortunate for you, Gyllenstierna,' cried Rank +dejectedly. You +have in you the metal for a Horn or a Torstenson, and it is to be +regretted that your talents cannot be devoted to the service of your +country. Whenever you need my services in your proposed affair, you +know where to find me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He took his leave, and Arwed accompanied him to the door. On +his return +he passed a mirror, and the reflection of his disordered figure caught +his attention.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I look as bad,' cried he, 'as a highway robber, going forth +in pursuit +of his prey. This is not as it should be. Even the just anger of an +honorable man should not wear this appearance. Stern business should be +sternly executed; but with a due regard to outward appearances, so that +the wretch whom I am about to punish may not be able to complain that I +have neglected what good manners prescribe.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He drew the pistols from his bosom, and laid them aside. Then +ringing +for his servant, he dressed himself with unusual care. The rich gala +uniform contrasted strangely and frightfully with the suppressed anger +upon his beautiful pale face. He buckled on his sword again, and +proceeded to the Ritterholm in search of his antagonist.</p> + +<p class="normal">The parade before the palace had commenced. The troops were +already +marched to the square, and the officers were walking to and fro in +masses, or conversing together in isolated groups. 'Have you heard of +it?' asked adjutant Kolbert, slopping up to Arwed; Baumgardt has become +a major general, and had conferred upon him the order of the seraphim. +It will be announced to-day in general orders.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'There he comes already,' scoffingly observed count Posse, who +had +joined the group; 'and his face shines as did that of Moses when he +retired from the presence of the Most Holy.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am glad of it,' said Arwed, 'I shall have an opportunity to +congratulate him upon the spot.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile Baumgardt had descended the palace steps with a +stately air, +and now approached them. Already, at a distance, glistened the star and +band upon his breast, and with proud condescension he bowed right and +left to the subaltern officers who gathered round for the purpose of +congratulating him.</p> + +<p class="normal">With firm and rapid strides Arwed stepped directly in front of +the +fortunate man. The latter was somewhat surprised when he recognised +him, and turned pale upon observing the frightful earnestness expressed +by his features. 'I must most respectfully request a short conversation +with you, sir major general,' said Arwed very courteously. 'You will +have the goodness to remember that I reserved this claim when we +separated at Amal.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I know not....' stammered Baumgardt, in the embarrassment of +his +surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You allowed yourself,' proceeded Arwed, 'in the parsonage at +Tanum and +in the camp before Frederickshall, to use certain expressions injurious +to my honor, and my situation now for the first time allows me to ask +an explanation of them.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Whatever I may have said,' answered Baumgardt sullenly, 'was +in the +discharge of my official duty, and therefore I am not to be called to +account for it by any person.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'According to my view,' said Arwed coolly, 'on that occasion +you +overstepped the bounds of your duty. You will therefore have the +goodness to give me the satisfaction due to a man of honor.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do not know,' answered Baumgardt, 'whether I as a general +am bound +to fight with a captain.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But as a cavalier you dare not refuse satisfaction to the +count +Gyllenstierna,' cried Arwed warmly. 'If, however, you have any doubts +upon that point, the corps of officers at the capitol may decide the +matter.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I doubt only,' said Baumgardt scornfully, 'whether you can +find any +one willing to act as your second in so extraordinary an affair, in +which I see only the quixotism of youth, which I am willing to pardon.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have consented to act as the count's second,' said Rank, +who had +just joined them.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your excellency!' exclaimed Baumgardt with surprise. 'That is +indeed +quite another affair. I fight with pistols, and fire advancing,' said +he to Arwed, after a moment's reflection.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The choice was yours,' answered Arwed, bowing. 'I thank you +for +meeting my wishes in this manner. When shall it be?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'To-morrow morning at ten o'clock, upon the Peckholm, opposite +the +park,' answered Baumgardt, gloomily.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I shall have the honor to await you there,' said Arwed, with +a very +low bow, and turned upon his heel.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The next morning Arwed was walking silently up and down the +banks of +the Peckholm with lieutenant general Rank, awaiting the arrival of the +boat which was to bring his adversary. Arwed's pistols with their +apparatus were lying upon his cloak, which was spread out under a tall +pine tree.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are so tranquil, my friend!' said Rank, breaking the long +silence; +'indeed, the moments passed in awaiting a duel are most intolerable. I +know it by my own experience. Perhaps you begin to regret your +proceeding? It is not to be doubted that the pistol shot which you are +about to exchange will be the burial salute of your happiness in this +kingdom--for the queen will never pardon you. Therefore, if your +resolution has become somewhat weaker, it is yet time. Major general +Baumgardt is too happy with his new promotion and his new orders, not +to wish to wear his honors some years yet, and will very willingly +agree to any other reparation.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, general,' answered Arwed; 'God forbid that I should +meanly convert +an honorable combat into a piece of buffoonery. A reconciliation +between a challenge and a duel, I have always deemed a contemptible +proceeding. It was the firmness, even, of my resolution, that made me +still, as it places me near the gates of death, which to me is a +consideration of great solemnity, and as I shall contend for the +innocence of our friend before the eyes of all Europe.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Brave youth!' cried Rank, embracing him with much emotion. +'In +heaven's name fight. If you fall, I will revenge your death as a good +second should.'</p> + +<p class="normal">At this moment the clock of St. Katharine's tower struck ten, +and +directly afterwards Baumgardt's boat landed through the splashing waves +of the lake. In company with another officer he jumped ashore, and gave +a coldly polite greeting to those who had been waiting his arrival. +With silent activity the two assistants placed the barriers, and, +thrusting their swords into the ground some distance apart, stretched a +cord from one to the other.</p> + +<p class="normal">'How many paces, general?' asked Rank, stepping midway of the +cord.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Twenty!' answered Baumgardt morosely.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is a great distance!' calmly remarked Arwed, and each +measured +twenty paces from the cord and marked the points.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Here, Gyllenstierna!' cried Rank, and Arwed took his place, +whilst +Baumgardt stepped to the opposite point, which his second had marked. +Both stood eyeing each other with folded arms. The weapons were not yet +placed in their hands, but the glances of hatred exchanged were more +deadly than the bullets.</p> + +<p class="normal">The seconds had loaded the pistols, and the combatants now +received +them from their hands. 'Let him prevail who has the right!' whispered +Rank to Arwed, stepping aside.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is yet proper to ask,' said Baumgardt's second, 'whether +this +affair may not be arranged in some other way?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'In no other possible way!' cried Arwed. 'In this the major +general +will certainly agree with me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'In no other way!' muttered the general. His second then left +his side, +and the two combatants began slowly advancing, and with each step +mentally measuring the distance which divided them from each other. +They had advanced scarcely five steps, when with Baumgardt the fear of +death prevailing, and with Arwed his eagerness for the fight conquering +all prudence and discretion, they both fired almost at the same moment. +Arwed's ball struck Baumgardt's hat from his head, and his opponent's +grazed Arwed's left arm. But the latter, throwing away the discharged +pistol, and taking the loaded one in his right hand, cautiously +advanced.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baumgardt followed his example, and advanced with a pale face, +blue +lips and bristling hair. While Arwed was observing the alteration which +extreme anxiety caused in the countenance of his adversary, the latter +elevated his weapon and continued slowly to approach, with his eye +intently fixed upon Arwed's breast. Then swelled Arwed's heart, and the +thirst for blood which now sparkled in Baumgardt's eyes, reminded him +of the fiendlike expression of his face on the morning of the execution +of Goertz.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your time has come! Forward!' cried the youth, in the same +words +Baumgardt had used on that occasion, raising his arm at the same +moment. With sudden terror Baumgardt fired and missed--whilst his arm, +struck and shattered by Arwed's ball, fell helplessly by his side.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My God!' cried his second, springing to his side, and +supporting the +fainting man.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My arm is gone!' said Baumgardt, grating his teeth and +sinking upon +the grass over which his blood was streaming. 'I am an invalid for +life. Why could not the booby's bullet have struck my heart or head, +and so have ended the matter at once!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed now approached his adversary with Rank, who had bound a +handkerchief upon his bleeding arm.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am sorry, general,' said he, kindly, 'and my anger vanishes +with +your running blood. May this misfortune awaken in you a true and +heartfelt repentance for what you have done. I am appeased,--make your +peace with God!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What are you chattering there?' cried Rank indignantly, +whilst +Baumgardt scornfully rejected Arwed's proffered hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Take my hand,' said Arwed; 'it is the hand of reconciliation. +Imagine +that it is offered to you by the innocent Goertz, whom your conduct led +to the scaffold.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Did not I tell you,' cried Baumgardt to his second, 'that +this +senseless quarrel had a political origin? You will be a witness for me +with her majesty.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Overcome by pain, he fell back powerless.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your thoughtless words will cost you your head,' said Rank, +hastily +dragging the youth with him down to the shore.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Arwed was sitting in his quarters, and his regimental surgeon +had just +finished bandaging the wound in his arm, when old Brodin entered in +great perplexity.</p> + +<p class="normal">'His excellency, your father,' whispered he, 'desires to speak +with you +alone. He will be here directly.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It will not be a very pleasant interview,' sighed Arwed, +motioning the +surgeon to absent himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are not far out of the way,' said Brodin, after the +surgeon had +retired. 'His excellency is very angry with you. I have, therefore, +hastened here before him to prepare you for his visit and to beg of +you, as an old, true and zealous servant of your house--if the anger of +the old gentleman should carry him too far, that you will still +remember that he is your father, and listen to what he may please to +say to you, not as a captain of the guards, but as a son.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I thank you for the warning, worthy friend, and will obey +you,' +answered Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">The door now opened, and with a flaming, red face, the old +counsellor +entered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The old tell-tale already here,' cried he, 'plotting with the +lost +son? I would be alone with the captain.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Brodin made a submissive, exculpatory gesture, whereby he at +the same +time seemed to beg permission to remain--but the old man pointed +angrily towards the door, and Brodin unwillingly retired.</p> + +<p class="normal">'So, you have fought to-day with major general Baumgardt?' +asked the +father with assumed calmness.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes,' answered the son, 'but without any important +consequences. I am +but slightly injured, and his life is also out of danger.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Right!' cried the father, with somewhat increasing vehemence. +'So the +trifle of rendering a general, who is particularly valued by the queen, +a cripple for life, is a mere ordinary affair.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He walked two or three times up and down the room, and then +opened a +window and looked out. After a while he turned again towards Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'God is my witness,' cried he, shutting the window with great +violence, +'God is my witness, that I have been forbearing as an angel, but your +conduct would make an Epictetus furious. To challenge the major general +just at the moment when the queen, by promotion and knighthood, had +declared him her favorite--to shatter his arm, and then confidentially +to tell him that it was on account of his arresting Goertz, to which +arrest Ulrika is probably indebted for her crown! Would it indeed be +possible, by the widest stretch of fancy, to imagine a proceeding more +senseless and ruinous than yours?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The party spirit,' answered Arwed, 'which divides our +country, early +teaches every Swede to choose his side; and, in a land so disturbed by +political storms, a peculiar disgrace seems to rest upon neutrality. +Blame me not then, my dear father, if I also have formed my principles; +and be not angry because they are not exactly like yours. If you have +nothing to pardon me for, except that, having once chosen my party, I +have remained true to it in every emergency, that circumstance should, +as I think, honor me in your eyes.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'<i>Honor!</i>' cried the counsellor angrily. '<i>You</i> dare to talk +of honor, +<i>you!</i>'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What mean you by that? 'asked Arwed with vehemence.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where were you on the evening of the king's funeral +solemnities?' +thundered the father.</p> + +<p class="normal">'With Georgina,' answered he, not without great astonishment +at the +question.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The body of Goertz,' said the counsellor, with fierce energy, +'was on +that very night stolen from the place of execution. You, perhaps, can +tell how it happened.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I find it very natural,' answered Arwed, 'that those who +loved the +unhappy man, and are firmly convinced of the injustice of his +condemnation, should, at least, have borne off his remains from the +unworthy resting place in which he was left by the malice of his +enemies.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And if,' proceeded the counsellor, in a slow, cutting tone, +'if a +Swedish officer had commanded this nocturnal expedition, what fate do +you think would await him under the present government?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed, by this question, perceiving with a secret shudder that +his +father knew all, remained silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Dishonorable dismission!' sternly exclaimed the counsellor; +'and +possibly, as an especial mercy, imprisonment for life!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If the senate require only my confession to enable it to pass +the +sentence,' cried Arwed with violence, 'you may be the bearer of that +confession to it. I am too proud to deny what my heart impelled me to +do.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The father stood a long time looking at his son with powerful +emotion. +'Yes!' he finally broke forth, 'yes, you are a Gyllenstierna! With our +failings you unite all the virtues of our family. Holding fast that +which has been once chosen--noble even in our errors--so were we +always. And so much the deeper is my regret that so many good qualities +must be forever lost to the country.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'From these expressions,' said Arwed, 'I must infer that you +bring me +already the decision of my fate. If so, speak it without hesitation. I +am prepared to receive it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The queen was beside herself,' answered the counsellor, 'when +she +heard of your last misdeed; and had she obeyed the first suggestions of +her rage, you would now have been in chains, awaiting a decision +involving life or death.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Little souls are generally cruel,' observed Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'As a father I pleaded for my disobedient son,' continued the +counsellor; 'and it is not strange that the man, whose duty it will be +to place the crown upon Ulrika's head at Upsala, should not plead +entirely in vain. A full pardon was not, indeed, to be thought of. Yet +have I succeeded so far in the business, that she has left the +designation of your punishment to her husband. To him I shall now lead +you; and what he thinks proper to inflict, must be received by you with +humility and thankfulness.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If consistent with honor,' answered Arwed, taking his hat; +'otherwise +I shall demand a court martial.'</p> + +<p class="normal">They went forth together. In the entrance-hall they were +joined by two +officers of the guards, who, with them, entered a carriage which was +waiting at the door. They soon arrived at the palace upon the +Ritterholm. The two Gyllenstiernas, with their companions, ascended the +steps to the apartments of the prince of Hesse, who came forward to +meet them with a sealed paper in his hand. Only lieutenant general Rank +was with him, who gave an encouraging wink to Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have deeply erred, captain Gyllenstierna,' said the +prince, +earnestly. 'The severe letter of the law must inevitably crush you, +were not the hand of mercy interposed. But my wife wishes to convince +the nobles of the land that her royal heart gladly inclines to mercy, +willingly pardoning when it is in her power to do so, and she also +wishes to evince her respect for your worthy father, by even undeserved +kindness towards his son. Yet must you be informed, that a man who has +declared open war against the state through his audacious acts, +cannot remain in his country's service, and that the government +must be secured from any repetition of his offences. Therefore receive +from me your dismission from the Swedish army. You may thank your +heroism before Frederickshall, and the distinction of which my royal +brother-in-law thought you worthy, that this dismissal is united with +the title of major, which you will henceforth be entitled to bear. Yet +your crime must not go entirely unpunished. Wherefore the queen +banishes you forever from the limits of the capital, and exacts from +you a promise that you will never pass the frontier of the nation, and +that you will never again meddle with the political affairs of this +kingdom, under pain of death. Your father will receive your promise, +and will determine your future place of residence. May time make you +wiser!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Handing to the youth the paper containing his discharge from +the +service, he departed and was followed by Rank. 'God bless your royal +highness!' cried the elder Gyllenstierna after him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'So, I am a prisoner of state in Sweden,' said Arwed with a +bitter +smile. 'It is fortunate that my prison is tolerably spacious. Where is +it your pleasure that I shall go, my father?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'To Gyllensten, to my brother,' answered the counsellor, +'after you +have signed the required promise, which I must return to her majesty.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He pointed to a paper lying upon the marble table. Arwed +hastily run +his eye through the written promise, and subscribed his name to it; +upon which the two officers, who had hitherto guarded the door, +immediately left the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">'To Gyllensten!' exclaimed Arwed, gratefully kissing his +father's hand, +'to the loved resort of my childhood, to my good old-uncle! How good +you still are, my father, even when you punish. How deeply do I regret +that I have caused you so much sorrow.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You bad boy!' cried the father with strong emotion, pressing +him to +his bosom. 'And if I pardon you every thing else, I will not pardon you +for depriving yourself of the power of serving your father-land, whose +golden age is just commencing.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'May heaven grant,' answered Arwed, 'that Sweden may not soon +wish back +the departed <i>iron</i> age! I shall always think that the strong will of +one only ruler can direct the government more consistently and happily, +than the constantly divided opinions of the four and twenty little +kings who are now to rule the country, even though you yourself are one +of these kings, my father.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Silence! you are incorrigible!' cried the old counsellor, +drawing his +son with him out of the palace.</p> + +<br> + +<br> + +<h1>ARWED GYLLENSTIERNA.</h1> +<br> +<h3>A TALE OF THE EARLY PART OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.</h3> +<br> +<h2>BY C. F. VAN DER VELDE,</h2> + +<hr class="W10"> + +<h2>PART SECOND.</h2> + + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Directly northward, by the west coast of the gulf of Bothnia, +through +Gestrikland, Helsingland, Medelpat, and Angermannland, Arwed rapidly +pursued his expiatory journey, until he reached the southern boundary +of the province of West Bothnia, in which Nicodemus, count +Gyllenstierna, the counsellor's elder brother, presided as governor. On +arriving at the broad river Umea, which here empties its floods into +the gulf of Bothnia, Arwed reined in his horse, and, while his groom +made a signal for the ferry-boat stationed on the opposite side, +reviewed the scenery which had always remained impressed upon his +memory, and which now called up a thousand reminiscences of his early +childhood. To the right, on the sea-shore, and at the mouth of the +broad stream, lay the capital of the poor, depopulated province, the +little town of Umea, to which only its harbor with its clustering +masts, gave any importance. To the left arose the lofty Gyllensten, the +old ancestral castle of the house of Gyllenstierna throned proudly upon +its massive rocks, and bordered by a forest of dark pines. The broad +plain which intervened between the higher elevations and the river, +exhibited evidence of unusual fruitfulness for these northern regions. +The magnificent, clear, blue arch, which, in the west rested upon +Lapland's distant snow-clad mountains, and in the east upon the dark +mirror of the sea, completed the picture which nature, rich even in her +poverty and gorgeous in her simplicity, offered to the eye of the +observer.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My fatherland is every where beautiful!' exclaimed he with +emotion; +'and this solitary nook, how well suited to my feelings! Yes, I feel +that here I can again be happy!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The ferry-boat came, and Arwed sprang upon the floating +bridge. The +groom carefully led up the spirited horses, which were somewhat +frightened, and made a vigorous resistance when they heard the hollow +sound of their footsteps upon the boards. Arwed seized the bridle of +his gallant steed, caressed him into a state of quietude, and leaning +upon the glossy neck of the animal, extended his view over the waves of +the stream upon which the boat was now moving to Gyllensten, whose old, +gothic walls and towers were every moment more and more distinctly seen +between the lofty pines and rocks in the intermediate distance.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is the balcony,' said he to Knut, the faithful old +boatman, 'from +which I and my little cousin Christine used formerly to watch the ships +as they entered the port. The child will be much pleased to see me +again. She was always very much attached to me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The <i>child</i>!' exclaimed Knut laughing. 'She was at that time +eight +years old, as well as yourself, major. Eleven years have passed since +then. Do you think that you alone have increased in stature during that +long period? The child must have become a stately young lady.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are right,' said Arwed with a melancholy smile, 'I have +experienced so many vicissitudes lately, that my computation of time is +a little disturbed.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Leaning his head upon his arm, and resting the latter upon his +horse's +saddle, he sank into a profound reverie. 'I shall find a grown up +daughter in my uncle's house,' said he to himself. 'Possibly a right +beauteous maiden, with whom my near relationship must bring me into +familiar intercourse. Did this really enter into my father's plans? Did +he hope that I should here sever old ties and form new ones? If so, he +has deceived himself! But one Georgina blooms for me in this world! +while she lives, lives also my hope, and the mere remembrance of her is +sufficient to steel my heart against the attractions of all the women +upon earth.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The sudden shock with which the boat struck the shore aroused +the youth +from his contemplations. He threw himself upon his horse and briskly +trotted towards Gyllensten. When he had reached its base, and was +slowly riding up the steep and rocky ascent, a little flag, displaying +the golden star, the escutcheon of Gyllenstierna, suddenly waved from +the pinnacle of the tower. Two falconets then exploded so briskly to +the right and left from the walls, that his horse made three powerful +leaps; and a flourish of trumpets and kettle drums followed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is it possible that this can be intended for me?'--and +putting his +horse to a quick gallop, he soon sprang through the high gothic arched +gateway into the court of the castle. Again was heard a merry trumpet +blast, a window of the castle hall was opened, and a massive silver +goblet was extended towards the new comer by the old governor.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Welcome, brave Swede!' cried he joyously to the guest below; +'welcome +to Gyllensten! Down from your horse and come up and pledge me in the +hall of our forefathers!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed, obeying, soon entered the long, high-vaulted, echoing +knight's +hall, in whose niches on either side of the worthy old Gyllenstierna, +stood colossal statues, in complete armor chased in copper. The shining +metal reflected upon him the last rays of the setting sun so brightly, +that he was compelled to protect his eyes with his hand from their +blinding red brilliancy.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile the uncle, who Was afflicted with the gout, had +trundled his +movable chair toward his nephew. 'Aha!' exclaimed he, laughing, 'the +old lords shine a brilliant greeting upon thee, as they should upon so +worthy a descendant of their house. So is it also my duty to do; and if +I do not perform it with quite so much grace, the fault must be +attributed to this rascally gout, which rages in my bones as if the +whole Russian army were marauding there.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed, kissing the old count's hand, protested against all +ceremony; +the latter, however, would not be persuaded, but slowly raised himself +from his chair, suppressing the pain it gave him, until he stood +upright before his nephew. His purple velvet cap, from under which his +thin white locks escaped, his sharply delineated, intelligent, good +humored, and withal bold face, which the lines of age and experience +had but ennobled, his tall and powerful frame, set off with an +ermine-lined green hunting dress, altogether gave him the appearance of +one of the old Norman princes of long forgotten times, and Arwed +involuntarily started back before the noble figure.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My dear nephew!' said the old man with his deep and thrilling +voice, +and holding aloft the silver goblet with solemn dignity, 'once again I +welcome thee to the castle of our ancestors, and from this goblet I +drink to thy welfare and to our common lineage.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He drank, and then handed the goblet to the youth, who, after +draining +it, tenderly embraced his worthy uncle. Sinking back into his chair, +the old man pointed to the window, where stood a table replenished with +wine and drinking cups.</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed wheeled him to it, and, sitting down, filled his goblet +afresh.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Now, what news do you bring, captain?' asked the uncle with a +hearty +shake of the hand; 'or perhaps a yet higher title--hey?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am dismissed, with the rank of major,' answered Arwed, with +a slight +shrug of the shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I understand,' cried the uncle. 'Punishment and reward, wound +and +balsam, all in a breath. One may see by this, that a woman governs in +Sweden. She holds to the doctrine according to the excellent German +proverb, of washing the fur without wetting it. With Charles XII you +would not have escaped so easily! All that has occurred redounds to +your credit, and the 'out of service,' attached to your rank of major, +is as honorable to you as would be the order of the seraphim.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Where is cousin Christine?' asked Arwed, to interrupt his +uncle's +praises, which covered his cheeks with blushes.</p> + +<p class="normal">'She rode out to meet you,' answered the old man, 'I should +have +accompanied her, but my gouty feet forbade it. The king's death and my +anxiety for its consequences, have so pulled me down that I came this +time very near going, and shall never entirely recover from the shock. +I cannot imagine how the maiden could have missed you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'May she not have met with some accident?' cried Arwed +apprehensively. +'I will mount my horse again and seek her.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do not trouble yourself,' said his uncle smilingly, and +holding him +back. 'She is no timid maiden, who needs protection. She is a virago, +who can take care of herself in every exigence. Beasts of prey and +robbers fear her, not she them. Besides, she is not alone. A military +comrade of your's accompanies her.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A military comrade of mine?' asked Arwed with astonishment. +'Who can +it be?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That I may the better enjoy your surprise, I shall not name +him to +you. He is a good soldier,--so much I will say for him,--and especially +valued by me as a witness of the heroism of our king. We made his +acquaintance when I was at the coronation at Upsala with Christine. +Appearing to feel an interest for the maiden, he has availed himself of +the short truce to obtain a furlough, and will spend some weeks with +us. You will be much pleased to meet him. He speaks of you with great +respect, and has related to us your warlike deeds in so vivid a manner +that we feel as though we had been present during their performance.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Singular!' said Arwed,--and at that moment the rapid +footsteps of a +horse resounded in the court. He hastened to the window. A slender +maiden, almost as tall as Arwed himself, in a dark green riding-habit, +her face partly concealed by a plumed casque, was just then reining in +her foaming courser.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Send to the wolf den in the cluster of fir-trees to the left +of the +road, and bring the venison which lies there,' said she to the groom +who was running to meet her; then, throwing herself from the saddle +with the grace of a riding-master, and with her hand wafting a greeting +up to the windows of the hall, she hastened into the castle.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You will hardly recognise the girl,' said the uncle. 'She has +much +changed, and not altogether according to my wishes. Men are incapable +of rearing and educating women properly, as I have learned too late.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The amazon now entered the hall. The removal of her casque, +which she +held in her hand, permitted a full view of a blooming face of classic +beauty, which her rich golden locks surrounded like a glory. A bold +spirit flashed from her magnificent blue eyes, and her cheeks glowed +with the heat of violent exercise.</p> + +<p class="normal">Without noticing Arwed she strode hastily past him, and, +precipitating +herself upon her father's bosom, impetuously embraced him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Madcap girl!' said the latter with evident pleasure, to his +beautiful +and lively daughter; 'do you not see who is with me in the hall?'</p> + +<p class="normal">She drew up her beautiful form to its full height, and +measured the +youth with a searching glance, in which no expression, other than that +of maiden pride, accompanied by a slight appearance of displeasure, was +discoverable, and Arwed looked in vain for that joy with which he had +expected to be received by his little cousin Christine.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is not this the guest whom you have been expecting, my +father?' she +asked, after a long pause,--and, as her father nodded assent, she +turned to Arwed, saying with great coldness, 'I am happy to see you at +Gyllensten, captain.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Shame upon you, Christine!' said the old man, angrily. 'Is +that a +reception for so near a kinsman, or for the playmate of your childhood? +Fall directly upon his neck, give him a hearty kiss, and say, welcome +cousin Arwed!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The beauteous prude started back with a sinister expression, +and, +spoiled by indulgence, she suffered it to be plainly seen that she had +no desire to obey the parental command.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do not annoy my cousin, uncle,' said Arwed, offended by her +uncourteous manners. 'Christine may already have seen many fops who +have availed themselves of their relationship to intrude upon ladies. +Since I have not the honor to be known to her, I cannot blame her for +thus taking care to insure herself against so disagreeable an +occurrence at the outset.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Christine tossed her head and bit her lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have deserved this,' said her father, 'and may +congratulate +yourself that your cousin has let you off with so mild a punishment. +Tell us now how it was you failed to encounter him on his way to the +castle.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We saw a wolf in a thicket,' answered Christine, 'and I could +not deny +myself the pleasure of hunting him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Only two of you--without hounds?' said the father with +asperity. 'That +was another of those hazardous undertakings to which you have +accustomed me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He appeared to be hungry and made a stand,' said Christine, +by way of +excuse. 'My saddle pistols were ready loaded, and I hit him directly in +the head.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You know I do not like these Nimrod tricks,' murmured the old +man. +'Why hazard your life in a contest with such an animal?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What would life be, father,' cried Christine with thoughtless +levity, +'if one never dared gaily and joyfully to hazard it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I would willingly hear such a sentiment from Arwed,' answered +her +father, shaking his head; 'but it does not sound well from your lips. +What has become of your companion?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'On our way back, he offered me a wager,' said Christine, +laughing, 'as +to which of us would be first at Gyllensten; I gave my horse a loose +rein, and have not seen the good colonel since.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You ought to have been a Cossack,' said the old man +chidingly; and at +that moment a Swedish officer entered the now darkening hall.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Megret!' exclaimed Arwed with amazement.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have lost, colonel!' cried Christine, to the new comer.</p> + +<p class="normal">'A second Thalestris,' answered Megret, gallantly kissing her +hand. 'I +yield myself in disgrace to your mercy. Once have I ridden with you +upon a wager, but never will I again! Though, at all events, I know how +to ride, I have never yet learned to fly.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have the pleasure to present my nephew to you, colonel,' +said the +governor, interrupting them.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What a happy encounter!' said Megret, pretending to derive +much +pleasure from the meeting, and embracing the youth. 'How delightful it +is to me, to greet my dear brother in arms, in a kinsman of this dear +family!'</p> + +<p class="normal">A sensation of the deepest disgust oppressed Arwed's bosom at +the +embrace of the insincere and suspected man. He could not so far control +himself as to repay the dissembler in the same coin, and only answered +with a silent bow.</p> + +<p class="normal">'As we shall probably have the pleasure of seeing you here for +a long +time, my worthy friend,' said Megret, jestingly, and familiarly +pointing to Christine, 'you will consider it the friendly service of a +true knight when I warn you against this lady.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'How so?' asked Arwed, and Christine satirically added, 'the +colonel +probably wishes to inform you, how inexhaustible is his fund of sweet +phrases, which mean nothing and which he himself does not believe.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'How beautiful she is,' continued Megret gaily, 'I need not +remark to a +blooming youth like you. Her mind, nourished by the manna of the old +classics, is a giant that would find its pleasure in storming heaven, +and yet she does not lack the graces. Whenever she is in the humor to +be amiable, she is irresistible. In short she has every quality +requisite to set a man's heart in a flame, and yet I advise every brave +man to guard against her, watchfully, as against something which is at +the same time the most beautiful and dangerous in all the three +kingdoms of nature,--for one all-important quality she lacks!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Now this is enough!' suddenly exclaimed Christine, in a tone +of great +irritation.</p> + +<p class="normal">'She lacks a heart!' continued Megret, laughing and without +suffering +himself to be interrupted. 'She can only <i>wound</i>, not <i>heal</i>. She is a +female Charles the XIIth. She holds the amiable weakness of loving in +utter detestation, and if Hymen does not perform a miracle upon her, +the epitaph must some day be inscribed upon her grave-stone, which +England's Elizabeth desired for herself--Here rests the virgin....'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Shameful!' exclaimed Christine in anger, and striking a heavy +blow +upon Megret's cheek, the amazon disappeared.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The girl is mad!' exclaimed the governor. 'Excuse the +impropriety, +colonel; you shall receive full satisfaction.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Never mind, governor,' answered Megret with a courtly smile +and +rubbing his cheek. 'A cavalier must be content to receive the like from +a lady's hand. I shall occasionally take opportunities to revenge +myself upon the little savage.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The table is served,' announced the steward, and two huntsmen +placed +themselves behind the wheeled chair of the lord of the castle. 'Follow +me, dear gentlemen and friends,' cried the old man, and then, +commanding his men to move him forward, he led the way to the dining +room.</p> + +<p class="normal">Megret, however, remained behind, still rubbing his flaming +cheek, and +conceitedly smiling at his own reflections.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am glad you take the ill-behaviour of my cousin so +lightly,' said +Arwed; 'but I wonder at it, almost as much as at the blow itself, +struck so suddenly, and without sufficient cause.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is even that,' said Megret, interrupting him, 'which makes +me so +tolerant. An entirely indifferent person would not have caused so +violent, a passion. A girl like her must be allowed to behave somewhat +rudely when she is angry. That is perfectly as it should be. If she +supposed that my penetration had discovered her feelings, my jest must +have been considered by her as a bitter mockery. Under these +circumstances I take the angry blow as a declaration according to the +custom of the country, and have only to regret that the ladies of the +north have such heavy hands.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He proceeded towards the dining-room. 'Happy self-conceit!' +cried +Arwed, following him; 'to what may not thy genius give a favorable +construction!'</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXX.</h2> + +<p class="normal">In the dining room, innumerable dishes were already smoking +upon the +supper table as Megret and Arwed entered; yet the governor was sitting +at the sideboard, in accordance with an old Norman custom, amusing +himself with the favorite Swedish preliminary to a good meal, knakebrod +and whiskey. Occasionally he cast an impatient glance towards the door. +'Where is my daughter?' asked he of a servant, who had just entered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The countess is ill,' he answered, 'and begs you will receive +her +apology for not being able to appear at the table.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'This is another of her whims,' said the old man angrily, 'of +which she +has more than my Polish charger. Go again to her, Rasmus, and say, I +command her to be instantly well, and to come and preside at the +table.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Megret advanced to speak a kind word in behalf of the +capricious +beauty--but the governor motioned him back, and the servant departed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Christine soon made her appearance, her eyes cast down and her +face +glowing with displeasure. She silently took her place by her chair, and +motioned to the persons present to seat themselves.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Before we are seated,' said her father, sternly, 'the affair +between +you and the colonel must be adjusted. You will ask his pardon.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Spare me, my father!' implored Christine. 'If the colonel +requires +satisfaction I will exchange shots with him; but sooner may you drive +me from the castle than I will ask the pardon of any man upon earth.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Que Dieu m'en garde!' cried Megret laughing. 'Your eyes are +accustomed +to hitting and wounding men's hearts, and you would have a manifest +advantage over me. A blow from so beauteous a hand can as little +inflict dishonor as the knight-creating stroke of a king's sword upon a +victorious battle-field.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have more luck than understanding,' remarked the +governor, at the +same time causing himself to be conveyed to the table. For the future, +however, I shall expect that you will not forget the treatment which is +due to thy father's worthy guests.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The maiden submissively kissed her father's hand and took her +place on +his left; Megret seated himself on his right, and Christine nodded to +Arwed to sit by her; but he went round the table and seated himself by +Megret.</p> + +<p class="normal">Christine observed this movement with great surprise. 'I love +free +conversation at the table,' whispered he smilingly to her, 'and have no +helmet to protect me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Insufferable!' murmured she, and in her anger at his +unsparing irony, +filled her father's goblet so full, that the good old burgundy +overflowed and colored the exquisite damask table cloth.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her father was again reproving her for this new impropriety, +when the +servant announced sir Mac Donalbain, and Christine started with a look +of mingled joy and alarm.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is heartily welcome!' cried the governor, and a tall, well +built +man, about thirty years old, entered the hall. He wore a short, green +overcoat with copper buttons. At his broad leather girdle, in which two +pistols were inserted, hung a broad sabre, and in his hand he carried a +double-barrelled gun. His sunburnt face was not regularly handsome, but +the spirit and boldness which characterized it, rendered it +interesting. The wild black eyes, however, which peered from under his +dark brows, and a few wrinkles on his forehead and about his mouth, +gave him a grim and disagreeable expression. Arwed, who glanced now at +him and now at the polished Frenchman, compared the two, and came to +the conclusion that he was not in the very best of company.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Whence do you come so late, sir Mac Donalbain?' kindly asked +the +governor.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have been hunting in the Asele Lappmark,' answered the +guest, laying +aside his weapons and boldly seating himself near Christine. 'I had got +belated, and the light of your hospitable castle shone so invitingly +that I concluded to ask of you entertainment for the night.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'This worthy Scot is in a certain sense a brother sufferer of +yours, +dear major, in so far as the death of our king has destroyed his +prosperity as well as yours. He had the assurance of an advantageous +post in our army, made a long journey to come here, found his hopes +annihilated by the death of the king, and for the present lives upon +his income, at Hernoesand, awaiting better times.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Singular!' remarked Megret, whilst the brother sufferers +bowed +silently to each other. 'I was lately at Hernoesand, and could hear +nothing of you there, although I took particular pains to find you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I reside there no longer,' answered Mac Donalbain, not +without some +embarrassment. 'A difficulty which I had there, induced me to remove to +Arnaes.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A difficulty?' asked Megret, smiling. 'I am sorry for that. I +hope it +was not with the public authorities?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'One readily perceives, colonel,' interfered Christine, with +bitterness, 'that you are a foreigner. In hospitable Sweden, such +questions are not allowable, even from the host himself, much less from +one guest to another.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why so excited, countess?' asked Megret with his customary +cold smile. +'If sir Mac Donalbain <i>will</i> not or <i>cannot</i> answer my question, I +shall be content. He has my sympathy, notwithstanding; and, in my +journey back to Stockholm, I should be pleased to go round by Arnaes to +take personal leave of him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'However agreeable that might be to me,' said Mac Donalbain +equivocally, 'I must yet by anticipation regret that probably you would +not meet me. The amusement of the chase is my passion, and I am almost +always abroad.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'So it appears,' said Megret with a piercing glance, and, +turning to +the governor, he commenced a conversation with him, respecting the +preparations for war making by Denmark and Russia, which threatened +poor Sweden anew. Arwed who took a part in this discussion, could not +forbear casting an occasional scrutinizing glance at Mac Donalbain, who +had commenced a low and apparently interesting conversation with +Christine. He saw how the dark eyes of the Scot flashed upon the +angelic countenance of the maiden, saw how the latter regarded her wild +neighbor with a mixture of fear and anger, of passion and aversion, and +he thought, 'what a pity it would be, if this beautiful and innocent +creature should have thrown away her heart upon such a man!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The table was at length cleared. Megret and Mac Donalbain bade +their +host good night and went to their chambers. Christine kissed her father +with humble tenderness, and in a low voice asked him, 'are you still +angry?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Amend yourself, perverse girl,' said the old man; and gently +parting +the golden locks from her fair forehead, impressed upon it an +affectionate parental kiss.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My kind, kind father! indeed I do not deserve so much love,' +cried the +maiden, with deep emotion, pressing his hand to her heaving bosom. She +then arose and departed, giving an unfriendly glance and a slighting +nod as she passed Arwed. He also wished to seek his bed; but his uncle +drew him into a chair near him and filled his goblet again.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You must help me finish the last bottle, major,' said he. 'I +have not +at all enjoyed your company yet, and must say to you once more, now we +are alone, how dear you are to me. Truly you have come to my house in a +good hour! and I hope at some future time to have much to thank you +for.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'How mean you that, dear uncle?' asked Arwed, with some +surprise, and +partly anticipating the point to which the old man was leading.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why should I dissemble with you?' burst forth the old man. +'Your +father, indeed, gave me long and broad instructions at Upsala, how I +should conduct myself toward you; but this spying and tacking and +managing may be all very proper in the royal council, and yet not with +so clear and honorable a Swedish mind as yours. Therefore, short and +round, you are the right man for my Christine,--you or none.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I, dear uncle!' answered Arwed, laughing. 'The commencement +of our +renewed acquaintance did not seem like it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That indeed, I observed with regret,' confessed the uncle. +'But who +regards women's humors, which change as quickly as the fashion of their +garments. Bucephalus was a wild and vicious horse, and yet he found his +man who knew how to manage him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That was the great Alexander, however,' replied Arwed, +continuing the +jest. 'I have not vanity enough to put myself on a par with that hero; +and, even if I were compelled to attempt the one or the other, I should +rather undertake the taming of Bucephalus than of my fair cousin.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'She is headstrong,' sighed the uncle; 'that, alas! I must +myself +acknowledge; I, her father, who have permitted her to grow up without +proper restraints. But, nevertheless, I believe you would succeed in +rendering her submissive. You have, to-day, said such things to her as +she has not been accustomed to hear. Because she is handsome, every one +who has seen has flattered and indulged her caprices, and, in that way, +she has been spoiled. You will let nothing pass without its just +comment, I see plainly. She will consequently at first fear, and then +respect you, and, after that, between people of your stamp, love will +find its way of itself.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It occasions me much regret,' said Arwed with sudden +earnestness, +'that I am compelled to interpose an insurmountable obstacle to the +accomplishment of a hope which, in the fulness of parental love, you so +feelingly express. But, in this case, unreserved candor is the holiest +duty. My heart is no longer free, good uncle, and my choice is made for +life.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your father has already made me acquainted with that affair,' +answered +the uncle fretfully; 'but I did not suppose that foolish passion, which +can hardly endure long, could reasonably interpose any obstacle. The +daughter of an executed criminal....'</p> + +<p class="normal">'An innocent offering at the shrine of contemptible party +interests,' +said Arwed, with great vehemence, interrupting him; 'truly a martyr to +his honesty and to the gigantic plans of his king.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And as your father says,' continued the uncle, 'the maiden +has herself +given you up and bidden an eternal farewell to Sweden.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'She was compelled by the necessity of satisfying her own +conscience; +but that cannot release <i>me</i> from the performance of my duty. So long +as Georgina lives, so long shall I continue to hope, and truly will I +keep my troth.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Such troth is senseless,' answered the uncle, suppressing his +emotion. +'However, there is something in your constancy which pleases me. Do as +you will. I hope at any rate, you will place so much confidence in me +as to believe that I would not urge my daughter upon you, in opposition +to your feelings. I am firmly persuaded, however, that the affair will +gradually work itself right. Rank, figure, affinity, wealth, all +fitting. By heaven! you were created for each other or no couple ever +were. Sleep before you determine. As for the rest, what has been said +upon these matters must remain within the walls of this room--to that +promise give me your hand.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed gave the required pledge. The governor rang for his +attendants, +bade Arwed good night, and was rolled to his sleeping room.</p> + +<p class="normal">'This is a strange entanglement in which I shall henceforth be +obliged +to act!' said Arwed to himself, while the servants were waiting at the +door, with branched silver candlesticks, to show him to his room; +'Georgina and myself--I and my uncle, and Christine--and Christine and +Megret--and Mac Donalbain and Christine!--and this Megret and Mac +Donalbain, who again appear to stand in hostile constellations; and I, +who, as I already foresee, shall at some future time be compelled to +encounter both of them--this Mac Donalbain who spears to me like the +serpent in paradise endeavoring to seduce the poor innocent, foolish +mother of mankind. This Megret!--ah, this Megret! I will go to bed. God +preserve me from wicked dreams.'</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The hunting bugle-call and the baying of hounds awoke Arwed +from his +morning slumbers. As he opened his eyes they were greeted by the imaged +orb with which the rays of the morning sun announced its rising, +glowingly and tremblingly reflected from the bosom of the sea. Arwed +sprang from his bed, threw his cloak over his shoulders, and raised the +window to enjoy the beauty of awakening nature. In the court below, the +huntsmen, horses and hounds were moving about with loud and joyous +tumult, and old Knut, who had saddled Arwed's black charger, was now +leading him from the stable.</p> + +<p class="normal">'By whose command is this?' asked Arwed of the man below.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The countess Christine!' cried Knut.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Lead him back to his stall and take the saddle off,' +commanded Arwed. +'I shall not ride this morning.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Shaking his head, the faithful servant obeyed, and at same +moment the +door was thrown open and his beautiful cousin, whose fresh charms +almost outshone the morning's splendor, entered his room in her hunting +dress.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am going upon a bear hunt,' said she in a more friendly +manner than +on the preceding evening. 'Will you accompany me, cousin Arwed?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am much obliged to you,' answered Arwed, 'but I prefer +remaining in +the house.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Christine started, apparently surprised and perplexed by a +cold refusal +which she had not anticipated as possible, 'Perhaps you are not fond of +this kind of chase?' she satirically asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes!' answered Arwed, quietly; 'but not in your company, +cousin.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Now, I confess!'--cried Christine, making a powerful effort +to +suppress the last part of the sentence which was at her tongue's end, +'May one venture to ask, wherefore, major?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh yes, one may venture, countess,' answered Arwed, 'and I +will most +willingly respond to the question. I do not like to see women pursuing +employments unsuited to their sex. The riding and hunting and baiting +and shooting of ladies, always excites in me intolerable displeasure.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is nothing but the quite common pride and selfishness of +your +sex,' said Christine with bitterness, 'which would have our's always +feeble that you may the more easily keep us under the yoke.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Woe to you, poor women,' exclaimed Arwed, laughing, 'if you +had no +better defence against our imperiousness than your physical strength; +you would every where come off the worse. Nevertheless, countess, your +sex is more powerful than you believe it. Your most powerful talisman +is your womanhood; and it is a bad exchange, when you give it up for +the fame of a rifleman or hussar.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'<i>Give it up?</i>' repeated Christine with great excitement.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nothing less,' answered Arwed. 'To override horses, to chase +and +kill animals, is a rough business. A man may pursue it without +suffering in his character, for nature has destined him forcibly to +oppose its hostile powers by contending with them for his safety and +his food,--and, in doing so, he but fulfills his destiny. More tender +and delicate woman has other duties. God created women to be the +protegés, the tender companions of men, to soften and ennoble their +fierce and intractable natures, and to be the loving mothers and +guardians of their children.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Silence!' cried Christine, angrily.</p> + +<p class="normal">'All the peculiar qualities, however, which naturally belong +to you,' +continued Arwed pleasantly, seizing Christine's hands and holding them +fast, as if he feared Megret's fate, 'all, and they are the noblest +which adorn your sex, must be lost in the masculine woman, and she will +be very fortunate if she preserve the purity of her soul, which is in +great danger, when the restraint of modest, maidenly customs is once +thrown off.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Christine started with a sudden shudder. Tears burst from her +beautiful +eyes, and she withdrew her hands from his.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is the matter, cousin?' he exclaimed, with deep +sympathy.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You despise me, Arwed!' sobbed the maiden.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What an unfortunate idea!' answered Arwed. 'Whoever fears the +contempt +of another, feels that he deserves it, and that can never be the case +with the countess Christine.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are right!' exclaimed Christine, with a firm tone, +applying her +handkerchief to her eyes to remove all traces of her tears, and +proceeding to the window to cool her flushed face in the morning air.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You will not accompany me to the chase, then?' she finally +asked, as +if nothing had occurred between them.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No!' answered Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then I will also remain at home,' said she; and, calling to +the +servants from the window, she directed them to give over their +preparations, as she was indisposed; after which she threw herself into +a seat opposite Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'This chase was in reality only devised to obtain an +opportunity for an +undisturbed conversation with you,' said she, 'and that object can be +attained as well here. My father has had a bad night and now sleeps +soundly.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, speak on!' answered Arwed, placing himself in a +listening +attitude. 'If what you wish to say be something good, it will give me +great pleasure to hear it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not altogether good,' said Christine, casting her eyes upon +the floor +in great embarrassment.</p> + +<p class="normal">'So I should imagine,' answered Arwed. 'The feelings you have +manifested toward me since my arrival have not been of the most +friendly kind.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'By heaven, Arwed, you do me injustice!' exclaimed. Christine, +springing up and holding out her beautiful hand to him. 'My feelings +are as kind toward you now as formerly, when we, two joyous children, +sought shells together on the beach; and I would be on yet better terms +with you; only you appear not to desire it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'How do you mean?' asked the ingenuous Arwed, who understood +his cousin +but too well.</p> + +<p class="normal">'In one word,' she suddenly exclaimed, 'my father destines my +hand for +you, and I shall be compelled to oppose his determination.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is indeed no very flattering communication,' said Arwed. +'It +explains the unmannerly reception you gave me, however. It was nothing +but your fear of my tenderness; but as you know your father's +intentions, so you should also know the impediments, on my side, in the +way of their accomplishment. I love another maiden.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That I knew,' said Christine, 'but I was afraid....'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That your cousin's truth would not be able to withstand these +powerful +attractions,' said Arwed completing the sentence for her. 'You are +either very vain of your charms, beauteous cousin, or have made +acquaintance with very bad specimens of our sex.'</p> + +<p class="normal">A deep sigh escaped from the oppressed bosom of Christine.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Now, so long as I remain here,' continued Arwed, 'it shall be +my most +anxious endeavor to restore my sex to your good opinion. In the first +place I shall quiet your apprehensions by the assurance, that my heart +is entirely filled by a distant and beloved object,--that I shall never +become troublesome to you as a suitor,--and that I will decline the +proposed connection with so much decision, that the anger of our +parents shall fall entirely on myself. I would love you as a brother +should love a sister; but I would also be allowed the brother's right +to tell you the truth whenever I may think it necessary to your +welfare,--would counsel you,--warn you....'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, Arwed, be my brother!' cried Christine, with a +convulsive +pressure of his hand. 'Ah, that you could always have been so!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'By this, however,' said Arwed, 'I must consider myself as +having +acquired some claim to your sisterly confidence. I am glad to know that +you can feel no other sentiment for me, as it would give me pain to be +compelled to reject your heart as well as your hand. But I cannot +possibly believe that your coldness extends to the whole sex. That, +indeed, would be still more unnatural than your horse-racing and +bear-hunting; No, no! your heart is not insensible. The glance of your +eye, like the diamond, now flashing fire, and now dissolving in +crystals, has already revealed it. You know what it is to love!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You afflict me cruelly, cousin!' cried Christine, holding her +hand +before her traitorous eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Confide in me,' entreated Arwed, affectionately withdrawing +her hand +from her face. 'Go back with me to the times of our happy childhood, +when we mutually imparted all our little secrets, when we laid our +hearts before each other like open books. Let me once more read in +yours: who is the man of your choice?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You <i>shall</i> read it, Arwed,' cried Christine; 'by heaven you +shall +read it! But not now,--only not to-day.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why not now?' urged Arwed. 'The present is precisely the +right moment. +Your heart is now softened and open. Pour it out towards me before +caprice and false shame shall again harden and close it. Name the man +of your choice to me, and take my word that I will honestly do whatever +I can to promote your happiness. Surely, Christine can have no reason +to be ashamed of her choice!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Pity me!' cried she; and, again bursting into tears, she fled +from the +room.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Strange!' said Arwed, looking after her. 'The maiden is not +at peace +with herself; that is evident from the violence and eccentricity of her +behaviour. There is a wounded spot in her heart which smarts at the +least touch. Pray heaven it be not Mac Donalbain! It would be a pity +for so magnificent a creature.'</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Arwed had soon become accustomed and reconciled to his exile +at +Gyllensten. Excursions among its environs under the pretext of hunting, +afforded him ample enjoyment of the beauties of nature and free scope +for the play of his imagination; and these, together with the business +of the governor's bureau, in which, at his own request, he was +permitted to take a part, occupied his days; while the evenings were +employed in reading to the family circle, and in playing chess, a +favorite game with his uncle. Thus, by means of constant and varied +occupation, the time passed rapidly and pleasantly at the solitary +castle. Meanwhile Megret, who had already obtained two extensions of +his furlough, continued to besiege the heart of the fair Christine, and +to submit with patient resignation to all the caprices by which that +eccentric maiden chose to prove the constancy and perseverance of her +adorer. He was, indeed, almost the only one at Gyllensten who had to +suffer from them; for Arwed, true to the brotherly character which he +had assumed, did not spare his beautiful sister, and every instance of +arrogance in which the unevenness of her humor led her to indulge, was +quietly though earnestly reproved, until she was oftentimes brought to +despair. These little quarrels usually ended with tears and +supplications on the part of Christine, which were so touching that it +required all the influence of Georgina's memory and the conviction of +Christine's secret love for another, to cool his youthful heart to that +degree of circumspection necessary in his peculiar circumstances. Mac +Donalbain's frequent visits to Gyllensten, moreover, seemed to exercise +a great and unhappy influence upon the disposition of the otherwise so +lovely maiden. During his presence she exhibited a constant excitement +which immediately after his departure changed to a deep melancholy, out +of which she emerged only to torment all who would suffer themselves to +be tormented by her, with her caprices. From her father she concealed +the state of her feelings as much as possible, and if it occasionally +occurred to him that all was not as it should be, the business of his +office, in consequence of the critical situation of the country, +prevented his looking too deeply into the affairs of his household or +his daughter's heart; and Arwed, though Christine still remained +indebted to him for her promised confidence, could not bring himself to +betray her to his uncle.</p> + +<p class="normal">In this manner the summer had arrived, when one evening at the +supper +table, in Megret's and Mac Donalbain's presence, the governor asked +Arwed if he had a desire to see a natural curiosity, to visit which +Charles XI did not hesitate to make a long journey.</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed joyfully assured him that he regarded the wonders of the +natural +world as a spectacle, in comparison with which the greatest efforts of +human ingenuity were of little value,--and that it was, indeed, one of +his favorite occupations to contemplate them.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Tornea-Laplanders have lately made many complaints to +me,' said +the governor. 'They complain especially of the collectors of the royal +taxes, and of the excesses of the Finlanders, attracted within their +boundaries by the chase. Since my gout has left me, I will myself ride +to Tornea, to examine and adjust all these affairs upon the spot; and +have selected the longest day in the year for that purpose. It is their +court day, and also the day of their annual fair, which collects +together the inhabitants of the whole country surrounding Tornea; and +we can at the same time enjoy the rare and beautiful spectacle of the +sun, which on this day does not set at all, enabling the king of Sweden +in a certain sense to claim the same honor of which the sovereign of +Spain and the Indies makes his boast.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I thank you heartily for offering me this rare enjoyment,' +said Arwed, +and Christine timidly requested to be allowed to make one of the party.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Certainly, if it will afford you pleasure, and you prefer +going with +us to staying at home,' answered her father significantly. 'We have for +some time past become somewhat strange to each other, without my being +able to guess precisely what is the cause of it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Christine cast a melancholy and complaining glance upon her +neighbor, +Mac Donalbain, and Megret eagerly begged to be added to the company.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your society is always agreeable to me,' answered the +governor. 'How +stands it with you, sir Mac Donalbain?' he kindly asked the Scot, 'will +you also be of our party? Rich as your Scotland is in natural wonders, +you cannot see this spectacle there. Scandinavia is the only country of +Europe which exhibits it, with the exception of poor Iceland, which +hardly deserves to be regarded as belonging to our part of the world.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do not know when you intend to undertake the excursion,' +answered +Mac Donalbain with some embarrassment.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We start to-morrow morning at day-break,' answered the +governor.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My engagements will not allow me to join the interesting +expedition so +soon,' said Mac Donalbain. 'It is barely possible that I may so manage +my affairs as to be able to meet and pay my respects to you at Tornea.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It must be a strange business,' said Megret, 'which prevents +your +accompanying us, and at the same time permits you to meet us at the end +of our journey.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do not consider, colonel,' cried Mac Donalbain, with a look +of +deadly hate and a low bow to the scoffer, 'that I am under any +obligation to account to you for my business, or the manner in which it +is pursued.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'By no means, sir Mac Donalbain,' answered Megret, returning +his bow; +'I am not one of the police-officers of this province, and have no +official inducement to trouble myself about your pursuits.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Death and hell! what mean you by that?' exclaimed Mac +Donalbain, +springing from his seat,--but Christine pulled him down again and +anxiously whispered to him some words of entreaty.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Forget not, gentlemen,' cried the governor in an +authoritative tone of +voice, 'that you are both my guests, and that it does not become you to +quarrel upon my hearth, where you have both been freely welcomed. I +esteem you both and would resign the society of neither, but I have a +right to demand that you respect this castle, and seek a more suitable +place for the indulgence of the secret enmity which you appear to bear +toward each other. This time, colonel, you are in the wrong. I regret +to be compelled to say to you that, if sir Mac Donalbain took your +remark somewhat too sharply, yet you gave occasion therefor by the +scornful tone in which it was made. Therefore you owe it to me and to +him to take the first step toward a reconciliation; and you cannot be +considered my friend, if you refuse to drink the health of this noble +Scot, which I now propose.'</p> + +<p class="normal">A struggle was now seen in the proud Frenchman, between the +hatred he +bore his enemy and the respect due from him to the father of Christine. +He cast a tiger glance upon Mac Donalbain, which was met by one equally +fierce, and not being able to come to a determination what to do, he +waited in moody silence, neither accepting nor rejecting the goblet +offered to him by the governor.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you hesitate?' earnestly asked the governor. 'As yet +neither of you +has said any thing to the other which can be considered injurious to +the honor of a gentleman. This is only a misunderstanding, which must +be completely reconciled. If you refuse this, you thereby confess an +intention to offend sir Mac Donalbain, and it will become my duty as +host to resent it as if the offence were intended for me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Megret seized the goblet, 'The lord of this castle,' said he +with +suppressed rage to Mac Donalbain, 'calls you a noble Scot. As I have +not the pleasure of an intimate acquaintance with you, I am willing to +consider the statement which has so noble a voucher as true, and upon +that supposition I drink your health.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I receive the toast and return it with as much sincerity as +it was +offered,' answered Mac Donalbain, emptying his glass.</p> + +<p class="normal">The governor, observing that the anger of the two belligerents +still +remained, in spite of the constrained and ambiguous reconciliation, +thought it prudent to give the signal for retiring.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That we may be able to start early in the morning,' said he, +rising, +'I hope my worthy guests will excuse me if I break up the sitting +earlier than usual. I intend to seek my bed betimes, that I may be the +better prepared for the fatigues of the journey, and therefore wish you +a good night.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I shall have the honor to be at the door of your carriage by +sunrise, +ready for the journey,' said Megret, bowing and retiring.</p> + +<p class="normal">'As I must start this evening for Arnaes,' said Mac Donalbain, +'allow +me to wish you a pleasant ride. At Tornea I hope to meet you again.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He departed with a significant glance at Christine, who +followed him +out, and Arwed was left alone with his uncle.</p> + +<p class="normal">The governor remained some time in a deep reverie, rubbing the +wrinkles +from his forehead, which as constantly reappeared there, and finally +asked Arwed: 'what think you of our two guests?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You must long since have observed that neither of them is +particularly +agreeable to me. Being your guests, I would have said nothing against +them; but since you expressly ask my opinion, I will give it honestly: +they appear to me like two wolves engaged tooth and nail in fighting +for a noble deer. God grant that the victim may save herself during the +contest, and both the monsters have an empty reckoning.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your comparison appears to me to be overstrained; you may +not, however +be wholly wrong. As soon as I return from Tornea I will adopt different +measures. I begin to think it would have been better had I done so at +an earlier period. Good night.'</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The rising sun of the next morning found every one busy at +Gyllensten, +and the travelers prepared for their excursion. Christine, who had +hoped to fly in advance of the rest of the company on her swift dun +courser, was compelled to take a seat in the carriage with her father, +who feared his gout, and her noble horse was led after her by the +domestics, who accompanied the expedition in another carriage. Arwed +and Megret, with their grooms, were in the saddle. The company set +forth in a northerly direction, having the gulf of Bothnia on their +right, and the mountains of Lapland on their left, passing the stations +Beygde and Skelleste until they arrived at the little port of Pitea, +which, yet poorer than Umea, lay at the mouth of the Pitea Elf. There, +with the relay horses, six Swedish dragoons, furnished by the bailiwick +and led by the sheriff, marched up with drawn swords to perform escort +duty for the remainder of the governor's journey.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Wherefore trouble these people, Mr. Sheriff?' said the +governor. 'The +road is safe, as far as I know, and for that reason I took no escort +with me from Umea.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'For some time past,' answered the sheriff, 'a band of robbers +have +beset this neighborhood. Two well planned and successfully executed +burglaries, in quick succession, have created much alarm; and +yesterday, a man who attempted to travel to Tornea, was found slain +upon the road between here and Lulea.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And you have yet made no effort to apprehend the perpetrators +of the +deed?' asked the governor discontentedly. 'If the police do their duty +such transgressors cannot long escape the vengeance of the laws.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The waste and desolate condition of that region,' said the +sheriff by +way of excuse, 'facilitates the flight of the robbers and renders +pursuit difficult. The inhabitants of the scattered houses and small +hamlets fear to seize a single robber while their helpless situation +exposes them to the vengeance of the whole band, which numbers thirty +men. Their leader is called Black Naddock, and always has his face +colored black when he goes out upon his predatory excursions.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You must cause strict search to be made,' directed the +governor. +'Write to the sheriff of Umea, in my name, for as many men as he can +spare. Until they arrive you must do the best you can with your +dragoons. They need not accompany us. We are numerous and used to +danger. Should the robbers venture to attack us, we should suffer less +from the encounter than they.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He entered his carriage and the whole company continued their +route, +still in a northerly direction, by the little town of Lulea, where the +greater and less Lulea Elf roll their mingled waters into the sea, +until they arrived at Ranea, where the gulf of Bothnia forms an angle +and the road turns off to the east. So far nothing had occurred to +justify the apprehensions of the sheriff, and the caution of the +travelers, which had hitherto kept them in close companionship, that +they might be ready to aid each other, began to relax. Megret, whom +Christine jestingly accused of riding near the carriage not for hers +but his own safety, had angrily ridden forward; and Arwed, giving way +to his own reflections, had turned into a fir-wood on the left, in +which he followed a foot-path leading toward the north. He might have +followed this path for the space of an hour, when he heard at a +distance ahead of him a sudden cry for help. Giving the spur to his +horse, he flew in the direction whence the voice came. He soon came in +view of Megret contending with four ill-looking fellows, who had seized +his horse by the bridle and furiously beset him with cudgels and +cutlasses.</p> + +<p class="normal">'However little he may deserve it,' said the youth to himself, +'one +must help him in his extremity!' and, with a pistol in his left, and a +drawn sword in his right hand, he rushed into the fight. This attack +called the attention of the ruffians from Megret, who, taking advantage +of the circumstance, recovered his bridle and made off with all +possible speed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Angry at the escape of their prey, the robbers now fell upon +Arwed. The +latter, having fired and missed, soon had full employment for his sword +and the activity of his horse, in keeping off the ruffians, who +attacked him on all sides, and appeared to be well accustomed to such +combats. He made an attempt to wheel his horse suddenly to the right +and thus make an opening for escape; but here two other men, who by +their appearance belonged to the gang, met him with well aimed rifles.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I could have wished a more honorable death,' he murmured, and +at that +moment a tall man in a green hunting dress sprang from a neighboring +thicket. A red plume waved from his hat, and his face was black as a +Moor's. He spoke some angry words in an unintelligible jargon to the +robbers, upon which they immediately abandoned Arwed and disappeared in +the bushes, and the Moor motioned to Arwed to depart.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thanks, captain!' said Arwed, rejoiced at this unexpected +rescue, and +pushing forward, he soon found himself upon the highway.</p> + +<p class="normal">There he met Megret, with both of their servants, coming to +seek for +him. 'Here you are, then!' said Megret out of breath, 'and, as I hope, +not wounded. I should never have forgiven myself if you had been +injured in rescuing me!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'God be praised that you are alive, Arwed!' cried the +beauteous +Christine, flying to meet him upon her favorite dun courser, and her +blue eyes flashed upon him so affectionately as to cause a fluttering +at his heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You see, major,' said Megret flatteringly, 'how +instantaneously all +were hastening to your assistance.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your promptness is worthy of all thanks, colonel,' answered +Arwed; +'but your help would have been of little service to me had I not been +so fortunate as to make the acquaintance of Black Naddock. His command +caused the fiends by whom I was hard pressed, to vanish. Had he not +appeared most opportunely, you would in all probability have found only +my dead body.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That would indeed have been purchasing the safety of a man +who could +leave his preserver in the danger which had been incurred for his sake, +at too dear a rate,' remarked Christine, with bitterness.</p> + +<p class="normal">Megret did not notice the sarcasm, as at that moment he was +begging of +Arwed, with singular eagerness, that he would describe the personal +appearance of the robber-captain.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He was a tall, well made man,' answered Arwed, 'about Mac +Donalbain's +size, in a hunting dress, well armed, and with a black face.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'But the features of that face?' asked Megret, anxiously. +'Bore they no +resemblance to any you have heretofore seen?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Really!' answered Arwed with a smile, 'I did not give myself +time to +examine the blackamoor. In leaving him with all convenient haste I did +what you surely will excuse, as you set the first example of a resort +to the spur.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You ought to have shot him down!' continued Megret +venomously, 'and +then we should have been no longer in the dark with regard to his +identity.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'At the moment when he had just saved my life?' asked Arwed, +with +earnestness. 'Surely, that cannot be your true meaning, colonel!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The countess is fainting!' screamed old Knut, spurring his +horse to +Christine's side, and catching the pale maiden in his arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Fainting! such a heroine fainting upon so slight an +occasion!' +sneeringly remarked Megret. 'There must be some especial and secret +cause for it! Whether that cause rides here upon the highway, or skulks +there in the woods?--that is the question.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed, who had listened in silent wonder to Megret's +observations, +which were wholly unintelligible to him, had in the meantime ridden to +the other side of Christine, and there assisted Knut in supporting the +poor girl in her saddle while they slowly returned to the carriage, +from which the governor had taken the horses in order to send the +coachman to the belligerents, as a reinforcement.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thank heaven, it is not necessary!' cried he, glancing at +Arwed, and, +extending his hand, he affectionately exclaimed, 'my brave son!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We bring you a patient,' said Arwed, lifting Christine from +her horse, +with Knut's assistance, and placing her in the carriage by her father's +side.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes, no dissuasion could prevent it,' answered the governor. +She would +go. She has had her way, and I am glad the unmanageable girl has for +once been compelled to yield to the weakness of her sex.'</p> + +<p class="normal">At this moment Christine opened her eyes. Her glance at first +fell upon +Arwed with inexpressible tenderness. She then shrunk and trembled as +though her soul was subdued by some horrible fear. Terror and dismay +were depicted in her features, and she hid her face in the bosom of her +astonished father.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The sun of the longest summer day shone brightly in the +horizon, as the +governor and his companions approached Tornea, the end of their +journey, and the meanest among the (so called) cities of West Bothnia. +It lies near the boundary of East Bothnia, upon the delta of the united +rivers Tornea and Muonio, whose waters here again divide into two +branches before falling into the gulf of Bothnia. The little place, +with its towers, its handsome shops, and green shaded walks, +nevertheless presented itself under a very pleasant aspect in the clear +sunshine. In the city itself, however, the whole population of West +Bothnia and its Lapponian districts appeared to have been concentrated, +and in the streets and public square swarmed and pressed the joyous +multitude, who were pouring in to obtain a redress of their grievances, +to be relieved from their taxes, to buy and sell, and to enjoy +themselves in so numerous a company. The thick-set and bold Finlanders, +with flat yellow faces and dull gray eyes, their thin beards and dusky +yellow hair, in their short coats, dome-shaped caps, and fur-trimmed +half boots--the timid, short Laplanders, with their broad brown faces, +large mouths, blear eyes, and dark brown hair, with their leather coats +reaching to their knees, their small caps, and pointed, fur-trimmed +sandals,--all were here,--bringing with them fat cattle, venison, +sheepskins, bearskins, fish, reindeer cheeses, utensils carved from +wood, reindeer's horns, and pine bark meal, in great quantities, for +sale. Here came the wife of one of the poor fishermen of Lapland, in +her high conical cap, turning out of the way for the reindeer upon +which the wives of some of the rich mountain Laplanders proudly +flaunted by, in their curved conical head-dresses. There, a Laplandish +burgher-maiden ostentatiously displayed herself in her fine cloth +dress, decorated with silver buttons from the girdle to the feet, as +was the black bodice, and also rendered stiff and unbending with +buckles and spangles. High over these rather diminutive figures towered +here and there the majestic forms of the blond natives of Sweden, who +were moving about like giants among a race of pigmies.</p> + +<p class="normal">The travelers alighted before the door of the sheriff's +residence, and +the governor immediately entered upon business, which crowded upon him +like the unceasing rush of the storm-lashed waves. Megret, with a few +internally muttered oaths, was seeking Christine, who had disappeared +from his view soon after their arrival, and Arwed remained standing at +the house door, amusing himself with watching the confused crowd in the +public square. While he was thus employed, a sudden movement occurred +among the living masses, as if an island of human heads was forming in +one particular spot. Arms, with and without clubs, were ever and anon +raised above the thickly crowded heads, and a confused cry arose, in +which Arwed soon plainly distinguished the words, 'stop him! stop him!' +The next moment a man in a green hunting dress rushed from the square +towards the door of the sheriff's house, ran by Arwed with such +impetuosity that he came near throwing him down, and hastily entered +the room where the governor was holding his official sitting. While the +astonished Arwed was looking after the fugitive, a Lapland village +constable (or magistrate) came puffing and blowing from the same +direction in the square. A dozen other Laplanders followed in his wake, +armed with hunting spears, oars and cudgels. With the timidity to which +the oppressed are early accustomed by their oppressors, the little +constable looked up to the tall Swedish warrior, took off his cap, and +with cringing humility asked him if he knew what had become of the +green-coat who had just before fled into the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Impossible!' cried he, as Arwed pointed towards the session +room; 'how +could such a thievish fox seek refuge in the tent of the huntsman? Not +that I in the least doubt the truth of your intimation, noble sir,' +added he, courteously, 'but Enontekis must have mistaken the man, and +he cannot be the one whom we seek.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is the same,' asseverated one of the Laplanders; 'I have +marked the +features of his face but too well, and should know him among a +thousand.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'So then we must pluck up fresh courage,' said the constable +in a very +dispirited tone, 'and request an audience of the gentlemen within. Come +with me, Enontekis, to enter your complaint; and you others, guard the +door, that this beast of prey may not escape.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The two Laplanders entered the session room. Arwed followed +them with +highly excited curiosity. The first object that met his eye was the +huntsman, whom he now for the first time recognised as Mac Donalbain, +in close and friendly conversation with the governor. While he was +vainly endeavoring to find the key to these singular occurrences, the +constable and his companion, afraid to speak aloud in the presence of +their superiors, were disputing in vehement pantomime, the former +denying and the latter affirming, although with constantly increasing +uncertainty and anxiety. Finally, the constable approached the bar and +slightly touched the arm of the sheriff.</p> + +<p class="normal">'With your leave, respected sir,' asked he, as the latter +turned toward +him, 'does the stranger huntsman there enjoy the acquaintance of the +lord governor?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'So it would seem,' answered the sheriff, 'as the governor has +just now +invited him to dinner.'</p> + +<p class="normal">At that moment the governor shook the Scot kindly by the hand, +and the +Laplander started back in affright.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you not now perceive that you must have been blind?' +whispered he +to the good Enontekis. 'My God! what trouble might I not have prepared +for myself through my zeal for the discharge of my official duty! To +follow a friend and guest of our most noble governor as a criminal! But +happily the gentlemen have not perceived us, and we cannot do better +than to make a speedy retreat.'</p> + +<p class="normal">With anxious haste he drew his somewhat reluctant companion +out of the +room. Meanwhile Mac Donalbain had taken his leave of the governor, and +now quickly, but with a courteous greeting, dashed past Arwed, who +followed him to the door of the room. There he saw him cast a wild +glance toward the crowd assembled before the front door, and then turn +off to the right toward the back door, which opened into the garden. +The constable was standing there, engaged in a warm dispute with poor +Enontekis, who was still unsatisfied that he could have been mistaken. +Their armed followers, whose thirst for battle did not appear to be +very strong, were standing solemnly around them. Mac Donalbain stood +for a moment regarding the group as if considering what course to take, +and then marched boldly up to his pursuers.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Out of the way, Laplanders!' thundered he, hurling them to +the right +and left; and in this manner he passed through the assemblage and +disappeared.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That was very uncourteous, sir Swede!' cried the terrified +constable +after him when he had got out of hearing. 'We call ourselves Samolazes, +and not Laplanders. Our enemies only call us so, when they wish to +insult us; but we poor people are treated justly nowhere upon earth, +and must be patient under all our injuries until we appear before the +final judgment seat!'</p> + +<p class="normal">The tone of the little man grew constantly weaker and weaker +during +this speech. Weeping, he went forth; weeping, Enontekis followed him; +and sobbing and wiping their eyes, the twelve warriors followed them.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What can all this mean?' Arwed asked himself, as he returned +to the +session room.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Mac Donalbain,' observed he to the governor, 'appeared to +seek you +with great haste; had he any very important favor to ask?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not that I know of,' answered the governor. 'He came here +only for a +moment, to fulfill his promise that he would greet me at Tornea. He was +obliged to decline my invitation to dinner because of an engagement +with a hunting party.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Has Mac Donalbain been here?' asked Megret, hastily entering +the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">'But a moment since,' answered Arwed, 'and he cannot now be +far off. +What do you wish of him?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A crowd of Laplanders,' said Megret, 'are seeking, with +spears and +poles, in all the streets of Tornea for a huntsman, who, according to +their description, can be no other than Mac Donalbain; and I should be +very happy to place the noble gentleman before the good people, so that +I might learn precisely what they want of him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We shall probably find him in the garden,' answered Arwed, +and they +hastened there together. But the garden was empty. 'Incomprehensible!' +exclaimed the sheriff, who had followed them. 'The garden gate leading +to the street is closed, and I have the key with me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not so incomprehensible as you may suppose,' rejoined Megret, +pointing +to a hedge-row by the garden wall whose freshly broken and trampled +branches plainly showed that some one had recently clambered over them.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your pardon, sir officer,' stammered the sheriff, examining +the +damaged hedge, 'that is still more incomprehensible,--for what could +have induced the gentleman to climb over the wall, and thus do me so +great an injury?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That, master sheriff,' answered Megret, 'is to me most +comprehensible, +if I am right in my suspicions.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What do you mean by that?' asked Arwed; but Megret, who was +busily +examining the marks of injury upon the hedge, did not hear him. 'So the +weasel has escaped me,' said he, grating his teeth; 'but, by my honor, +he is lost if he again venture into my snare.'</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">'The royal taxes were raised, the constantly recurring +lawsuits of the +Finns and Laplanders about pasturage, the chase and the fishery, were +settled in some way, by power and with mildness, the sun was +approaching the horizon, and the hum of the crowd in the market place +grew fainter and fainter.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My business is finished,' said the governor to Arwed, 'and it +will +soon be time to view the spectacle for which you have given yourself +the trouble to come here. Seek Christine. We shall set out +immediately.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed searched the house, garden, and the whole of the little +town, +without being able to find her. As he was returning in the ill humor +naturally consequent upon his want of success, he was met by the +sheriff's little daughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Perhaps you can tell me, my child,' he asked, 'where I can +find the +governor's daughter?'</p> + +<p class="normal">The little thing gave him an arch look and placed her finger +on her +nose. 'That indeed can I,' answered she; 'but I know not whether I may +venture to do so.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will answer for it that you may,' Arwed jestingly assured +her. 'I am +a messenger from her father--'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And possibly for that reason I may not. Fathers must not be +allowed to +know every thing. The countess told me that, should a handsome slender +man in a green hunting dress ask for her, I might direct him where she +was. Now you are indeed handsome and slender, but the green dress is +wanting.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who knows if she will be able to see the green coat to-day,' +answered +Arwed significantly. 'Lead me to her. Perhaps she will be willing to +receive, for once, a blue coat instead of the green.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, at your own risk!' cried the child, leading him by some +deserted +passages through the house and garden into the open fields, where the +waters of a meandering stream glistened among the trees in the evening +sun.</p> + +<p class="normal">'She is there behind that thicket of alder bushes upon the +border of +the stream!' whispered the child. 'Good success to you, sir officer!' +and she ran back to the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Even at the north pole,' said Arwed, proceeding forward, 'the +sex +indulge in amorous intrigues, and promote those of others when they +have none of their own.' He came to the bushes, and was not a little +astonished when, instead of Christine, he beheld a Finnish peasant +girl, who sat angling on the bank with her back towards him. But the +disguise was soon betrayed by the beauteous golden locks of the girl, +and the deep reverie into which she had fallen,--and he silently +approached through the bushes, that he might surprise his fair cousin.</p> + +<p class="normal">The latter discovered by the slight movements of the foliage +that some +one was approaching; but, pretending not to have remarked it, she sang +in her sweetest tones a Finnish song, in keeping with her assumed +character. The words were as follows:</p> + +<p class="text20">Oh! if the dear and only loved<br> +Might by some magic art appear,<br> +Though on his mouth the wolfs blood hung,<br> +My lips should kiss its beauty clear!<br> +Though round his hand a serpent's coil<br> +Envious, had twined its venom'd ring,<br> +Would not all-powerful love defy<br> +The danger of the reptile's sting!</p> +<p class="text20"></p> +<p class="text20">Why lacks the wind a fervent soul<br> +Like that which glows within my breast?<br> +Why lives not language in its sigh?<br> +Then could it speed my fond request!<br> +Then, truant, then the whisp'ring breeze<br> +Thy thoughts might interchange with mine;<br> +And, faithful carrier, swiftly bear<br> +The throbbings of this heart to thine!</p> + +<p class="normal">'Poor maiden!' sighed Arwed with fearful misgivings. 'God +grant that +the man thy heart has chosen, drip only with the blood of the wolf, +that the serpents of hell be not coiled around the hand which thou +wouldst press so tenderly in thine!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile Christine, having ended her song, listened a moment, +and then +turning towards the thicket, exclaimed, 'tease me no longer, Mac +Donalbain, it is you--I hear your breathing.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The lover hears acutely, but not always rightly,' said Arwed +advancing. 'It is only the breathing of your insignificant kinsman.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My God, what have I done!' shrieked the terrified Christine, +covering +her face with her hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Lost the secret,' answered Arwed 'that you once promised to +confide to +me. I am indebted to accident for what I now know, and not to your +confidence.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Can that be any excuse for your betraying me?' asked +Christine, +grasping his hand and searching deeply into his soul with her beautiful +blue eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do I look like a betrayer?' asked Arwed, indignantly +withdrawing his +hand. 'The knowledge of what I only conjectured till now, at least +authorises me to exercise the fraternal right which you have conceded +to me, and earnestly to warn you against this Scot, who, by the mildest +judgment, is only an adventurer. Even if the garb in which you have +to-day so strangely clothed yourself did actually belong to you, you +could not hope to derive any especial honor from such a connection; the +countess Gyllenstierna degrades her rank and reputation when she throws +herself away upon a suspected vagabond.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then cast I from me both rank and reputation,' cried the +maiden, with +the defiance of desperation, 'and retain the garb which brings me +nearer to him, and in which I am allowed to love him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Has it gone so far with you, cousin? Then indeed must this +masquerade +have some secret object, and you were at least willing to try, how it +would become you against the time when it may be adopted for life. +There is too much meaning in this, and I should but discharge the duty +of a guest and kinsman by informing your father of the affair.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Christine gave the youth a piercing glance, and sprung upon a +rock +which jutted out far over the stream. 'Give me your word of honor, +Arwed,' cried she from her place of refuge, 'that you will remain +silent to every one upon this matter, or I will instantly throw myself +into the stream.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What madness!' cried Arwed, advancing to take her from her +dangerous +situation.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Back!' screamed she wildly. 'The first step you take toward +me shall +plunge me in a cold and watery grave. By my mother's ashes, I will keep +my word! In any event life has henceforth no joy for me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, come down!' cried Arwed, angrily; 'by my honor I will +be +silent.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thanks, thanks!' said Christine descending; 'you are a +Gyllenstierna +and will keep your word. And now, nothing more upon this unpleasant +subject. Let us return to our companions. My disguise is a jest I +played off upon you. Do you understand me, Arwed?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Perfectly!' answered the latter; and, troubled by the cloud +hanging +over the maiden's fate, as well as vexed that he had taken upon himself +the thankless office of confidant, he gave his arm to the beauteous +Finlander, and they proceeded back to the house in moody silence.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">At ten o'clock in the evening, which, however, was no evening +there, +the whole party found themselves assembled in the church of Tornea. The +governor was standing near the altar in earnest contemplation of a +suspended tablet which narrated in golden letters how Charles XI had +observed the midnight sun from the tower of that church, in the year +1694. At the same time the pastor of the church, a venerable old man, +was calling the attention of Christine to a medal which had been struck +upon that occasion. Looking over her shoulder Arwed read the +inscription: <i>Soli inocciduo sol obvius alter</i>,--and asked if this +metaphor were not too much in the oriental style for Charles XI.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Charles XI,' answered Megret, approaching the group, 'left to +his son +a throne well supported at home and respected abroad; with a full +treasury, and many flourishing provinces, besides the hereditary +states. How happy would it have been for Sweden had his son been +willing to rest contented with the glory of having preserved his +paternal inheritance.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The uncle and nephew simultaneously turned towards the +speaker, with +noble indignation, to defend the character of their adored king against +his foreign traducer;--but before they could find words, the pastor, +accustomed to speak in that house, and stirred by the occasion, took +the answer upon himself. 'The judgment,' cried he, in his deep, +resounding voice, 'which you have passed upon our immortal king is as +unjust as it is harsh. You forget that his first wars were purely +defensive; that even his victories, which rendered Sweden illustrious +in the eyes of all Europe, involved him in circumstances which at last +brought misfortunes upon his head. You judge him by the situation in +which he left his realm when God removed him from it in the bloom of +manhood, and entirely overlook what he would have accomplished for +Sweden had he been allowed time for the fulfilment of his designs for +her prosperity. It is a sad truth that the country now finds itself on +the brink of misery; but far be it from us to complain of our immortal +king, on that account. Let us rather curse the murderous villain whose +bullet ended that great man's life before Frederickshall! Him, him +alone, has the kingdom to thank for its calamities; and may all the +tears and blood which have flowed since that black night, and which +must flow hereafter, be poured into the balance of his sins, until he +may sink down to the regions of everlasting torment, overborne by their +weight!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'So you are one of those,' said Megret, with embarrassed +mockery, 'who, +from your passion for the romantic and marvellous, will have it that no +man of consequence can die except by assassination! In consequence of +the rashness with which the king exposed himself to the fire of the +enemy, it would rather have been matter of astonishment had he escaped +alive. The balls flew so thick, that the agency of assassins was not +necessary to account for his death.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have my convictions!' cried the pastor, in the heat of his +indignation, 'and those convictions are neither to be sneered nor +subtilized away! God, however, who proves the heart and the reins, must +pass judgment upon the concealed guilt, and punish the murderer +according to his deserts--here, through the worm that never dies, and +there, in the fire that is never quenched! Amen.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are pale, colonel!' cried Arwed, suddenly giving Megret a +searching look. 'Are you ill?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I was heated when I entered the church,' answered Megret in a +faint +voice, placing his hand upon his forehead; 'and this place seems to me +to be very cold. I feel as though suffering from an ague fit, which +however a few moments in the open air will dissipate.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He retired with uncertain steps. All followed him with looks +of +surprise and inquiry, and a long pause ensued.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is it now your excellency's pleasure,' said the pastor to the +governor, 'to ascend the church tower and thence, like Charles XI, +observe the circular course of the day-star?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I thank you, sir pastor,' answered the governor. 'I have +already +looked me out a place upon the level ground, where we can better enjoy +the beauties of nature together with this rare spectacle, than from so +high a point of view, and you will do me a pleasure by accompanying +us.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The pastor accepted the invitation. The party left the church, +and, +without encountering Megret on their way, entered a boat in readiness +for the occasion, and were conveyed to a small island which appeared to +swim in the stream, opposite the town of Tornea. A solitary house, +surrounded by some small huts, and a wind-mill, stood near the +landing-place. The travelers, ascending, laid themselves upon the bank, +their faces turned towards the sun, and silently enjoyed the view, at +once attractive and awful, there presented to them.</p> + +<p class="normal">The still, clear waters of the Tornea and Munio, upon which +white +fishing sails were gliding here and there, blushed in the rays of the +evening sun, and were adorned on either side by high bushy banks. In +the middle ground, the city, with its spires, was sweetly reflected in +the peaceful waters. The back ground was closed by bare and sterile +heights which were linked into each other like a chain, and concealed +the opening through which the united streams rolled on in their course +toward the sea.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the edge of the horizon, behind the city, shone the +nocturnal sun +with rays that with difficulty dissipated the vapors collected by the +evening air, as the forerunners of a night, which, on this occasion, +was not permitted to make its appearance. The illumination had +something dismal about it, for the magnificent sphere seemed to have +lost the substance of its splendor as at the time of an annular +eclipse, and threw, but a pale light upon land and water. The silence +of death prevailed over the face of all nature. The mills upon the +height behind Tornea, as well as that upon the island, were standing +still,--the bewildered birds had flown to their roosts,--and the whole +less resembled an actual world, than a landscape in a magic glass, +lighted by a magic sun, which lacked the powerful life of nature. +Meanwhile Tornea's church bell tolled the midnight hour.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Great and wonderful are the works of the Lord!' suddenly +exclaimed the +devout pastor; 'and he, who considers them aright, has great pleasure +therein.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I also adore the great Creator in the exhibition of his +terrors,' said +Arwed. 'But I must acknowledge that the silent, friendly, and dusky +star-lit night of my own Upland, is dearer to me than this wonderful +day. A sun which seems always to approach its setting, and yet never +sets, but remains mournfully suspended between life and death, is in +truth no joyous sight.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'An image of my poor native country!' said the governor, +soliloquising.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And of my fate!' whispered Christine, almost inaudibly, as +she leaned +her weeping face upon Arwed's shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">At this moment a row-boat from Tornea approached the island. +Megret +sprang out of it. 'Despatches from Umea!' cried he. 'The courier +appeared to come in great haste; wherefore I took it upon myself to +bring them directly to you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You bring me nothing good,' said the governor, forebodingly, +as he +hastily opened the letter. 'As I conjectured! Let us start! We must +this night commence our homeward journey.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'In heaven's name, father, what is the matter?' asked +Christine, in +sympathy with her father's alarm.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The Danes have invaded Bahuslehn,' answered the governor; +'the +Russians have landed in Upland. Unless God perform miracles in our +favor, Sweden is lost. Let us hence to Umea.'</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">As Arwed entered the castle of Gyllensten he was met by old +Brodin, +who, with a face highly expressive of sorrow and condolence, bowed to +him in silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What do you bring me, old honesty?' asked Arwed, with alarm' +'Not sad +news, I hope? How does my father?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The lord counsellor's excellency,' answered Brodin, 'is as +well as +could be desired, and sends his kind regards to you. I am charged with +an important commission, for the execution of which I must beg a +private audience.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It concerns Georgina!' cried Arwed, with a sudden +presentiment, and +without awaiting Brodin's answer he led him into his private chamber. +'Now speak!' cried he with vehemence. 'I am prepared to hear all.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Were you a weak-nerved lady,' commenced Brodin, slowly +drawing a +letter from the pocket of his traveling coat, 'it might be necessary to +preface the unpleasant intelligence of which I am the bearer with a +fitting preamble. But you are a stout young man, as well as a brave +soldier, and therefore I may venture to spare you the torment of fear +and expectation.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Silence!' cried Arwed, tearing the letter from his hand. 'It +is her +writing!' he exclaimed, breaking the seal, and then proceeded to read:</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">'<span class="sc">My Noble Gyllenstierna</span>!</p> + +<p class="normal">'The sympathy you continue to evince for the poor Georgina, +blesses, +while it rends her heart. Notwithstanding the clearness with which I +explained myself, you are yet unwilling to consider our connection +dissolved. Nothing therefore remains for me but to effect a last and +eternal separation. I could have desired to spend the remainder of my +life wedded to the remembrance of my first and only love; but you have +yourself rendered this impossible. 'While I live, lives also your hope +of one day possessing me!' By this resolution of your true heart, you +have made it my duty to become dead to you for this world. Your father +wishes to place the hand of his only son in that of his love-deserving +niece, and thereby secure a continuation of the power and splendor of +your noble house. I was the only obstruction to the accomplishment of +this rational wish. I must not so continue. I could not answer to +myself for destroying the welfare of a youth, whom I would so willingly +have made happy by my faithful love, by my irresolution. To make you +free, I have bound myself. To spare you the sacrifice you were +determined to make, I have sacrificed myself. Since yesterday I have +been the wife of a worthy man, whose character I must respect, and whom +I could have loved, had I never known you. In his arms I may find, with +the peace which results from the performance of duty, that quiet +happiness which can result from a marriage, in the contracting of which +passion had no voice. May you also be truly happy! May you deserve that +happiness through obedience to your father's wishes! Believe me, Arwed, +there is something better in this life than the intoxication of +passion. I feel it in this heavy hour. Think of me sometimes, not only +without anger, but with tranquil kindness, as you would of a beloved +being who has preceded you to that eternal world where you hope to see +her once again. I shall never forget you.</p> + +<p class="right">'GEORGINA VON EYBEN.'</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">Poor Arwed sank upon a seat as if annihilated. The faithful +Brodin +observed him with looks of the deepest sympathy. All at once the +youth's eyes began to flash with savage fury. He sprung up, and, +seizing the old man with a lion's rage, thundered in his ears, 'this +whole affair is a fable devised for my deception!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Holy Savior! what is it you think?' cried the trembling +Brodin.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have read in many old tales,' cried Arwed, with bitter +anguish, 'of +pretended marriages, and forged letters of renunciation, by which +hearts have been artfully torn asunder, that would else have remained +eternally united.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why, hey, count Arwed,' said Brodin chidingly, 'how can you +so +misjudge your noble father as to suppose him guilty of such an +offence?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I know,' answered Arwed, 'that my father considers the +dissolution of +my connection with Georgina a matter of the utmost importance. A +counsellor of the realm stands high enough to permit himself to do many +things that would carry a common citizen to a criminal's dungeon. The +whole may be a specimen of the newest Swedish political management.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Believe what you please, major!' angrily exclaimed Brodin. +'The letter +you have just read, I received from the hands of the writer, when I was +with her in obedience to your father's command.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Brodin!' said the agitated Arwed, 'you are an old man! So +near the +grave, you will not defile your soul with a lie; therefore answer me, +honest and true, as you have been through the whole course of your long +life--is Georgina actually married?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'By my God and his holy gospel!' cried the gray old man, +solemnly +placing his hand upon his heart, 'I was myself, by her command, in the +cathedral church of Lubec, and saw her married to the imperial +counsellor von Eyben.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is then true!' sighed Arwed, again sinking back into his +seat.</p> + +<p class="normal">Brodin approached, with humid eyes, to speak some words of +consolation,--but Arwed motioned him back, and the old man left the +room in silent sorrow.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">As Arwed was still sitting in his chamber, his arms +convulsively folded +upon his breast, as if he would stifle his inward grief by the outward +pressure, with large tear-drops occasionally rolling down his pallid +cheeks, a stranger suddenly entered the room. He was enveloped in a +gray traveling cloak, and his hat was drawn down over his eyes. +Stepping directly in front of Arwed, he threw off his cloak and cap.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Swedenborg!' exclaimed Arwed, in a languid tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The old <i>Fatum</i>,' spoke the seer, 'has again most unhappily +kept troth +with my presentiments. I see you again in the heaviest hour of your +life, as I expected. But what I could not have expected is, to see you +sinking under your sorrow. It becomes a man to struggle manfully +against this evil fiend, and gloriously to vanquish; not to lay down +his arms before him, like a wounded and disabled combatant.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have never loved!' ejaculated Arwed; 'you cannot know the +anguish +which rends my heart.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have loved!' exclaimed Swedenborg, with radiant eyes; 'I +yet love, +and with a passion which shall be eternal! Not, indeed, a perishable +woman, but the celestial <i>Sophiam</i>! Would to God that you also would +choose her for your bride. How vain and trifling would all the earthly +sorrows which now afflict you, then appear.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you know the stroke I have received?' asked Arwed, +passionately.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I know it,' answered Swedenborg mysteriously, 'as well as +most things +which concern you. Your image has often floated before my inward +vision, and the spirits have often conversed with me of you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'All my misery,' rejoined Arwed, 'comes from the cold, +malicious +Ulrika. Her barbarity has torn from my brows the garland with which +true love would have crowned me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Sweden's vassal,' cried Swedenborg with solemn earnestness; +'blaspheme +not Sweden's queen!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'How!' cried Arwed, with astonishment, '<i>You</i> take her part? +You, who +prophecied wo to Sweden under her reign?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is still my opinion,' rejoined Swedenborg. 'But since +Ulrika, by +the unanimous voice of the people, sits upon her father's throne, she +must be to us an object of veneration only. If she has done evil, she +will not escape its punishment; and as the Lord oftentimes takes care +to punish the sinner directly in that wherein he sinned, so perhaps +will the man for whom she has done every thing, at some time become an +instrument of divine wrath and take the crown from her head to place it +on his own, repaying her with the basest treachery.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Alas, her crimes had wings,' complained Arwed; 'and this +requital +creeps snail-like after them.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Know then, you, who are so eager for vengeance,' indignantly +rejoined +Swedenborg, 'that the fate of Sweden aids you. Your country is at this +moment the prey of her two bitterest enemies, and Ulrika may soon be a +queen without a realm.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I had already heard of the threatened invasions of the Danes +and +Russians,' answered Arwed; 'but I did not apprehend such disastrous +results.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'They have already entered,' rejoined Swedenborg. 'Bahuslehn +is as good +as conquered. Stroemstadt and Marstrand have already surrendered to the +Danes; Carlsten has by this time fallen; and the Russians are raging +like wild beasts in the eastern part of the kingdom. Norrkoeping, +Nykoeping, and many other cities, hundreds of noblemen's seats, and +thousands of hamlets, are already in ashes. Heaps of slaughtered +animals infect the atmosphere; the youths of our land are borne by +Russian ships to ignominious slavery; and, while we are speaking, +general Lascy is moving with a strong army directly upon Stockholm.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed's blue eyes flashed. His heroic form became more erect. +He +involuntarily grasped the hilt of his sword, and moved towards the +door.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Whither would you go?' Swedendorg asked, in a kindly tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">'To the garden, into the free air!' quickly answered Arwed. +'It is +becoming too warm for me here. Besides, I need solitude, that I may be +able to form a proper determination.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I know it,' said Swedenborg. 'You will resolve as becomes +you, and so, +farewell. The Lord be with your sword!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We shall see each other again before I go,' said Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I must travel still further to-day,' answered Swedenborg. 'I +am now +going to the Nasaalpe lead mines. I must afterwards visit the iron and +copper mines in Tornea-Lappmark, and in a month I must be on my way +back.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Possibly we may meet in Stockholm,' said Arwed, forgetting +his +banishment, 'and heaven grant it may be under better auspices!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'<i>Quo fata trahunt, retrahuntque sequamur!</i>' cried Swedenborg +with +unction, and the youth hastened out.</p> + +<p class="normal">'A noble spirit!' said Swedenborg, looking with complacency at +his +retreating form. 'It lay prostrate, sickened with love's pain and +bitter hate; and behold, with only two drops of that steel-tincture, +and his country's need, its strength revives, and labors, and throws +off the <i>materiam peccantem</i>, and his heart is as pure, and fresh, and +strong, as ever it was. Hail to the physician of the soul, who finds +the seat of the disease; but thrice hail to the patient whose good +disposition aids the cure.'</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h2> + +<p class="normal">As Arwed was striding back and forth in the most remote and +darkly +shaded avenue of the garden, buried in his own reflections, colonel +Megret met him with a disturbed countenance. 'Time presses,' said he +with eagerness; 'I must speak openly with you, major. That I love your +cousin, you must long since have known--yet how fervently, you could +not know. The delicate gallantry which we Frenchmen dedicate to the +ladies, and the fear of affrighting or distressing her by the +outbreaking of my passion, have thrown a veil over the fire which +consumes me. I now confess to you that I could commit murder to possess +her; I must win her hand or die.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nevertheless, colonel, I do not understand,' answered Arwed +with +displeasure, 'why you confide all this <i>to me</i>, nor why you confide it +<i>now</i>.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The new emergencies of the war call me back to the army,' +said Megret. +'I set out even this very night. Meanwhile I wish to secure to myself +here at least the <i>statum quo</i>. You love me not, major; that I very +well know, but at any rate you are not my rival; you are Christine's +near relative and a man of honor. Whatever you may think of me, we must +agree in this, that Mac Donalbain is not deserving of your cousin.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That I am very willing to allow,' answered Arwed. 'But, I +hope, there +can never be a question of such a connection. Had Christine really a +weakness for that man, so noble and strong a mind as hers would be +easily reclaimed from such an aberration.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You consider the matter too lightly,' said Megret with great +earnestness. 'I myself hoped and doubted long, and left unemployed the +means at my command for banishing that bad man. I was indeed thereto +prompted by that miserable vanity which induces a man to wish to +conquer by his own merits and to scorn the use of other weapons. But +the real state of affairs is now placed in so clear a light that my +eyes are pained by it. This Mac Donalbain is a monster, and Christine +loves him. Forbearance would now be madness, as the honor and happiness +of this house hang upon a hair.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And what would you do?' anxiously asked Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That shall you directly hear,' answered Megret; 'for there, +most +opportunely, comes the Scot. His destiny leads him towards me. May I +only gain sufficient composure to roast the villain <i>à petit feu</i>, as +we call it. It would yet be some little satisfaction for the constant +torments of jealousy for which I may thank him since I first sighed for +the countess.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Megret turned away and proceeded some steps down the avenue, +and on +his return all traits of anger had disappeared from his face, and a +cold, smooth smile was substituted. Meanwhile the Scot approached and +courteously greeted them.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You come just in time, sir Mac Donalbain,' said Megret in an +apparently friendly manner, 'to enlighten me upon a matter of some +interest. According to your name and your own assurance you are indeed +a Scot, and can give us information from the best sources relative to +the manners and customs of your dear fatherland.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why not!' asked the Scot with a forced smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Now will you please to inform me, worthy sir,' said Megret, +familiarly +approaching him, 'what, in your highlands, is the exact meaning of the +term, 'children of the mist?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Starting and shrinking at this question, Mac Donalbain +answered only +with a deadly glance.</p> + +<p class="normal">'They also call them 'children of night,' added Megret in a +quiet and +seemingly friendly manner. 'The terms are said to apply to those poor +people who, at variance with the civil authorities, shelter themselves +in rocks and caves, occasionally making excursions into the lowlands, +plundering and burning dwellings, driving off cattle, now and then +perpetrating a murder, and getting hanged at last.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You speak of the robber clans of the highlands,' said Mac +Donalbain, +struggling to preserve his equanimity.</p> + +<p class="normal">'<i>C'est cela!</i>' cried Megret, nodding waggishly; 'and I reckon +upon +your goodness for some details about them. It would be very interesting +to me to compare your children of the mist with a somewhat similar +class in this country. In Scotland, I am told, even the nobility do not +consider it disreputable to march at the head of such expeditions +against the flocks and herds of the lowlands. They make no secret of +them, and hold the gallows to be as good a bed of honor as the battle +field. Every country has its peculiar customs and code of morals. The +leaders of our robber bands are far more delicate. They, at least +blacken their faces, renouncing the glory due to their heroic deeds, +and wash them clean again when they go into honest company.'</p> + +<p class="normal">With these words Mac Donalbain's face became pale as death. +His eyes +rolled as if they would start from their sockets, and his teeth audibly +chattered. At length he indistinctly stammered, 'I do not, indeed, +understand your words; but your envenomed glances are the true +interpreters of your meaning. They at least make it clear that you +intend to insult me; and more is unnecessary to induce a noble Scot to +demand instant satisfaction.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is very flattering to me, noble sir,' answered Megret, 'to +receive +an invitation to the field of honor from you; but before I can accept +it, you must satisfy me that I shall really preserve, and not lose my +honor, by going out with you. My comrades in the army are somewhat nice +in such matters, and certain occupations render a man forever unworthy +a gentleman's sword.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you refuse to give me satisfaction?' fiercely asked Mac +Donalbain, +stepping toward Megret, with his hand, apparently grasping a weapon, in +his bosom.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile Megret had drawn a pistol from his pocket, cocked +it, and +presented its muzzle to Mac Donalbain. 'One step nearer, a suspicious +movement even,' cried he, 'and this bullet pierces your heart. You know +the accuracy of my aim.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Mac Donalbain drew back, fixing his eyes upon his relentless +enemy with +a wild and vacant stare.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We will quickly put an end to this unpleasant interview,' +continued +Megret, with frightful coolness. 'By all this you must perceive that I +know you. Long since might I have denounced you to the civil +authorities, and I have had more than one personal inducement to do so. +Because I became troublesome to you, your myrmidons attempted my murder +during the ride to Tornea, and, had it not been for the major's +interference, would have succeeded. But magnanimity is the weakness of +Frenchmen. You are pardoned, and I merely command you instantly to +leave this castle, never to return. If I ever again behold you here, or +within a circuit of fifty miles from this, the robber-captain shall be +brought to justice and suffer the penalties of the laws.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Unable to speak, and with a countenance such as satan might be +supposed +to have assumed directly after his fall into the abyss, Mac Donalbain +rushed forth, and Megret proceeded in triumph to the castle.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is still problematical,' soliloquized Arwed, 'with which +of the two +Christine would be most miserable. I become more and more doubtful with +regard to Megret. The Scot received but his deserts, although it is no +honest man who assumes the duty of executioner,--for no one but a +finished villain could have taken such pleasure in stretching his +victim upon the rack.'</p> + +<p class="normal">His uncle now hastily approached him from the castle, with an +open +letter in his hand, and a face expressive of delighted anticipation.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Have you spoken with old Brodin?' he anxiously asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have,' answered Arwed; and the recollection of the loss of +Georgina +drew a deep sigh from his bosom.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are now wholly free, Arwed,' cried the uncle, with +heartfelt love. +'May I hope that in a beloved nephew I may soon embrace a son-in-law?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed, perceiving whither this question must lead, foresaw the +unpleasant scene which the contest between his uncle's will and +Christine's passion would produce, and remained silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do not fear,' his uncle anxiously added, 'that your consent +will be +extorted. Read this letter. Your father desires this union, but he +leaves your will free. Yet should I think, that as your beloved has +loosed the chains which bound you, you certainly would make some effort +to gratify an old man who loves you with his whole heart, and knows not +better how to secure the happiness of his only child than by placing +her hand in yours.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I gratefully acknowledge your paternal goodness,' answered +Arwed, +evasively. 'But I beg of you to leave me time for self-examination. My +sorrow is yet new, and for Christine I may safely affirm that a union +with me is very far from her thoughts. Besides, I need time to +familiarize myself with my new position, and enable me to come to a +decision.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I know my daughter,' cried the uncle. 'There was for a time +something +strange and adverse in her conduct which often perplexed me; but in the +main her heart is good; and a thousand trifling things have convinced +me that she likes you. Upon the word of a knight, she will not say +nay!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Consider at least the circumstances of the times,' said +Arwed. 'The +moment when Sweden is bleeding under the swords of her enemies, when +she is struggling for her very existence, is surely no time for tying +love-knots. Besides, I am resolved to depart to-morrow morning for the +army. Should I come back after the close of the war, it will then be +time to speak of this affair.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'<i>You</i> going to the army!' exclaimed the uncle, with +astonishment. +'Have you forgotten that you have been dismissed the service and +banished from the capital?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will serve as a volunteer,' cried Arwed with patriotic +zeal, 'in one +of the lowest grades--as a common soldier--if it must be so. If I may +not live for Sweden, they cannot but permit me to die for her!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Die! and for this queen?' asked the uncle.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What care I for the queen?' answered Arwed. 'I fight for my +father-land, and to protect the tomb of that heroic king whose life I +was not allowed by fate to defend.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Noble man!' cried the uncle. 'You shame me. The prospect of +good +fortune for my house caused me to forget the miseries of my country, +while you are ready to shed your blood in the service of a government +which has thwarted your dearest hopes. Well, act according to the +dictates of your heart. Something must also be done to satisfy mine, +before you leave us, and that even now, for here comes my daughter.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Alas!' sighed Arwed, as the pale and trembling maiden slowly +approached them.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My father, you have commanded my presence,' said she, with a +failing +voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Arwed's beloved,' answered the governor, 'has married +another. He +leaves us in the morning, once more to meet the enemies of Sweden. You +know my wishes, Christine. He must leave Gyllensten only as your +affianced lover; the marriage can follow in more peaceable and happier +times. So extend to him your hand and give him the troth-kiss.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh, my God!' stammered Christine, wringing her hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why this affectation?' asked her father with displeasure.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You afflict your daughter,' said Arwed, and then turning to +Christine, +'calm yourself, cousin! this storm has not been raised by me. Bound or +free, I will never permit your heart to be constrained.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Nothing is more intolerable,' angrily interposed the +governor, 'than a +young knight's feigning a coldness towards the other sex which is +foreign to his heart. However strong have been, or may now be, your +feelings for Georgina, yet it has not escaped a father's eye that my +daughter is not an object of indifference to you. The glances which you +now and then cast upon her when you think yourself unobserved, the warm +interest which you take in her conversation, even the reproofs you +often give her, have but the more clearly proved the state of your +feelings.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed cast his eyes bashfully down.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And, not to mention many other indications,' continued the +old man, +addressing himself to Christine, 'what impelled you to mount your horse +so quickly when Megret brought us the news of Arwed's danger? When a +maiden breaks through all obstacles to fight for a young man, one may +confidently swear she has an attachment for him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh, my father!' cried Christine in the deepest affliction, +hiding her +face in his bosom.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Then give him the hand which would have fought for him,' +commanded the +father, moving to lead his daughter to Arwed's arms. She tore herself +from him. 'I cannot! by heaven, I cannot!' shrieked the despairing +girl.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You cannot?' asked the governor, angrily. 'And that you are +in +earnest, is confirmed by your looks. Now, then, my daughter, give your +father a reason why you cannot obey his will, which was never swayed by +warmer affection than at this moment. I may bear the contradiction if +it be supported upon reasonable grounds, but I am not disposed to +become the plaything of your caprice and obstinacy. Therefore answer, +what have you against this union?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Christine remained silently sobbing and wringing her hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">'This silence answers me more clearly than you may wish,' said +the +governor with grave significancy. 'It is an acknowledgment that you are +ashamed of the cause of your refusal, and clearly explains many things +which have hitherto appeared dark to me. These tears confess your +conviction that your foolish wishes can never be realized, and save me +the trouble of proving it to you. I spare you the reproaches your +conduct merits. Let the past be buried in oblivion. Render yourself +worthy of this kindness by obedience. Give your hand to Arwed, my +daughter.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Christine gave Arwed an imploring look, but neither moved nor +spoke.</p> + +<p class="normal">The old man knit his eye-brows. His eyes flashed, and he +angrily lifted +up his hands. 'Shall I curse my disobedient child?' he thundered in her +ears.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Father!' groaned Christine, sinking to his feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No further, my uncle!' cried Arwed, with generous anger. 'I +should not +deserve the name of a man if I could permit a noble maiden to be forced +into my arms by a father's curse. The first severe word addressed to +your daughter on my account, banishes me forever from Gyllensten. You +have my word of honor for it!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Can you withstand such generosity, my daughter?' asked the +governor, +bending over Christine with mingled anger, love and anxiety.</p> + +<p class="normal">'God is my witness,' cried the maiden, 'how willingly my heart +would +reconcile itself with your desire. Grant me a short respite for +reflection. In the morning you shall know my determination.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Grant her the respite,' earnestly begged Arwed. +'Overhastening is a +species of compulsion.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The governor raised his daughter and looked sharply into her +eyes. +'Does no artifice lie hidden in this request?' asked he with emphasis. +'Will you really explain yourself in the morning, openly and honestly, +without equivocation, as becomes a noble Swedish maiden and my +daughter?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'By the holy evangelists!' cried Christine, almost out of her +senses, +'in the morning you shall learn my determination, and with God be the +result.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Respite the poor maiden for to-night,' entreated Arwed. 'The +struggles +of her soul have agitated her too violently, and your words were too +sharp and heavy. Should your daughter's health give way under her +sufferings, you would repent it too late.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Go, then, Christine,' said the governor, 'and bring me in the +morning +such a decision as I may be able to receive.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Christine kissed his hand in silence, and then leaned, +weeping, against +a tree.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yes! children are the gift of heaven!' said the old man to +Arwed, 'and +the joys they bring us are the best in life. But when they are given in +anger, they become the most terrible scourges in his hands, through the +sorrows they cause.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He walked slowly towards the castle, and Christine suddenly +approached +Arwed, threw her arms passionately around him, impressed a burning kiss +upon his lips, and sobbed, 'farewell, Arwed,--do not despise me! Oh +that we had sooner met!'</p> + +<p class="normal">She hastened away, and Arwed found himself alone.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XL.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The morning had dawned. The governor, with Arwed, had +accompanied +Megret down to the courtyard, where his horses stood ready saddled for +the journey, and the traveler held out his hand to the governor to say +farewell.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Allow me to give you a well meant warning at parting,' said +the +colonel, dejectedly. 'Suffer not this Scot to remain longer at the +castle,--he is not worthy of breathing the same air with you. If you +would know more of him, ask your nephew. He witnessed a conversation +which I held yesterday with that man. My duty calls me to the tumult of +war. Should I ever return, I shall have a request to prefer to your +heart, and shall rely upon the friendship of which you have hitherto +deemed me worthy, for its favorable reception. Commend the remembrance +of a man who adores her to your charming daughter. Say to her: +notwithstanding the cruelty with which she has refused me a last +farewell, her image will accompany me to the field of danger and incite +me to victory or bless me in death!'</p> + +<p class="normal">He overlooked the doubting shake of the head which preceded +the answer +the governor was about to make, threw himself upon his horse and rode +rapidly out of the castle gate.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The evening of my life will be clouded,' said the governor to +Arwed; +'and already I seem to see the lightning flash which is to destroy my +last earthly happiness. God's will be done! Is Mac Donalbain yet in the +castle?' he asked of his steward, who approached at that moment.</p> + +<p class="normal">'When he came out of the garden yesterday evening,' answered +the +steward, 'he merely took his gun and sporting pouch from the dining +room, spoke a few words to the countess, and then rushed like a madman +down the mountain. Since then I have seen no more of him. Something +very disagreeable must have happened to him, for no one could look upon +his face without terror.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You must relate to me the conversation which Megret had with +Mac +Donalbain,' said the governor; and then turning to the steward he asked +him, 'is my daughter yet awake?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'All is yet still in the chamber of the countess,' answered +the latter.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Let her be awakened,' commanded the governor. 'The breakfast +waits for +her.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The steward departed, and the governor returned with Arwed to +the lower +hall. There, for a long time, they walked up and down the room +together. Arwed dreaded lifting the veil under which the trouble was +concealed, and his uncle, who remarked his reluctance, had not courage +to repeat his request. Meanwhile the breakfast was brought in. The +governor silently filled the goblets, looked occasionally toward the +door, sighed, seized the cup mechanically and raised it to his lips, +and then set it down again without drinking.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Am I not like a child who is trembling with fear in +anticipation of a +ghost story?' he at length said, with a forced jest. 'Courage! narrate +it Arwed.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed was about to obey, when an anxious movement was heard +without, +and, pale as death, the steward re-entered with a billet in his hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The countess is nowhere to be found,' stammered he. 'Her bed +has not +been disturbed. She was in the garden late last evening, and sent her +chambermaid to bed.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is that?' cried the governor rushing upon the steward. +'What +holdest thou there?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A billet for your excellency,' answered the latter, 'I found +it in the +chamber of the countess.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The governor seized, opened, and read it. As the oak of a +thousand +years yields to the force of its own weight when the axe has severed +its roots, wavers, and finally rushes crackling to the ground; so +wavered and fell that noble old man, whose mental agony was happily +relieved by a suspension of consciousness.</p> + +<p class="normal">Whilst the steward and hastening servants were endeavoring to +recall +him to life, Arwed raised the paper which had fallen from his trembling +hand, and read as follows:</p> + +<p class="normal">'Alike unworthy to call myself Arwed's wife and your daughter, +I have +not courage to meet your just anger. I therefore follow the man whose +wife I already am in the sight of God. By the memory of my noble mother +I conjure you curse me not. May you pardon me in another world!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Unhappy parent!' sighed Arwed with deep emotion.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meantime the strong old man, who had partially recovered, +raised +himself up in his chair, and his first glance fell upon Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have read?' he asked, and as Arwed answered in the +affirmative, he +stretched out his hand to receive the billet, which Arwed with some +hesitation handed to him. Having motioned to his people to withdraw, he +again read it through.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, I will not curse thee, unhappy girl!' said he coldly, and +tearing +the note. 'An ungrateful child bears already the curse of heaven in her +heart, and where love is dead the flames of anger find no nourishment. +You hope I shall pardon you in another world! It is possible I may, if +in that world earthly conceptions of honor disappear, and a woman +without virtue is no longer a disgrace to her sex.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Will you not make an attempt,' asked Arwed, 'to tear the poor +victim +from her seducer? Let us seek her! Your arm reaches further than she +can have flown in the course of the night.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why should I?' said the governor, with listless anger. +'Should I bring +her back, I should be compelled to take the life of the villain, whose +wife she already is in the sight of God, and she would have nothing +left on earth. Let them go!'</p> + +<p class="normal">A deep and awful silence followed. The clattering steps of +Arwed's +horses, which Knut was leading out, awoke the uncle from his +stupefaction.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your horses are ready,' said he, rising up. 'Go, and God be +with you!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is hard for me to leave you in this state of mind,' said +Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your country calls you,' answered the governor, 'and I may +venture to +call myself a man. I have given proof of it. I have experienced the +worst that can befall me, and sorrow has not killed me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My noble, my unhappy uncle!' cried Arwed, sinking upon the +old man's +bosom.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Fight bravely, Arwed,' said the uncle, 'but risk not your +life with +foolhardiness. You are my only heir. I know your disposition, that you +disregard wealth, but the fact will serve to remind you that here lives +an unhappy father of whom you are the last earthly prop.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'God send you peace!' cried Arwed, overpowered by sorrow, and +rushing +forth, he soon, with his faithful servant, found himself upon the high +road.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XLI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Late in the autumn of the same year the governor was again +sitting in +the hall of his forefathers, whose statues remained, hung with mourning +crape. Before him stood a chess board, and, having no companion, he was +amusing himself by playing the games contained in a book which he held +in his hand. The unhappy man had altered much. Each successive week had +left the wrinkles of a year upon his face, and it was a sad sight to +see how he exerted himself to dispel painful recollections by a forced +attention to the intricate course of the game.</p> + +<p class="normal">At that moment the footsteps of horses were heard in the +court, and +before he could hasten to the window, Arwed entered the hall and rushed +into his arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Welcome, my son!' cried the uncle, perusing his features with +intense +interest; 'though I am sorry to see the expression of dark despondency +which hangs upon your face. The warrior who has done his duty, must +return home from the strife with joy.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That depends upon the nature and result of the strife, my +good uncle. +But my whole life has been nothing but a long chain of frustrated +wishes and abortive plans. The myrtle-wreath was torn from my brow, the +laurel withers even while I grasp it, and I have failed to obtain the +cypress crown.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is the war over?' asked the uncle.</p> + +<p class="normal">'For the present, yes,' answered Arwed, 'until it may please +our +enemies to recommence it--for there is no talk of peace either with the +Danes or Russians.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not with the nearest and most powerful of our enemies?' +indignantly +cried the governor. 'Woman's rule is everywhere the same--too weak for +resistance, too wilful for reconciliation. Poor Sweden!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Rhenskioeld,' said Arwed, 'was already in full retreat before +the +Danes, when I joined him. I went also to the army which covered +Stockholm; but when I arrived the Russians were drawing off their +forces. Desolation and pillage was the object of their landing, and +most fully and fearfully was it accomplished. We indeed followed the +retiring enemy and had some trifling contests with the rear guard, but +when the English fleet under Norris approached our coasts, the +barbarians quickly embarked and left the country with immense booty.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'To have had the desire and to have made an effort to save +your +country, is deserving of honor!' cried the uncle, extending his hand. +'Therefore once again welcome, my young hero.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed gave him his left hand, and the awkwardness with which +he did it, +drew the attention of his uncle to the fact.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Why do you withhold from me the hand which has wielded the +sword in +defence of Sweden?' he asked with surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The impossibility of using it must be my excuse,' answered +Arwed with +a sorrowful glance towards his right arm, which was concealed under his +coat.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is this?' cried the governor aghast. 'Are you wounded in +the +arm?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A Russian canister-shot shattered my hand in the last +engagement,' +answered Arwed, 'and I was compelled to have it taken off at the +wrist.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My poor son!' exclaimed the sympathizing uncle. 'That is a +great +misfortune. The laurels of victory are some compensation for wounds +received in battle; but to be crippled in a miserable unimportant +skirmish, is the most dreadful thing imaginable.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is indeed, uncle!' cried Arwed; 'and I can now say with +the king of +France at Pavia, that I have lost every thing but honor!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are right,' replied the old man with a tremulous voice, +his +thoughts recurring to his fugitive daughter. 'Happy they who can say as +much!' and with a deep sigh his white head sank upon his laboring +bosom.</p> + +<p class="normal">New footsteps in the court yard interrupted the sad pause, and +immediately afterwards Megret entered the hall, with a face yet more +gloomy than Arwed's.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have returned once more,' said he, in a singular tone, as +he greeted +the uncle and nephew.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am glad to see you, colonel,' answered the governor. +'Gyllensten has +become very lonesome and desolate, and I am glad you have once more +obtained a furlough in these warlike times.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The queen's grace has given me leave of absence forever,' +answered +Megret with bitterness. 'I am dismissed the service.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Dismissed the service!' repeated the governor. 'It must be as +major +general then. I congratulate you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I cannot accept your congratulations,' said Megret.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have received my dismission unwished for, without +advancement, and +without pension.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You jest!' cried the governor; 'how could it be possible?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I know no other reason,' answered Megret, 'than the +obligations under +which I have laid the queen and her husband. Great obligations! It has +cost me much to serve them, very much! perhaps too much! The queen +might possibly have despaired of being able suitably to reward me, and +has therefore chosen the most convenient way in which the great of the +earth reward past services. She repays with ingratitude!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'These are strange observations, colonel,' said Arwed +distrustfully, +'and you would do us a favor by giving a commentary upon the mysterious +text.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Let us speak of something more agreeable,' said Megret, +drawing his +hand over his forehead, as though he would have wiped something from +it. 'How does the charming countess?'</p> + +<p class="normal">The governor trembled with agitation, and looked beseechingly +at Arwed, +as if he would have called him to his aid.</p> + +<p class="normal">Just as Arwed was about to answer for him the servant entered +to +announce a Laplander from the parish of Lyksale, who had a secret and +important communication to make to the governor.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Conduct him to my cabinet!' commanded the latter, rising from +his +seat, and glad of the interruption.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have not yet answered my question,' said Megret; but the +governor +merely pointed to Arwed as he went out.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Am I directed to you for my answer?' he asked Arwed with +anxious +interest. 'This evasion of my simple question surprises me, and would +seem to indicate some misfortune. I hope no mischance has befallen +Christine?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'She left the castle on the night of your departure,' answered +Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'She must have fled, then, with the miserable Mac Donalbain!' +cried the +enraged Megret.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Probably,' answered Arwed. 'She did not indeed name her +seducer in her +farewell note to her father, but all appearances point to him as the +guilty one.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And has no attempt been made to bring her back and punish the +miscreant for his villany?' asked Megret.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The father has renounced his daughter forever,' answered +Arwed, 'and I +must beseech you never more to mention her in his presence. It +overpowers the unhappy man to be reminded of her.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'This is a consequence of my fatal delay!' cried Megret +wildly, and +beating his forehead. 'There is now nothing, nothing more in this world +which can give me joy. My honor wounded by unworthy treatment, my love +scorned and betrayed, what now remains for me?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A consciousness of rectitude, colonel,' said Arwed earnestly. +'It is a +firm rock of safety amid the storms of life.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Consciousness of rectitude!' cried Megret with frightful +vehemence, +and then drawing a deep sigh, he hastened from the apartment.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Some horrid secret lies in this man's breast, like a sleeping +tiger in +his lair,' said Arwed. 'Wo to me, if I should be called to draw it +forth.'</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XLII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Arwed had just risen the next morning, when the old steward +came to him +with a troubled countenance. 'By your permission,' asked he with great +deference, 'did my lord inform you when he should return?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is my uncle absent?' asked Arwed with astonishment. 'I knew +nothing of +it. When he declined coming to the table, last evening, I supposed it +was merely because he wished to be alone.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'After the private audience which he granted the Laplander +last +evening,' proceeded the steward, 'he ordered a horse to be given him, +and had his favorite brown saddled for himself with great privacy. The +Laplander was to go before him and show him the way. He charged me +strictly to keep his absence secret from every one. But as the night +has passed and he is not yet returned, my anxiety got the better of me, +and I felt compelled to inform you of the circumstance, even at the +risk of his displeasure. You will know better than I what is necessary +to be done in the case.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What direction did my uncle take?' eagerly asked Arwed, +putting on his +hunting coat.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Along the right bank of the river,' answered the steward, +'upon the +road which leads by Umea. Some Laplanders who were fishing in the river +state that they saw both of the riders as they passed the ford of the +Lais Elf, and then struck off to the right into the pine forest on the +borders of our Lappmark.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And you really have no conjecture as to the object of this +journey?' +Arwed further asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Conjecture, indeed!' answered the steward. 'I suspect that +our lord's +object was to obtain information of the robber band, who are again +spreading confusion and dismay through the border forests. Who knows +but he is on the look-out for Black Naddock himself?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Impossible!' cried Arwed with alarm. 'That is no business for +his +years. It is too dangerous.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ah, dear major,' said the steward, sorrowfully, 'since the +countess +Christine has left us, our poor lord no longer cares any thing about +his life, and perhaps a bullet from one of the brigands' rifles would +be right welcome to him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'May God and our true service preserve the noble man from such +an end!' +cried Arwed, taking his gun, hunting-knife and shooting-bag. 'I will go +and reconnoitre. If it be God's will, I shall return in the morning +with some definite intelligence. Until then, let every one keep perfect +silence. If my uncle has fallen into wicked hands, every thing will +depend upon taking the villains by surprise. Should I not come back by +the time I mentioned, you will then inform the sheriff of what has +occurred, that he may save or avenge his worthy chief.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'God bless your undertaking, noble count!' cried the steward, +kissing +Arwed's hand, as he hastened from the castle.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XLIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Arwed had waded through the Lais Elf about a thousand yards +from where +it falls into the Umea, and turning into the pine forest to the right +from the road, he proceeded onward upon a winding path. All was silent +and dreary around him, with the exception of the rustling of the cold +autumn breeze in the tops of the tall pines, and this dismal stillness +added yet more to the feeling of desolation in his soul. 'No trace of +animals or men!' said he to himself. 'No sign or token which tells me I +am upon the right track! Is this silence of nature an omen that this +well intended undertaking, like all its elder brothers, will die in its +birth?'</p> + +<p class="normal">During this soliloquy he had arrived at a larger opening in +the midst +of the forest, and now the dull tinkling of a small bell and the +unharmonious singing of many voices, struck upon his ear. 'That must be +a horde of reindeer Laplanders!' he joyfully exclaimed. 'They come +opportunely.' The nomades soon broke forth from the thickest part of +the wood. More than a hundred tawny-brown reindeer, headed by the +leading buck, with his far-sounding bell, discovered themselves. The +kind and useful animals followed quietly, with their mane-like beards +and strangely formed horns, with outstretched necks, staring out of +their honest looking eyes upon their leader; and if a young one +occasionally attempted to stray from the line of march, the well taught +hounds would immediately overhaul and return him to the ranks. The +owner closed the procession, with his wives, his daughters and sons, +children-in-law and grand-children, serving men and maidens, all riding +upon reindeer, and howling an ill-sounding Laplandish song. The train +spread itself out upon the meadow and made a halt, the burthened +reindeer were unladen, and some cone-shaped huts, composed of limbs of +trees and covered with mats and skins, soon arose over the green earth, +which afforded immediate refreshment to the flocks.</p> + +<p class="normal">The preparation for their meal was immediately begun in these +huts, +from the tops of which the curling smoke cheerfully floated up into the +clear heavens.</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed approached the patriarch of this numerous family, who +had seated +himself upon the grass near his favorite animal, and had just received +from his women a wooden goblet full of reindeer's milk.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Greetings to you, good Samolazes,' said Arwed in a friendly +manner. +'Where from?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We have come down from Dofrefield,' answered the Laplander, +'seeking +better pasturage for our animals.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Has any thing unusual occurred during your journey?' Arwed +asked in +continuation, by way of approaching the particular object of his +inquiries.</p> + +<p class="normal">The old Laplander tossed his head, examined the youth +mistrustfully +with his dull red eyes, and coldly and gruffly answered, 'nothing has +happened to us.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'They say the roads are not entirely safe,' continued Arwed; +'that +Black Naddock has again suffered himself to be seen in these regions.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I know nothing of the man,' anxiously protested the +Laplander; 'in my +whole life I never before heard of him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is a lie!' said Arwed angrily. 'How is it possible that +you +should be so ignorant about the scourge of this whole country? You +distrust me very unjustly. I ask with good intentions. It is of the +utmost consequence that I should discover the lurking hole in which +this band of dangerous villains conceal themselves, that they may be +annihilated by one bold stroke. Upon this, perhaps, depends the rescue +of a very noble man from the clutches of the monsters.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The arts of men are as multiform as the clouds which ride +upon the +winds,' answered the Laplander, with a shake of the head. 'It is very +possible that you yourself belong to the gang, and only wish to spy out +how much I have learned of their proceedings, and how I am disposed +towards them. It is not well however to speak of the fiery-eyed wolf. +My herd is dear to me, and therefore I am the most ignorant man on +earth of all that upon which you would question me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'For shame, Juckas Jervis!' now cried the Laplander's elderly +better +half, who had hitherto listened in silence, but with evident interest, +to the conversation. 'How can you be so suspicious and disingenuous? +This Swede is surely an honest man, who is well disposed towards us +all. Only look at his handsome and honest face. What he asks is for our +common good, and we should honestly answer him according to our best +ability. The tribute we have been compelled to pay the thieves for the +safety of our herds, has long troubled me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'On your own responsibility!' grumbled the old man, drawing +Arwed +mysteriously aside. 'You will find the robbers' camp,' he whispered to +him, 'by turning to the left and then proceeding straight forward to +the foot of the mountains. You will then turn to the right into a +ravine, and again to the left, following the banks of a glacier rivulet +until you discover what you seek. You will know the place by the swarms +of carrion birds who scent their future prey there, and consequently +never leave the rocks.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your description may appear very plain to you, friend +Jervis,' said +Arwed, 'but it is nevertheless hardly intelligible to me. Grant me a +guide to the place. I will richly reward him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Jackmock!' cried the Laplander's wife, and a short, thick, +nine-pin +looking fellow sprang forward, whom Jervis directed to guide the +Swedish gentleman to the Ravensten in the mountains.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Certainly!' answered the fellow. 'If not entirely there, yet +so near +that he can see it at a distance.' Whereupon he hastened to get his +staff and traveling bag, and soon again stood before Arwed, ready for +the march.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am already under great obligations to you,' said Arwed to +the woman. +'Yet--yet one more question I wish to ask in the strictest confidence. +You come from where I wish to go. Perhaps you have accidentally learned +something of a fine, tall old gentleman who, since yesterday, may have +fallen into wicked hands?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You wish to know much, and require us to do dangerous +things!' +grumbled the patriarch.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have already told me so much,' urged Arwed, 'why not +unreservedly +tell me all? By my God, I will not abuse your confidence.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who can deny you any thing?' whispered the woman, laughing. +'According +to the information we received yesterday about sunset, you will indeed +find him whom you seek upon the Ravensten; but whether living or dead, +I cannot undertake to say.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed turned to go.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Take care of yourself,' said the good woman in bidding him +God speed. +'Naddock shows no mercy to an enemy. If you fall into his hands as an +opponent, you are lost.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We are all in the hands of God,' answered Arwed with +confidence; and, +shaking hands with Jervis, he followed his guide into the forest.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XLIV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">They had been traveling silently for some hours, when the +forest +opened, and an arm of the mountain which divides the Umea Lappmark lay +before them, in all its awful magnificence. Naked rocks and icebergs +stretched up into the clouds, and the pale green vallies interspersed +between the masses of stone, ice and snow, appeared as if nature was +here already preparing for her long winter's repose.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the moment when the wanderers had arrived at the foot of +the first +ascent, Arwed's guide, giving a shriek of terror, and pointing with a +trembling hand towards a black fir-tree in the road, turned and fled so +suddenly into the forest, that Arwed was soon obliged to give up all +thoughts of calling him back. Surprised, he now looked toward the +fir-tree which had caused the Laplander's panic. The view was +sufficiently horrible. The bloody head of a Laplander was affixed to +one of the under branches of the tree. Near it was suspended a tablet, +upon which in large letters was inscribed--'Punishment of treachery to +Naddock and his brethren.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Shameless insolence!' exclaimed Arwed, with indignation at +the +impudence of the robber, who, to screen his own crimes, had here +executed a lawless penal judgment with Turkish barbarity. Approaching +the tree, he long and sorrowfully examined the mute, pale, yellow face. +'Poor victim,' he exclaimed, 'how mournfully thou lookest down upon me, +as if thou wouldst warn me from the path which probably led thee to +death. It would indeed be hard for me so to end my life. Yet my second +father must be saved, and it is unbecoming a man to turn back from an +enterprise which he has once commenced. No, fearlessly and cheerfully +will I go on, and if my undertaking succeed, thy death also shall find +an avenger!'</p> + +<p class="normal">A clattering, as if from the approach of many people, +interrupted the +earnest monologue. Arwed slipped among the bushes beside the way, +and about ten men, of wild and ferocious aspect, armed with knives, +iron-mounted cudgels, and some of them with muskets, came down from the +mountain and passed directly by him, gabbling among themselves in their +unintelligible gibberish, without being aware of his near proximity.</p> + +<p class="normal">They had no sooner showed him their backs, than he hastily +arose and +proceeded up the mountain with rapid strides.</p> + +<p class="normal">With toilsome efforts Arwed succeeded in following the +Laplander's +directions. At length he found the glacier brook, and at the same time +the end of his journey. A huge mass of bare, dark-gray rocks, +surrounded by ice-mountains, towered up into the clouds in terrible +majesty. Upon their summit lay the ruins of an ancient castle, of which +only a couple of towers with their connecting wall were standing, and +above them swarmed innumerable multitudes of rooks and daws, some of +which sat in thick rows upon the battlements, while others fluttered in +flocks about them in wild commotion. Their harsh croakings resounded +amid the deep stillness of the place, boding misfortune. 'Truly, not +alone in the battlefield is the courage of man called into exercise!' +said he to himself, while seeking the way which led up to the ruins. At +length he had found a foot-path, when a rough voice cried out to him, +'Halt!' He looked up, and upon a high rock hardly ten steps before him +stood a brigand, whose rifle was aimed at his head.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What may be the matter?' cried Arwed, roughly, taking his gun +from his +shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Lay aside your arms, or I will shoot you down!' commanded the +robber.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is not my custom,' answered Arwed. 'Shoot, rascal! But +be sure to +hit, or you are lost.'</p> + +<p class="normal">And presenting his gun with his left hand, as he would have +presented a +pistol, he rushed towards his adversary. The latter, daunted by his +boldness, fired and missed; and instantly afterwards, with Arwed's +bullet in his head, he fell upon the rock, whence, yet struggling with +death, he tumbled down a neighboring and unfathomable abyss. Frightened +by the firing, the whole flock of funereal birds arose croaking from +the summit, with the rustling of a thousand wings, and fluttered like a +dark rushing cloud in the air, for some minutes obscuring the light of +the sun.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Those villanous birds will alarm the garrison and bring the +whole gang +in an uproar upon me,' thought Arwed, as he reloaded his gun. 'I would +willingly have ascended further, but now I must not venture it. Every +thing depends upon my safely reaching Gyllensten with the knowledge I +have acquired. I have obtained the necessary information concerning the +enemy's position. It has indeed cost one man's life, but he is no great +loss to the world.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He hastened homeward. Soon the dangerous mountain lay far +behind him; +and, just as the stars began to twinkle in the firmament, he reached +Gyllensten in safety.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XLV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Under the direction of Megret and Arwed, the preparations for +breaking +up the nest of robbers were made with great ability and circumspection. +The ten dragoons stationed at Umea were privately summoned to +Gyllensten, and the neighboring peasantry, who were collected together +under the pretext of a grand wolf-hunt, were distributed among them and +the governor's foresters and gamekeepers. The little force thus +collected, numbering about eighty men, were divided into two commands +under Megret and Arwed, and started the next night in many separate +divisions, which, though connected by patroles, presented no one +conspicuous mass which could excite the suspicions of the brigands. +Whilst Megret proceeded in this manner directly towards Ravensten, +Arwed sought to reach the other side of the rocks by a circuitous +route, so as to cut off any attempted retreat to the neighboring +mountains. The movement was successfully accomplished. Just before +sun-rise the two divisions almost simultaneously reached the foot of +the Ravensten, and slowly and cautiously ascended the narrow rocky +passes. They arrived at the summit without meeting with any +obstruction. There, one of the robber sentinels, being aroused, made a +stand and shot down one of the dragoons by Arwed's side. The shot not +only awakened the winged denizens of Ravensten, who rose affrighted and +screaming into the air, but also occasioned a movement in the towers, +and about twenty of the half naked brigands rushed out with such arms +as they could first seize in the confusion of the moment, and fell upon +the assailants. The strife was furious on both sides, but victory +finally inclined in favor of the greater number of the assailing +party;--want of experience was compensated by the circumspection and +bravery of their leaders, and the brigands were yielding ground, when a +small, fresh band, came forth to the battle and renewed the fight. At +their head was a tall, well-formed man, with a dark-colored face, who +first fired his pistols among the assailants, and then with great fury +fell upon the peasants, sword in hand, 'That is Black Naddock!' +they cried, every where retreating before him. The dragoons and +foresters, however, kept their ground, and the battle raged with +increased fierceness.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is the man who saved my life on the road to Tornea!' +cried Arwed +to Megret.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is Mac Donalbain, artificially blackened!' exclaimed the +latter +with envenomed scorn, attempting to fight his way to his hated rival; +but some of the brigands threw themselves before him, and kept him +fully employed; whilst Arwed constantly pressed nearer and nearer to +the blackamoor, and soon discovered the well-known features through his +disguise.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Yield, Mac Donalbain, the victory is ours!' cried Arwed, +attacking +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is better to die by the sword of a brave nobleman than +upon the +scaffold!' exclaimed Mac Donalbain, suddenly exposing his uncovered +breast to Arwed's blade.</p> + +<p class="normal">'God forbid!' cried Arwed, checking the descending blow. 'I am +no +murderer!' But at that moment Megret, having disencumbered himself of +his troublesome opponents, hurled the Scot to the earth.</p> + +<p class="normal">'At last!' triumphantly exclaimed Megret, setting his foot +upon the +breast of his fallen foe and slowly raising his sword for the +death-stroke with an infernal smile....</p> + +<p class="normal">At that moment a woman in a peasant's dress and with a child +in her +arms, rushed forward with an agonizing shriek. Wildly floated the rich +blond locks about her white forehead, which strangely contrasted with +the bloom of the rosy faced infant. 'Christine!' cried the terrified +Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Mercy!' shrieked the unhappy woman. 'Mercy for my husband, +for the +father of this child!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You know not what you ask, madam Mac Donalbain!' said Megret, +scornfully. 'Whoever is well disposed towards you and your house, +cannot do a better thing than speedily to help you to a widow's veil.' +He aimed a blow,--but Arwed opportunely struck up his sword and forced +him back.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Mac Donalbain is a prisoner!' cried the youth with noble +indignation. +'From this moment he stands under the protection of the law, to which +he is amenable, and you have no right to take his life.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ah, Arwed, you are indeed always yourself!' sobbed Christine, +falling +at his feet with her child.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Such generous subtlety,' said Megret, putting up his sword, +'becomes +loathsome to me when practically applied in the important affairs of +life.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'In this case, generosity is more cruel than malignity!' cried +Mac +Donalbain, closing his eyes from exhaustion by loss of blood.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meantime the right had fully conquered. Fifteen of the robbers +had +fallen in the fight, and seven had madly thrown themselves from the +summit and found the death they hoped to escape, upon the sharp cliffs +of Ravensten. The remainder, twelve in number, struck with terror by +the fall of their chief, threw down their arms and begged for mercy.</p> + +<p class="normal">Whilst Megret caused the prisoners to be bound together in +couples, Mac +Donalbain was by Arwed's direction conveyed into the lower vault of the +tower, and his wounds taken care of.</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed then turned to Christine, who had followed them to the +tower. +'Wretched woman,' cried he, grasping her powerfully, 'where is thy +father?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Christine pointed speechlessly to a corner of the cave-like +room, and +then threw herself in silent wretchedness upon Mac Donalbain's couch of +sorrow.</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed hastened to the designated spot, found and sprung a trap +door +there, which opened into the rocky cellar of the castle. A long, +winding staircase conducted him to a subterranean but well lighted +room, where, still paler and weaker than when he last saw him, his poor +old uncle met his view.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My son! my preserver!' cried the old man, with outspread +arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thank God, my object is accomplished!' exclaimed Arwed, with +heartfelt +joy. 'Yet once more has my melancholy existence been rendered really +useful in the world.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Alas, that it has been accomplished!' cried the uncle with +deep +despondency, 'Rather would I have found, here an unknown and unhonored +grave, than meet the overwhelming shame which must henceforth rest upon +my noble name in my native land!'</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XLVI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Under the directions of Megret the towers and walls of +Ravensten were +blown up, to render them forever after incapable of serving as a place +of shelter for similar bands. The wounded Mac Donalbain and his +companions were secured in the prisons of Umea, and Christine with her +child conveyed to Gyllensten, where her aged father, his iron +constitution finally overpowered by his sorrows, lay dangerously ill. +The chief judge had summoned the associate justices of his court to the +sessions-chamber of the city hall of Umea, for the trial of the +criminals. Arwed and Megret were present; the former at his uncle's +request, and the latter, that he might witness the entire outpouring of +the cup of vengeance; and, supported by his keeper and laden with +chains, Mac Donalbain appeared before his judges. Harassed and +tormented by his wounds, he staggered here and there, with difficulty +holding himself upright; but his spirit remained unbroken, and his dark +eyes flashed upon the assembly with all their former fierceness. Megret +beheld the scene with a smile of internal satisfaction. Arwed gave a +look of sympathy to the unhappy man, and then whispered a request to +the judge. The latter nodded. The bailiffs took off Mac Donalbain's +chains and placed a stool for him, upon which he seated himself with a +look of gratitude towards Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Tell us your true name, your rank, and your native country,' +commenced +the judge with solemn earnestness.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Gregor Mac Donalbain,' answered the prisoner; 'a nobleman of +the +highlands of Scotland.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you still continue, with shameless effrontery, to make +that +assertion?' interposed Megret.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Forget not, colonel,' cried Mac Donalbain with vehemence, +'that here +you have no right to question me, and that I do not acknowledge any +obligation to answer you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Neither should you forget,' said Megret, with bitterness, +'that pride +and insolence will make your bad cause still worse, and forever close +the door of mercy which true repentance and humility may perhaps +otherwise open for you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You would indeed very willingly see me, overpowered by the +fear of +death, begging my life at your feet,' rejoined Mac Donalbain, +disdainfully. 'But you may as well resign all hope of that pleasure. I +reject and scorn all mercy for which I must be indebted to you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The judge commanded both of them to be silent. 'Admitting the +correctness of your statement,' said he to Mac Donalbain, 'how is it +possible that you could stain your nobility by abandoning yourself to +so horrible and reprobate a profession?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It was my fate!' answered Mac Donalbain doggedly, and casting +his eyes +upon the ground.</p> + +<p class="normal">'So, but too often, does man name the consequences of his +passions and +his crimes!' remarked the judge.</p> + +<p class="normal">'So,' said Mac Donalbain, 'may this name be often applied to +the +injustice which an unfortunate man suffers from his brethren, when that +injustice impels him to deeds which else would have been abhorrent to +his soul. A cruel injury to my honor, which I suffered in the service +of the British king, threw me into the arms of the English buccaneers. +My name became known and feared in both the eastern and western oceans. +The lords of the earth, however they may indulge in similar enterprizes +on a great scale for the accomplishment of their projects, array +themselves against little private exploits. Excluded from the ports of +all civilized nations, we were at length compelled to seek an asylum in +Africa. We found one in Madagascar. There we heard of the return of the +hero of the north to his own country. We hoped that this prince, fond +of war, and compelled as he was to engage in it, would receive us with +open arms. Offering to him our services, we proposed to enter the port +of Gottenburg with sixty sail of vessels. Two of his nobility closed a +treaty with us in his name. I was sent here before the arrival of the +fleet to prepare every thing for its reception; but a fever seized me +at Gottenburg; and before my recovery the king fell before +Frederickshall. Storms, and Europe's <i>licensed</i> pirates, annihilated +our fleet upon its way hither, and when at length I arose from my bed +of sickness I was a beggar. There was no longer any hope of the +fulfilment of the royal promise. With Charles's seal and signature for +the rank of colonel, I could not even obtain a company. Then again +awoke in me the bitter hatred of mankind. My last hope to live and fall +as an honorable soldier, was destroyed. The country which denied me my +well acquired rights, threw me back to the state of nature, in which +every man sustains and defends himself by his own natural powers. I +then felt myself authorized to make war upon my enemies, and take what +I needed with the strong hand. A band of unfortunates, who like me had +nothing to lose, chose me for their leader, and the struggle between +myself and the crown of Sweden began. I have been overcome and am +therefore in the wrong;--for which reason I pray you quickly to break +the staff of justice over my head. I am ready to die.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Dreadful man!' cried the judge. 'Have you also such sophisms +in +readiness to excuse the misery and shame you have brought upon a noble +house within whose walls you were hospitably received?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is the curse of my life,' cried Mac Donalbain, +repentantly, 'for +which I cannot answer. For that must I call down justice upon myself. +However hard your sentence may fall upon me, by that alone have I +deserved it, and willingly bow myself before the chastening hand of the +law.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is the request of my uncle,' said Arwed to the judge, +'that all the +wrongs which Mac Donalbain has perpetrated against our house should be +passed over without investigation.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What, even the attempt against his excellency's person?' +indignantly +asked the judge, whilst Megret in silent anger ground the floor with +his spurred heel.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The band,' said Arwed, 'among whom the governor had +accidentally +fallen, wished to murder him for their own safety. Mac Donalbain +preserved the old man's life by risking his own. Even the imprisonment +was but a measure resorted to for that purpose. I also have to thank +this man for the preservation of my life. He would have a strong +counter reckoning to make with us. Therefore let one account be +considered as balanced by the other.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am astonished,' spitefully observed Megret, 'that my lord +the +governor has not proposed an amnesty for his dear son-in-law.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My uncle,' answered Arwed with earnestness, 'can pardon +injuries +personal to himself; but he will never allow himself to interrupt the +just operation of the laws. With us Mac Donalbain has made his peace. +He has now to reconcile himself with the laws and satisfy the demands +of public justice, if need be, with his blood!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh, would to God it might be so!' cried Mac Donalbain. 'With +my +present feelings life would be to me a most sad and unwelcome gift.'</p> + +<p class="normal">A disturbance was now heard without the session-room. The door +flew +open, and the breathless Christine, with her child in her arms, pressed +irresistibly through the crowd of officers who sought to hold her +back.</p> + +<p class="normal">'This trial also!' sighed Mac Donalbain, turning away his +face.</p> + +<p class="normal">'In God's name, the countess Gyllenstierna!' cried the +astonished +judge.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I was the countess Gyllenstierna,' said Christine. 'I am now +the +wedded wife of the brigand leader, Mac Donalbain, and my place is by +his side, in chains or upon the gallows.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Christine! how could you afflict your father by this second +shameful +flight?' Arwed reproachingly asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My father's life,' answered Christine, 'was already +empoisoned beyond +remedy by my guilt. Therefore allow me the merit of having fulfilled my +duty towards at least <i>one</i> being in the world, my husband. He is a +prisoner, and suffering in body and mind. He needs care and +consolation; and from whom can he expect either, if not from her who +has bound her fate with his for this life by a solemn oath before God's +altar.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Have you then really married the criminal?' Megret anxiously +asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">Christine gave him a scornful look and remained silent; but +when the +question was repeated by the judge, she drew a sealed paper from her +bosom and laid it upon his table.</p> + +<p class="normal">'A Gyllenstierna can never wholly fall,' said she proudly. +'The old +curate of Lyksale, constrained by my tears, secretly married us a short +time before his death.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'This evidence,' said the judge, 'speaks <i>against</i> your wish +to share +the criminal's chains. Bound to him by the holy ties of marriage, you +become guiltless of the crimes in which he is implicated, in which your +will had no part. There is no reasonable ground for your detention, and +nothing remains but to send you back to your father.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Torture me not with this well-meant chicanery!' exclaimed +Christine. +'Would you counsel me to ascertain which is deepest, the Umea or my +misery? Or would you that I should strangle myself with the braids of +my hair? So true as the Lord liveth, I will not be torn living from my +husband.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Let it be as she wishes,' begged Arwed of the judge.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I shall perhaps take a heavy responsibility upon myself,' +answered the +latter with strong emotion. 'But who could withstand her intercession? +Be it so.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Courage, Mac Donalbain!' now exhorted Christine. 'We have men +for our +judges. They will listen to your defence with merciful hearts, and thus +at least your life will be saved.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I desire not life, nor will I ask for mercy!' cried Mac +Donalbain, +wildly. 'My deeds are my own, and the son of my father is not +accustomed to excuse or palliate them, especially to save a miserable +life!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You speak as becomes a man and a Scottish nobleman,' said +Christine; +'yet must I be allowed to speak for you as becomes your truly wedded +wife. Therefore I beg of you, my lords, give that gracious hearing +which you hope God will one day give you!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What can you offer in defence of a convicted highway robber?' +asked +the judge, with some appearance of sympathy.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The heaven-crying injustice of the government!' eagerly +exclaimed +Christine, 'which forcibly impelled the unhappy man upon his criminal +career. The indulgence which has been shown to similar transgressions. +The case of the Danish deserter, who received from Charles XII great +rewards and a license to rob for his own benefit, proves how mildly +such transgressions have hitherto been judged in our father-land.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'However clear may be the precedent you cite to us,' said the +judge, +'it cannot be applied to the present case. Neither was this absolute +sovereign authorised to grant such unheard of privileges, which, if +true, owes its origin but to one of Charles's strange caprices; as the +property of the subjects must be deemed sacred by the king, who is +indeed their natural protector.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My maternal inheritance shall repair the wrong which Mac +Donalbain has +inflicted upon the country!' cried Christine.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Can you make reparation for the innocent blood which has been +shed by +your husband's hand?' asked the judge with impressive solemnity.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The resistance he opposed to the attack was self-defence!' +cried +Christine; 'besides, none of the assailants fell by his sword; and with +that exception he has preserved his hands pure from the blood of his +fellow men.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'By no means!' answered the judge. 'The traveler upon the road +to +Lulea, and the unhappy Laplander, who conducted the governor to that +den of murderers, are dumb witnesses of your husband's guilt.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'By the God of heaven, Mac Donalbain is not guilty of their +death!' +cried Christine in tones of the deepest anguish. 'Ask the band, and, if +either of them accuse my husband, let us both die the shameful death of +criminals.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'We would indeed very willingly hear the truth, at last, from +his +companions. But in their examinations they have denied all knowledge of +the crimes of which they have been guilty, with unparalleled +impudence.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The knaves deny!' cried Mac Donalbain, springing upon his +feet. 'They +must consider me dead or as having escaped, else they would not dare to +do it, for they know me. Let them be brought here,--let them be placed +before my eyes. I will reckon with them in a manner which shall change +their minds.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It may not be advisable,' observed Megret; 'it may give them +an +opportunity for secret collusion.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am of a different opinion, colonel,' answered the judge, +directing +the bailiff to bring in the band. 'This man is so bold and frank that +we need not fear artifice.'</p> + +<p class="normal">A long, deep silence ensued. Christine, weeping in silence, +had seated +herself upon Mac Donalbain's stool, and was absorbed in the +contemplation of the blooming child, which with an angel smile was +sleeping on her bosom. The brigand leader had kneeled down and hid his +face in her lap, whilst her white fingers wandered among his black and +curled locks. Megret looked with dark burning glances, and Arwed with +the deepest sympathy upon the group, while the judge said, sighing; +'the office of a judge is sometimes very difficult to administer!'</p> + +<p class="normal">A noise was now heard in the ante-room. Arms and chains +rattled, and +twelve fiend-like ruffians, in heavy chains and strongly guarded by +bailiffs and soldiers, stepping in exact time, without recognizing or +noticing Mac Donalbain, marched in and formed in exact line on the +space before the bench.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We have again summoned you,' began the chief judge, 'to +repeat our +exhortations to confess the truth, and once more to lead your minds to +the conviction, that by persisting in your shameless denials, you only +prolong the examination and your own imprisonment--that you expose +yourselves to the torture of the rack, and moreover increase the +severity of your punishment, the mitigation of which you can only hope +from a free and full confession. Consider, unhappy men, that my present +request is made with the kindest intentions. He, only, who honestly +acknowledges and repents of his sins can hope for a merciful judgment +here or hereafter.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is quite pathetic and affecting to hear,' answered the +most +hardened of the prisoners, 'that such a lord as you should so far +condescend to us miserable people, as to beg where you are accustomed +only to command. We cannot indeed particularly wish to hasten an +examination which with us is to end with the gallows, especially if we +should say yes to all of which we are suspected to be guilty. The +mitigation of punishment, with which judges always embellish their +promises to prisoners, in requital of candid confessions, appears to me +like the little book mentioned in the revelations of St. John, 'sweet +in the mouth and bitter in the belly.' We know of many examples where +prisoners have fared worse for speaking than for keeping silent. +However it may be with others, we have not the least desire to talk +away our own lives. Concerning the rack, which judges always present as +the other alternative, we must submit to it as well as we may, all of +us having strong frames and stout hearts. Nevertheless we would give +you every information without the rack, if any we had. What we do know, +we have honestly related; and it certainly is not our fault if you will +not believe us.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you persist, then, in denying the robberies of which you +are +already as good as convicted?' asked the judge.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We deny nothing,' insolently answered the prisoner, 'nor do +we +acknowledge anything; for we have committed no crime. We are honest +Finlanders, who follow hunting through half the Lappmark, and had our +head quarters upon the Ravensten.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And do you really know nothing of Black Naddock?' further +asked the +judge.</p> + +<p class="normal">'We have heard some tales about the arrant rogue,' answered +the +brigand, 'but the devil knows more about him than we. There was indeed +a Moor, who begged a lodging of us last night, and I thought I saw him +again in the morning, when we were attacked by the dragoons and their +companions; but whether he was or was not Naddock, is more than I can +say. I do not know the man.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You do not know me, rascal?' cried Mac Donalbain, springing +forward, +and striking his brother robber to the earth with his fist.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The captain!' was murmured along the ranks, and, fronting +their chief, +the robbers laid their right hands upon their hearts, in token of +respectful greeting.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Must I suffer this from people whom I have commanded?' +angrily +exclaimed Mac Donalbain. 'You have held out like heroes, against men +and elements, and do you now, equivocate like common thieves from a +miserable fear of death? Know that I have disclosed everything to the +court, and further, that I will freely answer every question they can +put to me. Do you wish to give the lie to your captain?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'God forbid!' stammered one of the band. 'We should be +disgraced for +life!' cried another; and the former speaker, who by this time had +risen from the floor, cried, 'let your crook-backed secretary nib his +pen afresh, sir judge. We will now sing the song that you lords will +but too willingly hear from such poor devils as we. Write! Everything +that our captain has confessed is true from the beginning to the end.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well now,' cried Megret, who could restrain himself no +longer; 'you +see that you may now, if you please, repay your captain for all the +misfortunes he has brought upon you. The sinful ties which connected +you with him are cut asunder, and you have no reason to spare him in +the least. So tell the court freely and frankly--'who murdered the +traveler on the road to Lulea?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That,' answered the robber with eagerness and proud +satisfaction, 'was +done by a brace of gallows-birds who did not belong to our band, but +marauded on their own account, and we beg not to be confounded with +them. Had we caught them we should ourselves have hung them upon the +nearest tree; for we could not with indifference have permitted such +good-for-nothing fellows to injure our reputation.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And who killed the poor Laplander, who was found hung upon +the +fir-tree before the entrance to your den?' asked the judge.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Red Hialf,' answered the prisoner; 'but without orders. In +consequence +of which our captain arrested him, and on the morning when we were +attacked, he was to have had his trial. He must have been found locked +up in the vault of the second tower.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That place was not searched!' cried Arwed, with a shudder.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He must have been blown into the air with the tower,' said +Megret. +'There can be no question of it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You must now be convinced,' said Christine, approaching the +judge, +'that my husband is innocent of every murderous deed. Can you now give +me any hope for him?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I should consider it great presumption to give you any,' +answered the +judge, 'and unjust to withhold it entirely. Our laws are severe and my +duties strict. Yet can the queen pardon. Leave the decision to God!'</p> + +<p class="normal">He directed the bailiffs to replace Mac Donalbain's chains. +Christine +watched the proceeding in silent sadness, bowed with a sweet and +melancholy grace to the judges, and, supporting her child with one arm +and her husband with the other, she moved with him from the room. Arwed +and Megret followed her.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is it really your unalterable resolution, countess,' +whispered the +latter to her, 'to share the imprisonment of a villain, instead of +fulfilling a daughter's duty by the sick bed of your noble father?'</p> + +<p class="normal">But Christine turned away without answering him, and +approached Arwed. +'Thy spirit breathed upon me in the court room,' said she with strong +emotion. 'For the kindness I met there, I am indebted to thy benignant +heart. Tire not! I well know that we are not worthy of all you are +doing for us; but you are accustomed to the performance of all that is +good and great, and will of yourself consummate your work, for its own +sake, regardless of the object. Save but the life of this unhappy man, +and you shall have my eternal gratitude.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Listen not to her prayer, count,' cried Mac Donalbain, 'but +suffer me +to seek in the grave that peace which life can henceforth never give +me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The conversation was interrupted by the guards whose duty it +was to +conduct the prisoners to their dungeon. Christine, shuddering, left +Arwed, to follow her husband, '<i>Diable! Elle aime le larron, et elle +l'aimera jusqu'à la potence!</i>' cried the enraged and despairing Megret +as he rushed out.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XLVII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">It was already deep winter, and the judges were again +assembled in the +town hall of Umea. Once more Arwed leaned against the window, an +interested spectator. Through his interposition Megret was this time +denied entrance. With recovered health Mac Donalbain, his faithful +nurse, his child, and his twelve comrades, were placed before the +judgment seat. The chief judge showed the seal of the envelope covering +the final decision, which had been received from Stockholm. After +satisfying all present that the seal was still inviolate, he proceeded +to break it and drew out the portentous document, through which he +rapidly ran his eye.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your lives are spared!' cried he to Mac Donalbain with +heartfelt joy. +'The mercy of the queen has commuted the death-sentence of you all into +confinement to labor in the mines for life.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh my God! that is hard!' sighed Mac Donalbain.</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is heart-breaking mercy,' dryly observed the humorous +brigand, +'which compels us, who were never fond of labor, again to begin to move +our bones like patient asses day after day, until happily relieved by +death. However, something is always better than nothing, and we are +duly grateful.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile Christine had fallen upon her knees in silent +thanksgiving to +God. She quickly arose however, and quietly asked the judge, 'what is +the decision with regard to myself!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'As was foreseen,' he answered. 'You are pronounced free from +all guilt +and punishment, and you are left at liberty to dissolve your marriage +with the prisoner.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What a good thing it is to have a royal counsellor for one's +uncle!' +cried Christine, with derisive scorn.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You can leave this place and go wherever you please without +delay or +hindrance. Yet you are expected at Gyllensten, and your noble kinsman +is present to accompany you there.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That means, that I am to be separated from my husband by +persuasion or +force!' said Christine with intense anxiety, while a sudden resolution +seemed all at once to re-animate her soul. 'You then are my master, +Arwed,' she at length said to him. 'Against that I have no complaint to +make. You will not be an unkind one, and therefore I confidently expect +from you a compliance with my request. Allow me to accompany my husband +to his place of destination.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your father expects you to-day,' said Arwed impatiently; 'and +I must +not comply with your request.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Dear Arwed,' said she, hanging affectionately upon him, 'let +me at +least take a final leave of the wretched man before he parts forever +from the blessed light of day. Then will I follow you to Gyllensten, or +where else you please, patiently, as a lamb follows its mother. Do not +this time say no. It is the last request I shall ever make of you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'So all-powerful is the magic of this singular being,' said +Arwed to +the judge, 'that she compels me to consent to what I ought to refuse. +Yours is a sad case, Christine; you might have prepared an earthly +heaven for some worthy man, through your love.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That she might!' cried Mac Donalbain, agonized with sorrow +and +repentance, 'that she might, had she not thrown away her love upon me. +She is a cheerful sun which has lavished its rays upon a desert waste, +full of monsters, instead of ripening wholesome fruits for the +nourishment of men.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You say yes? I can prepare for the journey, can I not?' once +more +asked Christine, and kissing his hand as he nodded assent, she flew to +make her preparations.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XLVIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The wagons of the prisoners, together with Arwed's carriage +containing +Christine and her child, were approaching the end of their journey. On +one side of them the smelting furnace of Oesterby was rolling its +clouds of smoke high into the winter sky; before them towered the bald, +dark-gray iron mountains of Danemora-Gruben, and already the few +buildings which animate this desolate and uncomfortable region had +become visible. A dragoon, who had been sent forward to announce their +approach to the superintendent of the mines, now returned and led them +to the nearest shaft, where a number of the miners had already +assembled to receive the new comers and expedite them to their destined +location under ground.</p> + +<p class="normal">While the young miners were taking their stations at the +windlass, and +others were removing the robbers from the wagons, Christine drew Arwed +aside.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Arwed,' said the broken-hearted woman, 'you have always +conducted +yourself towards me in the noblest manner. Give me one more proof of +your generosity and kindness, and thus crown your work. Allow me to +descend into the mine with Mac Donalbain. My anxiety for him will be +less painful when I am made acquainted with his new residence.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What an insensate request!' cried Mac Donalbain, who had +overheard it, +'It will be much better that we take our last farewell here above +ground.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Because I have once yielded to your importunities,' replied +Arwed, +'you hold me for a weak simpleton, and think you can move and turn me +at your pleasure. I have fulfilled your last request, and now I must +obey your father's commands. Take your last leave of Mac Donalbain, and +then return with me according to your solemn promise.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hold me not so closely to my word,' entreated Christine. +'What would I +not have promised for the happiness of beholding my husband some days +longer! Let me descend with him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You must now take your leave,' said Arwed sternly, 'and then +immediately return with me to Gyllensten. My resolution is +unchangeable.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Christine looked wildly about her. The robbers were all in the +tub +ready to descend, and waited only for Mac Donalbain, who now embraced +his wife with frantic sorrow. 'Farewell, and forgive me!' he cried, and +hurried to the shaft.</p> + +<p class="normal">'If thou hast ever loved,' shrieked Christine, clinging to +Arwed's +knees, 'suffer yourself this time, only this time, to be softened. Let +me follow my husband. For this shall a wife leave father and mother. +Hold God's word in honor, and permit an unhappy woman to descend into +the bosom of the earth, from which she sprung.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I must do my duty; you remain behind!' decided Arwed. +Meantime the +windlass had commenced its revolutions, and the prisoners had +disappeared in the dark and yawning gulf.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is gone!' moaned Christine. 'Thou hast done thy duty, +barbarian; +now will I do mine!'</p> + +<p class="normal">She took the suckling from her breast, and placed it in +Arwed's arms. +'Be its father!' she cried, springing to the shaft.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Back! the tubs have already descended!' shrieked a miner, +whilst Arwed +hastened after her to hold her back.</p> + +<p class="normal">'In God's name!' she exclaimed, and, grasping with both hands +the +tub-rope which hung suspended in the abyss, and boldly swinging herself +over the shaft, she descended with frightful rapidity, and in a moment +was lost to view.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Holy God!' cried Arwed in amazement, staring with +stupefaction into +the horrible deep.</p> + +<p class="normal">'She will never reach the bottom alive,' cried one of the +miners at the +windlass: 'God have mercy on her soul!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed had handed over the child to one of the miners' wives, +and +availed himself of the first tub which again came up, to descend into +the pit for the purpose of looking after the unhappy mother, and doing +every thing in his power for her welfare. The brave youth felt a slight +shudder, when, by the celerity of his movement, the black, rocky walls +around him, as if raised by some magic power, appeared to fly up into +the air so swiftly as soon to shut out the light of day from the +entrance, which appeared like a distant star shining down upon him; +and, as his eyes gradually became accustomed to the obscurity, the +terrors of the subterranean world became more and more distinctly and +fearfully perceptible. Nothing was to be seen around him but dark gray +rocks in gigantic masses, and occasionally caves and depths so +immeasurable that they appeared to open into endless space. In singular +contrast with the death-like appearance of all nature in these immense +regions, appeared the active and busy movements of living men, who +cheerfully labored to rend by force from old mother earth, that which +she has so carefully hidden, and so pertinaciously withholds, from the +curiosity and avarice of her children. There, upon an isolated group of +projecting rocks, were the begrimmed miners, with their mining lamps, +appearing in the far distance like so many fire-flies, assiduously +digging with mallets and drills into the iron walls, for the purpose of +gaining, in the least dangerous, though most tedious manner, the useful +metal, which others then removed in troughs, baskets and handbarrows, +and finally conveyed to the regions of day. Here, large fires were +burning under the overhanging rocks, for the purpose of softening the +hard stone by their heat, until they could be detached by their iron +crow-bars. Upon slender rafters, supported by inserting their ends into +the fissures of the rocks over unfathomable abysses, solitary +individuals were composedly boring holes in the rocks for the purpose +of blasting them; and near and far to a great distance, the darkness +was illuminated by explosions which re-echoed through the natural +arches of the pit like a subterranean battery of cannon.</p> + +<p class="normal">'A true earthly hell!' said Arwed, while going down, +'furnished with +all the terrors and torments which mortals can suffer without quickly +succumbing. How can Christine prefer servitude in this eternal night to +freedom in the blessed light of day? But indeed love will endure all +things.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The tub landed at the bottom of the shaft, Arwed stepped from +it, and +immediately perceived, by the light of a torch, the poor Christine +lying exhausted upon the ground in a recess in one side of the pit. Mac +Donalbain was standing by her in silent despair, and the clergyman of +the mines was bandaging the bleeding hands of the suffering woman, from +which the cord had torn the flesh as it slipped through them.</p> + +<p class="normal">'So thou hast come after me, Arwed!' cried she, with a glance +of +heavenly kindness, and extending towards him her already bandaged right +hand. 'You have always acted toward me with the best feelings and +intentions.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My God, what desperation!' said Arwed. 'This descent might +have cost +you your life. At all events you have accomplished your wish. So give +to Mac Donalbain your farewell kiss, and let us again return to your +child and to your father.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Not so, Arwed!' answered Christine with determined +resolution. 'My +child is confided to good hands. My presence can afford neither joy nor +comfort to my father. I remain with my husband. You have reason to know +what will be my alternative if compulsion is used. You would not +constrain me to self-murder. Therefore take my last farewell, and with +it my thanks for your truly fraternal love.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is now your duty to interfere, Mac Donalbain,' cried +Arwed, +earnestly. 'Without Christine I dare not appear before her father. The +intelligence that she has persisted in remaining here would cause the +old man's death, and he has not deserved that from you. Therefore +dissolve the magic spell you have cast around her, and give back the +daughter to her father.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My crimes have forever loosed the bands which bound us,' said +Mac +Donalbain, with almost suffocating sorrow, to his wife. 'Therefore +leave me now, Christine. It would only increase my misery to know that +it was shared by you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I do not believe it, Mac Donalbain,' answered the resolute +woman. +'That the society, the sympathy, the consolations, of a being who +stands in so near a relation that henceforth she will only live and +breathe for you, must lighten your sufferings, I am fully convinced; +and in despite of your generous untruth I remain your companion.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Well, then,' cried Mac Donalbain, wildly, 'if you will at all +events +remain the wife of a condemned criminal, you must respect the husband's +authority. The wife owes obedience to the husband, and I command you to +return to your father!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You cannot command me to do that,' answered Christine. 'I am +your +wedded wife. I have never given you cause to be dissatisfied with me, +but have always faithfully adhered to you, up to this sad moment. You +have no right to separate yourself from me without my consent, and by +Almighty God I will never give it!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Be merciful, as our Father in Heaven is merciful!' +said the preacher to the weeping Arwed. 'So far as I understand this +sad history, it appears, even to me, better to permit the unhappy woman +to remain with her husband. What but severe reproof and bitter scorn +can she now expect in the upper world? Here, on the contrary, she can +perhaps preserve a distracted mind from despair and lead it to true +repentance and amendment, which is always a commendable work and +acceptable to God.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'How can I venture,' rejoined Arwed, 'to leave the poor woman +here, +helpless, amid the horrors of nature and the outcasts of society, whose +destiny her husband must share?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'She shall reside in my house,' promised the preacher; 'and +together +with my good wife I will make every possible effort to render her yoke +easy and her burden light. Confide her to me, sir officer, and I will +have a father's care of her.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do so, reverend sir,' said Arwed, somewhat relieved by this +promise, +and placing a purse in the preacher's hand. 'The governor of West +Bothnia will gratefully acknowledge whatever kindness you may show to +his daughter.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The preacher raised his hands in astonishment on thus learning +the high +rank of the person committed to his care. 'I will plead for you with +your father!' said Arwed to Christine,--and, to shorten the painful +scene, he hastened to re-enter the tub. The signal was given, and Arwed +soon mounted to the regions of day, accompanied by the grateful prayers +of those he left behind.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER XLIX.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Arwed sat by his uncle's sick bed, and, not without some +embarrassment +and hesitation, gave an account of Christine's artifice, his weakness, +and her final resolution. The old man exhibited no sign of anger, as +Arwed had anticipated, but on the contrary nodded his assent to the +arrangement. 'She knows what is proper for her,' he at length said in a +trembling voice. 'Her honor is lost beyond redemption, and I therefore +consider it but reasonable and proper that she should hide herself in a +place so little different from the grave. Direct my steward to send a +hundred ducats to Oesterby yearly, for her use, that she may not suffer +from want, and henceforth name her to me no more. With her child you +will do what you think proper; you have an open treasury here, but +never let it come into my presence. I cannot acknowledge a child of Mac +Donalbain as my grandson.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is Megret still here?' asked Arwed, for the purpose of +changing the +subject.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He is,' answered the governor, 'and I wish to have some +conversation +with you respecting him. A great change has come over him since the +Ravensten expedition, and he has daily become more and more seriously +misanthropic. Since he clearly ascertained that the----person was +determined at all events to accompany her husband to Danemora, it seems +as if an evil spirit had entered him, and obtained entire possession of +his heart. I really believe the fool did not, until then, give up all +hope of gaining her hand. His presence here has become disagreeable to +me. He daily harasses his poor hounds, who howl about the castle like +damned spirits,--shamefully over-rides his noble horses from mere +caprice, and I have frequently caught him in smiling and pleased +contemplation of his bloody spurs. His groom leads a miserable life +with him, and I have on that account already once or twice upbraided +him severely for his eccentric and irregular course. His plan of +purchasing and settling himself in this vicinity seems to be wholly +given up, and he has become burdensome to every living creature at the +castle, but most of all to himself. I feel that my days are numbered, +and would willingly die in peace. I must therefore beg of you, Arwed, +in my name and in a courteous manner, to dismiss him from the castle. +Should he take it ill, a duel may indeed be the consequence; but you +would not hesitate to exchange a few passes for the love of your old +uncle,--would you?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I will set about it immediately,' said Arwed, leaving the +room, +rejoiced to have an opportunity of forever ridding himself of the hated +Frenchman.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER L.</h2> + +<p class="normal">In answer to his inquiries for Megret, Arwed learned that he +had +retired into the garden in company with a strange officer. He followed +him there, and their voices guided him through the leafless and snow +covered walks to a thick grove of yew-trees, in which Megret and the +stranger were sitting. A glance through an opening in the branches of +the trees discovered to him the face of Siquier, pale and wasted by +disease and affliction; and the interest of a conversation which now +commenced between them, chained him with irresistible power to the +spot.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What is it that you particularly want of me?' asked Megret, +with +mingled embarrassment and vexation. 'We have both of us so long and so +carefully avoided each other, that this unexpected visit may well +excite my wonder.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am about to leave Sweden forever,' answered Siquier, in a +desponding +tone, 'and have come to take my leave of you, and to procure money for +my traveling expenses.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Money for traveling?' murmured Megret. 'We settled with each +other +long since, and balanced our accounts. Above all, how came you to form +the resolution of leaving Sweden?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You know,' answered Siquier, in a low voice and looking +carefully +about him, 'with what ignominy common report has branded my honor since +the king's death. I still hoped that those suspicions would gradually +die away, but they continued daily to strengthen and increase, and I +learned that my enemies with witty insolence pronounced my once +honorable name, <i>Sicaire</i>,<a name="div2Ref_note01" href="#div2_note01"><sup>1</sup></a> thus, by a slight change of sound +expressing the accusation with that atrocious word. Two duels followed, +and still the rumor continued to spread. Had I fought half the army, it +would have been unavailing. Finally my mental sufferings overpowered my +physical strength. A raging fever seized me, and...' He ceased.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And then?' asked Megret, with painful anxiety.</p> + +<p class="normal">'In the paroxysms,' stammered Siquier, almost inaudibly, 'I am +said to +have accused myself of Charles's murder, and to have thrown up my +windows and begged Sweden's pardon for the crime.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What consequence could they attach to such silly phantasies?' +asked +Megret, turning deadly pale.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The government,' continued Siquier, 'had me confined in a +mad-house, +and when I recovered I received my dismission, with an injunction to +leave the kingdom.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Are you also, like myself, dismissed?' cried Megret, with a +ferocious +laugh. 'They are right! The lemons have been squeezed, why should they +not sweep out the useless peels?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is dreadful to have no means of escaping the gnawing worm +in the +heart,' said Siquier, 'but, between ourselves, Megret, have we deserved +anything better?'</p> + +<p class="normal">While saying this he seized Megret's hand and gave him a +piercing +glance. The latter angrily tore himself from his grasp.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You know our former agreement,' said he moodily, 'never to +allude to +bye-gone occurrences, even in our most secret conversations.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are right,' said Siquier, with a look and tone of horror. +'The +past is, for us, a black night, full of blood and flames! Let us wait +until it re-appear in eternal futurity!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Here is money,' said Megret, placing a heavy purse of gold in +his +hand. 'Go and prosper.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It contains more than thirty pieces of silver,' said Siquier, +weighing +the purse in a sort of mental abstraction. 'There is more than enough +to purchase a potter's field for a wanderer's grave!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The fever has weakened you, poor Siquier!' exclaimed Megret, +with +forced laughter. 'You have grown learned in the scriptures, and will no +doubt become one of the professing brothers of La Trappe, in your old +age. Do hasten to get there.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Mock me not, seducer!' said Siquier, grating his teeth and +grasping +the hilt of his sword. After a few moments he observed, 'you are right! +I believe in a hereafter,--I believe in future rewards and punishments, +and may I therefore live to repent and reform. You entertain a +different belief, and you have only to shoot yourself when your +conscience awakens from its death-sleep!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That may become advisable!' said Megret, in a low tone, and +both +remained sitting near each other, their arms resting on their knees, +and their faces buried in their hands. They remained silent, each +absorbed in his own reflections, while the thickly falling flakes of +snow gradually wrapped them in white mantles, without attracting +notice.</p> + +<p class="normal">At length a heavy sigh escaped from Siquier's laboring breast. +He rose +up, threw the purse of gold before Megret's feet, and suddenly left the +garden, without bidding him farewell. Megret, uttering no word, +remained sitting in the same posture, and Arwed was detained motionless +for some time, by the feelings which this singular and dreadful +disclosure awakened, and by a want of decision, which of the two first +to call to account for their hidden deed of horror. He finally +concluded: 'why should I contend with the miserable man, whom the +judgment of God has already stricken, whose marrow has been already +consumed by sickness and remorse, who has neither strength nor courage +to oppose me, and who, perhaps, would welcome death from my hand? No, +the insolent transgressor, in all the pride and bloom of life, shall be +the object of my wrath--the <i>seducer</i>! as his accomplice called him. I +will punish not the <i>knife</i>, but the <i>hand</i>!'--and he quickly +approached the entrance to the grove, which Megret was that moment +leaving.</p> + +<p class="normal">The latter shrunk before the indignant glance of the youth. +The flush +of anger and the paleness of terror alternately played upon his +countenance, and it was dreadful to see the two manly forms confronting +each other with looks of enmity and defiance.</p> + +<p class="normal">The fearful silence was interrupted by Arwed. 'I have +overheard your +conversation with Siquier, colonel,' said he, 'and, as you know how +strong was the love I bore the king, you will not be surprised when I +declare to you that we must fight!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have an especial passion for pistol-shooting!' calmly and +jestingly replied Megret. 'Probably you wish to revive the custom of +the ancient pagans, with whom the companions in arms of a hero prince +reciprocally slaughtered each other on his grave; as an evidence of +their love and respect for him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Name your time and place!' cried Arwed, whose anger was +increased by +his insolent witticisms.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Eight days from this, about the same hour,' answered Megret, +after +some little reflection, 'in the first iron mine of Danemora.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That is a late and distant rendezvous,' said Arwed. 'You will +not let +me wait for you there in vain?'</p> + +<p class="normal">The Frenchman's eyes flashed, and in his anger he resembled an +evil +spirit in the human form. 'Young man!' he cried, 'doubt every +thing--doubt even of Megret's eternal salvation--but doubt not his word +or his courage,--or you will compel him to annihilate you even against +his will.' And with a proud step he left the garden.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER LI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Some days later, Arwed, prepared for his journey, approached +the sick +bed of his uncle to take leave of him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are going once more to Danemora?' asked the old man. +'What +occasion calls you there?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I wish to see how it goes with the poor Christine,' answered +Arwed, +unwilling to disturb the sick man by naming the true motive.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are deceiving me,' said the old man reprovingly. 'Your +business is +of a more unpleasant nature. You have executed the charge I gave you. +Megret has left us, and your journey relates to him. Danemora is only a +pretext to keep me in ignorance.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Truly no,' answered Arwed. 'Megret has appointed it for our +place of +meeting.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Is it so!' cried the old man. 'I am sorry for it, and have a +thousand +times repented of the charge I gave you. It would be a dreadful thing +if you should fall in this miserable combat. You can and must yet +become right useful to your father-land. Promise me at least that you +will pursue this affair no further than honor absolutely demands.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Forgive me, dear uncle,' said Arwed. 'I cannot give you that +promise. +But one of us will leave the field alive. Yet quiet yourself with the +assurance that it was not your request, with which indeed there was no +necessity for my compliance, which occasions this duel; it has a more +weighty cause.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What can that be?' doubtingly replied the uncle.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Excuse my naming it to you,' answered Arwed. 'I fight not for +our +house, nor for my own honor. I fight for Sweden!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Go then, bold combatant, and may God fight with you!' cried +the old +man. 'It is possible you may not find me alive when you return. For +which reason receive now my thanks for your filial love and truth. That +I consider myself your father in the full sense of the word, my +testament, which I have already deposited with the high court at +Stockholm, will inform you. I have also written to your father and to +the queen. You must become my successor in the government of West +Bothnia.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Never!' cried Arwed, impetuously.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You must!' persisted his uncle. 'Not for love of the queen, +nor for +your own advantage; but for the welfare of this province. I may be +permitted to say that with me the office has been in good hands, and I +am unwilling that an unworthy courtier or unfeeling soldier should +demolish what has cost me so many long years to build up. You are +intelligent, brave and good; and you have, with me, become familiar +with the civil duties. You are the most suitable person, and you must +be governor; where the happiness of the people is concerned, anger, +vindictiveness, and similar trifling hindrances, must not dare to raise +their heads in such a heart as yours.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'My dear uncle!' said the yielding Arwed, and kneeling down +before the +bed, he kissed the invalid's wasted hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">'God bless thee, my son!' said the latter, laying his hand +upon the +youth's head.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And also the poor Christine! is it not so?' asked Arwed.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Tell her--I--do not curse her!' cried the old man with a +severe +struggle; 'and now leave me. These feelings are too strong for my +exhausted powers.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned his face to the wall, and Arwed departed in sadness.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER LII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">At the appointed hour Arwed entered the shaft of the first +mine in +Danemora, with his pistols under his arm. In consequence of the perfect +mental repose with which he proceeded upon his bloody business, he had +this time a better opportunity to look about him and observe the +peculiarities of the monstrous cavity. A strange feeling seized him +when he took a nearer view of the active operations of this +subterranean world. The miserable huts and wooden booths here and there +erected among the rocks; the larger hut with a small belfry which +denoted the church of the immense abyss; the market, which the venders +of the indispensable necessaries of life, attracted by all-powerful +avarice, held here below; the ceaseless prosecution of the mining +operations--gave to the whole scene the appearance of an abortive +attempt to create a subterranean city; while the black dresses and +earth colored faces of the perpetual residents of these melancholy +regions were well calculated to strengthen the illusion. The whole was +lighted only by pans of pitch which fumed and smoked here and there in +their elevated niches. No glimmer of daylight penetrated there. The +firmament of these abodes was the roof of the mines, which, indeed, had +no sun, but had its fixed and wandering stars in the fires, torches and +lamps of the workmen--and, in the frequent explosions which took place, +their thunder and lightning, like the upper world. Arwed bent his +course directly to the little edifice which served for the church, and +upon reaching it discovered in its rear a small building, which rather +more than the others deserved the name of a house. It was the dwelling +of the clergyman. Upon entering he discovered Christine, whom sorrow +and confinement had rendered still more pale and emaciated, busily +plying her needle by lamp light.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Ah, Arwed!' cried she overjoyed, and springing towards him +she held +out her bandaged hand as before. A dark cloud soon flitted over her +beautiful countenance, and she asked distrustfully, 'have you no secret +object in this visit?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A very secret and serious one,' answered Arwed--'from which, +however, +you have nothing to fear. On the contrary, I bring you your father's +permission to remain here, the consolation that your child is well +attended to, and the assurance of a pecuniary allowance sufficient to +preserve you from want.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And I have to thank you, still you, for all these blessings!' +cried +Christine with grateful enthusiasm. 'Ah, how happy you make me, and at +the same time how inexpressibly unhappy!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Poor Christine!' said he with deep sympathy--'How miserable +has the +vehemence of thy nature rendered thee!'</p> + +<p class="normal">He laid his pistols upon, the table, and listened to ascertain +if any +one was approaching.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You said just now,' remarked Christine sorrowfully, 'that a +secret and +serious purpose brought you here. I hope those weapons which you have +brought with you into this peaceful hut, have no connection with it?'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed walked silently to the window and looked impatiently out +into the +eternal night.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you apprehend any further malice from my husband?' +Christine +anxiously asked. 'I will be answerable for him with my life. He reveres +you as our guardian angel. Moreover he has become much better in this +abode of darkness than he was in the upper world; and should I with the +aid of time be enabled to banish the deep sorrow which still constantly +hovers about him, I have reason to hope that we may once more attain to +something like happiness.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Arwed, who had scarcely listened to the poor sufferer, now +suddenly +asked, 'has not Megret been recently here?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Do you then seek him?' cried Christine with astonishment. +'Yes, he was +here scarcely an hour since. He caused Mac Donalbain to be called from +his labor, and retired far into the mine in private and earnest +conversation with him. I had already become somewhat alarmed on account +of their long absence. Megret is a fiend, and bears the most bitter +hatred towards my husband.'</p> + +<p class="normal">At this moment Arwed heard voices from without. He raised the +window, +and to his astonishment saw Megret arm in arm with Mac Donalbain and in +earnest conversation with an old clerk of the mine.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I repeat it my friend,' said Megret, 'your way of exploding +is bad. +Greater results may be produced with half the labor and powder, when +one begins right.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have all proper respect for your mathematical sciences, sir +officer,' the clerk peevishly answered; 'but still I think that we, who +are in constant practice here, must better understand how to obtain the +ore than you can by theoretical calculations.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Must not the engineer be also familiar with the practice?' +asked +Megret. 'Our mines traverse every variety of earth, and we are often +under the necessity of calculating the resistance of walls and masses +of stone.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The clerk, who adhered as pertinaciously to old customs as the +ore to +its native mountains, shook his head in token of disbelief.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You want proof,' said Megret, with some apparent irritation. +'Show me +a suitable place and let me spring a mine in my way. I will pay for the +labor and powder if I do not make my words good.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Vivat!' cried the clerk, confident of victory; at that moment +Arwed +stepped directly in front of Megret, with his pistols in his hand and +bowed in silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I rejoice to find you here,' said Megret with great +equanimity, +courteously returning his greeting. 'Allow me but to settle a contest +between the old practice and the new science, and I shall immediately +afterwards have the pleasure to be at your service.'</p> + +<p class="normal">During these few moments Mac Donalbain had hastened into the +house, and +now returning in a state of great excitement, seized Megret by the arm +and drew him away.</p> + +<p class="normal">The clerk followed them, talking to himself and gesticulating +with +great animation, and they all soon disappeared in the dark windings of +the mine.</p> + +<p class="normal">Christine now came out, casting her troubled glances in every +direction. As soon as she perceived Arwed she hastened to him. 'Mac +Donalbain was with me just now,' said she anxiously. 'He pressed me +silently to his bosom, and then rushed forth as if frantic! Where is +he? where is Megret?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Megret is essaying a new method of springing mines,' answered +Arwed, +'and will soon be here again.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And Mac Donalbain has accompanied him!' cried the trembling +wife. 'I +fear some mischief is on foot here.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Causeless apprehension!' said Arwed; 'the clerk is with them. +Megret's +undertaking will require the presence of several workmen, and his honor +as an officer is pledged for his speedy return.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'What have you to do with that bad man?' asked the still +suspicious +Christine--but the approach of two men prevented a reply. They were +Swedenborg and the superintendent of the mines. The latter separated +from Swedenborg with a respectful inclination, and passed on in +obedience to the calls of duty to some other portion of the mine. +Swedenborg however advanced towards Arwed.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I greet you, vigorous swimmer upon the sea of misfortune,' +said +Swedenborg to Arwed, offering his hand in a most friendly manner.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Welcome to your kingdom, sir mining-counsellor!' answered +Arwed. 'What +news do you bring from the upper world into this abyss?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I bring news of a diet which will take Ulrika's crown and +place it +upon her husband's head,' said Swedenborg; 'of an armistice with +Denmark, and peace with Poland and Prussia.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'And Russia?' asked Arwed hastily.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Remains implacable, and is making new preparations,' answered +Swedenborg, shrugging his shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">'These false steps are a great misfortune to my father-land!' +cried +Arwed despondingly. 'Peace with powerful Russia should have been the +first object.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Swedenborg had meantime kept his eyes immovably fixed upon the +youth, +and now appeared to have subjected the lineaments of his face to a +sufficient trial. He became so gloomy, and the glances of his black +eyes so piercing, that Arwed could hardly support it.</p> + +<p class="normal">'How came you by this love of peace?' he finally asked the +youth in a +reproachful tone, 'when your heart is destitute of it, and you have +descended into this mine with bloody intentions?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'If your spiritual eyes are sharp enough to read my heart,' +answered +Arwed, with surprise, 'you must know and honor the motives which +actuate me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Every motive is blameworthy,' answered Swedenborg, with an +elevated +voice, 'which induces an earthworm to endeavor to anticipate the +dispensations of Providence. Yet will His mercy spare you this sin; for +behold, the arm of the fearful Nemesis is already raised, and at the +Lord's command it will fall in destruction upon the criminal.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Christine had drawn close to Arwed during this conversation, +and he now +perceived the feverish trembling of her frame, caused by Swedenborg's +prophecy.</p> + +<p class="normal">At this moment a young miner came and asked, 'where shall I +find major +Gyllenstierna.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Here he stands!' answered Arwed, 'probably you wish to bring +me to the +officer who was just now here.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'No, he merely sends you this billet,' said the young man, +departing.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What can he have to write to me about, situated as we are?' +Arwed +peevishly exclaimed. Unfolding the billet, which was written in pencil, +and stepping to the nearest pitch-pan, he read as follows:</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">'To appease the manes of your king, you have demanded +satisfaction of +me. I had however previously promised it to myself and to myself +therefore, precedence is due. From you I have only to expect a +<i>possible</i> death. I shall inflict it upon myself with a surer hand. Mac +Donalbain shares my fate. In gratitude to the countess Gyllenstierna +for the manner in which she rejected my addresses, I have persuaded her +husband that he belongs to this earth as little as myself. Many will +think the manner of my death strange; but I wish to die in the way of +my profession, and at the same time to preserve my body from the +ignominy of a judicial investigation. I have the honor to greet you. +<i>Au revoir</i>, I dare not say.</p> +<p class="right"><span class="sc">Megret</span>.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The horror-stricken Arwed had hardly read to the end, when +suddenly the +whole broad space swam in a sea of fire. A terrible explosion, as of a +powder magazine, of which echo increased the frightful roar a thousand +fold, shook the ground under Arwed's feet, and displaced heavy masses +of stone from the sides of the cavern which fell with a crash to the +bottom of the mine. Loud screams suddenly arose on all sides, to which +a mournful silence immediately succeeded, and from the direction in +which Megret and Mac Donalbain had gone, came rolling in a dense +white-gray powder-smoke, which twirled in waving clouds along the top +of the arch, and soon filling the whole mine, wrapped every object in +its impenetrable veil.</p> + +<p class="normal">'What was that?' stammered Christine, clinging to Arwed for +support.</p> + +<p class="normal">'God's judgment!' solemnly and majestically answered +Swedenborg. 'Wo to +the sinner who wickedly and presumptuously draws it down upon his head +before the appointed time.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Let us go and see if it be possible to render any +assistance,' +proposed Arwed; and proceeded with Swedenborg toward the place whence +the smoke issued. Christine followed them with a misgiving heart. They +were met by the old clerk, who ran up to them with a black and +disfigured face.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You appear to have been near the scene of the accident,' said +Arwed to +him. 'Are there many people injured?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thank God only two; who, moreover, are no great loss!' +answered the +clerk, turning again to show them the way. 'An officer, wishing to +instruct us how to blow out the ore, so managed that instead of the ore +he blew himself into the air, and a piece of the roof of the mine with +him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The explosion was too violent for a mere removal of ore,' +remarked +Swedenborg.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Very true, most honored sir,' answered the clerk. 'There also +went +with it a small cask of powder which was standing near.'</p> + +<p class="normal">By this time they had arrived at the place. The thick smoke +almost +suffocated them. The torches of the miners, hurrying to and fro, like +nebulous stars, faintly lighted the scene of destruction. A monstrous +mountain mass, consisting mostly of rocks and stones, had become +loosened by the force of the shock, and covered the bottom to a great +height with fragments, through the fissures of which little flames were +seen playing.</p> + +<p class="normal">'They will lie quietly in this coffin until the last day!' +observed the +clerk.</p> + +<p class="normal">'In God's name!' shrieked Christine, 'who is the other +sufferer?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The brigand leader, who was sentenced here for life,' +answered the +clerk, with indifference.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Mac Donalbain!' murmured the poor wife, sinking lifeless to +the earth.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER LIII.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Christine lay at the parsonage in that last hard struggle +which +releases the soul from its earthly imprisonment. At her bed-side sat +Arwed, with humid eyes, his hands in the cold grasp of hers. Near her +pillow stood Swedenborg, with his piercing prophet-glance fixed +immovably upon the sufferer.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The symptoms of death are already observable,' whispered he +to the +weeping curate. 'Her end is near.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'She has suffered so much,' said Arwed, 'that if her heart +were iron it +must break under these hard and repeated blows.'</p> + +<p class="normal">At this moment Christine suddenly rose in her bed, turned her +beauteous +eyes with heavenly tenderness upon Arwed, and eagerly pressed his hand +to her bosom.</p> + +<p class="normal">'At the brink of the grave,' said she, 'all false appearances +must +vanish. So near the source of eternal truth, I may now speak the truth +to you. I have loved you, Arwed, loved you with all the powers of my +passionate soul, from the moment when you stood before me in the +knight's hall in the full perfection of youth and manliness. But this +love was my misery, for I was already secretly married. The caprices +with which I often tormented you, alas, they came from a bleeding +heart! At Ravensten did Mac Donalbain's infamous profession first +become fully clear to me, and I made every possible effort to withdraw +him from it. But the chains of vice hold strong! Only by slow and +gentle degrees could my husband disengage himself from his associates; +and, before he had time to accomplish the work, his punishment overtook +him. What I have done for him was but the performance of a wife's duty. +His self-murder is my divorce for this world and the next, and now my +only consolation is, that I shall be able to extend to you a FREE hand +when we hereafter meet in eternal light.'</p> + +<p class="normal">As she proceeded, her voice had increased in clearness and +fulness of +tone, her eye became bright and flashing, and purple roses burned upon +her wasted cheeks.</p> + +<p class="normal">'You have spoken too fast and too earnestly, countess,' said +the +curate. 'In your present situation this excitement may cause your +death.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have it already in my heart, reverend sir,' said the +invalid in a +low voice; 'and I know but too well that it is too late to preserve +life. Yet I thank you for this care, as well as for the religious +consolation you have afforded me in this last heavy trial.'</p> + +<p class="normal">She held out her hand to him, which the weeping man pressed to +his +lips, and the deep silence which followed, was only broken by the sobs +of those present.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I have now but one wish in this world,' resumed Christine. +'Alas, but +one, the fulfilment of which would soften the pangs of death; but I +dare not hope.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thy son is mine!' cried Arwed. 'By God and my own honor, I +will adopt +him and he shall bear the name and arms of Gyllenstierna.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I know,' answered Christine, 'that you will do whatever is +great and +good, and I have ceased to be anxious about the fate of my child since +I confided it to you. But my poor old father--' and here her voice +faltered,--'that I may not once more kneel before him and implore his +pardon, that, that alone embitters my death.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Poor woman!' cried Arwed, who witnessed the extent of her +sorrow with +the perfect conviction that no consolation could be offered.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Hope, sinner!' cried Swedenborg with emotion, laying his hand +upon +Christine's head. 'True repentance may do much; a weeping, penitent +child, it presses strongly against the gates of heaven; and behold! the +ruby gates fly open, and the eternal mercy, sitting upon a throne woven +of rays of light, takes the weeping child softly to her bosom and dries +her tears with maternal love!'</p> + +<p class="normal">He stepped apart, folded his hands, and silently and fervently +raised +his eyes on high. Christine also folded her hands and moved her lips in +a murmured prayer.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thou art heard!' suddenly exclaimed Swedenborg; and at the +same +instant Christine sprang up, and with outspread arms joyfully cried, +'my father!'</p> + +<p class="normal">A white ray floated through the room, and the strings of the +piano +reverberated like the dying harmony of an Eolian harp.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He has pardoned me, he has preceded me, he expects me there!' +cried +Christine in ecstasy, and immediately sank back upon her pillow.</p> + +<p class="normal">Swedenborg approached her, and as his glance fell upon her +fixed eyes, +he exclaimed with emotion: 'she is dead!'</p> + +<p class="normal">And the clock struck the third hour of the morning.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER LIV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The black funereal flag was waving from the towers of +Gyllensten as +Arwed slowly approached it with the remains of poor Christine. The +tolling of bells was heard from the castle chapel and from Umea, and +the domestics of the family surrounded the carriage with weeping eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">'How is my uncle?' asked Arwed, with fearful apprehension.</p> + +<p class="normal">'I bring you his last greeting,' said the gray old steward, +with a +trembling voice. 'He went to his God early on the day before yesterday, +about the third hour. His last word was, 'Christine!''</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER LV.</h2> + +<p class="normal">Long years had passed, and Gustavus the third sat firmly upon +Sweden's +throne, as at Lubec a noble dame, upon whose pure beauty time had left +no traces, sat upon a sofa in her cabinet. She had leaned her +thoughtful head upon her full white arm, while the strong heaving of +her bosom and the mild fire of her large brown eyes betrayed the sad +and absorbing nature of the reminiscences which occupied her mind. The +door was softly opened, and a blooming maiden cautiously protruded her +head into the room and was about to withdraw it again.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Come in, Georgina!' cried the dame. 'I am not yet asleep. +Have you any +thing to say to me!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'A young officer wishes to speak with you, mamma,' answered +the +beautiful maiden, entering.</p> + +<p class="normal">'An officer?--of the city militia?' asked the mother with some +surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">'No mamma,' answered the maiden, laughing. 'He appears +altogether +different from them. He wears a short blue jacket with straw-colored +facings turned up, a white band upon his arm, the sword belt over the +shoulder, and a round hat looped up, with a black plume.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is a Swede?' cried the mother with great vehemence. 'His +name?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'He will only tell it to yourself,' answered Georgina; 'which +I +consider particularly ill-bred.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is very wonderful,' said the mother:--'ask him to come +in.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Georgina went, and soon returned, ushering in a well formed +youth with +the head of an Apollo, who reverently bowed to the dame, and +immediately resumed his erect military position.</p> + +<p class="normal">He would have spoken; but his eyes had wandered from the elder +form to +the younger, and the lovely maiden's face and figure embarrassed him so +much that it cost him time and effort to collect himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">'My father begs to assure your grace of his high respect,' he +finally +faltered out, 'and requests permission to place in your own hands an +autograph from his majesty the king of Sweden.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Who is your father?' asked the lady with a trembling voice, +whilst her +eyes seemed to be seeking for remembered features in the unknown face.</p> + +<p class="normal">'A noble Swede,' answered the youth.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And his name?' asked the lady, with a movement as if she +would fly to +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">'He has the honor to be an old acquaintance of your grace,' +continued +the officer.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And his name?' cried she, with a fire which seemed +inconsistent with +her years.</p> + +<p class="normal">'The governor of West Bothnia, count Gyllenstierna,' was the +answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">The lady turned pale and sank back upon the sofa. Her bosom +labored +powerfully, and the anxious daughter hastened to her with Cologne +water.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Leave me,' said she, averting her head. 'My nerves are yet +strong. I +faint not so easily.'</p> + +<p class="normal">With tottering steps she advanced towards the youth and +examined his +features yet more intently than before.</p> + +<p class="normal">'A certain family likeness,' said she, 'is undoubtedly to be +found in +his face; yet I wonder that it does not appear more distinctly.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'I am only the adopted son of the count Gyllenstierna, whose +name I +bear,' answered the youth. 'The count has always remained unmarried.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The lady sighed and motioned him to retire.</p> + +<p class="normal">'When may my father wait upon your grace?' courteously asked +the youth.</p> + +<p class="normal">'In an hour I hope to have sufficiently recovered,' answered +she--and, +with a glance at the charming daughter which called a blush into her +cheek, he took his leave.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Mamma,' said she at length, in a tone of timid remonstrance, +'if the +Swedish count is your old acquaintance, you ought to have invited the +young count to come with him. He is at any rate his foster son, and +such a modest young man.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You appear to be pleased with him, Georgina?' said the +mother, looking +earnestly at her daughter. The latter dropped her eyes to the floor, +blushed deeply, and remained silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is our duty to suffer ourselves to be sought,' said the +matron to +the maiden. 'It is proper for the other sex to seek. If the young man's +heart speak as prematurely as yours, he will come, even without an +invitation.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You are wholly right, mamma!' cried the daughter, as if now +first +struck by an important truth, passionately kissing her hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Leave me alone, my child,' said the mother. 'I have need of +solitude +to prepare myself for a sweet, sad hour. Seat yourself meantime, at +your piano, and practise the bass of that beautiful sonata for four +hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Now?' cried Georgina, clasping her hands in despair. 'Ah, +mamma! I +positively cannot practise now.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'It may perhaps cost you some effort,' said the mother, +smiling, 'but +it will do you good. Go to your practice, my daughter.'</p> + +<p class="normal">Georgina departed, shrugging her shoulders, and the storm of +emotion, +so long restrained, once again floated over the face of the mother, who +had hitherto struggled with all her power, to conceal her feelings from +the eyes of observers. 'God give me strength for the sorrow and the joy +of this interview!' cried she, sinking upon the sofa.</p> + +<br> + +<h2>CHAPTER LVI.</h2> + +<p class="normal">The hour had struck. The daughter opened the door of the +cabinet, and, +accompanied by his adopted son, Arwed count Gyllenstierna entered. +Neither years nor sufferings had been able to bow his tall figure. The +lineaments of his face, however, told of sad mental struggles and +glorious victories. His locks of gold were bleached to silver, and +upon his newly made black national uniform shone the magnificent +seraphim-order, and with the sword and crown of the order of military +merit, the peaceful sheaf of the order of Vasa. He remained standing, +and cast upon the beloved of his youth, from his large blue and still +brilliant eyes, a glance which cut her to the soul. Lady baroness von +Eyben!' said he, in a tone in which love and anger, reproach and +rapture, were strangely mingled.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was too much for the heart of the matron. 'Not so, Arwed, +not so!' +cried she, beseechingly, and attempted to approach him; but, her heart +impelling her forward while profound respect held her back, she +remained irresolutely standing in the centre of the room.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Please to permit, baroness,' said Arwed, 'that my son and +your +daughter retire to the ante-chamber. My communication requires no +witnesses.'</p> + +<p class="normal">The young pair seemed to be well pleased with the proposition. +The +baroness looked doubtingly at Arwed, as if she feared a private +interview; but finally her heart conquered. She nodded permission to +Georgina, and the two disappeared with a celerity that astonished the +mother.</p> + +<p class="normal">The former youthful lovers were alone. Georgina motioned Arwed +to a +seat upon the sofa, placed herself beside him, and both remained a long +time silent, whilst the past was loudly speaking in their hearts.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Georgina!' at length Arwed exclaimed, seizing her hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Be tranquil, dear Arwed!' said she. 'If the strong man cannot +control +his feelings, how can a feeble woman command hers? Let us first speak +of the present. Have you not a letter for me from the king?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Cruel!' sighed Arwed, drawing forth a letter and solemnly +rising from +his seat, 'You have petitioned his majesty for the restoration of your +father's confiscated property in the German provinces. I bring you the +king's answer.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'The person selected as its bearer is a guaranty of a merciful +decision,' said Georgina, also rising. With trembling hands she took +the letter, unfolded and attempted to read it,--but her vision became +indistinct, her hands shook, and at length amid streaming tears she +cried, 'I cannot! Read the letter for me, dear Arwed.'</p> + +<p class="normal">He read:</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">'I esteem the memory of the renowned and unfortunate baron von +Goertz +too much to receive without emotion the intelligence that there is yet +remaining one of those children who were made orphans by the tyranny +and shocking injustice of the queen Ulrika Eleonore and of the persons +who presided in her courts and councils. His innocent blood has +remained too long unavenged. Sweden, through long, unhappy, desolating, +distracting years, has paid the tribute demanded by the anger of heaven +for the crime committed against a great and unfortunate man. I +therefore wish, as first citizen of my native land, in the name of that +native land, to hasten the reparation of the injustice of my +predecessors. To this title, which I look upon as one of the fairest +granted to me by Providence, I add that of my family, for whom Goertz +was made an offering. You may easily judge, madam, how very much I am +disposed to grant you that justice which you claim as daughter and +heiress of the deceased baron von Goertz.'</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">Georgina, almost frantic with joy, snatched the letter from +Arwed's +hand, and pressed it to her lips and heart. 'Lord God, we praise +thee,--Lord God, we thank thee!' she shouted in her exultation, sinking +upon her knee, and raising the paper towards heaven in her clasped +hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is truly a royal letter,' said the deeply moved Arwed; +'but such a +letter from him would surprise no one who knew him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh, my father!' cried Georgina, holding the writing up +towards heaven, +'learn in thy place of bliss that thy honor is restored before the +world, and that thy happy daughter has been instrumental in its +accomplishment!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'You see, my dear Georgina,' said Arwed, 'that Sweden is not +unjust. +The public character of a people can only appear through its +government. That justice which the cruel Ulrika, the weak Frederick, +the chained Adolphus Frederick, derided or denied, the worthy Gustavus, +now that his hands are free, grants in the fullest measure.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Much,' said Georgina, endeavoring by the introduction of new +topics of +conversation to allay the violence of her emotions, 'much was said in +Germany of the revolution which delivered the crown from the usurped +supremacy of the royal council, and I, at least, have cause to bless +the Nemesis who guided it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'That occurrence,' remarked Arwed, 'stands like a rare and +brilliant +meteor in the horizon of Europe. A national revolution, originating +with the king himself, accomplished in a few days, without bloodshed, +and calculated to promote the welfare of the whole country, is perhaps +unparalleled in the history of the world!'</p> + +<p class="normal">Both remained a long time silent. At length Arwed inquired, +'how is +your sister, the good little Magdalena?'</p> + +<p class="normal">'She died many years since, in Hamburgh, the wife of the privy +counsellor von Laffert,' answered Georgina.</p> + +<p class="normal">'And you--are a widow?' he asked in a low tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Since four years,' she answered with downcast eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">'It is the penalty of age,' cried he, sorrowfully, 'that, one +by one, +all whom we have loved go before us to the eternal world. Life's way +becomes every day more dreary and desolate, and wo to the unhappy being +to whom remains not even one companion of the good old times. His is a +solitary death, with none to drop a tear of regret upon his grave.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Very true!' said Georgina with deep feeling, and wiping the +tears from +her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Georgina!' cried Arwed, suddenly and with vehemence; 'in my +youth I +was never able to subdue or conceal the emotions of my heart. Age has +not changed me in that respect. That I might see you once again, and +have an opportunity to lay before you my last request, I have obtained +the king's permission to be the bearer of this letter. Hear me with +kindness.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Spare me,' said she, greatly agitated.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Your father's honor is restored to all its original +brightness,' +continued Arwed, without heeding her remark. 'My father has long slept +in his grave. The causes no longer exist which once forbade my earthly +happiness. I have sacredly kept my truth. You are again free. Do not +now refuse me your hand.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Oh, my God!' cried the terrified Georgina. 'No, it is not +possible!'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Refuse me not your hand, Georgina!' said Arwed with all his +former +tenderness of tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Dear Arwed,' answered she, with a smile, 'what would our +children say? +<i>Theirs</i> is the season of love.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'How happy is youth!' exclaimed Arwed, sighing.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Honorable age has also its pleasures and enjoyments,' said +Georgina, +placing her hand in his.</p> + +<p class="normal">'When it wanders arm in arm with the chosen companion of its +youth,' +answered Arwed with emotion. 'But when it is compelled to creep alone +to a solitary grave, then are honors and riches a miserable +compensation for a life without an object.'</p> + +<p class="normal">'Arwed!' exclaimed Georgina in the sweet tone of former times.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Wilt thou be mine?' cried Arwed, passionately.</p> + +<p class="normal">'Thine, eternally!' murmured she, while a faint blush threw +the glow of +undying youth over her cheeks, and she sank sobbing upon his bosom.</p> + +<h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2_note01" href="#div2Ref_note01">Footnote 1</a>: A French word, signifying <i>assassin</i>.</p> + +<br> + +<br> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales from the German. Volume I., by +Carl Franz van der Velde + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM THE GERMAN. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Tales from the German. Volume I. + Arwed Gyllenstierna + +Author: Carl Franz van der Velde + +Translator: Nathaniel Greene + +Release Date: May 22, 2010 [EBook #32478] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM THE GERMAN. VOLUME I. *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +1. Page scan source: + http://www.archive.org/details/talesfromgerman00greegoog +2. Footnote is located at the end of the book. +3. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe]. + + + + + + TALES + + + FROM THE GERMAN + + + TRANSLATED + + BY NATHANIEL GREENE. + + + + VOLUME I. + + + + + + BOSTON: + AMERICAN STATIONERS' COMPANY, + JOHN B. RUSSELL. + + 1837. + + + + + + + BOSTON: + Samuel N. Dickinson, Printer, + 52, Washington Street. + + + + + TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. + + +Most men, whatever the nature of their avocations, have, or may have, +occasional hours of leisure and relaxation. To spend those hours +profitably as well as pleasantly, should be a study: to spend them +harmlessly, is a duty. Among other recent employments of the little +leisure afforded me by absorbing official occupations, has been an +attempt to gain some knowledge of the language and literature of +Germany; and among the results of that attempt, are manuscript +translations of several pleasant and interesting tales from various +German authors, some of which I have been led to suppose might prove +acceptable to our reading public. Those now presented are taken almost +at random from the thirteen volumes of Van der Velde's works, of which +they are a fair specimen. Their principal value consists in their +faithful illustration of interesting portions of history not generally +familiar. They have, besides, the merit of a peculiarly simple and +unpretending style, that gives them an additional charm, and which I +have endeavored to preserve in the translation. Whether that endeavor +has been successful, however, and whether the English dress I have +substituted for the graceful German garb, is worthy of the author and +suited to the public taste, are questions upon which I feel somewhat +doubtful and apprehensive. Should the reader answer them in the +affirmative, I shall have the consolation of feeling that the leisure +devoted to the work has been harmlessly, if not profitably, employed. + +It is proper to add, that in a few cases I have taken the liberty to +omit some passages, and to alter others, that were deemed incompatible +with the ideas of propriety and decorum prevalent in this country. + +BOSTON, NOVEMBER, 1837. + + + + + + + ARWED GYLLENSTIERNA. + + A TALE OF THE EARLY PART OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. + + BY C. F. VAN DER VELDE, + + * * * * * + + PART FIRST. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + +In October of the year 1718, the royal counsellor, Nils count +Gyllenstierna, was sitting before his desk in his cabinet at Stockholm. +Behind him stood Arwed, his son, a tall Swedish youth with blue eyes +and golden hair, whose rosy countenance wore a decided expression of +courage and resolution. The father suddenly turned his moveable chair +so as to face the youth. + +'One word is as good as a thousand!' cried he, angrily; 'dismiss for +the present your heroic aspirations. You are too young for this war.' + +'Not younger than our king was,' quickly answered Arwed, 'when he beat +the Danes by Humblebeck and the Muscovites by the Narva!' + +'It is a great misfortune for a land when its king is a Don Quixote,' +grumbled the senator; 'every fool in the kingdom quotes his example as +authority.' + +'O, do not calumniate the hero,' entreated Arwed, feelingly. 'Sweden +has had no greater king since Gustavus Adolphus.' + +'Nor has she had one who has brought more misery upon the land replied +the senator. 'Do not suppose, my son,' proceeded he, calmly, 'that I +underrate the qualifications of our lord the king. He has given proof +of many, any one of which would render some other princes immortal. He +is firm, liberal, brave, just, and knows how to maintain the royal +dignity. But all these heroic virtues have, by excess, become more +dangerous in him than would be their opposite vices. His firmness, +becoming obstinacy, caused his misfortune at Pultowa and rendered him +for five painful years the dependant and prisoner of the Turks; his +liberality, degenerated into wastefulness, has ruined Sweden; his +courage, carried in most cases to the utmost extent of foolhardiness, +has led hundreds of thousands of his subjects to butchery or the +Siberian mines; his justice has often become cruelty, and the +maintenance of his royal prerogative, tyranny.' + +'Cruelty and tyranny!' repeated Arwed. 'Surely you judge the greatest +man in Europe too severely.' + +'Do you remember the Livonian, Patkul?' asked the father--'Patkul, who +was compelled, contrary to private right and international law, to make +such dreadful atonement for what he had done in behalf of his native +land? His horrible death is a dark stain upon Charles's character, and +no laurel wreath will ever so conceal the deed that posterity will not +discover it on the tablets of history.' + +'So also are there spots upon the sun,' said Arwed with some degree of +irritation. 'The spirit of the party to which you have attached +yourself, my father, permits you to see only the dark side of his +character.' + +'My party spirit will never sway my judgment,' indignantly replied the +senator. 'The true patriot is governed only by a desire to promote his +country's welfare, in choosing and adhering to his party. Were the +government of our king less arbitrary I would joyfully unite myself +with his party; but with monarchs like him, the public good requires an +opposition, and every honest-minded nobleman should take his stand upon +that side.' + +'It does not become me to dispute with you upon such topics,' said +Arwed, soothingly. 'As yet I have no voice in public affairs. My arm +only is needed. To that, however, in my opinion, my country has a +righteous claim; and the question now is, not whether, the king has +always chosen the best course for the welfare of his realm, but whether +the decision which he has now irrevocably made shall be maintained with +blood and treasure. Therefore permit me to go this time, my dear +father.' + +'Well argued, my son,' said the elder Gyllenstierna gruffly, turning +his attention again to his papers; 'but the father has a will of his +own, and considers himself as much a sovereign in his own house, as +Charles XII is in his kingdom. The king's sinful passion for war has +already made a sufficient number of childless parents. I will not make +to it the offering of my only son.' + +'What is my insignificant life in comparison with Sweden's welfare?' +cried Arwed with enthusiasm. + +'Sweden's welfare!' said the father, turning towards him again. 'How +can Sweden's welfare be promoted by this unholy war? Instead of +attempting to regain our blessed German territories, which our enemies +have divided among themselves, we go forth to the conquest of Norway, +which can never repay the blood and treasure she must cost, and will +never be truly loyal unless when garrisoned by our troops.' + +'To me it appears to be a noble attempt,' said Arwed, 'to conquer a +part of his own states from an enemy who has taken so much from us.' + +'It appears so to you,' answered his father, 'because you are a young +simpleton, who are dazzled by the brilliancy of the enterprise. Would +to God there were not even older fools who hold the same opinions. +However wise or foolish this expedition may be, you can take no part in +it. You have your answer, with which you will please retire and leave +me alone. I have pressing business.' + +He turned again to his table and immediately resumed his writing. Arwed +remained standing there with a sad countenance, his large blue veins +swelling almost to bursting. His lips were already parting to reply, +but he recollected himself and left the cabinet with passionate haste. + +Startled by the loud slamming of the door, the senator peevishly turned +his eyes in that direction;--near it he saw a little billet lying upon +the floor, which he took up and brought to his writing table. + +'A three-cornered billet,' murmured he, examining it. 'Fine gilt-edged +paper, redolent of perfume,--it must be a love-letter!' He cut the +delicate knot which served for a seal, and, as he read, his brows +became knitted with anger. Then seizing a silver bell which lay upon +the table before him, he rung it violently. 'My secretary!' cried he to +the servant who answered the bell. + +'Very tender,' said he, after having re-perused the note. 'An amorous +intrigue at court, and yet the youth desirous of engaging in the +Norwegian war! It is strange--but it pleases me.' + +Brodin, the count's secretary, an old, true, experienced, hereditary +servant, now stepped softly into the cabinet, gently closing the door +after him. + +'A billet-doux, that my son has just dropped here,' cried the senator, +advancing and handing the letter to him. 'It is signed with the name +only of Georgina. Who is this Georgina?' + +'I am not indeed so happy,' answered the secretary, with a satyr-like +smile, 'as to know the christian names of all the females with whom +count Arwed might possibly form tender connections. Nevertheless, I +have provided myself, partly from curiosity and partly that I might be +enabled to answer inquiries, with a genealogical list of those ladies +now resident at Stockholm, from which some pertinent information may +perhaps be gained. Fortunately I have the list now with me, if your +excellency will condescend to make present use of it,--however, I +cannot guarantee that you will find there the Georgina in question, as +the taste of my lord, your son, like that of other young cavaliers, may +possibly have led him into a lower circle, of which hitherto I have +been unable to find any tolerably correct catalogue.' + +'Produce it!' cried the senator, with ill-humor;--and the secretary +drew forth his geneological list. + +'H-m, h-m,' hummed he, perusing it. 'I cannot find any Georgina, and +yet the name must be very common at Stockholm. '_Eureka_!' he suddenly +exclaimed; 'here stands a Georgina! but whether it be the right one +must be determined by further evidence.' + +'Come, be expeditious!' impatiently cried old Gyllenstierna. + +'Georgina Henrike Dorothea Baroness von Goertz,' read Brodin, 'daughter +of George Heinrich Freiherrn von Goertz, privy counsellor and lord +marshal of the duke of Holstein Gottorp Durchlaucht, and temporary +prime minister and director of the finance commission of his royal +Swedish majesty.' + +'He is out of his senses!' loudly exclaimed Gyllenstierna, interrupting +his secretary in his tedious narration. 'The maiden is yet but a mere +child!' + +'According to my notes, past fourteen,' replied the secretary; 'but she +looks as if she were eighteen. She has been confirmed this year at the +time of Easter; and has thereby acquired, as it were, a privilege in +regard to such love affairs; besides, she is the only Georgina among +the ladies of this capital.' + +'Indeed!' cried the senator, 'the youth flies high--that cannot be +denied, and is most gratifying to me. But a Goertz! Never!' + +Startled by the vehemence of this _never_, the secretary shrunk back +for a moment--but, again approaching his master, 'might I presume,' +said he, submissively, in favor of the count Arwed, 'to state that a +connection with the family of the premier cannot diminish the lustre of +the house of Gyllenstierna, but on the contrary must conduce greatly to +its advantage.' + +'Heigh, heigh, Brodin!' exclaimed old Gyllenstierna. 'Have you grown +gray at court and yet understand no better how to make skilful +combinations? Could I forgive this foreigner that he has foisted +himself upon Sweden, that he rules her as tyrannically as her sovereign +himself, and that he would willingly grind her in the dust with his +chimerical experiments--yet would sound policy forbid every connection +with his family. His authority is ephemeral. He stands with the king +and must fall with him. The _living_ Charles might venture to send his +boot to Stockholm to preside in the council instead of himself. The +minister of the _deceased_ Charles will have a difficult task--and will +be compelled to exert himself to save honor and life in the catastrophe +which will doubtless occur.' + +'Our royal master is yet but thirty-six years of age,' observed Brodin: +'and is a giant in mental and physical strength.' + +'But he daily sets his life upon a cast in the dangerous game of war,' +answered Gyllenstierna. 'Instead of avoiding personal danger, as a +royal commander should, he seeks it more recklessly than the lowliest +soldier of his army. No, that guaranty is very unsafe. It would be +folly to confide in the fortunate star of Goertz, and senselessly bind +myself to him by the ties of blood. Arwed must give up his foolish +love.' + +'That,' said Brodin, rubbing his hands, 'will be likely to be rendered +difficult by the headstrong disposition of the young lord.' + +'I am aware of it,' said Gyllenstierna. 'Yet when I have the will and +the power, I never suffer an interruption of my course. Arwed has just +now been soliciting leave to join the Norwegian expedition. He shall +set off for Norway this very night, and thus will his attention be +directed to other affairs.' + +'But the precious life of the only heir of your noble house?' exclaimed +Brodin sorrowfully. + +'A Gyllenstierna must inure himself to the hardships of war,' answered +the senator resolutely. 'All bullets do not hit, and even the worst +that could happen would not be to me so severe an affliction as this +mad connection. See that Arwed's equipments are prepared, and let my +carriage be driven to the door. I will to the vice-regent. Call my son +hither, and prepare for him a letter of introduction to lieutenant +general Armfelt. I will sign it on my return.' + +Ominously shaking his head, Brodin left the room, and the senator again +carefully read through the love letter. 'His sudden passion for war is +now clear to me,' cried he at last. 'It is that he may soon become of +sufficient consequence to enable him to woo successfully the daughter +of the all-powerful favorite, who stands too high for the +undistinguished son of a simple count and senator of Sweden. I am sorry +for thee, poor youth, but thy plan must be abandoned.' + +'You have commanded my presence my father,' said Arwed, who with a +discontented face now entered the cabinet. + +'I have reflected further upon your request,' answered the senator. 'I +will for this time let the child have his way, to stop his weeping. As +soon as your letters of introduction are ready you will set off for the +army. From conquered Drontheim shall I expect your first letter.' + +'Am I going to Armfelt's corps?' asked Arwed aghast. + +'What a question!' observed the father. 'The lieutenant general is my +old friend. He will receive you with open arms, and give you an +advantageous position.' + +'I much regret,' said Arwed, 'that with my thanks for granting my first +request, I must prefer a new one. I cannot, indeed, take the letter of +recommendation, dear father, and I would not be indebted to old +friendship for a commission. What I can win upon the field of honor, +that may I thank myself for.' + +'Overstrained ideas,' murmured the father peevishly. You will regret +the want of patronage when, experience shall have taught you how far +merit can go without it.' + +'In war the good will of one's comrades is necessary,' proceeded Arwed. +'The soldier who is pushed forward through favoritism, must renounce +it; and under Armfelt I foresee that I could not avoid being improperly +favored. Wherefore I beg of you to let me go without recommendation to +our king before Frederickshall.' + +'Even to the most hopeless expedition of the whole campaign!' cried the +father. 'Before that unlucky city which during the last year has cost +Sweden her military renown, an entire third of her army, and very +nearly the life of her king,--where peasants and serving maids suddenly +became more furious than the hostile elements and put to flight the +conqueror of Moscow. How hast thou become possessed of this foolish +fancy?' + +'I desire that Sweden's hero should witness my first essay in arms,' +answered Arwed. + +'Overweening self confidence!' said the father. 'I trust that thou wilt +every where maintain the honor of our name, and the coolness of age +sees farther than the heat of youth. The king has not yet learned to be +sparing of his soldiers, as there is none but God to call him to +account for his conduct. The general has more restricted duties. And +although I appreciate eagerness for action and am disposed to satisfy +it, yet I cannot consent to place your life at the disposal of +Charles's mad humour. You go to Armfelt.' + +'Dear father!' implored Arwed, and at that moment the valet-de-chambre +entered with the count's hat and sword and announced that the carriage +was ready. + +'It is settled,' said the senator in the most decided manner to his +son, whilst he buckled on his sword. 'I will hear nothing further in +opposition to my determination.' + +He snatched his hat violently from the servant, and hastily sallied +forth. + +'This is hard!' said the afflicted Arwed. 'Must I obey?' he asked +himself after a moment's pause,--'Why torment myself!' cried he +finally. 'Gushes not for me, in one kind heart, the silver fountain of +goodness and wisdom? She shall tell me what is right in the struggle +between filial duty and my own better conviction. She shall decide.' + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + +Alone, with folded arms, on the following evening, Arwed wandered up +and down the northern bank of the Suedermalm in the new volunteer +uniform, anxiously glancing across lake Malar towards the magnificent +city of Stockholm, which there arose with its palaces, cupolas and +towers, proud and lordly as became the queen of those waters. The sun +had already gone down, but it yet glowed redly upon the waves of the +lake, gently ruffled by a soft west wind, and its last rays glistened +upon the knob of the high towers of St. Gertrude, which it lighted up +like a giant star shining through the incipient twilight. With earnest +attention the youth's eyes glided from tower to tower and from palace +to palace, until they finally remained fixed upon that of the royal +residence, which in consequence of the continued impoverishment of the +treasury had not been rebuilt since the fire that destroyed it twenty +years before. + +'What horrible desolation in the midst of so much splendor!' said Arwed +mournfully to himself. 'The ruins of the royal castle almost appear to +me to be symbols of the decay of this noble realm! Yet also this +palace,' proceeded he, consoling himself with the light-mindedness of +youth, 'will one day again rise from its ashes, perhaps more beautiful +than before. Lost lands can be conquered again, new generations will +come to fill up the vacancies caused by the sword, and soon perhaps +will Europe tremble again before the mighty roar of the Swedish lion.' + +A splash in the water interrupted the proud prophecy. A row-boat from +the Ritterholm cut through the stream and neared the bank. Two ladies +in plain dark cloaks and covered with white veils, stepped from the +boat. 'Georgina,' cried Arwed in ecstasy, springing towards her. With +light, nimble steps one of the ladies, a slender and delicately formed +figure, approached and affectionately extended to him her right hand, +while her left was employed in withdrawing the veil from her youthful +and lovely face. + +'My Georgina!' he joyfully repeated, leading her to a seat upon the +rocky bank, whilst the other lady remained standing at some distance, +sending from under her veil in every direction her scrutinizing +glances, so as to be enabled to warn the youthful pair betimes of any +troublesome witness who might interrupt the happy interview. + +The beauteous Georgina fixed her affectionate gaze upon the beloved +youth, but with softened feelings which filled her dark eyes with +tears. 'By your dress I see,' said she with emotion, 'that this is our +parting hour--and I thank thee that I have been hitherto kept in +ignorance of it, so that I was enabled to enjoy the anticipation of +this meeting without alloy.' + +'Yes, dearest maiden,' answered Arwed: 'my wishes are accomplished, my +father's kindness has opened to me the path of honor, which I dare to +hope will enable me to deserve and obtain thee. That I may hereafter be +entirely thine, I now leave thee. Thou wilt again see me, crowned with +the laurels of victory, or thou wilt hear that I have bravely fought +and fallen worthy of thee and myself.' + +'Oh, Arwed,' faintly murmured the almost breathless maiden, reclining +her beauteous head upon his breast and turning her eyes upon his face +with a look of gentle reproach. 'Must it then be so? Thou hast indeed +always asserted this sad necessity, but I could never bring myself to +believe it. Credit me, my father is good, and by no means so haughty +and violent as the Swedes consider him. Ungrateful men indeed, hate +him--but he loves his newly adopted country. Thy house is one of the +most honorable--and even if he had other plans respecting me, he would +not be able to withstand my prayers if I dutifully opened my heart to +him.' + +'I love thee with all my soul, Georgina,' said Arwed with flashing +eyes: 'but at the same time Swedish pride claims its rights. It would +be disgraceful to a Gyllenstierna to be indebted to the prayers and +tears of the daughter for the consent of the proud stranger. And if +your father should now ask me what I had hitherto done for the honor of +the name which his child is to bear, and I could answer him nothing +except that I had read Greek and Latin with my tutor and listened to a +few college lectures at Upsala, I should sink into the earth for shame. +Yet not for that cause alone do I grasp the sword. With it I hope to +gain the favor of the king and independence of my father, who, though +he truly loves me, will hardly with a good will consent to the proposed +connection. Besides, having long since decided on my course, I beg that +you will not make more difficult by your sorrow a step which is already +sufficiently afflicting, since it separates me from you.' + +'Cruel, perverse man!' said Georgina, kissing him. 'Yes, your sex are +our tyrants, and the worst of it is, that the more pitilessly you +torment us through your pride and severity, the more ardently we love +you. What can the poor feeble maiden do but submit to the hard fate +which her Arwed decrees--and henceforth weep, hope, wish, until her lot +is indissolubly united with his.' She dried her tears, and then with +assumed resolution asked; 'when do you leave?' + +'This night I depart for Norway,' answered Arwed, 'but whether for the +north or the south, you must decide for me.' + +'_I_?' asked Georgina, trembling: 'you mock me.' + +'You know the reasons,' proceeded Arwed, 'which induce me to desire to +repair to Frederickshall. But my father insists with inexorable +severity, that I shall go to Armfelt, which he prefers as the better +path for promotion, and from fear that the reckless temerity of the +king may expose my life to unnecessary danger. I believe, however, that +the aversion which the fiery old aristocrat retains so firmly against +the great Charles, is the principal cause of his obstinacy. Now counsel +me Georgina. Uninfluenced by party hatreds, and all the low springs of +action which prevail in this kingdom setting brother against brother, +standest thou there, like a good angel, above the thunder and the +death-cry of the battle field, and only lookest down compassionately +upon the wild tumult.--With thee I shall find the truth, or nowhere. +Shall I follow the conquering path of the great king, inspired by his +presence, and perhaps rewarded with his approbation whenever an +opportunity for good service may occur, and struggle to obtain the +chaplet of honor through my own deservings; or shall I, in obedience to +the arbitrary will of my father, repair to Armfelt's corps for the +purpose of supplanting meritorious warriors by means of a wicked +favoritism? Decide! What you advise, that will I do.' + +'Thou art magnanimous, Arwed,' said Georgina, smiling through her +tears. 'Thou wishest to flatter a maiden's vanity, so that she may the +less acutely feel the sorrow of parting. How shall I be so presumptuous +as to counsel a youth who is as headstrong as ever could have been the +king himself?' + +'Upon my honor!' cried Arwed impatiently, 'I desire thy counsel in real +earnest. My own feelings have long since decided,--but I wish to be +governed not by my own feelings, but by what is right, and that I find +only in thy clear soul.' + +'Thou demandest of me the performance of a delicate and responsible +duty,' said Georgina with emotion. 'Were I to obey only the voice of +anxiety which speaks so loudly for thee in a loving maiden's bosom, I +had quickly decided--as, with the king is undoubtedly the greatest +danger. But in this case the voice of honor must also be heard, and thy +honor is also mine.' + +'Such language is Worthy of a Swedish maiden!' cried Arwed, warmly +embracing her. + +'Nor is honor alone to be considered,' proceeded Georgina. 'The +question of filial duty is also an important one. Thy father hath +declared his will, and I am not presumptuous enough to counsel +disobedience to him.' + +'My God!' cried Arwed disconsolately. 'I now stand just where I did +before--and if I would ever come to a conclusion, like Alexander I must +cut the knot I cannot untie.' + +'Move not towards the north, young hero!' whispered, all of a sudden in +the evening stillness, a low hoarse voice, as if from heaven. + +Georgina shrieked with alarm and covered her eyes with her hands. Arwed +sprang in a rage from his rocky seat, and drew his sword. 'Who here +gives his counsel unasked?' thundered he among the rocks above him, on +whose top he observed through the fading twilight a tall human form, +wrapped in a gray mantle. + +'One wiser than thou,' answered the apparition, 'and who means thee +well.' + +'What have I to fear in the north?' hastily asked Arwed. + +'An inglorious death!' answered the unknown, and instantly vanished. + +'Strange,' said Arwed, slowly returning his sword to its scabbard. + +'Now am I to decide!' cried Georgina, tremblingly attaching herself to +him. 'Obey the voice, Arwed, it appeared to be that of a friend.' + +'Prophecies were always disagreeable to me,' said Arwed. 'Imposition or +fanaticism, it makes no difference. Now am I almost determined to go to +Armfelt, merely to prove that I give no heed to such jugglery.' + +'Hast thou forgotten what there awaits thee?' anxiously asked Georgina. + +'An inglorious death would indeed be the greatest calamity that could +befal me,' said Arwed; 'and the voice sounded so honest.' + +'If thou lovest me, obey it,' implored Georgina,--and at that moment +her companion approached to remind her that it was high time to return +to the city. + +'Fare thee well, my beloved life!' said Arwed, locking the sobbing +maiden in his arms. + +'Thou goest to Frederickshall?' inquired she, faintly. + +'Hast thou not united the wish with my love?' asked the youth in +return, and long and silently he pressed her beloved form to his bosom. + +'Hasten, baroness!' anxiously entreated her companion. + +Georgina finally forced herself from his embrace. 'I believe in a good +God!' exclaimed she with a sort of inspiration: 'we shall meet again.' + +The ladies proceeded to the boat which was waiting for them. Arwed +remained standing silently on the spot where he had received Georgina's +last kiss, gazing after the receding boat, until it disappeared in the +shadow which the old Gothic church of the Ritterholm, behind which the +moon was now rising, threw over the waters of the Malar. + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + +The Swedish trumpets were sounding and the drums beating an alarm, as +Arwed and his groom rode into the camp before Frederickshall. In every +direction the footsoldiers were parading before their barracks under +arms, and the cavalry were standing by their horses, ready to mount. +With great trouble Arwed pressed his steed through the warlike throng, +and finally arrived at the quarters of the king,--where he paused, +looking in every direction for some one to announce him. + +At length, an aged officer, in a general's uniform, came along the +passage-way between the tents, bending his steps towards the royal +barrack. The sentinel at the door presented arms to him. Acknowledging +the courtesy in a kindly manner, his glance fell upon Arwed. 'Do you +seek any one here, my son?' asked he in a friendly tone. + +'An audience of the king,' answered Arwed: 'of whom I have a personal +request to make.' + +'The king is now pressingly engaged,' said the general. 'The princes of +Hesse and Holstein-Gottorp are with him. If you are willing to entrust +your business with me I will faithfully communicate it to him.' + +'I thankfully acknowledge your goodness, general,' answered Arwed. 'I +am convinced that my request to be enrolled in the army might safely be +confided to your hands; but I am very desirous to see the face of my +king, a happiness which I have never yet enjoyed. I was not yet born +when he left Stockholm.' + +'Whither he has never since returned, I know,' said the general with a +heavy sigh. 'You look so fresh and true hearted that I will do what you +desire. Come with me.' + +Arwed followed the general. The door of the royal chamber at that +moment opened. A man was standing by a table, upon which were lying a +bible, a map of Norway and a plan of Frederickshall. His blue, +unornamented riding coat, with large brass buttons, his narrow black +neck-stock, his thin locks, which bristled in every direction, the +broad yellow leather shoulder-band, from which his long sword depended, +and his large cavalry boots, would have led to the conclusion that he +was a subaltern officer,--but his tall, noble figure, his beautiful +forehead, his large soft blue eyes, and his well formed nose, gave to +his whole appearance something so majestic, and so highly distinguished +him from two embroidered, starred and ribboned lords who were with him +in the room, that Arwed instantly recognized his hitherto unknown king. + +'The trenches opened on the fourth,' said the king, fretfully tracing +upon the plan with his finger. 'They ought to be further advanced!' + +'Certainly, your majesty!' answered Arwed's protector in a sad tone. +'One feels tempted to believe that he who conducts these works either +cannot or will not advance them, and it must be conceded that colonel +Megret understands his business.' + +'I know what you would say, Duecker,' said Charles with a severe +countenance. 'But I will give you a useful lesson. You must not speak +ill of any one when you are speaking with your king.' + +Making an effort to suppress his feelings, and followed by the scornful +smile of the eldest prince, Duecker retired,--whilst the other, a youth +of about Arwed's age, amused himself with examining the new comer with +a far from becoming hauteur. + +The king, following the glance of his nephew, perceived Arwed and +advanced towards him. + +'Who?' asked he with some embarrassment. + +'Gyllenstierna,' answered Arwed with a profound inclination: 'a Swedish +nobleman, who begs of your majesty that be may be permitted to fight +under your banners.' + +'Count Gyllenstierna?' inquired Charles, leaning on his giant sword, +'The father is a determined opponent of my administration!' said he to +his brother-in-law, as Arwed bowed affirmatively, and a convulsive +smile distorted the lips of his well-formed mouth. + +'Yet full of devotion for his king and his native land!' earnestly +interposed Arwed. 'If your majesty will but permit his son to prove +it.' + +The king gave him a complacent look. 'I am now about to take the +battery called the Golden Lion from the Danes,' said he: 'you can +remain by my side.' + +'Heaven reward your majesty!' cried Arwed in ecstasies, and seized the +hand of the hero to kiss it. + +'I like not that,' said the king, hastily withdrawing his hand,--and at +that moment adjutant general Siquier, a slender Frenchman, with a +cunning but wasted face, entered the room. + +'Every thing is in readiness for the attack, your majesty!' announced +he. + +'God with us, comrades!' exclaimed the king, putting on his immense +gauntlets of yellow leather. + +'This attack will cost many men!' said Duecker, in an under tone to the +young duke. + +'Oh!' whispered Siquier, who overheard the remark, 'a great French +general under whom I once served was accustomed to say before the +slaughter: 'If God will but remain neutral to-day, then shall these +Messieurs be finely flogged.'' + +The king, who was already at the door, once more returned. 'Your great +general,' said he to Siquier,--indignant at the quotation of the +irreverent speech,--'spoke then like a great fool.' + +With a countenance which badly concealed his rage at this unexpected +reproof, Siquier cast down his eyes, and the warriors silently followed +their heroic leader. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + +The entrenchments of the Golden Lion were thronged with red-coats. With +the battle cry, 'God with us!' the Swedish battalions charged upon +them. Then opened the battery upon its assailants, hurling death among +their ranks from twenty thundering throats of fire. Unmoved, at first, +the warriors saw their comrades falling on either hand, and pressed +bravely onward. Now, however, the grape and canister shot of the enemy +began its work of destruction, and in constantly increasing rapidity of +succession sank the victims in their blood, until finally the weakened +survivors gave ground and slowly retreated. + +The king, surrounded by his retinue, sat upon his charger, within the +range of the enemy's artillery, as quietly as if at a review. Arwed, at +his side, observed this new spectacle with a spirit-stirring pleasure. +Presently one of the weakened and retreating battalions came near the +king. With indignation in his eye he sprang to meet them. 'You are +Swedes,' thundered he, 'and do you fly? Back to the enemy!' + +'We have lost all our officers, your majesty!' cried an old corporal. + +Trembling with eager desire to enter the lists, Arwed instantly threw +himself out of his saddle, and asked, his foot still in the stirrup: +'may I lead these troops once more against the battery?' + +'You may make the attempt!' replied the king kindly to him, and +immediately galloped to the other side of the battery, where also the +Swedes had begun to give ground. In a transport of joy Arwed sprang +from his horse, drew his sword, and cried to the soldiers: 'in the +king's name, halt, left wheel!' + +The soldiers obeyed, and Arwed placed himself at their head. + +'Think of the hero whose soldiers you are,' cried he: 'and of your own +glory; and, in God's name, march!' + +'God be with us!' cried the newly encouraged band, rushing on after +their leader. Several lives were lost in the advance, but the main +part, strengthened by the fragments of the other battalions, soon stood +by the palisades safely sheltered from the fire of the enemy's cannon. +But now the little musket balls whistled from the breastworks, and +murderous grenades were bursting among them at almost every moment. + +'Force out the palisades and pass the trench!' commanded Arwed, and +with prodigious strength he removed some of the pales, which he placed +over the hard frozen ditch and pushed forward. The soldiers followed +the example, and the opposite side of the wall was soon covered with +the clambering troops. The Danes defended themselves with great fury, +and the dear victory was purchased with the sacrifice of many Swedish +lives. Two musket balls passed through Arwed's hat, but in an instant +thereafter, he stood upon the breastwork and pierced the heart of one +of the marksmen with his sword. A bayonet-thrust of the other grazed +his cheek. This one fell under the blows given by the clubbed muskets +of the closely following Swedes, and soon the Swedish banner floated +proudly over the stormed works. + +Meanwhile the king, who had been attempting an entrance on the other +side of the wall, hastened hither at the head of one of his battalions, +and the few remaining Danes threw down their arms and begged for +quarter. + +'What, before me, upon the walls!' cried the royal hero, embracing the +bleeding Arwed. 'There is yet a true Swede! You are a captain of the +guards, Gyllenstierna.' + +'We have two companies, prisoners,' said Siquier, stepping up to the +king with a sanguinary expression of countenance. They have compelled +us to storm the place, and their lives are forfeited. Does your majesty +command their execution?' + +'Right, Siquier,' answered Charles, affecting to misunderstand him, +'Let the poor creatures be fed in our camp,--and when they have +satiated their appetites, let them promise not to fight against me +again in this war--and then, in God's name, let them go in peace.' + +'As your majesty commands!' said Siquier, grating his teeth and +proceeding to the execution of the unwelcome commission. + +'If the lord has remitted ten thousand shekels to us,' said Charles, +turning graciously to Arwed, 'surely we can remit a trifling debt to +our fellow men;--can we not, my dear captain?' + +'Hail to the hero who knows how to pardon as well as to conquer!' +exclaimed Arwed with enthusiasm. + +'No flattery!' cried Charles, stamping angrily. 'I know that it was +fairly meant, but I do not like it.' + +He departed. Arwed leaned against the breastwork and observed the +trains of Danish prisoners who were being escorted into the camp. Then +glancing proudly upon the blood-besprinkled place he had conquered--and +afterwards towards the east, where Stockholm lay;--he sighed, 'had but +Georgina seen me!' + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + +Brightly shone the light of chandelier and gueridon through the plate +glass windows of the royal palace on the Ritterholm, and most +beautifully was its brilliancy reflected by the quiet waters of the +Malar lake. The princess Ulrika Eleonore, of Hesse, gave an assembly +and card patty--and the variously adorned nobility floated through the +gilded rooms, soothing, caressing, deceiving, calumniating, fondling +and boring each other. Behind the curtains of one of the most retired +windows leaned the affectionate Georgina, gazing with anxious interest +over the lake towards the Suedermalm, where in quiet obscurity lay +before her the place where she had met and parted with her lover. Near +her sat the princess, with the governor, Baron Taube, and the elder +Gyllenstierna, at a card table. + +'Is there any news from Norway?' asked Ulrika, shuffling the cards. + +'From Armfelt's corps,' answered Taube, 'we have been a long time +without intelligence,--but, as a friend writes me, the king has taken +an important battery before Frederickshall.' + +'It is well that some one yet holds correspondence in Sweden, said +Ulrika with bitterness, hastily dealing the cards. 'My husband is not +permitted to write openly upon the affairs of the campaign, and of the +communications of my brother nobody in the capital is permitted to have +a glimpse;--and least of all myself, who have the misfortune to be a +woman.' + +'Was our loss great?' asked old Gyllenstierna, assorting his cards. + +'They speak of seven hundred,' answered the governor: 'and the loss +would have been still greater and perhaps wholly in vain, had not the +king himself and a young volunteer placed themselves at the head of the +faltering troops and led them on to victory.' + +A delightful anticipation thrilled the bosom of the listening Georgina. +And in the self-forgetfulness of love, she was even upon the point of +stepping forward and asking the narrator the unbecoming question of the +name of the volunteer, when the father of her beloved spared her the +pain of witnessing the courtier's contemptuous smile, by himself +putting the question. + +'My informant named him Gyllenstierna,' answered Taube: 'but as your +excellency's son has gone to Armfelt's camp, I suppose I must have +misunderstood him.' + +'Who knows!' murmured the old count, calling to mind the last +unavailing request of his son; and in pondering upon all the +possibilities of the case he lost his game. + +'Were it not for that,' proceeded Taube, 'I should have much pleasure +in congratulating your excellency. The king advanced the brave +volunteer to the grade of captain of the guards upon the spot.' + +'My hero! my Arwed!' exulted Georgina in her heart, and her white hand +waved a fond kiss towards the west. + +'Such transient gleams of military success give me more anxiety than +pleasure,' said Ulrika. 'They decide not the main question, and serve +only to increase my brother's obstinacy. His game is lost beyond +remedy. Continued misfortune would finally open his eyes and induce him +to take the only course by which he can save himself.' + +'That would have happened long ago,' whispered Taube to her, 'did not +baron Goertz, through his _fata morgana_, know how to keep up his +sinking hopes.' + +'Very true!' said Gyllenstierna. 'And had it not been for his +experiment of debasing the coin, this campaign would have been +impossible.' + +'Indeed,' added Taube: 'were the old heathen gods, whom he has conjured +up from the vasty deep, to bring national bankruptcy upon Sweden, what +would the foreigner care?' + +'I know not among men one whom I so cordially hate as this Goertz,' +said Ulrica in an under tone, and her eyes gleamed so fiercely that +Georgina, who from her concealment saw the look, shrunk with fear, +although she did not hear the words that accompanied it. + +A chamberlain in service now announced to Ulrika that baron Goertz, who +had just arrived from Aland, and was passing through Stockholm on his +way to Frederickshall, begged permission to wait upon her royal +highness. + +'It is not granted!' said Ulrika with cold disdain. + +'I know not,' whispered Taube to her, 'if your highness would do well +to render your displeasure palpable to this cunning man. The mortified +ambition of a parvenu is revengeful, and Goertz proceeds hence directly +to his majesty.' + +'Am I not mistress even in my own apartment!' cried Ulrika with +vehemence. 'It has come to a fine pass!' She arose from the table and +laid down her cards. 'I am indisposed,' said she to the chamberlain: +'am about to withdraw to my chamber, and can see no one.' + +The servant bowed and retired to deliver the ungracious message. The +princess called her ladies and hurried from the saloon, which was soon +filled with the timid murmurs of the courtiers. Taube took the arm of +Gyllenstierna, and walked up and down the room in a low and anxious +conversation with him. + +'My poor father! how hast thou with thy warm, and generous heart, +strayed to this cold and hostile kind!' cried Georgina, who had closely +observed the last scene;--and, careless of the remarks which her +disregard of etiquette might elicit, she hastened from the assembly to +greet her beloved father. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + +The fieldmarshal Rhenskioeld sat waiting, upon the sofa in the cabinet +of baron von Goertz. The latter returned from the palace, and his +indignation at the offensive answer he had received, gave way to the +joy of again meeting his friend. + +'I thank you, my worthy friend,' said he, embracing Rhenskioeld, 'that +you have complied with my request so promptly. It was _my_ duty to +visit you, but my hours are all numbered. I shall be compelled to labor +through the whole night, and in the morning I shall be on my way +towards Frederickshall.' + +'You come from Aland?' eagerly asked Rhenskioeld: 'what news from +thence?' + +'Thank God!' cried Goertz with clasped hands: 'I bring you peace with +Russia.' + +'Peace!' exclaimed Rhenskioeld, springing from his seat. 'Peace between +the shrewd czar, who never fails to follow up an advantage, and our +Charles, whom misfortune only renders the more inflexibly? It is +impossible! Even could you really obtain tolerable conditions yet would +the king never accept them.' + +'The splendid conditions which I bring will certainly be ratified by +him,' answered Goertz. 'Peter retains nothing of his conquests except +Livonia, a part of Ingermanland and Caralia. He yields back all +besides.' + +'Peter give any thing back!' screamed Rhenskioeld, with astonishment. + +'Russia,' proceeded Goertz, 'binds herself with us, to set upon the +throne of Poland the same Stanislaus whom she formerly chased from it, +and furnishes 80,000 men to enthrone the same august personage against +whom she has been fighting the last ten years.' + +'You must be relating to me, a fable from the thousand and one nights!' +said Rhenskioeld incredulously. + +'Russia,' proceeded Goertz, 'is to furnish shipping for the conveyance +of 10,000 Swedes to England to sustain the Pretender. In connection +with Sweden, she seizes upon Hanover. We take Bremen and Verden, +re-establish the duke of Holstein, force Prussia to give up her booty, +and compel the emperor to observe the treaty of Altranstadt.' + +'And now are you awake?' asked the fieldmarshal with a satirical smile: +'for thus do such narrations usually terminate, when the narrator has +only been dreaming.' + +Goertz stopped, and gazed at his auditor. He however conquered his +impetuosity, went to his writing desk, took from it a manuscript, and +with the exclamation, 'read,' gave it to the fieldmarshal. + +Rhenskioeld read--and as he read his eyes opened wider and wider, while +in the same ratio his brow became knit with anger, and he appeared to +struggle with some highly unpleasant feeling. Finally, he silently gave +back the paper, rose up, and took his hat and sword. + +'You appear to be convinced, now, sir fieldmarshal,' said Goertz: 'but +the conviction does not seem to please you, notwithstanding you have +had a great share in bringing about the peace. Had you not brought the +king to better thoughts when already the whole negociation threatened +to miscarry, I should never have arrived where I am to-day.' + +'Yes,' answered Rhenskioeld, coldly: 'it gives me pleasure to learn +that I have been the ladder upon which you have mounted to the +pinnacle, and I wish you joy of it.' + +He bowed very formally and departed. Goertz himself lighted him out. +'Another friend lost!' said he as he came back. 'I already perceive +that this peace is too advantageous for Rhenskioeld not to envy my +instrumentality in its conclusion.' + +Directly, he heard a slight knock at the door, and a delicate voice +asked, 'may we now come in?' + +'Walk in!' cried Goertz, who well knew the little voice, with a smile +of paternal pleasure, and his little daughter Magdalena, led by +Georgina, skipped into the room. With impetuous, feeling, Georgina fell +upon his neck, whilst Magdalena climbed upon his knees and compelled +him to take her in his arms. + +'Ou peut-on etre mieux qu'au sein de sa famille?' said the father, +kissing the little Magdalena right heartily. 'My own house, I verily +believe, is the only place in Sweden where I can meet with sincere +affection.' + +'Yes, indeed, my father,' said Georgina with a sigh. 'I daily perceive +more and more clearly how little justice you have to expect in a +country you are laboring to save. The audience this evening denied you +is a fresh instance. The princess was not ill--she feigned illness that +she might have a pretext for refusing to see you.' + +'It will be indeed an evil day for me,' said Goertz, smiling, 'when my +destiny shall be in the hands of Ulrika. She can never forgive me that +her brother now places that confidence in me which he has always +withheld from her. But how comes it that you, Georgina, with your +fifteen years, evince such deep observation?' + +Long did he look at her in deep meditation. 'In truth,' proceeded he, +'it appears to me that you have shot up wonderfully tall, and that +which with you women they call reason has developed itself with +wonderful rapidity. Right beauteous are you, also, and in your eyes I +see a kindling of enthusiasm. You cannot yet by any means have learned +that you have a heart?' + +Georgina, who during this sharp review had kept her eyes cast down, now +raised them timidly up and sought to read the expression of her +father's face. The kindness and good nature which she found impressed +there, gave her courage, and pressing his hand to her lips she threw +herself at his feet. + +'What means this?' asked he indignantly, withdrawing his hand. 'I am no +tyrant such as they portray in French tragedies, nor am I fond of +theatrical scenes in real life. Stand up if you wish me to listen to +you.' + +'Never, until you forgive me,' sobbed Georgina: 'I love!' + +'So my observation did not deceive me,' said her father. 'You love? a +little too early, I must confess. But stand up, and tell me at once +whom you love.' + +'The count Gyllenstierna,' lisped Georgina, in a scarcely audible +voice. + +'Poor child!' exclaimed Goertz, compassionately. 'That will be a +troublesome affair to arrange.' + +'That is what we have feared!' cried Georgina, wringing her hands and +rising up. + +'I would not at any rate bring forward any objections against the young +man,' proceeded Goertz. 'But both of you have wholly overlooked the +fact, that his father is one of my most decided enemies. I would rather +undertake to bring about a peace between Sweden and Denmark than +between him and me. + +The little Magdalena then threw her small, white arms round her +father's neck. 'Pray, pray,' implored she, 'give to poor Georgina her +Arwed; she loves him so very much.' + +'Magdalena then is your confidant?' Goertz asked Georgina good +humoredly: 'she knows even the christian name of your chosen one. But +children, this affair, indeed, takes me by surprise. However, for the +present, at least, I shall not say no. To the _yes_, it will be +necessary to gain the consent of another besides the weak father of a +beloved daughter. Meanwhile, I should like to become a little +acquainted with your Corydon. So bring him in, Georgina, for no doubt +you hold him in ambuscade ready for the occasion.' + +'You do me great injustice, dear father,' said Georgina, whose maiden +sensibility was touched. 'Arwed is in the Swedish camp, before +Frederickshall. He has already conquered a battery, for which the king +has named him a captain in the guards.' + +'That, I confess, is being far on the way to a fieldmarshalship:' said +Goertz, jestingly, to conceal his surprise. 'At present I rejoice that +your choice does you honor every way: what further may come, is in the +hands of God. The idea is very agreeable to me, through the medium of a +beloved daughter to connect myself with one of the noble houses of the +country in which I hope to naturalize myself by my unceasing labors for +its welfare. If the other party would only think the same! But old Nils +Gyllenstierna will have many and strong objections.' + +'So Arwed also thought,' said Georgina sorrowfully. + +'Yes, yes,' said Goertz, looking sadly forward: 'I have now in all +Sweden but one only friend, and my sole happiness is that he wears +Sweden's crown.' Thus saying, he rose up and ardently embraced his +daughters 'Retire to rest now, children,' said he: 'go and build +your airy castles, as brightly colored and dazzling as you please. And +if time destroy them, still will you have enjoyed the pleasures of +hope,--and that is much in a world whose joys consist almost entirely +in anticipation and remembrance. Go! I must yet watch and labor for +Sweden and for you. Rewarded by this land with hatred, from your hearts +I expect love and gratitude, and will therewith consider myself +compensated.' + +'All will yet end well, dear father,' said Georgina, consolingly. +'Since I have confessed to you my secret, and since you have received +it so kindly, a heavy weight is removed from my breast. I breathe again +with ease and joy, and already feel as if my aim was attained and +nothing more could be wanting in this world.' + +The girls retired, and Goertz closed the door after them. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + +The afternoon service of the first Advent Sunday had ended in the camp +before Frederickshall. The warriors were dispersing, and, arm in arm +with adjutant Kolbert, Arwed sauntered towards the nearest sutler's +barrack, to play a game of chess. The place was wholly-unoccupied, and +the hostess was standing at the door, waiting for her guests, her +parti-colored holiday dress serving as a sign board. The two friends +sat themselves down, with a flask of Burgundy, to the bloodless battle. +The sleet was lightly drizzling upon the hard frozen ground out of +doors. From the walls of the city and from high Fredericksteen the +heavy artillery sent a dull sound through the storm, whilst, in the +camp, the besieging laborers ceased from work to honor the consecrated +day of rest. The Sabbath stillness was only interrupted now and then by +a crash in the barracks and a cry from the soldiers, when one of the +enemy's balls happened to take effect. But that did not interrupt the +players. They had become so deeply interested in their game that they +did not once perceive how the room gradually became filled with +officers, many of whom placed themselves behind their chairs to +overlook the game. + +Suddenly, with angry impetuosity, Arwed took one of his opponent's +knights with his king. + +'Stop!' cried Kolbert, holding fast his officer. 'Your bishop will by +that movement remain uncovered, and I shall immediately take him.' + +'Take him,' said Arwed. 'Your knight is troublesome to me, and must +die.' + +'A mere exchange, for the sake of exchanging,--that is manifestly +contrary to the etiquette of the game!' + +'It was not a mere exchange,' protested Arwed. 'You had a mischievous +plan. Had you led him out, I were lost. Your knight in the place where +he stood was worth more than an ordinary officer, and I could no longer +defend myself against him. Wherefore I exchanged to advantage, and I +should always do the same under like circumstances. Even if my opponent +lose no more than myself by the movement, yet I win temporary relief at +least, break up his attack, and compel him to resort to new +man[oe]uvres.' + +'And to use the king like a subaltern officer is not civil,' grumbled +Kolbert. + +'My king shall not keep himself behind the cannon, like a Persian +shah,' answered Arwed. 'Whenever necessity requires it, he must expose +himself as well as one of his soldiers.' + +'A regular Charles XIIth,' cried some one behind him, with a scornful +laugh. Arwed turned suddenly round and perceived the chief engineer, +Megret, a Frenchman by birth, who with a satyr-like face was leaning +over the back of his chair. + +'I thank you for the comparison, colonel, even though it was ironically +intended,' said the youth in a decidedly cutting tone. 'Would to God +that we all, not excepting even you, were able to imitate the elevated +character of our noble king in good and evil fortune; what accomplished +men should we then be!' + +Megret bit his lips and retired to another table, where he got up a +company to play pharo. + +'This is my first campaign,' proceeded Arwed with enthusiasm: 'and I +have seen the king in battle only twice in my life, but that has +furnished sufficient proof of his worth as a brave warrior and skilful +commander. He is always great, but when he has his sword in his hand he +is more than man--almost a demi-god--and one feels tempted to worship +him.' + +'Not so, young man,' answered a hollow voice. 'That was a very improper +speech.' + +Arwed recognised the voice as one he had heard before. Raising his +eyes, he saw behind Kolbert's chair a meagre man about thirty years of +age, in the dress of a civilian. His close-bodied coat, with broad +turned-up sleeves, his long waistcoat and his small clothes, all of one +colour, ash-gray velvet, together with his dark colored wig, gave him +an uncommonly strange and solemn appearance, which his fixed and +expressive eye rendered still more disagreeable. + +Indignant at the reproof conveyed by the words of the stranger, Arwed +abruptly and harshly asked the gray form, 'what do you mean by that, +sir?' + +'I mean,' answered the gray coat, 'that it always makes my flesh crawl +to hear a true hero so excessively praised. His renown cannot be +increased thereby, and the old _Fatum_ becomes easily jealous of such +idolatry and oftentimes wreaks its vengeance upon the idol. Think of +the anticipations of the great Gustavus Adolphus, to whom Germany did +slavish homage in the altitude of his fortunes, and recollect his sad +fate.' + +'I do not like these nursery tales,' said Arwed angrily; 'and +superstition, when it makes lofty pretensions, is highly offensive to +me.' + +'You cannot know the man to whom you speak,' said captain count Posse, +stepping forward to appease Arwed. 'That we are here so near to +Frederickshall, and that you have here acquired your first laurels, you +may thank him alone. Through his deep science was general Duecker +enabled to construct the wooden pier between the bays of Stevemstadt +and Idefiall, over which our ships were transported upon ingenious +machines from one navigable water to the other.' + +'Is it possible! Swedenborg?' quickly exclaimed the softened Arwed with +joyful surprise, offering the hand of peace to the gray-coat. +'Swedenborg! Swebenborg!' the murmur ran through the company, and the +officers pressed around to catch a glance at the wonderful man. + +'Swedenborg!' cried Megret, laughingly, from the other table, 'do you +find yourself here again? What news do you bring with you? How stand +affairs in the celestial and subterranean regions?' + +'The angels axe weeping and the devils laughing!' answered Swedenborg +with awful earnestness. + +'And what say your spirits thereto?' sneeringly added the Frenchman. + +'They are silent in the presence of impure souls,' resumed the prophet +in a tone of thunder, which closed the lips of the scorner. + +'Is captain Gyllenstierna here?' cried adjutant general Siquier, +putting his head in at the door. + +'He is here,' answered Arwed, rising from his seat. + +'In an hour the king will expect you at his quarters,' said Siquier, +stepping to the pharo table. + +'Most certainly, he wishes to say a friendly word in relation to your +conduct in the late action,' observed count Posse. 'Your enemies, even, +must acknowledge that you have deserved it.' + +'Thank you, captain, for the acknowledgment that I did my duty,' said +Arwed modestly. 'Yet there were many others who did as much, if not +more, in that action.' + +'Whoso abaseth himself shall be exalted,' said Swedenborg, with +benevolent kindness, laying his hand upon Arwed's shoulder. + +'You are come opportunely, Siquier,' said Megret derisively. 'You have +long been desirous of having your horoscope cast. There stands a +professor of the high art, the great Swedenborg. Give him a good word.' + +'It would occupy too much of my time,' answered Siquier. 'It takes +long, I have heard, to make the calculations, and I must shortly return +to the prince. But Swedenborg must also be an experienced chiromancer, +and can foretell my good fortune from my hand.' + +With malicious levity, he held out his hand to the insulted man. But +the latter threw it forcibly back, exclaiming, 'your hand smells of +blood. I have nothing to do with you!' + +The scoffer stood a long time, as if suddenly struck by a thunderbolt, +staring with amazement at the prophet. Soon collecting himself, +however, he strode out of the room. + +'What was that?' asked count Posse, looking inquiringly at Megret. The +latter, visibly disturbed, shuffled the cards anew, and at length said +with a forced smile, 'one fool makes many others.' + +'That was too much in earnest for folly,' thought Posse. + +'If it be agreeable to you,' said Arwed in ill humor to Kolbert, 'we +will leave our game unfinished. I have no longer the ability to play. +My head has become unusually disturbed by the strange conversation to +which I have been compelled to listen.' + +Kolbert, acquiescing, threw the chessmen in a heap. Arwed stepped to +the pharo table and seized some cards which were quickly thrown to him. + +'Take the king,' said Swedenborg to him: 'he is the banker's enemy.' + +Megret was evidently startled, and with a Vehemence vastly +disproportionate to the occasion, he asked Swedenborg, 'what do you +mean? Do you intend to insult me?' + +'He who is evil has evil thoughts,' answered Swedenborg quietly. 'I +gave to my young friend good advice, founded upon my calculations of +the game.' + +'I prefer to advise myself,' said Arwed,--impatient of the +obtrusiveness of the stranger,--retaining the old cards which +uninterruptedly fell from the banker. + +'Make the experiment with the king once, to gratify me,' begged Kolbert +in an under tone, 'if only from curiosity. If you lose we shall then be +enabled to ridicule your adviser.' + +'Not willingly,' said Arwed. Finally, however, he set the card which +had been recommended.--It won. + +'His majesty bears himself bravely,' said Kolbert, laughing; 'the +banker can obtain no advantage over him.' + +Megret angrily threw to Arwed his winnings, at the same time fixing his +rolling eyes upon the prophet. A passionate remark appeared to hover +upon his tongue, but he suppressed it and the playing proceeded. + +'How stands it now with our expedition against Drontheim?' asked +Kolbert at the close of the game. 'I am surprised that we have had no +well-founded intelligence from thence for so long a time.' + +'According to my calculations,' said Posse, 'Armfelt must have already +entered Drontheim. Have you no news from thence, Herr Swedenborg? What +is our army about?' + +'They are plundering the copper mines of Roeraas,' answered Swedenborg +coolly. + +'That would not be very agreeable to me!' said Posse jestingly, 'The +position is somewhat distant from the capital, and would give the +appearance of a retreat. This time, however, I firmly believe in a +glorious victory for our arms. Do you not, also?' + +'Excuse my answering,' said Swedenborg sorrowfully. 'The powerful +elements hate mankind, and they are the stronger!' + +The officers looked thoughtfully at each other, and a profound +stillness pervaded the assembly. + +'Let the Finlanders protect their own skins,' said Kolbert, finally +breaking the mournful silence. 'We will stick to Frederickshall, which +we have already in our hands. The golden lion battery has been won +after a brilliant engagement. When once the trenches are pushed a +little further, then with a resolute escalade, we shall be there.' + +'For God's sake, my dear friend!' said Swedenborg, anxiously, 'rely not +so confidently upon the uncertain fortune of war! Bound to the wild +steed of accident, the goddess of fortune ranges through the world--and +when she stops and looks back upon her bloody and smoking path, she +finds that she has only described a hopeless circle. She stands upon +the point whence she started, and all the life and happiness, which she +has trampled down in her furious course, is offered up in vain.' + +'You speak so learnedly that I cannot wholly understand you,' +laughingly observed Kolbert; 'but I gather from your conversation, that +you lack the true soldier's faith. You have done well, therefore, in +consecrating yourself to the pen. The sword would make you too deeply +anxious. We, on the contrary, when our king leads us forth, would +cheerfully grapple with the devil himself in his own dominions, and +sing over him the _te deum praenumerando_.' + +'And who can guarantee, proud man,' asked Swedenborg with a piercing +glance, 'that your king will see the breaking of another morning, to +lead you on to strife and victory?' + +He speedily withdrew. An indignant murmur arose among the officers; 'It +is almost too bad,' said count Posse. + +'Yes, indeed!' grumbled Megret. 'And the worst of it is, that they +should permit such fools to run about freely in the camp, exciting and +perplexing weak minds.' + +'Swedenborg certainly is not a fool,' said Posse; 'but a warning +example of the disorder which fanciful ideas may create in a clear and +ripe understanding.' + +'Besides, he is never once original,' said Kolbert. 'The prophecy of +the king's approaching death has been circulating through the camp for +several days.' + +'Original or copy,' said Megret, spitefully, 'one should not publish +his fanciful ideas on every occasion. And whatever of sound +understanding he may have, according to the count's opinion, might be +allowed by all parties to circulate freely, and no harm done.' + +At this moment Siquier re-entered with evident agitation, and whispered +to Megret, 'the king visits the trenches this evening.' + +'Diable!' cried Megret, snapping his fingers. 'Cannot you dissuade him +from it?' + +'Dissuade him!' said Siquier. 'Dost thou not know the king? Make your +preparations.' + +'To-morrow evening I shall have the honor to give the gentlemen their +revenge,' said Megret courteously, closing his box. 'I must now repair +to the trenches, Come, Siquier, our way lies in the same direction for +some distance, and I have yet much to say to you.' + +The two Frenchmen went, forth together, arm in arm. Arwed followed +them, out, and saw that they were engaged in very earnest conversation +and struck their hands together with much vehemence. The circumstance +surprised him, he knew not wherefore, and he made an effort to catch +something of their conversation, which was carried on in rather a loud +voice. The tones came distinctly to his ear in the stillness of the +evening, but he could not understand a word of it, and soon convinced +himself that they were conversing in a language whose barbarous sounds +were unknown to him. 'What can all this mean?' he asked himself, +looking dubiously after the two officers until they disappeared from +his eyes into the trenches. + +'The hour has elapsed,' suddenly observed some one near him. 'You may +as well go now to the king, sir captain.' + +Arwed peered about him through the evening dusk, and thought he +perceived near him the tall, meagre form of Swedenborg. + +'How came you here, sir, taking so active a part in my affairs?' asked +he morosely. + +'I have perceived in you a strong mind and a pure heart,' answered +Swedenborg: 'and for that reason I consider you as one of those chosen +vessels of the Lord, of whom he has need in these wicked times. +Therefore I conjure you to repair instantly to the king and stir not +from his side until this night is past. I am convinced that there is +danger of most fearful doings, as I have recently observed appalling +signs in the heavens.' + +'Spare me your astrological dreamings,' answered Arwed impatiently. 'So +long as God leaves me in possession of my senses, I can never give +credence to them.' + +'Do you always judge so hastily and uncharitably, my young warrior?' +asked Swedenborg, mildly reproaching him: 'and do you absolutely +despise and reject every thing that your weak understanding cannot +comprehend? Know you the central power of nature, that point in +infinite space whence issue the streams of power in an eternal spiral +motion, bringing forth the forms of life and activity in endless +succession? And while you remain ignorant of all these things, how can +you presume to reject calculations founded upon this eternal basis?' + +'I cannot argue with you,' answered Arwed, 'while I do not understand +you:--and, in the mean time, I must be permitted to consider as perfect +nonsense what you have been serving up to me as the highest wisdom.' + +'Hold me and my doctrines in what light you please,' said Swedenborg, +'so you but fulfill my request. Lose not sight of the king, during this +night. The powers of hell are busy.' + +'What can threaten the hero from which I may be able to defend him?' +asked Arwed. + +'He who eats my bread tramples me under foot,' chanted Swedenborg, with +a deep hollow voice. 'Thus it happened to Gustavus, by the fourth rider +who left the camp with him. Do you know the tale from the faithful +Hastenfeld, of his king's assassination?' + +'What mean you by that?' asked Arwed earnestly.--But the prophet had +disappeared. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + +Arwed arrived at the king's quarters.--Upon giving his name, the +ordnance officer on duty showed him into the royal chamber, without +further annunciation. With a prayer book in his lap, and a miniature in +his hand which he was attentively viewing, Charles sat by the chimney, +in which some sheets of paper were burning. A heap of glowing ashes +showed that a large quantity of paper had been previously destroyed in +the same manner.--Arwed approached the king, who, sitting with his back +towards him and absorbed in the contemplation of the miniature, was not +aware of his presence. Arwed saw and recognized the picture. It was the +portrait of Gustavus Adolphus. Then suddenly Swedenborg's prophecy came +into his mind, and a secret apprehension respecting the hero, drew from +him a deep sigh. + +The king looked around. 'Aha, captain Gyllenstierna!' said he, rising +up and carefully putting aside the prayer book and portrait. 'You +showed much bravery against the enemy in yesterday's action. You are +too young for the rank of major, and I do not like to give stars and +orders. Have you any favor to ask?' + +'This commendation from my king is the greatest favor that could be +conferred upon me,' answered Arwed. 'If your majesty will but continue +as kindly disposed towards me, I shall be more than rewarded.' + +'No!' said the king vehemently, 'I will not remain your debtor. God may +call me to himself to-day or to-morrow, and then must my earthly +accounts be balanced. Ask some favor of me. I am well disposed towards +you.' + +'Now or never!' said Arwed to himself, and turning to the king: 'I love +the daughter of your majesty's minister, baron von Goertz: the +animosity of our respective fathers opposes an insurmountable obstacle +to our union: vouchsafe, your majesty, to intercede for us.' + +'You are a simpleton!' replied the king scornfully, while with long and +rapid strides he paced up and down the chamber. 'Silly request!' +exclaimed he after a while, smiling in his peculiar manner: 'and I +think it unjust, since you know my opinion of matrimony.' After which, +he walked two or three times up and down the room, and then stopping +directly in front of Arwed, asked him, 'you are so good a soldier, +Gyllenstierna, how have you been able to attach yourself to a woman?' + +'Baroness von Goertz,' answered Arwed, 'is so lovely that your majesty +would find it natural enough were you once to see her.' + +'That may you very naturally believe,' answered the king smilingly. +After a pause, shaking his head, he observed, 'I only wish to know what +delight men can find in what is called love?' + +'It is indeed the greatest happiness in life, your majesty,' answered +Arwed with enthusiasm. + +'It would not be well for me that it should be so, for then should I +have missed the greatest good,' said the king. 'Yet will a place in +history always remain to me, and fame with posterity!' He walked to the +chimney, and, collecting the coals together with his foot, observed, 'I +will cause her father to be written to. I will speak to Goertz myself. +I expect him about this time from Aland.' + +'Your majesty!'--stammered the surprised and delighted youth. + +'It is very well!' said the king, interrupting him, and at that moment +Siquier entered. + +'Your majesty is now about to visit the trenches,' said Arwed, +recollecting Swedenborg's request. 'May I be allowed to accompany you? +I might, perhaps, learn something practically of the duties +appertaining to a siege.' + +The king kindly nodded assent. Siquier made a disagreeable face, and +they started. + +At the entrance of the trenches they were received by count Schwerin, +who commanded there, captain Posse and adjutant Kolbert; and not +without some embarrassment, came colonel Megret to meet them. The king +now sent away Posse and Kolbert upon some secret errand, and proceeded +with Megret and Siquier into the trench. Arwed followed at some +distance. It was a bitter cold, moonless night, but the stars shone +clear. The Danes fired incessantly from Frederickshall, and their balls +often struck within the walls of the trench; but the king, paying no +attention to it, proceeded quietly forward with his companions. They +now came to a place where the passage in the trench made an angle with +the parallel, and from beyond which the pickaxes and shovels of the +sappers could be heard. + +There the king suddenly stopped and leaned upon his long sword. 'No +farther advanced, Megret?' asked he, with evident displeasure. + +'The soil is frozen hard, your majesty!' apologized the latter, +somewhat perplexed. 'Were we compelled to open the trenches through +rocks, it would not be much more difficult.' + +'There has been time enough!' said Charles. 'I am very much +dissatisfied!' + +'I will pledge my head,' said Megret, 'that we have the fortress in +eight days!' + +'We shall see,' answered the king, kneeling upon the inner scarp; +leaning his head upon the parapet with his face turned towards the +enemy, he looked long and anxiously towards the sappers, who were +quietly and assiduously pursuing their labors. + +At this moment a confused noise was heard from the camp. 'Go and see +what is the matter, Gyllenstierna,' commanded the king: 'and bring me a +report.' + +'Do you command it, your majesty?' replied Arwed, with a heavy heart; +for at such a moment he dared not leave the king alone with the two +Frenchmen. + +'Hasten, captain,' whispered Siquier to him. 'The king loves not +loiterers, and to-day, especially, he is not in the best humor.' + +Arwed obeyed with a sigh. As he came out of the trenches all had become +still again, and from count Posse, whom he met, he learned that two +unruly horses had been the whole cause of the alarm. While they were +yet speaking of it Swedenborg came hastily up to them. With an ice-cold +hand he seized Arwed's and drew him hastily aside. + +'Where have you left the king?' asked he, with much earnestness. + +'At the extremity of the trench,' answered Arwed. 'Megret and Siquier +are with him.' + +'Oh, why have you absented yourself from your lord?' cried Swedenborg, +wringing his hands. 'I begged of you so earnestly!' + +'By his command;'--answered Arwed, now much alarmed. + +'For God's sake return immediately to him,' supplicated Swedenborg, +dragging him forward. 'God grant that we come not too late!' + +They both proceeded rapidly along the trench. In the narrow passage, +they were met by Siquier. + +'Where is the king?' quickly asked Arwed of him. + +'That is what I wished to ask of you!' returned Siquier, with an +insolent yet trembling voice. 'I left him soon after you did, and in +the darkness cannot find him again.' + +'That is strange!' said Arwed. 'You had better go with me, and let us +seek our lord where I left him in your company.' + +Siquier reluctantly obeyed. They came finally to the old place, which +was well known to Arwed. Already at some, distance he saw the king +still in the same position, leaning upon the parapet. At the same time +Megret, joining them, suddenly approached the king and bent over him. + +'He is dead!' said he after a while, very quietly. + +'The king dead!' shrieked Arwed, with wild amazement, and running to +the nearest guard post, he immediately returned with a blazing torch. +The light disclosed a horrid scene. Covered with blood, Charles's +beautiful hero-like form rested upon the inner scarp of the trench. +His head had sunk down upon the parapet. On the right temple was the +death-wound. The left eye was sunken in; the right, strained wholly out +of its orbit, stared horribly forth; and the right hand, which held the +hilt of his sword with a convulsive grasp, proved that the brave +spirit, even on the instant of its flight, was disposed to resist the +impending death. + +A long and fearful pause succeeded the discovery. 'The play is out!' +finally observed Megret, breaking the general silence: 'We may now go +to supper.' + +Arwed looked shudderingly upon the man who could treat the sudden and +awful death of his general and king with such cool insolence--and at +that moment a horrible suspicion pervaded his soul. + +'This sad occurrence must be concealed from the troops,' said Siquier. +'It would entirely dispirit them. I will merely inform the prince of +Hesse, and he can command what further is to be done.' + +He departed in haste. Megret followed him. Arwed remained with +Swedenborg by the corpse, holding fast its lifeless left hand, and +covering it with his kisses and tears. + +'So, it is thy fate to be destroyed by assassination, thou kingly +hero!' mourned the faithful Swedenborg. 'Why couldst thou not have +fallen worthy of thyself, by the hand of an honorable enemy, in the +open field of battle?' + +'Let us not judge too rashly and uncharitably,' said Arwed, combating, +in Swedenborg's, his own suspicions. 'That the king was hit by one of +the balls from the batteries of the enemy, is more probable than the +monstrous crime which you seem to conjecture.' + +'The king's face was turned toward the enemy,' said Swedenborg, with +grave significancy: 'and the ball hit him on the right side. The +calibre, to judge from the size of the wound, was too small for a heavy +gun, and no musket would reach this place from the walls of +Frederickshall.' + +'Impossible!' cried Arwed. 'Who could have projected such a crime--who +could have committed it?' + +'He who eats my bread tramples me under foot,--was done to Gustavus by +the fourth man who rode with him out of the camp:'--said Swedenborg in +a chanting tone, as if in answer to both questions. The trench had now +become illuminated with torches and filled with warriors. Through the +hastening crowd of officers pressed the prince of Hesse. + +'It is too true!' stammered he, palsied by the horrid spectacle, +and trembling in every limb. 'Who was present when my deceased +brother-in-law was struck?' asked he at length with a trembling voice. + +'God only can answer that question, your highness,' said Swedenborg. +'God, who with his heavenly, thousand-starred eyes has seen what has +happened here. We found the royal corpse alone.' + +'Alone,' cried the prince, 'alone has ended the life of the hero whose +warlike deeds have filled all Europe with fear and admiration! What is +human greatness?' + +Megret and Siquier now returned with four grenadiers of the guards, who +with sad, lingering steps, brought forward a litter. + +'Let the body be brought to head-quarters, Siquier,' commanded the +prince: 'and keep the king's death secret until we have taken such +measures as the occasion may require. The generals will in the mean +time assemble at my quarters in council of war. Let sentinels be placed +on every avenue towards Sweden, and let no one venture to leave the +camp until further orders.' + +'And general Duecker?'--asked Siquier, artfully, as if he wished to +remind the prince of something of importance. + +'He shall immediately depart with his corps,' answered the prince, +after a moment's reflection, 'and traverse the passes toward Denmark. +Bear to him the order,' Yet one look of horror cast he upon the dead +form of his brother-in-law, and then hastily departed. + +With pert insolence Siquier advanced to the corpse, threw over it a +soldier's gray cloak, placed his own hat upon the insensible head, and +made a sign to the grenadiers. The latter advanced weeping, and placing +the dead body in the litter, closed it. + +'If you are asked on the way whom you bear,' said Siquier, as they +raised the litter, 'answer captain Carlberg.' + +The mournful train moved forward. Siquier picked up the bloody hat of +the king, which lay upon the ground, and followed. With sad murmurs the +officers separated. Swedenborg also had disappeared. Arwed remained +standing alone, still mechanically holding the torch on high, staring +unconsciously upon the bloody ground from which its light was +reflected. At length recollecting himself, he angrily thrust the torch +in the snow upon the parapet until its sparkling and crackling flame +was extinguished. 'Die! thou paltry flame!' exclaimed he, with +uncontrollable grief: 'die! This night Sweden's light is extinguished +and never, never more will my poor country see the dawn of happiness.' + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + +As Arwed emerged from the trenches he was met by adjutant Kolbert. 'It +is well that I have found you,' said he eagerly: 'I have been some time +seeking you. Come directly with me.' + +'Where?' asked Arwed with moody apathy. + +'To general Duecker's,' quickly answered Kolbert. + +'There are collected all those who in their hearts were truly devoted +to our fallen hero. The meeting relates to matters of the highest +consequence, which must be discussed in all haste. It is asked, who now +shall wear the crown in our good Sweden?' + +'Has the army to decide that question?' asked Arwed earnestly. + +'Certainly!' said Kolbert, 'and that according to the anciently +consecrated right of the sword, as formerly exercised by the praetorians +of Rome. Only come with me. There you will not only hear the _how_, but +the _wherefore_, about which, pedantlike, you always first ask.' + +He drew Arwed with him towards general Duecker's quarters. They were +already crowded with generals and officers, who were engaged in low and +eager conversation. Suddenly they separated, forming a large circle, +into the middle of which stepped the worthy old Duecker. + +'The king is dead!' said he with an agitated voice. 'In the midst of +your affliction for this great loss, I waive until a more suitable time +the important question,--How has the hero fallen? Our present duty is, +faithfully to guard the vacant throne as becomes faithful vassals and +warriors, and to take care that the crown be set upon a worthy head. +You know, comrades, that there are two hands which will be stretched +out for it, and in the opinion of many it is yet doubtful whether the +nephew or the sister of Charles has the best right. I am indeed +entirely convinced, that the son of the elder sister should take +precedence of the younger. But the heroes of the quill may hereafter +fight out these subtleties, if it should become necessary. At present I +abide simply by the will of my king, who has so often been our guiding +star in battle, as the pole star of heaven guides the mariner through +opposing storms. Charles had a father's love for his nephew, and was +reverenced with filial tenderness by him in return. He took him with +himself to the field, that he might under his own eyes train him to +become his worthy successor. For his sister he always had an aversion, +and the thought of female government was as hateful to him, as, since +the days of the apostate Christina, it must be to every true Swede. +Wherefore I believe we fulfill the unwritten testament of the great +departed in raising the duke of Holstein to Sweden's throne. He already +has so far deserved it, that his connection with this realm has cost +him his possessions. + +'But whatever be done must be done quickly--for the husband of the +other pretender to the crown is in the camp, and already very active in +availing himself of his field-marshalship to aid her pretensions. I, in +whom he least confides, have already been ordered to depart with my +corps, and I dare not venture to disobey, unless protected by a counter +order from the king. I therefore propose that a deputation from +ourselves repair immediately to the duke, and beg of him to show +himself to the troops. We will have the regiments under arms, proclaim +him king in front of them, and for the rest depend upon our good +swords. Is that your will, my friends?' + +'Long live our king Charles XIIIth!' cried the assembled warriors with +one voice, and every sword leaped from its scabbard. While most of the +officers distributed themselves through the soldiers' barracks, to +prepare them for the great movement, Duecker chose, from among those +who remained, the ambassadors who should accompany him to the duke. +Arwed found himself one of the number, and the delegates immediately +repaired to the duke's quarters. The sentinels refused them entrance. +The discussion which this occasioned brought out the valet-de-chambre, +Koepstorf, the favorite and confidant of the young prince. + +'It is impossible, your excellency, to announce you now,' said he to +Duecker. 'His grace is so shaken by the intelligence of the king's +death that he has yielded himself up entirely to his sad feelings, and +cannot turn his attention to anything else. The gentlemen must come +again to-morrow morning.' + +'My God!' cried Duecker, 'you desire a delay of many hours, when +Sweden's fate, perhaps, hangs upon as many moments. In consequence of +the king's death, the duke is lawful heir to the crown. We have opened +the way to the throne for him. The army is upon his side. He has only +to make his appearance and harangue the troops, and they will call him +to the royal station, in the possession of which he will be protected +by his good right. But if he delay, his aunt will gain possession; and, +once upon the throne, she will thence obtain the power to maintain +herself there. I conjure you, friend, to present all this to your lord, +and beseech him to hear the representations of his true supporters, and +not neglect the favorable moment which for him, perhaps, may never +occur again.' + +'I will do what I can,' answered Koepstorf, shrugging his shoulders and +going in. + +There stood the well disposed warriors, patiently waiting to ascertain +if the young prince would stoop to take the crown which they were +desirous of laying at his feet. The valet-de-chambre was gone a long +time. The cold morning wind blew keenly from the direction of Sweden, +and they wrapped themselves close in their mantles. At length they +heard the trampling of horses near them, and a troop of some ten +horsemen trotted hastily by them and took the way towards Stroemstadt. + +'Do you know what that means?' asked Kolfaert of the general. 'It is +colonel Baumgardt, who, by the command of the fieldmarshal, goes to +meet and arrest the baron von Goertz.' + +'Right!' cried Duecker with bitterness. 'A crime more or less, is of no +consequence, when a crown is to be usurped, and it is highly politic to +rob the prince of his best supporters. He is, however, little troubled +by all this, as it seems, and will perhaps patiently wait until he is +himself arrested in his own quarters.' + +The valet-de-chambre now again came out. 'My exertions have not been +successful,' said he despondingly. 'I have placed the whole subject +before the prince, but have not obtained a favorable hearing. He merely +allows me to say to your excellency that he cannot speak with any +person now.' + +Great dissatisfaction was expressed by the whole company, and Duecker +angrily stamped his foot. 'It is a pity we have taken so much pains and +incurred so much danger,' said he. 'Nothing indeed now remains for us +but obedience, as I have no desire to set my gray head upon a cast for +an ungrateful man. Bear to my regiments the order for their departure,' +said he to his adjutant, and, cursing and swearing by the way, he +returned to his quarters. + +Oppressed with concern for the father of his beloved, Arwed followed +the general. 'Grant me one request,' said he urgently as they entered +the quarters of the latter. 'There will now be very little to do here +in the way of fighting, and my presence is no longer necessary. Procure +me a furlough to ride back to Stockholm.' + +'To Stockholm?' asked Duecker, startled. 'Now, directly? For what +purpose, captain? Do you wish to become one of the wheels in the +machinery of politics which are now destructively working in opposition +to each other? You appear to me to be much too honest-hearted for +that.' + +'From Charles's best friend I will conceal nothing,' said Arwed +resolutely. 'According to my calculation Goertz must now either be in +Stockholm or will soon arrive there. I would warn that true servant of +our late king, that he may be able to escape from the hands of his +revengeful enemies.' + +'For which thought may heaven reward you!' cried Duecker, 'but I fear +the issue. In the first place, the prince of Hesse is your chief, and +it will be difficult to procure from him the desired permission, and +secondly, you will hardly be able to outstrip the speed of the officers +already under way for the arrest of Goertz.' + +'Obtain me but the permission, general,' persisted Arwed: 'the rest +shall be my care. I ride a Norman of unequalled speed and bottom.' + +'I will make the effort,' said Duecker; 'but hardly hope for success. +Since Charles's death I am only the _late_ Duecker, and my influence +has become a shadow.' + +He had proceeded as far as the door when he was met by colonel Brenner. +'I come to take leave of you, my old friend,' said the latter, heartily +embracing the general. 'I go this moment with post-horses to the +capital.' + +'Every body seems to wish to go to Stockholm tonight,' said Duecker. +'What hast thou to ask there?' + +'His royal highness the prince of Hesse, as he already suffers himself +to be called,' answered Brenner ironically, 'has already sent forward +his beloved and trusty Siquier with the mournful news. It might +afterwards, however, have occurred to him that it would not seem +exactly proper to leave the communication of so important an event to +the equivocal Frenchman. Wherefore must an honorable Swede follow him +as the messenger of death; and as I might perhaps be troublesome here, +I am in mercy selected for that duty.' + +'Will you do me a pleasure and take the captain with you?' said +Duecker. 'He has a sudden and urgent call to Stockholm, and may not in +any other way be able to obtain leave of absence.' + +'The prince has allowed me to choose my companion,' answered Brenner; +'and what would I not do to pleasure you? We set off directly, captain. +Farewell till happier times, my Duecker!' + +He hastened forth. Arwed gratefully pressed the general's hand, who in +return drew him to his heart. 'God protect you and bless your +undertaking!' said the latter with emotion--and Arwed rushed forth in +the cold, gray dawn of the awakening mom. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + +Courtiers and lacqueys were running about and jostling each other in +confusion and alarm, when colonel Brenner with Arwed mounted the broad +stone steps of the royal palace upon the Ritterholm. With great trouble +they found a valet-de-chambre, who announced them to the princess +Ulrika. As they entered the ante-chamber, the folding doors of the +princess' room opened, and Siquier, with shy glances, brushed past +them. At a motion of the valet they entered the audience room. Ulrika +was standing by a pier-table, upon which lay the king's perforated and +bloody hat, holding, with a decent appearance of grief, a handkerchief +before her dry eyes. + +'I have the melancholy honor,' said Brenner, drawing his despatches +from his bosom, 'to present to your royal highness these letters from +your princely husband.' + +'Siquier has already informed me of the sad occurrence,' answered +Ulrika, taking the despatch with great coolness: 'nevertheless I thank +you for the zeal with which you have executed the commission of the +hereditary prince.' + +'This officer,' continued Brenner, pointing to Arwed, 'was one of the +first who found the hero's corpse. He can inform your royal highness of +all the circumstances accompanying this so wholly unexpected death.' + +'Wherefore the details?' cried Ulrika, 'which serve no purpose but to +lacerate my heart. If my maternal love for this land forces upon me the +conviction that this death is fortunate for Sweden, yet will the ties +of blood claim their holy rights--and although I could never boast of +my royal brother's love, yet my heart feels his loss with a sorrow +which needs no additional poignancy.' + +At this moment the chief governor, baron Taube, entered the room with a +face in which alarm, feigned sorrow, and ill-concealed joy, struggled +for mastery. + +'You know it already, governor?' cried Ulrika, advancing hastily to +meet him. + +He silently bowed assent. + +'I am confident that in you I have a truly devoted friend,' said she to +him with a gracious stateliness, extending her hand for him to kiss. + +'My life for your royal highness!' cried Taube with graceful +enthusiasm, tenderly kissing the proffered hand. + +'What should be done first, think you?' she asked him confidentially. + +'I advise that the senate should be assembled this evening,' answered +Taube. 'To be sure its numbers are not complete. Three of its members +are with the army as generals, but in their stead the royal counsellors +are devoted to your royal highness with their lives and fortunes.' + +'If ever I have a voice in these lands,' said Ulrika, warmly, 'these +good gentlemen shall not much longer wear these titles. I have never +approved of my father's course in making them servants of his own will, +instead of counsellors of the empire.' + +'The senate know the gracious intuitions of your royal highness,' +answered Taube; 'and I am certain of the happy consequences. If any +thing could make me fear, it would be the cabals which baron Goertz +will not fail to set on foot for the young duke.' + +'Goertz is taken care of!' cried Ulzika, with a look of hate. 'While we +are now speaking here, all power to do further mischief is, as I hope, +taken from him. Let only his house be promptly occupied and his papers +and property secured.' + +'Then there are his Holstein accomplices,' added Taube: 'Dernath, +Ecklef, Paulsen, Sallern----' + +'They must all be arrested this night,' decided Ulrika; 'all at the +same hour, so that no one may be warned by the fate of the others. See +to it, dear governor.' + +'I will have the whole garrison under arms,' answered Taube, bowing. +'This business must be carried through with rapidity and decision, as +every thing depends upon the proper employment of the present moment.' + +'And tell me, dear baron,' asked Ulrika, grasping both of his hands +with the most winning kindness, 'the senate will not compel me to buy +the crown at too high a price, will they?' + +'In relation to that,' answered Taube, with a warning glance towards +the officers, who in the heat of the conversation had been overlooked +until now; 'in relation to that, I will lay my humble opinions before +your royal highness at a more private audience.' + +Somewhat alarmed, Ulrika turned towards Brenner, and her glance fell +directly upon Arwed's large blue eyes, sparkling with displeasure, +which were fixed steadily upon her. She started back, and, with +difficulty summoning composure, asked, 'who is that moody young man?' + +'My companion, the captain count Gyllenstierna,' answered Brenner for +his silent friend. 'A brave soldier. He was the first upon the walls of +the Golden Lion, and won the particular approbation of our late blessed +king.' + +'Gyllenstierna?' asked Taube, eagerly. 'He is then the son of the +senator, and was sent by his father to Armfelt's army.' + +'The worthy old man was always one of our truest friends,' said Ulrika, +interrupting him, and bowing graciously to Arwed. And it will be most +agreeable to us to learn that the son follows in the father's +footsteps. We shall remember to bestow upon him some peculiar mark of +our favor.' + +She held out her hand for him to kiss. But Arwed, highly incensed at +all he had heard, would not be compelled to show this mark of reverence +to a woman whom he hated. He stood stiff and motionless, and the hand +of the queen remained in expectancy, unclasped and unkissed, suspended +in the air. + +Shocked at the gross impropriety, the chief governor hemmed +emphatically. Colonel Brenner anxiously endeavored to push Arwed +forward, but he would not move a limb, and the hand of the princess +finally sank down by her side. + +'The young man is certainly not well!' said Ulrika, with much +bitterness. + +'After his long and forced journey it would not be strange,' said +Brenner, apologetically. 'He has need of rest. Is it the pleasure of +your royal highness that we now retire?' + +'You can receive your despatches early in the morning from the +governor,' answered Ulrika with displeasure; 'and for your companion, +may he in time learn the courtesy due from every gentleman to a lady, +even though she were not the sister of his king.' + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + +'Most assuredly,' said Brenner to Arwed, as soon as they had left the +palace behind them, 'you have a very peculiar talent for making your +way at court. You ought, at the least, to be made a master of +ceremonies. I have taken you with me to an audience once, but I would +never do it again.' + +'Had you left me behind you, as I earnestly begged of you, colonel,' +answered Arwed, 'you would have spared me the pain of witnessing the +thoroughly disgusting scene, and yourself the mortification of my +awkwardness.' + +'You do not understand the matter,' blustered Brenner. 'It was proper +for me to present my companion; and in doing so I was actuated by the +best intentions towards you. If our own hearts bled at the sad news we +brought, yet I knew well that it would be right welcome here; and the +face that brings good news may expect to win the good will of those in +authority. And every thing was going on so well, and the warm sun of +favor was beginning to shine clear and bright upon you, when satan must +come all at once into your back so that you could not bend it, into +your arm that you could not stretch it out, and into your lips that you +could not kiss,--and now the opportunity has passed for time and +eternity!' + +'Let it be past!' cried Arwed, 'I cannot outwardly honor what I +inwardly despise.' + +'You will soon leave the royal service then;' grumbled the colonel: +'for in that service cases of the kind may often occur.' + +'Have you any further need of me, colonel?' asked Arwed, his glance +impatiently turning towards the palace of Goertz. + +'For to-night, no,' answered Brenner. 'But come to my quarters early in +the morning. We will then make arrangements for our return, I will not +trouble you to go with me to the governor's. After the captious remarks +which he let fall he might have various dangerous questions to ask +you--and if your hitherto passive awkwardness should become active, I +might in the end have cause to repent my willingness to take you with +me.' + +'If I, however,' asked Arwed, seized with a sudden presentiment, +'should have occasion to set out upon a journey to-night, would you +give me a furlough upon my word of honor to appear at the camp before +Frederickshall in eight days?' + +'Come not to me with such a strange request!' cried the colonel with +vehemence. 'I have no authority nor power to grant you such a +furlough.' + +'But when the object is to save a good man?' asked Arwed earnestly, +seizing the colonel's hand and looking anxiously in his face with his +beautiful clear eyes. + +The colonel gave him a piercing glance from under his gray bushy +eye-brows. But the severity of his eye soon melted into a more kindly +expression. 'My old friend Duecker is well disposed towards you,' said +he: 'and there is no falsehood in your face. I see that you are one who +will keep your word. Go upon your own terms whither you will.' + +'May God reward you!' cried Arwed, hastening away. + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + +Dark and gigantic in the evening dusk arose the proud palace of the +baron von Goertz, and the unlighted windows and the perfect silence +which reigned in and about it gave it the unpleasant appearance of a +deserted spectre-castle. Only in one room shone a dull light which +resembled the blue flame that burns in ruins over buried treasures. + +'That is Georgina's light,' said Arwed to himself, agitated with the +conflicting emotions of sorrow and joy. He pushed open a little side +door near the great portal, and creeping softly up the deserted stairs +passed through the echoing corridors towards Georgina's chamber. As he +entered he saw his beloved sitting at a table and with streaming eyes +reading the note in which he had warned her of her father's danger. Her +right hand supported her drooping head,--her left had been taken +possession of by the little Magdalena, who was endeavoring to +administer friendly and childlike consolation. + +'Heaven be praised!' said Arwed. 'Thou hast received my letter in time, +and thy father is saved!'-- + +'Would to God it were so!' cried Georgina, with a sorrow so deep that +it left no room in her heart for joy at again seeing her lover. 'My +father departed yesterday for Frederickshall. He is accustomed to +travel with rapidity, and before my courier can overtake him he will be +already in the hands of his enemies.' + +'That depends upon who the courier is,' said Arwed encouragingly. 'I +have determined to save the father of my beloved, and to spare my +country the commission of a crime. I will set forth, and should a +couple of horses fall dead under me it will be a small matter. I am +only held back for the moment by my concern for thee. This palace will +soon be occupied, and thy father's property confiscated. What a scene +will await thee if thou remainest without a protector in the desolated +house!' + +'Be not anxious for me,' said Georgina, ringing the bell. 'I will +immediately repair, with my sister, to the count Dernath's, where we +are certain of a right friendly reception. + +'Dernath and all thy father's friends will be arrested this night!' +cried Arwed, in deep anguish. + +'I nevertheless can find some place of refuge in Stockholm,' answered +Georgina; 'and thou canst with confidence devote thyself to the +discharge of a duty to which thy heart impels thee.' + +Meanwhile the governess of Georgina entered, clasping her hands in +astonishment at finding a strange young officer in the bed-room of her +pupil. + +'Do not alarm yourself respecting my companion, dear governess!' cried +Georgina. 'Your attention is now required by affairs of more +importance. Instantly call the women and the two Holstein, lacqueys. +Let some of the best of mine and Magdalena's things be packed up, and +send the steward to provide a boat. We will immediately repair to +Blasius Holm, to the old invalid post-captain who was, three years ago, +ransomed at Ystad by my father.' + +'Accompanied by this cavalier?' cried the terrified governess. 'This +looks like an elopement, baroness!' + +'Would to God it were!' said Georgina sorrowfully. 'But this cavalier's +way lies in quite another direction. The king is dead, my father a +prisoner if he be not saved by scarcely less than a miracle, and during +this very night will this palace be stormed as though it were a strong +hold of the Danes. Therefore hasten, for our moments are counted!' + +Wringing her hands, and followed by the weeping Magdalena, the +governess retired. + +'Will you not also save your father's papers and valuables?' asked +Arwed. 'The hands which will rummage here will be none of the purest.' + +'No!' answered Georgina after some reflection. 'Let the commissioners +do that for which they may be able to answer to God and their own +honor. I will not venture to touch my father's property. Besides, I am +too proud to take any thing with me out of Sweden which might be +claimed as the property of the state. Hasten you, now, to the rescue of +my beloved father. He was to proceed through Westgothland and to pass +by Stroemstadt. I can give you no more precise information of his +route.' + +'Let me first accompany you to your asylum,' said Arwed. 'Before that, +I cannot leave you in peace.' + +'God knows how great a consolation your attendance upon me would be,' +answered Georgina: 'but the question now is not of my consolation or +your peace, dear Arwed,--but of my father's rescue. An hour's delay may +be death to him. Therefore go at once, Arwed, fly, save, and there is +no reward which you may not demand of me in exchange for the life of my +beloved parent.' + +Saying this, she threw her white arms about his neck, printed a fervent +kiss upon his lips, and gently thrust him out of the door. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + +The wearied Arwed pushed the little gothlander, which he had purchased +at the Rakalse inn instead of his overridden Norman, into a smart trot +upon the high road to Stroemstadt. The rider was almost exhausted, but +his determined spirit, animated by love and generosity, impelled the +obedient body to renewed exertions of its diminishing powers. At length +lie caught a glance of a fast rolling carriage, relieved against the +border of a snow-clad forest. 'Now is the crisis!' cried he, burying +his spurs so unmercifully in his horse's flanks that he flew with him +in furious career over the frozen ground. After a hard ride of a +quarter of an hour he overtook the carriage. In it sat baron Goertz, +wrapped in a fur cloak, and so attentively reading some papers that he +did not perceive the approaching horseman. 'I bless my fate,' called +out the latter, as he reached the carriage, 'that I have found your +excellency in good time. I bring you important intelligence.' + +'Who are you, sir?' asked Goertz, disturbed in his occupation, with a +tone of displeasure. + +'Captain Gyllenstierna,' answered Arwed. 'I have ridden after you from +Stockholm to give you warning and save you from a great misfortune.' + +'Gyllenstierna!' cried Goertz with a friendly smile, leaning back that +he might hear his voice above the rattling of the carriage. 'Then you +bring me news from my daughter, or a message from her. You cannot well +deliver it from your saddle; therefore be pleased to hitch your horse +to mine and take a seat by me in the carriage.' + +'I accept your invitation with thanks,' answered Arwed, and attaching +his reins to the collar of a saddle-horse, he sprang into the carriage. +'Have the goodness,' said he, 'to change the direction of your journey +immediately, and on the way I will tell you the cause.' + +'What are you dreaming of?' asked Goertz with an angry brow. + +'There comes a whole troop of dragoons to meet us,' cried the coachman, +'and they are pressing forward under whip and spur.' Arwed examined +them attentively for a moment. 'My God, I have come too late!' +stammered he, recognizing the gray coat of colonel Baumgardt advancing +at their head. + +'Are you in your right mind, young man, or rather are you not some +other than the person you pretend to be?' asked Goertz yet more +angrily, drawing a pistol from the pocket of the carriage. + +'For God's sake!' untreated Arwed, grasping his hand, 'reserve your +weapons for your enemies, who are coming to meet us. By you sits your +friend, who is ready to die in your defence. Turn back instantly, +perhaps we may yet avoid them.' + +As Goertz sharply examined his countenance his features relaxed into a +milder expression at the perusal of his honest face. 'I have no longer +an ill opinion of you,' said he smilingly. 'It is my impression, +however, that you desire to increase your importance with me a little +by pressing upon me your protection against a pretended danger; and I +can pardon something on account of your youth and the motive by which +you are impelled. Another time, however, you must find some more +probable pretence. That the horsemen who are approaching us are no +robbers, but honest Swedish dragoons, a child may see; and, if I +mistake not, that is colonel Baumgardt, whom I well know, riding at +their head.' + +In a moment the troops had reached the carriage. + +'Good evening, your excellency!' cried Baumgardt, wheeling about his +horse and raising his hat. Three other officers, who followed him, +likewise wheeled about and remained, courteously greeting the baron, +before and on both sides of the carriage, while the dragoons trotted +past and closed up behind it. + +'Good evening, colonel!' answered Goertz serenely. 'Whither so late?' + +'To meet your excellency,' said the colonel politely. 'We lost our way +in the driving snow, and have been riding about in a state of +perplexity for two days. We bring with us important news from the +camp.' + +'Whatever it may be,' answered Goertz, 'I bring you from Aland yet +better and more important. But it can all be more conveniently told in +a warm room with a bottle of old wine. I shall stop for the night at +the parsonage of Tanum, and bear with me a good bottle case. Will the +gentlemen be my guests? We will pass a pleasant evening together, and +in the morning I will proceed to Frederickshall under your safeguard.' + +'It will be an honor to myself and officers,' said the colonel. The +other officers bowed silently, and the carriage rolled rapidly onward, +surrounded by its armed escort, towards the solitary parsonage which, +an old dark-gray mass of stone, with tall dark fir trees rustling about +it, offered no very tempting shelter even in that desert region. + +The travellers alighted, and the minister entered one of the lower +rooms of the house. Arwed followed him, prepared for the tragic scene +which was approaching. With impetuous haste, that their victim might +not escape them, the officers pressed in after him, and the last one +closed the door. + +'What means this?' asked Goertz, rising, as he remarked it. + +The colonel then replaced his hat upon his head and drew his sword, +exclaiming in the roughest military tone, 'in the name of the king, +Goertz, I demand of you the surrender of your sword!' + +With surprise and astonishment Goertz started back. At first, unable to +speak, he looked around upon the officers who surrounded him with drawn +swords and insultingly triumphant glances. + +This unknightly conduct excited Arwed; his blood boiled, and forgetful +of the mischief that a powerless opposition must cause, he fixed upon +Goertz his eager, enquiring eyes, in which the question was plainly +asked if he should draw the sword, whose hilt he firmly grasped, for +the deliverance of his friend. But, as with dignified earnestness the +minister motioned him to desist from his intention, he withdrew his +hand, and leaned against a window in silent despair at witnessing the +perpetration of a wrong which he had not power to prevent. + +'In the name of the king?' asked Goertz, after a long pause, unbuckling +his sword; 'that word is a falsehood! From Charles I might expect any +thing rather than the offering up of his truest friend. This destiny is +not decreed by him! Nevertheless I see that I must yield to necessity. +Take my sword! I have long expected something of the kind. It is the +reward for all the service I have rendered to the crown of Sweden!' + +'The right reward yet awaits you at Stockholm!' said colonel Baumgardt +with bitterness. Then turned he to Arwed and roughly asked him, 'how +came you here, captain Gyllenstierna!' + +'From Stockholm,' answered the latter: 'whither I accompanied colonel +Brenner as a courier, and am upon my return to the camp.' + +'And you have deserted your superior officer?' asked Baumgardt in +reply: 'and we find you in the carriage with Goertz. That is +suspicious!' + +'It was but a moment before you met us,' hastily interposed Goertz, +'that the captain first overtook me, bringing me a message from my +daughter. His horse now stands without, tied to mine.' + +Baumgardt walked to the window, as if to ascertain the truth of the +assertion. + +'If you, however, yet think the affair suspicious, colonel,' cried +Arwed, vehemently, 'I propose to you to take me as a prisoner, together +with the minister, to Stockholm. Then will you at least be secured +against the imputation of having acted with too great mildness.' + +'That would be perhaps very agreeable to you,' answered Baumgardt, +scornfully. 'But I am not accustomed to receive directions from +subalterns, and prudence requires that I should pursue a course +directly opposite to that proposed by a suspected person. It is +desirable rather, to ensure your safe return to the camp. Myself, with +lieutenant colonel Bioernskioeld will accompany you there. Adjutant +general Rosenhahn and lieutenant Loewen with their followers will +proceed to Stockholm with the prisoner, and thus each one of us will be +in his right place.' + +Arwed gnashed his teeth at this injurious treatment, but the iron chain +of subordination held the young lion fast bound, and he remained +silent. + +'Forward, Herr von Goertz,' cried the adjutant general, pointing +towards the door. + +'Farewell, my son!' cried Goertz, embracing Arwed affectionately. And, +while embracing, whispered to him, 'I now understand your true +intentions and your real friendship for me. Be certain that you shall +be satisfied with my gratitude if my enemies leave me the power of +proving it.' + +He went forth and stepped into his carriage, upon the box of which one +of the dragoons was seated, and which was now employed to convey its +former owner to a dungeon, Rosenhahn seated himself by the minister's +side. The other officers, together with Arwed, threw themselves upon +their horses,--Lieutenant Loewen made a sign to his dragoons, who +surrounded the carriage with their swords drawn, and the prisoner, with +his escort, galloped quickly towards the south, whilst Arwed, with his +unwelcome companions, rode sadly towards the north. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + +Deserted and empty stood the camp before Frederickshall, as Arwed and +the two other officers rode into it. Baggage-men and other camp +followers swarmed about the barracks, searching for whatever their late +inhabitants might have left behind them worth the finding. The flag of +Denmark waved from the Golden Lion, and some companies in the Danish +hunting dress were leveling the Swedish embankments and closing up the +trenches which it had cost so much time and trouble to open. + +'What is that?' cried Arwed with surprise and displeasure. 'Has our +army been beaten, that they have raised the siege whose successful +termination was so near?' + +'I had expected it,' answered lieutenant Bioernskioeld with a lowering +countenance: 'but not so soon. The army has marched back to Sweden.' + +'How have the times changed!' said Arwed sorrowfully. 'Ninety years +ago, the dead Gustavus Adolphus inspired his army and urged it to +continual contests and glorious victories,--and now it seems that old +Swedish courage and the heroic spirit of her king have flown together, +and that the laurels gained under his guidance are yielded in shameful +flight.' + +'I hope, captain,' said Baumgardt, scornfully, 'that you do not presume +to deride the commands of the fieldmarshal. Presumptuous censure of a +commander, is in the army called mutiny, and according to our articles +of war the punishment therefor is death.' + +'You are now on duty, colonel,' said Arwed, with difficulty suppressing +his anger. 'I shall therefore hold myself prepared to answer your +reproach on a more suitable occasion.' + +Some Danish rifle balls from the trenches at this moment whistling +about their heads, broke off the conversation. The horsemen silently +hastened out of the precincts of the deserted camp, and trotted briskly +towards the east, after the retreating army. + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + +They found the army near the city of Amal, upon lake Dalboe, beyond the +borders of Norway. Baumgardt rode with his companions directly towards +Amal, where the head quarters were established. At the gates they +encountered colonel Brenner. + +'Is it here we again meet, my dear traveling companion?' cried he to +Arwed. 'I am sorry for it.' + +'The soldier is indeed but a mere machine,' answered Arwed, 'who may +not venture to love or regret any thing; yet is our present meeting of +some importance to me, as I need your evidence to clear myself in the +eyes of colonel Baumgardt. He is disposed to consider me a marauder or +something worse, because he encountered me traveling without you on the +road towards Frederickshall.' + +'I gave the captain a furlough,' said Brenner to Baumgardt; 'and the +fieldmarshal is already informed of it.' Baumgardt bowed in silence. + +'Is there now any further hindrance to my taking leave of you?' said +Arwed politely to the colonel. 'As soon as I am relieved from my +present situation I will not fail to wait upon you for some further +explanations.' + +Baumgardt rode onward without deigning a word in reply. + +'Come directly with me to my old friend Duecker,' said Brenner to +Arwed. 'He arrived at head quarters, as I hear, early this morning, and +I have come into the city on purpose to seek him. You must give to him +and me an account of what has happened during your journey.' + +When they arrived at Duecker's quarters they found he was not at home. +Swedenborg was sitting in the room, in his traveling cloak, awaiting +his return; and so busily studying some leaves of parchment full of +signs and figures, that he did not observe the entrance of the new +comers. + +'God greet you, Swedenborg!' said Arwed with sad cordiality, extending +his hand. + +Swedenborg stared steadily at him for a long time, his eye indicating +his entire absence of mind. Finally, a remembrance of Arwed's face +seemed to return to him--he finished the notes he was making upon his +parchments, put them aside, and then for the first time seized the +proffered hand. + +'Thereto art thou chosen, young man,' cried he pathetically with his +hollow spirit-voice: 'always to be present when the weightiest events +are occurring in the army, without being able to do any thing for the +common good. At this moment is to be decided who is to rule over +Sweden, and you can neither aid nor prevent, as it happened to you at +the death of the king.' + +'Is this a question yet to be decided?' asked Brenner. 'I think there +is no longer any doubt that Ulkrika will be queen.' + +'That is not so certain as you may think,' answered Swedenborg. 'The +princess has indeed received the premature homage of the senate, and +lavished rewards upon the generals; but the army has a voice in this +business, and the superior right of the young duke is as clear as the +sun. According to the Nordkioping compact of inheritance, no woman can +become heir to the throne unless she be either unmarried, or married +with the consent of the states to a Lutheran prince. But Ulrika has, +without the consent of the states, married the prince of Hesse, who +professes the Calvinistic faith.' + +'Ulrika will nevertheless purchase the crown by surrendering a portion +of its sovereignty,' retorted Brenner; 'and at this price they will let +her off.' + +'Hardly, if the young duke bids the same,' answered Swedenborg. +'General Duecker is even now with him for the purpose of prompting him +to it. May God give efficacy to his words, for Sweden will have a bad +government under this Ulrika.' + +At this moment old Duecker entered with furious haste, threw his plumed +hat angrily upon the floor, and paced rapidly up and down the room +without perceiving the officers. + +'Nothing accomplished?' asked Swedenborg dejectedly. + +'What can be accomplished,' indignantly replied the general, 'when one +has to do with a boy who is governed by fools? He relies confidently +upon the strength of his party. He will inherit the royal power wholly +unimpaired or not at all. And it is most certain that with his +confidence and indolence he will be compelled to accept the latter +alternative.' + +'The last effort vain!' said Swedenborg, taking his hat. 'God preserve +your excellency! I am going.' + +'Will you also desert me, my dear ally?' asked Duecker despairingly. + +'How can I be further useful in this place?' said Swedenborg. 'The +siege is raised; my knowledge can never more be needed here. I go again +to the examination of the mines. Under the present circumstances this +upper air will no longer exactly agree with me, and I must see whether +that of the mines will not be better for my constitution.' He now +turned to Arwed. 'We shall meet again!' said he with a mysterious +emphasis. + +'Who knows!' answered Arwed, who looked to the future with sad +misgivings. + +'We shall meet again!' cried Swedenborg with greater emphasis; 'It is +revealed to me by a dark, voiceless feeling which is vouchsafed to me +by the Lord rather as a chastisement than as a mercy-gift. We shall +meet again, and if I do not deceive myself, in the heaviest hour of +your life. God give you strength to bear it.' He strode forth. + +'Did you accomplish your object, Gyllenstierna?' Duecker now anxiously +asked. + +'Had I but reached Goertz an hour earlier,' answered Arwed. 'I +witnessed his arrest.' + +'That was the last hope!' cried Duecker, sorrowfully. 'Now is Goertz +lost, as is also Sweden to the duke, beyond remedy!' + +'Hast thou hoped until now?' asked Brenner with astonishment. + +'Of what was not his spirit capable?' retorted Duecker. 'I have just +now learned to know him aright from a letter of his to the king. Had +Goertz saved himself, he had sufficient influence with the czar to have +the occupation of the throne by the duke made the condition of peace. +We can hardly imagine what he could not have accomplished. He was the +man for Charles's gigantic plans; he was the man to save the tottering +kingdom. Now will the sick in their paroxysms call upon the physician +for cure, and who will help them?' + +'Your fears carry you too far, general,' said Arwed. 'The enemies of +Goertz may not be so embittered but that his life may be respected, if +only from a holy fear of the manes of their fallen king.' + +'You are too young to understand your nation thoroughly,' retorted +Duecker. 'The proud senators will never forgive the foreigner for +annihilating the last remains of their power by his bold measures; the +people, who never dared to impeach their adored king, sought in Goertz +the source of his misfortunes. Ulrika hates him, as she hates her +nephew,--she fears his activity in the cause of the latter, and she can +make an agreeable sacrifice to their prejudices by offering him up. He +is a dead man!' + +'Then must you assist in procuring my immediate discharge from the +service, dear general,' said Arwed earnestly. + +'Wherefore?--What has entered your head?' asked Duecker. 'You choose an +unsuitable time. A great number of promotions will be immediately made, +to win the army; your father is a strong supporter of the queen, and +you may perhaps leap the rank of major and obtain a regiment.' + +'I fear on the contrary,' answered Arwed gloomily, 'that I can no +longer honorably remain a Swedish officer. But that is the least. A +being, dearer to me than all others, can now hope for help and +consolation from me alone. I must instantly proceed to Stockholm, even +should I be compelled to desert from the army for that purpose.' + +'There is yet no necessity for that,' said Duecker. 'The guards break +up to-day for Stockholm, and will proceed there in advance of the +remainder of the forces. Therefore do nothing precipitately. If your +wish for a discharge should continue, I will endeavor to obtain its +accomplishment at a proper time. Such a request, just at this time, +would only render you suspected and hated, and would probably be +unsuccessful.' + +'That is the voice of a father,' said Arwed feelingly, 'You best know +what is the most proper course for me, and I willingly hearken to you.' + +At that moment the field music was heard in the distance sounding a +wild alarm, and the thunder of the artillery through the city +accompanied the peal like a powerful bass. + +'What is that?' asked Brenner with surprise. + +'The prince has operated suddenly and powerfully,' answered Duecker; +'more suddenly and energetically to obtain Sweden's crown for his wife, +than to obtain a victory over Sweden's enemies. The army is won, and +Ulrika is queen. That is what the thunder of the cannon denotes.' + + + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + +The guards had marched into Stockholm. Arwed had performed all the +duties of his service, and now flew towards the Blasiusholm to the +house of the post-captain who had freely received and sheltered the +deserted daughters of the unhappy Goertz. The moment he mentioned his +name he was shown into Georgina's room. With a pale face and wasted +frame she came forward to meet him. Ardently would he have folded her +in his arms, but she held back and merely presented to him her thin +white hand, whose icy coldness filled him with alarm. + +'Thou hast not saved my father?' asked she with a trembling voice. + +'By my honor!' cried Arwed, grieved at the silent reproach conveyed by +the question; 'I did every thing in my power, but hard fate was +stronger than my honest endeavors.' + +'I must believe it,' answered Georgina, 'and thank you for your good +intentions. If you are yet willing to make further efforts in my +behalf, procure for me through your influence an interview with my +father. They have hitherto rejected all my petitions with inhuman +severity.' + +'Whatever lies in my power I will essay for the accomplishment of your +wish,' replied Arwed with much agitation. + +'Leave me then for the present,' said Georgina. 'Go and make the effort +and bring me word that they will extend towards my father a privilege +which even robbers and murderers would not be denied.' + +'Do you drive me from you so soon, Greorgina?' asked Arwed mournfully. +'Is this the welcome of a beloved and loving betrothed?' + +'Betrothed?' sighed Georgina with a melancholy smile. 'Ah, dear Arwed! +that is a subject upon which we must speak no more. The daughter of the +man whom Sweden accuses of high treason, can never give her hand in +marriage to a Swede.' + +'Thinkest thou so meanly of me?' cried Arwed, with great earnestness. +'But no, you do not really think so. You only pretend indignation to +conceal your want of affection. From the youth whom you once deemed +worthy of your love, you must at least expect that your present +misfortunes will bind him to you with still stronger chains.' + +A faint blush flitted over Georgina's pale cheeks, and her eyes +glistened. She hastily approached Arwed and laid her hand upon his +breast. 'I know,' said she proudly, 'that whatever love and honor may +demand of a Gyllenstierna, you will obey their voice in every +circumstance of life. But a noble German maiden dares not forget what +concerns her own honor,--and this commands me to refuse you my hand so +long as your own countrymen can with propriety pronounce your union +with me a misalliance.' + +'You no longer love me!' complained Arwed. + +Georgina gave him a glance in which shone all the glow of her first +love, and, unconsciously, her eyes filled with tears. At last the +all-powerful passion conquered. She threw her arms about his neck and +pressed him to her bosom. 'Go, and strive!' sobbed she, retreating into +a side cabinet. + +Arwed wished to follow her, but hearing her draw the bolt on the inner +side, he departed, bitterly afflicted with a confused throng of +contending feelings. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + +While the new royal counsellor, Nils count Gyllenstierna was sitting, +as two months before, employed at his writing table, Arwed timidly +entered the room. + +'Aha!' said he satirically, 'the brave captain has at last the +goodness, after my repeated requests, to grant me an interview. I beg +you will take a seat upon the sofa, and I will be at your service +directly.' + +Arwed, however, remained standing with a sad and resigned countenance, +as he had determined to submit patiently to the censures of his +passionate father, whose political ambition had now attained its utmost +gratification. + +The old counsellor continued writing for a short time, and then, +signing his name with an energetic stroke of the pen, he arose and +stepped immediately in front of his son, with folded arms and an angry +countenance. + +'Where shall I begin with my reproaches!' blustered he at length. 'You +have committed so many excesses in so short a time, that it is +difficult for me to select, and I can only fix my mind upon the +result--that you are a ruined, yes, in the strictest sense, a _lost +son_, with whom I am destined to have much trouble and sorrow.' + +'That I went to the king's army against your will...?' commenced Arwed, +pleadingly. + +'That is the least!' proceeded the father, interrupting him. 'You have +proceeded so far in your evil way, that even so shameless an act of +disobedience has become a mere trifle, unworthy of consideration in +comparison with your ulterior conduct. Besides, you may find some +excuse for that act, in what has recently happened. According to +despatches this day received, Armfelt's corps has been miserably frozen +up in the ice mountains on its retreat towards Jemtland, and although +you have caused me much sorrow, I am yet glad that your obstinacy has +this time saved you from an inglorious death.' + +'Thanks to thee, true warner,' said Arwed tremblingly to himself;--then +addressing his father: 'if that be not the cause of your anger, may I +beg of you to name my other transgressions. From your justice I have a +right to hope that I shall be allowed to exculpate myself.' + +'Bold and insolent as usual!' grumbled the old man. '_Quasi re bene +gesta_ comes he before me, while he thinks I am not acquainted with his +conduct. Who joined himself to the deputation which endeavored to have +the duke of Holstein proclaimed in the camp as king of Sweden? Who +obtruded himself as a companion upon colonel Brenner, that he might +insult the queen and warn Goertz of his well-deserved fate? Who +threatened colonel Baumgardt with a challenge for doing his duty? Who +has been this very day to visit the daughter of the arch-traitor, for +whom the scaffold is already preparing?' + +'You are very accurately informed, my father,' answered Arwed. 'I am +too proud to deny what I have done, nor do I believe it deserves your +anger. The king, when he appointed me a captain in the royal service, +thereby rendered me independent of parental authority, and thenceforth +free to follow the dictates of my own judgment. You yourself must +concede, that the right was doubtful between the princess and the duke. +I, however, am firmly convinced that it is entirely on the side of the +latter, and have acted accordingly. I wished to save Goertz, because I +believed him innocent. His crime is, that the king, so little in the +habit of receiving advice from others, honored him with his exclusive +confidence; that he is a foreigner, and the capable and dreaded servant +of a young prince who is a candidate for a crown which you think he +ought not to have.' + +'You believe all this, because you love his daughter!' remarked the +father. + +'Colonel Baumgardt,' proceeded Arwed, 'has injured me personally, and +we shall settle that matter as is usual among men of honor, as soon as +my cares for Georgina may leave me time.' + +'Arwed!' cried the father, 'do you then really entertain a hope that I +will give my consent to this foolish connection?' + +'Do as you think proper, my father,' answered Arwed. 'My resolution is +taken, whatever may betide. Nor could you yourself approve my conduct +if, now that the storm is breaking over her innocent head, I should +desert the maiden whose heart I won when the sun of prosperity shone +brightly upon her.' + +'The queen will forbid the union,' said the old man. + +'And were it the bold Margaret herself,' cried Arwed with passionate +warmth, 'who united upon her own head the three northern crowns, and +held them there with a strong hand, she would not dare attempt to +regulate the impulses of our hearts! How much less, then, this poor +Ulrika, whose only crown, to which she has no right, was shamefully +bought with the costliest jewel of royalty, the sovereignty.' + +'You are deep in constitutional principles,' said the counsellor +peevishly--but his strong displeasure was already melted into secret +satisfaction with the talent and spirit of his son. He appeared, +standing there before him with his flashing blue eyes, his scarred +cheek and noble bearing, as if he were about to plant again the Swedish +standard upon a stormed wall. 'Upon honor!' at length exclaimed the old +man, 'if you had not conducted yourself so bravely before +Frederickshall, I would reckon with you in another fashion. But the +deed of arms which Charles the XIIth rewarded with an embrace, must be +considered as truly heroic--and to a hero much must be forgiven. To +that, we Swedes have long been accustomed.' + +'Nor was that embrace the best of the king's favors,' said Arwed +eagerly. 'For beating back a sally of the Danes, I had his word for my +marriage with Greorgina. And surely you would not have resisted the +request of Charles.' + +'Yes,' answered his father, turning away from him; 'and now all that +has been changed forever by one bullet! I pity you, poor youth, but +your case cannot be helped!' + +'I do not yet give up every hope,' said Arwed. 'They dare not murder +Goertz without a trial, and if they will but give him a fair one he +must be acquitted.' + +'Do you think so?' murmured the old man; 'so do not we think here in +Stockholm, and all Sweden cries out guilty against him.' + +'The voice of the people is not always the voice of God,' said Arwed. +'I still trust in holy justice. But I have a favor to ask of you, my +father. The baron's daughter wishes to see her father. Give me the +necessary permission.' + +'That is not to be thought of for the present,' answered the father. +'Perhaps it may be obtained a little later, after the sentence has been +pronounced. Besides I am not the person who has power to grant it. Upon +such a request the president of the special commission, landmarshal +Ribbing, must decide.' + +'Alas, that heart of stone!' cried Arwed. 'Give me at least a letter of +introduction to him, that he may do from favor what is only a duty.' + +'I can have nothing to do with the affair,' said the father angrily. +'You presume upon my forbearance.' + +He pointed towards the door. Arwed wished to speak to him yet once +again, but the counsellor, turning his back upon him, walked to his +writing-table and the son in sadness departed. + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + +Every effort to move, to win, to alarm, which the eloquence of the soul +could inspire, had Arwed lavished upon landmarshal Ribbing. But +powerless as the waves against the rocks, were his words with the +immovable man; and, with anger at the refusal rankling at his heart, +the young man now stood in the high arched basement story of the +council house upon the Suedermalm, where Goertz was held in +confinement, seeking, with his open purse in his hand, and not without +secret reluctance, to try the effect of gross corruption upon the +gaoler. + +But the gaoler shook his head suspiciously. 'God knows,' said he, +clinking the keys attached to his waist-belt, 'God knows how willingly +I would take your gold. But one must have discretion, captain, and use +the little judgment God has given him. Your purse would be very useful +to me, but my head is still more so, and it is that which I should +peril. Therefore have the goodness to retire, that I may not suffer +inconvenience from being seen talking to you here.' With this he opened +a little wicket by the side of the great gate, and pointing the way +out, made at the same time a very low bow. + +Arwed angrily complied with the hard necessity, and, as he now +considered the rejected purse as unworthy of being returned to his +pocket, he threw it to an invalid soldier who limped past him on his +crutches, and was on the point of hastening away. + +'Take me with you, count Gyllenstierna!' cried a low, melodious voice, +behind him. He turned around, and saw a man of about forty years of +age, with an intelligent, bold and honest face, in a clerical dress, +who had followed him out of the house. + +'Do you know me, reverend sir?' asked Arwed with surprise. + +'Only from the conversations of the unfortunate man to whom you just +now wished to purchase admission,' answered the clergyman, proceeding +with him towards the city. 'But your whole manner and bearing told me +that you must be captain Gyllenstierna, and there is no one to whom I +could better appeal than you. I am preacher to the German community in +this place. Baron von Goertz has requested my spiritual assistance, +which I have truly rendered to him with both joy and sorrow. But the +undeserved fate of my unhappy countryman has so affected me that I am +determined to do something more for him. His immortal soul is well +prepared by a blameless life, and by a true and genuine faith which I +have perceived in him. I would also gladly save his mortal body, that +the intelligent and well disposed man may be enabled yet further to +labor for the benefit of this country, or for some other, if Sweden is +unwise enough to repudiate him.' + +'Worthy servant of God!' exclaimed Arwed, with a sudden pressure of his +hand. + +'First of all,' proceeded the preacher, 'I will make an effort with the +queen. I have been to the palace three times already. Her majesty, +however, was never to be spoken with, which I attribute to the numerous +enemies which Goertz has made amongst the courtiers.' + +'You might as well attribute it to the ill will of the queen herself,' +said Arwed. + +'So much the better!' cried the preacher. 'That would be a good sign +for me. Then does she shun the truth, which she would hear from me; and +if I can only succeed in obtaining an audience, I augur the happiest +consequences. You are well acquainted at the palace, count. Procure me +an audience of the queen, and the rest shall be my care. She is, at any +rate, a woman, and must have a compassionate heart.' + +'You have chosen a bad protector, sir pastor,' said Arwed, with a sad +smile. 'But I will procure for you an audience with the queen, if I +have to open a path to her with my sword.' + +While they were thus conversing they had passed the bridge connecting +the Suedermalm with the city, the streets of which they threaded until +they approached the Ritterholm. + +'Announce us to the queen,' begged Arwed of the valet-de-chambre whom +they found before the door of the queen's apartments, flipping some +pieces of gold into his hands. 'The count Gyllenstierna and pastor +Conradi beg that she will graciously grant them a short audience upon a +most pressing concern.' + +'I will do my best,' said the valet-de-chambre in the most friendly +manner, going in. + +After a short time he returned. 'It was all succeeding well,' said he, +'but the name of the black coat spoiled all. By that was the attention +of her majesty arrested, and she then asked whether it was the younger +or elder Gyllenstierna who had requested to be announced. She cannot +see you now, and the gentlemen may hand in their request in writing, by +the chamberlain in waiting.' + +'Perdition!' cried Arwed, indignant at his own helplessness. + +'This amounts to a refusal,' stammered Conradi. 'When the great of the +earth demand that a petitioner shall put the all-powerful words of his +mouth into cold, dead characters upon paper, and hamper the strength of +his good cause by a submission to prescribed formulas, it is because +they are determined not to grant his request, and wish to avoid +pronouncing with their lips the refusal of which in their hearts they +are ashamed.' Meanwhile it had become night, and the servants lighted +the lamps in the ante-chamber. + +A high officer entered the ante-room for the purpose of passing through +it into the audience chamber. + +'Who is this gentleman?' whispered Conradi to the valet-de-chambre. + +'Lieutenant general Rank,' answered the latter. + +'Goertz has named him to me as his last friend,' said Conradi to Arwed; +'perhaps he can do something for us.' + +'Have the goodness to grant us a word, general,' said Arwed hastily to +him.--He turned and approached them. + +'We are here,' said Arwed in a moving tone, 'to present a petition in +favor of baron Goertz. The queen has refused us an audience. You are +going directly to her majesty, and therefore we beg of you to endeavor, +if possible, to obtain for us a hearing. We are indeed unknown to you, +but your own heart will be our advocate.' + +'To whom is the brave Gyllenstierna unknown,' said Rank in the kindest +manner; 'neither is this worthy pastor a stranger to me. What little +influence I may have, I will willingly exert for you; but I know the +queen, and doubt a favorable result.' + +He went in. The two confederates stood waiting in the ante-room until +he returned. 'The queen,' said he, 'will pass through here when she +repairs to the grand hall, and will hear you as she passes. Speak +submissively and briefly, and may God guide your tongues.' + +The folding doors flew open. Two bedizened pages lighted the way with +torches. Between two richly embroidered and highly scented +chamberlains, rustled forth the proud Ulrika, oppressed by a heavy +silken and gold-embroidered hoop petticoat, with clouds of lace about +her bosom, and her arms, hands, breast and ears overloaded with jewels, +and above her high, frizzed curls glistened the little crown of +brilliants. Pages bore her long train, and her maids of honor followed. +The queen looked displeasedly towards the unwelcome petitioners. +Conradi approached, fell upon one knee, pressed the hem of her robe to +his lips, and then with a soft and winning dignity of manner said, 'I +beg a hearing of your majesty upon a question of mercy.' + +'Stand up and speak,' answered Ulrika, stopping, and causing her train +of attendants to halt. + +'Your majesty,' said Conradi, without changing his position, 'has +inherited the crown of Sweden from your deceased royal brother....' + +'Inherited! quite right!' interposed Ulrika quickly: 'and it is +unaccountable to us,' she proceeded, looking at her companions, +'that doubt upon that subject can yet be entertained in any quarter.' + +'It is not to be doubted,' said the pastor, astonished at this +unexpected episode, 'that your majesty heartily honors the memory of +our late glorious king, as you were so nearly connected with him by the +ties of blood. Nevertheless, his truest servant, the man upon whom he +bestowed unlimited confidence, now languishes in undeserved chains. A +criminal court is now sitting upon him, and all, who are convinced of +his innocence, shudder at the possibility: that Sweden may be guilty of +shedding that noble blood.' + +'The number of them will not be great,' said Ulrika, coolly. 'Have you +any thing further to say to us?' + +'I beg of your majesty mercy for unhappy Goertz,' said Conradi with +increasing warmth. 'I appeal to the softer feelings of your sex, to the +magnanimity of the princess, to the forgiving spirit of the christian. +By the God in whom we all believe, Goertz is innocent. And if he has +done any thing wrong, and so brought any misfortune upon Sweden, which +I do not know, he has but acted in obedience to his lord, like a true +vassal, and that lord was entitled to the unreserved obedience of all, +whilst he reigned over this land as an absolute sovereign.' + +'Sweden will have cause to remember that unlimited sovereignty for some +generations,' remarked Ulrika, glancing at the splendid watch hanging +at her girdle. 'Please to come to an end.' + +'I have nothing more to add,' said the preacher dejectedly, 'except to +implore your majesty to signalize the commencement of your reign by an +act of mercy, rather than by the shedding of blood.' + +'Mercy for Goertz!' cried Arwed, throwing himself at the queen's feet, +and pressing her once scorned hand passionately to his lips. + +Ulrika, surprised by the sudden movement, withdrew her hand with a look +of pride and scorn, and motioned him to rise. Without deigning to +answer him, she turned again to the still kneeling preacher. 'My good +man,' said she, with cold friendliness, 'I would willingly forgive the +baron for all the evil he has done to me. The queen has no memory for +injuries suffered by the princess. But the decision lies not with me. +Next to God, have I from my true states received the crown, and without +their voice I neither can nor will decide upon crimes against the +nation, of which Goertz is accused.' She made a sign to her attendants, +and moved proudly forward. + +'All in vain!' cried Conradi, rising. 'And this affected mildness, +beneath which the queen conceals her implacable hatred, is to me more +frightful than if she had poured forth her anger in passionate words. +Here is a coolly devised plan to destroy an innocent man, against which +even the eloquence of the apostle Paul himself would fail to succeed. +Let us go.' + +Sadly they turned towards the door. Fieldmarshal, the prince of Hesse, +entering at that moment, met them. + +'Is my wife yet here?' asked he of lieutenant general Rank. 'I come to +lead her to the court.' + +'She has just gone,' answered Rank. 'Her majesty was pleased to grant +an audience here before she went.' + +The prince looked at both of the supplicants. 'Captain Gyllenstierna!' +said he, playfully, 'what affair could bring you to the ante-chamber, +which is certainly a ground upon which you have not yet learned to +man[oe]uvre?' + +'So our ill-success has proved,' answered Arwed, with suppressed rage. +'We have been vainly pleading for the life of the unhappy Goertz.' + +'For Goertz's life?' asked the prince with an appearance of interest. +'I can guess what prompts you to the effort, and pity you from the +bottom of my heart. It is a very bad case.' + +'If your royal highness will graciously condescend to interest +yourself, we shall have new grounds for hope, and all may yet end +well,' said Conradi. + +'Trouble not his royal highness with your intercessions, Conradi,' said +Arwed bitterly. 'Upon his high command was the baron arrested; +consequently he has already decided upon his guilt, and mercy here is +not to be thought of.' + +'You deceive yourself, captain,' said the prince, mildly correcting the +excited youth. 'I hate not the unfortunate man. Powerless he must +become, and powerless he must remain, but his death would be contrary +to my wish and my advice. If his sentence depended upon me, I would +banish him from the country, and so settle all.' + +'Ah, if your royal highness will exert your influence in favor of a +mild sentence,' cried Conradi in raptures, 'God will be your rich +rewarder.' + +'My dear pastor,' answered the prince graciously, 'this case will +probably be decided by the diet. The power of my wife is circumscribed, +and I am only her first subject.' + +'Yet,' interposed Arwed, 'the delightful privilege remains to your +royal highness of alleviating the last hours of the unhappy man whom +you cannot save. His daughter wishes to be permitted to speak to him. I +wish to conduct her there, but the president of the special commission +is inexorable.' + +'That is hard!' said the prince. 'A criminal is still a man. Go +directly to Ribbing, my dear Rank, and say to him that it is my wish.' + +'God bless your royal highness for the deed!' cried the preacher. + +'But that no trouble may arise from this exercise of my kind feelings,' +proceeded the prince, 'I require your word of honor, and your knightly +hand, Gyllenstierna, that this permission shall in no way be abused.' + +Arwed started. The thought, how advantage might be taken of such a +permission, now for the first time arose in his honest soul. + +His hand shrunk as if he would have drawn it back; but the prince +extended his, and Arwed finally took it. + +'Adieu,' said the prince, dismissing them in the most friendly manner, +and the two petitioners left the palace. + + + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + +'What is now to be done to advance the main object?' asked Conradi of +the sullenly silent Arwed. 'I think we had better send a pressing +petition to the diet, although I should hope nothing from it. They will +leave every thing to the special commission,--and from the people, who +are congratulating each other and rejoicing that they have become +coadjutors in this business, we have nothing to expect.' + +'Have they done that?' asked Arwed eagerly. + +'Yes,' answered Conradi. 'Some among them have presumed openly to say, +if Goertz does not lose his head this time, we shall lose ours.' + +'Miserable spirit of party!' cried Arwed; 'under whose shield the judge +may venture unpunished to throw his own hatred into the scale against +the accused.' + +For a while they walked on silently together. All at once Arwed +stopped. 'God has given me a thought!' said he. 'The young duke arrived +here yesterday. Goertz has never ceased to be his servant. He was only +_loaned_ to Sweden, and the duke must interfere in his favor. The +officer of a foreign sovereign cannot be judged here.' + +'It is undeniable,' said Conradi thoughtfully, 'that the duke has the +right and it is also his duty to interfere. The question is, however, +has he the will? This prince still flatters himself that he has yet a +chance of ascending the Swedish throne, and will not, therefore, be +willing to lessen his influence with the diet.' + +'The attempt must be made,' cried Arwed resolutely. 'I will hasten to +him. Have the goodness to send information to the baroness Goertz upon +the Blasiusholm, that she will, as I hope, be permitted to visit her +father; and, God willing, we will meet in the morning at the Suedermalm +council house.' + +They shook hands and separated, Arwed flew to the palace of the duke of +Holstein Gottorp. He was immediately announced and admitted. With an +irresolute face, wherein hope and fear alternately prevailed, came the +young prince to meet him, asking in an effeminate tone, 'what is your +pleasure?' + +'One of the officers,' answered Arwed, 'who, in the camp before +Frederickshall, was anxious to have your grace proclaimed king of +Sweden, ventures to bring the name of the unhappy Goertz to your +remembrance.' + +'I do not wish to hear any thing of this man,' said the duke, looking +timidly about him. 'My interference in the case might be misconstrued +by the Swedes, and it behoves me at this moment to avoid every thing +which might occasion a misunderstanding.' + +'Goertz is without aid and in prison,' proceeded Arwed, with manly +earnestness, 'because they fear his ability, his activity and his +devotion to your grace. Through this imprisonment of your servant, your +sovereign rights are infringed. His life is in danger. To save it, it +is only necessary for your grace to claim him of the Swedish government +with princely energy. However great the animosity against him, party +rage cannot withstand your demand, without violating the law of +nations. They must deliver the unhappy man to you, and you will have +the satisfaction of gratifying the feelings of your heart by this +exercise of your rightful power, and of preserving for yourself an able +supporter.' + +'You would have spared yourself this long exposition, captain,' said +the duke, with an unmeaning smile, 'had you known that Goertz has +ceased to be my servant.' + +An indignant 'ah!' escaped from the youth, and the duke proceeded.--'A +man whom the whole Swedish nation as with one voice accuses, could not +remain in my service. He has been dismissed from the offices which he +held under me. And, being wholly surrendered, the laws of the country +which he has offended must decide his fate.' + +'I understand!' exclaimed Arwed with great excitement.--'Your grace +hopes to win the love of Sweden by the desertion of your truest friend, +and by publicly offering him up to gratify her vengeance. But if I may +venture to judge of my native country, this sad expedient will entirely +fail. It will only cause you to be hated. And your ingratitude will +again with ingratitude be rewarded.' + +Overwhelmed with despair at the wreck of this last hope, he rushed into +the street. + + + + + CHAPTER XX. + + +At the council house upon the Suedermalm, in the arched and grated room +occupied by Goertz, the pale Georgina sat waiting, her weary head +resting upon Arwed's shoulder. With a melancholy glance the youth +surveyed the mean table and wooden stool which composed all the +furniture in the dwelling-place of the once all-powerful prime +minister. At length a confused noise was heard without, and from the +midst of the crowd of soldiers by whom he was surrounded, the worthy +Goertz entered the room. He was accompanied by lieutenant general Rank +and the pastor Conradi, A clerk of the court followed, who remained +upon the threshold with a timepiece in his hand, while the gaoler +bolted the door behind him on the outside. + +Georgina rushed with a loud scream to meet her father, pressing his +chained hand to her lips. + +'Behold, my Georgina,' said the old man encouragingly, 'a joyful moment +after so many sad days! God disposes all things for the best. But you +must not weep, my daughter. Your tears move me powerfully, and I have +need of repose. I am harassed in mind as well as in body. Standing up +through a six hours' examination has much weakened me.' + +'How!' asked Arwed indignantly, 'did they not allow you to be seated?' + +'I requested it,' answered Goertz, sinking down upon his wooden stool, +'but the lords were of opinion that they could not allow a man like me +to sit in their presence. The words were yet harder than the refusal +itself. But let that pass. What is your sister about, Georgina? She is +well? Why did you not bring her with you?' + +'The permission was only allowed to myself and Arwed,' said Georgina. +'They would not allow the child to come in, and I was compelled to send +her back from the door.' + +'They are very strict with me in every respect,' said Goertz, 'whilst +they permit themselves every latitude to my disadvantage. This day's +examination furnishes sufficient proof of this.' + +'I must hope, my old friend,' said Rank much moved, 'that the +commission will allow you every legal and proper indulgence.' + +'A copy of the accusation has never once been laid before me,' answered +Goertz. 'I begged that my process might not be overhastened. I begged +also for permission to make a written defence. Both were denied me. I +begged to be allowed the assistance of professional counsel. This legal +aid also, which every murderer enjoys, was withheld from me.' + +'Unheard of!' cried Rank indignantly. 'The queen cannot refuse these +requests consistently with her own honor. I will speak to her about +it.' + +'My good Rank,' said Goertz, extending his hand to him with a smile of +gratitude, 'put not yourself to any inconvenience on my account. I am +not to be saved. When the blood of my king flowed, the same moment was +my sentence pronounced. Sweden thirsts for my blood, and it must be +drunken. This conviction has its benefits. It raises me above delusive +hopes, and confers upon me the quiet repose of resignation.' + +'My dear father!' sobbed Georgina, who had sunk down before him, with +her head resting upon his knees. + +'My good child!' said Goertz, lifting up her face and looking at her +with an expression of unutterable tenderness. 'Thou hast thy mother's +eyes,' added he, laying his hand softly upon her cheek. 'I must take a +long look that every lineament may remain in my memory. For this +enjoyment may never again be allowed to me.' + +'This is the only interview which I could prevail upon the inexorable +Ribbing to grant,' said Rank sadly. 'They will not, however, refuse you +a farewell conversation with your daughters after the trial.' + +Goertz kissed the tears from his daughter's eyes. But his parental +feelings became too strong for him. 'Leave me!' said he springing up: +'this trial is too great for me!' and he walked up and down the room +with hasty strides. + +'One satisfaction,' resumed he suddenly, as if wishing to divert his +thoughts to other objects by the observation: 'one satisfaction have I +yet had in those hours when every one seemed to aim at my utter +prostration. Fehmann, my accuser, read, as a proof that I had +calumniated his subjects to the king, a letter, in which I had +complained to Charles of the neglect of his duty by a governor of a +province, and recommended his dismission. When he had read thus far he +laid the letter aside. I requested that the remainder might be read; +the commission decided in my favor, and Fehmann was now compelled to +read a description of himself as an able and faithful man whom I +recommended to the king for the place.' + +'And did not the wretch throw himself at your feet overwhelmed with +shame and contrition?' cried Arwed in a rage. + +'My good captain,' answered Goertz, 'the minds of the people who pursue +me are so perfectly settled, that they are incapable of such emotions.' + +'Can I then do nothing, nothing at all, for you?' sobbed Georgina. 'I +will go with Magdalena to all your judges, clasp their knees and +entreat for mercy; the prayers and tears of innocent children, whom +they are about to make orphans, will, perhaps, move their flinty, +hearts.' + +'I forbid your doing that!' answered Goertz with decision. 'What you +could ask for me has already been attempted by true friends, and +attempted in vain.' + +At this moment the court scribe held out the watch in his hand, and +cried, 'the time has expired!' + +'My God! the time has expired!' shrieked Georgina: 'and I had so many +things to say, and so many questions to ask you, my father, but your +sufferings have put them all out of my head. Have you nothing to charge +me with?' + +'The crown of Sweden,' answered Goertz with a melancholy smile, 'has +relieved me of the care of my earthly possessions. My palace is +plundered, my funds and papers are all seized, and will probably be +confiscated for the benefit of the royal treasury. What it may be +necessary for you to know, in relation to these affairs you will find +in my testament, which I hope to be able to finish in the course of the +next few days.' + +'And have you nothing else to say?' cried she, weeping upon his neck. + +'We shall meet once more before my last hour,' answered Goertz with a +failing voice. 'Leave me now, my dear daughter.' He gently disengaged +himself from her arms and walked to the grated window, concealing his +face in his handkerchief. + +'Father!' shrieked Georgina with desperation, and, springing after him, +again clasped him in her arms. + +'Really, two minutes have already elapsed beyond the time, your +excellency,' said the clerk importunately, holding up his watch to +lieutenant general Rank. 'I shall be made answerable for any further +delay.' + +'Take her hence!' cried Goertz, placing Georgina in Arwed's arms. +'Obey, my daughter!'--and Arwed bore the fainting sufferer out. + + + + + CHAPTER XXI. + + +The diet of Sweden had assembled at the capital. To the house of +assembly hastened the Swedish lords, counts and barons, the knights, +the lower nobility, and the good men of the kingdom, to deliberate upon +her welfare in the _pleno plenorum_. Arwed rode gloomily through the +files of carriages and masses of people who filled the Ritter square in +crowds. His way led him past the statue of the great Gustavus Vasa, +which adorned the place. 'Oh that thou wert now alive, noble hero!' +sighed he, as he came in view of it. 'Then, truly, the despotism of +vassals would not dare to deck itself with the robes of righteousness!' +As if desirous of fleeing from the grief which preyed upon him, he gave +the spur to his horse, and hastily passed the bridge which connects +Holy-Ghost island and the city with the Norrmalm, and followed the +south bank towards Blasiusholm, the refuge of Georgina. At the door he +met the preacher Conradi, in whose countenance he observed with +surprise an expression of hope and serenity, mingled with some degree +of excitement. They entered the room of the young sufferer together. + +'Sister is praying in her chamber,' whispered the little Magdalena to +them. 'We must not disturb her.' + +'May God hear the prayer of the pious maiden,' said Conradi. 'Since +yesterday a small gleam of hope has arisen.' + +'Hope?' asked Arwed. 'You have seen the cold, inimical, hypocritical +face of the queen, and dream you yet of hope?' + +'If Ulrika remain queen,' answered Conradi, 'then indeed is Goertz +lost; but she has received as yet but the allegiance of the senate and +army, and not that of the country. Before she obtains the latter many +things may happen. I spoke yesterday with the counsellor count Tessin, +who is most favorably disposed towards our poor friend. The queen has +committed a great political error. She has, in convoking the members of +the diet, styled herself hereditary queen. This has injured her cause. +The senate has been severely reproached on account of the readiness +with which it acknowledged her hereditary right. They have also sought +to awaken dissatisfaction among the people; and in the last sitting of +the senate, the president, count Horn, did not hesitate to desire of +the queen that she should surrender the conferring of the royal dignity +to the decision of the diet. That only would insure her the crown, +which she else may lose.' + +'Elected or hereditary queen! is it not all one?' asked Arwed. + +'Not for the diet,' answered Conradi; 'and as little for the queen. The +hereditary king is indebted only to God and his forefathers; the +elected king is the creature of the electors, and must be dependent +upon them.' + +'And if Ulrika should now stand upon her hereditary right?' asked Arwed +further. + +'Then,' answered Conradi, 'she would by this exercise of arbitrary +power, provoke the diet to inquire into the hereditary right of the +duke of Holstein, which would perhaps stand the scrutiny much better +than her's.' + +'That would little help the good cause!' replied Arwed. 'What can be +expected of a prince who is capable of giving up his faithful minister +to the rage of his enemies?' + +'Or the throne would be declared vacant,' proceeded Conradi, 'and a +regent of the empire seated upon it. To that end are many Swedish lords +laboring, as I am well informed from good sources. At all events let +there be a change in the government, and there may be also a change of +feeling in relation to Goertz, to his advantage.' + +'I doubt that,' observed Arwed. 'Though the contending parties may +oppose each other ever so bitterly on other subjects, all unite in +their hatred of the foreigner. He is the common enemy against whom they +all, as one man, array themselves.' + +'You shall not thus frivolously deprive me of my best joy,' said +Conradi, struck by the weight of his objection. + +'All your suppositions,' continued Arwed, 'are founded upon the +hypothesis that the queen will persevere in maintaining her hereditary +right. But she will not persevere. As soon as it clearly appears to her +that she can purchase the crown only at this price, she will become an +elective queen, or charity queen, or whatever else it may please the +diet to name her.' + +'Do you think so?' asked Conradi with alarm. + +'Has she not already yielded the sovereignty?' asked Arwed. 'She who +can lend herself to become a state puppet, to be decked out with crown +and sceptre on festival days, that the people may imagine they have a +queen, will, not be obstinate upon minor points. Let her but retain the +title of queen, and that will be enough for a vain-glorious woman.' + +'Destroy not so cruelly my last air-built castle, Arwed!' said +Georgina, stepping out of her chamber, her eyes red with weeping. 'I +have enjoyed to-day the first cheerful moment for months, through the +intelligence brought me by the good Conradi, and your contradiction of +it cuts me to the heart.' + +'Do not lose courage yet, baroness!' said Conradi, consolingly. +'Notwithstanding the captain despairs of every thing, the anchor of my +hopes still holds fast in this tempest. Let the _plenum plenorum_ be +only once held, and then will Gyllenstierna hold another language.' + +'Then may we very soon expect their decision,' said Arwed. 'The _plenum +plenorum_ is already organized. May its deliberations result +differently from my anticipations!' + +'Organized to-day?' asked Conradi with great astonishment. 'I thought +that to-day would be occupied in examining credentials and establishing +forms of procedure.' + +'That had been previously done,' answered Arwed. 'I know for a +certainty, by means of my father's secretary, that the full action of +the diet commences to-day.' + +'Then count Tessin has not dealt fairly with me,' murmured Conradi, +shaking his head. 'Probably he wished to lull me to sleep and find out +what further means might be at my command. That is not cavalier-like. +When the lion creeps and watches like the cat, it becomes only a common +animal.' + +A long pause ensued, during which each one was occupied with his own +thoughts. Georgina leaned her head upon the back of her chair, whilst +her breast labored with the anguish of fearful expectation. Arwed stood +there with his arms folded, casting glances of love and compassion upon +the maiden. The little Magdalena, unaware of the importance of the +moment, was innocently playing with his sword knot; while Conradi had +stepped to the window, and was listening attentively to every sound +from without. + +'Did you not hear something like the sound of a distant bell?' he asked +Arwed. The latter hastened anxiously to the window, and listened to the +faint sounds. Directly more distinct tones fell upon his ear. + +'Those are the bells of Jacob's church!' cried Georgina, springing up. +'What means this general ringing of the bells at so unusual an hour?' + +'Something of importance either for good or evil,' said Conradi. 'I +think the diet must have decided, and these bells are to celebrate +their choice.' + +'Arwed!' sighed Georgina, stretching out her hands imploringly towards +the youth. + +'I will go into the city and procure intelligence,' said he, seizing +his hat. 'God grant that I may bring you back good news.' + +He hastened out, threw himself upon his horse, and coursed back to the +city. From every tower rung out the merry peal of the bells, and in all +the streets through which he rode, floated joyous multitudes of people. +In the great square they were crowded head to head, and ten thousand +hands pointed towards the capitol. 'The hour of decision has arrived,' +said Arwed to himself. Leaping from his horse, and throwing the bridle +reins to his servant, he pushed his way through the crowd to the portal +of the building. + +There stood the pompous equipage of the duke of Holstein. The duke sat +therein, viewing the windows of the hall of assembly with a countenance +expressive of sorrow and offended pride. An elderly gentleman in the +uniform of a Holstein general, and with a pensive air, stepped out of +the door of the capitol.' + +'Now, Bauer?' cried the duke to him impatiently, throwing open the door +of the carriage. + +'All in vain, your grace!' said Bauer, stepping into the carriage. 'I +did not even obtain an opportunity to read your protest to the end.' + +'Sweden, Sweden, to whom I have offered up every thing,' growled the +duke, 'is this your gratitude!' Hastily catching hold of the general, +he drew him into the carriage and shut the door, crying, 'forward!' The +carriage soon rattled out of Arwed's view. + +Trumpets now sounded from the balcony of the capitol, attracting +Arwed's attention to the place. The president of the senate, count +Horn, accompanied by many of the senators, stepped out upon the +balcony. 'Silence!' cried he to the crowd below, waving his hand. +'Silence!' cried the people in return, and all was still. + +'Free Swedes!' cried the orator, 'the royal council and the assembled +diet of this kingdom, by virtue of the elective right vested in them, +in consequence of the throne having become vacant without immediate +heirs, have elected to be queen of the Swedes and Goths the full sister +of our immortal lord, her royal highness and princely grace the +landgravine Ulrika Eleonora of Hesse. This gracious princess having +solemnly renounced the sovereignty, so named, or unlimited sovereign +power, we hereby declare the said unlimited power to be forever +alienated from the throne, and will hold as an enemy to the kingdom +whoever may hereafter, by secret artifice or the open exertion of +force, attempt the assumption or exercise of absolute power. Long live +her majesty, queen Ulrika Eleonora!' + +'Long live her majesty Ulrika Eleonora!' roared the numberless throng, +mingling their voices with the trumpet blasts; and, as if raised by a +whirlwind, their hats and caps flew high in air. + +'All is lost!' cried Arwed indignantly, as he opened a way for himself +through the crowd. + + + + + CHAPTER XXII. + + +On the twenty-first day of February, 1719, Arwed entered the prison of +the unhappy Goertz, in company with lieutenant general Rank. + +'I bring to you a suppliant, my poor friend,' said Rank, with a +melancholy smile, to Goertz. 'The captain has not ceased to besiege his +royal highness, until he obtained his permission for this interview +with you. He has a great favor to ask, and if my word is entitled to +any weight, I am his witness that he has well deserved it. He has, +through his ceaseless activity in your behalf, drawn down upon himself +the hatred of the Swedish nobility; and could he purchase your life +with his own, I am fully satisfied that he would make the sacrifice +with joy.' + +'Good man!' said Goertz much agitated, extending his hand to Arwed. +'God grant that you may have something to ask of me that my duty will +allow me to perform.' + +'You know my love for your Georgina, my father,' said Arwed, pressing +the old man's hand upon his heart. 'I beg your benediction upon our +union.' + +'I have anticipated this request,' sighed Goertz. 'It does you honor +under the present circumstances, but I must not say yes to it.' + +'Oh retract those hard words!' begged Arwed. 'You yourself just now +called me a good man. By heaven I am so. Your daughter loves me--and +our glorious king, the evening before his death, promised to crown my +wishes.' + +'I know it all,' said Goertz, 'but I can give no other answer.' + +'You hate the Swede in me,' said Arwed in a tone of the deepest sorrow; +'nor can I blame you for it.' + +'Have you no better opinion of the father of your beloved?' asked +Goertz, with mild reproach. 'I love the man in you, and you may learn +of my daughter that I was not opposed to your wishes, when I yet stood +in my former elevated position. But what would the world say of me, +should I willfully make you unhappy by consenting to your marriage with +the daughter of an unfortunate man whom your father hates, and whose +life and honor will soon be destroyed by one sharp stroke. If, when my +fate shall have been sealed, my daughter's passion remain stronger than +her remembrance of it, she is then at liberty to follow the dictates of +her own heart. I neither advise nor forbid the connection, and shall +earnestly pray to God that all may go well with you, and that you may +never have cause to repent the inconsiderate step.' + +'Ah, that is a comfortless consent,' said Arwed sorrowfully. +'Georgina's overstrained delicacy induces her to take the same ground +against me, and I have now come to beg your intercession with her, +which is necessary to my success.' + +'My daughter feels as a Goertz must feel,' answered the old man, 'It is +noble in you to persist in your request. Concede to us also the +generosity of the refusal.' + +'You make not me alone unhappy!' cried Arwed with vehemence. 'I may, +indeed, in time become reconciled to it. But your daughter will also be +made miserable at the same time. Her love is stronger than she, in the +depth of her filial sorrow, at present supposes it. She may, indeed, +give me up, but she can never forget me.' + +'The consciousness of having done right will help her to bear much, my +son,' answered Goertz. 'Let us talk of it no more.' + +'You rend my heart,' said Rank with weeping eyes. 'But I thank you for +this sorrow. It is a high and holy privilege to behold virtue +struggling with heavy and undeserved affliction.' + +At this moment the keys were heard rattling in the prison door. It +creaked upon its hinges, and in stepped, with the proud dignity of his +black official robes, and with deep traces of hidden malice and bodily +suffering in his yellow face, the speaker Hylten, delegate of the +citizens to the imperial diet of the realm, and a member of the +commission instituted for the trial of the prisoner.--He was followed +by one of the clerks of the court, with his arm full of documents. + +'I come, von Goertz,' unceremoniously commenced Hylten, 'to make known +to you the sentence of the special commission. Receive it with becoming +respect.' + +'I must indeed,' answered Goertz with a bitter smile, slightly rattling +his chains. He rose up, and Hylten took a large sealed document from +the hands of the clerk. + +'Do you wish that we should retire, sir commissioner?' asked Rank. + +'You may remain here forever, if you please, sir lieutenant general,' +answered Hylten contemptuously. 'The crimes of this man are notorious, +as his punishment will also be, and where justice is sustained by the +general voice, there can be no necessity for avoiding publicity.' + +'The royal commission,' read he, with a sharp and discordant voice, +'having heard and considered all the accusations brought by the +attorney general, Fehmann, and also the replications of the baron von +Goertz thereto....' + +'Without consenting to receive my written defence!' interposed Goertz. + +'And all the plots and devices of the said Goertz,' proceeded Hylten +without noticing the interruption, since his coming into this kingdom, +having for their object to bring by wicked means the subjects of the +said kingdom into great discredit with the king ...' + +'All?' asked Goertz. 'He who affirms too much, affirms nothing.' + +'And how he,' proceeded Hylten, 'represented them as evil-minded and +idle persons, who were unwilling to contribute towards the general +welfare.' + +'Could that have been a crime?' asked Goertz. + +'And also,' read Hylten, 'endeavored to destroy the confidence of the +king in the senators, counsellors and others of his true servants, +removing the same from all important public employments, so that the +whole patronage of the government should go through his own hands, +contrary to the laws and statutes of this country....' + +'I was the minister of an absolute sovereign,' interposed Goertz. 'How +can I be made answerable for the decisions of his iron will?' + +'And moreover,' proceeded Hylten, 'such schemes brought to light as +could serve no other end than to rob the king's subjects of all their +property....' + +'The stamped tokens and notes of the mint had already been issued +before the time of my administration,' cried Goertz indignantly. + +'And finally,' read Hylten, 'according to letters of his, which have +been discovered, he has not ceased to labor for the prolongation of the +war, thereby placing the king and the country in a very embarrassing +and dangerous situation....' + +'Who dares assert these lies?' cried Goertz with indignation. 'For +fourteen years had Sweden carried on an uninterrupted, and for six +years an unsuccessful war, when Charles confided the helm of state to +me. Since that time, I have honestly labored to extinguish the fire +which destroyed the prosperity of our country. A glorious peace with +our most fearful enemy was brought by me near to a conclusion, when the +king's sudden death changed....' + +'You appear to forget,' said Hylten angrily, 'that you have here only +to listen, and not to speak.' + +'Then in God's name read to the end,' said Goertz, becoming calm. 'I +wilt interrupt you no more.' + +'Satisfied of the truth of these charges,' resumed Hylten, 'without +examining further into the evil conduct of the said Goertz, a full +investigation of which certain causes will not allow, it appears clear +to us that he is the dishonest cause of all the misfortunes which this +country has suffered, and also that through the above named employments +he has become a citizen of this kingdom, and subject to its laws; upon +which the royal commission, having weighed these and other crimes, have +decided and adjudged, that the said Goertz, for the punishment of his +evil deeds, and for an example to other false counsellors and +disturbers of the peace of the kingdom, shall be beheaded and +afterwards buried at the place of execution.' + +'Ha! this sentence....' began Arwed with ungovernable rage, but Rank +gently laid his hand upon his mouth. + +Goertz had accompanied the close of the reading with only a sigh and +shrug of the shoulders. At length he observed, 'that is, in every point +of view, a monstrous sentence, informal, unjust, void, and repugnant to +common sense. The grounds upon which it is supported are unimportant or +untrue; the most unheard of circumstance, however, is, that they take +away my life for transgressions which are not specified. From this +fault, at least, the legal knowledge of the members of the commission +should have preserved them.' + +'I am not here to listen to your complaints,' answered Hylten, +pettishly. 'The sentence of the commission is unalterable, and will be +executed as soon as it is approved by the diet and royal council, and +ratified by the queen.' + +'So I supposed,' said Goertz; 'and submit to power, which, alas! is +every where above right. I only wish to make one remark. They have +passed over my management of the national revenue in perfect silence. I +beg to be allowed time to prepare my accounts and lay them before the +diet, and thus at least inform the world that I have managed the +finances like an honest man. Should this request be refused, however, I +yet hope at least from the magnanimity of the diet, that they will +demand of my heirs no settlement of my accounts, of which they can know +nothing.' + +'I doubt,' said Hylten with some apparent mortification, 'whether the +diet will grant you this delay. I will, however, lay your request +before them, and have only to advise you to prepare yourself in the +meanwhile for your approaching death.' + +'Wo to me,' cried Goertz, 'if my whole life has not been a preparation +for death! Yet I thank you for your counsel. My blood be not upon your +head!' + +Hylten hastened away in confusion, and the weeping Rank threw himself +upon the breast of his friend. Arwed fell upon his knee before him, and +clasping his hand exclaimed, 'give me Georgina for my wife, my father. +She needs strong support in her trying situation, and I feel myself +capable of affording it to her.' + +'Even now?' cried Goertz, heartily embracing the youth, 'thou true +heart! But I must still answer with a decided negative. The only sprout +of one of the noblest houses of Sweden must never, under any +circumstances, connect himself with the daughter of a condemned and +dishonored traitor, whose body must moulder under the gallows.' + +His voice was broken by the excess of his feelings. Arwed, despairing, +rose up. 'Can I then do nothing for you?' asked Rank, wringing his +hands. + +'I cannot be saved,' said Goertz, 'and have already been long prepared +for death. Only the ignominy of a public execution, and the outrage +which awaits my mortal remains, trouble me; not on my own account, but +on that of my poor children and innocent connexions. If you are +disposed to give me a last proof of your love, you will on my behalf, +petition the queen that I may die in my prison and have an honorable +grave.' + +'I will immediately speak with the prince,' said Rank. 'He was never +your enemy. His wife loves him more tenderly than one would suppose her +cold heart capable of loving. I hope to be able to render you this +service.'--He departed. + +'I will throw myself at my father's feet,' cried Arwed, 'and never +cease my supplications until he shall promise me to aid in the +accomplishment of your last wish.--Oh, my God! that I cannot save you! +It is only through this infamous sentence that your purity has become +fully clear to me. Your blood be upon the heads of your unworthy +murderers.' + +He strode forth. Goertz, however, folded his hands, raised his eyes to +heaven, and prayed with silent resignation. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII. + + +Accompanied by the trusty Brodin, on the next day, Arwed stood +trembling as with a paroxysm of ague, in the ante-chamber of the hall +in which the royal council held its sittings. The chief clerk of the +council approached them with a protecting air. + +'This is the young man of whom I spoke to you, my worthy friend,' said +Brodin to him, at the same time slipping a heavy purse into his hand; +'let me recommend him to your kindness.' + +Brodin departed. The chief clerk led Arwed to the door which +communicated with the grand saloon, and opened it. 'Between the door +and the inner drapery,' said he, 'you can see and hear every thing that +takes place, without being observed. But remember my stipulation. Keep +yourself quiet, and if you are discovered, recollect that we have never +known each other, and that you slipped in here behind my back.' + +'How can I possibly involve you in my fate?' answered Arwed, proceeding +to conceal himself in the designated lurking place. + +'Not yet,' said the chief clerk, pulling him back: 'the lords of the +council must first assemble there, and might easily discover you as +they pass.' + +At that moment the outer folding doors opened, and in their solemn +official dresses, in long, red velvet cloaks and red caps of the same +material, the loyal counsellors passed in couples through the +ante-chamber into the saloon. They were the counts Gyllenstierna, +Rhenskioeld, Stromberg, Horn, Cronhielm, Tessin, Meierfed and Moerner, +and the barons Duecker, Taube, Sparre, and Banner. + +'They are all here to-day for once,' said the chief clerk. 'Count Spens +alone is absent. Indeed the business is of too much importance, and +they cannot expedite the ex-minister too hastily!' + +One of the queen's chamberlains again threw open the doors, and, in +full dress, stiff and stately as the image of the virgin in some place +of pilgrimage, with a countenance in which deep hatred vainly sought to +conceal itself under assumed dignity, the queen passed by them into the +hall. Arwed then slipped into his hiding place, and the chief clerk +shut the door after him. + +After the ceremony of the queen's reception was over, and the members +had taken their seats, the governor, baron Taube, took the floor. + +'The special royal commission,' said he, 'has sentenced von Goertz to +lose his head under the gallows, and there be buried. The diet has, by +a majority of voices, concurred in this verdict, and by her majesty's +command the royal council is now assembled to decide whether the +sentence shall be carried into full effect, or whether Goertz shall +have the benefit of some mitigation of its severity.' + +'I consider it dangerous to deal so hardly with Goertz,' said count +Cronhielm. 'The late king reposed great confidence in him, and I fear +that it may injure the Swedish nation abroad, since Goertz has many +adherents and a highly respected family.' + +'A man who has endeavored to overthrow the whole kingdom,' cried the +passionate Horn, 'who has committed the crimes detailed in the report +of the commissioners, is not too severely judged. Clemency towards him +may seduce many others to enter upon a similar course, to the great +injury of the realm. Besides, he has been tried and sentenced by +conscientious men, who, if they have done him injustice, must answer it +to their God.' + +'It is not my wish that he should go unpunished,' answered Cronhielm. +'But it may be well to remember, that the commencement of our political +career will be closely scrutinized, and that the manner of the +execution may injure us with the nation, and particularly with our +nobility. He may be beheaded, but to bury under the gallows a man who +has been employed in so many important affairs by our late king, +appears to me to be bad policy.' + +'Any Swede who may conduct himself as he has,' cried Horn, exasperated, +'may be punished in the same manner.' + +'These altercations do not accomplish our object,' remarked Ulrika. 'I +desire the lords counsellors to speak in their due order.' + +'When I heard the sentence read,' said baron Banner, 'I expected a +harder punishment. When, however, I view the question in relation to +the general welfare, it appears to me that the end is attained when the +criminal is deprived of life. It can in no way concern the public +interests whether he be buried under the gallows or not, I consider it +a matter of indifference where he lies.' + +'That is also our opinion,' said the three other barons and the counts +Cronhielm and Meierfeld, simultaneously. + +'As he has been judged by so learned and discriminating a commission,' +observed count Tessin, 'and as the knighthood and nobility have +approved the sentence, it should be carried into full and complete +effect. Should I advise any clemency, it must be in harmony with those +who have a more minute knowledge of all the individual views presented +by the commission, which are said to be very exact and to comprehend +the particulars of Goertz' crimes. The Italian proverb indeed says: +_Morta la bestia, morto il veneno_--but something is necessary by way +of example, that others may be deterred from meddling with the business +of state--and I know not but it might be well to think of another +expedient, which is often resorted to in other places, viz; the +erection of a monument, which shall inform posterity of his conduct and +his fate, and which may prove a warning to foreigners not to intrude +themselves into this kingdom, exciting its subjects to such violence as +he has instigated. Yet I only throw out these ideas for the gracious +and favorable consideration of your majesty and your excellencies.' + +'I still adhere to the opinion I before advanced,' said count Horn; +'and God knows that I am not influenced by any prejudice. But I am +convinced that smaller offences are oftentimes more severely punished. +From affection to my native country must I adhere to the sentence.' + +'If we examine the circumstances of this case,' remarked count +Stromberg deliberately, 'we find them very bad. I am therefore +compelled to support the opinion of count Horn.' + +'For his pernicious projects,' said count Rhenskioeld, 'Goertz has well +deserved the punishment of death. I suggest however for the gracious +consideration of your majesty, whether mercy should not be extended to +him in consideration of his family.' + +'As it appears to me,' said count Gyllenstierna, taking up the +argument, 'the present question is only whether the condemned shall be +buried under the gallows. That he must die, is already decided by a +majority of the voices. Now, the object being accomplished by his +death, I see no objection to his being buried any where else, so that +his family may be spared too great suffering through such ignominy.' + +'He is disgraced sufficiently when he falls under the hands of the +executioner,' said the queen in her most scornful tone. 'As for the +rest, the diet may do what they please with him.' + +'It must be confessed,' said Cronhielm timidly, 'that he was not +permitted to exercise the right of defence so fully as the law allows, +and that he had not the benefit of legal counsel. Besides, he is a +member of the Franconian nobility, who are very jealous of their +privileges. They will maintain that the accused could not be legally +judged here, and, to avoid irritating them, it appears to me that it +would be well not to deal too severely with him.' + +'I know nothing to induce me to suppose,' said Horn, 'that Goertz had +not the privilege of defending himself.' + +'If he had not,' said Tessin, 'he must be allowed a new trial.' + +'I call for the votes of the special commission,' said Cronhielm. +'Stiernkrona has explicitly declared it contrary to law and equity to +deprive Goertz of the means of defending himself.' + +'Let the record of the commission be brought here,' said the queen +angrily, to baron Banner. He hastened into the ante-chamber and sent +the chief clerk to bring it, while slight hopes were once more raised +in the bosom of the listening Arwed. Meanwhile there was a long pause +in the council room, during which count Cronhielm was compelled to bear +the inconvenient criticisms of his brother counsellors for his last +speech. + +'As governor of Stockholm,' said Baron Taube, interrupting the general +silence, 'it is my duty to inquire how the execution shall be +conducted?' + +'The conclusion is,' answered the queen impatiently, 'that the governor +is to deal with baron von Goertz according to the sentence of the +commission, as confirmed by the diet.' + +'It is quite superfluous, then,' cried Cronhielm, rising up with +feelings of resentment, 'that we should further discuss an affair in +relation to which her majesty has already issued her commands.' + +'Certainly, wholly superfluous,' said Horn, likewise rising. The others +followed his example. The council broke up its sitting without waiting +for the record of the commission, and, reverentially conducted by her +attendants, the queen, like a thunder cloud which had ignited and +exploded with wide spread desolation, proudly moved through the +ante-chamber. + +'_Stat pro ratione voluntas!_' cried Arwed with suppressed rage. 'Wo to +the country where the holy halls of justice can be profaned by such a +sentence!' + + + + + CHAPTER XXIV. + + +On the 12th March, all Stockholm was stirring with unusual commotion. +The streets leading to the place of execution were thronged with people +impelled by strongly excited curiosity. Cavalry and infantry were drawn +up before the council house on the Suedermalm, before the principal +door of which stood the carriage destined for the conveyance of the +baron von Goertz. + +Arwed entered Goertz' prison, supporting the faltering steps of +Georgina with one arm, whilst with the other hand he led the wailing +Magdalena. Lieutenant general Rank was sitting alone in the room, +reading a paper which he had taken from among others which lay upon the +table. + +'Is it you, my good captain?' exclaimed he, taking Arwed's hand. Then, +looking at his companions, he sighed, 'Alas! poor, poor, children!' + +'Where is my father?' asked Georgina in an almost inaudible tone, +sinking down upon a stool. + +'In the next room,' answered Rank. 'Conradi is with him.' + +'What are you reading there, general?' asked Arwed without interest, +merely to break the painful silence. + +'The epitaph of our friend,' answered Rank, handing the paper to him. +'He sketched it himself.' + +Georgina had sprung from her seat, and hanging upon Arwed's arm, looked +with him upon the manuscript. + +'Read aloud,' said she. 'Something like a dense cloud waves before my +eyes. I cannot see the letters.' + +'Will it not prove too great a trial for you?' asked Arwed with tender +care. + +'I am here,' she answered, 'to take a last leave of my father, before +his death by the sword of the executioner. What else can shake me?' + +Struggling to suppress his tears, Arwed proceeded to read: + +'A la veille de conclure un grand traite de paix, mon heros perit, la +royaute avec lui. Dieu veuille qu'il n'arrive pis! Je meurs aussi. +C'est toujours mourir en magnifique compagnie, quand on meurt avec son +roi et la royaute.' + +'Very true!' exclaimed Georgina. 'The ruins of royalty are a worthy +mausoleum for the great man; but his children despair.' + +Arwed continued: + +'Mors regis, fidesque in regem et ducem, mors mea.' + +'That means?' asked Georgina in a faint voice. + +'The death of the king and fidelity to him and to the duke are the +cause of his death.' + +'Alas, how true!' sighed Georgina, and, breaking out in a flood of +tears, she sunk upon Arwed's shoulder. + +The door of the adjoining room now opened, and Goertz entered with a +serene countenance, followed by the weeping Conradi. 'Father!' shrieked +his daughters, throwing themselves into his arms. + +'My dear children!' cried he, joyfully pressing them to his bosom, and +kissing them tenderly. + +'If that adamantine heart were here,' said Arwed to Conradi, with deep +emotion, 'this scene would yet melt it.' + +'I thank God that the queen is not here,' answered the latter. 'She +would remain inexorable, and thus aggravate her responsibility in the +next world.' + +The outer prison door was now opened, and with a brutal air colonel +Baumgardt walked into the room. He was followed by chief judge Hylten, +who appeared yet more miserable than before, leaning upon his clerk. +The outer hall was soon filled with Swedish grenadiers. + +'Goertz, your time has come!' cried Baumgardt, roughly. + +'In God's name, your blessing, my father!' cried Greorgina, kneeling +and drawing Magdalena down with her to his feet. + +'Continue good!' cried Goertz in a broken voice, laying his hands upon +their heads, 'so that I may give a good account of you to your mother, +and that you may say joyfully to your God, when you come after me, +Father, here am I, and here are those whom thou hast given me.' + +'Amen!' said Conradi, moving towards the door. + +'Thanks for your love,' said Goertz, embracing Rank and Arwed, and then +turning to follow his spiritual assistant. + +'Now let us forth,' cried Georgina wildly, grasping the hands of the +youth and of the little Magdalena, 'that we may arrive before him!' + +'You cannot support the scene!' said Arwed anxiously to her. + +'And should I die in his last moments,' answered Georgina, 'what a +happy death!' + +Goertz had overheard this conversation, and turned once more towards +his daughters. 'You will go hence directly back to your dwelling,' said +he earnestly. + +'Father!' stammered Georgina, 'shall I not see you once more?' + +'It is your father's last command!' cried Goertz. 'Wouldst thou bind my +soul to earth, through sorrow for thee, when its wings were already +joyfully raised to take its flight to its creator? Take my daughters +home, Gyllenstierna!' + +'Forward!' growled Baumgardt. 'God bless you, my loves!' cried Goertz +with a stronger voice, and followed his guards. + + + + + CHAPTER XXV. + + +Nine days had passed, since the ground under the Swedish gallows had +drunk the blood of the worthy German. The evening was closing in, all +the bells of the capital were tolling, and the thunder of cannon was +heard from the Ritterholm, in honor of the royal hero who at this hour +was committed to the tomb of his fathers. Arwed entered Georgina's +room. He found her with Magdalena and her only maid, (whom she still +retained,) in their traveling dresses. + +'I thank you for coming so punctually,' said Georgina. 'You are now to +render me the last service. It is not without danger, but I know you, +and therefore demand it without hesitation.' + +'Every thing for thee!' cried Arwed passionately. + +'Then accompany me,' said she, 'upon my way to the performance of a +difficult duty, in which I need a man's aid. Have every thing ready,' +said she to her maid servant. 'If heaven favor our attempt, we shall +soon return, directly to leave this horrible country!' + +She took Arwed's arm and proceeded with him to the bank of the +Norderstrom. There a boat was in waiting, in which were Goertz' +Holstein servants. The oars moved and the boat soon floated forth upon +the peaceful lake. Georgina, wrapped in her cloak, sat upon the deck +observing the stars which here and there discovered themselves in the +deepening gloom of the evening. + +'What project have you in hand, Georgina?' at length asked Arwed +anxiously. + +'I will now make it known to you,' answered she. 'I am going for my +father's corpse. Ungrateful Sweden shall not hold his bones.' + +'My God, you risk your life!' cried Arwed with alarm. + +'I think not,' she calmly answered. 'Public duty and curiosity have +drawn all Stockholm to witness the funeral solemnities of the king, and +I hope to find the place deserted. And of what consequence would be my +life? I risk it joyfully in the performance of my filial duty! If you +fear the service, say where I shall land you.' + +'You afflict me undeservedly!' complained Arwed. 'Sooner should the +royal council affix my name to the gallows from which you are about to +tear its prey, than I would desert your side. Only for you was I +anxious. Even if every thing succeed, this undertaking is unsuited to +your years and sex.' + +'Ah, dear Arwed!' said Georgina, 'I have lived long in a short time, +and great afflictions give new strength to the heart. Seek not to +dissuade me.' + +Both remained silent while the convoy moved rapidly and undisturbedly +onward. At length the boat landed, and they got out. Two of the +servants drew a litter from beneath the deck, and bore it ashore. The +others followed with cords, shovels and pick-axes. + +'Remain here,' said Arwed to Georgina. 'I will superintend the labor +and spare you at least that pain.' + +'No,' answered she, 'it must all be fulfilled. But you may accompany +me, that I may have a friend to lean upon if the body should prove +weaker than the will.' + +The melancholy company moved silently forward through the stillness of +the night. At length the gallows arose awfully before them in huge and +undefined outline. + +'It was here,' whispered one of the servants, stopping. + +'Here?' sobbed Georgina, falling down and kissing the holy ground. + +'Now to the work, faithful friends,' said she, rising up. + +With restless zeal the labor was commenced with pick-axe and shovel, +and soon the silver clamps upon the black coffin glistened from the +depth. Two of the servants sprang into the grave and made room for +themselves on each side until they succeeded in passing the cords under +the coffin. It was slowly drawn up and placed upon the litter. + +During the time which had thus elapsed, Georgina had stood by with +folded hands, engaged in prayer. The litter was quickly raised, and the +little train moved silently back to the shore with its sad burden. +Georgina followed, requiring all of Arwed's strength to sustain her +tottering steps. The coffin was placed in the boat, which immediately +put off. + +'It is done!' cried Georgina, convulsively clasping Arwed's hand. 'I +thank thee.' + +'And now?' asked the faithful youth. + +'You will soon learn,' answered Georgina, remaining buried in +reflection until they landed at the Blasiusholm. A merchant ship lay at +anchor near by. The maiden now arose, as in the golden times of her +happy love, and throwing her arms about Arwed's neck, pressed her +ice-cold lips to his. 'Farewell forever, dear Arwed!' breathed she in a +scarcely articulate tone. + +'What say you?' cried Arwed in alarm, encircling her with his arms. + +'It cannot be otherwise,' answered she, extricating herself from his +embrace. 'This ship takes me and my father's corpse to Hamburg.' + +'Not without me, faithless one!' angrily exclaimed Arwed. 'Fly to the +new world--fly from life, if you will--and still I will accompany you!' + +'Let us not revive our former sad strife,' said she sorrowfully. 'I +must not become yours. You may pain me, but you cannot shake my +determination, which is as unmovable as are my misfortunes.' + +'Georgina!' implored Arwed, clasping her knees. 'You have always +conducted towards me with such a knightly delicacy, my Arwed,' said +Georgina, laying her cold hand upon his heated brow, 'that I may safely +compare you with any of the lofty exemplars of former times. My love +for you is, indeed, yet stronger than in the moments of its first +confession,--but the blot which rests upon my name forbids my uniting +myself with the son of him who sentenced my innocent father to a +criminal's death. Believe me, even were I weak enough to yield to your +request, we could not be happy together. The remembrance of all that +has occurred would, like a fearful spectre, stand between us, and +self-contempt would follow me even to your arms. Now, the consciousness +of having offered up my love upon the altar of duty, will raise me +above myself and give me strength worthily to bear the afflictions laid +upon me by my God. Wherefore, my friend, I demand of you our separation +as your last love-service, and a true knight must obey his mistress, +when with tearful eyes and broken accents she says to him, _Let us +part!_' + +'I go!' exclaimed Arwed, clasping Georgina once more to his bosom and +to his lips, and rushing forth. + +'That was the death of the heart!' cried the unhappy maiden, pressing +her clasped hands upon her bosom.--' What may hereafter come is not +worth consideration. Let me but satisfy the world of my father's +innocence, just God, and then take me to thyself and to him in thy +heavenly kingdom.' + + + + + CHAPTER XXVI. + + +The next morning, as lieutenant general Rank was mounting the steps to +Arwed's quarters, the latter, coming furiously out, rushed directly +against him. + +'Whither so hasty, my good Gyllenstierna?' cried Rank, grasping his +arm. 'I was coming to seek you, and have something of importance to +say.' + +'And I have something of yet greater importance to do, sir general,' +answered Arwed in a singular tone. 'I shall take upon myself to act as +a lawyer, and talk to the judges about a second appeal.' + +'I fear you are planning some evil, and shall not suffer you to go +out!' cried Rank, dragging the youth entirely up the steps. When they +had reached his room he gave him a searching look. From Arwed's pale +countenance, wild glaring eyes and disordered dress, it was evident +that he had not been in bed the preceding night, and the handles of a +pair of pistols were seen projecting from the bosom of his coat. + +'Young man, what do you intend?' asked Rank. 'I have become your +friend, and cannot allow you to make yourself unhappy.' + +'The injustice,' answered Arwed, 'which conducted Goertz to the +scaffold, has robbed me of all the happiness of my existence. Georgina +has rejected me and bidden an eternal farewell to Sweden. I will now +devote the rest of my miserable life to some useful purpose, and assume +the office of Nemesis. The judges who condemned the innocent, shall +answer it to me before the mouth of my pistol or the point of my sword, +and with their worthy president will I make a beginning!' + +'Calm yourself,' said Rank. Count Ribbing cannot be called to account +by you.' + +'He shall, he must!' cried Arwed, with flashing eyes. 'The wretch, by +signing the sentence, has declared that Goertz had lived dishonorably +and should therefore die ignominiously! It will be honor enough for him +to die as a cavalier by the hands of an honorable man!' + +'He can no longer be held answerable to you,' repeated Rank. 'He is +dead!' + +'Dead!' reiterated Arwed, shuddering. + +'Even before the execution of Goertz, was he attacked by apoplexy,' +pursued Rank, 'and instantly expired. His death was for a time kept a +secret from the people, who might have drawn various sinister +conclusions from the occurrence, but I cannot understand how you could +have remained so long ignorant of it.' + +'I have paid no attention to the news of the capital during the last +week,' answered Arwed in a low tone of voice. 'Dead! The executioner +gone before the victim! I am sorry for it. I will then seek the public +prosecutor, and thank him for the gratitude he evinced towards his +patron.' + +'Would you contend with a cripple? Fehmann also has been smitten. He +now lies very low, and, if he ever recover, he will, nevertheless, +remain a maimed man the remainder of his life. The living body of the +wretched Hylten is daily consumed by worms, and doctor Molin has fallen +backwards from his seat and broken his neck.' + +'And thus all the ringleaders escape me!' cried Arwed, stamping with +his foot. 'Stiernkrona is innocent, and the rest were little more than +miserable tools.' + +'You see, my young friend,' said Rank, seizing Arwed's hand, 'that God +himself will fulfill the duties of judge in this case. Assume not the +office of avenger with bold presumption!' + +'Only one of them now remains,' cried Arwed fiercely; 'but he shall not +escape me!' + +'Whom do you mean?' anxiously asked Rank. + +'Colonel Baumgardt,' answered Arwed, 'who arrested the martyr, in +obedience to the commands of a man who at that time had no authority to +issue such an order. Had it not been for his shameful readiness on that +occasion, the noble blood of Goertz would not have flowed.' + +'You are right, but I warn you,' said Rank. 'Directly by means of that +arrest has Baumgardt acquired great favor with the queen. A challenge +upon that ground would not be accepted by him, and would bring you to a +prison.' + +'I thank you for the warning,' answered Arwed. 'But fortunately the +colonel has injured me personally, and is therefore prepared to receive +a challenge from me.' + +'If that be the case,' said Rank, 'and you are not provided with a +second, I offer you my services in that capacity.' + +'You, general!' cried Arwed with astonishment. + +'I am your friend,' said Rank, 'and will openly prove it, and at the +same time abjure my political faith. Let it be considered as settled. +Before the duel, however, I advise you to resign your commission. +Indeed it was for that purpose I came to seek you. You have made many +and powerful enemies. Nothing but your father's power and influence has +hitherto preserved you, and even he is angry with you now. If he also +should give you up, you would be lost without redemption.' + +'Only he who gives himself up, is lost,' said Arwed. 'Yet will I follow +your good counsel. Under the present circumstances there is no longer +honor nor pleasure for me in the Swedish service.' + +'It is unfortunate for you, Gyllenstierna,' cried Rank dejectedly. You +have in you the metal for a Horn or a Torstenson, and it is to be +regretted that your talents cannot be devoted to the service of your +country. Whenever you need my services in your proposed affair, you +know where to find me.' + +He took his leave, and Arwed accompanied him to the door. On his return +he passed a mirror, and the reflection of his disordered figure caught +his attention. + +'I look as bad,' cried he, 'as a highway robber, going forth in pursuit +of his prey. This is not as it should be. Even the just anger of an +honorable man should not wear this appearance. Stern business should be +sternly executed; but with a due regard to outward appearances, so that +the wretch whom I am about to punish may not be able to complain that I +have neglected what good manners prescribe.' + +He drew the pistols from his bosom, and laid them aside. Then ringing +for his servant, he dressed himself with unusual care. The rich gala +uniform contrasted strangely and frightfully with the suppressed anger +upon his beautiful pale face. He buckled on his sword again, and +proceeded to the Ritterholm in search of his antagonist. + +The parade before the palace had commenced. The troops were already +marched to the square, and the officers were walking to and fro in +masses, or conversing together in isolated groups. 'Have you heard of +it?' asked adjutant Kolbert, slopping up to Arwed; Baumgardt has become +a major general, and had conferred upon him the order of the seraphim. +It will be announced to-day in general orders.' + +'There he comes already,' scoffingly observed count Posse, who had +joined the group; 'and his face shines as did that of Moses when he +retired from the presence of the Most Holy.' + +'I am glad of it,' said Arwed, 'I shall have an opportunity to +congratulate him upon the spot.' + +Meanwhile Baumgardt had descended the palace steps with a stately air, +and now approached them. Already, at a distance, glistened the star and +band upon his breast, and with proud condescension he bowed right and +left to the subaltern officers who gathered round for the purpose of +congratulating him. + +With firm and rapid strides Arwed stepped directly in front of the +fortunate man. The latter was somewhat surprised when he recognised +him, and turned pale upon observing the frightful earnestness expressed +by his features. 'I must most respectfully request a short conversation +with you, sir major general,' said Arwed very courteously. 'You will +have the goodness to remember that I reserved this claim when we +separated at Amal.' + +'I know not....' stammered Baumgardt, in the embarrassment of his +surprise. + +'You allowed yourself,' proceeded Arwed, 'in the parsonage at Tanum and +in the camp before Frederickshall, to use certain expressions injurious +to my honor, and my situation now for the first time allows me to ask +an explanation of them.' + +'Whatever I may have said,' answered Baumgardt sullenly, 'was in the +discharge of my official duty, and therefore I am not to be called to +account for it by any person.' + +'According to my view,' said Arwed coolly, 'on that occasion you +overstepped the bounds of your duty. You will therefore have the +goodness to give me the satisfaction due to a man of honor.' + +'I do not know,' answered Baumgardt, 'whether I as a general am bound +to fight with a captain.' + +'But as a cavalier you dare not refuse satisfaction to the count +Gyllenstierna,' cried Arwed warmly. 'If, however, you have any doubts +upon that point, the corps of officers at the capitol may decide the +matter.' + +'I doubt only,' said Baumgardt scornfully, 'whether you can find any +one willing to act as your second in so extraordinary an affair, in +which I see only the quixotism of youth, which I am willing to pardon.' + +'I have consented to act as the count's second,' said Rank, who had +just joined them. + +'Your excellency!' exclaimed Baumgardt with surprise. 'That is indeed +quite another affair. I fight with pistols, and fire advancing,' said +he to Arwed, after a moment's reflection. + +'The choice was yours,' answered Arwed, bowing. 'I thank you for +meeting my wishes in this manner. When shall it be?' + +'To-morrow morning at ten o'clock, upon the Peckholm, opposite the +park,' answered Baumgardt, gloomily. + +'I shall have the honor to await you there,' said Arwed, with a very +low bow, and turned upon his heel. + + + + CHAPTER XXVII. + + +The next morning Arwed was walking silently up and down the banks of +the Peckholm with lieutenant general Rank, awaiting the arrival of the +boat which was to bring his adversary. Arwed's pistols with their +apparatus were lying upon his cloak, which was spread out under a tall +pine tree. + +'You are so tranquil, my friend!' said Rank, breaking the long silence; +'indeed, the moments passed in awaiting a duel are most intolerable. I +know it by my own experience. Perhaps you begin to regret your +proceeding? It is not to be doubted that the pistol shot which you are +about to exchange will be the burial salute of your happiness in this +kingdom--for the queen will never pardon you. Therefore, if your +resolution has become somewhat weaker, it is yet time. Major general +Baumgardt is too happy with his new promotion and his new orders, not +to wish to wear his honors some years yet, and will very willingly +agree to any other reparation.' + +'No, general,' answered Arwed; 'God forbid that I should meanly convert +an honorable combat into a piece of buffoonery. A reconciliation +between a challenge and a duel, I have always deemed a contemptible +proceeding. It was the firmness, even, of my resolution, that made me +still, as it places me near the gates of death, which to me is a +consideration of great solemnity, and as I shall contend for the +innocence of our friend before the eyes of all Europe.' + +'Brave youth!' cried Rank, embracing him with much emotion. 'In +heaven's name fight. If you fall, I will revenge your death as a good +second should.' + +At this moment the clock of St. Katharine's tower struck ten, and +directly afterwards Baumgardt's boat landed through the splashing waves +of the lake. In company with another officer he jumped ashore, and gave +a coldly polite greeting to those who had been waiting his arrival. +With silent activity the two assistants placed the barriers, and, +thrusting their swords into the ground some distance apart, stretched a +cord from one to the other. + +'How many paces, general?' asked Rank, stepping midway of the cord. + +'Twenty!' answered Baumgardt morosely. + +'That is a great distance!' calmly remarked Arwed, and each measured +twenty paces from the cord and marked the points. + +'Here, Gyllenstierna!' cried Rank, and Arwed took his place, whilst +Baumgardt stepped to the opposite point, which his second had marked. +Both stood eyeing each other with folded arms. The weapons were not yet +placed in their hands, but the glances of hatred exchanged were more +deadly than the bullets. + +The seconds had loaded the pistols, and the combatants now received +them from their hands. 'Let him prevail who has the right!' whispered +Rank to Arwed, stepping aside. + +'It is yet proper to ask,' said Baumgardt's second, 'whether this +affair may not be arranged in some other way?' + +'In no other possible way!' cried Arwed. 'In this the major general +will certainly agree with me.' + +'In no other way!' muttered the general. His second then left his side, +and the two combatants began slowly advancing, and with each step +mentally measuring the distance which divided them from each other. +They had advanced scarcely five steps, when with Baumgardt the fear of +death prevailing, and with Arwed his eagerness for the fight conquering +all prudence and discretion, they both fired almost at the same moment. +Arwed's ball struck Baumgardt's hat from his head, and his opponent's +grazed Arwed's left arm. But the latter, throwing away the discharged +pistol, and taking the loaded one in his right hand, cautiously +advanced. + +Baumgardt followed his example, and advanced with a pale face, blue +lips and bristling hair. While Arwed was observing the alteration which +extreme anxiety caused in the countenance of his adversary, the latter +elevated his weapon and continued slowly to approach, with his eye +intently fixed upon Arwed's breast. Then swelled Arwed's heart, and the +thirst for blood which now sparkled in Baumgardt's eyes, reminded him +of the fiendlike expression of his face on the morning of the execution +of Goertz. + +'Your time has come! Forward!' cried the youth, in the same words +Baumgardt had used on that occasion, raising his arm at the same +moment. With sudden terror Baumgardt fired and missed--whilst his arm, +struck and shattered by Arwed's ball, fell helplessly by his side. + +'My God!' cried his second, springing to his side, and supporting the +fainting man. + +'My arm is gone!' said Baumgardt, grating his teeth and sinking upon +the grass over which his blood was streaming. 'I am an invalid for +life. Why could not the booby's bullet have struck my heart or head, +and so have ended the matter at once!' + +Arwed now approached his adversary with Rank, who had bound a +handkerchief upon his bleeding arm. + +'I am sorry, general,' said he, kindly, 'and my anger vanishes with +your running blood. May this misfortune awaken in you a true and +heartfelt repentance for what you have done. I am appeased,--make your +peace with God!' + +'What are you chattering there?' cried Rank indignantly, whilst +Baumgardt scornfully rejected Arwed's proffered hand. + +'Take my hand,' said Arwed; 'it is the hand of reconciliation. Imagine +that it is offered to you by the innocent Goertz, whom your conduct led +to the scaffold.' + +'Did not I tell you,' cried Baumgardt to his second, 'that this +senseless quarrel had a political origin? You will be a witness for me +with her majesty.' + +Overcome by pain, he fell back powerless. + +'Your thoughtless words will cost you your head,' said Rank, hastily +dragging the youth with him down to the shore. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +Arwed was sitting in his quarters, and his regimental surgeon had just +finished bandaging the wound in his arm, when old Brodin entered in +great perplexity. + +'His excellency, your father,' whispered he, 'desires to speak with you +alone. He will be here directly.' + +'It will not be a very pleasant interview,' sighed Arwed, motioning the +surgeon to absent himself. + +'You are not far out of the way,' said Brodin, after the surgeon had +retired. 'His excellency is very angry with you. I have, therefore, +hastened here before him to prepare you for his visit and to beg of +you, as an old, true and zealous servant of your house--if the anger of +the old gentleman should carry him too far, that you will still +remember that he is your father, and listen to what he may please to +say to you, not as a captain of the guards, but as a son.' + +'I thank you for the warning, worthy friend, and will obey you,' +answered Arwed. + +The door now opened, and with a flaming, red face, the old counsellor +entered. + +'The old tell-tale already here,' cried he, 'plotting with the lost +son? I would be alone with the captain.' + +Brodin made a submissive, exculpatory gesture, whereby he at the same +time seemed to beg permission to remain--but the old man pointed +angrily towards the door, and Brodin unwillingly retired. + +'So, you have fought to-day with major general Baumgardt?' asked the +father with assumed calmness. + +'Yes,' answered the son, 'but without any important consequences. I am +but slightly injured, and his life is also out of danger.' + +'Right!' cried the father, with somewhat increasing vehemence. 'So the +trifle of rendering a general, who is particularly valued by the queen, +a cripple for life, is a mere ordinary affair.' + +He walked two or three times up and down the room, and then opened a +window and looked out. After a while he turned again towards Arwed. + +'God is my witness,' cried he, shutting the window with great violence, +'God is my witness, that I have been forbearing as an angel, but your +conduct would make an Epictetus furious. To challenge the major general +just at the moment when the queen, by promotion and knighthood, had +declared him her favorite--to shatter his arm, and then confidentially +to tell him that it was on account of his arresting Goertz, to which +arrest Ulrika is probably indebted for her crown! Would it indeed be +possible, by the widest stretch of fancy, to imagine a proceeding more +senseless and ruinous than yours?' + +'The party spirit,' answered Arwed, 'which divides our country, early +teaches every Swede to choose his side; and, in a land so disturbed by +political storms, a peculiar disgrace seems to rest upon neutrality. +Blame me not then, my dear father, if I also have formed my principles; +and be not angry because they are not exactly like yours. If you have +nothing to pardon me for, except that, having once chosen my party, I +have remained true to it in every emergency, that circumstance should, +as I think, honor me in your eyes.' + +'_Honor!_' cried the counsellor angrily. '_You_ dare to talk of honor, +_you!_' + +'What mean you by that? 'asked Arwed with vehemence. + +'Where were you on the evening of the king's funeral solemnities?' +thundered the father. + +'With Georgina,' answered he, not without great astonishment at the +question. + +'The body of Goertz,' said the counsellor, with fierce energy, 'was on +that very night stolen from the place of execution. You, perhaps, can +tell how it happened.' + +'I find it very natural,' answered Arwed, 'that those who loved the +unhappy man, and are firmly convinced of the injustice of his +condemnation, should, at least, have borne off his remains from the +unworthy resting place in which he was left by the malice of his +enemies.' + +'And if,' proceeded the counsellor, in a slow, cutting tone, 'if a +Swedish officer had commanded this nocturnal expedition, what fate do +you think would await him under the present government?' + +Arwed, by this question, perceiving with a secret shudder that his +father knew all, remained silent. + +'Dishonorable dismission!' sternly exclaimed the counsellor; 'and +possibly, as an especial mercy, imprisonment for life!' + +'If the senate require only my confession to enable it to pass the +sentence,' cried Arwed with violence, 'you may be the bearer of that +confession to it. I am too proud to deny what my heart impelled me to +do.' + +The father stood a long time looking at his son with powerful emotion. +'Yes!' he finally broke forth, 'yes, you are a Gyllenstierna! With our +failings you unite all the virtues of our family. Holding fast that +which has been once chosen--noble even in our errors--so were we +always. And so much the deeper is my regret that so many good qualities +must be forever lost to the country.' + +'From these expressions,' said Arwed, 'I must infer that you bring me +already the decision of my fate. If so, speak it without hesitation. I +am prepared to receive it.' + +'The queen was beside herself,' answered the counsellor, 'when she +heard of your last misdeed; and had she obeyed the first suggestions of +her rage, you would now have been in chains, awaiting a decision +involving life or death.' + +'Little souls are generally cruel,' observed Arwed. + +'As a father I pleaded for my disobedient son,' continued the +counsellor; 'and it is not strange that the man, whose duty it will be +to place the crown upon Ulrika's head at Upsala, should not plead +entirely in vain. A full pardon was not, indeed, to be thought of. Yet +have I succeeded so far in the business, that she has left the +designation of your punishment to her husband. To him I shall now lead +you; and what he thinks proper to inflict, must be received by you with +humility and thankfulness.' + +'If consistent with honor,' answered Arwed, taking his hat; 'otherwise +I shall demand a court martial.' + +They went forth together. In the entrance-hall they were joined by two +officers of the guards, who, with them, entered a carriage which was +waiting at the door. They soon arrived at the palace upon the +Ritterholm. The two Gyllenstiernas, with their companions, ascended the +steps to the apartments of the prince of Hesse, who came forward to +meet them with a sealed paper in his hand. Only lieutenant general Rank +was with him, who gave an encouraging wink to Arwed. + +'You have deeply erred, captain Gyllenstierna,' said the prince, +earnestly. 'The severe letter of the law must inevitably crush you, +were not the hand of mercy interposed. But my wife wishes to convince +the nobles of the land that her royal heart gladly inclines to mercy, +willingly pardoning when it is in her power to do so, and she also +wishes to evince her respect for your worthy father, by even undeserved +kindness towards his son. Yet must you be informed, that a man who has +declared open war against the state through his audacious acts, +cannot remain in his country's service, and that the government +must be secured from any repetition of his offences. Therefore receive +from me your dismission from the Swedish army. You may thank your +heroism before Frederickshall, and the distinction of which my royal +brother-in-law thought you worthy, that this dismissal is united with +the title of major, which you will henceforth be entitled to bear. Yet +your crime must not go entirely unpunished. Wherefore the queen +banishes you forever from the limits of the capital, and exacts from +you a promise that you will never pass the frontier of the nation, and +that you will never again meddle with the political affairs of this +kingdom, under pain of death. Your father will receive your promise, +and will determine your future place of residence. May time make you +wiser!' + +Handing to the youth the paper containing his discharge from the +service, he departed and was followed by Rank. 'God bless your royal +highness!' cried the elder Gyllenstierna after him. + +'So, I am a prisoner of state in Sweden,' said Arwed with a bitter +smile. 'It is fortunate that my prison is tolerably spacious. Where is +it your pleasure that I shall go, my father?' + +'To Gyllensten, to my brother,' answered the counsellor, 'after you +have signed the required promise, which I must return to her majesty.' + +He pointed to a paper lying upon the marble table. Arwed hastily run +his eye through the written promise, and subscribed his name to it; +upon which the two officers, who had hitherto guarded the door, +immediately left the room. + +'To Gyllensten!' exclaimed Arwed, gratefully kissing his father's hand, +'to the loved resort of my childhood, to my good old-uncle! How good +you still are, my father, even when you punish. How deeply do I regret +that I have caused you so much sorrow.' + +'You bad boy!' cried the father with strong emotion, pressing him to +his bosom. 'And if I pardon you every thing else, I will not pardon you +for depriving yourself of the power of serving your father-land, whose +golden age is just commencing.' + +'May heaven grant,' answered Arwed, 'that Sweden may not soon wish back +the departed _iron_ age! I shall always think that the strong will of +one only ruler can direct the government more consistently and happily, +than the constantly divided opinions of the four and twenty little +kings who are now to rule the country, even though you yourself are one +of these kings, my father.' + +'Silence! you are incorrigible!' cried the old counsellor, drawing his +son with him out of the palace. + + + + + + ARWED GYLLENSTIERNA. + + A TALE OF THE EARLY PART OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. + + BY C. F. VAN DER VELDE. + + + + PART SECOND. + + + + CHAPTER XXIX. + + +Directly northward, by the west coast of the gulf of Bothnia, through +Gestrikland, Helsingland, Medelpat, and Angermannland, Arwed rapidly +pursued his expiatory journey, until he reached the southern boundary +of the province of West Bothnia, in which Nicodemus, count +Gyllenstierna, the counsellor's elder brother, presided as governor. On +arriving at the broad river Umea, which here empties its floods into +the gulf of Bothnia, Arwed reined in his horse, and, while his groom +made a signal for the ferry-boat stationed on the opposite side, +reviewed the scenery which had always remained impressed upon his +memory, and which now called up a thousand reminiscences of his early +childhood. To the right, on the sea-shore, and at the mouth of the +broad stream, lay the capital of the poor, depopulated province, the +little town of Umea, to which only its harbor with its clustering +masts, gave any importance. To the left arose the lofty Gyllensten, the +old ancestral castle of the house of Gyllenstierna throned proudly upon +its massive rocks, and bordered by a forest of dark pines. The broad +plain which intervened between the higher elevations and the river, +exhibited evidence of unusual fruitfulness for these northern regions. +The magnificent, clear, blue arch, which, in the west rested upon +Lapland's distant snow-clad mountains, and in the east upon the dark +mirror of the sea, completed the picture which nature, rich even in her +poverty and gorgeous in her simplicity, offered to the eye of the +observer. + +'My fatherland is every where beautiful!' exclaimed he with emotion; +'and this solitary nook, how well suited to my feelings! Yes, I feel +that here I can again be happy!' + +The ferry-boat came, and Arwed sprang upon the floating bridge. The +groom carefully led up the spirited horses, which were somewhat +frightened, and made a vigorous resistance when they heard the hollow +sound of their footsteps upon the boards. Arwed seized the bridle of +his gallant steed, caressed him into a state of quietude, and leaning +upon the glossy neck of the animal, extended his view over the waves of +the stream upon which the boat was now moving to Gyllensten, whose old, +gothic walls and towers were every moment more and more distinctly seen +between the lofty pines and rocks in the intermediate distance. + +'That is the balcony,' said he to Knut, the faithful old boatman, 'from +which I and my little cousin Christine used formerly to watch the ships +as they entered the port. The child will be much pleased to see me +again. She was always very much attached to me.' + +'The _child_!' exclaimed Knut laughing. 'She was at that time eight +years old, as well as yourself, major. Eleven years have passed since +then. Do you think that you alone have increased in stature during that +long period? The child must have become a stately young lady.' + +'You are right,' said Arwed with a melancholy smile, 'I have +experienced so many vicissitudes lately, that my computation of time is +a little disturbed.' + +Leaning his head upon his arm, and resting the latter upon his horse's +saddle, he sank into a profound reverie. 'I shall find a grown up +daughter in my uncle's house,' said he to himself. 'Possibly a right +beauteous maiden, with whom my near relationship must bring me into +familiar intercourse. Did this really enter into my father's plans? Did +he hope that I should here sever old ties and form new ones? If so, he +has deceived himself! But one Georgina blooms for me in this world! +while she lives, lives also my hope, and the mere remembrance of her is +sufficient to steel my heart against the attractions of all the women +upon earth.' + +The sudden shock with which the boat struck the shore aroused the youth +from his contemplations. He threw himself upon his horse and briskly +trotted towards Gyllensten. When he had reached its base, and was +slowly riding up the steep and rocky ascent, a little flag, displaying +the golden star, the escutcheon of Gyllenstierna, suddenly waved from +the pinnacle of the tower. Two falconets then exploded so briskly to +the right and left from the walls, that his horse made three powerful +leaps; and a flourish of trumpets and kettle drums followed. + +'Is it possible that this can be intended for me?'--and putting his +horse to a quick gallop, he soon sprang through the high gothic arched +gateway into the court of the castle. Again was heard a merry trumpet +blast, a window of the castle hall was opened, and a massive silver +goblet was extended towards the new comer by the old governor. + +'Welcome, brave Swede!' cried he joyously to the guest below; 'welcome +to Gyllensten! Down from your horse and come up and pledge me in the +hall of our forefathers!' + +Arwed, obeying, soon entered the long, high-vaulted, echoing knight's +hall, in whose niches on either side of the worthy old Gyllenstierna, +stood colossal statues, in complete armor chased in copper. The shining +metal reflected upon him the last rays of the setting sun so brightly, +that he was compelled to protect his eyes with his hand from their +blinding red brilliancy. + +Meanwhile the uncle, who Was afflicted with the gout, had trundled his +movable chair toward his nephew. 'Aha!' exclaimed he, laughing, 'the +old lords shine a brilliant greeting upon thee, as they should upon so +worthy a descendant of their house. So is it also my duty to do; and if +I do not perform it with quite so much grace, the fault must be +attributed to this rascally gout, which rages in my bones as if the +whole Russian army were marauding there.' + +Arwed, kissing the old count's hand, protested against all ceremony; +the latter, however, would not be persuaded, but slowly raised himself +from his chair, suppressing the pain it gave him, until he stood +upright before his nephew. His purple velvet cap, from under which his +thin white locks escaped, his sharply delineated, intelligent, good +humored, and withal bold face, which the lines of age and experience +had but ennobled, his tall and powerful frame, set off with an +ermine-lined green hunting dress, altogether gave him the appearance of +one of the old Norman princes of long forgotten times, and Arwed +involuntarily started back before the noble figure. + +'My dear nephew!' said the old man with his deep and thrilling voice, +and holding aloft the silver goblet with solemn dignity, 'once again I +welcome thee to the castle of our ancestors, and from this goblet I +drink to thy welfare and to our common lineage.' + +He drank, and then handed the goblet to the youth, who, after draining +it, tenderly embraced his worthy uncle. Sinking back into his chair, +the old man pointed to the window, where stood a table replenished with +wine and drinking cups. + +Arwed wheeled him to it, and, sitting down, filled his goblet afresh. + +'Now, what news do you bring, captain?' asked the uncle with a hearty +shake of the hand; 'or perhaps a yet higher title--hey?' + +'I am dismissed, with the rank of major,' answered Arwed, with a slight +shrug of the shoulders. + +'I understand,' cried the uncle. 'Punishment and reward, wound and +balsam, all in a breath. One may see by this, that a woman governs in +Sweden. She holds to the doctrine according to the excellent German +proverb, of washing the fur without wetting it. With Charles XII you +would not have escaped so easily! All that has occurred redounds to +your credit, and the 'out of service,' attached to your rank of major, +is as honorable to you as would be the order of the seraphim.' + +'Where is cousin Christine?' asked Arwed, to interrupt his uncle's +praises, which covered his cheeks with blushes. + +'She rode out to meet you,' answered the old man, 'I should have +accompanied her, but my gouty feet forbade it. The king's death and my +anxiety for its consequences, have so pulled me down that I came this +time very near going, and shall never entirely recover from the shock. +I cannot imagine how the maiden could have missed you.' + +'May she not have met with some accident?' cried Arwed apprehensively. +'I will mount my horse again and seek her.' + +'Do not trouble yourself,' said his uncle smilingly, and holding him +back. 'She is no timid maiden, who needs protection. She is a virago, +who can take care of herself in every exigence. Beasts of prey and +robbers fear her, not she them. Besides, she is not alone. A military +comrade of your's accompanies her.' + +'A military comrade of mine?' asked Arwed with astonishment. 'Who can +it be?' + +'That I may the better enjoy your surprise, I shall not name him to +you. He is a good soldier,--so much I will say for him,--and especially +valued by me as a witness of the heroism of our king. We made his +acquaintance when I was at the coronation at Upsala with Christine. +Appearing to feel an interest for the maiden, he has availed himself of +the short truce to obtain a furlough, and will spend some weeks with +us. You will be much pleased to meet him. He speaks of you with great +respect, and has related to us your warlike deeds in so vivid a manner +that we feel as though we had been present during their performance.' + +'Singular!' said Arwed,--and at that moment the rapid footsteps of a +horse resounded in the court. He hastened to the window. A slender +maiden, almost as tall as Arwed himself, in a dark green riding-habit, +her face partly concealed by a plumed casque, was just then reining in +her foaming courser. + +'Send to the wolf den in the cluster of fir-trees to the left of the +road, and bring the venison which lies there,' said she to the groom +who was running to meet her; then, throwing herself from the saddle +with the grace of a riding-master, and with her hand wafting a greeting +up to the windows of the hall, she hastened into the castle. + +'You will hardly recognise the girl,' said the uncle. 'She has much +changed, and not altogether according to my wishes. Men are incapable +of rearing and educating women properly, as I have learned too late.' + +The amazon now entered the hall. The removal of her casque, which she +held in her hand, permitted a full view of a blooming face of classic +beauty, which her rich golden locks surrounded like a glory. A bold +spirit flashed from her magnificent blue eyes, and her cheeks glowed +with the heat of violent exercise. + +Without noticing Arwed she strode hastily past him, and, precipitating +herself upon her father's bosom, impetuously embraced him. + +'Madcap girl!' said the latter with evident pleasure, to his beautiful +and lively daughter; 'do you not see who is with me in the hall?' + +She drew up her beautiful form to its full height, and measured the +youth with a searching glance, in which no expression, other than that +of maiden pride, accompanied by a slight appearance of displeasure, was +discoverable, and Arwed looked in vain for that joy with which he had +expected to be received by his little cousin Christine. + +'Is not this the guest whom you have been expecting, my father?' she +asked, after a long pause,--and, as her father nodded assent, she +turned to Arwed, saying with great coldness, 'I am happy to see you at +Gyllensten, captain.' + +'Shame upon you, Christine!' said the old man, angrily. 'Is that a +reception for so near a kinsman, or for the playmate of your childhood? +Fall directly upon his neck, give him a hearty kiss, and say, welcome +cousin Arwed!' + +The beauteous prude started back with a sinister expression, and, +spoiled by indulgence, she suffered it to be plainly seen that she had +no desire to obey the parental command. + +'Do not annoy my cousin, uncle,' said Arwed, offended by her +uncourteous manners. 'Christine may already have seen many fops who +have availed themselves of their relationship to intrude upon ladies. +Since I have not the honor to be known to her, I cannot blame her for +thus taking care to insure herself against so disagreeable an +occurrence at the outset.' + +Christine tossed her head and bit her lips. + +'You have deserved this,' said her father, 'and may congratulate +yourself that your cousin has let you off with so mild a punishment. +Tell us now how it was you failed to encounter him on his way to the +castle.' + +'We saw a wolf in a thicket,' answered Christine, 'and I could not deny +myself the pleasure of hunting him.' + +'Only two of you--without hounds?' said the father with asperity. 'That +was another of those hazardous undertakings to which you have +accustomed me.' + +'He appeared to be hungry and made a stand,' said Christine, by way of +excuse. 'My saddle pistols were ready loaded, and I hit him directly in +the head.' + +'You know I do not like these Nimrod tricks,' murmured the old man. +'Why hazard your life in a contest with such an animal?' + +'What would life be, father,' cried Christine with thoughtless levity, +'if one never dared gaily and joyfully to hazard it?' + +'I would willingly hear such a sentiment from Arwed,' answered her +father, shaking his head; 'but it does not sound well from your lips. +What has become of your companion?' + +'On our way back, he offered me a wager,' said Christine, laughing, 'as +to which of us would be first at Gyllensten; I gave my horse a loose +rein, and have not seen the good colonel since.' + +'You ought to have been a Cossack,' said the old man chidingly; and at +that moment a Swedish officer entered the now darkening hall. + +'Megret!' exclaimed Arwed with amazement. + +'You have lost, colonel!' cried Christine, to the new comer. + +'A second Thalestris,' answered Megret, gallantly kissing her hand. 'I +yield myself in disgrace to your mercy. Once have I ridden with you +upon a wager, but never will I again! Though, at all events, I know how +to ride, I have never yet learned to fly.' + +'I have the pleasure to present my nephew to you, colonel,' said the +governor, interrupting them. + +'What a happy encounter!' said Megret, pretending to derive much +pleasure from the meeting, and embracing the youth. 'How delightful it +is to me, to greet my dear brother in arms, in a kinsman of this dear +family!' + +A sensation of the deepest disgust oppressed Arwed's bosom at the +embrace of the insincere and suspected man. He could not so far control +himself as to repay the dissembler in the same coin, and only answered +with a silent bow. + +'As we shall probably have the pleasure of seeing you here for a long +time, my worthy friend,' said Megret, jestingly, and familiarly +pointing to Christine, 'you will consider it the friendly service of a +true knight when I warn you against this lady.' + +'How so?' asked Arwed, and Christine satirically added, 'the colonel +probably wishes to inform you, how inexhaustible is his fund of sweet +phrases, which mean nothing and which he himself does not believe.' + +'How beautiful she is,' continued Megret gaily, 'I need not remark to a +blooming youth like you. Her mind, nourished by the manna of the old +classics, is a giant that would find its pleasure in storming heaven, +and yet she does not lack the graces. Whenever she is in the humor to +be amiable, she is irresistible. In short she has every quality +requisite to set a man's heart in a flame, and yet I advise every brave +man to guard against her, watchfully, as against something which is at +the same time the most beautiful and dangerous in all the three +kingdoms of nature,--for one all-important quality she lacks!' + +'Now this is enough!' suddenly exclaimed Christine, in a tone of great +irritation. + +'She lacks a heart!' continued Megret, laughing and without suffering +himself to be interrupted. 'She can only _wound_, not _heal_. She is a +female Charles the XIIth. She holds the amiable weakness of loving in +utter detestation, and if Hymen does not perform a miracle upon her, +the epitaph must some day be inscribed upon her grave-stone, which +England's Elizabeth desired for herself--Here rests the virgin....' + +'Shameful!' exclaimed Christine in anger, and striking a heavy blow +upon Megret's cheek, the amazon disappeared. + +'The girl is mad!' exclaimed the governor. 'Excuse the impropriety, +colonel; you shall receive full satisfaction.' + +'Never mind, governor,' answered Megret with a courtly smile and +rubbing his cheek. 'A cavalier must be content to receive the like from +a lady's hand. I shall occasionally take opportunities to revenge +myself upon the little savage.' + +'The table is served,' announced the steward, and two huntsmen placed +themselves behind the wheeled chair of the lord of the castle. 'Follow +me, dear gentlemen and friends,' cried the old man, and then, +commanding his men to move him forward, he led the way to the dining +room. + +Megret, however, remained behind, still rubbing his flaming cheek, and +conceitedly smiling at his own reflections. + +'I am glad you take the ill-behaviour of my cousin so lightly,' said +Arwed; 'but I wonder at it, almost as much as at the blow itself, +struck so suddenly, and without sufficient cause.' + +'It is even that,' said Megret, interrupting him, 'which makes me so +tolerant. An entirely indifferent person would not have caused so +violent, a passion. A girl like her must be allowed to behave somewhat +rudely when she is angry. That is perfectly as it should be. If she +supposed that my penetration had discovered her feelings, my jest must +have been considered by her as a bitter mockery. Under these +circumstances I take the angry blow as a declaration according to the +custom of the country, and have only to regret that the ladies of the +north have such heavy hands.' + +He proceeded towards the dining-room. 'Happy self-conceit!' cried +Arwed, following him; 'to what may not thy genius give a favorable +construction!' + + + + CHAPTER XXX. + + +In the dining room, innumerable dishes were already smoking upon the +supper table as Megret and Arwed entered; yet the governor was sitting +at the sideboard, in accordance with an old Norman custom, amusing +himself with the favorite Swedish preliminary to a good meal, knakebrod +and whiskey. Occasionally he cast an impatient glance towards the door. +'Where is my daughter?' asked he of a servant, who had just entered. + +'The countess is ill,' he answered, 'and begs you will receive her +apology for not being able to appear at the table.' + +'This is another of her whims,' said the old man angrily, 'of which she +has more than my Polish charger. Go again to her, Rasmus, and say, I +command her to be instantly well, and to come and preside at the +table.' + +Megret advanced to speak a kind word in behalf of the capricious +beauty--but the governor motioned him back, and the servant departed. + +Christine soon made her appearance, her eyes cast down and her face +glowing with displeasure. She silently took her place by her chair, and +motioned to the persons present to seat themselves. + +'Before we are seated,' said her father, sternly, 'the affair between +you and the colonel must be adjusted. You will ask his pardon.' + +'Spare me, my father!' implored Christine. 'If the colonel requires +satisfaction I will exchange shots with him; but sooner may you drive +me from the castle than I will ask the pardon of any man upon earth.' + +'Que Dieu m'en garde!' cried Megret laughing. 'Your eyes are accustomed +to hitting and wounding men's hearts, and you would have a manifest +advantage over me. A blow from so beauteous a hand can as little +inflict dishonor as the knight-creating stroke of a king's sword upon a +victorious battle-field.' + +'You have more luck than understanding,' remarked the governor, at the +same time causing himself to be conveyed to the table. For the future, +however, I shall expect that you will not forget the treatment which is +due to thy father's worthy guests.' + +The maiden submissively kissed her father's hand and took her place on +his left; Megret seated himself on his right, and Christine nodded to +Arwed to sit by her; but he went round the table and seated himself by +Megret. + +Christine observed this movement with great surprise. 'I love free +conversation at the table,' whispered he smilingly to her, 'and have no +helmet to protect me.' + +'Insufferable!' murmured she, and in her anger at his unsparing irony, +filled her father's goblet so full, that the good old burgundy +overflowed and colored the exquisite damask table cloth. + +Her father was again reproving her for this new impropriety, when the +servant announced sir Mac Donalbain, and Christine started with a look +of mingled joy and alarm. + +'He is heartily welcome!' cried the governor, and a tall, well built +man, about thirty years old, entered the hall. He wore a short, green +overcoat with copper buttons. At his broad leather girdle, in which two +pistols were inserted, hung a broad sabre, and in his hand he carried a +double-barrelled gun. His sunburnt face was not regularly handsome, but +the spirit and boldness which characterized it, rendered it +interesting. The wild black eyes, however, which peered from under his +dark brows, and a few wrinkles on his forehead and about his mouth, +gave him a grim and disagreeable expression. Arwed, who glanced now at +him and now at the polished Frenchman, compared the two, and came to +the conclusion that he was not in the very best of company. + +'Whence do you come so late, sir Mac Donalbain?' kindly asked the +governor. + +'I have been hunting in the Asele Lappmark,' answered the guest, laying +aside his weapons and boldly seating himself near Christine. 'I had got +belated, and the light of your hospitable castle shone so invitingly +that I concluded to ask of you entertainment for the night.' + +'This worthy Scot is in a certain sense a brother sufferer of yours, +dear major, in so far as the death of our king has destroyed his +prosperity as well as yours. He had the assurance of an advantageous +post in our army, made a long journey to come here, found his hopes +annihilated by the death of the king, and for the present lives upon +his income, at Hernoesand, awaiting better times.' + +'Singular!' remarked Megret, whilst the brother sufferers bowed +silently to each other. 'I was lately at Hernoesand, and could hear +nothing of you there, although I took particular pains to find you.' + +'I reside there no longer,' answered Mac Donalbain, not without some +embarrassment. 'A difficulty which I had there, induced me to remove to +Arnaes.' + +'A difficulty?' asked Megret, smiling. 'I am sorry for that. I hope it +was not with the public authorities?' + +'One readily perceives, colonel,' interfered Christine, with +bitterness, 'that you are a foreigner. In hospitable Sweden, such +questions are not allowable, even from the host himself, much less from +one guest to another.' + +'Why so excited, countess?' asked Megret with his customary cold smile. +'If sir Mac Donalbain _will_ not or _cannot_ answer my question, I +shall be content. He has my sympathy, notwithstanding; and, in my +journey back to Stockholm, I should be pleased to go round by Arnaes to +take personal leave of him.' + +'However agreeable that might be to me,' said Mac Donalbain +equivocally, 'I must yet by anticipation regret that probably you would +not meet me. The amusement of the chase is my passion, and I am almost +always abroad.' + +'So it appears,' said Megret with a piercing glance, and, turning to +the governor, he commenced a conversation with him, respecting the +preparations for war making by Denmark and Russia, which threatened +poor Sweden anew. Arwed who took a part in this discussion, could not +forbear casting an occasional scrutinizing glance at Mac Donalbain, who +had commenced a low and apparently interesting conversation with +Christine. He saw how the dark eyes of the Scot flashed upon the +angelic countenance of the maiden, saw how the latter regarded her wild +neighbor with a mixture of fear and anger, of passion and aversion, and +he thought, 'what a pity it would be, if this beautiful and innocent +creature should have thrown away her heart upon such a man!' + +The table was at length cleared. Megret and Mac Donalbain bade their +host good night and went to their chambers. Christine kissed her father +with humble tenderness, and in a low voice asked him, 'are you still +angry?' + +'Amend yourself, perverse girl,' said the old man; and gently parting +the golden locks from her fair forehead, impressed upon it an +affectionate parental kiss. + +'My kind, kind father! indeed I do not deserve so much love,' cried the +maiden, with deep emotion, pressing his hand to her heaving bosom. She +then arose and departed, giving an unfriendly glance and a slighting +nod as she passed Arwed. He also wished to seek his bed; but his uncle +drew him into a chair near him and filled his goblet again. + +'You must help me finish the last bottle, major,' said he. 'I have not +at all enjoyed your company yet, and must say to you once more, now we +are alone, how dear you are to me. Truly you have come to my house in a +good hour! and I hope at some future time to have much to thank you +for.' + +'How mean you that, dear uncle?' asked Arwed, with some surprise, and +partly anticipating the point to which the old man was leading. + +'Why should I dissemble with you?' burst forth the old man. 'Your +father, indeed, gave me long and broad instructions at Upsala, how I +should conduct myself toward you; but this spying and tacking and +managing may be all very proper in the royal council, and yet not with +so clear and honorable a Swedish mind as yours. Therefore, short and +round, you are the right man for my Christine,--you or none.' + +'I, dear uncle!' answered Arwed, laughing. 'The commencement of our +renewed acquaintance did not seem like it.' + +'That indeed, I observed with regret,' confessed the uncle. 'But who +regards women's humors, which change as quickly as the fashion of their +garments. Bucephalus was a wild and vicious horse, and yet he found his +man who knew how to manage him.' + +'That was the great Alexander, however,' replied Arwed, continuing the +jest. 'I have not vanity enough to put myself on a par with that hero; +and, even if I were compelled to attempt the one or the other, I should +rather undertake the taming of Bucephalus than of my fair cousin.' + +'She is headstrong,' sighed the uncle; 'that, alas! I must myself +acknowledge; I, her father, who have permitted her to grow up without +proper restraints. But, nevertheless, I believe you would succeed in +rendering her submissive. You have, to-day, said such things to her as +she has not been accustomed to hear. Because she is handsome, every one +who has seen has flattered and indulged her caprices, and, in that way, +she has been spoiled. You will let nothing pass without its just +comment, I see plainly. She will consequently at first fear, and then +respect you, and, after that, between people of your stamp, love will +find its way of itself.' + +'It occasions me much regret,' said Arwed with sudden earnestness, +'that I am compelled to interpose an insurmountable obstacle to the +accomplishment of a hope which, in the fulness of parental love, you so +feelingly express. But, in this case, unreserved candor is the holiest +duty. My heart is no longer free, good uncle, and my choice is made for +life.' + +'Your father has already made me acquainted with that affair,' answered +the uncle fretfully; 'but I did not suppose that foolish passion, which +can hardly endure long, could reasonably interpose any obstacle. The +daughter of an executed criminal....' + +'An innocent offering at the shrine of contemptible party interests,' +said Arwed, with great vehemence, interrupting him; 'truly a martyr to +his honesty and to the gigantic plans of his king.' + +'And as your father says,' continued the uncle, 'the maiden has herself +given you up and bidden an eternal farewell to Sweden.' + +'She was compelled by the necessity of satisfying her own conscience; +but that cannot release _me_ from the performance of my duty. So long +as Georgina lives, so long shall I continue to hope, and truly will I +keep my troth.' + +'Such troth is senseless,' answered the uncle, suppressing his emotion. +'However, there is something in your constancy which pleases me. Do as +you will. I hope at any rate, you will place so much confidence in me +as to believe that I would not urge my daughter upon you, in opposition +to your feelings. I am firmly persuaded, however, that the affair will +gradually work itself right. Rank, figure, affinity, wealth, all +fitting. By heaven! you were created for each other or no couple ever +were. Sleep before you determine. As for the rest, what has been said +upon these matters must remain within the walls of this room--to that +promise give me your hand.' + +Arwed gave the required pledge. The governor rang for his attendants, +bade Arwed good night, and was rolled to his sleeping room. + +'This is a strange entanglement in which I shall henceforth be obliged +to act!' said Arwed to himself, while the servants were waiting at the +door, with branched silver candlesticks, to show him to his room; +'Georgina and myself--I and my uncle, and Christine--and Christine and +Megret--and Mac Donalbain and Christine!--and this Megret and Mac +Donalbain, who again appear to stand in hostile constellations; and I, +who, as I already foresee, shall at some future time be compelled to +encounter both of them--this Mac Donalbain who spears to me like the +serpent in paradise endeavoring to seduce the poor innocent, foolish +mother of mankind. This Megret!--ah, this Megret! I will go to bed. God +preserve me from wicked dreams.' + + + + CHAPTER XXXI. + + +The hunting bugle-call and the baying of hounds awoke Arwed from his +morning slumbers. As he opened his eyes they were greeted by the imaged +orb with which the rays of the morning sun announced its rising, +glowingly and tremblingly reflected from the bosom of the sea. Arwed +sprang from his bed, threw his cloak over his shoulders, and raised the +window to enjoy the beauty of awakening nature. In the court below, the +huntsmen, horses and hounds were moving about with loud and joyous +tumult, and old Knut, who had saddled Arwed's black charger, was now +leading him from the stable. + +'By whose command is this?' asked Arwed of the man below. + +'The countess Christine!' cried Knut. + +'Lead him back to his stall and take the saddle off,' commanded Arwed. +'I shall not ride this morning.' + +Shaking his head, the faithful servant obeyed, and at same moment the +door was thrown open and his beautiful cousin, whose fresh charms +almost outshone the morning's splendor, entered his room in her hunting +dress. + +'I am going upon a bear hunt,' said she in a more friendly manner than +on the preceding evening. 'Will you accompany me, cousin Arwed?' + +'I am much obliged to you,' answered Arwed, 'but I prefer remaining in +the house.' + +Christine started, apparently surprised and perplexed by a cold refusal +which she had not anticipated as possible, 'Perhaps you are not fond of +this kind of chase?' she satirically asked. + +'Yes!' answered Arwed, quietly; 'but not in your company, cousin.' + +'Now, I confess!'--cried Christine, making a powerful effort to +suppress the last part of the sentence which was at her tongue's end, +'May one venture to ask, wherefore, major?' + +'Oh yes, one may venture, countess,' answered Arwed, 'and I will most +willingly respond to the question. I do not like to see women pursuing +employments unsuited to their sex. The riding and hunting and baiting +and shooting of ladies, always excites in me intolerable displeasure.' + +'That is nothing but the quite common pride and selfishness of your +sex,' said Christine with bitterness, 'which would have our's always +feeble that you may the more easily keep us under the yoke.' + +'Woe to you, poor women,' exclaimed Arwed, laughing, 'if you had no +better defence against our imperiousness than your physical strength; +you would every where come off the worse. Nevertheless, countess, your +sex is more powerful than you believe it. Your most powerful talisman +is your womanhood; and it is a bad exchange, when you give it up for +the fame of a rifleman or hussar.' + +'_Give it up?_' repeated Christine with great excitement. + +'Nothing less,' answered Arwed. 'To override horses, to chase and +kill animals, is a rough business. A man may pursue it without +suffering in his character, for nature has destined him forcibly to +oppose its hostile powers by contending with them for his safety and +his food,--and, in doing so, he but fulfills his destiny. More tender +and delicate woman has other duties. God created women to be the +proteges, the tender companions of men, to soften and ennoble their +fierce and intractable natures, and to be the loving mothers and +guardians of their children.' + +'Silence!' cried Christine, angrily. + +'All the peculiar qualities, however, which naturally belong to you,' +continued Arwed pleasantly, seizing Christine's hands and holding them +fast, as if he feared Megret's fate, 'all, and they are the noblest +which adorn your sex, must be lost in the masculine woman, and she will +be very fortunate if she preserve the purity of her soul, which is in +great danger, when the restraint of modest, maidenly customs is once +thrown off.' + +Christine started with a sudden shudder. Tears burst from her beautiful +eyes, and she withdrew her hands from his. + +'What is the matter, cousin?' he exclaimed, with deep sympathy. + +'You despise me, Arwed!' sobbed the maiden. + +'What an unfortunate idea!' answered Arwed. 'Whoever fears the contempt +of another, feels that he deserves it, and that can never be the case +with the countess Christine.' + +'You are right!' exclaimed Christine, with a firm tone, applying her +handkerchief to her eyes to remove all traces of her tears, and +proceeding to the window to cool her flushed face in the morning air. + +'You will not accompany me to the chase, then?' she finally asked, as +if nothing had occurred between them. + +'No!' answered Arwed. + +'Then I will also remain at home,' said she; and, calling to the +servants from the window, she directed them to give over their +preparations, as she was indisposed; after which she threw herself into +a seat opposite Arwed. + +'This chase was in reality only devised to obtain an opportunity for an +undisturbed conversation with you,' said she, 'and that object can be +attained as well here. My father has had a bad night and now sleeps +soundly.' + +'Well, speak on!' answered Arwed, placing himself in a listening +attitude. 'If what you wish to say be something good, it will give me +great pleasure to hear it.' + +'Not altogether good,' said Christine, casting her eyes upon the floor +in great embarrassment. + +'So I should imagine,' answered Arwed. 'The feelings you have +manifested toward me since my arrival have not been of the most +friendly kind.' + +'By heaven, Arwed, you do me injustice!' exclaimed. Christine, +springing up and holding out her beautiful hand to him. 'My feelings +are as kind toward you now as formerly, when we, two joyous children, +sought shells together on the beach; and I would be on yet better terms +with you; only you appear not to desire it.' + +'How do you mean?' asked the ingenuous Arwed, who understood his cousin +but too well. + +'In one word,' she suddenly exclaimed, 'my father destines my hand for +you, and I shall be compelled to oppose his determination.' + +'That is indeed no very flattering communication,' said Arwed. 'It +explains the unmannerly reception you gave me, however. It was nothing +but your fear of my tenderness; but as you know your father's +intentions, so you should also know the impediments, on my side, in the +way of their accomplishment. I love another maiden.' + +'That I knew,' said Christine, 'but I was afraid....' + +'That your cousin's truth would not be able to withstand these powerful +attractions,' said Arwed completing the sentence for her. 'You are +either very vain of your charms, beauteous cousin, or have made +acquaintance with very bad specimens of our sex.' + +A deep sigh escaped from the oppressed bosom of Christine. + +'Now, so long as I remain here,' continued Arwed, 'it shall be my most +anxious endeavor to restore my sex to your good opinion. In the first +place I shall quiet your apprehensions by the assurance, that my heart +is entirely filled by a distant and beloved object,--that I shall never +become troublesome to you as a suitor,--and that I will decline the +proposed connection with so much decision, that the anger of our +parents shall fall entirely on myself. I would love you as a brother +should love a sister; but I would also be allowed the brother's right +to tell you the truth whenever I may think it necessary to your +welfare,--would counsel you,--warn you....' + +'Yes, Arwed, be my brother!' cried Christine, with a convulsive +pressure of his hand. 'Ah, that you could always have been so!' + +'By this, however,' said Arwed, 'I must consider myself as having +acquired some claim to your sisterly confidence. I am glad to know that +you can feel no other sentiment for me, as it would give me pain to be +compelled to reject your heart as well as your hand. But I cannot +possibly believe that your coldness extends to the whole sex. That, +indeed, would be still more unnatural than your horse-racing and +bear-hunting; No, no! your heart is not insensible. The glance of your +eye, like the diamond, now flashing fire, and now dissolving in +crystals, has already revealed it. You know what it is to love!' + +'You afflict me cruelly, cousin!' cried Christine, holding her hand +before her traitorous eyes. + +'Confide in me,' entreated Arwed, affectionately withdrawing her hand +from her face. 'Go back with me to the times of our happy childhood, +when we mutually imparted all our little secrets, when we laid our +hearts before each other like open books. Let me once more read in +yours: who is the man of your choice?' + +'You _shall_ read it, Arwed,' cried Christine; 'by heaven you shall +read it! But not now,--only not to-day.' + +'Why not now?' urged Arwed. 'The present is precisely the right moment. +Your heart is now softened and open. Pour it out towards me before +caprice and false shame shall again harden and close it. Name the man +of your choice to me, and take my word that I will honestly do whatever +I can to promote your happiness. Surely, Christine can have no reason +to be ashamed of her choice!' + +'Pity me!' cried she; and, again bursting into tears, she fled from the +room. + +'Strange!' said Arwed, looking after her. 'The maiden is not at peace +with herself; that is evident from the violence and eccentricity of her +behaviour. There is a wounded spot in her heart which smarts at the +least touch. Pray heaven it be not Mac Donalbain! It would be a pity +for so magnificent a creature.' + + + + CHAPTER XXXII. + + +Arwed had soon become accustomed and reconciled to his exile at +Gyllensten. Excursions among its environs under the pretext of hunting, +afforded him ample enjoyment of the beauties of nature and free scope +for the play of his imagination; and these, together with the business +of the governor's bureau, in which, at his own request, he was +permitted to take a part, occupied his days; while the evenings were +employed in reading to the family circle, and in playing chess, a +favorite game with his uncle. Thus, by means of constant and varied +occupation, the time passed rapidly and pleasantly at the solitary +castle. Meanwhile Megret, who had already obtained two extensions of +his furlough, continued to besiege the heart of the fair Christine, and +to submit with patient resignation to all the caprices by which that +eccentric maiden chose to prove the constancy and perseverance of her +adorer. He was, indeed, almost the only one at Gyllensten who had to +suffer from them; for Arwed, true to the brotherly character which he +had assumed, did not spare his beautiful sister, and every instance of +arrogance in which the unevenness of her humor led her to indulge, was +quietly though earnestly reproved, until she was oftentimes brought to +despair. These little quarrels usually ended with tears and +supplications on the part of Christine, which were so touching that it +required all the influence of Georgina's memory and the conviction of +Christine's secret love for another, to cool his youthful heart to that +degree of circumspection necessary in his peculiar circumstances. Mac +Donalbain's frequent visits to Gyllensten, moreover, seemed to exercise +a great and unhappy influence upon the disposition of the otherwise so +lovely maiden. During his presence she exhibited a constant excitement +which immediately after his departure changed to a deep melancholy, out +of which she emerged only to torment all who would suffer themselves to +be tormented by her, with her caprices. From her father she concealed +the state of her feelings as much as possible, and if it occasionally +occurred to him that all was not as it should be, the business of his +office, in consequence of the critical situation of the country, +prevented his looking too deeply into the affairs of his household or +his daughter's heart; and Arwed, though Christine still remained +indebted to him for her promised confidence, could not bring himself to +betray her to his uncle. + +In this manner the summer had arrived, when one evening at the supper +table, in Megret's and Mac Donalbain's presence, the governor asked +Arwed if he had a desire to see a natural curiosity, to visit which +Charles XI did not hesitate to make a long journey. + +Arwed joyfully assured him that he regarded the wonders of the natural +world as a spectacle, in comparison with which the greatest efforts of +human ingenuity were of little value,--and that it was, indeed, one of +his favorite occupations to contemplate them. + +'The Tornea-Laplanders have lately made many complaints to me,' said +the governor. 'They complain especially of the collectors of the royal +taxes, and of the excesses of the Finlanders, attracted within their +boundaries by the chase. Since my gout has left me, I will myself ride +to Tornea, to examine and adjust all these affairs upon the spot; and +have selected the longest day in the year for that purpose. It is their +court day, and also the day of their annual fair, which collects +together the inhabitants of the whole country surrounding Tornea; and +we can at the same time enjoy the rare and beautiful spectacle of the +sun, which on this day does not set at all, enabling the king of Sweden +in a certain sense to claim the same honor of which the sovereign of +Spain and the Indies makes his boast.' + +'I thank you heartily for offering me this rare enjoyment,' said Arwed, +and Christine timidly requested to be allowed to make one of the party. + +'Certainly, if it will afford you pleasure, and you prefer going with +us to staying at home,' answered her father significantly. 'We have for +some time past become somewhat strange to each other, without my being +able to guess precisely what is the cause of it.' + +Christine cast a melancholy and complaining glance upon her neighbor, +Mac Donalbain, and Megret eagerly begged to be added to the company. + +'Your society is always agreeable to me,' answered the governor. 'How +stands it with you, sir Mac Donalbain?' he kindly asked the Scot, 'will +you also be of our party? Rich as your Scotland is in natural wonders, +you cannot see this spectacle there. Scandinavia is the only country of +Europe which exhibits it, with the exception of poor Iceland, which +hardly deserves to be regarded as belonging to our part of the world.' + +'I do not know when you intend to undertake the excursion,' answered +Mac Donalbain with some embarrassment. + +'We start to-morrow morning at day-break,' answered the governor. + +'My engagements will not allow me to join the interesting expedition so +soon,' said Mac Donalbain. 'It is barely possible that I may so manage +my affairs as to be able to meet and pay my respects to you at Tornea.' + +'It must be a strange business,' said Megret, 'which prevents your +accompanying us, and at the same time permits you to meet us at the end +of our journey.' + +'I do not consider, colonel,' cried Mac Donalbain, with a look of +deadly hate and a low bow to the scoffer, 'that I am under any +obligation to account to you for my business, or the manner in which it +is pursued.' + +'By no means, sir Mac Donalbain,' answered Megret, returning his bow; +'I am not one of the police-officers of this province, and have no +official inducement to trouble myself about your pursuits.' + +'Death and hell! what mean you by that?' exclaimed Mac Donalbain, +springing from his seat,--but Christine pulled him down again and +anxiously whispered to him some words of entreaty. + +'Forget not, gentlemen,' cried the governor in an authoritative tone of +voice, 'that you are both my guests, and that it does not become you to +quarrel upon my hearth, where you have both been freely welcomed. I +esteem you both and would resign the society of neither, but I have a +right to demand that you respect this castle, and seek a more suitable +place for the indulgence of the secret enmity which you appear to bear +toward each other. This time, colonel, you are in the wrong. I regret +to be compelled to say to you that, if sir Mac Donalbain took your +remark somewhat too sharply, yet you gave occasion therefor by the +scornful tone in which it was made. Therefore you owe it to me and to +him to take the first step toward a reconciliation; and you cannot be +considered my friend, if you refuse to drink the health of this noble +Scot, which I now propose.' + +A struggle was now seen in the proud Frenchman, between the hatred he +bore his enemy and the respect due from him to the father of Christine. +He cast a tiger glance upon Mac Donalbain, which was met by one equally +fierce, and not being able to come to a determination what to do, he +waited in moody silence, neither accepting nor rejecting the goblet +offered to him by the governor. + +'Do you hesitate?' earnestly asked the governor. 'As yet neither of you +has said any thing to the other which can be considered injurious to +the honor of a gentleman. This is only a misunderstanding, which must +be completely reconciled. If you refuse this, you thereby confess an +intention to offend sir Mac Donalbain, and it will become my duty as +host to resent it as if the offence were intended for me.' + +Megret seized the goblet, 'The lord of this castle,' said he with +suppressed rage to Mac Donalbain, 'calls you a noble Scot. As I have +not the pleasure of an intimate acquaintance with you, I am willing to +consider the statement which has so noble a voucher as true, and upon +that supposition I drink your health.' + +'I receive the toast and return it with as much sincerity as it was +offered,' answered Mac Donalbain, emptying his glass. + +The governor, observing that the anger of the two belligerents still +remained, in spite of the constrained and ambiguous reconciliation, +thought it prudent to give the signal for retiring. + +'That we may be able to start early in the morning,' said he, rising, +'I hope my worthy guests will excuse me if I break up the sitting +earlier than usual. I intend to seek my bed betimes, that I may be the +better prepared for the fatigues of the journey, and therefore wish you +a good night.' + +'I shall have the honor to be at the door of your carriage by sunrise, +ready for the journey,' said Megret, bowing and retiring. + +'As I must start this evening for Arnaes,' said Mac Donalbain, 'allow +me to wish you a pleasant ride. At Tornea I hope to meet you again.' + +He departed with a significant glance at Christine, who followed him +out, and Arwed was left alone with his uncle. + +The governor remained some time in a deep reverie, rubbing the wrinkles +from his forehead, which as constantly reappeared there, and finally +asked Arwed: 'what think you of our two guests?' + +'You must long since have observed that neither of them is particularly +agreeable to me. Being your guests, I would have said nothing against +them; but since you expressly ask my opinion, I will give it honestly: +they appear to me like two wolves engaged tooth and nail in fighting +for a noble deer. God grant that the victim may save herself during the +contest, and both the monsters have an empty reckoning.' + +'Your comparison appears to me to be overstrained; you may not, however +be wholly wrong. As soon as I return from Tornea I will adopt different +measures. I begin to think it would have been better had I done so at +an earlier period. Good night.' + + + + CHAPTER XXXIII. + + +The rising sun of the next morning found every one busy at Gyllensten, +and the travelers prepared for their excursion. Christine, who had +hoped to fly in advance of the rest of the company on her swift dun +courser, was compelled to take a seat in the carriage with her father, +who feared his gout, and her noble horse was led after her by the +domestics, who accompanied the expedition in another carriage. Arwed +and Megret, with their grooms, were in the saddle. The company set +forth in a northerly direction, having the gulf of Bothnia on their +right, and the mountains of Lapland on their left, passing the stations +Beygde and Skelleste until they arrived at the little port of Pitea, +which, yet poorer than Umea, lay at the mouth of the Pitea Elf. There, +with the relay horses, six Swedish dragoons, furnished by the bailiwick +and led by the sheriff, marched up with drawn swords to perform escort +duty for the remainder of the governor's journey. + +'Wherefore trouble these people, Mr. Sheriff?' said the governor. 'The +road is safe, as far as I know, and for that reason I took no escort +with me from Umea.' + +'For some time past,' answered the sheriff, 'a band of robbers have +beset this neighborhood. Two well planned and successfully executed +burglaries, in quick succession, have created much alarm; and +yesterday, a man who attempted to travel to Tornea, was found slain +upon the road between here and Lulea.' + +'And you have yet made no effort to apprehend the perpetrators of the +deed?' asked the governor discontentedly. 'If the police do their duty +such transgressors cannot long escape the vengeance of the laws.' + +'The waste and desolate condition of that region,' said the sheriff by +way of excuse, 'facilitates the flight of the robbers and renders +pursuit difficult. The inhabitants of the scattered houses and small +hamlets fear to seize a single robber while their helpless situation +exposes them to the vengeance of the whole band, which numbers thirty +men. Their leader is called Black Naddock, and always has his face +colored black when he goes out upon his predatory excursions.' + +'You must cause strict search to be made,' directed the governor. +'Write to the sheriff of Umea, in my name, for as many men as he can +spare. Until they arrive you must do the best you can with your +dragoons. They need not accompany us. We are numerous and used to +danger. Should the robbers venture to attack us, we should suffer less +from the encounter than they.' + +He entered his carriage and the whole company continued their route, +still in a northerly direction, by the little town of Lulea, where the +greater and less Lulea Elf roll their mingled waters into the sea, +until they arrived at Ranea, where the gulf of Bothnia forms an angle +and the road turns off to the east. So far nothing had occurred to +justify the apprehensions of the sheriff, and the caution of the +travelers, which had hitherto kept them in close companionship, that +they might be ready to aid each other, began to relax. Megret, whom +Christine jestingly accused of riding near the carriage not for hers +but his own safety, had angrily ridden forward; and Arwed, giving way +to his own reflections, had turned into a fir-wood on the left, in +which he followed a foot-path leading toward the north. He might have +followed this path for the space of an hour, when he heard at a +distance ahead of him a sudden cry for help. Giving the spur to his +horse, he flew in the direction whence the voice came. He soon came in +view of Megret contending with four ill-looking fellows, who had seized +his horse by the bridle and furiously beset him with cudgels and +cutlasses. + +'However little he may deserve it,' said the youth to himself, 'one +must help him in his extremity!' and, with a pistol in his left, and a +drawn sword in his right hand, he rushed into the fight. This attack +called the attention of the ruffians from Megret, who, taking advantage +of the circumstance, recovered his bridle and made off with all +possible speed. + +Angry at the escape of their prey, the robbers now fell upon Arwed. The +latter, having fired and missed, soon had full employment for his sword +and the activity of his horse, in keeping off the ruffians, who +attacked him on all sides, and appeared to be well accustomed to such +combats. He made an attempt to wheel his horse suddenly to the right +and thus make an opening for escape; but here two other men, who by +their appearance belonged to the gang, met him with well aimed rifles. + +'I could have wished a more honorable death,' he murmured, and at that +moment a tall man in a green hunting dress sprang from a neighboring +thicket. A red plume waved from his hat, and his face was black as a +Moor's. He spoke some angry words in an unintelligible jargon to the +robbers, upon which they immediately abandoned Arwed and disappeared in +the bushes, and the Moor motioned to Arwed to depart. + +'Thanks, captain!' said Arwed, rejoiced at this unexpected rescue, and +pushing forward, he soon found himself upon the highway. + +There he met Megret, with both of their servants, coming to seek for +him. 'Here you are, then!' said Megret out of breath, 'and, as I hope, +not wounded. I should never have forgiven myself if you had been +injured in rescuing me!' + +'God be praised that you are alive, Arwed!' cried the beauteous +Christine, flying to meet him upon her favorite dun courser, and her +blue eyes flashed upon him so affectionately as to cause a fluttering +at his heart. + +'You see, major,' said Megret flatteringly, 'how instantaneously all +were hastening to your assistance.' + +'Your promptness is worthy of all thanks, colonel,' answered Arwed; +'but your help would have been of little service to me had I not been +so fortunate as to make the acquaintance of Black Naddock. His command +caused the fiends by whom I was hard pressed, to vanish. Had he not +appeared most opportunely, you would in all probability have found only +my dead body.' + +'That would indeed have been purchasing the safety of a man who could +leave his preserver in the danger which had been incurred for his sake, +at too dear a rate,' remarked Christine, with bitterness. + +Megret did not notice the sarcasm, as at that moment he was begging of +Arwed, with singular eagerness, that he would describe the personal +appearance of the robber-captain. + +'He was a tall, well made man,' answered Arwed, 'about Mac Donalbain's +size, in a hunting dress, well armed, and with a black face.' + +'But the features of that face?' asked Megret, anxiously. 'Bore they no +resemblance to any you have heretofore seen?' + +'Really!' answered Arwed with a smile, 'I did not give myself time to +examine the blackamoor. In leaving him with all convenient haste I did +what you surely will excuse, as you set the first example of a resort +to the spur.' + +'You ought to have shot him down!' continued Megret venomously, 'and +then we should have been no longer in the dark with regard to his +identity.' + +'At the moment when he had just saved my life?' asked Arwed, with +earnestness. 'Surely, that cannot be your true meaning, colonel!' + +'The countess is fainting!' screamed old Knut, spurring his horse to +Christine's side, and catching the pale maiden in his arms. + +'Fainting! such a heroine fainting upon so slight an occasion!' +sneeringly remarked Megret. 'There must be some especial and secret +cause for it! Whether that cause rides here upon the highway, or skulks +there in the woods?--that is the question.' + +Arwed, who had listened in silent wonder to Megret's observations, +which were wholly unintelligible to him, had in the meantime ridden to +the other side of Christine, and there assisted Knut in supporting the +poor girl in her saddle while they slowly returned to the carriage, +from which the governor had taken the horses in order to send the +coachman to the belligerents, as a reinforcement. + +'Thank heaven, it is not necessary!' cried he, glancing at Arwed, and, +extending his hand, he affectionately exclaimed, 'my brave son!' + + +'We bring you a patient,' said Arwed, lifting Christine from her horse, +with Knut's assistance, and placing her in the carriage by her father's +side. + +'Yes, no dissuasion could prevent it,' answered the governor. She would +go. She has had her way, and I am glad the unmanageable girl has for +once been compelled to yield to the weakness of her sex.' + +At this moment Christine opened her eyes. Her glance at first fell upon +Arwed with inexpressible tenderness. She then shrunk and trembled as +though her soul was subdued by some horrible fear. Terror and dismay +were depicted in her features, and she hid her face in the bosom of her +astonished father. + + + + CHAPTER XXXIV. + + +The sun of the longest summer day shone brightly in the horizon, as the +governor and his companions approached Tornea, the end of their +journey, and the meanest among the (so called) cities of West Bothnia. +It lies near the boundary of East Bothnia, upon the delta of the united +rivers Tornea and Muonio, whose waters here again divide into two +branches before falling into the gulf of Bothnia. The little place, +with its towers, its handsome shops, and green shaded walks, +nevertheless presented itself under a very pleasant aspect in the clear +sunshine. In the city itself, however, the whole population of West +Bothnia and its Lapponian districts appeared to have been concentrated, +and in the streets and public square swarmed and pressed the joyous +multitude, who were pouring in to obtain a redress of their grievances, +to be relieved from their taxes, to buy and sell, and to enjoy +themselves in so numerous a company. The thick-set and bold Finlanders, +with flat yellow faces and dull gray eyes, their thin beards and dusky +yellow hair, in their short coats, dome-shaped caps, and fur-trimmed +half boots--the timid, short Laplanders, with their broad brown faces, +large mouths, blear eyes, and dark brown hair, with their leather coats +reaching to their knees, their small caps, and pointed, fur-trimmed +sandals,--all were here,--bringing with them fat cattle, venison, +sheepskins, bearskins, fish, reindeer cheeses, utensils carved from +wood, reindeer's horns, and pine bark meal, in great quantities, for +sale. Here came the wife of one of the poor fishermen of Lapland, in +her high conical cap, turning out of the way for the reindeer upon +which the wives of some of the rich mountain Laplanders proudly +flaunted by, in their curved conical head-dresses. There, a Laplandish +burgher-maiden ostentatiously displayed herself in her fine cloth +dress, decorated with silver buttons from the girdle to the feet, as +was the black bodice, and also rendered stiff and unbending with +buckles and spangles. High over these rather diminutive figures towered +here and there the majestic forms of the blond natives of Sweden, who +were moving about like giants among a race of pigmies. + +The travelers alighted before the door of the sheriff's residence, and +the governor immediately entered upon business, which crowded upon him +like the unceasing rush of the storm-lashed waves. Megret, with a few +internally muttered oaths, was seeking Christine, who had disappeared +from his view soon after their arrival, and Arwed remained standing at +the house door, amusing himself with watching the confused crowd in the +public square. While he was thus employed, a sudden movement occurred +among the living masses, as if an island of human heads was forming in +one particular spot. Arms, with and without clubs, were ever and anon +raised above the thickly crowded heads, and a confused cry arose, in +which Arwed soon plainly distinguished the words, 'stop him! stop him!' +The next moment a man in a green hunting dress rushed from the square +towards the door of the sheriff's house, ran by Arwed with such +impetuosity that he came near throwing him down, and hastily entered +the room where the governor was holding his official sitting. While the +astonished Arwed was looking after the fugitive, a Lapland village +constable (or magistrate) came puffing and blowing from the same +direction in the square. A dozen other Laplanders followed in his wake, +armed with hunting spears, oars and cudgels. With the timidity to which +the oppressed are early accustomed by their oppressors, the little +constable looked up to the tall Swedish warrior, took off his cap, and +with cringing humility asked him if he knew what had become of the +green-coat who had just before fled into the house. + +'Impossible!' cried he, as Arwed pointed towards the session room; 'how +could such a thievish fox seek refuge in the tent of the huntsman? Not +that I in the least doubt the truth of your intimation, noble sir,' +added he, courteously, 'but Enontekis must have mistaken the man, and +he cannot be the one whom we seek.' + +'He is the same,' asseverated one of the Laplanders; 'I have marked the +features of his face but too well, and should know him among a +thousand.' + +'So then we must pluck up fresh courage,' said the constable in a very +dispirited tone, 'and request an audience of the gentlemen within. Come +with me, Enontekis, to enter your complaint; and you others, guard the +door, that this beast of prey may not escape.' + +The two Laplanders entered the session room. Arwed followed them with +highly excited curiosity. The first object that met his eye was the +huntsman, whom he now for the first time recognised as Mac Donalbain, +in close and friendly conversation with the governor. While he was +vainly endeavoring to find the key to these singular occurrences, the +constable and his companion, afraid to speak aloud in the presence of +their superiors, were disputing in vehement pantomime, the former +denying and the latter affirming, although with constantly increasing +uncertainty and anxiety. Finally, the constable approached the bar and +slightly touched the arm of the sheriff. + +'With your leave, respected sir,' asked he, as the latter turned toward +him, 'does the stranger huntsman there enjoy the acquaintance of the +lord governor?' + +'So it would seem,' answered the sheriff, 'as the governor has just now +invited him to dinner.' + +At that moment the governor shook the Scot kindly by the hand, and the +Laplander started back in affright. + +'Do you not now perceive that you must have been blind?' whispered he +to the good Enontekis. 'My God! what trouble might I not have prepared +for myself through my zeal for the discharge of my official duty! To +follow a friend and guest of our most noble governor as a criminal! But +happily the gentlemen have not perceived us, and we cannot do better +than to make a speedy retreat.' + +With anxious haste he drew his somewhat reluctant companion out of the +room. Meanwhile Mac Donalbain had taken his leave of the governor, and +now quickly, but with a courteous greeting, dashed past Arwed, who +followed him to the door of the room. There he saw him cast a wild +glance toward the crowd assembled before the front door, and then turn +off to the right toward the back door, which opened into the garden. +The constable was standing there, engaged in a warm dispute with poor +Enontekis, who was still unsatisfied that he could have been mistaken. +Their armed followers, whose thirst for battle did not appear to be +very strong, were standing solemnly around them. Mac Donalbain stood +for a moment regarding the group as if considering what course to take, +and then marched boldly up to his pursuers. + +'Out of the way, Laplanders!' thundered he, hurling them to the right +and left; and in this manner he passed through the assemblage and +disappeared. + +'That was very uncourteous, sir Swede!' cried the terrified constable +after him when he had got out of hearing. 'We call ourselves Samolazes, +and not Laplanders. Our enemies only call us so, when they wish to +insult us; but we poor people are treated justly nowhere upon earth, +and must be patient under all our injuries until we appear before the +final judgment seat!' + +The tone of the little man grew constantly weaker and weaker during +this speech. Weeping, he went forth; weeping, Enontekis followed him; +and sobbing and wiping their eyes, the twelve warriors followed them. + +'What can all this mean?' Arwed asked himself, as he returned to the +session room. + +'Mac Donalbain,' observed he to the governor, 'appeared to seek you +with great haste; had he any very important favor to ask?' + +'Not that I know of,' answered the governor. 'He came here only for a +moment, to fulfill his promise that he would greet me at Tornea. He was +obliged to decline my invitation to dinner because of an engagement +with a hunting party.' + +'Has Mac Donalbain been here?' asked Megret, hastily entering the room. + +'But a moment since,' answered Arwed, 'and he cannot now be far off. +What do you wish of him?' + +'A crowd of Laplanders,' said Megret, 'are seeking, with spears and +poles, in all the streets of Tornea for a huntsman, who, according to +their description, can be no other than Mac Donalbain; and I should be +very happy to place the noble gentleman before the good people, so that +I might learn precisely what they want of him.' + +'We shall probably find him in the garden,' answered Arwed, and they +hastened there together. But the garden was empty. 'Incomprehensible!' +exclaimed the sheriff, who had followed them. 'The garden gate leading +to the street is closed, and I have the key with me.' + +'Not so incomprehensible as you may suppose,' rejoined Megret, pointing +to a hedge-row by the garden wall whose freshly broken and trampled +branches plainly showed that some one had recently clambered over them. + +'Your pardon, sir officer,' stammered the sheriff, examining the +damaged hedge, 'that is still more incomprehensible,--for what could +have induced the gentleman to climb over the wall, and thus do me so +great an injury?' + +'That, master sheriff,' answered Megret, 'is to me most comprehensible, +if I am right in my suspicions.' + +'What do you mean by that?' asked Arwed; but Megret, who was busily +examining the marks of injury upon the hedge, did not hear him. 'So the +weasel has escaped me,' said he, grating his teeth; 'but, by my honor, +he is lost if he again venture into my snare.' + + + + CHAPTER XXXV. + + +'The royal taxes were raised, the constantly recurring lawsuits of the +Finns and Laplanders about pasturage, the chase and the fishery, were +settled in some way, by power and with mildness, the sun was +approaching the horizon, and the hum of the crowd in the market place +grew fainter and fainter. + +'My business is finished,' said the governor to Arwed, 'and it will +soon be time to view the spectacle for which you have given yourself +the trouble to come here. Seek Christine. We shall set out +immediately.' + +Arwed searched the house, garden, and the whole of the little town, +without being able to find her. As he was returning in the ill humor +naturally consequent upon his want of success, he was met by the +sheriff's little daughter. + +'Perhaps you can tell me, my child,' he asked, 'where I can find the +governor's daughter?' + +The little thing gave him an arch look and placed her finger on her +nose. 'That indeed can I,' answered she; 'but I know not whether I may +venture to do so.' + +'I will answer for it that you may,' Arwed jestingly assured her. 'I am +a messenger from her father--' + +'And possibly for that reason I may not. Fathers must not be allowed to +know every thing. The countess told me that, should a handsome slender +man in a green hunting dress ask for her, I might direct him where she +was. Now you are indeed handsome and slender, but the green dress is +wanting.' + +'Who knows if she will be able to see the green coat to-day,' answered +Arwed significantly. 'Lead me to her. Perhaps she will be willing to +receive, for once, a blue coat instead of the green.' + +'Well, at your own risk!' cried the child, leading him by some deserted +passages through the house and garden into the open fields, where the +waters of a meandering stream glistened among the trees in the evening +sun. + +'She is there behind that thicket of alder bushes upon the border of +the stream!' whispered the child. 'Good success to you, sir officer!' +and she ran back to the house. + +'Even at the north pole,' said Arwed, proceeding forward, 'the sex +indulge in amorous intrigues, and promote those of others when they +have none of their own.' He came to the bushes, and was not a little +astonished when, instead of Christine, he beheld a Finnish peasant +girl, who sat angling on the bank with her back towards him. But the +disguise was soon betrayed by the beauteous golden locks of the girl, +and the deep reverie into which she had fallen,--and he silently +approached through the bushes, that he might surprise his fair cousin. + +The latter discovered by the slight movements of the foliage that some +one was approaching; but, pretending not to have remarked it, she sang +in her sweetest tones a Finnish song, in keeping with her assumed +character. The words were as follows: + + Oh! if the dear and only loved + Might by some magic art appear, + Though on his mouth the wolfs blood hung, + My lips should kiss its beauty clear! + Though round his hand a serpent's coil + Envious, had twined its venom'd ring, + Would not all-powerful love defy + The danger of the reptile's sting! + + Why lacks the wind a fervent soul + Like that which glows within my breast? + Why lives not language in its sigh? + Then could it speed my fond request! + Then, truant, then the whisp'ring breeze + Thy thoughts might interchange with mine; + And, faithful carrier, swiftly bear + The throbbings of this heart to thine! + +'Poor maiden!' sighed Arwed with fearful misgivings. 'God grant that +the man thy heart has chosen, drip only with the blood of the wolf, +that the serpents of hell be not coiled around the hand which thou +wouldst press so tenderly in thine!' + +Meanwhile Christine, having ended her song, listened a moment, and then +turning towards the thicket, exclaimed, 'tease me no longer, Mac +Donalbain, it is you--I hear your breathing.' + +'The lover hears acutely, but not always rightly,' said Arwed +advancing. 'It is only the breathing of your insignificant kinsman.' + +'My God, what have I done!' shrieked the terrified Christine, covering +her face with her hands. + +'Lost the secret,' answered Arwed 'that you once promised to confide to +me. I am indebted to accident for what I now know, and not to your +confidence.' + +'Can that be any excuse for your betraying me?' asked Christine, +grasping his hand and searching deeply into his soul with her beautiful +blue eyes. + +'Do I look like a betrayer?' asked Arwed, indignantly withdrawing his +hand. 'The knowledge of what I only conjectured till now, at least +authorises me to exercise the fraternal right which you have conceded +to me, and earnestly to warn you against this Scot, who, by the mildest +judgment, is only an adventurer. Even if the garb in which you have +to-day so strangely clothed yourself did actually belong to you, you +could not hope to derive any especial honor from such a connection; the +countess Gyllenstierna degrades her rank and reputation when she throws +herself away upon a suspected vagabond.' + +'Then cast I from me both rank and reputation,' cried the maiden, with +the defiance of desperation, 'and retain the garb which brings me +nearer to him, and in which I am allowed to love him.' + +'Has it gone so far with you, cousin? Then indeed must this masquerade +have some secret object, and you were at least willing to try, how it +would become you against the time when it may be adopted for life. +There is too much meaning in this, and I should but discharge the duty +of a guest and kinsman by informing your father of the affair.' + +Christine gave the youth a piercing glance, and sprung upon a rock +which jutted out far over the stream. 'Give me your word of honor, +Arwed,' cried she from her place of refuge, 'that you will remain +silent to every one upon this matter, or I will instantly throw myself +into the stream.' + +'What madness!' cried Arwed, advancing to take her from her dangerous +situation. + +'Back!' screamed she wildly. 'The first step you take toward me shall +plunge me in a cold and watery grave. By my mother's ashes, I will keep +my word! In any event life has henceforth no joy for me.' + +'Well, come down!' cried Arwed, angrily; 'by my honor I will be +silent.' + +'Thanks, thanks!' said Christine descending; 'you are a Gyllenstierna +and will keep your word. And now, nothing more upon this unpleasant +subject. Let us return to our companions. My disguise is a jest I +played off upon you. Do you understand me, Arwed?' + +'Perfectly!' answered the latter; and, troubled by the cloud hanging +over the maiden's fate, as well as vexed that he had taken upon himself +the thankless office of confidant, he gave his arm to the beauteous +Finlander, and they proceeded back to the house in moody silence. + + + + CHAPTER XXXVI. + + +At ten o'clock in the evening, which, however, was no evening there, +the whole party found themselves assembled in the church of Tornea. The +governor was standing near the altar in earnest contemplation of a +suspended tablet which narrated in golden letters how Charles XI had +observed the midnight sun from the tower of that church, in the year +1694. At the same time the pastor of the church, a venerable old man, +was calling the attention of Christine to a medal which had been struck +upon that occasion. Looking over her shoulder Arwed read the +inscription: _Soli inocciduo sol obvius alter_,--and asked if this +metaphor were not too much in the oriental style for Charles XI. + +'Charles XI,' answered Megret, approaching the group, 'left to his son +a throne well supported at home and respected abroad; with a full +treasury, and many flourishing provinces, besides the hereditary +states. How happy would it have been for Sweden had his son been +willing to rest contented with the glory of having preserved his +paternal inheritance.' + +The uncle and nephew simultaneously turned towards the speaker, with +noble indignation, to defend the character of their adored king against +his foreign traducer;--but before they could find words, the pastor, +accustomed to speak in that house, and stirred by the occasion, took +the answer upon himself. 'The judgment,' cried he, in his deep, +resounding voice, 'which you have passed upon our immortal king is as +unjust as it is harsh. You forget that his first wars were purely +defensive; that even his victories, which rendered Sweden illustrious +in the eyes of all Europe, involved him in circumstances which at last +brought misfortunes upon his head. You judge him by the situation in +which he left his realm when God removed him from it in the bloom of +manhood, and entirely overlook what he would have accomplished for +Sweden had he been allowed time for the fulfilment of his designs for +her prosperity. It is a sad truth that the country now finds itself on +the brink of misery; but far be it from us to complain of our immortal +king, on that account. Let us rather curse the murderous villain whose +bullet ended that great man's life before Frederickshall! Him, him +alone, has the kingdom to thank for its calamities; and may all the +tears and blood which have flowed since that black night, and which +must flow hereafter, be poured into the balance of his sins, until he +may sink down to the regions of everlasting torment, overborne by their +weight!' + +'So you are one of those,' said Megret, with embarrassed mockery, 'who, +from your passion for the romantic and marvellous, will have it that no +man of consequence can die except by assassination! In consequence of +the rashness with which the king exposed himself to the fire of the +enemy, it would rather have been matter of astonishment had he escaped +alive. The balls flew so thick, that the agency of assassins was not +necessary to account for his death.' + +'I have my convictions!' cried the pastor, in the heat of his +indignation, 'and those convictions are neither to be sneered nor +subtilized away! God, however, who proves the heart and the reins, must +pass judgment upon the concealed guilt, and punish the murderer +according to his deserts--here, through the worm that never dies, and +there, in the fire that is never quenched! Amen.' + +'You are pale, colonel!' cried Arwed, suddenly giving Megret a +searching look. 'Are you ill?' + +'I was heated when I entered the church,' answered Megret in a faint +voice, placing his hand upon his forehead; 'and this place seems to me +to be very cold. I feel as though suffering from an ague fit, which +however a few moments in the open air will dissipate.' + +He retired with uncertain steps. All followed him with looks of +surprise and inquiry, and a long pause ensued. + +'Is it now your excellency's pleasure,' said the pastor to the +governor, 'to ascend the church tower and thence, like Charles XI, +observe the circular course of the day-star?' + +'I thank you, sir pastor,' answered the governor. 'I have already +looked me out a place upon the level ground, where we can better enjoy +the beauties of nature together with this rare spectacle, than from so +high a point of view, and you will do me a pleasure by accompanying +us.' + +The pastor accepted the invitation. The party left the church, and, +without encountering Megret on their way, entered a boat in readiness +for the occasion, and were conveyed to a small island which appeared to +swim in the stream, opposite the town of Tornea. A solitary house, +surrounded by some small huts, and a wind-mill, stood near the +landing-place. The travelers, ascending, laid themselves upon the bank, +their faces turned towards the sun, and silently enjoyed the view, at +once attractive and awful, there presented to them. + +The still, clear waters of the Tornea and Munio, upon which white +fishing sails were gliding here and there, blushed in the rays of the +evening sun, and were adorned on either side by high bushy banks. In +the middle ground, the city, with its spires, was sweetly reflected in +the peaceful waters. The back ground was closed by bare and sterile +heights which were linked into each other like a chain, and concealed +the opening through which the united streams rolled on in their course +toward the sea. + +At the edge of the horizon, behind the city, shone the nocturnal sun +with rays that with difficulty dissipated the vapors collected by the +evening air, as the forerunners of a night, which, on this occasion, +was not permitted to make its appearance. The illumination had +something dismal about it, for the magnificent sphere seemed to have +lost the substance of its splendor as at the time of an annular +eclipse, and threw, but a pale light upon land and water. The silence +of death prevailed over the face of all nature. The mills upon the +height behind Tornea, as well as that upon the island, were standing +still,--the bewildered birds had flown to their roosts,--and the whole +less resembled an actual world, than a landscape in a magic glass, +lighted by a magic sun, which lacked the powerful life of nature. +Meanwhile Tornea's church bell tolled the midnight hour. + +'Great and wonderful are the works of the Lord!' suddenly exclaimed the +devout pastor; 'and he, who considers them aright, has great pleasure +therein.' + +'I also adore the great Creator in the exhibition of his terrors,' said +Arwed. 'But I must acknowledge that the silent, friendly, and dusky +star-lit night of my own Upland, is dearer to me than this wonderful +day. A sun which seems always to approach its setting, and yet never +sets, but remains mournfully suspended between life and death, is in +truth no joyous sight.' + +'An image of my poor native country!' said the governor, soliloquising. + +'And of my fate!' whispered Christine, almost inaudibly, as she leaned +her weeping face upon Arwed's shoulder. + +At this moment a row-boat from Tornea approached the island. Megret +sprang out of it. 'Despatches from Umea!' cried he. 'The courier +appeared to come in great haste; wherefore I took it upon myself to +bring them directly to you.' + +'You bring me nothing good,' said the governor, forebodingly, as he +hastily opened the letter. 'As I conjectured! Let us start! We must +this night commence our homeward journey.' + +'In heaven's name, father, what is the matter?' asked Christine, in +sympathy with her father's alarm. + +'The Danes have invaded Bahuslehn,' answered the governor; 'the +Russians have landed in Upland. Unless God perform miracles in our +favor, Sweden is lost. Let us hence to Umea.' + + + + CHAPTER XXXVII. + + +As Arwed entered the castle of Gyllensten he was met by old Brodin, +who, with a face highly expressive of sorrow and condolence, bowed to +him in silence. + +'What do you bring me, old honesty?' asked Arwed, with alarm' 'Not sad +news, I hope? How does my father?' + +'The lord counsellor's excellency,' answered Brodin, 'is as well as +could be desired, and sends his kind regards to you. I am charged with +an important commission, for the execution of which I must beg a +private audience.' + +'It concerns Georgina!' cried Arwed, with a sudden presentiment, and +without awaiting Brodin's answer he led him into his private chamber. +'Now speak!' cried he with vehemence. 'I am prepared to hear all.' + +'Were you a weak-nerved lady,' commenced Brodin, slowly drawing a +letter from the pocket of his traveling coat, 'it might be necessary to +preface the unpleasant intelligence of which I am the bearer with a +fitting preamble. But you are a stout young man, as well as a brave +soldier, and therefore I may venture to spare you the torment of fear +and expectation.' + +'Silence!' cried Arwed, tearing the letter from his hand. 'It is her +writing!' he exclaimed, breaking the seal, and then proceeded to read: + + +'MY NOBLE GYLLENSTIERNA! + +'The sympathy you continue to evince for the poor Georgina, blesses, +while it rends her heart. Notwithstanding the clearness with which I +explained myself, you are yet unwilling to consider our connection +dissolved. Nothing therefore remains for me but to effect a last and +eternal separation. I could have desired to spend the remainder of my +life wedded to the remembrance of my first and only love; but you have +yourself rendered this impossible. 'While I live, lives also your hope +of one day possessing me!' By this resolution of your true heart, you +have made it my duty to become dead to you for this world. Your father +wishes to place the hand of his only son in that of his love-deserving +niece, and thereby secure a continuation of the power and splendor of +your noble house. I was the only obstruction to the accomplishment of +this rational wish. I must not so continue. I could not answer to +myself for destroying the welfare of a youth, whom I would so willingly +have made happy by my faithful love, by my irresolution. To make you +free, I have bound myself. To spare you the sacrifice you were +determined to make, I have sacrificed myself. Since yesterday I have +been the wife of a worthy man, whose character I must respect, and whom +I could have loved, had I never known you. In his arms I may find, with +the peace which results from the performance of duty, that quiet +happiness which can result from a marriage, in the contracting of which +passion had no voice. May you also be truly happy! May you deserve that +happiness through obedience to your father's wishes! Believe me, Arwed, +there is something better in this life than the intoxication of +passion. I feel it in this heavy hour. Think of me sometimes, not only +without anger, but with tranquil kindness, as you would of a beloved +being who has preceded you to that eternal world where you hope to see +her once again. I shall never forget you. + + 'GEORGINA VON EYBEN.' + + +Poor Arwed sank upon a seat as if annihilated. The faithful Brodin +observed him with looks of the deepest sympathy. All at once the +youth's eyes began to flash with savage fury. He sprung up, and, +seizing the old man with a lion's rage, thundered in his ears, 'this +whole affair is a fable devised for my deception!' + +'Holy Savior! what is it you think?' cried the trembling Brodin. + +'I have read in many old tales,' cried Arwed, with bitter anguish, 'of +pretended marriages, and forged letters of renunciation, by which +hearts have been artfully torn asunder, that would else have remained +eternally united.' + +'Why, hey, count Arwed,' said Brodin chidingly, 'how can you so +misjudge your noble father as to suppose him guilty of such an +offence?' + +'I know,' answered Arwed, 'that my father considers the dissolution of +my connection with Georgina a matter of the utmost importance. A +counsellor of the realm stands high enough to permit himself to do many +things that would carry a common citizen to a criminal's dungeon. The +whole may be a specimen of the newest Swedish political management.' + +'Believe what you please, major!' angrily exclaimed Brodin. 'The letter +you have just read, I received from the hands of the writer, when I was +with her in obedience to your father's command.' + +'Brodin!' said the agitated Arwed, 'you are an old man! So near the +grave, you will not defile your soul with a lie; therefore answer me, +honest and true, as you have been through the whole course of your long +life--is Georgina actually married?' + +'By my God and his holy gospel!' cried the gray old man, solemnly +placing his hand upon his heart, 'I was myself, by her command, in the +cathedral church of Lubec, and saw her married to the imperial +counsellor von Eyben.' + +'It is then true!' sighed Arwed, again sinking back into his seat. + +Brodin approached, with humid eyes, to speak some words of +consolation,--but Arwed motioned him back, and the old man left the +room in silent sorrow. + + + + CHAPTER XXXVIII. + + +As Arwed was still sitting in his chamber, his arms convulsively folded +upon his breast, as if he would stifle his inward grief by the outward +pressure, with large tear-drops occasionally rolling down his pallid +cheeks, a stranger suddenly entered the room. He was enveloped in a +gray traveling cloak, and his hat was drawn down over his eyes. +Stepping directly in front of Arwed, he threw off his cloak and cap. + +'Swedenborg!' exclaimed Arwed, in a languid tone. + +'The old _Fatum_,' spoke the seer, 'has again most unhappily kept troth +with my presentiments. I see you again in the heaviest hour of your +life, as I expected. But what I could not have expected is, to see you +sinking under your sorrow. It becomes a man to struggle manfully +against this evil fiend, and gloriously to vanquish; not to lay down +his arms before him, like a wounded and disabled combatant.' + +'You have never loved!' ejaculated Arwed; 'you cannot know the anguish +which rends my heart.' + +'I have loved!' exclaimed Swedenborg, with radiant eyes; 'I yet love, +and with a passion which shall be eternal! Not, indeed, a perishable +woman, but the celestial _Sophiam_! Would to God that you also would +choose her for your bride. How vain and trifling would all the earthly +sorrows which now afflict you, then appear.' + +'Do you know the stroke I have received?' asked Arwed, passionately. + +'I know it,' answered Swedenborg mysteriously, 'as well as most things +which concern you. Your image has often floated before my inward +vision, and the spirits have often conversed with me of you.' + +'All my misery,' rejoined Arwed, 'comes from the cold, malicious +Ulrika. Her barbarity has torn from my brows the garland with which +true love would have crowned me.' + +'Sweden's vassal,' cried Swedenborg with solemn earnestness; 'blaspheme +not Sweden's queen!' + +'How!' cried Arwed, with astonishment, '_You_ take her part? You, who +prophecied wo to Sweden under her reign?' + +'That is still my opinion,' rejoined Swedenborg. 'But since Ulrika, by +the unanimous voice of the people, sits upon her father's throne, she +must be to us an object of veneration only. If she has done evil, she +will not escape its punishment; and as the Lord oftentimes takes care +to punish the sinner directly in that wherein he sinned, so perhaps +will the man for whom she has done every thing, at some time become an +instrument of divine wrath and take the crown from her head to place it +on his own, repaying her with the basest treachery.' + +'Alas, her crimes had wings,' complained Arwed; 'and this requital +creeps snail-like after them.' + +'Know then, you, who are so eager for vengeance,' indignantly rejoined +Swedenborg, 'that the fate of Sweden aids you. Your country is at this +moment the prey of her two bitterest enemies, and Ulrika may soon be a +queen without a realm.' + +'I had already heard of the threatened invasions of the Danes and +Russians,' answered Arwed; 'but I did not apprehend such disastrous +results.' + +'They have already entered,' rejoined Swedenborg. 'Bahuslehn is as good +as conquered. Stroemstadt and Marstrand have already surrendered to the +Danes; Carlsten has by this time fallen; and the Russians are raging +like wild beasts in the eastern part of the kingdom. Norrkoeping, +Nykoeping, and many other cities, hundreds of noblemen's seats, and +thousands of hamlets, are already in ashes. Heaps of slaughtered +animals infect the atmosphere; the youths of our land are borne by +Russian ships to ignominious slavery; and, while we are speaking, +general Lascy is moving with a strong army directly upon Stockholm.' + +Arwed's blue eyes flashed. His heroic form became more erect. He +involuntarily grasped the hilt of his sword, and moved towards the +door. + +'Whither would you go?' Swedendorg asked, in a kindly tone. + +'To the garden, into the free air!' quickly answered Arwed. 'It is +becoming too warm for me here. Besides, I need solitude, that I may be +able to form a proper determination.' + +'I know it,' said Swedenborg. 'You will resolve as becomes you, and so, +farewell. The Lord be with your sword!' + +'We shall see each other again before I go,' said Arwed. + +'I must travel still further to-day,' answered Swedenborg. 'I am now +going to the Nasaalpe lead mines. I must afterwards visit the iron and +copper mines in Tornea-Lappmark, and in a month I must be on my way +back.' + +'Possibly we may meet in Stockholm,' said Arwed, forgetting his +banishment, 'and heaven grant it may be under better auspices!' + +'_Quo fata trahunt, retrahuntque sequamur!_' cried Swedenborg with +unction, and the youth hastened out. + +'A noble spirit!' said Swedenborg, looking with complacency at his +retreating form. 'It lay prostrate, sickened with love's pain and +bitter hate; and behold, with only two drops of that steel-tincture, +and his country's need, its strength revives, and labors, and throws +off the _materiam peccantem_, and his heart is as pure, and fresh, and +strong, as ever it was. Hail to the physician of the soul, who finds +the seat of the disease; but thrice hail to the patient whose good +disposition aids the cure.' + + + + CHAPTER XXXIX. + + +As Arwed was striding back and forth in the most remote and darkly +shaded avenue of the garden, buried in his own reflections, colonel +Megret met him with a disturbed countenance. 'Time presses,' said he +with eagerness; 'I must speak openly with you, major. That I love your +cousin, you must long since have known--yet how fervently, you could +not know. The delicate gallantry which we Frenchmen dedicate to the +ladies, and the fear of affrighting or distressing her by the +outbreaking of my passion, have thrown a veil over the fire which +consumes me. I now confess to you that I could commit murder to possess +her; I must win her hand or die.' + +'Nevertheless, colonel, I do not understand,' answered Arwed with +displeasure, 'why you confide all this _to me_, nor why you confide it +_now_.' + +'The new emergencies of the war call me back to the army,' said Megret. +'I set out even this very night. Meanwhile I wish to secure to myself +here at least the _statum quo_. You love me not, major; that I very +well know, but at any rate you are not my rival; you are Christine's +near relative and a man of honor. Whatever you may think of me, we must +agree in this, that Mac Donalbain is not deserving of your cousin.' + +'That I am very willing to allow,' answered Arwed. 'But, I hope, there +can never be a question of such a connection. Had Christine really a +weakness for that man, so noble and strong a mind as hers would be +easily reclaimed from such an aberration.' + +'You consider the matter too lightly,' said Megret with great +earnestness. 'I myself hoped and doubted long, and left unemployed the +means at my command for banishing that bad man. I was indeed thereto +prompted by that miserable vanity which induces a man to wish to +conquer by his own merits and to scorn the use of other weapons. But +the real state of affairs is now placed in so clear a light that my +eyes are pained by it. This Mac Donalbain is a monster, and Christine +loves him. Forbearance would now be madness, as the honor and happiness +of this house hang upon a hair.' + +'And what would you do?' anxiously asked Arwed. + +'That shall you directly hear,' answered Megret; 'for there, most +opportunely, comes the Scot. His destiny leads him towards me. May I +only gain sufficient composure to roast the villain _a petit feu_, as +we call it. It would yet be some little satisfaction for the constant +torments of jealousy for which I may thank him since I first sighed for +the countess.' + +'Megret turned away and proceeded some steps down the avenue, and on +his return all traits of anger had disappeared from his face, and a +cold, smooth smile was substituted. Meanwhile the Scot approached and +courteously greeted them. + +'You come just in time, sir Mac Donalbain,' said Megret in an +apparently friendly manner, 'to enlighten me upon a matter of some +interest. According to your name and your own assurance you are indeed +a Scot, and can give us information from the best sources relative to +the manners and customs of your dear fatherland.' + +'Why not!' asked the Scot with a forced smile. + +'Now will you please to inform me, worthy sir,' said Megret, familiarly +approaching him, 'what, in your highlands, is the exact meaning of the +term, 'children of the mist?' + +Starting and shrinking at this question, Mac Donalbain answered only +with a deadly glance. + +'They also call them 'children of night,' added Megret in a quiet and +seemingly friendly manner. 'The terms are said to apply to those poor +people who, at variance with the civil authorities, shelter themselves +in rocks and caves, occasionally making excursions into the lowlands, +plundering and burning dwellings, driving off cattle, now and then +perpetrating a murder, and getting hanged at last.' + +'You speak of the robber clans of the highlands,' said Mac Donalbain, +struggling to preserve his equanimity. + +'_C'est cela!_' cried Megret, nodding waggishly; 'and I reckon upon +your goodness for some details about them. It would be very interesting +to me to compare your children of the mist with a somewhat similar +class in this country. In Scotland, I am told, even the nobility do not +consider it disreputable to march at the head of such expeditions +against the flocks and herds of the lowlands. They make no secret of +them, and hold the gallows to be as good a bed of honor as the battle +field. Every country has its peculiar customs and code of morals. The +leaders of our robber bands are far more delicate. They, at least +blacken their faces, renouncing the glory due to their heroic deeds, +and wash them clean again when they go into honest company.' + +With these words Mac Donalbain's face became pale as death. His eyes +rolled as if they would start from their sockets, and his teeth audibly +chattered. At length he indistinctly stammered, 'I do not, indeed, +understand your words; but your envenomed glances are the true +interpreters of your meaning. They at least make it clear that you +intend to insult me; and more is unnecessary to induce a noble Scot to +demand instant satisfaction.' + +'It is very flattering to me, noble sir,' answered Megret, 'to receive +an invitation to the field of honor from you; but before I can accept +it, you must satisfy me that I shall really preserve, and not lose my +honor, by going out with you. My comrades in the army are somewhat nice +in such matters, and certain occupations render a man forever unworthy +a gentleman's sword.' + +'Do you refuse to give me satisfaction?' fiercely asked Mac Donalbain, +stepping toward Megret, with his hand, apparently grasping a weapon, in +his bosom. + +Meanwhile Megret had drawn a pistol from his pocket, cocked it, and +presented its muzzle to Mac Donalbain. 'One step nearer, a suspicious +movement even,' cried he, 'and this bullet pierces your heart. You know +the accuracy of my aim.' + +Mac Donalbain drew back, fixing his eyes upon his relentless enemy with +a wild and vacant stare. + +'We will quickly put an end to this unpleasant interview,' continued +Megret, with frightful coolness. 'By all this you must perceive that I +know you. Long since might I have denounced you to the civil +authorities, and I have had more than one personal inducement to do so. +Because I became troublesome to you, your myrmidons attempted my murder +during the ride to Tornea, and, had it not been for the major's +interference, would have succeeded. But magnanimity is the weakness of +Frenchmen. You are pardoned, and I merely command you instantly to +leave this castle, never to return. If I ever again behold you here, or +within a circuit of fifty miles from this, the robber-captain shall be +brought to justice and suffer the penalties of the laws.' + +Unable to speak, and with a countenance such as satan might be supposed +to have assumed directly after his fall into the abyss, Mac Donalbain +rushed forth, and Megret proceeded in triumph to the castle. + +'It is still problematical,' soliloquized Arwed, 'with which of the two +Christine would be most miserable. I become more and more doubtful with +regard to Megret. The Scot received but his deserts, although it is no +honest man who assumes the duty of executioner,--for no one but a +finished villain could have taken such pleasure in stretching his +victim upon the rack.' + +His uncle now hastily approached him from the castle, with an open +letter in his hand, and a face expressive of delighted anticipation. + +'Have you spoken with old Brodin?' he anxiously asked. + +'I have,' answered Arwed; and the recollection of the loss of Georgina +drew a deep sigh from his bosom. + +'You are now wholly free, Arwed,' cried the uncle, with heartfelt love. +'May I hope that in a beloved nephew I may soon embrace a son-in-law?' + +Arwed, perceiving whither this question must lead, foresaw the +unpleasant scene which the contest between his uncle's will and +Christine's passion would produce, and remained silent. + +'Do not fear,' his uncle anxiously added, 'that your consent will be +extorted. Read this letter. Your father desires this union, but he +leaves your will free. Yet should I think, that as your beloved has +loosed the chains which bound you, you certainly would make some effort +to gratify an old man who loves you with his whole heart, and knows not +better how to secure the happiness of his only child than by placing +her hand in yours.' + +'I gratefully acknowledge your paternal goodness,' answered Arwed, +evasively. 'But I beg of you to leave me time for self-examination. My +sorrow is yet new, and for Christine I may safely affirm that a union +with me is very far from her thoughts. Besides, I need time to +familiarize myself with my new position, and enable me to come to a +decision.' + +'I know my daughter,' cried the uncle. 'There was for a time something +strange and adverse in her conduct which often perplexed me; but in the +main her heart is good; and a thousand trifling things have convinced +me that she likes you. Upon the word of a knight, she will not say +nay!' + +'Consider at least the circumstances of the times,' said Arwed. 'The +moment when Sweden is bleeding under the swords of her enemies, when +she is struggling for her very existence, is surely no time for tying +love-knots. Besides, I am resolved to depart to-morrow morning for the +army. Should I come back after the close of the war, it will then be +time to speak of this affair.' + +'_You_ going to the army!' exclaimed the uncle, with astonishment. +'Have you forgotten that you have been dismissed the service and +banished from the capital?' + +'I will serve as a volunteer,' cried Arwed with patriotic zeal, 'in one +of the lowest grades--as a common soldier--if it must be so. If I may +not live for Sweden, they cannot but permit me to die for her!' + +'Die! and for this queen?' asked the uncle. + +'What care I for the queen?' answered Arwed. 'I fight for my +father-land, and to protect the tomb of that heroic king whose life I +was not allowed by fate to defend.' + +'Noble man!' cried the uncle. 'You shame me. The prospect of good +fortune for my house caused me to forget the miseries of my country, +while you are ready to shed your blood in the service of a government +which has thwarted your dearest hopes. Well, act according to the +dictates of your heart. Something must also be done to satisfy mine, +before you leave us, and that even now, for here comes my daughter.' + +'Alas!' sighed Arwed, as the pale and trembling maiden slowly +approached them. + +'My father, you have commanded my presence,' said she, with a failing +voice. + +'Arwed's beloved,' answered the governor, 'has married another. He +leaves us in the morning, once more to meet the enemies of Sweden. You +know my wishes, Christine. He must leave Gyllensten only as your +affianced lover; the marriage can follow in more peaceable and happier +times. So extend to him your hand and give him the troth-kiss.' + +'Oh, my God!' stammered Christine, wringing her hands. + +'Why this affectation?' asked her father with displeasure. + +'You afflict your daughter,' said Arwed, and then turning to Christine, +'calm yourself, cousin! this storm has not been raised by me. Bound or +free, I will never permit your heart to be constrained.' + +'Nothing is more intolerable,' angrily interposed the governor, 'than a +young knight's feigning a coldness towards the other sex which is +foreign to his heart. However strong have been, or may now be, your +feelings for Georgina, yet it has not escaped a father's eye that my +daughter is not an object of indifference to you. The glances which you +now and then cast upon her when you think yourself unobserved, the warm +interest which you take in her conversation, even the reproofs you +often give her, have but the more clearly proved the state of your +feelings.' + +Arwed cast his eyes bashfully down. + +'And, not to mention many other indications,' continued the old man, +addressing himself to Christine, 'what impelled you to mount your horse +so quickly when Megret brought us the news of Arwed's danger? When a +maiden breaks through all obstacles to fight for a young man, one may +confidently swear she has an attachment for him.' + +'Oh, my father!' cried Christine in the deepest affliction, hiding her +face in his bosom. + +'Then give him the hand which would have fought for him,' commanded the +father, moving to lead his daughter to Arwed's arms. She tore herself +from him. 'I cannot! by heaven, I cannot!' shrieked the despairing +girl. + +'You cannot?' asked the governor, angrily. 'And that you are in +earnest, is confirmed by your looks. Now, then, my daughter, give your +father a reason why you cannot obey his will, which was never swayed by +warmer affection than at this moment. I may bear the contradiction if +it be supported upon reasonable grounds, but I am not disposed to +become the plaything of your caprice and obstinacy. Therefore answer, +what have you against this union?' + +Christine remained silently sobbing and wringing her hands. + +'This silence answers me more clearly than you may wish,' said the +governor with grave significancy. 'It is an acknowledgment that you are +ashamed of the cause of your refusal, and clearly explains many things +which have hitherto appeared dark to me. These tears confess your +conviction that your foolish wishes can never be realized, and save me +the trouble of proving it to you. I spare you the reproaches your +conduct merits. Let the past be buried in oblivion. Render yourself +worthy of this kindness by obedience. Give your hand to Arwed, my +daughter.' + +Christine gave Arwed an imploring look, but neither moved nor spoke. + +The old man knit his eye-brows. His eyes flashed, and he angrily lifted +up his hands. 'Shall I curse my disobedient child?' he thundered in her +ears. + +'Father!' groaned Christine, sinking to his feet. + +'No further, my uncle!' cried Arwed, with generous anger. 'I should not +deserve the name of a man if I could permit a noble maiden to be forced +into my arms by a father's curse. The first severe word addressed to +your daughter on my account, banishes me forever from Gyllensten. You +have my word of honor for it!' + +'Can you withstand such generosity, my daughter?' asked the governor, +bending over Christine with mingled anger, love and anxiety. + +'God is my witness,' cried the maiden, 'how willingly my heart would +reconcile itself with your desire. Grant me a short respite for +reflection. In the morning you shall know my determination.' + +'Grant her the respite,' earnestly begged Arwed. 'Overhastening is a +species of compulsion.' + +The governor raised his daughter and looked sharply into her eyes. +'Does no artifice lie hidden in this request?' asked he with emphasis. +'Will you really explain yourself in the morning, openly and honestly, +without equivocation, as becomes a noble Swedish maiden and my +daughter?' + +'By the holy evangelists!' cried Christine, almost out of her senses, +'in the morning you shall learn my determination, and with God be the +result.' + +'Respite the poor maiden for to-night,' entreated Arwed. 'The struggles +of her soul have agitated her too violently, and your words were too +sharp and heavy. Should your daughter's health give way under her +sufferings, you would repent it too late.' + +'Go, then, Christine,' said the governor, 'and bring me in the morning +such a decision as I may be able to receive.' + +Christine kissed his hand in silence, and then leaned, weeping, against +a tree. + +'Yes! children are the gift of heaven!' said the old man to Arwed, 'and +the joys they bring us are the best in life. But when they are given in +anger, they become the most terrible scourges in his hands, through the +sorrows they cause.' + +He walked slowly towards the castle, and Christine suddenly approached +Arwed, threw her arms passionately around him, impressed a burning kiss +upon his lips, and sobbed, 'farewell, Arwed,--do not despise me! Oh +that we had sooner met!' + +She hastened away, and Arwed found himself alone. + + + + CHAPTER XL. + + +The morning had dawned. The governor, with Arwed, had accompanied +Megret down to the courtyard, where his horses stood ready saddled for +the journey, and the traveler held out his hand to the governor to say +farewell. + +'Allow me to give you a well meant warning at parting,' said the +colonel, dejectedly. 'Suffer not this Scot to remain longer at the +castle,--he is not worthy of breathing the same air with you. If you +would know more of him, ask your nephew. He witnessed a conversation +which I held yesterday with that man. My duty calls me to the tumult of +war. Should I ever return, I shall have a request to prefer to your +heart, and shall rely upon the friendship of which you have hitherto +deemed me worthy, for its favorable reception. Commend the remembrance +of a man who adores her to your charming daughter. Say to her: +notwithstanding the cruelty with which she has refused me a last +farewell, her image will accompany me to the field of danger and incite +me to victory or bless me in death!' + +He overlooked the doubting shake of the head which preceded the answer +the governor was about to make, threw himself upon his horse and rode +rapidly out of the castle gate. + +'The evening of my life will be clouded,' said the governor to Arwed; +'and already I seem to see the lightning flash which is to destroy my +last earthly happiness. God's will be done! Is Mac Donalbain yet in the +castle?' he asked of his steward, who approached at that moment. + +'When he came out of the garden yesterday evening,' answered the +steward, 'he merely took his gun and sporting pouch from the dining +room, spoke a few words to the countess, and then rushed like a madman +down the mountain. Since then I have seen no more of him. Something +very disagreeable must have happened to him, for no one could look upon +his face without terror.' + +'You must relate to me the conversation which Megret had with Mac +Donalbain,' said the governor; and then turning to the steward he asked +him, 'is my daughter yet awake?' + +'All is yet still in the chamber of the countess,' answered the latter. + +'Let her be awakened,' commanded the governor. 'The breakfast waits for +her.' + +The steward departed, and the governor returned with Arwed to the lower +hall. There, for a long time, they walked up and down the room +together. Arwed dreaded lifting the veil under which the trouble was +concealed, and his uncle, who remarked his reluctance, had not courage +to repeat his request. Meanwhile the breakfast was brought in. The +governor silently filled the goblets, looked occasionally toward the +door, sighed, seized the cup mechanically and raised it to his lips, +and then set it down again without drinking. + +'Am I not like a child who is trembling with fear in anticipation of a +ghost story?' he at length said, with a forced jest. 'Courage! narrate +it Arwed.' + +Arwed was about to obey, when an anxious movement was heard without, +and, pale as death, the steward re-entered with a billet in his hand. + +'The countess is nowhere to be found,' stammered he. 'Her bed has not +been disturbed. She was in the garden late last evening, and sent her +chambermaid to bed.' + +'What is that?' cried the governor rushing upon the steward. 'What +holdest thou there?' + +'A billet for your excellency,' answered the latter, 'I found it in the +chamber of the countess.' + +The governor seized, opened, and read it. As the oak of a thousand +years yields to the force of its own weight when the axe has severed +its roots, wavers, and finally rushes crackling to the ground; so +wavered and fell that noble old man, whose mental agony was happily +relieved by a suspension of consciousness. + +Whilst the steward and hastening servants were endeavoring to recall +him to life, Arwed raised the paper which had fallen from his trembling +hand, and read as follows: + +'Alike unworthy to call myself Arwed's wife and your daughter, I have +not courage to meet your just anger. I therefore follow the man whose +wife I already am in the sight of God. By the memory of my noble mother +I conjure you curse me not. May you pardon me in another world!' + +'Unhappy parent!' sighed Arwed with deep emotion. + +Meantime the strong old man, who had partially recovered, raised +himself up in his chair, and his first glance fell upon Arwed. + +'You have read?' he asked, and as Arwed answered in the affirmative, he +stretched out his hand to receive the billet, which Arwed with some +hesitation handed to him. Having motioned to his people to withdraw, he +again read it through. + +'No, I will not curse thee, unhappy girl!' said he coldly, and tearing +the note. 'An ungrateful child bears already the curse of heaven in her +heart, and where love is dead the flames of anger find no nourishment. +You hope I shall pardon you in another world! It is possible I may, if +in that world earthly conceptions of honor disappear, and a woman +without virtue is no longer a disgrace to her sex.' + +'Will you not make an attempt,' asked Arwed, 'to tear the poor victim +from her seducer? Let us seek her! Your arm reaches further than she +can have flown in the course of the night.' + +'Why should I?' said the governor, with listless anger. 'Should I bring +her back, I should be compelled to take the life of the villain, whose +wife she already is in the sight of God, and she would have nothing +left on earth. Let them go!' + +A deep and awful silence followed. The clattering steps of Arwed's +horses, which Knut was leading out, awoke the uncle from his +stupefaction. + +'Your horses are ready,' said he, rising up. 'Go, and God be with you!' + +'It is hard for me to leave you in this state of mind,' said Arwed. + +'Your country calls you,' answered the governor, 'and I may venture to +call myself a man. I have given proof of it. I have experienced the +worst that can befall me, and sorrow has not killed me.' + +'My noble, my unhappy uncle!' cried Arwed, sinking upon the old man's +bosom. + +'Fight bravely, Arwed,' said the uncle, 'but risk not your life with +foolhardiness. You are my only heir. I know your disposition, that you +disregard wealth, but the fact will serve to remind you that here lives +an unhappy father of whom you are the last earthly prop.' + +'God send you peace!' cried Arwed, overpowered by sorrow, and rushing +forth, he soon, with his faithful servant, found himself upon the high +road. + + + + CHAPTER XLI. + + +Late in the autumn of the same year the governor was again sitting in +the hall of his forefathers, whose statues remained, hung with mourning +crape. Before him stood a chess board, and, having no companion, he was +amusing himself by playing the games contained in a book which he held +in his hand. The unhappy man had altered much. Each successive week had +left the wrinkles of a year upon his face, and it was a sad sight to +see how he exerted himself to dispel painful recollections by a forced +attention to the intricate course of the game. + +At that moment the footsteps of horses were heard in the court, and +before he could hasten to the window, Arwed entered the hall and rushed +into his arms. + +'Welcome, my son!' cried the uncle, perusing his features with intense +interest; 'though I am sorry to see the expression of dark despondency +which hangs upon your face. The warrior who has done his duty, must +return home from the strife with joy.' + +'That depends upon the nature and result of the strife, my good uncle. +But my whole life has been nothing but a long chain of frustrated +wishes and abortive plans. The myrtle-wreath was torn from my brow, the +laurel withers even while I grasp it, and I have failed to obtain the +cypress crown.' + +'Is the war over?' asked the uncle. + +'For the present, yes,' answered Arwed, 'until it may please our +enemies to recommence it--for there is no talk of peace either with the +Danes or Russians.' + +'Not with the nearest and most powerful of our enemies?' indignantly +cried the governor. 'Woman's rule is everywhere the same--too weak for +resistance, too wilful for reconciliation. Poor Sweden!' + +'Rhenskioeld,' said Arwed, 'was already in full retreat before the +Danes, when I joined him. I went also to the army which covered +Stockholm; but when I arrived the Russians were drawing off their +forces. Desolation and pillage was the object of their landing, and +most fully and fearfully was it accomplished. We indeed followed the +retiring enemy and had some trifling contests with the rear guard, but +when the English fleet under Norris approached our coasts, the +barbarians quickly embarked and left the country with immense booty.' + +'To have had the desire and to have made an effort to save your +country, is deserving of honor!' cried the uncle, extending his hand. +'Therefore once again welcome, my young hero.' + +Arwed gave him his left hand, and the awkwardness with which he did it, +drew the attention of his uncle to the fact. + +'Why do you withhold from me the hand which has wielded the sword in +defence of Sweden?' he asked with surprise. + +'The impossibility of using it must be my excuse,' answered Arwed with +a sorrowful glance towards his right arm, which was concealed under his +coat. + +'What is this?' cried the governor aghast. 'Are you wounded in the +arm?' + +'A Russian canister-shot shattered my hand in the last engagement,' +answered Arwed, 'and I was compelled to have it taken off at the +wrist.' + +'My poor son!' exclaimed the sympathizing uncle. 'That is a great +misfortune. The laurels of victory are some compensation for wounds +received in battle; but to be crippled in a miserable unimportant +skirmish, is the most dreadful thing imaginable.' + +'It is indeed, uncle!' cried Arwed; 'and I can now say with the king of +France at Pavia, that I have lost every thing but honor!' + +'You are right,' replied the old man with a tremulous voice, his +thoughts recurring to his fugitive daughter. 'Happy they who can say as +much!' and with a deep sigh his white head sank upon his laboring +bosom. + +New footsteps in the court yard interrupted the sad pause, and +immediately afterwards Megret entered the hall, with a face yet more +gloomy than Arwed's. + +'I have returned once more,' said he, in a singular tone, as he greeted +the uncle and nephew. + +'I am glad to see you, colonel,' answered the governor. 'Gyllensten has +become very lonesome and desolate, and I am glad you have once more +obtained a furlough in these warlike times.' + +'The queen's grace has given me leave of absence forever,' answered +Megret with bitterness. 'I am dismissed the service.' + +'Dismissed the service!' repeated the governor. 'It must be as major +general then. I congratulate you.' + +'I cannot accept your congratulations,' said Megret. + +'I have received my dismission unwished for, without advancement, and +without pension.' + +'You jest!' cried the governor; 'how could it be possible?' + +'I know no other reason,' answered Megret, 'than the obligations under +which I have laid the queen and her husband. Great obligations! It has +cost me much to serve them, very much! perhaps too much! The queen +might possibly have despaired of being able suitably to reward me, and +has therefore chosen the most convenient way in which the great of the +earth reward past services. She repays with ingratitude!' + +'These are strange observations, colonel,' said Arwed distrustfully, +'and you would do us a favor by giving a commentary upon the mysterious +text.' + +'Let us speak of something more agreeable,' said Megret, drawing his +hand over his forehead, as though he would have wiped something from +it. 'How does the charming countess?' + +The governor trembled with agitation, and looked beseechingly at Arwed, +as if he would have called him to his aid. + +Just as Arwed was about to answer for him the servant entered to +announce a Laplander from the parish of Lyksale, who had a secret and +important communication to make to the governor. + +'Conduct him to my cabinet!' commanded the latter, rising from his +seat, and glad of the interruption. + +'You have not yet answered my question,' said Megret; but the governor +merely pointed to Arwed as he went out. + +'Am I directed to you for my answer?' he asked Arwed with anxious +interest. 'This evasion of my simple question surprises me, and would +seem to indicate some misfortune. I hope no mischance has befallen +Christine?' + +'She left the castle on the night of your departure,' answered Arwed. + +'She must have fled, then, with the miserable Mac Donalbain!' cried the +enraged Megret. + +'Probably,' answered Arwed. 'She did not indeed name her seducer in her +farewell note to her father, but all appearances point to him as the +guilty one.' + +'And has no attempt been made to bring her back and punish the +miscreant for his villany?' asked Megret. + +'The father has renounced his daughter forever,' answered Arwed, 'and I +must beseech you never more to mention her in his presence. It +overpowers the unhappy man to be reminded of her.' + +'This is a consequence of my fatal delay!' cried Megret wildly, and +beating his forehead. 'There is now nothing, nothing more in this world +which can give me joy. My honor wounded by unworthy treatment, my love +scorned and betrayed, what now remains for me?' + +'A consciousness of rectitude, colonel,' said Arwed earnestly. 'It is a +firm rock of safety amid the storms of life.' + +'Consciousness of rectitude!' cried Megret with frightful vehemence, +and then drawing a deep sigh, he hastened from the apartment. + +'Some horrid secret lies in this man's breast, like a sleeping tiger in +his lair,' said Arwed. 'Wo to me, if I should be called to draw it +forth.' + + + + CHAPTER XLII. + + +Arwed had just risen the next morning, when the old steward came to him +with a troubled countenance. 'By your permission,' asked he with great +deference, 'did my lord inform you when he should return?' + +'Is my uncle absent?' asked Arwed with astonishment. 'I knew nothing of +it. When he declined coming to the table, last evening, I supposed it +was merely because he wished to be alone.' + +'After the private audience which he granted the Laplander last +evening,' proceeded the steward, 'he ordered a horse to be given him, +and had his favorite brown saddled for himself with great privacy. The +Laplander was to go before him and show him the way. He charged me +strictly to keep his absence secret from every one. But as the night +has passed and he is not yet returned, my anxiety got the better of me, +and I felt compelled to inform you of the circumstance, even at the +risk of his displeasure. You will know better than I what is necessary +to be done in the case.' + +'What direction did my uncle take?' eagerly asked Arwed, putting on his +hunting coat. + +'Along the right bank of the river,' answered the steward, 'upon the +road which leads by Umea. Some Laplanders who were fishing in the river +state that they saw both of the riders as they passed the ford of the +Lais Elf, and then struck off to the right into the pine forest on the +borders of our Lappmark.' + +'And you really have no conjecture as to the object of this journey?' +Arwed further asked. + +'Conjecture, indeed!' answered the steward. 'I suspect that our lord's +object was to obtain information of the robber band, who are again +spreading confusion and dismay through the border forests. Who knows +but he is on the look-out for Black Naddock himself?' + +'Impossible!' cried Arwed with alarm. 'That is no business for his +years. It is too dangerous.' + +'Ah, dear major,' said the steward, sorrowfully, 'since the countess +Christine has left us, our poor lord no longer cares any thing about +his life, and perhaps a bullet from one of the brigands' rifles would +be right welcome to him.' + +'May God and our true service preserve the noble man from such an end!' +cried Arwed, taking his gun, hunting-knife and shooting-bag. 'I will go +and reconnoitre. If it be God's will, I shall return in the morning +with some definite intelligence. Until then, let every one keep perfect +silence. If my uncle has fallen into wicked hands, every thing will +depend upon taking the villains by surprise. Should I not come back by +the time I mentioned, you will then inform the sheriff of what has +occurred, that he may save or avenge his worthy chief.' + +'God bless your undertaking, noble count!' cried the steward, kissing +Arwed's hand, as he hastened from the castle. + + + + CHAPTER XLIII. + + +Arwed had waded through the Lais Elf about a thousand yards from where +it falls into the Umea, and turning into the pine forest to the right +from the road, he proceeded onward upon a winding path. All was silent +and dreary around him, with the exception of the rustling of the cold +autumn breeze in the tops of the tall pines, and this dismal stillness +added yet more to the feeling of desolation in his soul. 'No trace of +animals or men!' said he to himself. 'No sign or token which tells me I +am upon the right track! Is this silence of nature an omen that this +well intended undertaking, like all its elder brothers, will die in its +birth?' + +During this soliloquy he had arrived at a larger opening in the midst +of the forest, and now the dull tinkling of a small bell and the +unharmonious singing of many voices, struck upon his ear. 'That must be +a horde of reindeer Laplanders!' he joyfully exclaimed. 'They come +opportunely.' The nomades soon broke forth from the thickest part of +the wood. More than a hundred tawny-brown reindeer, headed by the +leading buck, with his far-sounding bell, discovered themselves. The +kind and useful animals followed quietly, with their mane-like beards +and strangely formed horns, with outstretched necks, staring out of +their honest looking eyes upon their leader; and if a young one +occasionally attempted to stray from the line of march, the well taught +hounds would immediately overhaul and return him to the ranks. The +owner closed the procession, with his wives, his daughters and sons, +children-in-law and grand-children, serving men and maidens, all riding +upon reindeer, and howling an ill-sounding Laplandish song. The train +spread itself out upon the meadow and made a halt, the burthened +reindeer were unladen, and some cone-shaped huts, composed of limbs of +trees and covered with mats and skins, soon arose over the green earth, +which afforded immediate refreshment to the flocks. + +The preparation for their meal was immediately begun in these huts, +from the tops of which the curling smoke cheerfully floated up into the +clear heavens. + +Arwed approached the patriarch of this numerous family, who had seated +himself upon the grass near his favorite animal, and had just received +from his women a wooden goblet full of reindeer's milk. + +'Greetings to you, good Samolazes,' said Arwed in a friendly manner. +'Where from?' + +'We have come down from Dofrefield,' answered the Laplander, 'seeking +better pasturage for our animals.' + +'Has any thing unusual occurred during your journey?' Arwed asked in +continuation, by way of approaching the particular object of his +inquiries. + +The old Laplander tossed his head, examined the youth mistrustfully +with his dull red eyes, and coldly and gruffly answered, 'nothing has +happened to us.' + +'They say the roads are not entirely safe,' continued Arwed; 'that +Black Naddock has again suffered himself to be seen in these regions.' + +'I know nothing of the man,' anxiously protested the Laplander; 'in my +whole life I never before heard of him.' + +'That is a lie!' said Arwed angrily. 'How is it possible that you +should be so ignorant about the scourge of this whole country? You +distrust me very unjustly. I ask with good intentions. It is of the +utmost consequence that I should discover the lurking hole in which +this band of dangerous villains conceal themselves, that they may be +annihilated by one bold stroke. Upon this, perhaps, depends the rescue +of a very noble man from the clutches of the monsters.' + +'The arts of men are as multiform as the clouds which ride upon the +winds,' answered the Laplander, with a shake of the head. 'It is very +possible that you yourself belong to the gang, and only wish to spy out +how much I have learned of their proceedings, and how I am disposed +towards them. It is not well however to speak of the fiery-eyed wolf. +My herd is dear to me, and therefore I am the most ignorant man on +earth of all that upon which you would question me.' + +'For shame, Juckas Jervis!' now cried the Laplander's elderly better +half, who had hitherto listened in silence, but with evident interest, +to the conversation. 'How can you be so suspicious and disingenuous? +This Swede is surely an honest man, who is well disposed towards us +all. Only look at his handsome and honest face. What he asks is for our +common good, and we should honestly answer him according to our best +ability. The tribute we have been compelled to pay the thieves for the +safety of our herds, has long troubled me.' + +'On your own responsibility!' grumbled the old man, drawing Arwed +mysteriously aside. 'You will find the robbers' camp,' he whispered to +him, 'by turning to the left and then proceeding straight forward to +the foot of the mountains. You will then turn to the right into a +ravine, and again to the left, following the banks of a glacier rivulet +until you discover what you seek. You will know the place by the swarms +of carrion birds who scent their future prey there, and consequently +never leave the rocks.' + +'Your description may appear very plain to you, friend Jervis,' said +Arwed, 'but it is nevertheless hardly intelligible to me. Grant me a +guide to the place. I will richly reward him.' + +'Jackmock!' cried the Laplander's wife, and a short, thick, nine-pin +looking fellow sprang forward, whom Jervis directed to guide the +Swedish gentleman to the Ravensten in the mountains. + +'Certainly!' answered the fellow. 'If not entirely there, yet so near +that he can see it at a distance.' Whereupon he hastened to get his +staff and traveling bag, and soon again stood before Arwed, ready for +the march. + +'I am already under great obligations to you,' said Arwed to the woman. +'Yet--yet one more question I wish to ask in the strictest confidence. +You come from where I wish to go. Perhaps you have accidentally learned +something of a fine, tall old gentleman who, since yesterday, may have +fallen into wicked hands?' + +'You wish to know much, and require us to do dangerous things!' +grumbled the patriarch. + +'You have already told me so much,' urged Arwed, 'why not unreservedly +tell me all? By my God, I will not abuse your confidence.' + +'Who can deny you any thing?' whispered the woman, laughing. 'According +to the information we received yesterday about sunset, you will indeed +find him whom you seek upon the Ravensten; but whether living or dead, +I cannot undertake to say.' + +Arwed turned to go. + +'Take care of yourself,' said the good woman in bidding him God speed. +'Naddock shows no mercy to an enemy. If you fall into his hands as an +opponent, you are lost.' + +'We are all in the hands of God,' answered Arwed with confidence; and, +shaking hands with Jervis, he followed his guide into the forest. + + + + CHAPTER XLIV. + + +They had been traveling silently for some hours, when the forest +opened, and an arm of the mountain which divides the Umea Lappmark lay +before them, in all its awful magnificence. Naked rocks and icebergs +stretched up into the clouds, and the pale green vallies interspersed +between the masses of stone, ice and snow, appeared as if nature was +here already preparing for her long winter's repose. + +At the moment when the wanderers had arrived at the foot of the first +ascent, Arwed's guide, giving a shriek of terror, and pointing with a +trembling hand towards a black fir-tree in the road, turned and fled so +suddenly into the forest, that Arwed was soon obliged to give up all +thoughts of calling him back. Surprised, he now looked toward the +fir-tree which had caused the Laplander's panic. The view was +sufficiently horrible. The bloody head of a Laplander was affixed to +one of the under branches of the tree. Near it was suspended a tablet, +upon which in large letters was inscribed--'Punishment of treachery to +Naddock and his brethren.' + +'Shameless insolence!' exclaimed Arwed, with indignation at the +impudence of the robber, who, to screen his own crimes, had here +executed a lawless penal judgment with Turkish barbarity. Approaching +the tree, he long and sorrowfully examined the mute, pale, yellow face. +'Poor victim,' he exclaimed, 'how mournfully thou lookest down upon me, +as if thou wouldst warn me from the path which probably led thee to +death. It would indeed be hard for me so to end my life. Yet my second +father must be saved, and it is unbecoming a man to turn back from an +enterprise which he has once commenced. No, fearlessly and cheerfully +will I go on, and if my undertaking succeed, thy death also shall find +an avenger!' + +A clattering, as if from the approach of many people, interrupted the +earnest monologue. Arwed slipped among the bushes beside the way, +and about ten men, of wild and ferocious aspect, armed with knives, +iron-mounted cudgels, and some of them with muskets, came down from the +mountain and passed directly by him, gabbling among themselves in their +unintelligible gibberish, without being aware of his near proximity. + +They had no sooner showed him their backs, than he hastily arose and +proceeded up the mountain with rapid strides. + +With toilsome efforts Arwed succeeded in following the Laplander's +directions. At length he found the glacier brook, and at the same time +the end of his journey. A huge mass of bare, dark-gray rocks, +surrounded by ice-mountains, towered up into the clouds in terrible +majesty. Upon their summit lay the ruins of an ancient castle, of which +only a couple of towers with their connecting wall were standing, and +above them swarmed innumerable multitudes of rooks and daws, some of +which sat in thick rows upon the battlements, while others fluttered in +flocks about them in wild commotion. Their harsh croakings resounded +amid the deep stillness of the place, boding misfortune. 'Truly, not +alone in the battlefield is the courage of man called into exercise!' +said he to himself, while seeking the way which led up to the ruins. At +length he had found a foot-path, when a rough voice cried out to him, +'Halt!' He looked up, and upon a high rock hardly ten steps before him +stood a brigand, whose rifle was aimed at his head. + +'What may be the matter?' cried Arwed, roughly, taking his gun from his +shoulder. + +'Lay aside your arms, or I will shoot you down!' commanded the robber. + +'That is not my custom,' answered Arwed. 'Shoot, rascal! But be sure to +hit, or you are lost.' + +And presenting his gun with his left hand, as he would have presented a +pistol, he rushed towards his adversary. The latter, daunted by his +boldness, fired and missed; and instantly afterwards, with Arwed's +bullet in his head, he fell upon the rock, whence, yet struggling with +death, he tumbled down a neighboring and unfathomable abyss. Frightened +by the firing, the whole flock of funereal birds arose croaking from +the summit, with the rustling of a thousand wings, and fluttered like a +dark rushing cloud in the air, for some minutes obscuring the light of +the sun. + +'Those villanous birds will alarm the garrison and bring the whole gang +in an uproar upon me,' thought Arwed, as he reloaded his gun. 'I would +willingly have ascended further, but now I must not venture it. Every +thing depends upon my safely reaching Gyllensten with the knowledge I +have acquired. I have obtained the necessary information concerning the +enemy's position. It has indeed cost one man's life, but he is no great +loss to the world.' + +He hastened homeward. Soon the dangerous mountain lay far behind him; +and, just as the stars began to twinkle in the firmament, he reached +Gyllensten in safety. + + + + CHAPTER XLV. + + +Under the direction of Megret and Arwed, the preparations for breaking +up the nest of robbers were made with great ability and circumspection. +The ten dragoons stationed at Umea were privately summoned to +Gyllensten, and the neighboring peasantry, who were collected together +under the pretext of a grand wolf-hunt, were distributed among them and +the governor's foresters and gamekeepers. The little force thus +collected, numbering about eighty men, were divided into two commands +under Megret and Arwed, and started the next night in many separate +divisions, which, though connected by patroles, presented no one +conspicuous mass which could excite the suspicions of the brigands. +Whilst Megret proceeded in this manner directly towards Ravensten, +Arwed sought to reach the other side of the rocks by a circuitous +route, so as to cut off any attempted retreat to the neighboring +mountains. The movement was successfully accomplished. Just before +sun-rise the two divisions almost simultaneously reached the foot of +the Ravensten, and slowly and cautiously ascended the narrow rocky +passes. They arrived at the summit without meeting with any +obstruction. There, one of the robber sentinels, being aroused, made a +stand and shot down one of the dragoons by Arwed's side. The shot not +only awakened the winged denizens of Ravensten, who rose affrighted and +screaming into the air, but also occasioned a movement in the towers, +and about twenty of the half naked brigands rushed out with such arms +as they could first seize in the confusion of the moment, and fell upon +the assailants. The strife was furious on both sides, but victory +finally inclined in favor of the greater number of the assailing +party;--want of experience was compensated by the circumspection and +bravery of their leaders, and the brigands were yielding ground, when a +small, fresh band, came forth to the battle and renewed the fight. At +their head was a tall, well-formed man, with a dark-colored face, who +first fired his pistols among the assailants, and then with great fury +fell upon the peasants, sword in hand, 'That is Black Naddock!' +they cried, every where retreating before him. The dragoons and +foresters, however, kept their ground, and the battle raged with +increased fierceness. + +'That is the man who saved my life on the road to Tornea!' cried Arwed +to Megret. + +'It is Mac Donalbain, artificially blackened!' exclaimed the latter +with envenomed scorn, attempting to fight his way to his hated rival; +but some of the brigands threw themselves before him, and kept him +fully employed; whilst Arwed constantly pressed nearer and nearer to +the blackamoor, and soon discovered the well-known features through his +disguise. + +'Yield, Mac Donalbain, the victory is ours!' cried Arwed, attacking +him. + +'It is better to die by the sword of a brave nobleman than upon the +scaffold!' exclaimed Mac Donalbain, suddenly exposing his uncovered +breast to Arwed's blade. + +'God forbid!' cried Arwed, checking the descending blow. 'I am no +murderer!' But at that moment Megret, having disencumbered himself of +his troublesome opponents, hurled the Scot to the earth. + +'At last!' triumphantly exclaimed Megret, setting his foot upon the +breast of his fallen foe and slowly raising his sword for the +death-stroke with an infernal smile.... + +At that moment a woman in a peasant's dress and with a child in her +arms, rushed forward with an agonizing shriek. Wildly floated the rich +blond locks about her white forehead, which strangely contrasted with +the bloom of the rosy faced infant. 'Christine!' cried the terrified +Arwed. + +'Mercy!' shrieked the unhappy woman. 'Mercy for my husband, for the +father of this child!' + +'You know not what you ask, madam Mac Donalbain!' said Megret, +scornfully. 'Whoever is well disposed towards you and your house, +cannot do a better thing than speedily to help you to a widow's veil.' +He aimed a blow,--but Arwed opportunely struck up his sword and forced +him back. + +'Mac Donalbain is a prisoner!' cried the youth with noble indignation. +'From this moment he stands under the protection of the law, to which +he is amenable, and you have no right to take his life.' + +'Ah, Arwed, you are indeed always yourself!' sobbed Christine, falling +at his feet with her child. + +'Such generous subtlety,' said Megret, putting up his sword, 'becomes +loathsome to me when practically applied in the important affairs of +life.' + +'In this case, generosity is more cruel than malignity!' cried Mac +Donalbain, closing his eyes from exhaustion by loss of blood. + +Meantime the right had fully conquered. Fifteen of the robbers had +fallen in the fight, and seven had madly thrown themselves from the +summit and found the death they hoped to escape, upon the sharp cliffs +of Ravensten. The remainder, twelve in number, struck with terror by +the fall of their chief, threw down their arms and begged for mercy. + +Whilst Megret caused the prisoners to be bound together in couples, Mac +Donalbain was by Arwed's direction conveyed into the lower vault of the +tower, and his wounds taken care of. + +Arwed then turned to Christine, who had followed them to the tower. +'Wretched woman,' cried he, grasping her powerfully, 'where is thy +father?' + +Christine pointed speechlessly to a corner of the cave-like room, and +then threw herself in silent wretchedness upon Mac Donalbain's couch of +sorrow. + +Arwed hastened to the designated spot, found and sprung a trap door +there, which opened into the rocky cellar of the castle. A long, +winding staircase conducted him to a subterranean but well lighted +room, where, still paler and weaker than when he last saw him, his poor +old uncle met his view. + +'My son! my preserver!' cried the old man, with outspread arms. + +'Thank God, my object is accomplished!' exclaimed Arwed, with heartfelt +joy. 'Yet once more has my melancholy existence been rendered really +useful in the world.' + +'Alas, that it has been accomplished!' cried the uncle with deep +despondency, 'Rather would I have found, here an unknown and unhonored +grave, than meet the overwhelming shame which must henceforth rest upon +my noble name in my native land!' + + + + CHAPTER XLVI. + + +Under the directions of Megret the towers and walls of Ravensten were +blown up, to render them forever after incapable of serving as a place +of shelter for similar bands. The wounded Mac Donalbain and his +companions were secured in the prisons of Umea, and Christine with her +child conveyed to Gyllensten, where her aged father, his iron +constitution finally overpowered by his sorrows, lay dangerously ill. +The chief judge had summoned the associate justices of his court to the +sessions-chamber of the city hall of Umea, for the trial of the +criminals. Arwed and Megret were present; the former at his uncle's +request, and the latter, that he might witness the entire outpouring of +the cup of vengeance; and, supported by his keeper and laden with +chains, Mac Donalbain appeared before his judges. Harassed and +tormented by his wounds, he staggered here and there, with difficulty +holding himself upright; but his spirit remained unbroken, and his dark +eyes flashed upon the assembly with all their former fierceness. Megret +beheld the scene with a smile of internal satisfaction. Arwed gave a +look of sympathy to the unhappy man, and then whispered a request to +the judge. The latter nodded. The bailiffs took off Mac Donalbain's +chains and placed a stool for him, upon which he seated himself with a +look of gratitude towards Arwed. + +'Tell us your true name, your rank, and your native country,' commenced +the judge with solemn earnestness. + +'Gregor Mac Donalbain,' answered the prisoner; 'a nobleman of the +highlands of Scotland.' + +'Do you still continue, with shameless effrontery, to make that +assertion?' interposed Megret. + +'Forget not, colonel,' cried Mac Donalbain with vehemence, 'that here +you have no right to question me, and that I do not acknowledge any +obligation to answer you.' + +'Neither should you forget,' said Megret, with bitterness, 'that pride +and insolence will make your bad cause still worse, and forever close +the door of mercy which true repentance and humility may perhaps +otherwise open for you.' + +'You would indeed very willingly see me, overpowered by the fear of +death, begging my life at your feet,' rejoined Mac Donalbain, +disdainfully. 'But you may as well resign all hope of that pleasure. I +reject and scorn all mercy for which I must be indebted to you.' + +The judge commanded both of them to be silent. 'Admitting the +correctness of your statement,' said he to Mac Donalbain, 'how is it +possible that you could stain your nobility by abandoning yourself to +so horrible and reprobate a profession?' + +'It was my fate!' answered Mac Donalbain doggedly, and casting his eyes +upon the ground. + +'So, but too often, does man name the consequences of his passions and +his crimes!' remarked the judge. + +'So,' said Mac Donalbain, 'may this name be often applied to the +injustice which an unfortunate man suffers from his brethren, when that +injustice impels him to deeds which else would have been abhorrent to +his soul. A cruel injury to my honor, which I suffered in the service +of the British king, threw me into the arms of the English buccaneers. +My name became known and feared in both the eastern and western oceans. +The lords of the earth, however they may indulge in similar enterprizes +on a great scale for the accomplishment of their projects, array +themselves against little private exploits. Excluded from the ports of +all civilized nations, we were at length compelled to seek an asylum in +Africa. We found one in Madagascar. There we heard of the return of the +hero of the north to his own country. We hoped that this prince, fond +of war, and compelled as he was to engage in it, would receive us with +open arms. Offering to him our services, we proposed to enter the port +of Gottenburg with sixty sail of vessels. Two of his nobility closed a +treaty with us in his name. I was sent here before the arrival of the +fleet to prepare every thing for its reception; but a fever seized me +at Gottenburg; and before my recovery the king fell before +Frederickshall. Storms, and Europe's _licensed_ pirates, annihilated +our fleet upon its way hither, and when at length I arose from my bed +of sickness I was a beggar. There was no longer any hope of the +fulfilment of the royal promise. With Charles's seal and signature for +the rank of colonel, I could not even obtain a company. Then again +awoke in me the bitter hatred of mankind. My last hope to live and fall +as an honorable soldier, was destroyed. The country which denied me my +well acquired rights, threw me back to the state of nature, in which +every man sustains and defends himself by his own natural powers. I +then felt myself authorized to make war upon my enemies, and take what +I needed with the strong hand. A band of unfortunates, who like me had +nothing to lose, chose me for their leader, and the struggle between +myself and the crown of Sweden began. I have been overcome and am +therefore in the wrong;--for which reason I pray you quickly to break +the staff of justice over my head. I am ready to die.' + +'Dreadful man!' cried the judge. 'Have you also such sophisms in +readiness to excuse the misery and shame you have brought upon a noble +house within whose walls you were hospitably received?' + +'That is the curse of my life,' cried Mac Donalbain, repentantly, 'for +which I cannot answer. For that must I call down justice upon myself. +However hard your sentence may fall upon me, by that alone have I +deserved it, and willingly bow myself before the chastening hand of the +law.' + +'It is the request of my uncle,' said Arwed to the judge, 'that all the +wrongs which Mac Donalbain has perpetrated against our house should be +passed over without investigation.' + +'What, even the attempt against his excellency's person?' indignantly +asked the judge, whilst Megret in silent anger ground the floor with +his spurred heel. + +'The band,' said Arwed, 'among whom the governor had accidentally +fallen, wished to murder him for their own safety. Mac Donalbain +preserved the old man's life by risking his own. Even the imprisonment +was but a measure resorted to for that purpose. I also have to thank +this man for the preservation of my life. He would have a strong +counter reckoning to make with us. Therefore let one account be +considered as balanced by the other.' + +'I am astonished,' spitefully observed Megret, 'that my lord the +governor has not proposed an amnesty for his dear son-in-law.' + +'My uncle,' answered Arwed with earnestness, 'can pardon injuries +personal to himself; but he will never allow himself to interrupt the +just operation of the laws. With us Mac Donalbain has made his peace. +He has now to reconcile himself with the laws and satisfy the demands +of public justice, if need be, with his blood!' + +'Oh, would to God it might be so!' cried Mac Donalbain. 'With my +present feelings life would be to me a most sad and unwelcome gift.' + +A disturbance was now heard without the session-room. The door flew +open, and the breathless Christine, with her child in her arms, pressed +irresistibly through the crowd of officers who sought to hold her +back. + +'This trial also!' sighed Mac Donalbain, turning away his face. + +'In God's name, the countess Gyllenstierna!' cried the astonished +judge. + +'I was the countess Gyllenstierna,' said Christine. 'I am now the +wedded wife of the brigand leader, Mac Donalbain, and my place is by +his side, in chains or upon the gallows.' + +'Christine! how could you afflict your father by this second shameful +flight?' Arwed reproachingly asked. + +'My father's life,' answered Christine, 'was already empoisoned beyond +remedy by my guilt. Therefore allow me the merit of having fulfilled my +duty towards at least _one_ being in the world, my husband. He is a +prisoner, and suffering in body and mind. He needs care and +consolation; and from whom can he expect either, if not from her who +has bound her fate with his for this life by a solemn oath before God's +altar.' + +'Have you then really married the criminal?' Megret anxiously asked. + +Christine gave him a scornful look and remained silent; but when the +question was repeated by the judge, she drew a sealed paper from her +bosom and laid it upon his table. + +'A Gyllenstierna can never wholly fall,' said she proudly. 'The old +curate of Lyksale, constrained by my tears, secretly married us a short +time before his death.' + +'This evidence,' said the judge, 'speaks _against_ your wish to share +the criminal's chains. Bound to him by the holy ties of marriage, you +become guiltless of the crimes in which he is implicated, in which your +will had no part. There is no reasonable ground for your detention, and +nothing remains but to send you back to your father.' + +'Torture me not with this well-meant chicanery!' exclaimed Christine. +'Would you counsel me to ascertain which is deepest, the Umea or my +misery? Or would you that I should strangle myself with the braids of +my hair? So true as the Lord liveth, I will not be torn living from my +husband.' + +'Let it be as she wishes,' begged Arwed of the judge. + +'I shall perhaps take a heavy responsibility upon myself,' answered the +latter with strong emotion. 'But who could withstand her intercession? +Be it so.' + +'Courage, Mac Donalbain!' now exhorted Christine. 'We have men for our +judges. They will listen to your defence with merciful hearts, and thus +at least your life will be saved.' + +'I desire not life, nor will I ask for mercy!' cried Mac Donalbain, +wildly. 'My deeds are my own, and the son of my father is not +accustomed to excuse or palliate them, especially to save a miserable +life!' + +'You speak as becomes a man and a Scottish nobleman,' said Christine; +'yet must I be allowed to speak for you as becomes your truly wedded +wife. Therefore I beg of you, my lords, give that gracious hearing +which you hope God will one day give you!' + +'What can you offer in defence of a convicted highway robber?' asked +the judge, with some appearance of sympathy. + +'The heaven-crying injustice of the government!' eagerly exclaimed +Christine, 'which forcibly impelled the unhappy man upon his criminal +career. The indulgence which has been shown to similar transgressions. +The case of the Danish deserter, who received from Charles XII great +rewards and a license to rob for his own benefit, proves how mildly +such transgressions have hitherto been judged in our father-land.' + +'However clear may be the precedent you cite to us,' said the judge, +'it cannot be applied to the present case. Neither was this absolute +sovereign authorised to grant such unheard of privileges, which, if +true, owes its origin but to one of Charles's strange caprices; as the +property of the subjects must be deemed sacred by the king, who is +indeed their natural protector.' + +'My maternal inheritance shall repair the wrong which Mac Donalbain has +inflicted upon the country!' cried Christine. + +'Can you make reparation for the innocent blood which has been shed by +your husband's hand?' asked the judge with impressive solemnity. + +'The resistance he opposed to the attack was self-defence!' cried +Christine; 'besides, none of the assailants fell by his sword; and with +that exception he has preserved his hands pure from the blood of his +fellow men.' + +'By no means!' answered the judge. 'The traveler upon the road to +Lulea, and the unhappy Laplander, who conducted the governor to that +den of murderers, are dumb witnesses of your husband's guilt.' + +'By the God of heaven, Mac Donalbain is not guilty of their death!' +cried Christine in tones of the deepest anguish. 'Ask the band, and, if +either of them accuse my husband, let us both die the shameful death of +criminals.' + +'We would indeed very willingly hear the truth, at last, from his +companions. But in their examinations they have denied all knowledge of +the crimes of which they have been guilty, with unparalleled +impudence.' + +'The knaves deny!' cried Mac Donalbain, springing upon his feet. 'They +must consider me dead or as having escaped, else they would not dare to +do it, for they know me. Let them be brought here,--let them be placed +before my eyes. I will reckon with them in a manner which shall change +their minds.' + +'It may not be advisable,' observed Megret; 'it may give them an +opportunity for secret collusion.' + +'I am of a different opinion, colonel,' answered the judge, directing +the bailiff to bring in the band. 'This man is so bold and frank that +we need not fear artifice.' + +A long, deep silence ensued. Christine, weeping in silence, had seated +herself upon Mac Donalbain's stool, and was absorbed in the +contemplation of the blooming child, which with an angel smile was +sleeping on her bosom. The brigand leader had kneeled down and hid his +face in her lap, whilst her white fingers wandered among his black and +curled locks. Megret looked with dark burning glances, and Arwed with +the deepest sympathy upon the group, while the judge said, sighing; +'the office of a judge is sometimes very difficult to administer!' + +A noise was now heard in the ante-room. Arms and chains rattled, and +twelve fiend-like ruffians, in heavy chains and strongly guarded by +bailiffs and soldiers, stepping in exact time, without recognizing or +noticing Mac Donalbain, marched in and formed in exact line on the +space before the bench. + +'We have again summoned you,' began the chief judge, 'to repeat our +exhortations to confess the truth, and once more to lead your minds to +the conviction, that by persisting in your shameless denials, you only +prolong the examination and your own imprisonment--that you expose +yourselves to the torture of the rack, and moreover increase the +severity of your punishment, the mitigation of which you can only hope +from a free and full confession. Consider, unhappy men, that my present +request is made with the kindest intentions. He, only, who honestly +acknowledges and repents of his sins can hope for a merciful judgment +here or hereafter.' + +'It is quite pathetic and affecting to hear,' answered the most +hardened of the prisoners, 'that such a lord as you should so far +condescend to us miserable people, as to beg where you are accustomed +only to command. We cannot indeed particularly wish to hasten an +examination which with us is to end with the gallows, especially if we +should say yes to all of which we are suspected to be guilty. The +mitigation of punishment, with which judges always embellish their +promises to prisoners, in requital of candid confessions, appears to me +like the little book mentioned in the revelations of St. John, 'sweet +in the mouth and bitter in the belly.' We know of many examples where +prisoners have fared worse for speaking than for keeping silent. +However it may be with others, we have not the least desire to talk +away our own lives. Concerning the rack, which judges always present as +the other alternative, we must submit to it as well as we may, all of +us having strong frames and stout hearts. Nevertheless we would give +you every information without the rack, if any we had. What we do know, +we have honestly related; and it certainly is not our fault if you will +not believe us.' + +'Do you persist, then, in denying the robberies of which you are +already as good as convicted?' asked the judge. + +'We deny nothing,' insolently answered the prisoner, 'nor do we +acknowledge anything; for we have committed no crime. We are honest +Finlanders, who follow hunting through half the Lappmark, and had our +head quarters upon the Ravensten.' + +'And do you really know nothing of Black Naddock?' further asked the +judge. + +'We have heard some tales about the arrant rogue,' answered the +brigand, 'but the devil knows more about him than we. There was indeed +a Moor, who begged a lodging of us last night, and I thought I saw him +again in the morning, when we were attacked by the dragoons and their +companions; but whether he was or was not Naddock, is more than I can +say. I do not know the man.' + +'You do not know me, rascal?' cried Mac Donalbain, springing forward, +and striking his brother robber to the earth with his fist. + +'The captain!' was murmured along the ranks, and, fronting their chief, +the robbers laid their right hands upon their hearts, in token of +respectful greeting. + +'Must I suffer this from people whom I have commanded?' angrily +exclaimed Mac Donalbain. 'You have held out like heroes, against men +and elements, and do you now, equivocate like common thieves from a +miserable fear of death? Know that I have disclosed everything to the +court, and further, that I will freely answer every question they can +put to me. Do you wish to give the lie to your captain?' + +'God forbid!' stammered one of the band. 'We should be disgraced for +life!' cried another; and the former speaker, who by this time had +risen from the floor, cried, 'let your crook-backed secretary nib his +pen afresh, sir judge. We will now sing the song that you lords will +but too willingly hear from such poor devils as we. Write! Everything +that our captain has confessed is true from the beginning to the end.' + +'Well now,' cried Megret, who could restrain himself no longer; 'you +see that you may now, if you please, repay your captain for all the +misfortunes he has brought upon you. The sinful ties which connected +you with him are cut asunder, and you have no reason to spare him in +the least. So tell the court freely and frankly--'who murdered the +traveler on the road to Lulea?' + +'That,' answered the robber with eagerness and proud satisfaction, 'was +done by a brace of gallows-birds who did not belong to our band, but +marauded on their own account, and we beg not to be confounded with +them. Had we caught them we should ourselves have hung them upon the +nearest tree; for we could not with indifference have permitted such +good-for-nothing fellows to injure our reputation.' + +'And who killed the poor Laplander, who was found hung upon the +fir-tree before the entrance to your den?' asked the judge. + +'Red Hialf,' answered the prisoner; 'but without orders. In consequence +of which our captain arrested him, and on the morning when we were +attacked, he was to have had his trial. He must have been found locked +up in the vault of the second tower.' + +'That place was not searched!' cried Arwed, with a shudder. + +'He must have been blown into the air with the tower,' said Megret. +'There can be no question of it.' + +'You must now be convinced,' said Christine, approaching the judge, +'that my husband is innocent of every murderous deed. Can you now give +me any hope for him?' + +'I should consider it great presumption to give you any,' answered the +judge, 'and unjust to withhold it entirely. Our laws are severe and my +duties strict. Yet can the queen pardon. Leave the decision to God!' + +He directed the bailiffs to replace Mac Donalbain's chains. Christine +watched the proceeding in silent sadness, bowed with a sweet and +melancholy grace to the judges, and, supporting her child with one arm +and her husband with the other, she moved with him from the room. Arwed +and Megret followed her. + +'Is it really your unalterable resolution, countess,' whispered the +latter to her, 'to share the imprisonment of a villain, instead of +fulfilling a daughter's duty by the sick bed of your noble father?' + +But Christine turned away without answering him, and approached Arwed. +'Thy spirit breathed upon me in the court room,' said she with strong +emotion. 'For the kindness I met there, I am indebted to thy benignant +heart. Tire not! I well know that we are not worthy of all you are +doing for us; but you are accustomed to the performance of all that is +good and great, and will of yourself consummate your work, for its own +sake, regardless of the object. Save but the life of this unhappy man, +and you shall have my eternal gratitude.' + +'Listen not to her prayer, count,' cried Mac Donalbain, 'but suffer me +to seek in the grave that peace which life can henceforth never give +me.' + +The conversation was interrupted by the guards whose duty it was to +conduct the prisoners to their dungeon. Christine, shuddering, left +Arwed, to follow her husband, '_Diable! Elle aime le larron, et elle +l'aimera jusqu'a la potence!_' cried the enraged and despairing Megret +as he rushed out. + + + + CHAPTER XLVII. + + +It was already deep winter, and the judges were again assembled in the +town hall of Umea. Once more Arwed leaned against the window, an +interested spectator. Through his interposition Megret was this time +denied entrance. With recovered health Mac Donalbain, his faithful +nurse, his child, and his twelve comrades, were placed before the +judgment seat. The chief judge showed the seal of the envelope covering +the final decision, which had been received from Stockholm. After +satisfying all present that the seal was still inviolate, he proceeded +to break it and drew out the portentous document, through which he +rapidly ran his eye. + +'Your lives are spared!' cried he to Mac Donalbain with heartfelt joy. +'The mercy of the queen has commuted the death-sentence of you all into +confinement to labor in the mines for life.' + +'Oh my God! that is hard!' sighed Mac Donalbain. + +'That is heart-breaking mercy,' dryly observed the humorous brigand, +'which compels us, who were never fond of labor, again to begin to move +our bones like patient asses day after day, until happily relieved by +death. However, something is always better than nothing, and we are +duly grateful.' + +Meanwhile Christine had fallen upon her knees in silent thanksgiving to +God. She quickly arose however, and quietly asked the judge, 'what is +the decision with regard to myself!' + +'As was foreseen,' he answered. 'You are pronounced free from all guilt +and punishment, and you are left at liberty to dissolve your marriage +with the prisoner.' + +'What a good thing it is to have a royal counsellor for one's uncle!' +cried Christine, with derisive scorn. + +'You can leave this place and go wherever you please without delay or +hindrance. Yet you are expected at Gyllensten, and your noble kinsman +is present to accompany you there.' + +'That means, that I am to be separated from my husband by persuasion or +force!' said Christine with intense anxiety, while a sudden resolution +seemed all at once to re-animate her soul. 'You then are my master, +Arwed,' she at length said to him. 'Against that I have no complaint to +make. You will not be an unkind one, and therefore I confidently expect +from you a compliance with my request. Allow me to accompany my husband +to his place of destination.' + +'Your father expects you to-day,' said Arwed impatiently; 'and I must +not comply with your request.' + +'Dear Arwed,' said she, hanging affectionately upon him, 'let me at +least take a final leave of the wretched man before he parts forever +from the blessed light of day. Then will I follow you to Gyllensten, or +where else you please, patiently, as a lamb follows its mother. Do not +this time say no. It is the last request I shall ever make of you.' + +'So all-powerful is the magic of this singular being,' said Arwed to +the judge, 'that she compels me to consent to what I ought to refuse. +Yours is a sad case, Christine; you might have prepared an earthly +heaven for some worthy man, through your love.' + +'That she might!' cried Mac Donalbain, agonized with sorrow and +repentance, 'that she might, had she not thrown away her love upon me. +She is a cheerful sun which has lavished its rays upon a desert waste, +full of monsters, instead of ripening wholesome fruits for the +nourishment of men.' + +'You say yes? I can prepare for the journey, can I not?' once more +asked Christine, and kissing his hand as he nodded assent, she flew to +make her preparations. + + + + CHAPTER XLVIII. + + +The wagons of the prisoners, together with Arwed's carriage containing +Christine and her child, were approaching the end of their journey. On +one side of them the smelting furnace of Oesterby was rolling its +clouds of smoke high into the winter sky; before them towered the bald, +dark-gray iron mountains of Danemora-Gruben, and already the few +buildings which animate this desolate and uncomfortable region had +become visible. A dragoon, who had been sent forward to announce their +approach to the superintendent of the mines, now returned and led them +to the nearest shaft, where a number of the miners had already +assembled to receive the new comers and expedite them to their destined +location under ground. + +While the young miners were taking their stations at the windlass, and +others were removing the robbers from the wagons, Christine drew Arwed +aside. + +'Arwed,' said the broken-hearted woman, 'you have always conducted +yourself towards me in the noblest manner. Give me one more proof of +your generosity and kindness, and thus crown your work. Allow me to +descend into the mine with Mac Donalbain. My anxiety for him will be +less painful when I am made acquainted with his new residence.' + +'What an insensate request!' cried Mac Donalbain, who had overheard it, +'It will be much better that we take our last farewell here above +ground.' + +'Because I have once yielded to your importunities,' replied Arwed, +'you hold me for a weak simpleton, and think you can move and turn me +at your pleasure. I have fulfilled your last request, and now I must +obey your father's commands. Take your last leave of Mac Donalbain, and +then return with me according to your solemn promise.' + +'Hold me not so closely to my word,' entreated Christine. 'What would I +not have promised for the happiness of beholding my husband some days +longer! Let me descend with him.' + +'You must now take your leave,' said Arwed sternly, 'and then +immediately return with me to Gyllensten. My resolution is +unchangeable.' + +Christine looked wildly about her. The robbers were all in the tub +ready to descend, and waited only for Mac Donalbain, who now embraced +his wife with frantic sorrow. 'Farewell, and forgive me!' he cried, and +hurried to the shaft. + +'If thou hast ever loved,' shrieked Christine, clinging to Arwed's +knees, 'suffer yourself this time, only this time, to be softened. Let +me follow my husband. For this shall a wife leave father and mother. +Hold God's word in honor, and permit an unhappy woman to descend into +the bosom of the earth, from which she sprung.' + +'I must do my duty; you remain behind!' decided Arwed. Meantime the +windlass had commenced its revolutions, and the prisoners had +disappeared in the dark and yawning gulf. + +'He is gone!' moaned Christine. 'Thou hast done thy duty, barbarian; +now will I do mine!' + +She took the suckling from her breast, and placed it in Arwed's arms. +'Be its father!' she cried, springing to the shaft. + +'Back! the tubs have already descended!' shrieked a miner, whilst Arwed +hastened after her to hold her back. + +'In God's name!' she exclaimed, and, grasping with both hands the +tub-rope which hung suspended in the abyss, and boldly swinging herself +over the shaft, she descended with frightful rapidity, and in a moment +was lost to view. + +'Holy God!' cried Arwed in amazement, staring with stupefaction into +the horrible deep. + +'She will never reach the bottom alive,' cried one of the miners at the +windlass: 'God have mercy on her soul!' + +Arwed had handed over the child to one of the miners' wives, and +availed himself of the first tub which again came up, to descend into +the pit for the purpose of looking after the unhappy mother, and doing +every thing in his power for her welfare. The brave youth felt a slight +shudder, when, by the celerity of his movement, the black, rocky walls +around him, as if raised by some magic power, appeared to fly up into +the air so swiftly as soon to shut out the light of day from the +entrance, which appeared like a distant star shining down upon him; +and, as his eyes gradually became accustomed to the obscurity, the +terrors of the subterranean world became more and more distinctly and +fearfully perceptible. Nothing was to be seen around him but dark gray +rocks in gigantic masses, and occasionally caves and depths so +immeasurable that they appeared to open into endless space. In singular +contrast with the death-like appearance of all nature in these immense +regions, appeared the active and busy movements of living men, who +cheerfully labored to rend by force from old mother earth, that which +she has so carefully hidden, and so pertinaciously withholds, from the +curiosity and avarice of her children. There, upon an isolated group of +projecting rocks, were the begrimmed miners, with their mining lamps, +appearing in the far distance like so many fire-flies, assiduously +digging with mallets and drills into the iron walls, for the purpose of +gaining, in the least dangerous, though most tedious manner, the useful +metal, which others then removed in troughs, baskets and handbarrows, +and finally conveyed to the regions of day. Here, large fires were +burning under the overhanging rocks, for the purpose of softening the +hard stone by their heat, until they could be detached by their iron +crow-bars. Upon slender rafters, supported by inserting their ends into +the fissures of the rocks over unfathomable abysses, solitary +individuals were composedly boring holes in the rocks for the purpose +of blasting them; and near and far to a great distance, the darkness +was illuminated by explosions which re-echoed through the natural +arches of the pit like a subterranean battery of cannon. + +'A true earthly hell!' said Arwed, while going down, 'furnished with +all the terrors and torments which mortals can suffer without quickly +succumbing. How can Christine prefer servitude in this eternal night to +freedom in the blessed light of day? But indeed love will endure all +things.' + +The tub landed at the bottom of the shaft, Arwed stepped from it, and +immediately perceived, by the light of a torch, the poor Christine +lying exhausted upon the ground in a recess in one side of the pit. Mac +Donalbain was standing by her in silent despair, and the clergyman of +the mines was bandaging the bleeding hands of the suffering woman, from +which the cord had torn the flesh as it slipped through them. + +'So thou hast come after me, Arwed!' cried she, with a glance of +heavenly kindness, and extending towards him her already bandaged right +hand. 'You have always acted toward me with the best feelings and +intentions.' + +'My God, what desperation!' said Arwed. 'This descent might have cost +you your life. At all events you have accomplished your wish. So give +to Mac Donalbain your farewell kiss, and let us again return to your +child and to your father.' + +'Not so, Arwed!' answered Christine with determined resolution. 'My +child is confided to good hands. My presence can afford neither joy nor +comfort to my father. I remain with my husband. You have reason to know +what will be my alternative if compulsion is used. You would not +constrain me to self-murder. Therefore take my last farewell, and with +it my thanks for your truly fraternal love.' + +'It is now your duty to interfere, Mac Donalbain,' cried Arwed, +earnestly. 'Without Christine I dare not appear before her father. The +intelligence that she has persisted in remaining here would cause the +old man's death, and he has not deserved that from you. Therefore +dissolve the magic spell you have cast around her, and give back the +daughter to her father.' + +'My crimes have forever loosed the bands which bound us,' said Mac +Donalbain, with almost suffocating sorrow, to his wife. 'Therefore +leave me now, Christine. It would only increase my misery to know that +it was shared by you.' + +'I do not believe it, Mac Donalbain,' answered the resolute woman. +'That the society, the sympathy, the consolations, of a being who +stands in so near a relation that henceforth she will only live and +breathe for you, must lighten your sufferings, I am fully convinced; +and in despite of your generous untruth I remain your companion.' + +'Well, then,' cried Mac Donalbain, wildly, 'if you will at all events +remain the wife of a condemned criminal, you must respect the husband's +authority. The wife owes obedience to the husband, and I command you to +return to your father!' + +'You cannot command me to do that,' answered Christine. 'I am your +wedded wife. I have never given you cause to be dissatisfied with me, +but have always faithfully adhered to you, up to this sad moment. You +have no right to separate yourself from me without my consent, and by +Almighty God I will never give it!' + +'Be merciful, as our Father in Heaven is merciful!' +said the preacher to the weeping Arwed. 'So far as I understand this +sad history, it appears, even to me, better to permit the unhappy woman +to remain with her husband. What but severe reproof and bitter scorn +can she now expect in the upper world? Here, on the contrary, she can +perhaps preserve a distracted mind from despair and lead it to true +repentance and amendment, which is always a commendable work and +acceptable to God.' + +'How can I venture,' rejoined Arwed, 'to leave the poor woman here, +helpless, amid the horrors of nature and the outcasts of society, whose +destiny her husband must share?' + +'She shall reside in my house,' promised the preacher; 'and together +with my good wife I will make every possible effort to render her yoke +easy and her burden light. Confide her to me, sir officer, and I will +have a father's care of her.' + +'Do so, reverend sir,' said Arwed, somewhat relieved by this promise, +and placing a purse in the preacher's hand. 'The governor of West +Bothnia will gratefully acknowledge whatever kindness you may show to +his daughter.' + +The preacher raised his hands in astonishment on thus learning the high +rank of the person committed to his care. 'I will plead for you with +your father!' said Arwed to Christine,--and, to shorten the painful +scene, he hastened to re-enter the tub. The signal was given, and Arwed +soon mounted to the regions of day, accompanied by the grateful prayers +of those he left behind. + + + + CHAPTER XLIX. + + +Arwed sat by his uncle's sick bed, and, not without some embarrassment +and hesitation, gave an account of Christine's artifice, his weakness, +and her final resolution. The old man exhibited no sign of anger, as +Arwed had anticipated, but on the contrary nodded his assent to the +arrangement. 'She knows what is proper for her,' he at length said in a +trembling voice. 'Her honor is lost beyond redemption, and I therefore +consider it but reasonable and proper that she should hide herself in a +place so little different from the grave. Direct my steward to send a +hundred ducats to Oesterby yearly, for her use, that she may not suffer +from want, and henceforth name her to me no more. With her child you +will do what you think proper; you have an open treasury here, but +never let it come into my presence. I cannot acknowledge a child of Mac +Donalbain as my grandson.' + +'Is Megret still here?' asked Arwed, for the purpose of changing the +subject. + +'He is,' answered the governor, 'and I wish to have some conversation +with you respecting him. A great change has come over him since the +Ravensten expedition, and he has daily become more and more seriously +misanthropic. Since he clearly ascertained that the----person was +determined at all events to accompany her husband to Danemora, it seems +as if an evil spirit had entered him, and obtained entire possession of +his heart. I really believe the fool did not, until then, give up all +hope of gaining her hand. His presence here has become disagreeable to +me. He daily harasses his poor hounds, who howl about the castle like +damned spirits,--shamefully over-rides his noble horses from mere +caprice, and I have frequently caught him in smiling and pleased +contemplation of his bloody spurs. His groom leads a miserable life +with him, and I have on that account already once or twice upbraided +him severely for his eccentric and irregular course. His plan of +purchasing and settling himself in this vicinity seems to be wholly +given up, and he has become burdensome to every living creature at the +castle, but most of all to himself. I feel that my days are numbered, +and would willingly die in peace. I must therefore beg of you, Arwed, +in my name and in a courteous manner, to dismiss him from the castle. +Should he take it ill, a duel may indeed be the consequence; but you +would not hesitate to exchange a few passes for the love of your old +uncle,--would you?' + +'I will set about it immediately,' said Arwed, leaving the room, +rejoiced to have an opportunity of forever ridding himself of the hated +Frenchman. + + + + CHAPTER L. + + +In answer to his inquiries for Megret, Arwed learned that he had +retired into the garden in company with a strange officer. He followed +him there, and their voices guided him through the leafless and snow +covered walks to a thick grove of yew-trees, in which Megret and the +stranger were sitting. A glance through an opening in the branches of +the trees discovered to him the face of Siquier, pale and wasted by +disease and affliction; and the interest of a conversation which now +commenced between them, chained him with irresistible power to the +spot. + +'What is it that you particularly want of me?' asked Megret, with +mingled embarrassment and vexation. 'We have both of us so long and so +carefully avoided each other, that this unexpected visit may well +excite my wonder.' + +'I am about to leave Sweden forever,' answered Siquier, in a desponding +tone, 'and have come to take my leave of you, and to procure money for +my traveling expenses.' + +'Money for traveling?' murmured Megret. 'We settled with each other +long since, and balanced our accounts. Above all, how came you to form +the resolution of leaving Sweden?' + +'You know,' answered Siquier, in a low voice and looking carefully +about him, 'with what ignominy common report has branded my honor since +the king's death. I still hoped that those suspicions would gradually +die away, but they continued daily to strengthen and increase, and I +learned that my enemies with witty insolence pronounced my once +honorable name, _Sicaire_,[1] thus, by a slight change of sound +expressing the accusation with that atrocious word. Two duels followed, +and still the rumor continued to spread. Had I fought half the army, it +would have been unavailing. Finally my mental sufferings overpowered my +physical strength. A raging fever seized me, and...' He ceased. + +'And then?' asked Megret, with painful anxiety. + +'In the paroxysms,' stammered Siquier, almost inaudibly, 'I am said to +have accused myself of Charles's murder, and to have thrown up my +windows and begged Sweden's pardon for the crime.' + +'What consequence could they attach to such silly phantasies?' asked +Megret, turning deadly pale. + +'The government,' continued Siquier, 'had me confined in a mad-house, +and when I recovered I received my dismission, with an injunction to +leave the kingdom.' + +'Are you also, like myself, dismissed?' cried Megret, with a ferocious +laugh. 'They are right! The lemons have been squeezed, why should they +not sweep out the useless peels?' + +'It is dreadful to have no means of escaping the gnawing worm in the +heart,' said Siquier, 'but, between ourselves, Megret, have we deserved +anything better?' + +While saying this he seized Megret's hand and gave him a piercing +glance. The latter angrily tore himself from his grasp. + +'You know our former agreement,' said he moodily, 'never to allude to +bye-gone occurrences, even in our most secret conversations.' + +'You are right,' said Siquier, with a look and tone of horror. 'The +past is, for us, a black night, full of blood and flames! Let us wait +until it re-appear in eternal futurity!' + +'Here is money,' said Megret, placing a heavy purse of gold in his +hand. 'Go and prosper.' + +'It contains more than thirty pieces of silver,' said Siquier, weighing +the purse in a sort of mental abstraction. 'There is more than enough +to purchase a potter's field for a wanderer's grave!' + +'The fever has weakened you, poor Siquier!' exclaimed Megret, with +forced laughter. 'You have grown learned in the scriptures, and will no +doubt become one of the professing brothers of La Trappe, in your old +age. Do hasten to get there.' + +'Mock me not, seducer!' said Siquier, grating his teeth and grasping +the hilt of his sword. After a few moments he observed, 'you are right! +I believe in a hereafter,--I believe in future rewards and punishments, +and may I therefore live to repent and reform. You entertain a +different belief, and you have only to shoot yourself when your +conscience awakens from its death-sleep!' + +'That may become advisable!' said Megret, in a low tone, and both +remained sitting near each other, their arms resting on their knees, +and their faces buried in their hands. They remained silent, each +absorbed in his own reflections, while the thickly falling flakes of +snow gradually wrapped them in white mantles, without attracting +notice. + +At length a heavy sigh escaped from Siquier's laboring breast. He rose +up, threw the purse of gold before Megret's feet, and suddenly left the +garden, without bidding him farewell. Megret, uttering no word, +remained sitting in the same posture, and Arwed was detained motionless +for some time, by the feelings which this singular and dreadful +disclosure awakened, and by a want of decision, which of the two first +to call to account for their hidden deed of horror. He finally +concluded: 'why should I contend with the miserable man, whom the +judgment of God has already stricken, whose marrow has been already +consumed by sickness and remorse, who has neither strength nor courage +to oppose me, and who, perhaps, would welcome death from my hand? No, +the insolent transgressor, in all the pride and bloom of life, shall be +the object of my wrath--the _seducer_! as his accomplice called him. I +will punish not the _knife_, but the _hand_!'--and he quickly +approached the entrance to the grove, which Megret was that moment +leaving. + +The latter shrunk before the indignant glance of the youth. The flush +of anger and the paleness of terror alternately played upon his +countenance, and it was dreadful to see the two manly forms confronting +each other with looks of enmity and defiance. + +The fearful silence was interrupted by Arwed. 'I have overheard your +conversation with Siquier, colonel,' said he, 'and, as you know how +strong was the love I bore the king, you will not be surprised when I +declare to you that we must fight!' + +'You have an especial passion for pistol-shooting!' calmly and +jestingly replied Megret. 'Probably you wish to revive the custom of +the ancient pagans, with whom the companions in arms of a hero prince +reciprocally slaughtered each other on his grave; as an evidence of +their love and respect for him.' + +'Name your time and place!' cried Arwed, whose anger was increased by +his insolent witticisms. + +'Eight days from this, about the same hour,' answered Megret, after +some little reflection, 'in the first iron mine of Danemora.' + +'That is a late and distant rendezvous,' said Arwed. 'You will not let +me wait for you there in vain?' + +The Frenchman's eyes flashed, and in his anger he resembled an evil +spirit in the human form. 'Young man!' he cried, 'doubt every +thing--doubt even of Megret's eternal salvation--but doubt not his word +or his courage,--or you will compel him to annihilate you even against +his will.' And with a proud step he left the garden. + + + + CHAPTER LI. + + +Some days later, Arwed, prepared for his journey, approached the sick +bed of his uncle to take leave of him. + +'You are going once more to Danemora?' asked the old man. 'What +occasion calls you there?' + +'I wish to see how it goes with the poor Christine,' answered Arwed, +unwilling to disturb the sick man by naming the true motive. + +'You are deceiving me,' said the old man reprovingly. 'Your business is +of a more unpleasant nature. You have executed the charge I gave you. +Megret has left us, and your journey relates to him. Danemora is only a +pretext to keep me in ignorance.' + +'Truly no,' answered Arwed. 'Megret has appointed it for our place of +meeting.' + +'Is it so!' cried the old man. 'I am sorry for it, and have a thousand +times repented of the charge I gave you. It would be a dreadful thing +if you should fall in this miserable combat. You can and must yet +become right useful to your father-land. Promise me at least that you +will pursue this affair no further than honor absolutely demands.' + +'Forgive me, dear uncle,' said Arwed. 'I cannot give you that promise. +But one of us will leave the field alive. Yet quiet yourself with the +assurance that it was not your request, with which indeed there was no +necessity for my compliance, which occasions this duel; it has a more +weighty cause. + +'What can that be?' doubtingly replied the uncle. + +'Excuse my naming it to you,' answered Arwed. 'I fight not for our +house, nor for my own honor. I fight for Sweden!' + +'Go then, bold combatant, and may God fight with you!' cried the old +man. 'It is possible you may not find me alive when you return. For +which reason receive now my thanks for your filial love and truth. That +I consider myself your father in the full sense of the word, my +testament, which I have already deposited with the high court at +Stockholm, will inform you. I have also written to your father and to +the queen. You must become my successor in the government of West +Bothnia.' + +'Never!' cried Arwed, impetuously. + +'You must!' persisted his uncle. 'Not for love of the queen, nor for +your own advantage; but for the welfare of this province. I may be +permitted to say that with me the office has been in good hands, and I +am unwilling that an unworthy courtier or unfeeling soldier should +demolish what has cost me so many long years to build up. You are +intelligent, brave and good; and you have, with me, become familiar +with the civil duties. You are the most suitable person, and you must +be governor; where the happiness of the people is concerned, anger, +vindictiveness, and similar trifling hindrances, must not dare to raise +their heads in such a heart as yours.' + +'My dear uncle!' said the yielding Arwed, and kneeling down before the +bed, he kissed the invalid's wasted hand. + +'God bless thee, my son!' said the latter, laying his hand upon the +youth's head. + +'And also the poor Christine! is it not so?' asked Arwed.' + +'Tell her--I--do not curse her!' cried the old man with a severe +struggle; 'and now leave me. These feelings are too strong for my +exhausted powers.' + +He turned his face to the wall, and Arwed departed in sadness. + + + + CHAPTER LII. + + +At the appointed hour Arwed entered the shaft of the first mine in +Danemora, with his pistols under his arm. In consequence of the perfect +mental repose with which he proceeded upon his bloody business, he had +this time a better opportunity to look about him and observe the +peculiarities of the monstrous cavity. A strange feeling seized him +when he took a nearer view of the active operations of this +subterranean world. The miserable huts and wooden booths here and there +erected among the rocks; the larger hut with a small belfry which +denoted the church of the immense abyss; the market, which the venders +of the indispensable necessaries of life, attracted by all-powerful +avarice, held here below; the ceaseless prosecution of the mining +operations--gave to the whole scene the appearance of an abortive +attempt to create a subterranean city; while the black dresses and +earth colored faces of the perpetual residents of these melancholy +regions were well calculated to strengthen the illusion. The whole was +lighted only by pans of pitch which fumed and smoked here and there in +their elevated niches. No glimmer of daylight penetrated there. The +firmament of these abodes was the roof of the mines, which, indeed, had +no sun, but had its fixed and wandering stars in the fires, torches and +lamps of the workmen--and, in the frequent explosions which took place, +their thunder and lightning, like the upper world. Arwed bent his +course directly to the little edifice which served for the church, and +upon reaching it discovered in its rear a small building, which rather +more than the others deserved the name of a house. It was the dwelling +of the clergyman. Upon entering he discovered Christine, whom sorrow +and confinement had rendered still more pale and emaciated, busily +plying her needle by lamp light. + +'Ah, Arwed!' cried she overjoyed, and springing towards him she held +out her bandaged hand as before. A dark cloud soon flitted over her +beautiful countenance, and she asked distrustfully, 'have you no secret +object in this visit?' + +'A very secret and serious one,' answered Arwed--'from which, however, +you have nothing to fear. On the contrary, I bring you your father's +permission to remain here, the consolation that your child is well +attended to, and the assurance of a pecuniary allowance sufficient to +preserve you from want.' + +'And I have to thank you, still you, for all these blessings!' cried +Christine with grateful enthusiasm. 'Ah, how happy you make me, and at +the same time how inexpressibly unhappy!' + +'Poor Christine!' said he with deep sympathy--'How miserable has the +vehemence of thy nature rendered thee!' + +He laid his pistols upon, the table, and listened to ascertain if any +one was approaching. + +'You said just now,' remarked Christine sorrowfully, 'that a secret and +serious purpose brought you here. I hope those weapons which you have +brought with you into this peaceful hut, have no connection with it?' + +Arwed walked silently to the window and looked impatiently out into the +eternal night. + +'Do you apprehend any further malice from my husband?' Christine +anxiously asked. 'I will be answerable for him with my life. He reveres +you as our guardian angel. Moreover he has become much better in this +abode of darkness than he was in the upper world; and should I with the +aid of time be enabled to banish the deep sorrow which still constantly +hovers about him, I have reason to hope that we may once more attain to +something like happiness.' + +Arwed, who had scarcely listened to the poor sufferer, now suddenly +asked, 'has not Megret been recently here?' + +'Do you then seek him?' cried Christine with astonishment. 'Yes, he was +here scarcely an hour since. He caused Mac Donalbain to be called from +his labor, and retired far into the mine in private and earnest +conversation with him. I had already become somewhat alarmed on account +of their long absence. Megret is a fiend, and bears the most bitter +hatred towards my husband.' + +At this moment Arwed heard voices from without. He raised the window, +and to his astonishment saw Megret arm in arm with Mac Donalbain and in +earnest conversation with an old clerk of the mine. + +'I repeat it my friend,' said Megret, 'your way of exploding is bad. +Greater results may be produced with half the labor and powder, when +one begins right.' + +'I have all proper respect for your mathematical sciences, sir +officer,' the clerk peevishly answered; 'but still I think that we, who +are in constant practice here, must better understand how to obtain the +ore than you can by theoretical calculations.' + +'Must not the engineer be also familiar with the practice?' asked +Megret. 'Our mines traverse every variety of earth, and we are often +under the necessity of calculating the resistance of walls and masses +of stone.' + +The clerk, who adhered as pertinaciously to old customs as the ore to +its native mountains, shook his head in token of disbelief. + +'You want proof,' said Megret, with some apparent irritation. 'Show me +a suitable place and let me spring a mine in my way. I will pay for the +labor and powder if I do not make my words good.' + +'Vivat!' cried the clerk, confident of victory; at that moment Arwed +stepped directly in front of Megret, with his pistols in his hand and +bowed in silence. + +'I rejoice to find you here,' said Megret with great equanimity, +courteously returning his greeting. 'Allow me but to settle a contest +between the old practice and the new science, and I shall immediately +afterwards have the pleasure to be at your service.' + +During these few moments Mac Donalbain had hastened into the house, and +now returning in a state of great excitement, seized Megret by the arm +and drew him away. + +The clerk followed them, talking to himself and gesticulating with +great animation, and they all soon disappeared in the dark windings of +the mine. + +Christine now came out, casting her troubled glances in every +direction. As soon as she perceived Arwed she hastened to him. 'Mac +Donalbain was with me just now,' said she anxiously. 'He pressed me +silently to his bosom, and then rushed forth as if frantic! Where is +he? where is Megret?' + +'Megret is essaying a new method of springing mines,' answered Arwed, +'and will soon be here again.' + +'And Mac Donalbain has accompanied him!' cried the trembling wife. 'I +fear some mischief is on foot here.' + +'Causeless apprehension!' said Arwed; 'the clerk is with them. Megret's +undertaking will require the presence of several workmen, and his honor +as an officer is pledged for his speedy return.' + +'What have you to do with that bad man?' asked the still suspicious +Christine--but the approach of two men prevented a reply. They were +Swedenborg and the superintendent of the mines. The latter separated +from Swedenborg with a respectful inclination, and passed on in +obedience to the calls of duty to some other portion of the mine. +Swedenborg however advanced towards Arwed. + +'I greet you, vigorous swimmer upon the sea of misfortune,' said +Swedenborg to Arwed, offering his hand in a most friendly manner. + +'Welcome to your kingdom, sir mining-counsellor!' answered Arwed. 'What +news do you bring from the upper world into this abyss?' + +'I bring news of a diet which will take Ulrika's crown and place it +upon her husband's head,' said Swedenborg; 'of an armistice with +Denmark, and peace with Poland and Prussia.' + +'And Russia?' asked Arwed hastily. + +'Remains implacable, and is making new preparations,' answered +Swedenborg, shrugging his shoulders. + +'These false steps are a great misfortune to my father-land!' cried +Arwed despondingly. 'Peace with powerful Russia should have been the +first object.' + +Swedenborg had meantime kept his eyes immovably fixed upon the youth, +and now appeared to have subjected the lineaments of his face to a +sufficient trial. He became so gloomy, and the glances of his black +eyes so piercing, that Arwed could hardly support it. + +'How came you by this love of peace?' he finally asked the youth in a +reproachful tone, 'when your heart is destitute of it, and you have +descended into this mine with bloody intentions?' + +'If your spiritual eyes are sharp enough to read my heart,' answered +Arwed, with surprise, 'you must know and honor the motives which +actuate me.' + +'Every motive is blameworthy,' answered Swedenborg, with an elevated +voice, 'which induces an earthworm to endeavor to anticipate the +dispensations of Providence. Yet will His mercy spare you this sin; for +behold, the arm of the fearful Nemesis is already raised, and at the +Lord's command it will fall in destruction upon the criminal.' + +Christine had drawn close to Arwed during this conversation, and he now +perceived the feverish trembling of her frame, caused by Swedenborg's +prophecy. + +At this moment a young miner came and asked, 'where shall I find major +Gyllenstierna.' + +'Here he stands!' answered Arwed, 'probably you wish to bring me to the +officer who was just now here.' + +'No, he merely sends you this billet,' said the young man, departing. + +'What can he have to write to me about, situated as we are?' Arwed +peevishly exclaimed. Unfolding the billet, which was written in pencil, +and stepping to the nearest pitch-pan, he read as follows: + + +'To appease the manes of your king, you have demanded satisfaction of +me. I had however previously promised it to myself and to myself +therefore, precedence is due. From you I have only to expect a +_possible_ death. I shall inflict it upon myself with a surer hand. Mac +Donalbain shares my fate. In gratitude to the countess Gyllenstierna +for the manner in which she rejected my addresses, I have persuaded her +husband that he belongs to this earth as little as myself. Many will +think the manner of my death strange; but I wish to die in the way of +my profession, and at the same time to preserve my body from the +ignominy of a judicial investigation. I have the honor to greet you. +_Au revoir_, I dare not say. + MEGRET.' + + +The horror-stricken Arwed had hardly read to the end, when suddenly the +whole broad space swam in a sea of fire. A terrible explosion, as of a +powder magazine, of which echo increased the frightful roar a thousand +fold, shook the ground under Arwed's feet, and displaced heavy masses +of stone from the sides of the cavern which fell with a crash to the +bottom of the mine. Loud screams suddenly arose on all sides, to which +a mournful silence immediately succeeded, and from the direction in +which Megret and Mac Donalbain had gone, came rolling in a dense +white-gray powder-smoke, which twirled in waving clouds along the top +of the arch, and soon filling the whole mine, wrapped every object in +its impenetrable veil. + +'What was that?' stammered Christine, clinging to Arwed for support. + +'God's judgment!' solemnly and majestically answered Swedenborg. 'Wo to +the sinner who wickedly and presumptuously draws it down upon his head +before the appointed time.' + +'Let us go and see if it be possible to render any assistance,' +proposed Arwed; and proceeded with Swedenborg toward the place whence +the smoke issued. Christine followed them with a misgiving heart. They +were met by the old clerk, who ran up to them with a black and +disfigured face. + +'You appear to have been near the scene of the accident,' said Arwed to +him. 'Are there many people injured?' + +'Thank God only two; who, moreover, are no great loss!' answered the +clerk, turning again to show them the way. 'An officer, wishing to +instruct us how to blow out the ore, so managed that instead of the ore +he blew himself into the air, and a piece of the roof of the mine with +him.' + +'The explosion was too violent for a mere removal of ore,' remarked +Swedenborg. + +'Very true, most honored sir,' answered the clerk. 'There also went +with it a small cask of powder which was standing near.' + +By this time they had arrived at the place. The thick smoke almost +suffocated them. The torches of the miners, hurrying to and fro, like +nebulous stars, faintly lighted the scene of destruction. A monstrous +mountain mass, consisting mostly of rocks and stones, had become +loosened by the force of the shock, and covered the bottom to a great +height with fragments, through the fissures of which little flames were +seen playing. + +'They will lie quietly in this coffin until the last day!' observed the +clerk. + +'In God's name!' shrieked Christine, 'who is the other sufferer?' + +'The brigand leader, who was sentenced here for life,' answered the +clerk, with indifference. + +'Mac Donalbain!' murmured the poor wife, sinking lifeless to the earth. + + + + CHAPTER LIII. + + +Christine lay at the parsonage in that last hard struggle which +releases the soul from its earthly imprisonment. At her bed-side sat +Arwed, with humid eyes, his hands in the cold grasp of hers. Near her +pillow stood Swedenborg, with his piercing prophet-glance fixed +immovably upon the sufferer. + +'The symptoms of death are already observable,' whispered he to the +weeping curate. 'Her end is near.' + +'She has suffered so much,' said Arwed, 'that if her heart were iron it +must break under these hard and repeated blows.' + +At this moment Christine suddenly rose in her bed, turned her beauteous +eyes with heavenly tenderness upon Arwed, and eagerly pressed his hand +to her bosom. + +'At the brink of the grave,' said she, 'all false appearances must +vanish. So near the source of eternal truth, I may now speak the truth +to you. I have loved you, Arwed, loved you with all the powers of my +passionate soul, from the moment when you stood before me in the +knight's hall in the full perfection of youth and manliness. But this +love was my misery, for I was already secretly married. The caprices +with which I often tormented you, alas, they came from a bleeding +heart! At Ravensten did Mac Donalbain's infamous profession first +become fully clear to me, and I made every possible effort to withdraw +him from it. But the chains of vice hold strong! Only by slow and +gentle degrees could my husband disengage himself from his associates; +and, before he had time to accomplish the work, his punishment overtook +him. What I have done for him was but the performance of a wife's duty. +His self-murder is my divorce for this world and the next, and now my +only consolation is, that I shall be able to extend to you a FREE hand +when we hereafter meet in eternal light.' + +As she proceeded, her voice had increased in clearness and fulness of +tone, her eye became bright and flashing, and purple roses burned upon +her wasted cheeks. + +'You have spoken too fast and too earnestly, countess,' said the +curate. 'In your present situation this excitement may cause your +death.' + +'I have it already in my heart, reverend sir,' said the invalid in a +low voice; 'and I know but too well that it is too late to preserve +life. Yet I thank you for this care, as well as for the religious +consolation you have afforded me in this last heavy trial.' + +She held out her hand to him, which the weeping man pressed to his +lips, and the deep silence which followed, was only broken by the sobs +of those present. + +'I have now but one wish in this world,' resumed Christine. 'Alas, but +one, the fulfilment of which would soften the pangs of death; but I +dare not hope.' + +'Thy son is mine!' cried Arwed. 'By God and my own honor, I will adopt +him and he shall bear the name and arms of Gyllenstierna.' + +'I know,' answered Christine, 'that you will do whatever is great and +good, and I have ceased to be anxious about the fate of my child since +I confided it to you. But my poor old father--' and here her voice +faltered,--'that I may not once more kneel before him and implore his +pardon, that, that alone embitters my death.' + +'Poor woman!' cried Arwed, who witnessed the extent of her sorrow with +the perfect conviction that no consolation could be offered. + +'Hope, sinner!' cried Swedenborg with emotion, laying his hand upon +Christine's head. 'True repentance may do much; a weeping, penitent +child, it presses strongly against the gates of heaven; and behold! the +ruby gates fly open, and the eternal mercy, sitting upon a throne woven +of rays of light, takes the weeping child softly to her bosom and dries +her tears with maternal love!' + +He stepped apart, folded his hands, and silently and fervently raised +his eyes on high. Christine also folded her hands and moved her lips in +a murmured prayer. + +'Thou art heard!' suddenly exclaimed Swedenborg; and at the same +instant Christine sprang up, and with outspread arms joyfully cried, +'my father!' + +A white ray floated through the room, and the strings of the piano +reverberated like the dying harmony of an Eolian harp. + +'He has pardoned me, he has preceded me, he expects me there!' cried +Christine in ecstasy, and immediately sank back upon her pillow. + +Swedenborg approached her, and as his glance fell upon her fixed eyes, +he exclaimed with emotion: 'she is dead!' + +And the clock struck the third hour of the morning. + + + + CHAPTER LIV. + + +The black funereal flag was waving from the towers of Gyllensten as +Arwed slowly approached it with the remains of poor Christine. The +tolling of bells was heard from the castle chapel and from Umea, and +the domestics of the family surrounded the carriage with weeping eyes. + +'How is my uncle?' asked Arwed, with fearful apprehension. + +'I bring you his last greeting,' said the gray old steward, with a +trembling voice. 'He went to his God early on the day before yesterday, +about the third hour. His last word was, 'Christine!'' + + + + CHAPTER LV. + + +Long years had passed, and Gustavus the third sat firmly upon Sweden's +throne, as at Lubec a noble dame, upon whose pure beauty time had left +no traces, sat upon a sofa in her cabinet. She had leaned her +thoughtful head upon her full white arm, while the strong heaving of +her bosom and the mild fire of her large brown eyes betrayed the sad +and absorbing nature of the reminiscences which occupied her mind. The +door was softly opened, and a blooming maiden cautiously protruded her +head into the room and was about to withdraw it again. + +'Come in, Georgina!' cried the dame. 'I am not yet asleep. Have you any +thing to say to me!' + +'A young officer wishes to speak with you, mamma,' answered the +beautiful maiden, entering. + +'An officer?--of the city militia?' asked the mother with some +surprise. + +'No mamma,' answered the maiden, laughing. 'He appears altogether +different from them. He wears a short blue jacket with straw-colored +facings turned up, a white band upon his arm, the sword belt over the +shoulder, and a round hat looped up, with a black plume.' + +'It is a Swede?' cried the mother with great vehemence. 'His name?' + +'He will only tell it to yourself,' answered Georgina; 'which I +consider particularly ill-bred.' + +'It is very wonderful,' said the mother:--'ask him to come in.' + +Georgina went, and soon returned, ushering in a well formed youth with +the head of an Apollo, who reverently bowed to the dame, and +immediately resumed his erect military position. + +He would have spoken; but his eyes had wandered from the elder form to +the younger, and the lovely maiden's face and figure embarrassed him so +much that it cost him time and effort to collect himself. + +'My father begs to assure your grace of his high respect,' he finally +faltered out, 'and requests permission to place in your own hands an +autograph from his majesty the king of Sweden.' + +'Who is your father?' asked the lady with a trembling voice, whilst her +eyes seemed to be seeking for remembered features in the unknown face. + +'A noble Swede,' answered the youth. + +'And his name?' asked the lady, with a movement as if she would fly to +him. + +'He has the honor to be an old acquaintance of your grace,' continued +the officer. + +'And his name?' cried she, with a fire which seemed inconsistent with +her years. + +'The governor of West Bothnia, count Gyllenstierna,' was the answer. + +The lady turned pale and sank back upon the sofa. Her bosom labored +powerfully, and the anxious daughter hastened to her with Cologne +water. + +'Leave me,' said she, averting her head. 'My nerves are yet strong. I +faint not so easily.' + +With tottering steps she advanced towards the youth and examined his +features yet more intently than before. + +'A certain family likeness,' said she, 'is undoubtedly to be found in +his face; yet I wonder that it does not appear more distinctly.' + +'I am only the adopted son of the count Gyllenstierna, whose name I +bear,' answered the youth. 'The count has always remained unmarried.' + +The lady sighed and motioned him to retire. + +'When may my father wait upon your grace?' courteously asked the youth. + +'In an hour I hope to have sufficiently recovered,' answered she--and, +with a glance at the charming daughter which called a blush into her +cheek, he took his leave. + +'Mamma,' said she at length, in a tone of timid remonstrance, 'if the +Swedish count is your old acquaintance, you ought to have invited the +young count to come with him. He is at any rate his foster son, and +such a modest young man.' + +'You appear to be pleased with him, Georgina?' said the mother, looking +earnestly at her daughter. The latter dropped her eyes to the floor, +blushed deeply, and remained silent. + +'It is our duty to suffer ourselves to be sought,' said the matron to +the maiden. 'It is proper for the other sex to seek. If the young man's +heart speak as prematurely as yours, he will come, even without an +invitation.' + +'You are wholly right, mamma!' cried the daughter, as if now first +struck by an important truth, passionately kissing her hand. + +'Leave me alone, my child,' said the mother. 'I have need of solitude +to prepare myself for a sweet, sad hour. Seat yourself meantime, at +your piano, and practise the bass of that beautiful sonata for four +hands. + +'Now?' cried Georgina, clasping her hands in despair. 'Ah, mamma! I +positively cannot practise now.' + +'It may perhaps cost you some effort,' said the mother, smiling, 'but +it will do you good. Go to your practice, my daughter.' + +Georgina departed, shrugging her shoulders, and the storm of emotion, +so long restrained, once again floated over the face of the mother, who +had hitherto struggled with all her power, to conceal her feelings from +the eyes of observers. 'God give me strength for the sorrow and the joy +of this interview!' cried she, sinking upon the sofa. + + + + CHAPTER LVI. + + +The hour had struck. The daughter opened the door of the cabinet, and, +accompanied by his adopted son, Arwed count Gyllenstierna entered. +Neither years nor sufferings had been able to bow his tall figure. The +lineaments of his face, however, told of sad mental struggles and +glorious victories. His locks of gold were bleached to silver, and +upon his newly made black national uniform shone the magnificent +seraphim-order, and with the sword and crown of the order of military +merit, the peaceful sheaf of the order of Vasa. He remained standing, +and cast upon the beloved of his youth, from his large blue and still +brilliant eyes, a glance which cut her to the soul. Lady baroness von +Eyben!' said he, in a tone in which love and anger, reproach and +rapture, were strangely mingled. + +It was too much for the heart of the matron. 'Not so, Arwed, not so!' +cried she, beseechingly, and attempted to approach him; but, her heart +impelling her forward while profound respect held her back, she +remained irresolutely standing in the centre of the room. + +'Please to permit, baroness,' said Arwed, 'that my son and your +daughter retire to the ante-chamber. My communication requires no +witnesses.' + +The young pair seemed to be well pleased with the proposition. The +baroness looked doubtingly at Arwed, as if she feared a private +interview; but finally her heart conquered. She nodded permission to +Georgina, and the two disappeared with a celerity that astonished the +mother. + +The former youthful lovers were alone. Georgina motioned Arwed to a +seat upon the sofa, placed herself beside him, and both remained a long +time silent, whilst the past was loudly speaking in their hearts. + +'Georgina!' at length Arwed exclaimed, seizing her hand. + +'Be tranquil, dear Arwed!' said she. 'If the strong man cannot control +his feelings, how can a feeble woman command hers? Let us first speak +of the present. Have you not a letter for me from the king?' + +'Cruel!' sighed Arwed, drawing forth a letter and solemnly rising from +his seat, 'You have petitioned his majesty for the restoration of your +father's confiscated property in the German provinces. I bring you the +king's answer.' + +'The person selected as its bearer is a guaranty of a merciful +decision,' said Georgina, also rising. With trembling hands she took +the letter, unfolded and attempted to read it,--but her vision became +indistinct, her hands shook, and at length amid streaming tears she +cried, 'I cannot! Read the letter for me, dear Arwed.' + +He read: + + +'I esteem the memory of the renowned and unfortunate baron von Goertz +too much to receive without emotion the intelligence that there is yet +remaining one of those children who were made orphans by the tyranny +and shocking injustice of the queen Ulrika Eleonore and of the persons +who presided in her courts and councils. His innocent blood has +remained too long unavenged. Sweden, through long, unhappy, desolating, +distracting years, has paid the tribute demanded by the anger of heaven +for the crime committed against a great and unfortunate man. I +therefore wish, as first citizen of my native land, in the name of that +native land, to hasten the reparation of the injustice of my +predecessors. To this title, which I look upon as one of the fairest +granted to me by Providence, I add that of my family, for whom Goertz +was made an offering. You may easily judge, madam, how very much I am +disposed to grant you that justice which you claim as daughter and +heiress of the deceased baron von Goertz.' + + +Georgina, almost frantic with joy, snatched the letter from Arwed's +hand, and pressed it to her lips and heart. 'Lord God, we praise +thee,--Lord God, we thank thee!' she shouted in her exultation, sinking +upon her knee, and raising the paper towards heaven in her clasped +hands. + +'It is truly a royal letter,' said the deeply moved Arwed; 'but such a +letter from him would surprise no one who knew him.' + +'Oh, my father!' cried Georgina, holding the writing up towards heaven, +'learn in thy place of bliss that thy honor is restored before the +world, and that thy happy daughter has been instrumental in its +accomplishment!' + +'You see, my dear Georgina,' said Arwed, 'that Sweden is not unjust. +The public character of a people can only appear through its +government. That justice which the cruel Ulrika, the weak Frederick, +the chained Adolphus Frederick, derided or denied, the worthy Gustavus, +now that his hands are free, grants in the fullest measure.' + +'Much,' said Georgina, endeavoring by the introduction of new topics of +conversation to allay the violence of her emotions, 'much was said in +Germany of the revolution which delivered the crown from the usurped +supremacy of the royal council, and I, at least, have cause to bless +the Nemesis who guided it.' + +'That occurrence,' remarked Arwed, 'stands like a rare and brilliant +meteor in the horizon of Europe. A national revolution, originating +with the king himself, accomplished in a few days, without bloodshed, +and calculated to promote the welfare of the whole country, is perhaps +unparalleled in the history of the world!' + +Both remained a long time silent. At length Arwed inquired, 'how is +your sister, the good little Magdalena?' + +'She died many years since, in Hamburgh, the wife of the privy +counsellor von Laffert,' answered Georgina. + +'And you--are a widow?' he asked in a low tone. + +'Since four years,' she answered with downcast eyes. + +'It is the penalty of age,' cried he, sorrowfully, 'that, one by one, +all whom we have loved go before us to the eternal world. Life's way +becomes every day more dreary and desolate, and wo to the unhappy being +to whom remains not even one companion of the good old times. His is a +solitary death, with none to drop a tear of regret upon his grave.' + +'Very true!' said Georgina with deep feeling, and wiping the tears from +her eyes. + +'Georgina!' cried Arwed, suddenly and with vehemence; 'in my youth I +was never able to subdue or conceal the emotions of my heart. Age has +not changed me in that respect. That I might see you once again, and +have an opportunity to lay before you my last request, I have obtained +the king's permission to be the bearer of this letter. Hear me with +kindness.' + +'Spare me,' said she, greatly agitated. + +'Your father's honor is restored to all its original brightness,' +continued Arwed, without heeding her remark. 'My father has long slept +in his grave. The causes no longer exist which once forbade my earthly +happiness. I have sacredly kept my truth. You are again free. Do not +now refuse me your hand.' + +'Oh, my God!' cried the terrified Georgina. 'No, it is not possible!' + +'Refuse me not your hand, Georgina!' said Arwed with all his former +tenderness of tone. + +'Dear Arwed,' answered she, with a smile, 'what would our children say? +_Theirs_ is the season of love.' + +'How happy is youth!' exclaimed Arwed, sighing. + +'Honorable age has also its pleasures and enjoyments,' said Georgina, +placing her hand in his. + +'When it wanders arm in arm with the chosen companion of its youth,' +answered Arwed with emotion. 'But when it is compelled to creep alone +to a solitary grave, then are honors and riches a miserable +compensation for a life without an object.' + +'Arwed!' exclaimed Georgina in the sweet tone of former times. + +'Wilt thou be mine?' cried Arwed, passionately. + +'Thine, eternally!' murmured she, while a faint blush threw the glow of +undying youth over her cheeks, and she sank sobbing upon his bosom. + + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[Footnote 1: A French word, signifying _assassin_.] + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales from the German. Volume I., by +Carl Franz van der Velde + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM THE GERMAN. 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