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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58838 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE KING'S RING
+
+BEING A ROMANCE OF THE DAYS OF
+
+GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS
+
+AND THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR
+
+
+TRANSLATED FROM THE SWEDISH OF
+
+ZACHARIAS TOPELIUS
+
+BY
+
+SOPHIE ÖHRWALL AND HERBERT ARNOLD
+
+
+
+  _With a Photogravure Portrait of Topelius_
+  (missing from source book)
+
+
+
+LONDON
+
+JARROLD & SONS, 10 & 11, WARWICK LANE, E.C.
+
+[_All Rights Reserved_]
+
+
+
+
+  _Copyright
+  London: Jarrold & Sons
+  Boston: L. C. Page & Company_
+
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS.
+
+
+  INTRODUCTION--WHICH TREATS OF THE SURGEON'S PERSON AND LIFE
+
+
+  I.--THE KING'S RING.
+
+  CHAPTER
+
+  I. THE BATTLE OF BREITENFELD
+  II. THE NOBLEMAN WITHOUT A NAME
+  III. LADY REGINA
+  IV. LADY REGINA'S OATH
+  V. JUDITH AND HOLOFERNES
+  VI. THE FINNS AT LECH
+  VII. NEW ADVENTURES
+  VIII. NÜRNBERG AND LÜTZEN
+
+
+  II.--THE SWORD AND THE PLOUGH.
+
+  I. A MAN FROM THE PEASANTS' WAR
+  II. ASHAMED OF A PEASANT'S NAME
+  III. THE SOUTHERN FLOWER COMES TO THE NORTH
+  IV. THE PEASANT--THE BURGHERS--AND THE SOLDIER
+  V. LADY REGINA ARRIVES AT KORSHOLM
+  VI. THE LOVE OF THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH
+  VII. THE SIEGE OF KORSHOLM
+
+
+  III.--FIRE AND WATER.
+
+  I. THE TREASURE FROM THE BATTLEFIELD
+  II. TWO OLD ACQUAINTANCES
+  III. THE TREASURY
+  IV. DUKE BERNHARD AND BERTEL
+  V. LOVE AND HATE AGREE
+  VI. THE BATTLE OF NÖRDLINGEN
+  VII. THE LOST SON
+  VIII. THE FUGITIVE LADY
+  IX. DON QUIXOTE DE LA MANCHA
+  X. KAJANEBORG
+  XI. THE PRISONER OF STATE
+  XII. THE TEMPTER
+  XIII. AVAUNT, EVIL SPIRIT
+  XIV. THE JUDGMENT OF THE SAINTS
+  XV. BERTEL AND REGINA
+  XVI. THE KING'S RING--THE SWORD AND THE PLOUGH--FIRE AND WATER
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+WHICH TREATS OF THE SURGEON'S PERSON AND LIFE.
+
+The surgeon was born in a small town of East Bothnia, the same day as
+Napoleon I., August 15th, 1769.  I well remember the day, as he always
+used to celebrate it with a little party of relatives and a dozen
+children; and as he was very fond of the latter, we were allowed to
+make as much noise as we pleased, and throw everything into absolute
+confusion on this anniversary.
+
+It was the pride of the surgeon's life that he was born on the same day
+as the Great Conqueror, and this coincidence was also the cause of
+several of his important experiences.  But his pride and ambition were
+of a mild and good-tempered kind, and quite different from the powerful
+desires which can force their way through a thousand obstacles to
+attain an exalted position.  How often does the famous one count all
+the victims who have bled for his glory on the battlefield, all the
+tears, all the human misery through which his way leads to an
+illusionary greatness, perhaps, doomed to last a few centuries at most?
+
+The surgeon used to say that he was a great rogue in his childhood; but
+exhibiting good intelligence, he was sent by a wealthy uncle to a
+school in Vasa.
+
+At eighteen, with a firkin of butter in a wagon, and seventeen thalers
+in his purse, he went to Abo to pass his examination.  This well
+accomplished, he was at liberty to strive for the gown and surplice of
+an ecclesiastic.  But his thoughts wandered far too often from his
+Hebrew Codex to the square where the troops frequently assembled.
+
+"Oh!" thought he, "if I were only a soldier, standing there in the
+ranks, and ready to fight like my father, for king and country."
+
+But his mother had placed an emphatic veto on the matter, and exacted a
+solemn promise from him that he would never become a warrior.
+
+Before, however, he was through Genesis, an incident suddenly occurred
+which completely altered his good intentions.  This was an announcement
+in the daily paper from the Medical Faculty, which stated that students
+who wished to take service as surgeons during the war could present
+themselves for private medical instruction, after which they could
+reckon upon being ordered out with five or six thalers per month to
+begin with, as the war was at its height.
+
+Now, young Bäck would no longer be denied; he wrote home that as a
+surgeon's duty is to take off the limbs of others, without losing his
+own, he wished to volunteer.  After some trouble he received the
+desired permission.  In a moment the Codex was thrown away.  He did not
+learn, he devoured surgery, and in a few months was as capable a
+chirurgeon as most others; for in those times they were not very
+particular.
+
+Our youthful surgeon was in the land campaigns of 1788 and 1789; but in
+1790 at sea; was in many a hard battle, drank prodigiously (according
+to his own account), and cut off legs and arms wholesale in a most
+skilful way.  He then knew nothing about the coincidence of his birth
+with Napoleon's, and therefore did not yet consider himself as under a
+lucky star.  He often told the story of the eventful 3rd of July in
+Wiborg Bay, when on board the "Styrbjörn" with Stedingk, at the head of
+the fleet, they passed the enemy's battery at Krosserort's Point, and
+he was struck by a splinter on the right cheek, and carried the mark to
+his grave.  The same shot which caused this wound wrought great havoc
+in the ship, and whizzing by the admiral's ear, made him stone-deaf for
+a time; Bäck with his lancet and palsy drops restored Stedingk's
+hearing in three minutes.  Just then the danger was greatest and the
+balls flew thick as hail.
+
+The vessel ran aground.
+
+"Boys, we are lost," cried a voice.
+
+"Not so!" answered Henrik Fagel, from Ahlais village, in Ulfsby, "send
+all the men to the bow; it is the stern that has stuck."
+
+"All men to the prow," shouted the commander.  Then the "Styrbjörn" was
+again afloat, and all the Swedish fleet followed in her wake.  Bäck
+used to say:
+
+"What the deuce would have become of the fleet if Stedingk had remained
+deaf?"
+
+Everyone understood the old man; he had saved the entire squadron.
+Then he used to laugh and add,
+
+"Yes, yes!  You see, brother, I was born on the 15th of August; that is
+the whole secret; I am not to be blamed for it."
+
+After the war was over, Bäck went to Stockholm, and became devoted to
+the king.  He was young, and needed no reason for his attachment.
+
+"Such a stately monarch," was his only idea.
+
+One day, in the beginning of March, 1792, the surgeon, a handsome
+youth--to use his own expression--had through a chamber-maid at
+Countess Lantingshausen's, who in her turn stood on a confidential
+footing with Count Horn's favourite lackey, obtained a vague inkling of
+a conspiracy against the king's life.  The surgeon resolved to act
+Providence in Sweden's destiny, and reveal to the monarch all that he
+knew, and perhaps a little more.  He tried to obtain an audience of the
+king, but was denied by the chamberlain, De Besche.  A second attempt
+had the same result.  The third time, he stood in the road before the
+royal carriage, waving his written statement in the air.
+
+"What does this man want?" asked Gustave III. of the chamberlain.
+
+"He is an unemployed surgeon," replied De Besche, "and begs your
+Majesty to begin another war, that he may go on lopping off legs and
+arms."
+
+The king laughed, and the forlorn surgeon was left behind.
+
+A few days afterwards the king was shot.
+
+"I was blameless," the surgeon used to say when speaking of this
+matter.  "Had not that damned De Besche been there--yes, I won't say
+anything more."
+
+Everyone understood what he meant.  The "if" in the way was also due to
+his birthday on the 15th of August.
+
+Shortly afterwards Bäck represented his profession at a state
+execution.  Here his free tongue got him into trouble, and he fled on
+board a Pomeranian yacht.  Next we find him tramping like a wandering
+quack to Paris.  He arrived at an opportune moment, and received a
+humble appointment in the army of Italy.  One night, under the
+influence of his birthday, he left his hospital at Nissa, and hurried
+to Mantua to see Bonaparte; he wished to make of the 15th of August a
+ladder to eminence.  He managed to see the General, and presented a
+petition for an appointment as army physician.
+
+"But," sighed the surgeon, every time he spoke of this remarkable
+incident, "the General was very busy, and asked one of his staff what I
+wanted."
+
+"Citizen General," answered the adjutant, "it is a surgeon, who
+requests the honour of sawing off your leg at the first opportunity."
+
+"Just then," added the surgeon, "the Austrian cannon began to thunder,
+and General Bonaparte told me to go to the devil."
+
+Thus the surgeon, who had preserved so many eminent personages, was
+deprived of the honour of saving Napoleon.  He got camp fever instead,
+and lay sick for some time at Brescia.
+
+When well he travelled to Zurich, and here fell in love with a
+rosy-cheeked Swiss girl; but before he could marry her, the city was
+overrun, first by the Russians, then French, and finally by Suvaroff.
+The surgeon's betrothed ran away, and never returned.
+
+One day he sat sorrowfully at his window, when two Cossacks came up,
+dismounted, seized him, and hurried him off at full speed.  The surgeon
+thought his last hour had arrived.  But the Cossacks brought him safely
+to a hut.  There sat some officers round a punch bowl, and among them a
+stern man in large boots.
+
+"Surgeon," said the latter, short and sharp, "out with your forceps; I
+have toothache."
+
+Bäck ventured to ask which tooth it was that ached.
+
+"You argue," said the man impatiently.
+
+"No, I don't," replied the surgeon, and pulled out the first tooth he
+got hold of.
+
+"Good, my boy!  March," said the other, and the surgeon was dismissed
+with ten ducats.
+
+He had acquired another important merit by pulling out the tooth of the
+hero Suvaroff.
+
+The surgeon's next considerable journey was to St. Petersburg, where he
+obtained an appointment in a hospital, and made a little fortune.
+
+Thus passed four or five years.  The surgeon was now thirty-five.  He
+said to himself,
+
+"It is not sufficient to have preserved the Swedish fleet, Gustave
+III., and Armfelt; to have had an interview with Napoleon, and pulled
+out a tooth for Suvaroff.  One must also have an aim in life."  And he
+began to realise that he had a Fatherland.
+
+When the war of 1808 broke out, the surgeon became an assistant
+physician in one of the Finnish regiments; he no longer fought for
+glory and the 15th of August.  He took part in the campaigns of 1808
+and 1809.  Then he fought manfully with misery, disease, and death; cut
+off arms and legs, dressed wounds, applied plasters, solaced the
+wounded, with whom he shared his flask, bread, purse, and what was much
+more, his unalterable good humour, and told a thousand funny stories
+gathered in his travels.  He was called the "tobacco doctor," because
+he was always ready to share his pipe and quid.  One can be a Christian
+even with tobacco.  The surgeon was not so stuck up that he, like
+Konow's corporal, went about
+
+  "With two quids from sheer pride."
+
+On the contrary, he went without himself when the need was great, and a
+wounded comrade had got the last bit of the roll in the pocket of his
+yellow nankeen vest.  Hence the soldiers loved the tobacco doctor.
+
+When peace was concluded between Russia and Sweden in 1809, the latter
+having lost Finland through a foreign traitor, who gave up Sveaborg to
+the enemy, and so many Finns went over to Sweden, the surgeon thought
+it more honourable to remain and share the fortunes of his native land.
+He travelled round the country and practised amongst the peasantry.
+But the Medical Faculty of Abo finally forbade him to continue, and he
+therefore settled down at Jacobstad, his native place, and took to
+fishing.  In the days of his prosperity the surgeon had been too
+liberal; he now only owned his old brown cloak, yellow nankeen vest, a
+hundred fish hooks, and his cheerful disposition.  But he now obtained
+the appointment of public vaccinator, which allowed him to roam about
+the country twice a year, like old times.  No one knew better than he
+how to lull the little children to rest, whilst he pricked the fine
+soft flesh of their arms; almost before they knew it the pain was over.
+
+This gained for him the goodwill of all the mothers; they even forgave
+him the ugly habit of chewing tobacco--it was too late to cure it now.
+
+Then the snow of old age stole gently o'er the surgeon's head.  He had
+gone through the storms of life without losing faith in humanity; never
+hardening under adversity, nor unduly puffed up when fortune smiled.
+He was throughout a good soul.
+
+Often in our childhood and first youth we sat up there in the old
+garret chamber around his leather-covered arm-chair, by the light of
+the crackling fire, listening to his tales from the world of fiction
+and from life.  His memory was inexhaustible, and as the old _runa_
+says, that even the wild stream does not let its waves flow by all at
+once, so had the surgeon continually new stories of his own time, and
+still more from periods which had long passed away.
+
+It sometimes happened after we had been listening to the old man, that
+he took out an electric battery, and drew from it a succession of
+sparks.
+
+"In that way the world sparkled when I was young," he said smiling;
+"one had only to apply a finger, and click it flashed in all
+directions.  But then it was our Lord who turned the machine."
+
+But rarely had he a story written like that of the Duchess of Finland.
+Most of them were given orally.  Many years have since passed; part I
+have forgotten, and some I have compared with traditions and books.  If
+the reader finds a pleasure in them, then the surgeon will not have
+told his tales in vain during the long winter evenings.
+
+
+
+
+I.--THE KING'S RING.
+
+Reader, as you sit in your peaceful home, surrounded by the calm of
+civilisation, can you recall the grand heroic memories of the past,
+which after centuries remain illuminated with a bright glow, and are
+also often darkened with blood and tragedy?  Can you transport yourself
+back to the joys and terrors of the past, and take a vital interest in
+those struggles and battles long since fought out, and become full of
+hopes or fears as fortune smiled or betrayed?
+
+Stand with me on the heights of History, and looking far around on the
+wild arena of human destiny, can you transfer yourself to the vale of
+the past, the physically dead and buried, but spiritually immortal
+life, which forms the being and substance of all History?
+
+Reader, have you ever seen History depicted as an aged man with a
+frozen heart and wise brow, trying all things in the balance of reason?
+But is not the Genius of History like an ever youthful virgin, full of
+fire, with a living heart and a flaming soul--human, warm, and
+beautiful?
+
+If then you have the capacity to suffer or rejoice with the generations
+that have passed away, to love, and hate with them, to admire, despise,
+and curse as they have done; in a word, to live amongst them with your
+whole heart, and not merely with your cold reflecting mentality, then
+follow me.  I will lead down the valley; but your heart will guide you
+better that I; upon that I rely--and begin.
+
+
+
+
+THE KING'S RING.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE BATTLE OF BREITENFELD.
+
+Through the histories of Germany and Sweden the fame of mighty names
+has resounded for centuries; at their mention the Swede raises his head
+aloft, and the free German uncovers his with admiration.  These are
+Leipzig, Breitenfeld, and the 7th of September, 1631.
+
+King Gustaf Adolf, with his army of Swedes and Finns, stood on German
+soil to protect the holiest and highest things in life--Liberty and
+Faith.
+
+Tilly, the terrible old corporal, had invaded Saxony, and the king
+pursued him.  Twice had they met; the tiger had challenged the lion to
+the combat, but the latter would not move.  Now for the third time they
+faced each other; the crushing blow must fall, and the fate of Germany
+trembled in the balance.
+
+At dawn the Swedes and Saxons crossed the Loder, and placed themselves
+in battle array at the village of Breitenfeld.
+
+The king rode along the lines, and inspected everything.  His eye
+beamed with delight on these brave men; the left wing was composed of
+Gustave Horn's cavalry, Teuffel was in the centre, and Torstensson with
+his leathern cannon in front.  The Livonians and Hepburn's Scots were
+both in the second line.
+
+The king commanded the right wing, composed of several regiments of
+cavalry and the Finns.
+
+"Stälhandske," said he, checking his large steed at the last Finnish
+division, "I suppose you understand why you are here.  Pappenheim is
+opposite, and longs to make your acquaintance," he added smiling, "and
+I expect a vigorous attack from that quarter.  I rely upon you Finns to
+receive him right royally."
+
+The king then raised his voice and said,
+
+"Boys, do not blunt your swords upon those iron-clad fellows, but first
+tackle the horses, and then you will have light work with the riders."
+
+The Finns were proud of their danger and the honour of their position.
+The king inspired all with courage and self-reliance.  But these short,
+sturdy fellows on their small horses seemed unequal to the onset of the
+big Wallachians upon their strong and heavy chargers.  Tilly held the
+same opinion.
+
+"Ride them down," he said, "and horse and man will fall powerless under
+the heels of your steeds."  But Tilly did not know his foes.  The outer
+bearing of the Finns was deceptive.  Their iron muscles and calm
+courage, with the hardihood of their horses, gave them a decided
+advantage over their enemies.
+
+"Well, Bertila," said Stälhandske, turning to a young man who in the
+first rank rode a handsome black horse, and was noticeable from his
+height and bearing, "do you feel inclined to win the knight's spur
+to-day?"
+
+The one addressed seemed astonished, and coloured up to the brim of his
+helmet.
+
+"I have never dared to aspire so high," he answered.  "I--a peasant's
+son!" he added with hesitation.
+
+"Thunder and lightning, the boy blushes like a bride at the altar!  A
+peasant's son?  What the devil, then, have we all come from in the
+beginning?  Did you not provide four fully equipped horsemen?  Has not
+our Lord placed a heart in your breast, and the king a weapon in your
+hand?  That is in itself a coat of arms; you must attend to the rest."
+
+A multitude of thoughts passed quickly through the young man's mind.
+He thought of the days of his childhood in far-off Finland.  He
+remembered his old father, whose name was also Bertila, and who during
+the peasant war was one of Duke Carl's best men.  When the latter
+became King Carl the Ninth, he gave his follower four large farms; each
+of these had to provide a man and horse for military service.  Owing to
+this, old Bertila became one of the richest peasants in the country.
+He thought of the time when his father first sent him to Stockholm, in
+the hope that he would some day attain honour and distinction by the
+king's side; then of his own ambition which had induced him to neglect
+study and take private lessons in riding and fencing.  At last his
+father gave him permission to join the king's Finnish cavalry.  Now he,
+a peasant's son, was about to strive to raise himself to the level of
+the haughty nobility.  It was this thought that made him blush, and
+under its influence he felt he could face any danger.
+
+Moreover, he was about to fight under the king's eye, for his faith and
+the honour of his country.  The whole army was animated by the same
+high principles, which rendered them invincible, and made them realise
+the victory before the battle had begun.
+
+Before the young horseman had time to reply to his generous leader, the
+king's high voice was heard in the distance calling to prayer.  The
+hero took off his helmet and lowered the point of his sword, and all
+the troops did the same.  The king prayed:
+
+"Thou all-merciful God, Who bearest victory and defeat in Thy hand,
+turn Thy beneficent countenance to us, Thy servants.  From distant
+lands and peaceful homes have we come, to fight for freedom, and Thy
+Gospel.  Give us victory for Thy Holy Name's sake.  Amen."
+
+A deep trust at these words filled every heart.
+
+At noon the attacking Swedish army came within range of the Imperial
+cannon.  The Swedish artillery answered, and the conflict began.  As
+the sun shone right in the assailants' eyes, the king made his army
+wheel to the right, so as to get the wind and sun on the side.
+Pappenheim tried to prevent this.  He rushed forward with the speed of
+lightning, and took the Swedish right in flank.  At once the king threw
+the Rhine Count's regiment and Baner's cavalry upon him.  The shock was
+terrific; horses and riders fell over each other in utter confusion.
+Pappenheim drew back, but only to throw himself the next instant on the
+Finns.  But the furious charge of the Wallachians was in vain; they met
+a wall of steel; their front rank was crushed, and the next turned
+back.  The second attack was no better, and Pappenheim raged; for the
+third time he rushed to the assault; the Livonians and Courlanders now
+assisted the Finns.  The latter received the enemy with calm courage;
+nothing could break through that living wall.
+
+The heat of the conflict had gradually excited the Finns, and it was
+now scarcely possible to hold them in.  Stälhandske's mighty voice
+sounded high above the roar and din of the conflict; and once more the
+foe was thrown back.  Now the Finnish lines broke, but only to enclose
+the enemy.  Then it became a hand-to-hand struggle.  Twice more the
+Wallachians charged and were repulsed.  The seventh time Pappenheim was
+followed only by a few of the most determined of his followers, and
+when this last desperate effort failed all was over.  The remaining
+Wallachians scattered themselves in the wildest flight toward
+Breitenfeld.
+
+Covered with blood and dust the Finns took breath.  But as soon as the
+smoke cleared off, they saw other foes in front.  These were the
+Holsteiners, who had supported Pappenheim.  The Finns could not be
+checked.  With the East Goths they surrounded the Holsteiners and
+annihilated them; these brave fellows died in their ranks to a man.
+
+Whilst this happened on the right, the left was in great danger.
+Furstenberg's Croats had made the Saxons give ground, and Tilly then
+advanced his powerful centre.  Torstensson's cannon played havoc in the
+ranks; Tilly moved aside and charged the Saxons.  The ranks of the
+latter were immediately broken, and they fled in the greatest disorder.
+Tilly now turned his victorious troops against the Swedish left wing.
+The latter were slowly pressed back.  The king then hastened up and
+ordered Callenbach's reserve to the rescue.  Almost immediately both
+Callenbach and Teuffel fell.  Then Hepburn's Scots and the Smälanders
+came up; the Croats fell upon them, but the Scots opened their ranks,
+and several masked batteries played with terrible effect on the former.
+Under the fire of the Scots whole ranks were shattered, and amidst the
+dense smoke and dust the combatants were mingled together in utter
+confusion.
+
+Victory still hung in the balance.
+
+But now a diversion occurred which decided the battle.  The king with
+his cavalry and the Finns had captured the Imperial artillery on the
+heights, and now turned it against the latter.  In vain Pappenheim
+tried to recapture the guns; he was repulsed in disorder.  Then the
+king, with his invincible right wing, charged the enemy in flank; the
+Imperialists were lost.  Tilly wept with rage: Pappenheim, who had
+hewed down fourteen men with his own hand, was mad with fury.  No one,
+however, could rally the Imperial troops, and Tilly, whose horse was
+shot under him, barely escaped being taken prisoner.  The king's
+victory was decisive.
+
+But a terrible sequel remained.  Four regiments of Tilly's veteran
+infantry had reformed, and now sought to check the pursuit.  The king
+charged them with Tott's cavalry, the Smälanders, and Finns.  It was a
+terrific combat; the Wallachians fought with the fury of despair; no
+quarter was asked or given.  At last darkness saved the remnant of
+these brave men, who retreated on Leipzig.
+
+The battle was over.
+
+Great results followed this victory; and in the evening the king rode
+from rank to rank, to thank his brave troops.
+
+"Stälhandske," said he, when he came to the Finns, "you and your men
+have fought like heroes, as I expected.  I thank you, my children!  I
+am proud of you."
+
+The troops responded with a joyous cheer.
+
+"But," continued the king, "there was one among you who sprang from his
+horse, and first of all scaled the heights to seize the Imperial guns.
+Where is he?"
+
+A young horseman rode from the ranks.
+
+"Pardon, your Majesty!" he stammered.  "I did it without orders, and
+therefore merit death."
+
+The king smiled.  "Your name?"
+
+"Bertila."
+
+"From East Bothnia?"
+
+"Yes, your Majesty."
+
+"Good.  To-morrow morning, at seven o'clock, you may present yourself,
+to hear your doom."
+
+The king rode on, and the horseman returned to the ranks.
+
+Night broke over the awful field, covered with 9,000 dead.  The Finnish
+cavalry encamped on the heights, where Tilly's guns were captured.  The
+dead were taken away, and fires of broken gun-carriages and
+musket-stocks spread their light in the September night; through a
+clear sky the eternal stars looked down upon the battlefield.
+
+The cavalry gave their horses fodder, and watered them at the muddy
+Loder.  Then they bivouacked, each in his division, around the fires,
+armed and ready to jump at the first call The ground was damp with dew,
+and slippery with blood, but many were so fatigued that they fell
+asleep as they sat around the fires.  Others kept themselves in good
+spirits by passing round cups of ale, of which they had a good stock.
+They drank in jesting fashion to the health of the Imperialists.
+
+  "And that they to-night may die of thirst
+  Or drink to their own funeral
+  Eläköön kuningas!"
+
+
+At this moment a woeful voice was heard quite near, earnestly calling
+for help.  The soldiers, accustomed to such things, knew by the accent
+that the man was a foreigner, and did not trouble.  But the cries
+continued without ceasing.
+
+"Pekka, go and give the Austrian dog a final thrust," cried some of the
+men, who were irritated by these wailing sounds.
+
+Pekka, one of Bertila's four dragoons, short, but strong as a lion,
+went unwillingly to silence the offender's voice.  Superstitious, like
+all these soldiers, he was not at home amidst the dead on a dark night.
+Bertila, absorbed in thinking of the next morning, did not hear it.
+
+In a few minutes Pekka returned, dragging after him a dark body, which,
+to everyone's surprise, was found to be a monk, easily recognised by
+his tonsure.  Around his common gown he wore a hempen rope, and to this
+hung the scabbard of a sword.
+
+"A monk!  A Jesuit!" exclaimed the soldiers.
+
+"Yes, but what could I do," said Pekka, "he parried my thrust with a
+crucifix."
+
+"Kill him!  It is one of the devil's allies who prowl around to murder
+kings and burn faithful Christians at the stake.
+
+"Away with him!  When we carried the heights, this same man stood with
+his crucifix among the Imperialists and fired off a cannon."
+
+"Let's find out if the precious object is of silver," said one of the
+men, and pulling aside the monk's gown he drew forth, in spite of his
+struggles, a crucifix of silver, richly gilded.
+
+"Just as I thought, the devil has plenty of gold."
+
+"Let me see it," said an old veteran.  "I know something about monks'
+tricks."
+
+As he pressed a little spring in the image's breast, a keen dagger
+sprang from it.  As if bitten by an adder, he threw the crucifix from
+him.  Rage and horror seized the bystanders.
+
+"Hang the serpent by his own rope," shouted the men.
+
+"There is no tree," said one, "and no one is allowed to leave the
+lines."
+
+"Drown him!"
+
+"There is no water."
+
+"Stab him!"
+
+No one was willing, from aversion, to touch the monk.
+
+"What shall we do with him?"
+
+"Misericordia!  Gnade!" said the prisoner, who now began to recover his
+speech and strength.
+
+"Give him a kick and let him go," said one.  "We are Christians, and
+fear no devilry."
+
+"At least I will mark you first, so that we may know you if we meet
+again," cried one of the soldiers named Vitikka, renowned for his
+strength and brutality.  He flourished his sword several times round
+the monk's head, and then with two dexterous strokes cut off both the
+prisoner's ears, before he could be prevented by his comrades.  It was
+most skilfully accomplished.
+
+"St. Peter could not have done it better," said Vitikka laughing.
+
+Those who were standing around turned away.  Although they were
+accustomed to the cruelties of war, this was too savage even for them.
+
+Bleeding, the Jesuit crawled away on his hands and feet.  But long
+afterwards his voice was heard from the darkness:
+
+"Accursed Finns!  May the eternal fires consume you!"
+
+"Our Father, which art in Heaven," a voice exclaimed from the group of
+soldiers.  And all uttered the prayer with devotion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE NOBLEMAN WITHOUT A NAME.
+
+At dawn on the 8th of September, the Swedish army was exercised.  They
+felt sure of complete victory.  From all parts news arrived that the
+enemy's army was almost destroyed.  The king left one division of his
+troops to follow the Imperialists; whilst the rest received the
+agreeable order to loot Tilly's camp: the spoil was divided into lots.
+The treasures were enormous, and many a man was enriched for life.  The
+whole army wore a joyous look; the dead were quickly buried, and the
+wounded forgot their pains.  In the bright September morning, the
+battlefield was covered with groups of delighted soldiers, and here, if
+ever, Beskow's words could be used, "The air was cooled with the waving
+of the flags gained in the victory."
+
+The king had passed the night in a carriage.  After he had read the
+army prayers, and given orders for the first part of the day, he called
+for those who had most distinguished themselves in the battle.  And now
+many a brave deed was recognised with honours and promotion.  But
+higher than any other reward, was the inner satisfaction, and the
+praise they received from this hero, whom the whole of Europe had now
+learnt to admire.
+
+Amongst those who were specially called was a young man, who plays a
+great part in this history.  Gustaf Bertila was only twenty years old,
+and his heart was beating at this time more rapidly than it had ever
+done in the most terrible moments of the conflict.  He knew well that
+the noble king would not take any account of his crime, which was that
+he had disobeyed orders in battle; he blushed and grew pale by turns,
+as he thought of what the king might mean by this special summons,
+which was in itself a great honour.
+
+The king had erected his tent under one of the great elms, at Gross
+Wetteritz, because all the buildings in the neighbourhood were burnt or
+destroyed by friends or enemies.
+
+After waiting for half an hour, Bertila was introduced into the royal
+presence.  Gustaf Adolf was sitting on a low chair, and his arm was
+resting on a table, covered with maps and papers.  The king was tall
+and portly, and his tight-fitting buff coat made him look still more
+corpulent.
+
+When Bertila entered, the king lifted up his mild and beautiful blue
+eyes; he had just signed an order, and looked sharply at the young man.
+
+Gustaf Adolf was short sighted, and therefore had a difficulty in
+recognising persons, and when he met individuals only slightly known to
+him, it gave his look a peculiar sharpness, which, however, disappeared
+immediately.
+
+"Your name is Bertila," said the king, as if he wished to assure
+himself that he had heard it correctly the day before.
+
+"Yes, your Majesty."
+
+"Aged twenty years," said the king, watching him closely with a strange
+look.
+
+"Yes, your Majesty."
+
+"His son did you say?"
+
+The young man bowed his head and blushed.
+
+"How strange!" the king muttered this to himself, and seemed for a
+moment to be in deep thought.  He then said,
+
+"Why have you not announced yourself to me before?  Your father has
+done my father and the country great service.  He is then still alive."
+
+"He is alive, and thankful for your Majesty's goodness."
+
+"Really so."
+
+The king said this more as if a secret thought had escaped him, than as
+a remark to the listener.  The young man felt the colour mount to his
+cheeks, and the king noticed it.
+
+"Your father and I once had a quarrel," continued the king, and he
+smiled, but a cloud was seen on his brow.  "But this was all forgotten
+long ago, and I am glad that such a good man has such a brave son.  You
+were amongst the seventy Finns at Demmin."
+
+"Yes, your Majesty."
+
+"And no one has mentioned you for promotion?"
+
+"My colonel has promised to remember me."
+
+"Your king never forgets a real service.  Gustaf Bertila, I have just
+signed your commission as sub-lieutenant.  Take it, and continue to
+serve with honour."
+
+"Your Majesty," said the young man.
+
+"I have something more to say to you.  Your action yesterday was
+against orders."
+
+"Yes, your Majesty."
+
+"I want my soldiers to obey implicitly.  I have been told that you
+dismounted at the foot of the steepest hill, so that you could get up
+quicker."
+
+"It is true your Majesty."
+
+"And that you reached the top of the hill first, whilst the others had
+to ride round; and that you killed two of the enemy, and took the first
+cannon."
+
+"Yes, your Majesty."
+
+"It is good, sub-lieutenant Bertila; I forgive you, and promote you to
+the rank of lieutenant in my Finnish cavalry."
+
+The young man could not speak.  The king himself laboured under
+considerable emotion.
+
+"Come nearer, young man," said the king.  "You ought to know that once,
+in my youth, I did your father a considerable injury.  Heaven knows
+that I repent, and has at last given me an opportunity to repair to the
+son the injustice done to the father.
+
+"Lieutenant Bertila, you are brave and noble, and you have received a
+military education.  You have also brought into my service four
+soldiers.  In your position as officer in my army you are already
+considered a nobleman.  That none of my officers shall look down upon
+you as a peasant's son, I will give you a name, and the knight's spur."
+
+"Go, young man.  Go, my son," repeated the king with great emotion,
+"and show that you are worth the king's favour."
+
+"Until death."  And the young man bent his knee to the king.  The
+latter stood up.  The emotion which had for a moment passed over his
+fine face now disappeared, and he was again the royal leader.
+
+The young Bertila understood that the time had come to retire.  But he
+still remained in his kneeling position, and gave the king a letter,
+which he, until this day, had carried sewed in his coat.
+
+"May I ask your Majesty to read this letter.  When I said farewell to
+my old father he gave me this letter, and said, 'My son, go and try to
+win your king's favour, through your faithfulness and valour.  And if
+some day you can obtain it for your own sake, and not only for the sake
+of your father's name, then give him this letter, and tell him that it
+is my last will.  His great heart will understand what I mean.'"
+
+The king opened the letter and read it, and on his face was seen that
+deep flush, which in his later years was the only sign of the struggles
+of a soul, able to control itself.  It came as a light cloud on the
+king's forehead, deepened for a moment, and then passed away without
+leaving any trace.  When he had finished reading, his eyes rested for a
+moment on the handsome youth who was still kneeling at his feet.
+
+"Stand up," said the king at last.
+
+Bertila obeyed.
+
+"Do you know what this letter contains?"
+
+"No, your Majesty."
+
+The king watched him closely, but was satisfied with the honest and
+truthful expression of his face.
+
+"Your father is a strange man.  He hates all noblemen since the days of
+the Peasants' War.  He fought many tough battles as their leader; and
+Fleming's troops took possession of his farm.  He forbids you ever to
+bear a noble name, if you wish to avoid his curse."
+
+Bertila did not reply.  A thunder-bolt from a clear sky had come down
+upon his happiness, and all his dreams of a noble and knightly name had
+been destroyed at one blow.
+
+"A father's will must be obeyed," continued the king with great
+seriousness.
+
+"The noble name which I had intended for you, you cannot accept.  Do
+not feel sad, my young friend, you shall keep your sword and your
+lieutenant's commission; with them, and your brave arm, the path to
+honour will always be open to you."
+
+The king now dismissed him, and the young man left the tent with mixed
+feelings.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+LADY REGINA.
+
+In the beginning of October, 1631, it was a dull autumn day, about
+three or four weeks after the battle of Breitenfeld, and in one of the
+rooms of the tower of the castle of Würzburg the beautiful Regina von
+Emmeritz was sitting with several of her attendants; they were all
+working on a banner of white silk with the image of the Holy Virgin on
+it.  It was intended for a standard of victory to stimulate the troops
+defending the castle.  The young maidens indulged in an animated
+conversation, for the terror of the castle, the old, selfish bishop,
+had just started off, as he alleged, on a journey through the diocese,
+but in reality to escape Gustaf Adolf's approaching warriors.
+Trembling for his treasures, he had previously entrusted the defence of
+the town and castle to the valiant and trustworthy captain of horse,
+Keller, with fifteen hundred men; and this commander, relying upon the
+impregnable position of the fortress on the banks of the Main, had
+assured his reverence that the heretic king should crush his head
+against the walls, before any of his godless host obtained an entrance.
+
+The lovely Regina was scarcely sixteen, and her curls were dark as the
+night, cheeks rosy as the dawn, and black eyes shining like two stars
+which at midnight mirror themselves in a mountain lake.  She was the
+pet and idol of the aged bishop; he had therefore unwillingly left her
+with his other treasures in the castle, depending, however, upon
+Keller's assurance that the thick walls well mounted with heavy guns,
+were, in such uncertain times, the best harbour for beauty and gold;
+and Keller was a commander of fidelity and honour; with such a precious
+trust he would sooner bury himself underneath the ruins of the fortress
+than surrender.
+
+Lady Regina raised her brilliant eyes from the embroidery and glanced
+through the little turret window over the river, where at that moment a
+carriage, escorted by some troopers, was crossing the bridge from the
+town to the castle.
+
+"Who is this traveller?" she said, with the concentrated gaze which
+rarely fixed itself upon any object except the large and beautiful
+marble image of the Madonna in her sanctuary.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Ketchen, the youngest and most talkative of the
+maidens, "ah, Holy Virgin, how charming it is to live in such times as
+these!  Every day, new faces, stately cavaliers, brave young knights,
+and now and then a little feast in town.  It is quite a different thing
+from sitting shut up in a cloister, and hearing the monks chant De
+Profundis from morn till eve.  Yes," continued she saucily, "may his
+grace, the bishop, only stay away a good long time!"
+
+"Ketchen," admonished Regina, "take care not to speak ill of the
+services and masses of the monks!  Remember that our confessor, Father
+Hieronymus, is a member of the Holy Inquisition, and that the castle
+dungeons are deep and dark."
+
+Ketchen remained silent for a moment.  But directly afterwards she
+boldly said,
+
+"If I were in your place, lady, I would rather think of the handsome
+Count of Lichtenstein, than of that terrible Father Hieronymus.  He is
+a valiant knight; God grant that he may return victorious from the war
+against the heretics!"
+
+"May they all be exterminated by fire and sword!" interjected one of
+the girls in a devout manner.
+
+"Poor heretics!" said Ketchen smiling.
+
+"Beware!" repeated Lady Regina, with naïve earnestness.  "A heretic
+deserves no mercy.  Anyone who kills a heretic has pardon for seven
+sins; Father Hieronymus has often thus instructed me.  To hate the
+heretics is the eighth sacrament, and to love a single one of them is
+to consign your soul to eternal torment."
+
+Regina's black eyes emitted fire with these words.  One could easily
+see that the worthy father's teachings had taken deep root in her soul.
+
+Still Ketchen did not refrain.
+
+"It is said that their king is good and noble, and that he shelters all
+the weak, and does not allow his soldiers to plunder and outrage their
+enemies."
+
+"Satan often assumes the disguise of an angel."
+
+"They also say that his men are brave and humane.  I myself heard an
+old Italian soldier tell the knights in the armoury how seventy men
+belonging to a heretic people called Finns, defended their king for
+more than an hour against fifteen hundred Neapolitans.  And when most
+of these Finns had fallen, the rest were succoured and finally
+triumphed; afterwards they bound up the wounds of their enemies as well
+as their own."
+
+Lady Regina rose, and was about to return a quick answer to this
+unpalatable speech, but at that moment a servant appeared at the door,
+and announced that the Count of Lichtenstein, sick and wounded, had
+arrived at the castle, and craved shelter.  The young lady, who, as the
+niece of the old bishop, took the part of hostess of the castle in his
+absence, immediately hastened down to welcome the new arrival, who was
+a distant relative of the family.
+
+The maidens now exchanged significant glances, as if they considered
+this event especially opportune.  It had long been gossiped amongst
+them that the old bishop had chosen the count as the future husband of
+the young lady.  But in vain had they endeavoured to discover any signs
+of emotion on the part of their young mistress at the intelligence of
+his arrival.  If Lady Regina entertained any tender passion, she well
+knew how to conceal it.
+
+"Is it true," asked one of the girls, "that the king of the heretics
+has won a great victory over the soldiers of the true faith, and is now
+approaching this castle with his godless army?"
+
+"So it is said," answered another.  "But he is unable to come here.
+Our people have erected the image of the Swedish saint, Brigitta, in
+his path, in Thüringer forest, and she will stop his progress."
+
+In the meanwhile, Lady Regina had ordered one of the bishop's own
+apartments to be put in order for the guest, and provided in every way
+for his comfort.  The young Count of Lichtenstein was a proud and
+stately youth, dark as a Spaniard, and with eyes almost as bright as
+Regina's.  He approached the beautiful hostess with faltering steps,
+and with an ardent glance, before which Regina cast down her eyes.
+
+"How grateful I should be to heaven," he said, "for these wounds, which
+have procured me the happiness of having such a beautiful hostess!"
+
+The count's wounds were numerous, but not dangerous.  Taken captive at
+Breitenfeld, he had shortly afterwards, still weak from his wounds,
+been exchanged, and immediately hastened here, to regain health and
+strength in the neighbourhood of his heart's mistress.
+
+"But," he added, "I heard with great alarm that the enemy, seeking whom
+they may devour, were on their march hither to the rich vales of
+Franconia.  Then I hurried, quickly as I could, to share with you,
+beautiful Regina, all these dangers and terrors.  Be calm!  Königshofen
+will make a stand against them, and Father Hieronymus, who, also
+wounded, escaped from the disastrous field of Breitenfeld, is busy
+inciting the country people to resistance all along the enemy's advance.
+
+"And so you think," anxiously asked Regina, "that these terrible
+heretics will venture as far as this place?"
+
+"The protection of the saints will be with beauty and faith," answered
+the count evasively.  "Besides, we shall soon receive more reliable
+news."
+
+As he spoke, Regina looked out of the window, and perceived a troop of
+horsemen, who were hurrying at full speed towards the fortress.
+
+"I cannot be mistaken," she exclaimed; "it is Father Hieronymus himself
+who returns here."
+
+"A bad omen," muttered the count between his teeth.
+
+Lady Regina was right; it was Father Hieronymus who at that moment rode
+over the drawbridge.  In appearance, the father was a little
+insignificant man, thin and pallid, with sharp features, and deeply
+sunk, hollow eyes, whose quick glance fled inquiringly from one object
+to another.  He still wore the long sword suspended from the rope round
+his waist.  But the bald spot no longer shone on the crown of his head;
+wounded at that place, he wore over it a sort of skull-cap or calotte
+of leather, the black colour of which made a ghastly contrast with his
+cadaverous-looking face.  Never had the dreaded Jesuit showed himself
+in so forbidding a form.  The men-at-arms stood at attention, and all
+the servants in the castle hastened to receive his commands.  A secret
+anxiety took possession of all the bystanders.  It looked as if terror
+and death had ridden in his train through the gates of Würzburg Castle.
+
+The monk hastily surveyed the garrison drawn up in the courtyard, and
+then greeted Lady Regina with a smile, which was probably intended to
+make him look more agreeable, but which had exactly the opposite effect.
+
+"St. Petrus and all the saints protect you, gracious lady!  The times
+are very awful, very bad.  The Holy Virgin has allowed the vile
+heretics to penetrate to our very gates--on account of our sins!" he
+added, crossing himself devoutly.
+
+"And Königshofen?" inquired Count Fritz, who anticipated the answer.
+
+"The treacherous commander has capitulated."
+
+"But did not the peasants oppose the enemy's march through the forest?"
+
+"All scattered like chaff--on account of our sins."
+
+"And the holy Brigitta's image?"
+
+"The vile heretics have placed it as a scarecrow in a wheat-field.
+But," continued the Jesuit, his voice acquiring suddenly a commanding
+tone, "what is this I see, my daughter?  Why are you still here, and
+the castle filled with women and children, while the enemy may arrive
+at any moment at your gates?"
+
+"Lady Regina shall never need a protector as long as I am alive,"
+exclaimed Count Fritz.
+
+"The castle is provisioned for a whole year," said Regina timidly.
+"But, worthy father, you are fatigued, you are wounded, and need rest.
+Allow me to dress your wounds; you are hurt in the head."
+
+"It is nothing, my daughter.  Do not think of me.  You must fly
+instantly to the impregnable fortress of Aschaffenburg."
+
+"Ha!  I fear it is too late," exclaimed Count Fritz, who was looking
+out upon the river and town.
+
+"Holy Virgin, are they already here?"
+
+The Jesuit and Lady Regina rushed to the window.  The afternoon sun was
+shedding its rays over Würzburg and the surrounding country.  Horsemen
+could be seen riding at full gallop through the streets, and a whole
+host of panic-stricken people were rapidly moving towards the
+castle--monks and nuns, women and children, dragging after them a
+number of hand-carts containing the best of their household effects.
+Beyond the town, in the direction of Schweinfurter, on the east bank of
+the river, appeared a troop of cavalry, from whose threatening but
+cautious advance one could easily recognise the vanguard of the Swedish
+army.
+
+"Accursed devils!" burst out the Jesuit, with an indescribable
+expression of hatred on his pallid face.  "These heretics can fly.  May
+the earth open and devour them!"  And he ran out with frantic zeal to
+place himself at the head of the garrison.
+
+The bishop's castle, also called Marienburg, raises its old walls high
+above the right bank of the Main.  On the river side of the town the
+rock is high and precipitous, but on the other side sloping and easily
+ascended.  A rampart in the shape of a half moon formed a formidable
+outwork before the gates; and if the enemy surmounted this obstacle, a
+deep moat, cut in the solid rock, awaited him on the other side; and
+even if he crossed this successfully, the inner and higher castle wall
+blocked his way, lined with steel-clad defenders, prepared to receive
+him with a devastating fire, and crush him with the large stones
+collected on the walls.  The only passage over the river was a narrow
+bridge, and the forty-eight guns of the fortress commanded and swept
+the whole town and neighbourhood.  From this it will be seen that
+Keller at the head of 1,500 valiant troops, and well provided with all
+necessaries, had good reason in bidding the departing bishop to be of
+good heart.
+
+But Gustaf Adolf had an overwhelming reason for becoming master of this
+castle, cost what it would.  Tilly had now drawn to himself large
+reinforcements, and stood, a few weeks after the battle of Breitenfeld,
+fully equipped and eager for revenge, with 30,000 men on the march from
+Hessen, to assist Würzburg.
+
+The king summoned the town, and forced his way into the suburbs, but it
+was already late in the day, and the attack had to be postponed.  The
+next morning the town surrendered.  But Keller had profited by the
+darkness of the night to transfer his whole force, a large number of
+fugitives, and the portable property of the town, to the castle, after
+which he blew up two arches of the bridge, and thus blockaded the
+enemy's way.
+
+But to return to the fortress.
+
+That night none but the little children could sleep in the bishop's
+castle.  Crowds of soldiers, monks, and women, were constantly
+arriving; one baggage-wagon after the other rattled in through the
+castle gates; the vaults echoed with the cries of the watch, the orders
+of the officers, and the children's crying, and above all this noise
+and confusion one could plainly hear the masses of the monks, who were
+invoking in the chapel the protection of the Holy Virgin and all the
+saints, on behalf of the threatened fortress, the strongest castle of
+the Catholics in all Franconia.
+
+In order to provide for this human host, Lady Regina had not only
+opened the bishop's private rooms, but also the two spacious
+drawing-rooms set aside for her own use in the interior of the castle,
+and with her maids moved up to the small chambers in the east turret.
+In vain it was represented to her that this point was exposed to the
+fire of the enemy.  She here had the best and most extensive prospect
+in the whole fortress, and was not willing to forego it.  "Do not
+interfere with me," she said to the cautious Jesuit; "I wish to see the
+heretics mown down by our guns.  It will be a fine spectacle."
+
+"Amen," answered Father Hieronymus.  "You remember, my daughter, that
+this castle is protected by two miraculous images of the Virgin, one of
+pure gold, the other of gilded wood.  I will hang up the latter in your
+apartment; it will avert the enemy's shot like so many puff-balls from
+your turret."
+
+At daybreak, Lady Regina was on the look-out at her little turret
+window.  It was a glorious sight, when the sun rose over the autumn
+hills with their still verdant vineyards, through which the River Main
+wound like a glittering serpent of gold and silver in the morning
+light.  In the town all was activity; four Swedish regiments marched in
+with flags flying and drums beating, their armour shining in the bright
+sunlight, and the plumes of their officers waving in the wind.  At this
+sight, fear and curiosity came into conflict in the minds of the
+maidens.
+
+"Do you see," said Lady Regina to Ketchen, "the two cavaliers in their
+yellow waistcoats, who ride at the head of the heretics?"
+
+"How handsome they are!  Now they turn round the street corner--there
+they are again.  Just see how everyone makes way for them!"
+
+"Send for Count Fritz.  He was in the Swedish camp for more than a
+fortnight, and knows their leaders."
+
+The count, who was prevented by his wounds from taking part in the
+defence of the castle, immediately obeyed the Lady Regina's summons.
+
+In the meantime the Swedes had taken full possession of the town, and
+began to show themselves in scattered groups on the river banks.  At
+that moment the castle guns opened fire, and here and there a ball fell
+among the Swedes, who immediately sought shelter behind the houses by
+the river.
+
+"Holy Mary, a man was struck over there and does not move again!" cried
+Ketchen, who could not conceal her sympathy.
+
+"St. Francis be praised, there is one heretic less in the world!"
+rejoined old Dorthe, Lady Regina's duenna, who had been appointed by
+Father Hieronymus to guard all her steps.
+
+"But it is terrible to shoot a man."
+
+Count Fritz smiled.
+
+"Fräulein Ketchen, you should have been on the field of Breitenfeld.
+Nine thousand corpses!"
+
+"It is horrible!"
+
+"Count, can you inform me who those horsemen are, who, in spite of the
+storm of cannon-shot, keep on the river bank and seem to be closely
+examining the defences of our castle?"
+
+"Pardon me, charming cousin, the smoke blocks my sight.  Those
+cavaliers--upon my honour, it is the king himself, and Count Pehr
+Brahe.  I would not be in their shoes if Father Hieronymus sees them.
+He would undoubtedly bring all the guns of the fortress to bear upon
+them."
+
+At these words old Dorthe crept silently from the room.
+
+"My cousin, why do you thus regard the heretic leader?"
+
+"Beautiful Regina, why do your eyes flash fire at the thought.  You
+are, yourself, so generous and noble, can you not understand my
+sympathy for a brave and chivalrous foe?  The king of Sweden is a hero,
+well worthy of our supreme admiration, as well as of our great enmity."
+
+"I fail to comprehend you.  A heretic!"
+
+"God preserve you from some day seeing him within these walls; you will
+then understand me much better.  Ha! they are now preparing to assault
+the bridge; they are throwing planks over the destroyed arches.  By
+Heaven, that is courageous!"
+
+"Now, four fell at once!" exclaimed the excited Ketchen.
+
+"I know them well," said Count Fritz, growing more and more agitated by
+the sounds of the battle and the loud thunder of the cannonade, which
+made the fortress walls shake.  "They are the Scots.  There are no
+finer soldiers in the whole Swedish army; the Scots and Finns are
+always in the front of the battle."
+
+"Ah! see there, my cousin, the Scots recoil; they dare not try to leap
+the abyss.  That truly requires superhuman courage.  Twenty-four feet
+underneath the planks rushes the flood."
+
+"Two young officers dash out on the planks."
+
+"They are the youthful brothers Ramsay.  I recognise them by their blue
+scarves.  They love the same lady, and both sport her colours, without
+loving each other any the less."
+
+"Oh God, guard them!  Ah, Holy Virgin, this is fearful!" and Ketchen
+hid her face in her apron.
+
+Before the brave and intrepid Scots could reach the centre of the
+planks, they lost their balance, reeled, and then fell headlong into
+the river.  For a short time they struggled with the flood, but wounded
+by bullets from the castle, their strength soon failed them, and their
+heavy armour made them sink in the waters; another moment, and these
+gallant youths sank to rise no more.
+
+"You rejoiced at war not long ago," said Lady Regina to Ketchen,
+assuming a calmness which she did not feel in her agitated heart.
+
+"Oh, yes, at the handsome young knights; the feasts and music, but not
+at this!" exclaimed the crying Ketchen.
+
+"The Scots retreat!" exclaimed another of the girls.
+
+"Yes," replied the reflecting count, "but the Swedes have begun to
+cross the river in boats."
+
+"The Scots are returning to the attack."
+
+"Just as I imagined," said the count calmly.
+
+"God preserve us! they have succeeded; they are now on this side.  Our
+troops attack them."
+
+"Lady Regina, do not expose yourself so much at the window.  The Swedes
+may aim their cannon at the turret."
+
+"Count, do you fear?" Regina smiled as she said this.
+
+Lichtenstein coloured up.
+
+"I have satisfied myself that I have courage enough," he answered.
+"Hearken, and you will every now and then distinguish a peculiar
+whizzing, and a rattling like the fall of stones; you do not know what
+this is.  I will tell you.  These are cannon-shot, Lady Regina; you
+would know this better if the noise outside was not so deafening.  For
+some time the balls have been shattering the walls of the turret, and
+almost always at the same place.  Fair cousin, these are no
+sugar-plums.  The Swedes must have been taught to shoot by the Wild
+Huntsman."
+
+"Do you really think----"
+
+"That the enemy intend to destroy this turret, and will fill the castle
+moat with the debris?  Yes, cousin, and I believe they will do it very
+soon.  You are in danger here, every moment, and must go somewhere
+else."
+
+"Immediately, good count, at once!  Come, lady!" cried Ketchen, trying
+with friendly violence to take her young mistress away with her.  But
+Regina was in an exalted mood.  In the habit of ruling, and perhaps
+from the defiant nature of her character, full of strange contrasts,
+joined to the burning fanaticism which the Jesuit had implanted in her
+mind from childhood ... she stepped backwards, grasped the gilded image
+of the Virgin, which Father Hieronymus had sent to guard her, and
+placed it in front of herself on the window-sill.
+
+"Go," she exclaimed; "you are weak in the faith; you doubt the
+protection of the holy saints.  I shall remain, and the efforts of the
+heretics will avail nothing against----"
+
+Lady Regina's speech was not finished, when a ball struck the turret at
+an oblique angle, knocking away a piece of the facing.  A shower of
+stone fragments hurtled through the window, demolishing the image of
+the Holy Virgin, and enveloping Lady Regina in dust and dirt.
+
+"You must away!  Now you see for yourself!" cried the count.
+
+"Let us go!" exclaimed all the girls nearly paralyzed with fear.
+
+But Regina, nearly overwhelmed for a moment, recovered her
+self-confidence, and stooped down to pick up the image, saying with
+faith,
+
+"They cannot triumph over the Holy Mother."
+
+She was deceived.  The wooden virgin had broken into several fragments.
+A sceptical smile played around the count's lips, and he now led
+without any opposition his terror-stricken relative from the turret.
+
+While this was happening, Keller, with the quickness and perception of
+a thorough soldier, had made every arrangement for a vigorous defence.
+He was unable to stop the Swedes from crossing the river, but the
+nearer they came, the more destructive was the fire of his artillery.
+The enemy's ranks were decimated by his shot; and the whole day they
+could do nothing.
+
+Father Hieronymus and his monks ran around the walls, deluging the guns
+with holy water, and making the sign of the cross over every touch-hole.
+
+Old Dorthe had whispered in his ear, and the Jesuit's gaze was directed
+towards the place where someone had just seen the Swedish king and his
+companion.  The worthy priest now wished to aim, himself, one of the
+heavy guns towards the spot; but before firing he fell on his knees and
+repeated four _pater nosters_ and _ave Marias_.  Then followed the
+shot; but in vain did the anxious Jesuit look for the effect.  Unhurt,
+as before, the forms of the two horsemen were seen through the
+vanishing smoke.  The monk now thought that four _paters_ and four
+_aves_ were too little, and accordingly repeated eight of each sort,
+and then fired again.  Disgusting!  The balls would not touch the
+selected objects.  Providence had not yet rung the death-knell of
+Gustaf Adolf, and Pehr Brahe it wished to spare for the sake of
+Finland.  Who can estimate what would have succeeded Sweden's
+victories, and Finland's learning, if the Jesuit's shots had reached
+their mark?
+
+Father Hieronymus fumed.  Once more he resolved to try with twelve
+_paters_ and twelve _aves_, when someone touched him on the back; he
+turned round and saw an old soldier, who had been exchanged with Count
+Lichtenstein.
+
+"Cease your efforts," said the veteran in a firm tone, "it is a
+needless waste of powder; you are trying to kill a man with a charmed
+life; he is invulnerable."
+
+The superstitious Jesuit muttered something with a low breath.
+
+"I should have divined as much.  But how do you know this, my son?" he
+added.
+
+"I was told of it in the Swedish camp.  On the forefinger of his right
+hand the king wears a little copper ring, inscribed all over with
+magical signs.  This was given to him in his youth by a Finnish witch,
+and as long as he wears this ring, neither fire, water, iron, or lead
+can injure him."
+
+"Nothing affects him, you believe?  Oh, _maledicti Fennones_, why do
+you follow me everywhere?"
+
+"No iron or lead," whispered the veteran, "but I can tell you of
+something else."
+
+"Say on, my son; you are absolved beforehand."
+
+"But, good father, it is a sinful method."
+
+"All means are justified for the benefit of our Holy Faith.  Speak, my
+son."
+
+"Gold from a holy image."
+
+"Never, my son, no; we dare not do that.  Had it been a dagger of
+glass, or an occult poison, it would do; but gold from a saint's image,
+no, my son, let us forget the unholy idea."
+
+Meanwhile the cloak of night had descended, and death's work for the
+time was finished.  The worn-out soldiers refreshed themselves with
+food and drink, and Keller passed around some fine liquors to sustain
+their courage.
+
+Lady Regina had moved down to one of the inner apartments; Count Fritz
+had gone to bed.  Soon all was silent, except the call of the
+sentinels, the songs of drunken soldiers, and the murmur of the feast
+which Keller gave to his officers in the armoury.  But in the fine
+chapel, where stood the pure golden statues of Christ and the Virgin
+Mary, the midnight mass was over, and all the monks except one had gone
+to rest, or--the wine-cup.  This lonely figure was still kneeling
+before the altar, and the perpetually burning lamp shed its dim rays
+over the praying pallid Jesuit.
+
+"Holy Virgin," prayed he, "forgive thy humble servant for daring to
+take from thee a small piece of thy golden robe.  Thou knowest, oh
+sanctissima, that it is for a holy and sacred end, in order to kill the
+sworn enemy of the holy church, the heretic king, whom the heathen
+Finns with their devilish arts have rendered invulnerable to the steel
+and lead of the true believers.  Grant that the gold, which I, in thy
+honour, take from thy glorious mantle, may pierce the wicked heart of
+the godless king, and I promise thee, holy mother, to replace what thou
+hast lost by a costly robe of velvet and pearls.  Three gilded candles
+will I cause to burn also, night and day, before thy image.  Amen."
+
+When Father Hieronymus had finished his devotions, he looked up, and it
+appeared to him as if the image in the light of the eternal lamp smiled
+its approval to the fanatical petition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+LADY REGINA'S OATH.
+
+The next day was one of hot and furious battle.  The Swedes bombarded
+the castle with a heavy fire, and drew near to the walls under the
+cover of earthworks.  The Imperial troops fought well.  Time was
+precious for both sides; in a few days Tilly would be in the rear of
+Gustaf Adolf; a possible thunder-bolt to the Swedes; a certain relief
+for the garrison.
+
+Lady Regina and her attendants were now shut up in the inner rooms, and
+could no longer view the extraordinary spectacle of the siege.  But
+there was much to do within.  Large numbers of wounded had to be
+nursed; the young lady moved like a spirit of light from couch to couch
+in the armoury, where the wounded had been placed; her healing hands
+poured balm on their wounds; her compassionate voice poured consolation
+into their hearts.  She spoke of the Holy Faith for which they
+suffered; promised honours and rewards to those who recovered, and
+eternal salvation to the dying.
+
+The heavy artillery thunder made the walls tremble.  Lady Regina
+suddenly remembered that she had left her rosary up in the little
+turret, and it was now needed for the prayers of the dying.  She had
+already reached the threshold of the armoury, when a terrific crash
+shook the castle to its very base.  Pale with fear, she hesitated, and
+at the same moment the Count of Lichtenstein rushed in.
+
+"What has happened?" exclaimed the young lady.
+
+"Thank the saints, my fair cousin, that you took my advice yesterday.
+The turret has fallen."
+
+"Then we are lost."
+
+"Not yet.  The Swedes thought it would fall into the moat, but it has
+fallen inside.  The enemy will soon try an assault.  Come to this
+window which overlooks the walls.  Can you see?  Father Hieronymus is
+on his knees by the large gun.  I will wager that he sees the Swedish
+king."
+
+The count was right.  The Jesuit's keen glance was fixed on one spot,
+and his lips hastily muttered prayer after prayer.  He had discovered
+Gustaf Adolf on horseback with Pehr Brahe.  The two kept near the
+outworks, sheltered somewhat by a heap of debris.  Father Hieronymus
+relied upon the heavy shot, into which, with prayers and fasting, he
+had run the gold from the Holy Mother's mantle.  He stooped to direct
+the cannon, and the pupils of his eyes contracted, his nostrils
+expanded, while Latin prayers continued to flow from his lips.  Then he
+rose quickly, and after swinging the lighted match in the form of a
+cross, fired.
+
+The gun belched forth flame and smoke.  Oh, hate and fury!  When the
+smoke cleared off, the two horsemen still rode unharmed side by side.
+But this time Gustaf Adolf had a narrow escape, for the ball had struck
+the debris, and covered both with dust.
+
+Tired, weary, and quite exasperated, the Jesuit left the ramparts.
+
+"Wait, ruler of Belial, until I succeed in taking your ring from you,
+and then you shalt be destroyed!"
+
+The king now commanded an assault on the outworks.  Axel Lilje, Jacob
+Ramsay, and Hamilton, pressed on with their men.  Frightful
+difficulties were here encountered.  They were obliged to climb up the
+steep rocks under a heavy fire, and then cross the moat and scale the
+walls.  The irresistible Scots and Finns led the way.  Those who fell
+were immediately replaced by others, with their swords between their
+teeth.  The king himself rode as near as possible in order to encourage
+his troops.  A bullet tore away a piece of his glove, without wounding
+him.  It was now a common belief that Gustaf Adolf was invulnerable.
+
+At last, after two hours desperate conflict, the Scots and the Finns
+triumphed.  The outworks were captured, and the defenders driven back
+into the castle.  It was then four in the afternoon.
+
+A few hours rest ensued.  At a council of war it was resolved to storm
+the castle at daybreak, and the Finns were to lead the forlorn hope.
+
+The position of the garrison was far from hopeless.  They could still
+concentrate 1,000 men at any threatened point.  But they had lost their
+moral courage.  In vain did Keller try to restore their spirits; in
+vain did the monks carry the golden image of the Virgin around the
+ramparts.  At nightfall disorder reigned; the troops refused to obey
+orders, and some wished to escape in the darkness.
+
+At midnight, Lady Regina was praying before the altar in the chapel to
+the mother of God.
+
+"Holy Mary," she whispered, "guard this castle against the heretics.
+But if it be thy will that the fortress shall fall, then also bury in
+its ruins all thy enemies: the godless king, and his heathen Finns who
+have fought the most to-day against thy Holy Cause."
+
+"Amen!" said the voice of Father Hieronymus behind her.  A dark smile
+played over his pale countenance.
+
+"Do you realise what you are asking for, my daughter?"
+
+"Victory for the Catholic faith.  Death to the heretics."
+
+"The youthful mind is subject to change.  Have you sufficient devotion
+to hate the enemies of the faith, even if ever, as a woman, you felt
+tempted to love one of them?"
+
+"I have, my father; yes, I declare it!"
+
+"You are my penitent, and I would save your soul from eternal
+damnation.  Have you courage to sacrifice yourself for the holy faith,
+and thereby secure the eternal crown of a martyr?"
+
+"Yes, my father!"
+
+"Very well; then know that the fortress will be taken in a short time.
+You will be a prisoner; you are young and beautiful, and may easily win
+the king's favour.  When you can approach his person, and the Holy
+Virgin grants an opportunity, you must----"
+
+The Jesuit now took out a crucifix of silver, and when he pressed a
+spring in the breast of the image, a keen dagger flew out.
+
+"Grace, my father; this task is terrible.
+
+"No respite.  The Holy Church demands a blind obedience.  _Perinde ac
+cadaver_.  As a corpse which has no will of its own.  Do you love the
+Holy Virgin?"
+
+"You know that I do."
+
+"Look at her golden robe.  She has lost a part of it during the night.
+It is a bad omen, and indicates her anger.  Do you love me also, my
+daughter?"
+
+"I revere you more than anyone else, my father."
+
+"Then look at this mutilated head."
+
+The Jesuit removed his black leather cap, and exposed the horrible
+stumps of two severed ears.
+
+"Thus have the blasphemous king's Finns treated your confessor and
+friend.  Do you still hesitate to avenge the mother of God and myself?"
+
+"What must I do, my father?"
+
+"Listen!  The heretic king wears on his right forefinger a ring of
+copper; this is a talisman against death and injury.  You must gain
+possession of this ring by some artifice, and then if your arm is too
+weak to deal the blow, call upon me.  We will reach his heart, even if
+it was guarded by a dragon's scales."
+
+"If it is the will of the saints ... so be it."
+
+"Place two fingers on this crucifix, and repeat this oath.  I swear by
+this cross, and by all the saints, to accomplish what I now vow before
+the image of the Holy Virgin.  If I ever break this oath, may a curse
+rest upon me and my posterity to the seventh generation.
+
+"Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in Heaven.  Amen!"
+
+Lady Regina faithfully repeated these words after the monk.
+
+The night's silence sealed this terrible oath, which, with iron
+fetters, chained the coming generations to the hesitating decision of a
+girl of sixteen.
+
+While this passed, the troops of stormers assembled in the outworks.  A
+number of volunteers had obtained permission to join them.  All relied
+upon victory.
+
+Among the volunteers appeared Lieutenant Bertel.
+
+"Thunder and lightning! is that you, Bertel?" exclaimed Lieutenant
+Larsson.
+
+"As you see," said the youth, shaking his hand cordially.
+
+"Well, I declare, the good boy wishes to sport his new commission.
+There's not a single drop left in my flask.  But say, why have you
+changed your name, Bertel?  What sort of a mixture is it? neither
+Swedish or Finnish."
+
+"It was done at Breitenfeld," said Bertel, slightly blushing.  "The
+comrades have long called me so, and--it is shorter."
+
+"Well, I hope you are not too proud to bear a peasant's name, now you
+are an officer?"
+
+"Have the lots already been drawn?" said Bertel.
+
+"No.  You are just in time to try your luck."
+
+As all the younger officers desired the honour of leading the forlorn
+hope, the difficulty was settled by drawing lots.  After these were
+shaken up in a helmet, Bertel was the successful competitor.
+
+"Look out for yourself, my boy!" cried little Larsson.  "Thunder and
+lightning, remember that the castle is full of Jesuits.  Trap-doors
+everywhere, a dagger in every crucifix, and at the moment of victory
+the castle will be blown up."
+
+It was half an hour to the dawn.  Bertel with seven men was ordered to
+closely reconnoitre the fortress.  The rest of the troops were held in
+readiness.
+
+The night was pitch dark.  Bertel's men approached the drawbridge
+without being challenged: To their complete astonishment they found it
+down.*
+
+
+* Some authors say that the drawbridge could not be drawn up on account
+of the weight of the many dead who were left there after the strife.
+
+
+Bertel stopped for an instant, remembering Larsson's warnings.  Was
+this a trap?  All was silent.  Then Bertel and his men stepped softly
+over the bridge.
+
+"Who goes there?" thundered a German sentinel through the darkness.
+
+"Swede!" cried Bertel, cleaving his head.  "Comrades, the castle is
+ours!"
+
+And the seven pushed on resolutely after him.
+
+Inside the drawbridge stood two hundred Imperialists on guard.  These
+became panic-stricken and thought the whole Swedish army was upon them.
+They tried to regain the sally-port, but the bold lieutenant and his
+seven men opposed them.  The darkness in the arched gateway was
+impenetrable; friend could not be distinguished from foe.  The press
+soon became so great that no sword could be used, and the rash
+assailants were in danger of being crushed to death by the rushing host
+of mailed warriors.
+
+But those in the outworks had heard Bertel's cry, and the whole Swedish
+force now rushed against the castle; the rest of the garrison seized
+their weapons and hastened to defend the entrance.  But the Finns had
+obtained a footing, and in a short time stood inside the castle yard.
+Keller and his men fought desperately, and many Swedes and Finns fell
+here, at the very moment of victory.  Their fall excited their
+countrymen to revenge.  They began to cry, "Magdeburger pardon," and
+this shout meant death without quarter to all the Imperialists.  The
+carnage became awful.  Many monks threw themselves into the mêlée, some
+with torches, some sword in hand.  Most were cut down, others cast
+themselves on the ground feigning death.  Day had broken over the
+sanguinary scene.
+
+Then Lennart Torstensson started forward, seized the madly struggling
+Keller round the waist, and took him prisoner.  The remainder of the
+Imperialists laid down their arms, and all was over.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+JUDITH AND HOLOFERNES.
+
+When the first rays of the sun glittered in the waves of the River
+Main, the castle of Marienburg was in the hands of the Swedes.  The
+king rode up to the courtyard, which was covered with killed and
+wounded enemies, and amongst these were more than a score of monks.
+Some of these appeared to the king to be shamming death.
+
+"Stand up," he said to them, "and no evil shall befall you."
+
+Immediately many of those who were pretending to be dead stood on their
+feet sound and well, and bowed low, full of joy and gratitude to the
+king.
+
+The castle had been taken by storm, and the soldiers were allowed to
+plunder.  The quantity of silver, and gold, and weapons, and other
+valuable things was enormous.  The king reserved the armoury, with its
+complete equipments for 7,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry, 48 guns and 4
+mortars, the stables with fine and valuable horses, and the wine cellar
+filled with the very best wines.  The library was sent to Upsala, and
+donated to the university.  The sacred statues of gold and silver found
+their way to the Treasury.  Although many of the inhabitants of the
+town were allowed to take away their property, the booty was so great
+that when the soldiers divided it, the money was measured in helmets.
+At last Keller had to lead the way to the concealed treasure vault.
+This was deep down in the rock underneath the cellar of the castle;
+here the bishop kept his treasures.  Fryxell relates, that when the
+soldiers carried up the heavy chests, the bottom fell out of one of
+them, and the gold rolled over the courtyard.  The soldiers hurried to
+pick it up.  Some they gave to the king, but most of it went into their
+own pockets.  Gustaf Adolf saw this, and said, laughing, "Never mind,
+boys; now that it has once come into your hands, you may as well keep
+it."  The spoil was so great that after that day there was scarcely a
+soldier in the whole army who did not have a new suit of clothes.  In
+the camp a cow was sold for a riks thaler, a sheep for a few stivers,
+and the learned Salvius writes, "Our Finnish boys, who are now
+accustomed to the winelands down here, are not likely to wish to return
+to Savolax.  In the Livonian war they often had to put up with water
+and mouldy bread, now the Finns can concoct a beverage in their helmets
+with wine and spices."
+
+Amongst the prisoners was the Count of Lichtenstein and Lady Regina.
+The king ordered that they should both be treated with the greatest
+respect.  He offered the young lady a safe conduct to go to the bishop,
+her uncle.  Lady Regina rejected this on account of the insecurity of
+the times, and asked as a favour to be allowed to remain under the
+king's protection for the present.  Gustaf Adolf agreed to this.
+
+"I do this unwillingly," said the king, smiling, to the Margrave of
+Baden Durlach, who was riding by his side.  "Young ladies are a luxury
+in the camp, and they turn the heads of my attendants; but she may come
+with me to Frankfurt, as a hostage; it will bind the hands of the
+bishop."
+
+"Your Majesty knows how to attract everybody through your generosity,"
+replied the Margrave with the politeness of a courtier.
+
+"Lieutenant Bertel," said the king, turning to the officer close to
+him, who had the command of a troop of Finnish cavalry, "I give Lady
+Regina von Emmeritz into your charge.  She has my permission to bring
+with her an elderly lady, a young girl, and her father confessor.  See
+to it, that you are not smitten, lieutenant, and above all give close
+heed to the monk; that set is not to be relied upon."
+
+Bertel saluted with his sword, and remained silent.
+
+"One thing more," continued the king.  "I have not forgotten that you
+were the first one who entered the sally-port.  When you have brought
+the young lady to safety, you must appear on duty in my life-guards.
+Have you understood me?"
+
+"Yes, your Majesty."
+
+"Good."  And the king then said to the Margrave with a smile, "Believe
+me, it would have been serious to leave this beautiful dark-eyed girl
+in the charge of one of my susceptible Swedes.  This boy is a Finn;
+they are the most phlegmatic people I know of.  They are poor gallants;
+they need a year to catch fire.  A girl can drive twenty of them out of
+a ball-room; but if it comes to a battle with Pappenheim, then your
+grace knows what they can do."
+
+Gustaf Adolf gained victory after victory in the late autumn.  Tilly,
+who had come too late to save Würzburg, did not dare to attack him, and
+irritated by his bad luck and constant defeats, drew back to the
+Bavarian frontier.  Gustaf Adolf marched down the Main, entered
+Aschaffenburg, and compelled the cautious Frankfurters to open their
+gates.  On December the 6th the king forced a march over the Rhine near
+Oppenheim, and entered Mainz on the 9th, which the Spaniard de Sylva
+had so proudly thought that he could defend against three Swedish
+kings.  The victorious Swedish army was now spread over the north and
+west part of Germany, and the conqueror had chosen his winter quarters
+in Frankfurt-on-the-Main.  A splendid court here assembled around the
+hero; it was here that flattery had previously adorned his head with
+the crown of the German Empire.  It was here that Maria Elenora came
+flying on longing wings to embrace her husband; in Henau, where he had
+come to meet her, she clasped him in her arms and said,
+
+"At last the great Gustaf Adolf is captured."
+
+One day at the end of December, 1631, the king gave a splendid banquet
+in Frankfurt on account of the queen's arrival.  Great crowds of people
+filled the place outside the castle, the high Gothic windows at night
+shone bright as day.  Ale and wines flowed constantly from big casks
+for the people's entertainment; around the tap-holes workmen and
+soldiers jostled each other, holding out tankards and goblets, which
+were quickly filled and as suddenly empty again.  The good citizens of
+Frankfurt were beside themselves with admiration for the great king.
+From man to man, the famous tales of his justice and mildness
+circulated: now he had ordered a soldier to be hanged because he had
+taken with force a burgher's hen; now he had stopped in the streets and
+spoken familiarly with those whom he met.  They imagined that they saw
+his shadow reflected by the small window-panes and wondered whether the
+German crown would not be placed upon that mighty head that very
+evening.
+
+In the saloon of the castle a royal magnificence prevailed.  Gustaf
+Adolf knew his consort's weakness for display, and probably wished to
+produce an effect on the assembled German nobility.  The floor was
+covered with rich Flemish carpets, and over the windows were draperies
+of crimson velvet with tassels of gold; costly chandeliers, heavy with
+a thousand wax-lights, hung from the ceiling, which was adorned with
+arabesques.
+
+They had just finished one of those measured and stately Spanish
+dances, which were at that time in vogue, and the heavy-footed Northmen
+had tried in vain to compete with the German and French aristocracy.
+
+The king had offered his arm to the queen, and they made a promenade
+through the magnificent saloons.  His tall and corpulent figure, and
+simple dignity of manner, which at once inspired reverence and love,
+seemed still more majestic by the side of the slender and delicate
+queen, who with sincere devotion leaned on his arm.  Maria Elenora was
+then thirty-two years of age, and had retained a great portion of her
+beauty, which had gained her so many admirers in her youth.  On her
+black hair, which was arranged in small curls about her snow-white
+temples, flashed a diadem of fabulous value, which was a recent gift
+from the king; her expressive blue eyes rested with indescribable
+affection upon her royal spouse; she seemed to forget herself, absorbed
+in the admiration which the king excited.
+
+In the wake of the royal couple followed a crowd of all the illustrious
+personages of whom Protestant Germany could boast at that time.
+
+One saw here the deposed King Frederick of Bohemia, the Duke of Weimar
+and Würtemberg, the Landgrave of Hesse, the Margrave of Baden Durlach,
+the Count of Wetterau, as well as other distinguished chevaliers; not
+less than twelve ambassadors from foreign courts had assembled here
+round the hero feared by all Europe.  Of the king's own, Tott, Baner,
+and Gustaf Horn were occupied in other directions with affairs of war;
+but here at Gustaf Adolf's side, great as himself, even in outer form,
+was the gifted Oxenstjerna, and behind him the man with the pale,
+unpretending aspect, the calm, penetrating, and commanding look,
+Lennart Torstensson, as well as the proud Finn, Wittenberg, then
+colonel.  Many of the Swedish generals, and almost all the Finns,
+Stälhandske, Ruuth, Forbus, and others, did not thrive well amidst the
+ceremonial of the royal saloon and amongst this haughty nobility whose
+court etiquette appeared to the stern warriors unbearably tedious, and
+had therefore withdrawn in good time to one of the smaller saloons,
+where pages in gold-embroidered velvet suits profusely poured the
+choicest Rhine wines into silver goblets.
+
+Among this brilliant assemblage ought to be included the members of the
+common council of the city of Frankfurt, and many of its most prominent
+citizens, with their wives and daughters, as well as a large number of
+ladies, from the high-born duchess down to the scarcely less proud
+councillor's wife.  Yes, and one saw here even a small number of
+Catholic prelates, easily recognisable by their bald heads; for the
+king wished to proclaim religious freedom by word and deed; the
+prelates, although in their hearts cursing the paltry _rôle_ they
+played here, once invited, did not dare to stay away.
+
+This scene was doubly gorgeous from the splendour of the attire.  The
+king, however, wore a tight-fitting suit of black velvet stitched with
+silver, a Spanish cape of white satin, embroidered by the queen's
+hands, short yellow leather top-boots, and the broad lace collar which
+one sees in all his portraits, with the short hair and long goatee.
+The luxury-loving queen wore a richly jewelled dress of silver brocade
+with a short waist and half-bare arms; even the little white satin
+slippers glittered with brilliants.
+
+The ladies of the aristocracy and the rich burghers' wives vied with
+each other in display; silver and gold fabrics, velvet, satin, and
+costly Brabant laces; also ribbons of all sorts of colours, buckles,
+rosettes, and long sashes, which, fluttering in the air, gave a
+picturesque effect.  Princes and knights, some in wide German, others
+in close-fitting Spanish costumes, with their plumed hats under their
+arms, and attendant pages in silver and velvet, completed this bright
+scene in a time when uniforms were unknown.  Flattery and admiration
+followed the king.
+
+"Sire," said the artful king of Bohemia to him, "your Majesty can only
+be compared to Alexander of Macedon."
+
+"My cousin," answered Gustaf Adolf, smiling, "you do not mean to liken
+the good city of Frankfurt to Babylon?"
+
+"No, sire," joined in the French ambassador, Breze, who walked by their
+side; "his Bohemian Majesty only wishes to liken the Rhine to Granicus,
+and hopes that the new Alexander's Hyphasis may lie beyond the
+frontiers of Bohemia."
+
+"You must confess, Count Breze," said the king, changing the
+conversation, "that our Northern beauties and your French beauties have
+been conquered to-day by a German."
+
+"Sire, I am of your opinion, that her Majesty the Queen does not need
+the enviable position by your side to be truly victorious," replied the
+courteous Frenchman.
+
+"My consort will be grateful for your politeness, minister, but she
+resigns to Lady von Emmentz the preference that belongs to youth."
+
+"Your Majesty flatters to a great extent our national German pride,"
+said the Duke of Würtemberg bowing.
+
+"Beauty is cosmopolitan, your grace.  It was truly a great booty my
+soldiers took at Würzburg."
+
+The king then approached Lady Regina.  Her radiant beauty was still
+more charming through the tight-fitting black velvet dress strewed with
+silver stars in which she was robed.
+
+"My lady," he said courteously.  "I should be happy if the mourning you
+wear covered a heart that could forget all sad memories and only live
+in the hope of a brighter future, when war and battles no longer
+frighten the colour away from your beautiful cheeks.  Believe me, lady,
+the time will come, and I am wishing for it with all my heart as much
+as you are, and let this hope bring joy to these lips where it always
+ought to remain."
+
+"By your Majesty's side one forgets everything," replied Lady Regina,
+and rose respectfully from her high crimson-covered chair.  But her
+cheeks grew still paler while she spoke, which showed that she could
+not forget the past and her present captivity.
+
+"Are you not well, lady?"
+
+"Very well, your Majesty."
+
+"Perhaps you have something to complain of?  Have confidence in me--as
+a friend!"
+
+"Your Majesty is very kind----"
+
+Regina struggled with herself.  At last she said, with her eyes on the
+floor,
+
+"Your Majesty's goodness leaves nothing to wish for."
+
+"We shall meet again."
+
+The king continued his walk through the saloon.
+
+Lady Regina withdrew to a deep window recess in one of the other rooms
+and wept.
+
+"Holy Virgin," she prayed, "forgive me, that my heart does not belong
+to you alone.  You who can see into my inmost being, you know that I
+have not enough strength to hate this heretic king as you demand of me.
+He is so great, so noble.  Woe unto me, I shudder to think of the holy
+charge you have given me!"
+
+"Courage, my daughter," whispered a voice close by, and Lady Regina's
+evil spirit, the pale Jesuit, stood behind her.
+
+"The hour is approaching," he said in a low tone.  "The godless king
+has been taken by your beauty; rejoice, my child.  The Holy Virgin has
+decided his destruction.  This night he shall die."
+
+"Oh, my father, my father, what do you demand of me?"
+
+"Listen to me, my daughter.  When Holofernes, the King of Assyria,
+besieged Bethulia, there was a widow, Judith, the daughter of Merari,
+beautiful as you, my child, devoted as you.  She fasted three times,
+and then she walked out and gained the favour of the enemy of her faith
+and people.  The saints gave his life into her hands, she drew his
+sword and cut off his head, and delivered her people."
+
+"Mercy, my father!"
+
+"It was counted unto her great honour and ever-lasting salvation, and
+her name was mentioned among the greatest in Israel.  You will some day
+be mentioned like that, my daughter, amongst the saints of the Holy
+Catholic Church.  Last night the Holy Franciscus was visible by my
+bedside.  He said, the time has come, go to Judith, tell her that I
+will give Holofernes' head into her hands."
+
+"What shall I do, my father?"
+
+"Mark closely how you ought to deport yourself.  This very evening you
+must request a private audience of the king."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"You shall reveal to him a fictitious plot against his life.  He will
+listen to you.  You shall entice the ring from him.  Once in possession
+of it, I will be ready to assist you.  But if he refuses you the ring,
+then take this paper, it contains a deadly poison; St. Franciscus has
+given it himself to me.  You shall mix it in the beverage which the
+king drinks at night."
+
+Lady Regina took the paper, and leaned her curly head against the
+window-frame, and she hardly seemed to have taken any notice of the
+Jesuits terrible injunction.  An entirely new thought had seized this
+ardent soul, and was working itself to clearness.  The Jesuit
+misunderstood her; he supposed that her silence proceeded from
+submission to his despotism, from fanatic ecstasy over the martyr-crown
+he had held up to her.
+
+"Have you understood me, my daughter?" asked he.
+
+"Yes, my father."
+
+"You will, then, this evening, ask the king for a private audience?
+You will..."
+
+"Yes, my father."
+
+"Benedicta, ten benedicta, thou thrice-blessed instrument, go to thy
+heavenly glory!"  And the Jesuit disappeared in the throng.
+
+The large clock in the coronation chamber pointed to midnight.  Through
+an ingenious mechanism, invented by a Nuremberger, two immense tables,
+set with elegant silver service, rolled out from an adjoining room at
+the twelfth stroke, and stood at once, as if risen from the floor, in
+the centre of the saloon.  Upon a given sign from the master of the
+ceremonies, the king and queen placed themselves before two crimson
+chairs at the middle of the upper table, and all the guests in rows,
+according to rank and dignity, around the festive boards.  One of the
+prelates present said grace in a loud voice, after which the king
+himself recited a short psalm, and the rest with practised voices
+joined in.  They now seated themselves with considerable bustle, and
+once arrived so far, they did not allow themselves to be too much
+incommoded by ceremony.  The courses were both many and savoury.
+Richelieu had sent Gustaf Adolf a French cook; but the king, far from
+spoiled by good living, only employed the fine Frenchman for ornamental
+dishes on occasions like this; perhaps he did not rely fully upon the
+cardinal's gift, for it was said that Richelieu's dinners were scarcely
+less dangerous than those of the former Borgias.  And besides, the
+Netherland and German cooking was at that time more praised than the
+French.  The tables' greatest ornaments at this banquet were a wild
+boar roasted whole, decorated with flowers and laurel leaves, and a
+piece of pastry, presented by a baker of Frankfurt, and representing
+the triumphant march of a Roman Emperor.  Everyone believed that they
+recognised in this small hero, Gustaf Adolf's features, and many
+jesting words were exchanged, when each found a resemblance between the
+attending Romans and his neighbour.  The queen, whose delicate hand was
+destined to break this masterpiece of culinary art, with a smile put
+one of the last slaves in the triumphal march on her silver plate; but
+Gustaf Adolf, generally endowed with a good appetite, seized the great
+pastry hero rather ungently with his warrior hand, and placed a
+considerable portion of his person upon his plate.
+
+In the meantime the goblets were filled with the best Rhenish and
+Spanish wines, and the king drank the queen's health in a plain simple
+manner, and all the other guests followed his example.  At the top of
+the table stood the royal pages in glittering uniforms, one behind each
+chair, and at the lower end one stood behind every other chair.  They
+refilled the goblets, and the king then drank to Frankfurt's welfare;
+immediately afterwards he rose from the table and left the room with
+the queen on his arm, and they retired to their own apartments.  Gustaf
+Adolf always lived as a plain soldier ought to do, and was generally
+quick at his meals, but under favourable circumstances would stay an
+hour at the table.  The king, however, did not ask the others to follow
+his example, and left in his place as host a high officer of the court.
+
+This time it was the old Scotchman, Patrick Ruthwen, who was a good
+boon companion, and he filled his post with great credit.  Oxenstjerna
+left the room with the king.  The ladies also left the hall, but the
+gentlemen remained behind enjoying themselves over their wine and the
+nuts which had been handed round on silver dishes; amongst the latter
+were artificial ones made of stone, which looked so natural that they
+were constantly mistaken for real From this joke came the saying, "it
+is a hard nut to crack."  The heroes of the Thirty Years' War were
+nearly all great topers; to empty at a draught one of the large beakers
+of Rhenish wine was a small matter to them.  But on this occasion they
+had to restrain themselves, because they all knew the high moral
+principles of the king, and hence did not dare to turn their goblets
+upside down too often.  They did not break up until a late hour, and
+some of the commanders treated each other to a rare product just
+imported from the Low Countries, and it was passed from hand to hand in
+small boxes; each man bit off a piece, and some with frightful grimaces
+spat it out again, whilst others kept it in their mouths with evident
+enjoyment.  Doubtless, the reader has already guessed, this was tobacco.
+
+While this feasting was going on in the hall, the queen had gone to
+rest with her ladies in waiting, but the king was still talking to Axel
+Oxenstjerna.  What these two great men were conversing about is easier
+to guess than to tell.  Perhaps it was about Sweden's poverty, or the
+Emperor's power, or the power of God, which is still greater, or the
+victory of the Light, or the crown of the Roman kingdom, or a German
+Protestant empire in the future.  No one knows this for certain; for
+after the king's death all his secrets followed Oxenstjerna to the
+grave.
+
+It was very late, and Oxenstjerna was about to leave, when Bertel, the
+officer on duty, announced that a closely veiled lady requested an
+audience of the king.  It was a strange favour to ask at this time of
+the night, and both Gustaf Adolf and his minister were greatly
+surprised; but that there must be an important reason for such a secret
+visit was obvious to them both, and the king ordered Bertel to bring
+the lady in, and told Oxenstjerna to remain.
+
+Bertel left the room, and returned in a few moments with a tall lady
+thickly veiled, and dressed in black.  She seemed greatly agitated and
+surprised not to find the king alone; she was unable to utter a word.
+
+"Madam," said the king in a somewhat irritable tone--he did not like
+such a visit at this late hour; for if it was known it would tend to
+excite gossip amongst the courtiers, and perhaps awaken the jealousy of
+his sensitive wife--"a visit at this hour of the night must have some
+important object in order to justify it.  I should first of all like to
+know who you are."
+
+The lady was still silent.
+
+The king thought he could guess the cause of her silence, and
+continued, pointing to his companion:
+
+"This is minister Oxenstjerna, my friend, and I have no secrets from
+him."
+
+The lady dressed in black then threw herself at the king's feet and
+drew back her veil.  The king retreated several paces when he
+recognised Lady Regina von Emmeritz; her dark eyes flashed with an
+enthusiastic fire, but her face was as pale as that of a marble statue.
+
+"Stand up, lady," said Gustaf Adolf in a kind tone, and stretched out
+his hand to lift her up.  "What now leads you to seek an audience with
+me?  Speak, I beg of you; tell me without fear what troubles you have
+in your heart; will you not comply with my wish?"
+
+Lady Regina sighed deeply, and began to speak in a low voice almost
+impossible to hear, but she gradually assumed a louder tone, supported
+by her enthusiasm.
+
+"Your Majesty, I have come to you because you asked me to come.  I come
+to you because I have hated you, sire; for a long time I have prayed
+daily to the Holy Virgin, that she would destroy you, and your whole
+army.  Your Majesty, I am only a weak girl, but an honest Catholic; you
+have pursued our Church with war, and plundered our convents; driven
+away our holy fathers, and melted down our holy golden images; you have
+slain our soldiers, and dealt our cause deadly blows that can never be
+repaired.  Therefore I have taken a Holy Oath to bring about your
+destruction, and relying upon the Holy Virgin's help I have followed
+your steps from Würzburg in order to kill you."
+
+The king and Oxenstjerna looked at each other as if they doubted the
+young girl's sanity.  Lady Regina saw this, and continued to speak with
+more vehemence than before.
+
+"Sire, you think me mad, because I speak thus to the conqueror of
+Germany.  But listen to me further.  When I saw you for the first time
+in the castle of Würzburg, and how kindly and generously you sheltered
+the weak, and spared those who had been captured, I then said to
+myself, 'This conduct seems to be inspired from Heaven, but
+nevertheless it must come from hell.'  But when I followed you here,
+and saw your greatness as a man combined with your heroic qualities,
+sire, I hesitated to carry out my vow, and my hatred became a burden to
+me.  I struggled with myself, and your kindness to-night has conquered
+my resolve.  Sire, now I love you as much as I have hated you before.
+I admire you, and am devoted to you----"
+
+The beautiful girl let her eyes sink to the floor.
+
+"Well," said the king, hesitating with great emotion.
+
+"Your Majesty, I have made this confession because you are great and
+noble enough not to misunderstand me.  But I have not come to you at
+this late hour only to confess an unhappy girl's feelings.  I have come
+here to save you, sire."
+
+"Explain yourself."
+
+"Hear me, your Majesty.  I am disarmed, but others much more dangerous
+remain.  Some of our body, men without mercy, have sworn to kill you.
+Oh! you do not know what these men are capable of doing.  They have
+drawn lots in order to decide who shall kill you, and the most
+dangerous of them is near you in disguise daily.  Your Majesty cannot
+escape from them.  To-day or to-morrow, perhaps, you may be
+assassinated or poisoned.  Your death is sure."
+
+"My life is in the hand of God, and not at the mercy of a murderous
+fanatic," said Gustaf Adolf in a very calm voice.  "The evil have not
+as much power as Will.  Be assured, Lady von Emmeritz, I do not fear
+them."
+
+"No, sire, the saints have decided your death.  I know that you rely
+upon this ring"--and Regina grasped the king's hand--"but it will not
+help you.  Sire, I say to you that your death is certain, and I have
+not come here to save your life and thus betray the cause of our Holy
+Church."
+
+"Then why, lady, did you come here now?"
+
+Lady Regina again threw herself at the king's feet with almost
+adoration.
+
+"Sire, I have come to save your soul.  I cannot bear to think that a
+hero like yourself, so noble, so great, should be lost for ever.  Hear
+me, I beg, I implore you by your eternal salvation, with certain death
+staring you in the face, do not continue in your heretical faith, whose
+fruit is eternal damnation.  I pray you, abjure these evil doctrines
+while there is still time, and come back to the only way of redemption,
+the Holy Catholic Church; give up your faith and go to the Holy Father
+in Rome; confess your sins to him, and use your victorious sword in the
+service of the true Church, instead of using it for her destruction.
+She will receive you with open arms, and whether your Majesty lives or
+dies, your Majesty can always depend upon being placed among the chosen
+saints in Heaven."
+
+The king for the second time raised the young girl from the ground, and
+looked straight into her burning eyes, and said in an impressive voice:
+
+"When I was as young as you are, Lady von Emmeritz, my teacher, old
+Skytte, brought me up with the same enthusiastic devotion to the
+Protestant faith that you have for the Catholic.  At that time I hated
+the Pope with all my soul, as you now hate Luther, and I prayed to God
+that the time might come when I could destroy Antichrist and convert
+all those that believed in him to the true light.  Since then I have
+not altered my principles, but I have learned through experience that
+the paths are many, although the goal is One.  I stand steadily by my
+faith, and am prepared to die for it, if God so decides.  But I respect
+the faith of a Christian, even if it is quite different from my own,
+and I know that God's mercy can bring a soul to salvation, even if its
+way is obscured by dark mists and illusions.  Go, Lady von Emmeritz, I
+forgive you; although deluded by the fanatical teachings of the monks,
+you have tried to draw me from the battle for the Light.  Go, poor
+child, and let the Word of God, and the lessons of Life, teach you not
+to rely upon saints, who are no better than we are, or images, or
+rings, as they cannot alter the highest law.  I thank you because your
+intentions are good, although you are inexperienced.  Be without fear
+for my life, which is in the hand of Him who knows how to use it."
+
+King Gustaf Adolf was truly great when he spoke these words.
+
+Lady Regina stood there, at the same time crushed and uplifted by the
+king's magnanimous spirit.  Perhaps she remembered his answer to the
+burghers of Frankfurt, when they asked him to be allowed to remain
+neutral; "neutrality is a word which I cannot bear to hear, least of
+all amidst the battle between light and darkness, betwixt liberty and
+slavery."  Brought up to hate the Protestant faith, she could not
+understand how it was possible for the sword which had destroyed the
+worldly power of the church to be laid aside in the presence of its
+spiritual power over the hearts and minds of men.
+
+The fanatical young girl raised her tear-stained eyes towards the king.
+Her cheeks turned pale, on which had before burned the fire of
+enthusiasm, and her eyes were fixed with terror on the scarlet-coloured
+hangings which surrounded the king's bed.
+
+Oxenstjerna, who was more suspicious than Gustaf Adolf, had closely
+watched the young lady the whole time, and at once noticed her
+agitation.
+
+"Your Majesty," said he in Swedish to the king, "be on your guard,
+there are owls in the marshes."
+
+Then without waiting for an answer he drew his sword and walked
+steadily towards the magnificent bed, which was a gift from the
+burghers of Frankfurt; the royal hero had exchanged the eider-down
+pillows for a simple mattress, and a coarse blanket of Saxon wool, the
+same as his soldiers used in their winter camps.
+
+"Stop!" cried Regina with evident reluctance.  But it was too late.
+Oxenstjerna had with a sudden movement pulled back the hangings, and
+revealed a pale face with dark burning eyes, surmounted by a black
+leather skull-cap.  The hangings were still further drawn back, and the
+whole features of the monk became visible; his hands were clasped round
+a crucifix of silver.
+
+"Step forward, devoted father," said Oxenstjerna in a satirical tone.
+"A man of your merits should not remain in concealment.  Your reverence
+has chosen a peculiar place for your evening devotions.  With his
+Majesty's permission I will furnish you with a larger audience."
+
+At the sound of the bell, Lieutenant Bertel with two men from the
+life-guards entered, and placed themselves on both sides of the exit
+with their long halberts.
+
+The king looked at Lady Regina, but more sadness than anger was to be
+seen in his eyes.  It pained him that so young and beautiful a girl
+could take part in such a detestable plot.
+
+"Mercy, your Majesty! mercy for my father confessor!  He is innocent!"
+cried the unhappy girl.
+
+"Will your Majesty allow me to ask a few questions in your place?" said
+Oxenstjerna.
+
+"Do as you think best, minister," said the king.
+
+"Very well.  What did your reverence come here for?"
+
+"To bring back a great sinner to the true fold," said the monk
+hypocritically, with his eyes turned upwards.
+
+"Really, one must say that you are very zealous.  And for such a holy
+purpose you carry with you the image of the crucified Saviour?"
+
+The monk bowed whilst devoutly making the sign of the cross.
+
+"Your reverence is very humble.  Give me the crucifix, that I may
+admire this work of art."
+
+The monk unwillingly handed it to him.
+
+"A beautiful object.  It required a clever artist to design this holy
+image."
+
+The minister passed his hands over all parts of the crucifix.  At last,
+when he touched the breast of the image, a sharp dagger sprang forth.
+
+"See, your reverence carries a very innocent-looking toy.  A keen
+dagger, just suitable to thrust through a noble king's heart!
+Miserable monk," said Oxenstjerna in a terrible voice, "do you know
+that your horrible crime becomes a hundred times more detestable
+through the blasphemous method you wish to employ?"
+
+Like all the kings of the Vasa line, Gustaf Adolf had a hasty temper in
+his youth, which more than once brought him into trouble.  But the
+experience of manhood had cooled his blood; still one could sometimes
+see the quick Vasa disposition get beyond control.  This now happened.
+He was quite great enough, however, to look calmly upon this
+treacherous attempt against his life, although the preservation of
+Germany depended upon it, and he looked down with great disgust upon
+the discovered traitor, who now stood trembling before his indignant
+judge.  But the horrible misuse of the Saviour's holy image as a weapon
+against his life--he who was prepared to sacrifice himself for the pure
+teachings of Jesus Christ--appeared to him to be such a terrible
+blasphemy against all in life that he considered holy and right, that
+his calmness was instantly changed to the most terrible anger.
+
+Noble and great as a lion in his wrath, he stood in front of the
+cringing Jesuit, who was unable to bear the glance of his eyes.
+
+"On your knees," said the king in a thunderous voice, stamping
+violently with his foot on the floor.
+
+The Jesuit fell down as if struck by lightning, and crawled in mortal
+terror to the king's feet, like a poisonous reptile, spell-bound by the
+king's look: powerless at the conqueror's feet.
+
+"Ye serpent's brood," continued the king beside himself with anger,
+"how long do ye think that the Almighty will endure your iniquities?
+By God!  I have seen much; I have seen your Antichrist and Romish rule
+cover the world with all the deeds of darkness; I have seen ye, monks
+and Jesuits, poison frightened consciences with your devil's teachings
+about murder and crimes committed for the glory of Heaven; but a deed
+so black as this, a blasphemy against everything that is holy in Heaven
+and upon earth, I have never before dreamed of.  I have forgiven ye
+all; ye have plotted against my life at Demmin and other places; I have
+not taken revenge; ye have acted worse than Turks and barbarians
+towards the innocent Lutherans; wherever ye have had the power ye have
+destroyed their churches, and burned them at the stake, driven them
+away from house and home; and what is worse, ye have tried to draw them
+from their faith with arguments and force to your idolatrous religion,
+which worships deeds and miserable images instead of the living God and
+His only Son.  For all this, I have not retaliated upon your cloisters
+and churches and consciences; ye have gone free in your faith, and no
+one has touched a hair of your heads.  But now I know you, servants of
+the devil; the Almighty God has delivered ye into my hand; I shall
+scatter ye like chaff; I shall punish you, ye desecrators of the
+temple; I shall follow you to the end of the world, as long as this arm
+is able to wield the Lord's sword.  Ye have hitherto seen me mild and
+merciful, ye will now see me hard and terrible; I will destroy you and
+your accursed faith on earth; it will be such a judgment as the world
+has not seen since the destruction of Rome."
+
+The king walked up and down the room with hasty steps, without deigning
+to bestow a glance on the prostrate Jesuit or the trembling Regina, who
+was standing by the window covering her face with her hands.
+Oxenstjerna, always calm and collected, was alarmed at the king's
+anger, and feared that he would go too far, and now tried to modify it.
+
+"Will your Majesty deign to order Lieutenant Bertel to take the monk
+into safe custody, and let a court-martial make a terrible example of
+him?"
+
+"Mercy, your Majesty!" cried Regina, who was blindly devoted to her
+father confessor.  "Mercy!  I am the guilty one.  I have advised him to
+take this terrible step.  I alone deserve to be punished for it."
+
+At this noble self-sacrifice a faint ray of hope illumined the Jesuit's
+pale features, but he did not dare to rise up.  The king took no notice
+of this appeal.  Instead, he turned all his wrath upon the guard.
+
+"Lieutenant Bertel," he said sharply, "you have commanded my life-guard
+to-night; through your neglect this wretch has slipped into the room.
+Take him at once to prison, and you shall answer for his safety with
+your head.  Then you can go and take your place in the ranks.  From
+this moment you are degraded to the position of a private soldier."
+
+Bertel saluted, but did not speak.  What pained him more than the loss
+of his commission was the sacrifice of the king's favour, especially as
+he knew that he had kept a ceaseless watch.  It was a complete mystery
+to him how the Jesuit had got in.  The latter had now grasped the
+king's knees and prayed for mercy.  But in vain.  The king pushed him
+backwards, and he was taken away gnashing his teeth and his heart full
+of revenge.
+
+Gustaf Adolf then turned to the trembling girl at the window, took her
+hand and looked straight into her eyes.
+
+"Lady," he said with asperity, "it is said that when the king of the
+darkness wishes to do a terrible evil deed on earth, he sends his
+instruments dressed as angels of light.  What do you wish me to think
+of you?"
+
+Lady Regina had courage enough to lift up her eyes once more to the
+great king.
+
+"I have nothing more to say.  Kill me, sire, but save my father
+confessor!" she said with fanatical resolution.
+
+The king, still looking angrily into her eyes, could not yet control
+himself.
+
+"If your father, lady, had been an honest man, he would have taught his
+daughter to fear God, honour the king, and speak the truth to every
+man.  You wished to convert me; I will instead educate you, you seem to
+be in great want of it.  Go, you remain my prisoner until you have
+learned to speak the truth.  Oxenstjerna, is the severe old Lady Marta
+at Korsholm still alive?"
+
+"Yes, your Majesty."
+
+"She will have a pupil to educate.  At the first opportunity this girl
+is to be sent to Finland."
+
+Lady Regina, proud and silent, left the room.
+
+"Your Majesty!" said Oxenstjerna reproachfully.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE FINNS AT LECH.
+
+Before our story proceeds further, it is necessary to bestow one more
+look on Frankfurt.
+
+Lady Regina was closely guarded after her midnight visit to the king;
+and later in the spring, when the waters were released from their icy
+fetters, she was sent to Finland, where we may find her again.  No
+religious hatred, still less revenge, prompted the anger of the usually
+generous Gustaf Adolf towards the young girl; abused confidence deeply
+stabs a noble heart, and Regina said nothing to remove the idea of her
+guilt from the king's mind; in fact, she strengthened it more and more
+by her fanaticism, and hatred still possessed her young heart, which
+ought to have been given to love alone.
+
+An extraordinary incident increased the king's resentment.  On the
+night that the Jesuit was taken to prison, to be executed next day, the
+terrible monk escaped; no one knew how.  These fearful men had allies
+and secret emissaries and passages everywhere; that very night a
+hitherto concealed door was discovered in the king's bed-chamber.
+Bertel's innocence came to light through this, but the mysterious
+escape of the monk again excited the king's wrath, and the late
+lieutenant had still to remain a private soldier.
+
+By the middle of February, 1632, the king was ready for departure; he
+then took the stronghold at Kreutznach in March, after a short siege,
+and left the queen, as well as Axel Oxenstjerna, in Mayence.  But Tilly
+had in the meantime surprised Gustaf Horn at Bamberg, and done great
+mischief.  The king pursued him down the Danube, and wished to invade
+Bavaria by crossing the Lech.  In vain did his generals object that the
+river was too deep and rapid, and that the Elector, with Tilly,
+Altringer, and 22,000 men, stood on the opposite side.  The king spoke
+like Alexander at the passage of the Granicus.
+
+"Shall we, who have crossed the Elbe, Oder, and Rhine, nay, even the
+Baltic, stop alarmed at the River Lech?"
+
+The passage was decided upon.
+
+The king tried for some time to find a suitable crossing.  At last he
+discovered it near a bend in the stream; a dragoon disguised as a
+peasant heard that the Lech was twenty-two feet deep.  Trestles were
+made of timber torn from cabins; four batteries of seventy cannon in
+all, were erected on the bank, and breastworks thrown up for the
+skirmishers, while fires of damp straw and green wood enveloped the
+neighbourhood in thick smoke.  Still, Tilly was old and experienced; he
+soon occupied the wood on the other side with his force; dug trenches
+and made fortifications, from which he directed a heavy fire.  On the
+3rd of April the Swedish cannon replied with terrific effect.  On April
+5th the trestles for a bridge were laid in spite of the fire of the
+enemy; planks were then thrown across, and, as usual, the Finns led the
+attack.  Three hundred infantry, headed by little Larsson, and the
+brave Savolaxen Paavo Lyydikain, were ordered to cross the planks, and
+defend the bridge on the opposite shore; each was promised a reward of
+ten riks thalers.  In a few moments the fate of Bavaria would be
+decided.
+
+The Finns carried spades and trenching tools, and cheering as they
+advanced, rushed at the double over the bridge.  Immediately a
+tremendous cross-fire from all Tilly's batteries was directed upon
+them; every moment balls dropped splashing into the foaming waters, or
+flew over the charging Finns, and now and then fell amongst them,
+scattering death on every side.  Those who got over worked vigorously
+at throwing up earthworks, which soon protected their front, although
+their flanks were still exposed to the enemy's fire.
+
+Tilly realised the importance of this position, and his fire redoubled.
+The Swedes riddled the opposite wood with a storm of shot, which struck
+the stones and tree-tops, scattering fragments and branches far and
+wide upon the Bavarians, who stood underneath awaiting the order to
+charge.  The king, in order to encourage his men, hastened to the
+front, and himself fired sixty shots.  The cannon thunder was heard for
+miles.
+
+More than half of the Finns had now been killed, wounded, or drowned,
+but the entrenchments were completed.  And at that instant the king
+ordered the afterwards celebrated Count Carl Gustaf Wrangel to go to
+their assistance.  The Finns, exalted with pride by their countrymen's
+success, and also anxious for the safety of their comrades, begged
+eagerly to be led into the midst of the fight, and in a moment Wrangel
+was surrounded by 300 Finnish volunteers, with whom he heroically
+charged across the shaking planks.  The gallant Duke Bernhard, who,
+like the king, had a certain partiality for the Finns, received
+permission to make a diversion in their favour.  Followed by a troop of
+Finnish cavalry, he found and passed over a ford, and fell upon the
+enemy's right flank.  The surprised Bavarians fell into disorder, and
+in spite of their numerical superiority, gave ground before the attack.
+Duke Bernhard's troop played havoc with the enemy, and soon cut their
+way through to their comrades at the end of the bridge.  Through this
+daring exploit the Finns obtained the dreaded name, "Hackapeliter,"
+from the words "hakkaa päälle!"  Go Ahead! which they shouted as they
+charged.
+
+Stimulated by the Finns' success, the Swedish and German infantry now
+began to cross the bridge.  Tilly, avoiding exposing his troops to the
+murderous Swedish fire till the last moment, now sent Altringer's
+infantry to take the fortifications, and drive the enemy into the
+river.  The Bavarians advanced at the double, and although decimated by
+the hail of bullets, threw themselves furiously on the earthworks.
+
+Wrangel's men stood firm.  Almost enveloped by the enemy's massive
+column, the Finns gave them a hot reception.  Pouring in a deadly
+volley at fifty yards, every bullet told.  The Bavarians wavered for a
+moment; most of them were new recruits; they faltered.  The Finns got
+time to reload; another volley; and the assailants fled in disorder
+along the bank.  Altringer rallied them with great difficulty, and
+again led them to the onset; at that moment a cannon-shot whizzed so
+close to his head that he fell senseless to the ground.  Again the
+Bavarians gave way.  Tilly saw this, and sent his favourite Wallachians
+to their assistance.  But even these veterans had to retreat, so
+terrific was the fire.  Then Tilly seized a banner, and led the attack
+in person.  Before, however, he had taken many steps, he fell, struck
+down by a falconet ball, which had smashed one leg.  The old general
+was carried from the field, and died a fortnight afterwards at
+Ingolstadt.
+
+The Bavarian army now became utterly demoralised.  The Elector
+retreated under cover of the darkness, leaving 2,000 dead on the field,
+and the way open to the heart of Bavaria.
+
+Next day the entire Swedish army crossed the Lech.  The king with a
+liberal hand distributed rewards to his brave troops.  Amongst these
+was a horseman who had accompanied Duke Bernhard, who praised him in
+the highest terms.  This was Bertel; three slight wounds attested the
+duke's account.  Bertel regained his rank, but not the king's
+confidence, which he valued above everything.  But he resolved to win
+this back at all costs.
+
+Gustaf Adolf then marched to Augsburg, which took the oath of
+allegiance, and gave brilliant festivals in his honour.  Here report,
+which joined the names Gustafva Augusta, whispered that the king had
+abandoned himself, like another Hannibal in Capua, to effeminacy and
+pleasure.  Rumour was wrong.  Gustaf Adolf was merely resting, and
+revolving still more daring enterprises in his mind.  But from this
+time the king's pathway began to darken.  The death angel went before
+him with drawn sword, and aimed now here, now there, a blow at his
+life, as if to cry constantly in his ear, "Mortal, thou art not a god."
+
+One could almost think that the powers of darkness had obtained more
+power over him; now ambition began to gain ground in his mind, and he
+was no longer solely animated by the sacred cause of Liberty and Faith.
+A secret and terrible enemy seemed everywhere in his path, dealing
+deadly blows which could not as yet reach their mark.  At the bold but
+unsuccessful attack on Ingolstadt there was, relates Fryxell, a cannon
+on the ramparts called a "Fikonet," and celebrated for shooting both
+far and true.  The gunner on the ramparts saw out on the field a man
+with a waving plume riding a fine charger, and surrounded by attentive
+followers.  "There," he said, "rides a great lord, but this will stop
+his career;" then he aimed and fired the "Fikonet."  The ball brought
+down horse and rider, and the others hastened to the place in great
+dread; but the king, for it was he, raised himself up, covered with
+blood and dust, but unharmed, from underneath the dead horse,
+exclaiming,
+
+"The apple is not yet ripe."
+
+The citizens of Ingolstadt buried the horse, and stuffed his skin as a
+remembrance.  Shortly afterwards the king was riding at the side of the
+young Margrave of Baden Durlach, who had just before been one of the
+most brilliant figures at the Augsburg balls.  A cannon-shot passed
+very near the king, and as he looked round, a headless horseman rode by
+his side and then sank to the ground.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+NEW ADVENTURES.
+
+From Ingolstadt the king turned to Landshut, in the centre of Bavaria.
+The farther he advanced into this country, where they had never seen an
+army of heretics before, the people became more fanatical, wild, and
+bloodthirsty.  Large bands of peasants assembled, commanded by the
+monks, lying in ambush everywhere for the Swedes, and cutting off every
+straggler; they also tortured their prisoners in the most horrible
+manner.  The king's army on their side, inebriated by their successes,
+were infuriated by this cruel guerilla warfare, and began to burn and
+destroy all the places they passed through.  Hitherto the Swedish army
+had been remarkable for its good conduct in the field, but now they
+left in their rear a broad track of murder and crime; and woe to those
+troops who in insufficient numbers wandered far from the main body.
+
+The king had now marched far into the country, and wished to send some
+new important orders to Baner, who followed slowly in his steps from
+Ingolstadt.  On account of the lawless state of the country this was
+attended with great risk, and the king would not order a large body to
+go.  A young officer, a Finn, volunteered to try, accompanied by two
+horsemen.  The king agreed to this, and the three horsemen set out one
+evening in May on this dangerous journey.
+
+The young officer was no other than our friend Bertel, and his
+companions were Pekka from East Bothnia, and Vitikka from Tavastland.
+The night was dark and gloomy, and the three horsemen rode carefully in
+the middle of the road, much afraid of missing their way in this
+strange country, and dreading an ambush from their enemies.  It began
+to rain, which made the roads still worse; these had already been much
+damaged by the passage of the heavy baggage-wagons, and at every step
+they risked an accident.
+
+"Here," said Vitikka ironically to his companion, "you are a northern
+Finn, and ought to be able to practise witchcraft."
+
+"I should not be worth much if I could not do it," responded Pekka in
+the same bantering tone.
+
+"Try, then, and take us in a minute to Hattelmala mountain and let us
+see the light shining from Hämeenlinna's castle.  There is a little
+gipsy girl whom I once loved, and I would rather be by her side
+to-night, than here in the ruts of this damned forest."
+
+"That will be easy for me to do," said Pekka; "see, you can already see
+the lights shining from Hämeenlinna."
+
+His comrade looked sharply around, uncertain if Pekka was joking or in
+earnest; he thought the latter quite as likely as the former.  And
+truly, in the brushwood underneath, a light appeared, but he soon
+understood that he was still hundreds of miles away from his home.
+Suddenly their horses stopped, and would not move.  A barrier of tree
+trunks was stretched across the road.
+
+"Hush!" whispered Bertel, "I hear a noise in the wood."
+
+The horsemen leaned forward and listened attentively.  On the opposite
+side of the wood they heard footsteps and the breaking of branches.
+
+"They must be here in a quarter of an hour," said a voice in the
+well-known Bavarian dialect.
+
+"How many of them are there?"
+
+"Thirty horsemen, and ten or twelve baggage animals.  They left
+Geisenfeld at dusk, and they have a young girl with them as a prisoner."
+
+"How many are we?"
+
+"About fifty musketeers, and seventy or eighty armed with pitchforks
+and axes."
+
+"Good.  No firing is allowed until they are within three paces."
+
+At this moment Bertel's horse neighed, whose name was Lapp; he was
+small but strong and active.
+
+"Who is there?" sounded from the road.
+
+"Swedes!" cried Bertel boldly, just as he did at the Würzburg
+sally-port, and fired off a pistol in the direction of the voice, and
+saw by the flash a large band of peasants, who had encamped by the
+barricade.  He then turned his horse, and, calling upon his companions
+to follow him, rode at full gallop on the road back to Landshut.
+
+But the peasants had by the flash also seen the three horsemen, and now
+hurried to cut off their retreat.  Bertel's horse easily distanced the
+pursuers, but Vitikka's fell over the stump of a tree, and Pekka's
+clumsy animal was hurt by the thrust of a pitchfork in his neck as he
+tried to get out of the marsh.  Bertel saw his followers' danger, and
+would not leave them; he turned back and killed the nearest peasants,
+and caught Pekka's horse by the bridle and tried to pull him up,
+calling also to Vitikka to leave his horse and jump on the back of
+Lapp.  This brave effort was successful, and the three were on their
+way to safety, when suddenly a whizzing noise was heard, and a lasso
+settled upon Bertel's shoulders, tightened, and jerked him from his
+saddle.  Vitikka fell at the same moment, and Lapp, thus delivered from
+his heavy burden, galloped off, and Pekka followed with or without his
+will.  Bertel and Vitikka were taken prisoners and bound with their
+hands behind their backs.
+
+"Hang the dogs before the others arrive!" cried one.
+
+"Hang them by the heels!" suggested another.
+
+"With a little fire underneath!" said a third.
+
+"No fire! no noise!" ordered a fourth, who appeared to be in command.
+"Listen, comrades," whispered he Ito the prisoners lying on the ground,
+"was it Finnish you spoke?"
+
+"Go to the devil!" said Vitikka in a rage.
+
+"_Maledicti, maledicti Fennones!_" said the former speaker in the
+darkness.  "You are mine!"
+
+"Now they are coming!" cried one of the band, and the trampling of
+horses was heard on the road to Ingolstadt.  The peasants remained
+still, and for greater safety gagged the prisoners.  The approaching
+troop were provided with torches, and seemed to be Germans, who were
+returning from a marauding expedition.  They were riding so quickly
+that they did not notice the barricade until they were close upon it;
+at the same moment a murderous fire opened upon them from behind this
+obstruction.  Ten or twelve of the foremost fell to the ground, and
+their riderless horses reared and dragged them along by the stirrups;
+the greatest confusion prevailed amongst them, some turned back, riding
+over their comrades and the pack-horses; others fired off their pistols
+towards the enemy behind the barricade.  The peasants rushed from their
+ambush and furiously attacked those that remained, and pulled them off
+their horses with lassos.  In vain the horsemen endeavoured to defend
+themselves; in less than ten minutes the whole troop was scattered;
+eight or ten had escaped, fifteen were lying wounded on the road, and
+six or seven were made prisoners.  Only four of the peasants had
+fallen.  The revenge of the Bavarians was inhuman.  They fired blank
+charges in the prisoners' faces, which burnt them black, and partially
+buried some of them in the ground and stoned them slowly to death.
+
+When this terrible work was finished, they carried away the booty to a
+place of safety.  Bertel and his companion were thrown across one of
+the horses, and they marched deep into the forest.  After some time
+they stopped at a lonely farm, and the prisoners were dragged in and
+thrown on the floor in a separate room, while the peasants in the next
+room rejoiced over their victory, and drank captured wine.  A deathly
+pale monk now entered the room, carrying a sword by his side with a
+rope.  He held up a torch to the prisoners' faces, took away their
+gags, and looked at them in silence.
+
+"Am I right," said he at last, sarcastically; "this is Lieutenant
+Bertel, of the king's life-guards."
+
+Bertel looked up and recognised the Jesuit Hieronymus.
+
+"You are welcome to me, lieutenant, and thank you for our last meeting.
+Such an important guest must be well entertained.  I fancy I have seen
+this comrade before, also," he said, pointing to Vitikka.
+
+The wild Finn looked him straight in the eyes and opened his mouth with
+an obstinate grin.
+
+"What have you done with your ears, monk?" he said tauntingly.  "Take
+away your skull-cap, foul thief, and let us see if you have grown any
+ass's ears in their place."
+
+At this daring remark about the incident at Breitenfeld a dark frown
+contracted the Jesuit's eyebrows, and a blush arose on his pale
+features; he bit his lips with rage.
+
+"Think of your own ears, comrade," said he.  "_Anathema maranatha_!
+They will soon have heard enough in this world."
+
+With these words the Jesuit clapped his hands twice, and a blacksmith
+with his leather apron entered, carrying a pair of red-hot pincers.
+
+"Well, comrade, do your ears begin to burn?" said the monk cruelly.
+
+Vitikka replied stubbornly, "Now you think you are clever, but you are
+only a fumbler in comparison with the devil.  Your lord and master does
+not need any pincers, he uses his claws."
+
+"The right ear," said the Jesuit.  The smith approached the Finn and
+put the pincers to his head.  Vitikka smiled disdainfully.  A sudden
+blush coloured his brown cheeks, but only for a moment.  He had now
+only one ear.
+
+"Will you now abjure your faith, and believe in the Holy Father and
+damn Luther, and you shall keep your other ear?"
+
+"Niggard!" cried the Finn.  "Your lord and master generally offers
+countries and kingdoms, and you only offer me a wretched ear!"
+
+"The left ear," continued the Jesuit coldly.  The smith carried out the
+order.  The mutilated soldier smiled.
+
+"Monk, it is shameful!" said Bertel, who was lying close by.  "Kill us,
+if you like, but do it quickly!"
+
+"Who has said that I intend to kill you?" replied the Jesuit, smirking.
+"Never; it entirely depends upon yourself whether you regain your
+freedom this very night."
+
+"What do you ask of me?"
+
+"You are a brave young man, Lieutenant Bertel!  I am sorry that the
+king so shamefully and unjustly deprived you of your rank, which you
+had gained with your blood."
+
+"Are you really sorry?  And what then?"
+
+"If I was in your place I should take revenge."
+
+"Take revenge?  Oh yes, I have thought of it."
+
+"You belong to Gustaf Adolf's life-guards.  Do you know, young friend,
+what the Catholic princes would give to anyone who brought the king,
+dead or alive, into their power?"
+
+"How could I know that, holy father?"
+
+"A kingdom if he was a nobleman; 50,000 ducats if he was a man of the
+people."
+
+"Holy father, it is a small reward for such a great service."
+
+"You have your choice between death and a royal reward!"
+
+"This is the point you were trying to reach, holy father?"
+
+"Do as you please; think it over, and we will talk about it again.
+This time you can buy your life and freedom for a less price; yes, a
+very small service."
+
+"What would that be, holy father?"
+
+"Listen to me.  I wish you to swear that you will do me a very small
+favour.  King Gustaf Adolf wears on the forefinger of his right hand a
+small copper ring.  It is of no value to him, but it is of great
+importance to me, young friend; as I am an antiquary, I should like to
+have a remembrance of a king, whom I must hate as an enemy, but admire
+as a man."
+
+"And the ring?"
+
+"The ring; you must swear to deliver it into my hands before the next
+new moon.  Do this, and you are free!"
+
+"Oh, only a small sin against the seventh commandment?  And you have
+the absolution ready before-hand; is it not so?  Go, miserable thief,
+and thank your stars that my arm is bound; or by Heaven, it would teach
+you to have respect for a Christian's honour!"
+
+"Be still, young man, remember that your life is in my hands.  When I
+have finished with your comrade I shall begin with you."
+
+Bertel looked at him with contempt.
+
+"Smith, go on with your work!" said the Jesuit.
+
+And the smith again took the pincers from the fire.
+
+At the same instant a great confusion and noise arose in the next room.
+They shouted:
+
+"To arms!  The Swedes are upon us!"
+
+The door flew open.  Some of the peasants seized their guns, others
+were lying in a drunken sleep on the floor.  Outside one could plainly
+hear the Swedish officer's commands.
+
+"Set the house on fire, boys, we have them all in a trap!"
+
+At these words the Jesuit jumped out of the window.
+
+A hot but short skirmish began by the door.  The peasants were
+overpowered in a few moments and begged for mercy.  In reply to this
+appeal, the foremost were killed, and the rest taken prisoners and
+bound; the house and booty were taken, and Bertel and his mutilated
+comrade were released.
+
+"Is it you, Larsson?" cried Bertel.
+
+"Thunder and lightning, is it you, Bertel?  Is it here you intend to
+leave the king's orders?"
+
+"And yourself?"
+
+"Yes, damn it, you know that I am always a lucky child!  I was sent to
+guard a convoy, and met on the road some rascally marauders, who told
+me that there was an ambush in the forest.  I hurried after them, and
+delivered a brave boy and a beautiful girl.  Look at her: cheeks like a
+poppy, and eyes to buy fish with!"
+
+Bertel turned round, and by his side stood a trembling girl, paralyzed
+with fear.
+
+"This is Ketchen, Lady Regina's maid!" cried Bertel, who had often seen
+the bright girl in the company of her dull mistress.
+
+"Save me, lieutenant, save me!" cried the girl, and caught hold of his
+arm.  "They have taken me by force from my aunt's house."
+
+"Larsson, I beg you to give me the girl!"
+
+"What the devil are you thinking of?  Do you want to take the girl from
+me?"
+
+"Let her go free, I beg of you!"
+
+"Later on, perhaps, yes.  Let her go, I say, or..."
+
+The hot-tempered Finn drew his sword again, with which he had just
+before killed a peasant.
+
+"The cottage is on fire!" was heard from all directions, and a thick
+smoke proved that it was true.  Bertel rushed out with the girl, and
+Larsson followed, and the heat of his temper gave way before the heat
+of the fire.  When Bertel got outside and saw the flames, he remembered
+that the cottage was filled with people; about thirty peasants were
+bound inside.
+
+"Come, hurry, let us save the unfortunate prisoners!" he cried.
+
+"Are you mad?" said Larsson, laughing; "it is only a few of the rascals
+who have killed so many of our brave comrades.  Let it burn, boys!"
+
+It was now too late to help.  The unfortunate Bavarians were sacrificed
+to the barbarities with which wars were then carried on; too often one
+terrible deed was followed by another.
+
+We turn with disgust from these wild scenes, which essentially belong
+to the times in which they occurred, and hasten to the grand picture of
+the Swedish lion's last struggle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+NÜRNBERG AND LÜTZEN.
+
+The incidents of the campaign followed each other quickly, like wave
+after wave on a stormy sea, and history compressed into a narrow frame
+is obliged to pursue the same course.  Hence we must hurry over these
+marvellous occurrences and into a still more extraordinary period, to
+find the thread of our story, "The King's Ring," which passes through
+ages and the destinies of great characters.
+
+The terrible Wallenstein had become reconciled to the emperor, and
+gathering a formidable army, turned like a dark cloud upon the rich
+city of Nürnberg.  Gustaf Adolf cut short his victorious career in
+Bavaria, and hurried to meet him; and here the two armies remained in
+entrenched camps facing each other for eleven weeks--the panther and
+the lion, ready to spring, sharply watched each other's movements.  The
+surrounding country was stripped bare to provide for the wants of the
+two hosts, and foraging parties were constantly dispatched to more
+remote places to get supplies.  Among the Imperialists those mostly
+employed in this task were Isolani's Croats; the Swedes generally sent
+Taupadel's dragoons and Stälhandske's Finnish cavalry.
+
+Famine, heat, and plague, and the plundering German soldiers, spread
+want and misery everywhere.  Gustaf Adolf, having united himself with
+Oxenstjerna's and Baner's forces, could now muster 50,000 men.  On the
+24th of August, 1632, he marched against Wallenstein, who stood behind
+impregnable entrenchments.  Long before daylight the thunder of
+Torstensson's guns was heard against Alte Veste.  In the darkness of
+the night 500 musketeers of the white brigade were climbing up the
+steep redoubts, and reached the tops under a terrible fire.  For a
+moment victory seemed to reward their strenuous efforts; confusion
+reigned amongst the half-awakened enemy; the cries of the women, and
+the fire from the Swedes, added to the disorder, and made the attack
+easy.  But Wallenstein, calm and unmoved, sent away the women, and
+directed a murderous fire on the assailants.  The brave brigade was
+driven back with heavy losses.  The king, however, would not give way;
+once more the white brigade renewed the attack; but in vain.  Gustaf
+Adolf then called his Finns, for, as Schiller relates, "the courage of
+the Northmen puts the Germans to shame."  It was the East Bothnians in
+the ranks of the Swedish brigade.  Death stared them in the face in the
+form of hundreds of guns; with unsurpassed courage and determination
+they climbed up the entrenchments, slippery with rain and blood.  But
+against these strong works and the deadly fire, nothing could prevail;
+in the midst of death and destruction they tried again to reach the top
+of the redoubts, but in vain; those who escaped the shot and pikes were
+hurled back; for the first time one saw Gustaf Adolf's Finns retreat;
+and the attempts made by the other troops were also in vain.  The
+Imperialists hastened out in pursuit, but were driven back; again they
+sallied forth with the same result.  With heavy losses on both sides
+the battle continued all day, and many of the bravest commanders were
+killed.  The angel of death again sent a bullet towards the king, but
+it only touched the sole of his boot.
+
+The Imperial cavalry fought with the Swedish on the left flank.
+Cronenberg, with his cuirassiers, clad in iron mail from head to feet,
+who were called "the invincibles," overthrew the Hessians.  The
+Landgrave of Hessen remarked with anger that the king by the sacrifice
+of the German troops tried to save his own.
+
+"Very well," said Gustaf Adolf, "I will send my Finns, and hope that
+the change of troops will bring a change of fortune."
+
+Stälhandske, with the Finns, was now sent against Cronenberg and his
+invincibles.  A grand contest, which will never be forgotten, then
+started between these two powerful forces; on the shore of the River
+Regnitz, which was covered with bushes, these troops met in conflict,
+man to man, horse to horse; swords were blunted on helmets, long
+pistols flashed, and many a brave horseman was driven into the river.
+The Finns' horses were hardier than the beautiful Hungarian chargers,
+and thus they shared in the victory.  The brave Cronenberg fell, and
+his invincibles then fled from the Finns.  In his place, Fugger
+appeared with a great force, and drew the Finns in continuous battle
+slowly towards the enemy in the forest.  But here the Imperialists were
+met with the fire from the Swedish infantry.  Fugger fell, and his
+horsemen were again routed by the exhausted Finns.
+
+At the close of the day more than three thousand killed covered the
+hills and the fields.  "In the battle at Alte Veste, Gustaf Adolf was
+considered worsted, because the attack failed," says Schiller.  The
+following day he altered his position, and on the 8th of September he
+marched away to Bavaria.  Forty-four thousand men, both friends and
+foes, had been destroyed by plague and war during these terrible weeks
+in and around Nürnberg.
+
+* * * * *
+
+The darkness of the autumn increased, and its fogs covered the
+blood-stained fields of Germany, and still the battles did not cease.
+Here it was ordained that only one great spirit should find everlasting
+rest, after many storms, and pass from life's dark night to eternal
+light.  The angel of death came closer over Gustaf Adolf's noble head,
+and threw over him a gleam of light from a higher world, which is
+sometimes seen shining around the great souls of the earth in their
+last moments.  The bystanders do not understand it, but the departing
+ones know what it means.  Two days before his death, Gustaf Adolf
+received the homage of a god from the people of Naumburg, but through
+his soul fled the shadow of the coming change, and he said to the royal
+chaplain, Fabricius:
+
+"Perhaps God will soon punish them for their foolishness, and myself
+also, the object of it; and show that I am only a weak mortal."
+
+The king had marched into Saxony to follow the traces of the
+destructive Wallenstein.  At Arnstadt he bade farewell to Axel
+Oxenstjerna; in Erfurt he said good-bye to the queen.  There, and in
+Naumburg, one could see by his arrangements that he was prepared for
+what would come.  Wallenstein, who thought he had gone into winter
+quarters, sent Pappenheim away to Halle with 12,000 men; he himself
+stood at Lützen with 28,000, and the king was in Naumburg with 20,000
+men.
+
+But on the 4th of November, when Gustaf Adolf heard of Pappenheim's
+departure, he broke up his camp and hurried to surprise his weakened
+enemy, in which he would have succeeded if he had made his attack on
+the 5th.  But Providence had thrown in the way of his victorious career
+a small obstacle, the brook Rippach, which with many newly ploughed
+fields delayed his march.  It was late in the evening on the 5th of
+November when the king approached Lützen; thus Wallenstein had time,
+and he knew how to make use of it.  Along the broad road to Leipzig he
+deepened the ditches, and made redoubts on both sides, which he filled
+with his best sharpshooters, and it was decided that with their
+cross-fire they could destroy the attacking Swedes.
+
+The king's war council advised him not to make the attack; Duke
+Bernhard was the only one who advised him to the contrary, and the king
+shared his opinion, "because," he said, "it is necessary to wash one's
+self perfectly clean once you are in the bath."
+
+The night was dull and dark.  The king spent it in an old carriage with
+Kniephausen and Duke Bernhard.  His restless soul had time to think of
+everything, and then history says, he drew from the forefinger of his
+right hand a small copper ring, and gave it to Duke Bernhard, and asked
+him to give it to a young officer in his Finnish cavalry, in case
+anything should happen to himself.
+
+Early in the morning Gustaf Adolf rode out to inspect the positions of
+his troops.  He was dressed in a buff waistcoat made of elk's skin, and
+wore a grey great coat over it; when he was told to wear harness on a
+day like this, he replied:
+
+"God is my armour."
+
+A heavy mist delayed the attack.  At dawn the whole army sang a hymn.
+The fog continued, and the king began another hymn, which he had
+written himself just before.  He then rode along the lines, calling out:
+
+"To-day, boys, we shall put an end to all our trouble;" and his horse
+stumbled twice as he said this.
+
+The fog did not clear off till eleven o'clock through a strong breeze.
+The Swedish army at once advanced to the attack; under the king in the
+right wing was Stälhandske and the Finns, next came the Swedish troops;
+in the centre were the Swedish yellow and green brigades, commanded by
+Nils Brahe; on the left wing the German cavalry, under Duke Bernhard.
+Against the duke was Colloredo, with his strong cavalry, while in the
+centre was Wallenstein, with four heavy columns of infantry and seven
+cannon in front; against Stälhandske stood Isolani, with his wild but
+brave Croats.  The war-cries on both sides were the same as at
+Breitenfeld.  When the king ordered the attack he clasped his hands,
+and cried out:
+
+"Jesus, help me to-day to fight for the glory of Thy Holy Name!"
+
+The Imperialists started firing, and the Swedish army advanced and
+suffered heavy losses from the beginning.  At last the Swedish centre
+passed the redoubts, took the seven guns, and routed the two first
+brigades of the enemy.  The third was preparing for flight when
+Wallenstein rallied them.  The Swedish left wing was attacked by the
+cavalry, and the Finns, who had sent the Croats and the Polacks flying,
+had not yet reached the redoubts.  The king then rushed to the front
+with the troops from Smaländ; but only a few were well-mounted enough
+to follow him.  It is said that an Imperial musketeer fired at him with
+a silver bullet; it is true that the king's left arm was smashed, and
+that he tried to conceal his wound; but soon he became so weak from
+loss of blood, that he asked the Duke of Lauenburg, who was riding by
+his side, to bring him unseen out of the battle.
+
+In the midst of the conflict Gotz's cuirassiers rushed forward, and at
+the head of them was Moritz von Falkenberg, who recognised the king and
+fired point-blank at him, crying out:
+
+"I have long sought for you!"
+
+Soon afterwards Falkenberg himself fell from a bullet.  The king was
+shot underneath the heart, and reeled in his saddle; he told the duke
+to save his own life; the latter had placed his arm around the king's
+waist to support him, but the next moment the rush of the enemy had
+separated them.  The duke's hair was singed by the close discharge of a
+pistol, and the king's horse was wounded in the throat and staggered.
+The king sunk from the saddle, and was dragged a short distance along
+the ground; his foot caught in the stirrup.  The young page,
+Leubelfingen, from Nürnberg, offered him his horse, but could not raise
+him up.  Some of the Imperialists now came to the spot, and inquired
+who the wounded man was, and when Leubelfingen would not reply, one of
+them ran him through with a sword-thrust, while another shot the king
+through the head; others then shot at them, and both remained on the
+field.  But Leubelfingen lived for a few days afterwards, to relate for
+the benefit of future generations the never-to-be-forgotten sad death
+of the great hero, Gustaf Adolf.
+
+In the meantime the Swedish centre was driven back, the battlefield was
+covered with thousands of mutilated corpses, and they had not yet
+gained a foot of ground.  Both the armies occupied nearly the same
+positions as before the battle.  The king's wounded horse was then seen
+galloping between the lines, with an empty saddle, covered with blood.
+
+"The king has fallen!"
+
+As Schiller has so beautifully put it, "Life was not worth anything,
+when the most holy of all lives had ceased to exist; death no longer
+had any terror for the lowliest, since it had not spared this royal
+head."
+
+Duke Bernhard flew from line to line, saying, "Swedes, Finns, and
+Germans, yours, ours, and Freedom's protector has fallen.  Well then,
+those who love the king will rush forward to avenge his death."
+
+The first to obey this order was Stälhandske, with the Finns; with
+great difficulty they crossed the ditches and drove the enemy in front
+of them; before their terrific onslaught all fell or fled.  Isolani
+turned back and attacked the baggage train, but was again routed.  The
+centre of the Swedish army advanced under Brahe, and Duke Bernhard,
+disregarding his wounded arm, took one of the enemy's batteries.  The
+whole of the Imperial army was broken by this terrible attack; its
+ammunition wagons exploded; Wallenstein's orders, and brave
+Piccolomini's efforts, could not stay the rout.  Just then a joyful cry
+arose from the battlefield: "Pappenheim is here!" and this leader, the
+bravest of the brave, appeared with his horsemen; his first question
+was, "Where is the King of Sweden?"  Someone pointed to the Finns, and
+Pappenheim rushed to the spot.  Here began a terrible battle.  The
+Imperialists, filled with new courage, turned back and attacked on
+three sides at once.  Not a man of the Swedes gave ground.  Brahe died
+with the yellow brigade, who fell nearly to the last man; Winckel with
+the blue, died in the same order, man for man, as they stood in the
+ranks.  The rest of the Swedish infantry slowly retreated, and victory
+seemed to smile on the destructive Pappenheim.
+
+But he, the Ajax of his time, the man of a hundred scars, did not live
+to see success.  In the first attack on the Finns, a falconet bullet
+smashed his hip; and two musket balls pierced his chest; it was also
+said that Stälhandske wounded him with his own hand.  He fell, but
+still in death rejoiced over Gustaf Adolf's fall, and the news of his
+loss spread consternation amongst the Imperialists.
+
+"Pappenheim is dead; everything is lost!"
+
+Once more the Swedes advanced; Duke Bernhard, Kniephausen, and
+Stälhandske, performed prodigies of valour.  But Piccolomini, with six
+wounds, mounted his seventh horse, and fought with more than mortal
+valour; the Imperialist centre held its ground, and only the darkness
+stopped the battle.  Wallenstein retired, and the exhausted Swedish
+army encamped on the battlefield.  Nine thousand slain covered the
+field of Lützen.
+
+The result of this battle was disastrous to the Imperialists.  They had
+lost all their artillery; Pappenheim and Wallenstein had lost their
+invincible names.  The latter raged with anger; he executed the cowards
+with the same facility as he bestowed gold on the brave.  Ill and
+disheartened he retired with the rest of his army to Bohemia, where the
+stars were his nightly companions, and treacherous plans his only
+solace; and his death from Buttler's hand was the end of his glorious
+life.
+
+A thrill of joy passed over the whole Catholic world, because the faith
+of Luther and the Swedes had lost a great deal more than their enemies.
+
+The arm was paralyzed which had so powerfully wielded the victorious
+sword of light and freedom; the grief of the Protestants was deep and
+universal, mixed with fear for the future.  It was not for nothing that
+the Te Deum was sung in the churches of Vienna, Brussels, and Madrid;
+twelve days' bull-fighting gratified Madrid on account of the dreaded
+hero's fall.  But it is said that the Emperor Ferdinand, who was
+greater than the men of his time, shed bitter tears at the sight of his
+slain enemy's bloody buff waistcoat.
+
+Many stories circulated about the great Gustaf Adolf's death.  Duke
+Franz Albert of Lauenburg, Richelieu, and Duke Bernhard, were all said
+to have had a share in his fall; but none of these surmises have been
+verified by history.  A later German author tells the following popular
+story:
+
+"Gustaf Adolf, King of Sweden, received in his youth, from a young
+woman whom he loved, a ring of iron, which he ever afterwards wore.
+The ring was composed of seven circles, which formed the letters Gustaf
+Adolf.  Seven days before his death he missed the ring."
+
+The reader knows that the threads of this story are tied to the same
+ring, but we have several reasons for saying that this ring was made of
+copper.
+
+On the evening after the battle, Duke Bernhard sent his soldiers with
+torches to find the king's body; and they found it plundered and hardly
+recognisable under heaps of slain.  It was taken to the village of
+Meuchen, and there embalmed.  The soldiers were all allowed to see the
+dead body of their king and leader.  Bitter tears were here shed, but
+tears full of pride, for even the lowest considered it an honour to
+have fought by the side of such a hero.
+
+"See," said one of Stälhandske's old Finns, loudly sniffing, "they have
+stolen his golden chain and his copper ring; I still see the white mark
+on his forefinger."
+
+"Why should they care about a copper ring?" asked a Scotchman, who had
+lately joined the army, and had not heard the stories which passed from
+man to man.
+
+"His ring!" said a Pomeranian.  "Be sure that the Jesuits knew what is
+was good for.  The ring was charmed by a Finnish witch, and as long as
+the king wore it, he could not be hurt by steel or lead."
+
+"But see to-day he has lost it, and therefore--you understand."
+
+"What is that fruit-eating Pomeranian saying?" said the Finn angrily.
+"The power of the Almighty, and nothing else, has protected our great
+king, but the ring was given to him long ago by a young Finnish girl,
+whom he loved in his youth; I know more about this than you do."
+
+Duke Bernhard, who, sad and sorrowful, was watching the king's pale
+features, turned round at these words; he put his sound hand underneath
+his open buff waistcoat, and said to the Finn:
+
+"Comrade, do you know one of Stälhandske's officers named Bertel?"
+
+"Yes, your grace."
+
+"Is he alive?"
+
+"No, your grace."
+
+The duke turned to another and gave several orders abstractedly.  A few
+moments later, when he again looked at the king, he seemed to remember
+something.
+
+"Was he a brave man?" he asked.
+
+"He was one of Stälhandske's horsemen!" said the Finn with great pride.
+
+"When did he fall, and where?"
+
+"In the last struggle with the Pappenheimers."
+
+"Go and search for him."
+
+The duke's order was promptly obeyed by these exhausted soldiers, who
+had reason to wonder why one of the youngest officers should be
+searched for this night, when Nils Brahe, Winckel, and many other old
+leaders were lying uncared for in their blood on the battlefield.  It
+was nearly morning when the searchers returned and reported that
+Bertel's dead body could not be found anywhere.
+
+"Hum!" said the duke discontentedly; "great men have sometimes funny
+ideas.  What shall I now do with the king's ring?"
+
+The November sun rose blood-red over the field of Lützen.  A new time
+had come; the Master had left, and the disciples had now to carry out
+his work alone.
+
+
+
+
+II.--THE SWORD AND THE PLOUGH.
+
+Silence reigned after the conclusion of the narrative; everyone was
+thinking of the great hero's fall, and not realising that the tale was
+ended.  The old grandmother sat on the stuffed sofa in her brown
+woollen shawl, and near her the schoolmaster, Svenonius, with his blue
+handkerchief and brass spectacles.  Captain Svanholm, the postmaster,
+who had lost a finger in the last war, was on the right; on the left
+pretty Anne Sophie, eighteen years old, with a high tortoise-shell comb
+in her long brown hair; and around them, on the floor or on stools, sat
+six or seven playful children, with mouths now wide open, as if they
+had heard a ghost story.
+
+The first to disturb the silence was Anne Sophie, who sprang with a cry
+from her chair, stumbled, and fell into the schoolmaster's arms.
+
+The entranced company, who were still at Lützen, were as much disturbed
+by this interruption as if Isolani's Croats had suddenly broken into
+the room.  The postmaster, still in the midst of the battle, sprang up
+and trod heavily upon old grandma's sore foot with his iron heel.  The
+schoolmaster was quite upset, not at all realising the value of the
+burden in his arms--perhaps the first and also the prettiest in his
+whole life; the children fled in all directions, and some crept behind
+the surgeon's high chair.  But Andreas, who had just followed the
+Finnish cavalry in their charge over the trenches, seized the surgeon's
+silver-headed Spanish cane, and prepared to receive the Croats at the
+point of the bayonet.  Old Bäck was undisturbed; he produced his
+tobacco box, bit off a piece, and mildly said, "What is the matter with
+you, Anne Sophie?"  The latter freed herself, blushing and embarrassed,
+from the schoolmaster's arms, and declaring that someone had pricked
+her with a pin, looked around for the culprit.
+
+Old grandma, always quick to scent out mischief, immediately practised
+a method, and discovered that Jonathan had inserted a pin at the top of
+his rattan, and therewith upset his eldest sister, with the results
+just indicated.  The punishment, like that under martial law, was quick
+and short, and Jonathan had then to retire to the nursery, and learn an
+extra lesson for the next day.
+
+When the principal power had thus restored order without bloodshed, the
+company began to talk of the surgeon's story.
+
+"It is too violent a tale, my dear cousin," said the old grandmother,
+whilst looking at the teller with one of those mild and speaking
+glances, which captured all hearts with their expression of
+intelligence and sympathy; "altogether too turbulent.  It seems to me
+that I still hear the noise of the cannon.  War is frightful and
+detestable, when we consider all the blood shed on the battlefield, and
+all the tears at home.  When will the day arrive when men, instead of
+destroying each other, will share the earth and our Lord's good gifts
+together in Harmony and Universal Brotherhood?"
+
+Now the postmaster's martial spirit rose in arms.
+
+"Peace?  Share?  No war?  Pshaw! cousin, pshaw! would you make an ant's
+nest of the world?  What a state of things!  Scribblers would smother
+everything with ink; cowards and petty tyrants would sit on honest men;
+and when one nation domineered over another, people would lowly bow,
+thank them, and act like sheep.  No; the devil take me! men like Gustaf
+Adolf and Napoleon move nations and things; they tap a little blood
+which has been spoilt by gross living, and then the world improves.  I
+still remember the 21st of August, at Karstula; Fieandt stood on the
+left, and I at the right----"
+
+"If I may interrupt the speech of my honoured brother," said the
+schoolmaster, who had heard this story one hundred and seventy times
+before, "I would prove that the world would progress much better
+through spilling ink than blood.  _Inter arma silent leges_.  In war
+times we could not sit here by the fire, and drink our toddy in Bäck's
+room; we should be serving a cannon on the ramparts; linstock in hand,
+instead of a glass; powder in our pouches, and not even a pinch of
+snuff.  Ink has made you, brother, a postmaster; in ink you live and
+have your being; ink brings your daily bread, and what would you be
+with blood alone, and no ink, may I ask?
+
+"What should I be?  Devils and heretics ... I?"
+
+"Cousin Svanholm!" said the old grandmother, with a warning glance at
+the children.
+
+The postmaster stopped at once.  The surgeon saw the necessity of
+re-establishing peace and concord.
+
+"I think," he said, "that nations go through the world like the
+individuals of which they are composed.  In youth they are wild and
+passionate, fight, rage, and tear each other to pieces.  When older and
+wiser, they invent gunpowder, place host against host, and let them
+destroy each other in cold blood at long distances.  Finally the world
+comes to reason, and seizes the pen which is very sharp when necessary.
+And then begins the reign of universal knowledge, which is certainly
+the best, according to my mind."
+
+"It would be ... seven devils ... all right, cousin, I will be as quiet
+as a wall," said the postmaster.  "I only ask what kind of a man was
+Gustaf Adolf?  What kind of a man was Napoleon?  Were they only
+birthday eaters of sweetmeats?  What do you think?  Were they fools or
+savages?  I pray you.  Do you hear, cousin?  I do not swear, cousin;
+you should have heard Fieandt, how devilishly he swore at Karstula."
+
+The surgeon continued, without paying any attention to the postmaster.
+
+"Therefore, the youthful history of all nations begins with war, and
+the first soldier in the world's company was called Cain.  But as war
+is as old as the world, it is likely to exist as long as it lasts.  I
+do not believe in the new ideas about a perpetual peace.  I believe
+that as long as human hearts retain selfish desires, the curse of war
+will prevail.  Eternal peace consists in no longer fighting blindly,
+slavishly, as before, but with glad courage comprehending the reason
+why, and for a righteous cause; then one can hack away with right
+goodwill."
+
+"Then we should always fight for an idea," said the schoolmaster
+thoughtfully.
+
+"That's it, for an idea.  It is to the honour of the Finnish soldier
+that with one exception he has always fought for the defence of his
+fatherland.  Then he has gone out to fight on foreign soil; and our
+Lord has mercifully chosen that this should be for the greatest and
+most righteous cause of all, namely, to defend the pure Protestant
+faith and freedom of conscience for the whole world.  The Finn was
+proud to know this in the Thirty Years' War.  He felt within himself
+that his heart was the same as Gustaf Adolf's, who, I think, was the
+greatest general who ever lived, whilst he fought and won victories for
+one of the few causes that are worth bleeding for."
+
+"Tell us more about Gustaf Adolf!" exclaimed Andreas, who could think
+only of that one name.
+
+"Dear uncle, a little more about Gustaf Adolf," chimed in the rest of
+the children, who, with the greatest trouble, had been held in check by
+grandma's admonitions and sister Anne Sophie.
+
+"Thank you.  No.  The great king is dead, and we will allow him to
+peacefully slumber in the royal vault of the church at Riddarholm,
+Stockholm.  And if the story in future loses something from this, it
+will also gain something, namely, that the other characters will become
+more prominent.  Hitherto, we have been compelled to almost exclusively
+fix our eyes on the heroic king, and grandmother was right in saying
+that we have been deafened by the thunder of the cannon.  Thus, Lady
+Regina, and the Jesuit, and especially Bertel, who is the real hero,
+have all been kept in the background."
+
+"And Ketchen," said the grandmother; "for my part, I would like much to
+know more of the good, charming child.  I will leave Regina alone, but
+this I will maintain that such a black-eyed wild cat, who would tear
+one's eyes out at any moment, cannot come to any good."
+
+"And the lordly Count of Lichtenstein, whom we have not heard of
+lately," added Sophie.  "I am certain he will become Regina's
+betrothed."
+
+"Aha! little cousin listens with delight to that part of it," said the
+postmaster with a sly smile.  "But say, brother Bäck, do not busy
+yourself with sentimentalities; let us hear more about Stälhandske, the
+stout little Larsson, and the Tavastlander Vitikka.  How the d----l did
+the man get along without ears?  I remember to this day, that on the
+21st of August, there was a corporal at Karstula----"
+
+"Brother Bäck," interrupted the schoolmaster, "who has _justitia
+mundi_, the sword of justice in his hand, will not fail to hoist the
+Jesuit Hieronymus up to the top of the highest pine on the Hartz
+mountains."
+
+"Take care, brother Svenonius," retorted the post-master maliciously,
+"the Jesuit was very learned, and knew a heap of Latin."
+
+"I will tell you what I know about the Finns," said the surgeon; "but I
+assure you beforehand that it is altogether too little.  Wait ten or
+twenty years longer, when some industrious man will take the trouble to
+glean from the old chronicles our brave countrymen's exploits."
+
+"And what became of the king's ring?"
+
+"Why, that we shall hear to-morrow evening."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A MAN FROM THE PEASANTS' WAR.
+
+Beyond the fertile plains of Germany a wild sea extends itself towards
+the north, whose shores are annually covered with the ice of winter,
+and whose straits have sometimes borne entire armies on their
+ice-bridges.  For ages the surrounding nations have fought for the
+possession of this sea; but at the time of our story the greatest power
+in the north triumphed over nine-tenths of its wide shores, the Baltic
+had almost become a Swedish lake; stretching its mighty blue arms north
+and east, it folded in its embrace a daughter of the sea, a land which
+had arisen from its bosom, and elevated its granite rocks high above
+its mother's heart.  _Finland_ is the most favoured child of the
+Baltic; she empties her treasures into the lap of her mother, and the
+great sea does not disdain the offering, but withdraws lovingly and
+tenderly like an indulgent mother, that her daughter may develop, and
+every season clothes the shores with grass and flowers.  Fortunate the
+land which lulls to sleep in its bosom the waters of a thousand lakes,
+and stretches one hundred and forty Swedish miles along the shore.  The
+sea bears power, freedom, and enlightenment; the ocean is an active
+civilising element in the world; and a sea communicating nation can
+never stagnate in need and under oppression except by its own fault.
+
+Far away in the north of Finland a region exists which more than any
+other is the fostered child of the sea, for from time unknown it has
+risen with a gentle slope from the waters.  Numerous green isles rise
+along this coast.  "In my youth," says the grey-haired old salt, "fine
+ships floated where now the water is quite shallow, and in a few years
+the cattle will graze on the former sea-bottom.  The playing child
+launches its little boat from the beach; look around you, little one,
+and see well the point where the waters trace their edges; when you
+become a man, you will look in vain for your present strand--beyond the
+green fields you will hear their distant murmur; and when you are an
+old man, a village may appear on the spot once occupied by the waves."
+A strange region, where the towns built hard by deep sounds and
+tributaries, are twelve miles from the waters in two hundred years,
+while the keels and anchors of vessels are drawn up from the bogs fifty
+miles inland.
+
+This region is East Bothnia; greater than many kingdoms, and extending
+to the verge of Lapland in the north, where the sun never sets at
+midsummer, and never rises during the Christmas darkness.
+
+Nature is awake for three months of the year in an unbroken day, and
+then at midnight you can read the finest print; three months of night,
+but a night of moonlight and glittering snow--clear, cold, and solemn.
+The flower's beauty perishes sooner there than human joy; for seven
+months the plains are covered with snow and the lakes with solid ice;
+but never is spring more delightful than such a winter; still a
+melancholy mingles with this joy, which the heart well understands.
+
+Two races live on the coasts of this land, unmixed and unlike; a
+variegated picture of national and local peculiarities of language and
+habits; one parish sharply contrasting with another.  Certain common
+traits exist, however, which all present.  It is not a historical
+accident that the greatest and bloodiest battles of Finland have been
+fought on the soil of East Bothnia.
+
+Twenty-five miles east of Vasa, on the banks of Kyro River, is the rich
+Storkyro parish--the granary of East Bothnia.  Here grows the
+well-known rye-seed, which is exported in large quantities to Sweden.
+The parish presents a plain of waving grain-fields, from which arose
+the saying, "that Storkyro fields and Limingo meadows have no equals in
+length and breadth."  The people are Finns, of Tavastlandish origin in
+remote times.  Their old church, built in 1304, is one of the oldest in
+the country.
+
+We now ask our reader to follow us there.  At the time of our story
+this region was badly cultivated, compared with later times.  The
+ravages of the Peasants' War had retarded its growth, so that for a
+generation traces of this disastrous struggle were visible, whilst
+other wars, with heavy conscriptions, prevented time from healing these
+wounds.  Hence, in the summer of 1632, many farmhouses still stood
+empty; the grain-fields did not spread far from the river banks, and
+unhealthy fogs covered the country when the nights were cool.  The
+forests, then already thinned, still yielded fuel for the tar pits;
+part of the peasantry fished among the Michel Islands, and the worthy
+pastor, Herr Georgius Thomoe Patur, had not then, like his present
+successor, a yearly income of 4,000 silver roubles.  Therefore the eye
+lingered with delight on Bertila's farmhouse close to the church, finer
+and better built than any of the others, and surrounded by the most
+fertile fields.
+
+The summer had advanced to the middle of August, and the harvesting had
+just begun.  More than sixty persons, men, women, and children--for the
+East Bothnian peasant women work the whole summer out of doors--were
+busily cutting the golden rye, which they gathered into sheaves and
+placed with skilful hands in high, handsome ricks.  The day was hot,
+and the stooping posture of the work wearisome; so it often happened
+that the petted boys amongst the reapers threw longing glances at the
+soft grass round the edge of the field, which evidently seemed intended
+for a resting-place.  At the same time they did not forget to look for
+the overseer, an old man in a loose, grey homespun jacket.  Whenever
+anyone stopped, he heard his neighbour whisper, "Larsson is coming!"
+which had an instantaneous effect, like the stroke of a whip.
+
+But Larsson, a small man, between whose bushy head and eyebrows a
+good-hearted look glanced forth, was now concerned with one of the
+women, who, on account of the heat and work, had sunk to the ground.
+
+Judging from her features this woman was no longer young; perhaps about
+thirty-six; but to look at her slender figure, and the mild sympathetic
+expression of her blue eyes, she seemed no more than twenty.  She
+exhibited a rare but prematurely faded beauty, with much suffering and
+resignation.  She wore a fine white flannel jacket, which being thrown
+aside on account of the sun, showed sleeves of the finest linen, a red
+bodice, like the peasantry wore, with a short striped woollen skirt,
+and a little plaid handkerchief tied around her head, to support her
+long flaxen hair.  She had worked hard, but her strength was
+insufficient; she had fallen with her scythe in her hand, and those
+nearest to her, with respect and love, had carried her to the soft
+turf, and tried with fresh water from the spring to bring her back to
+life.
+
+"There now, Meri!" said old Larsson with fatherly sympathy, as he held
+the fainting woman's head on his knees and bathed her forehead with
+cold water; "there, my child, don't be foolish enough to die and leave
+your old friend; what joy would he then have on earth? ... She cannot
+hear me, poor child!  Who ever had such a father as hers?  To compel
+this delicate thing to work in such heat! ... Drink a little--that's
+right ... it is very good of you; now open your lovely eyes once more.
+Do not trouble, Meri; we will go to the house, and you shall not work
+any more to-day."
+
+The pale and delicate creature endeavoured to rise and seize her sickle.
+
+"Thank you, Larsson," she said in a low but melodious voice, "I am
+better now.  I will work; father washes it."
+
+"Father wishes it!" exclaimed the old man testily.  "You see, I do not;
+I forbid you to work.  Even if your father turned me out of doors, and
+I had to beg my bread, you should not work any more to-day.  Well,
+well, my child, don't take it so hard; your father is not so foolish.
+He knows that you are not strong; you are like your dead mother, who
+was a lady by birth, and from your education in Stockholm ... There,
+there; let us go home; don't be obstinate now, Meri!"
+
+"Let me go, Larsson; see, he comes himself!" cried Meri, tearing
+herself free and grasping the scythe, with which she again tried to mow
+the golden rye.  But as she stooped down, it grew dark before her eyes,
+and for the second time she sank fainting between the waving stalks.
+
+At that instant the efforts of all the workers redoubled; he approached
+in person, the severe and dreaded owner of Bertila farm.  Like a gloomy
+shadow he came slowly along the path--a tall old man of seventy, but
+little bent by age.  His costume was the same as that of the peasants
+in summer: wide shirt-sleeves, a long red-striped vest, short linen
+pantaloons, blue stockings, and bark-shoes.  He wore a high pointed cap
+of red yarn on his white head, which made his tall figure still more
+imposing.  In spite of his simple costume, his whole bearing was
+commanding.  The decided carriage, sharp penetrating look, resolute
+expression, love of authority around the tightly drawn upper lip,
+indicated the former political leader and the rich and powerful
+land-owner, accustomed to rule over many hundreds of subordinates.
+Seeing this old man, one understood why he was known in many
+neighbouring parishes as the _Peasant King_.
+
+Cold and calm, old Aron Bertila approached the spot where his only
+daughter lay in a dead faint.
+
+"Put her in the hay-wagon and take her up to the house," he said.  "In
+two hours she will be back to her work."
+
+"But, Bertila!" exclaimed Larsson excitedly.
+
+Bertila looked round with a glance before which the other quailed; then
+he stalked on through the field as if nothing had occurred, observing
+with a keen eye the labours of the reapers; here and there breaking off
+an ear and closely examining the number and weight of the seeds.  From
+the barn the whole harvest-field was visible; it was new, and more than
+a hundred acres in extent.  The old man looked with great pride on the
+waving sea of golden ears; his carriage became more erect, his breast
+expanded, as he beckoned Larsson to him.
+
+"Do you remember this tract thirty-four years ago, when Fleming's
+cavalry scoured the country like savages, the village lay in ruins, and
+the fields were trampled down by the horses' hoofs.  Here, close to the
+village, was the desert; naked, charred stumps stood between mud
+puddles and quagmires; no road or path led here, and even the forest
+wolves avoided the desolate spot."
+
+"I remember it well," said Larsson in a monotonous tone.
+
+"Look now around, old friend, and say.  Who rebuilt this village, more
+lovely than ever before?  Who tilled this wilderness, made roads and
+paths, measured the land, drained the morass, ploughed this fertile
+soil, and sowed this great field which now waves in the breeze, and
+will soon supply hundreds of human beings with its harvest?  Say,
+Larsson, who is the man who did this mighty work?" and the old man's
+eyes flamed with enthusiasm.
+
+But the little, plump person at his side seemed to be possessed with
+quite another feeling.  He humbly took off his old hat, clasped his
+hands, and earnestly said,
+
+"Nothing is he who sows; nothing is he who waters; God alone gives the
+growth!"
+
+Bertila, absorbed in thought, heeded him not, and continued,
+
+"Yes, by God!  I have seen evil times, days of want, misery, and
+despair, which the sword brought upon earth, and I have myself drawn
+the weapon to destroy my enemies.  I have had victory and defeat, both
+to my injury.  Hence I can rejoice in the work of peace.  I know the
+fruit of the sword, and what the plough produces.  In the sword lurks a
+spirit of evil, which revels in blood and tears; the sword kills and
+destroys, but the plough gives life and happiness.  You see, Larsson,
+the plough has made this field.  Over at Korsholm is the Finnish coat
+of arms, a lion with a naked sword.  Were I king, I would say, Away
+with the sword and take the plough.  The latter is the true weapon of
+Finland; if we possess bread we have plenty of arms; with arms we can
+drive our enemies from our homes.  But without bread, Larsson, what use
+is steel and powder to us?"
+
+"Bertila," said Larsson, "you are a singular man.  You hate war, but
+that I understand; in war they burnt your farm, and drove your first
+wife and her little children into the woods to perish.  You yourself
+have fought at the head of the peasantry, and barely escaped _the blood
+bath on Ilmola's ice_.  Such things are not easily forgotten; but what
+I cannot comprehend is, that you, a friend of the peasants, a soldier
+hater, first took me, an old starving soldier, as overseer on your
+farm, then equipped my Lasse--God bless the boy--for the war, and
+finally sent your own grandson, Meri's child, little Gösta,* yet
+beardless, to the field among the king's cavalry."
+
+
+* From Gustaf.
+
+
+Old Bertila's look darkened.  Some sensitive chord had been touched,
+and he glanced around as if he feared a listener behind the barn walls.
+
+"Who dares to speak to me of Meri's child?" he said in a low tone.  "I
+know none other than my son Gösta, born of my second wife during the
+journey to Stockholm; and God be merciful unto you if ever ... Let us
+forget that matter.  Why I took you?  Why I sent your boy into the
+field?  H'm! it does not concern anyone."
+
+"Well, keep it to yourself; I know too much already."
+
+"Tell me, if you can, Larsson, what constituents are required for an
+honest Christian Government?"
+
+Larsson looked at him with surprise.
+
+"I will tell you.  The sword has two parts, the blade and the handle.
+Two forces are likewise necessary for the plough: one that draws and
+one that drives.  And two forces united form a Christian Government,
+namely, the people and the king.  But that which comes between brings
+discord and ruin; it arrogates to itself the king's power and the
+people's property.  It is a monster."
+
+"I know you hate the nobles."
+
+"And therefore," Bertila laid an emphasis on his words, and uttered
+them with an almost ironical smile, which seemed to turn his meaning
+into a jest, "you see, _my_ son must either be _peasant or king_;
+nothing more or less!"
+
+Larsson looked at him with dismay.  He had not imagined the depth of
+ambition which had hitherto glowed concealed in the old peasant's
+heart.  He thought it the extreme of crazy presumption.
+
+"You can certainly never hope," he timidly said, "that Meri's son, with
+his birth----"
+
+The old man's eyes flashed, but the words were inaudible that came from
+his lips, as if he tried to struggle against an inner impulse, to
+express for the first and perhaps for the last time, the bold idea
+which had already for many years grown in his tempestuous soul.
+
+"King Gustaf Adolf has only a daughter," he said finally, with a
+peculiar look.
+
+"Princess Christina ... Yes."
+
+"But the kingdom at war with half the world, after his death, needs a
+man upon the throne."
+
+"Bertila, what do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that in my childhood I heard King Erik's son, in spite of his
+peasant wife, Karin, declared the successor to the crown."
+
+"Are you in your senses?"
+
+Again an ironical smile played around the old man's lips.
+
+"Do you not understand," he coldly said, "how it is possible to hate
+soldiers and aristocrats, and yet send one's son to war as the nearest
+road to distinction, under a king's eyes?"
+
+"I beg of you, Bertila, put aside such wild fancies; you are a
+reasonable man when the demon of pride does not get possession of your
+restless mind.  Your plan will fail; it must fail."
+
+"It cannot fail."
+
+"What!  Not fail!"
+
+"No!  Have I not told you that Gösta must be either king or peasant?
+Either.  I do not care.  If he wishes to remain a peasant, so be it."
+
+"But if he will not remain a peasant?  Supposing he wishes to fight for
+a coat of arms, and becomes a nobleman?  Remember, you have started him
+on the right road for that end; as an officer he is already an equal of
+the nobility."
+
+Bertila seemed to be cogitating.
+
+"No!" he cried, "it is impossible.  His blood ... his education ... my
+will."
+
+"His blood!  Then you no longer remember that nobility is in it from
+both sides?  His education! and you sent him to Stockholm at twelve,
+and allowed him to grow up amongst young aristocrats, whom he has
+constantly heard express themselves with contempt about the peasantry.
+Your will! foolish father to think that you can bend a youth's desires
+from the direction given to them by such powerful influences."
+
+The old man remained silent for a time, then he said, coldly,
+
+"Larsson, you are a credulous fool; I joke, and you take it seriously.
+I will answer for the youth.  Let us say no more about it; but take
+care, not a word of what has passed!  Do you understand?"
+
+"I am your old friend, Bertila.  Since the time when I, a horseman with
+Svidje Klas, helped you to escape from Ilmola, you have repaid me the
+service many times over; I shall never betray you.  But, you see, I
+love your children as my own, and cannot bear to see you make the boy
+unhappy; and Meri ... are you a father, Bertila?  How do you treat your
+child, your only daughter, who attends to your lightest wish, and does
+everything to atone for the fault of her youth?  You treat her worse
+than any of your servants; you allow her frail and weak body to perform
+the hardest work; she sinks to the ground, and you do not raise her.
+You are cruel, Bertila; you are an inhuman father."
+
+"You do not understand the matter," answered the morose old man.  "You
+are too tender-hearted to comprehend what it means to go straight ahead
+without compunction.  Meri, like her mother, has the fine lady in her,
+and that must be uprooted.  She cannot become a queen; well, then, she
+shall be a thorough peasant.  I have said what I think about the
+intermediate class, and now you know the reason for my actions.  Come,
+let us return to the labourers."
+
+"And Meri ... spare her to-day, at least."
+
+"She shall work with the rest this afternoon."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+ASHAMED OF A PEASANT'S NAME.
+
+The log-house of the East Bothnian peasant is now always more roomy,
+lighter, and more pretentious in its whole appearance than in any other
+part of Finland.  It sometimes consists of two storeys, or has at least
+a garret; the windows are of good size; it it almost always painted red
+or yellow, with white corners, and occasionally possesses window
+shutters.  The whole bears evidence of mechanical skill and comfort.
+The East Bothnian never builds such large and fine villages as the
+Tavastlander and the Abo peasants do, but in cases of necessity
+constructs good solitary farmhouses.  At the time of our story the
+smoke-huts were in use by nearly the whole Finnish population; only
+peasants of Swedish origin used fire-places and regular chimneys.  But
+even then one could see in East Bothnia, close to the coast, some
+buildings constructed in a more modern style, copied from their Swedish
+neighbours.
+
+The newly settled towns had attracted the country people to the coast,
+and they had already begun to be accustomed to greater comfort; and the
+wealthier the peasant, the quicker his house and person assumed a more
+civilised aspect.  It is true that the luxury, against which the laws
+of the sixteenth century so severely protested, was found only on the
+estates of the nobility and among the wealthy Abo burghers--but the
+home-brewed ale foamed over in the tankards of the peasants, and the
+Holland spices were produced from his cupboards for festive occasions.
+
+Since the fires of the Peasants' War had destroyed the huts of Storkyro
+village, one could often see the Swedish and Finnish styles of building
+side by side.  Bertila's farm was the largest and the richest in the
+village, and was built in the new style, with steps and a small
+verandah, and two small chambers beside the large room; one for the
+master of the family and one for his daughter.  The rest of the people
+on the farm lived together in the large room, but in summertime the
+younger ones slept out of doors in the sheds and some in the lofts.
+
+At this time one would not see the large clock, with its red and blue
+painted cover, which to-day is the chief ornament in every peasant's
+cottage.  The long plain table with its high seat for the master, stood
+surrounded by benches on the sides towards the door.  It was close to
+dinner-time, and in the big fire-place the porridge-kettle was boiling.
+The room was nearly empty, only a large cat purred on a bench, and a
+girl of fourteen stirred the porridge; and Meri was sitting by the fire
+with her work.  Poor Meri had just recovered from her fainting attack,
+but she was still very pale.  Her long golden hair fell down over her
+almost bare shoulders; her eyes were often shyly turned towards the
+door, as if she feared the sudden entrance of her father.  She was
+knitting a girdle of the most beautiful colours, and sang at the same
+time an old Swedish song.
+
+  "This girdle with roses fair
+  Shall only my loved one wear,
+  When he from the perils of war
+  Returns to us from afar."
+
+
+It has been said that Meri was no longer young.  The traces which
+suffering had left on her finely formed features told of many a year of
+sorrow and pain; but at this moment as she watched the girdle, her face
+assumed an almost childish expression of delight.  One could see that
+her work was a joy to her, and that she sang of someone much beloved
+and far away.
+
+Her life with her severe father was full of hardship, and when she
+looked at the girdle she semed to read in its bright-coloured loops of
+a future full of joy and peace.  In this girdle she lived, it was the
+same to her as the thought of her only joy--her idolized son.
+
+Again she sang:
+
+  "I weave in beads so fine
+  For this dear beloved of mine,
+  And no king upon his throne
+  Shall the like of this girdle own."
+
+
+Just then Bertila, her father, entered, followed by Larsson and all the
+rest of the working people.  Old Bertila's looks were dark; he could
+not deny to himself that Larsson's predictions were only too likely to
+be true.  His son a nobleman.  This possibility was in his eyes a
+disgrace, and up to this time had not troubled his mind.
+
+The last words of Meri's song had just died away.  At her father's
+entrance she quickly concealed the girdle under her apron; but the
+suspicious eyes of the old man fathomed her secret.
+
+"You are again sitting with your dreams, lazy thing, instead of serving
+out the porridge," he said in a sharp tone.  "What have you underneath
+your apron?  Out with it."
+
+And Meri was obliged in the presence of them all to reveal the
+unfinished girdle--her dearest secret.  Her father snatched it from
+her, looked at it for a moment with contempt, then tore it in two, and
+threw the pieces behind the oven.
+
+"I have told you many a time," he said severely, "that an honest
+peasant woman has nothing to do with fancy work.  Let us say grace."
+
+The old man then clasped his hands in the usual way, and the rest
+followed suit.  But before the prayer could be uttered, Larsson stepped
+to the middle of the floor, his naturally good-humoured face purple
+with rage.
+
+"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Bertila," he said, "to insult
+your own daughter in front of all the people!  She works like a slave
+night and day, more than anyone of us, yet you call her a lazy thing!
+I tell you this straight in the face, that although you are my master,
+and I eat your bread, and without you I have nothing but the beggar's
+staff, that such an unrighteous father does not deserve to have such a
+good daughter; and rather than see this misery day after day, I will
+beg my bread.  But you will have to answer before the Almighty for your
+children.  And may you now say your grace, and let the food taste well
+to you if you can.  Farewell, Bertila, I cannot stand this life any
+longer."
+
+"Cast out the rascal who dares to speak against the master of the
+house," said Bertila with more than usual violence.  No one moved.  For
+the first time the peasant king saw his orders disobeyed.
+
+"Dear master," began the oldest of the labourers, "we all think the
+same----"
+
+A terrible blow from the master struck the speaker to the ground before
+he finished his remarks.  In vain Larsson offered to go of his own
+accord; in vain Meri tried to mediate between the disputants.  So
+strong were the principles of right in these people, that without
+consulting anything but their own convictions, they arrayed themselves
+as one man against the master's tyranny.  Fourteen muscular men stood
+erect and resolute before the enraged Bertila, whose tall figure stood
+threateningly in the midst of the throng.  One more blow, and they
+would all have left his service, and perhaps shut him up in his own
+little chamber until his anger had subsided; for the farther towards
+the north one goes, the more sensitive is the Finnish peasant to blows.
+Bertila, however, knew his people, and saw as a wise man that his anger
+had led him too far.  He sought a means of getting out of the dilemma
+without too great a humiliation.
+
+"What is it you want?" he asked with regained self-possession.
+
+The workers looked at each other in silence for a moment.
+
+"You are wrong, master," said one of the boldest at last.  "You have
+insulted Meri for nothing.  You wished to turn Larsson out of the
+house, and struck Simeon; you have done wrong."
+
+"Meri, come here."
+
+She did so.
+
+"You are no longer a child, Meri.  If you cannot endure to live with
+your aged father, then you are at liberty to stay on my farm at Ilmola.
+You are free--go, my child."
+
+Bertila knew his daughter.  These few words, "go, my child," pronounced
+in a milder tone than she was accustomed to hear, were sufficient to
+melt his daughter's heart.
+
+"Do not reject me, father," she said, "I will never desert you."
+
+These words made her defenders waver, and the old man saw his
+opportunity.
+
+"Bring hither the catechism," he said in a commanding voice.
+
+The fourteen-year-old Greta stepped forward as was the custom on sacred
+days, and read aloud:
+
+"Ye servants obey your temporal masters with fear and trembling, in the
+simplicity of your hearts!  Ye servants be submissive to your masters
+in all fear, not only the mild and good, but also the unworthy!"
+
+These words, thus uttered at the right time, did not fail in their
+effect.
+
+In these times the power and authority of father and master were at
+their zenith, and were not only by word, but in deed, a power by "God's
+mercy."  The words of obedience heard from childhood, the old man's
+commanding tone, and Meri's example of ready submission to her father's
+authority, all combined to tone down the hot tempers of the rebels.
+They took their places at the table without another word.  Only old
+Larsson stood sad and hesitating with his hand on the door-latch.
+
+Suddenly the door was opened, and a stranger entered.
+
+The new-comer was a soldier, in a broad-brimmed hat, decorated with a
+gracefully fastened eagle's plume.  He wore a waistcoat of yellow wool,
+short top-boots, bore a cudgel in his hand, and a long sword hung at
+his side.
+
+"By St. Lucifer," he said joyfully, "I have come at the right time.
+God's peace, peasants, make room at the table; I am as hungry as a monk
+during mass, and I am not able to go to the vicarage on this damned
+heath.  Have you any ale?"
+
+The old man in the high seat, who had not yet quite overcome his
+temper, although he appeared to be calm, rose from his chair, but at
+once sat down again.
+
+"Sit down, countryman," said the old man softly; "Aron Bertila has room
+at his table for self-invited guests also."
+
+"Very well," continued the new-comer, helping himself freely to the
+food, which seemed to be a familiar habit with him.  "You are Bertila,
+then.  I am glad to hear it, comrade.  Confidence for confidence, I
+will now tell you that I am Bengt Kristerson, from Limingo, sergeant in
+his Majesty's brave East Bothnians.  I am sent here to look after the
+conscripts.  Some more ale in the tankard, peasants ... well, do not be
+afraid, girls, I will not bite you.  Bertila," added the soldier with
+his mouth full, "what the deuce is this?  Are you Lieutenant Bertel's
+father, peasant?"
+
+"I do not know that name," replied the old man, who was nettled by the
+soldier's impudent remarks.
+
+"Are you mad, old man?  You do not know Gustaf Bertel, who six months
+ago called himself Bertila?"
+
+"My son! my son!" cried the old man in a voice of anguish.  "I am an
+unfortunate father!  He is ashamed of a peasant's name!"
+
+"Peasant's name," said the soldier laughing, and striking the table
+violently, so that the tankards and dishes jumped.  "Do ye peasants
+also have names?  I think I will go without mine.  You are a fine
+fellow, old man; tell me what the d----l you want with a name?"
+
+He then looked at his host with such an air of naïve impudence, that
+the insulting words were somewhat modified in effect.
+
+Old Bertila, however, scarcely honoured him with a glance.
+
+"Fool that I was!  I sent out a beardless boy and thought that I sent a
+man," he gloomily said to himself.
+
+But the sergeant, who had indulged in many drinks before, and had now
+seen the bottom of the jug, did not seem inclined to drop the subject.
+
+"Do not look so fierce, old boy," he said in the same aggravating tone.
+"You peasants associate so much with oxen and sheep, that you become
+just like them yourselves.  If you were a bit civil you would send a
+pretty girl to fill my jug.  It is now empty, you see; as empty as your
+cranium.  But you turnip-peelers do not appreciate the honour which is
+conferred upon you, of having a royal sergeant for guest.  You see, old
+fellow, a soldier in these times is everything; he has a name that
+rings because he has a sword that rings.  But you, old ploughshare,
+have nothing but porridge in your head and a turnip in your breast;
+fill your mug, old fellow; here's to Lieutenant Bertel's success!  So
+you refuse to drink the health of an honest cavalier?  Out upon you,
+peasant."
+
+And the sergeant, in the consciousness of his dignity, struck the table
+with his fist, so that the wooden bowls jumped and seemed disposed to
+make for the floor with all their contents.
+
+The first effect of this martial joke was to induce six or seven of the
+men to rise from their benches, with the object of giving the uninvited
+guest a salutary lesson in politeness.  But old Bertila stopped them.
+He rose composedly from his seat, approached the rowdy sergeant with a
+firm step, and without saying a word, grasped him by the neck with his
+left hand, and with his right on his back, he lifted the soldier from
+the bench, carried him to the door and threw him out on a heap of chips
+outside the steps.  The funny sergeant was so surprised at this
+unexpected attack, that he did not move a muscle to defend himself.  If
+he had, it was not likely that the seventy-year-old man would have
+gained the victory in the struggle.
+
+"Go," cried Bertila after him, "and keep your treatment as a
+remembrance of the peasants in Storkyro."
+
+Nothing impresses the multitude so much as resolute courage combined
+with a strong arm.  When the old man entered the room again he was
+surrounded by his people, who now greatly admired him; and this feat
+destroyed the difference which had existed a few moments before between
+them.
+
+The conflict between the sword and the plough is as old as the world.
+The Peasants' War was based on this rivalry, and served to keep it
+fresh and alive in the minds of all.  These independent peasants had
+not been subjected to the tyranny of the landed proprietors.  They
+witnessed with delight their honour defended against the soldier's
+outrageous insults; they forgot at the moment that they might shortly
+be compelled themselves to don the soldier's jacket, and fight for
+their country.  Even the old peasant chief, elated at his exploit, had
+surmounted his bad temper.
+
+For the first time in a long while they saw a smile on his lips; and
+when the meal was over, he began to relate to them some of his former
+adventures.
+
+"Never shall I forget how we cudgelled the rascal Abraham Melchiorson,
+the man who, here in Kyro, seized our best peasants, and had them
+broken on the wheel like malefactors.  With fifty men he had gone up
+north.  It was winter time.  He was a fine gentleman, muffled up from
+the cold, and rode so grandly in a splendid wolf-skin cloak.  But when
+he approached Karleby church we placed ourselves in ambush, and rushing
+upon him like Jehu, beat twenty-two of his men to death, and pommelled
+him black and blue; but every time he expected a rap he drew the
+wolf-skin cloak over his ears, so that no club could disable the
+traitor.  'Wait,' said Hans Krank, from Limingo, who led us on that
+wolf hunt, 'we will whip him out of his skin yet'; with this he drubbed
+Abraham so soundly that he was obliged to let go of his fine fur.
+Krank had nothing on but a jacket, and it was cold enough, God knows;
+he thought the fur cloak a good thing, and drew it unobserved over his
+own shoulders.  But, as all this occurred in the twilight, we others
+did not notice who was now in the wolf-skin, and we kept on belabouring
+the cloak; it is very certain that Krank had a very warm time of it
+that evening.  But Abraham Melchiorson became so light and nimble after
+getting rid of his cloak, that he ran off to Huso farm; but there he
+was taken by Saka Jacob from Karleby, and the rascal was taken to
+Stockholm; but he did not get much time to mourn over the loss of his
+cloak, for the duke soon made him a head shorter."
+
+"Yes," said Larsson, who always tried to defend Fleming and his people,
+"that time you had the best of it.  Eleven soldiers remained alive, but
+seeming to be dead, you took all their clothes.  And at midnight they
+crept half dead with cold to the vicarage, and were there taken in; but
+in the morning you wanted to put them in the water underneath the ice,
+alive, as you had done in Lappfjard's River.  You were wolves and not
+human beings.  The water was so low in the river that you had to push
+the men down with poles to keep them there; and when they tried to get
+up, the women knocked them on their heads with buckets."
+
+"Keep quiet, Larsson, you do not know all that Svidje Klas did," said
+Bertila angrily; "I say nothing about all the men that he and his
+people have killed and broken on the wheel.  Do you remember Severin
+Sigfridson at Sorsankoski?  He surrounded the peasants, and ordered his
+subaltern to behead them one by one; but he was not able to kill more
+than twenty-four, and asked the nobleman to finish the rest himself.
+The gentleman got angry, and ordered the peasants to cut the subaltern
+into five parts, and then do the same to each other as long as one
+remained alive."
+
+"But what did you do, you mad brutes, on Peter Gumse's farm?  Your men
+destroyed the place, broke the windows, slaughtered all the cattle, and
+set their severed heads with wide open mouths in the windows as a
+scare.  Then the beams of the house were cut three parts through, so
+that when the folk came home it would fall upon their heads; and when
+you caught a horseman you used him as a target for your arrows."
+
+"It is not worth while, Larsson, to try to take Svidje Klas' part.  Do
+you remember when Axel Kurk's men came and killed a woman's children
+before her eyes?  The poor mother could not stand this, she and her
+half-grown daughter seized the brute by the waist, hit him on the head
+with a pole, and pushed him fainting in the water.  Svidje Klas then
+came and had that same woman cut in two."
+
+"Loose talk, which has never been proven," replied Larsson gruffly.
+
+"The dead keep silent like good children.  The 5,000 killed at Ilmola
+do not speak."
+
+"Instead of molesting the sergeant, you should have asked him for news
+about your son and mine," said Larsson, to get away from their usual
+contentious subject--the fatal Peasant War.
+
+"Yes, you are right.  I must hear more about the boys and the war.  I
+am going to Vasa to-morrow."
+
+"Will he soon return?" asked Meri in a shy voice.
+
+"Gösta.  He will take his own time," said the father angrily.  "He has
+now became a nobleman; he is ashamed of his old father .... he blushes
+for a peasant's name."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE SOUTHERN FLOWER COMES TO THE NORTH.
+
+Some miles south of Vasa, on the sixty-third degree of latitude, the
+Bay of Finland, which has hitherto gone straight north and south, makes
+a perceptible bend towards the north-east.  The great blue Baltic
+following the same direction, narrows for a moment in the "Qvark,"
+widens again, and leans its bright brow against Finland's breast.
+Freer there than anywhere else, the winds from the Arctic Ocean sweep
+over these coasts and drive the waves with terrible violence against
+the rocks.  In the midst of this stormy sea, lie Gadden's bare flat
+ledges, with their warning lighthouse and far projecting reefs.  When
+the mountain winds shake their wings over these breakers, then woe unto
+the vessel which, without a sure rudder and lightly furled sails,
+ventures through the narrow passage at "Understen"--its destruction is
+certain.  But in the middle of summer it often happens that a slightly
+northern wind is the most welcome, and promises clear skies and fine
+weather.  Then fly many hundreds of sails from the coast out towards
+"Qvark's" islands and reefs, to cast their nets for shoals of herrings;
+and the restless, murmuring sea dances like a loving mother, with her
+daughters, the green islands, resting upon her bosom.
+
+With the exception of Aland and Ekenäs there is no part of Finland's
+coast so rich with luxuriant vegetation as "Qvark" and its neighbouring
+east shore.  These innumerable islets, of which the largest are
+Wallgrund and Björkö, are here sprinkled about like drops of green in
+the blue expanse, and formed a parish by themselves called
+"Replotchapel," inhabited only by fishermen.  So numerous are these
+groups, so infinitely varied the sounds, so intricate the channels,
+that a strange vessel could not find its way out without a native pilot
+at the helm.  Thirty cruisers here would be insufficient to prevent
+smuggling; there is only one means of putting a stop to this inherited
+sin of the coast, and this method is a light tariff with but few
+prohibitions; Finland during later years has tried it with success and
+to her own advantage.
+
+At the same period as described in the preceding chapter, therefore in
+the middle of August, 1632, the waters of the Baltic were divided by
+the royal man-of-war "Maria Eleonora," bound from Stockholm to Vasa to
+transport the recruits for the German War.  It was a bright fine summer
+morning.  Over the wide sea played an indescribable glitter, which was
+at the same time grand and enchantingry beautiful.  A boundless field
+of snow, illumined by the spring sun, can rival it in splendour, but
+the snow is stillness and death, the shimmering waves are motion and
+life.
+
+A slumbering sea in its resplendency, is grandeur clothed in the smile
+of delight; he is a sleeping giant, who dreams of sunbeams and flowers.
+Gently heaves his breast; then the plank rocks underneath thy feet, and
+thou tremblest not; he could swallow thee up in his abyss, but he
+mildly spreads his golden carpet under the keel, and he, the strong,
+bears the frail bark like a child in his arms.
+
+It was immediately after sunrise.  The monotonous silence of sea-life
+prevailed on board the vessel during the morning watch, as when no
+danger is feared.  Part of the crew were still asleep below the deck,
+only the mate, wrapped in a jacket of frieze, walked to and fro on the
+aft deck.  The helmsman stood motionless at the rudder, the man in the
+round top peered ahead, and here and there on the fore deck stood a
+sailor, fastening a loose rope end, carrying wood to the caboose, or
+polishing the guns which were to salute Korsholm when they entered that
+port.
+
+The stern discipline of a modern man-of-war was at that time almost
+unknown.  There were no uniforms or steam whistles, nor any of the
+complex signals and commands which are now carried to such perfection.
+Then a man-of-war scarcely differed from a merchant vessel, excepting
+in size, armament, and the number of officers and men she carried.
+When one remembers that at that time there was neither whisky or coffee
+on board to protect against the chill morning air--they had, however,
+already learned from the Dutch to use an occasional quid of tobacco for
+this purpose--then it is readily perceived that life on the "Maria
+Eleonora" bore very little resemblance to that on board one of our
+modern men-of-war.
+
+By the green gunwale of the deck stood two female figures, with wide
+travelling hoods of black wool on their heads.  One of these passengers
+was small in atature, and showed under her hood an old wrinkled face,
+with a pair of peering grey eyes; she had wrapped herself up in a thick
+wadded cloak of Nurberg cloth.  The other figure was tall and slender,
+and wore a tight-fitting capote of black velvet lined with ermine.
+Leaning against the gunwale, she regarded with a gloomy air the fast
+receding waves left in the vessel's wake.  Her features could not be
+seen from the deck; but if one could have caught her countenance from
+the mirroring waves, it would have exhibited a classically beautiful
+pale face, illuminated by two black eyes, which surpassed in lustre the
+shining wave-mirrors themselves.
+
+"Holy Mary!" cried the old woman in strongly pronounced Low German,
+"when will this misery come to an end, that the saints have imposed
+upon us on account of our sins?  Tell me, my little lady, in what part
+of the world we are now?  It appears to me as if a whole year had
+passed since we sailed from Stralsund; for since we left the heretic's
+Stockholm I have not kept account of the days.  Every morning when I
+rise, I say seven _aves_ and seven _pater nosters_, as the revered
+Father Hieronymus taught us, as a protection against witchcraft and
+evil.  One can never know; the world might end here, and we have now
+come far away from the rule of the true believing Church and Christian
+people.  This sea has no end.  Oh, this horrible sea!  I now praise the
+River Main, which flows so peacefully underneath our turret windows in
+Würzburg.  Say, lady, what if over there, on the horizon, the earth
+ends, and that we are sailing straight into purgatory?"
+
+The tall slender girl did not seem to listen to her loquacious duenna.
+Her dark brilliant eyes under the black eyelashes were resting
+pensively on the water, as if in the waves she could read an
+interpretation of the dream of her heart.  And when at times a long
+swell from former storms rolled forth under the smaller waves, and the
+ship gently careened, so that the gunwale dipped close to the water,
+and the image in the sea approached the girl on board, then a smile
+could be seen on her beautiful features, at once proud and melancholy,
+and her lips moved inaudibly, as if to confide her inmost thoughts to
+the waves.
+
+"It is only the great and majestic in life that deserve to be loved."
+
+Then she added, transported by this thought:
+
+"Why should I not love a great man?"
+
+And she whispered these words with unbounded enthusiasm.  But instantly
+a shiver ran through her delicate frame, a bright flash shot from her
+dark eyes, and she said, almost trembling at the thought:
+
+"It is only the great and majestic in life that deserve to be hated!
+Why should I not hate----?"
+
+She did not finish the sentence.  She bent her head towards the ground,
+the fire in her eyes disappeared, and in its place a tear was seen.
+Two mighty opposing spirits fought with each other in this passionate
+soul.  One said to her "Love!" the other said to her "Hate!"  And her
+heart bled under this terrible struggle between the angel and the demon.
+
+It is unnecessary to mention what the reader has already divined, that
+the slender girl on board the "Maria Eleonora" was no other than Lady
+Regina von Emmeritz, the beautiful fanatical girl who tried to convert
+King Gustaf Adolf to the Catholic faith at Frankfurt-on-the-Main.  The
+king who knew the human heart, considered with reason, that this
+religious enthusiast was capable of anything if left a prey to the
+Jesuit's influence.  It was, therefore, not from revenge, which was
+unknown to this great heart, but, on the contrary, from noble
+compassion for a young and richly endowed nature, that he had sent her
+away for a time to a far-off country, where the black monk's influence
+could not reach her.  The reader will remember that the king, on the
+night of the feast at Frankfurt, ordered the Lady Regina to be sent by
+Stralsund and Stockholm to the strict old lady Marta at Korsholm.  The
+noble king did not know that the dark power, from whom he was trying to
+save his beautiful prisoner, followed her even to the far-off coast of
+Finland.  Lady Regina had permission to choose one of her maids to
+accompany her; accordingly she selected the one in whom she had the
+greatest confidence; unfortunately this was not the bright and fair
+Ketchen--she had been sent back to her relations in Bavaria--but old
+Dorthe, who had been her nurse, and who was controlled by the Jesuit;
+for a long time this old woman had nourished the fanatical fire in the
+young girl's soul.  So the poor unprotected maiden was still given up
+to the dark powers that had warped her mind since childhood, and
+perverted her rich, sensitive heart with their terrible teachings.  And
+against this influence she could only place a single but mighty
+feeling: her admiration, her enthusiastic attachment to Gustaf Adolf,
+whom she loved and hated at the same time--whom she would have been
+able to kill, yet for whom she would herself have suffered death.
+
+The shrewd Dorthe seemed to guess her mistress' thoughts; she leaned
+forward, and peering with her small eyes, said in the familiar tone
+which a subordinate in her position so easily assumes:
+
+"Aye, aye....  Is that the way it stands; do they come up again, the
+sinful thoughts about the heretic king and all his followers?  Yes,
+yes, the devil is cunning; he knows what he is about.  When he wishes
+to catch a little frivolous girl of the usual kind, he puts before her
+eyes a young handsome cavalier, with long silken curls.  But when he
+wishes to entangle a poor forsaken girl, with great proud thoughts and
+noble aspirations, he brings forward a great king, who gains castles
+and battles; and little does the poor child care that the stately
+conqueror is a sworn enemy to her Church and faith, and is working for
+the ruin of both."
+
+Regina turned her tearful and glistening eyes away from the sea, and
+looked for a moment with indescribable doubt at her old counsellor.
+
+"Say," said she, almost vehemently, "is it possible to be at once the
+greatest and the most hateful of human beings?"
+
+Regina looked again towards the sea.  The peaceful tranquility of the
+mornine lay over the glittering waters, and stilled the tempest within.
+The young girl remained silent.  Dorthe continued:
+
+"By their fruits ye shall know them.  Just think, what evil has not the
+godless king done to our Church and us?  He has slain many thousands of
+our warriors; he has plundered our cloisters and castles; he has driven
+out our nuns and holy fathers from their godly habitations, and the
+devout pater, Hieronymus, has been frightfully abused by his people,
+the heretic Finns; ourselves he has sent away to the ends of the
+earth..."
+
+Again Regina looked over at the islands and the inlets bathed in the
+mild morning effulgence.  While the dark demon whispered hatred in her
+ears, beaming nature seemed to preach only love.  On her lips hovered
+already the ravishing thought:
+
+"What matters it if he has slain thousands; if he has driven away monks
+and nuns; if he has forced us into exile!  What matters all this, if he
+is great as an individual, and acts according to the dictates of his
+faith!"
+
+But she kept silent from fear; she dared not break from all her
+preceding life.  She caught up, instead, one of Dorthe's words, as if
+to dispel the thunder-cloud of hatred and malice, which enveloped her
+heart in its dark mist, in the midst of this calm and lovely scene.
+
+"Do you know, Dorthe," she said, "that the Finns whom you hate live on
+the coast of this sea?  Do you see that strip of land over there in the
+east?  It is Finland.  I have not yet seen its shores, and yet I cannot
+detest a country which is bathed by so glorious a sea.  I cannot think
+that evil people can grow up in the heart of such a land."
+
+"All saints protect us!" exclaimed the old woman, and her lenn hand
+hastily made the sign of the cross.  "Is that Finland?  St. Patrick
+preserve us from ever setting foot upon its cursed soil; my dear lady,
+you have then never heard what is said of this land and its heathen
+people?  There prevails an eternal night; there the snow never melts;
+there the wild beasts and the still wilder men lie together in dens and
+caves.  The woods are so thick with hobgoblins and imps, that when one
+of them is called by name, a hundred monsters immediately come forth
+from the leaves and branches.  And among themselves, these people
+bewitch each other with all kinds of evils, so that when anyone carries
+food to another person, he changes his enemy into a wolf; and every
+word they speak takes life, so that when they wish to make a boat or an
+axe, they say it, and directly they have what they wish."
+
+"You are drawing a fine picture," said Regina, smiling for the first
+time in a long period, for the freshness of the sea had a good
+influence on her dreamy soul.  "Happy is the land where the people can
+create all they wish for with a word.  If I am hungry, and desire a
+beautiful fruit, I have but to say, _peach_, and right away I have it.
+If I feel thirsty, I say, _spring_, and instantly a spring gurgles at
+my feet.  If I have sorrow in my heart, I say, _hope_, and hope
+returns.  And if I long for a beloved friend, I mention his name, and
+he stands by my side.  A glorious land is Finland, were it such as you
+represent it to me.  Even if we lived with wild beasts in a cave under
+the eternal snows, we would look at each other and say, Fatherland, and
+at the same moment we would sit hand in hand on the banks of the Main,
+beneath the shadows of the lindens, where we often sat when I was a
+child, and the nightingales of our native land would sing to us as
+before."
+
+Dorthe turned angrily away.  The vessel steered between the rocks and
+islands, and moved with gentle speed past the outermost cliffs, many of
+which now stand high above the surface of the water, but at that time
+these were washed by the briny waves.
+
+"What is the name of the long, richly wooded stretch of land to the
+left?" asked Regina of the helmsman standing near.
+
+"Wolf's Island," answered the man.
+
+"There you have it yourself, dear lady ... Wolf's Island!  That is the
+first name we hear on Finland's coast, and shows us what we have to
+expect."
+
+The vessel now turned to the north, and sailed between Langskär and
+Sundomland, again veered towards the east, passed Brändö, went safely
+over the shoals, which now exclude large vessels from its waters, into
+Vasa's at that time superb harbour, and then saluted with sixteen
+cannon the castle of Korsholm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE PEASANT--THE BURGHERS--AND THE SOLDIER.
+
+When the rich Aron Bertila seated himself in his nice chaise to take a
+short journey to Vasa, it was decided, as a pledge of the restored good
+feeling between father and daughter, that Meri should take the seat by
+his side, and purchase in town some salt fish, hops, and certain
+spices, ginger and cinnamon, which already began to be seen in the
+houses of the wealthiest peasants.  Both father and daughter had their
+private interests in the journey; but neither would confess that it was
+news from Germany which each sought.  Larsson had charge in the
+meantime of the home work.
+
+It was just when Gustaf Adolf and Wallenstein stood opposed at
+Nürnberg.  Soldiers were badly wanted, and Oxenstjerna wrote constantly
+from Saxony to hasten the arrival of additional reinforcements.  The
+harvesting at its height, clashed with the harvesting of war, also at
+its greatest altitude.  A large number of conscripts were compelled to
+go down to Vasa from the neighbouring villages, then they were taken to
+Stockholm, and thence to the scene of war in Germany.
+
+At that epoch military drill was not nearly so complicated as it is
+now; to stand fairly in the ranks, rush straight at the enemy on
+command, to aim well--as the East Bothnians had learned beforehand in
+the seal-hunts--and to hew away manfully, these were the chief things.
+Thus one can understand why many of these peasant boys, just taken from
+the plough, were able to fall with honour by the side of their king at
+Lützen.
+
+The town of Vasa was then only twenty years old, and much smaller than
+now, not merely on account of its youth, but because all expansion was
+stopped on the south side by the crown fields of Korsholm.  Around the
+old Mustasaari church, on the northern side of "Kopmans" and "Stora"
+streets, were a few rows of newly built one-storey houses, with six or
+eight small shops.  Near the harbour stood storehouses, and that
+neighbourhood was also filled with fishermen's and sailors' huts in
+groups, for regular streets were considered superfluous by the
+architects of that time, and the closer the houses stood together, the
+greater the mutual protection in stormy periods.
+
+A borough, like Vasa, held one common family, and the inhabitants
+looked with pride on the high green battlements of Korsholm.
+
+The long-credited story, confirmed by Messenius, that Korsholm was
+built by Birger Jarl, and received its name from a large wooden cross
+raised as a symbol, refuge, and sign of victory, was founded on the old
+tradition that the great "Jarl," on his expedition to Finland, landed
+on this very coast.  Later researches have thrown some doubt on this
+story of Korsholm's origin; but it is certain that the fortress is very
+old, so old that it is beyond calculation.  It has never been besieged;
+its situation renders it of no importance to Finland; and after Uleä
+and Kajana castles were built, shortly before the time of our story, it
+had ceased to be considered a military position.  It now served as the
+residence of the Governor of the Northern districts, to lodge other
+crown officials, and serve as a prison; and its so-called "dairy"
+yielded a nice income to the Governor.  The Stadtholder of Northern
+Finland, Johan Mansson Ulfsparre of Tusenhult, lived only at intervals
+at Korsholm, and it is said that his seventy-year-old mother, Mistress
+Marta, ruled with a stern hand over both castle and dairy in his
+absence.  Between the peasants and burghers an unnatural and injurious
+rivalry prevailed at that time, owing to the efforts of the Government
+to suppress the country trade for the benefit of the towns, and in a
+very ignorant way to regulate the exchange of commodities.  Therefore,
+when the rich old peasant with his daughter drove in through the
+country toll-gate on the Lillkyro side, a few of the citizens, it is
+true, nodded a greeting to the well-known old man for the sake of his
+wealth; but the proudest amongst the merchants, who feared his
+influence with the king, gazed on him with hostile eyes, and gave vent
+to their ill-feelings in sarcastic words, uttered loud enough to reach
+the old man's ears.
+
+"Here comes the peasant king of Storkyro!" they said, "and Vasa has no
+triumphal arch!  He considers himself too good to thrash in the barn;
+he means to enter the army and become commander at once.  Take care!
+Do you not see how angry he looks, the log-house king?  If he had his
+way, he would plough up the whole town and make it into a rye-field!"
+
+The hot-tempered Bertila concealed his resentment, and hurried up the
+horse, so as to arrive quickly at the widow's house, where he generally
+resided when in town.  He had not gone far, however, up Kopman Street,
+which was not one of the widest, before it was blocked by a crowd of
+drunken recruits, who, in an ale-house near by, had inaugurated their
+new comradeship and strengthened themselves for the long journey ahead.
+Two sub-officers had joined the crowd as its self-appointed leaders,
+and rushed with a bold "out of the way, peasant!" towards the new-comer.
+
+Bertila, already irritated and unable to control himself, answered the
+summons with a cut of the whip, which knocked off the foremost
+sub-officer's broad-brimmed hat with an eagle's feather.  At once the
+affray began.  The man struck rushed upon the chaise, and the whole
+crowd followed him.
+
+"Aha, old fellow!" exclaimed the jovial serjeant, Bengt Kristerson,
+whom Bertila had so ignominiously expelled from his house, "now we have
+got you, and I will recompense you for your gracious treatment
+yesterday.  Make way, boys; the old fellow is mine; this fish I will
+scale myself."
+
+Bertila was too old to rely upon the power of his fists, and he looked
+around for a place of refuge.  Whip in hand, he leaped from the chaise,
+which had stopped close to the entrance of a shop, and gave the horse a
+lash, so that the latter, chaise and daughter, rushed through the
+yielding crowd and galloped up the street.  But before Bertila could
+find a refuge in the shop, the door was slammed in his face by the
+timorous owner.  The old champion, seeing escape cut off, placed his
+back to the door, and menaced the assailants with his long whip.
+
+"Let us thrash the proud Storkyro peasant," cried a young Laihela boy,
+who, by carrying a musket for a week, had forgotten his peasant origin,
+but not his rustic language.
+
+"Your father was a better man, Matts Hindrickson," said Bertila
+contemptuously, "instead of assailing his own people, he helped us,
+like an honest peasant, to pommel Peder Gumse's cavalry in former days."
+
+"Do you hear that, boys?" cried one of the subalterns; "the dog boasts
+of thrashing brave soldiers."
+
+"We will not allow anyone to lord it over us!"
+
+"The peasant shall dance to our tune!"
+
+"And not we to his."
+
+And five or six of the most excited, who had lately worn the jacket of
+the peasants themselves, rushed to drag Bertila down the steps.  The
+old man would have got the worst of it, had not the aforesaid jolly
+sergeant thrown himself between him and the assailants.
+
+"Hold on, boys!" cried Bengt Kristerson in a stentorian voice.  "What
+the devil are you about?  Are you honest soldiers?  Do you not see that
+the old man is seventy years old, and yet you go six to one at him!
+Blitz-donner-kreutz-Pappenheim (the sergeant had learned this potent
+oath in the proper school, and it never failed in its effect), is that
+warlike?  What would the king say about it?  Out of the way, boys; the
+old man is mine; I alone have the right to wash him clean.  You should
+have seen how he threw me down the steps yesterday like an old glove.
+It was a fine stroke, and now it has to be repaid."
+
+Courage and magnanimity seldom fail.  The nearest willingly gave way.
+The sergeant advanced to the steps.  Bertila could reach him with his
+whip, but he did not strike.  He knew his people.
+
+"Do you know what it means, peasant," cried the sergeant with an
+authoritative air, which would have become General Stälhandske himself,
+"to throw a soldier of the great king down the steps?  Do you know what
+it means to knock off the hat of a defender of the evangelical faith,
+and a conqueror who has gained fourteen battles and run his sword
+through sixteen or seventeen living generals?  Do you know, peasant, if
+I were in your place----?"
+
+"If I stood in the place of a soldier of his Majesty," coolly answered
+Bertila, "I would respect an honest man in his own house, and a
+grandsire's old age.  And if I stood in the shoes of Bengt Kristerson,
+and had conquered the Roman Emperor, and run my sword through seventeen
+living commanders, still I would not forget that Bengt Kristerson's
+father, Krister Nilsson, was a Limingo peasant, and fell on Ilmola's
+ice like an honest fighter against Fleming's tyranny."
+
+The sergeant was abashed for a moment.  Then he stepped close up to his
+opponent, and said in a bragging manner:
+
+"Do you know, peasant, that I could impale you on this?" and so saying,
+he drew his long sword half-way from its sheath.
+
+Bertila looked calmly at him with folded arms.
+
+"Are you not afraid, old man?" resumed the hero of fourteen battles,
+evidently taken aback by the peasant's firm attitude.
+
+"Did you ever see an honest Finn afraid?" said the old man, almost
+smiling.
+
+The sergeant was not malicious.  He suddenly felt much inclined to be
+generous; his fierce mien changed into the blustering, jovial air which
+became him so well.
+
+"Do you know, boys," he said, with a look at his companions, "that the
+old ox has got both horns and hoofs?  He might have become something in
+the world if he had been in good society.  Yesterday, when they were
+fourteen to one--for you should know, boys, that all fourteen of the
+hands helped to lift me on the clodhopper's back, and then I gave
+everyone of them a remembrance of it--yes, as I say, yesterday I would
+have beaten the old fellow black and blue, had it not been for the
+presence of ladies at the table.  But to-day we are fifteen against
+one, and so I propose that we let the old fellow go."
+
+"He is as rich as Beelzebub," shouted some of the conscripts; "he shall
+treat us to a cask of ale."
+
+Bertila produced a little purse, and threw some Carl IX. silver coins
+contemptuously among the crowd.  This irritated the soldiers afresh;
+and again the storm threatened to burst forth, when suddenly
+cannon-shots were heard, and the whole crowd rushed down to the
+harbour.  It was the Swedish man-of-war, "Maria Eleonora," saluting
+Korsholm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+LADY REGINA ARRIVES AT KORSHOLM.
+
+All who had life and sound limbs in Vasa had gone down to the shore, to
+see the uncommon sight of a man-of-war.  Five or six hundred people
+lined the shore--rowed out in boats, climbed the masts of the vessels,
+or got on the roofs of the warehouses to get a better view.
+
+Two hundred recruits regarded with mixed feelings the vessel which was
+perhaps destined to take them from their Fatherland for ever.  Behind
+them stood a large crowd of mothers, sisters, and sweethearts, crying
+bitterly at the thought of the approaching separation.
+
+The Commissary-General, Ulfsparre, was away in Sweden.  The next
+authority, Steward Peder Thun, as well as the military commander,
+received the new-comers; the recruits formed in ranks, and the captain
+of the "Maria Eleonora" offered his arm courteously to Lady Regina, to
+escort her to Korsholm.  But at this moment the proud young girl felt
+that she was a prisoner; she declined the officer's arm, and walked
+alone with a royal bearing between the ranks of the recruits and the
+gaping crowd.
+
+Such a strange sight put the whole town in a great commotion.  In a
+moment the strangest rumours about her arose and spread.
+
+"She is an Austrian princess," said some; "the Emperor's daughter,
+taken prisoner during the war, and sent here for safety."
+
+Others pretended she was the Queen Maria Eleonora; but why did she come
+to Korsholm?
+
+"I will tell you," said one, whispering with an important air to
+another.  "She is in league with her German countrymen against the
+king, and therefore she is to be confined in remote Korsholm."
+
+"That is not true," rejoined another, who had heard some vague stories
+of the conspiracies against the king's life.  "It is," added he in a
+low voice, as if fearing to be heard by the object of his remarks, "a
+nun from Walskland, hired by the Jesuits to make away with the king.
+Six times she has given him deadly poison, and six times he has been
+warned in dreams not to drink.  When she offered him the draught for
+the seventh time, the king drew his sword and forced her to swallow her
+own poison."
+
+"Then how can she be here alive?" said an old lady very innocently.
+
+"Alive!" repeated the story-teller, without being put out in any
+degree; "oh, that is another matter.  These creatures can dissemble to
+such an extent...  Yes, indeed; do you remember the Hollanders last
+year, how they bolted molten lead?  I do not wish to say anything, but
+just look--the black-haired nun is as pale as death!"
+
+"Has she given the king poison?" cried a trembling female voice close
+behind.
+
+It was Meri, who with bated breath had listened to every word.
+
+"What rubbish!" said a sea-captain with a mysterious knowing air.
+"When I was at Stralsund, last spring, I saw those eyes, which one
+cannot easily forget.  The girl was then taken to Stockholm, and one of
+the guards told me the entire story.  She is a Spanish witch, who has
+sold herself to the evil one, in order to be the most beautiful woman
+on earth for seven years.  Look at her: do you not see that the devil
+has kept his word?  Take care; in those eyes there is something that
+charms and bewitches.  When she became as beautiful as she is now, she
+entered the Swedish camp, and gave the king a love-potion, so that he
+could neither see or hear anyone else but herself for seven whole
+weeks.  His generals thought this a sin and shame, and the enemy
+pressed them sorely; so one night they took her secretly and sent her
+to spend the seven enchanted years at Korsholm."
+
+"Did the king love her?" asked Meri with emotion.
+
+"Of course he did," answered the blunt sea-captain.
+
+"Did she also love the king?"
+
+"What is there more curious than a woman?  How the deuce do you expect
+me to know all about it?  The foul-fiend is wiser than other folks,
+that is certain.  She gave the king a copper ring..."
+
+"With seven circles inside each other, and three letters engraved on
+the plate..."
+
+"What the devil do you know about that?  I have heard of the seven
+circles, but not of the plate."
+
+Meri took a deep breath.  "He wears it still!" she said to herself with
+a great joy.
+
+Meri was superstitious, like all the people of that period.  She never
+doubted the existence of witches, enchantments, and love potions; but
+this strange dark girl, who loved the king and was beloved by him in
+return ... was she really guilty of the horrible things they said about
+her?  The poor forgotten one was seized with the most violent wish to
+approach this extraordinary being, who had been so near the great
+monarch.  Each moment was precious.  In a few hours she must return to
+Storkyro.  She took heart and followed the stranger to Korsholm.
+
+The old residence inside the ramparts, in spite of its fine outlook,
+was more sombre than magnificent.  Frequent changes of Stadtholders,
+who only lived there a little while at a time, had given to the
+double-storied granite building, with its side wings for prisoners, a
+terribly deserted appearance.  It certainly more resembled a jail than
+a great governor's residence.  The dreariness was increased by its
+present inhabitants, stern Fru Marta, with her aged maid-servants, some
+invalid soldiers, and gruff jailors.  Had Gustaf Adolf recollected the
+condition of the place, he would probably not have sent his young
+prisoner to such a depressing abode.
+
+Fru Marta expected her guest, who had been described to her as a
+dangerous and depraved young person, of superhuman cunning.  She had,
+therefore, prepared a little dark chamber within her own for Lady
+Regina and her attendant, and made up her mind to keep the closest
+watch on the wild young lady.  Fru Marta was a good, honest soul, but
+sharp and severe like a lady of the old school, who had brought up all
+her children with the rod.  It never entered her mind that a lonely,
+defenceless, and forsaken young girl, isolated in a strange land,
+needed a comforting, sympathetic hand and motherly kindness; Fru Marta
+felt that discipline ought to tame a spoilt child, and then milder
+treatment could be introduced.
+
+When Lady Regina, accustomed to the freedom of the sea, entered this
+gloomy dwelling, an involuntary shudder passed through her slight
+frame.  This feeling remained when she was received on the threshold by
+the old lady, in a close linen cap and a long dark woollen cloak.
+
+No doubt Lady Regina's inclination of the head was somewhat stiff, and
+her whole bearing somewhat reserved, when she greeted Fru Marta on the
+castle steps.  But Fru Marta was not intimidated by it.  She took the
+young girl by both hands, shook them vigorously, and nodded a greeting,
+about half-way between a welcome and a menace.  Then she surveyed her
+guest from head to foot, and the result of the examination was muttered
+aloud:
+
+"Figure like a princess ... no harm; eyes black as a gipsy's ... no
+evil; skin as white as milk ... no mischief; proud ... ah, ah, that is
+bad; we shall be two about that, my young friend."
+
+Regina impatiently made a motion to proceed, but Fru Marta did not let
+go her hold.
+
+"Wait a bit, my dear," said the stern dame, as she endeavoured to
+recollect her ancient stock of German words; "it takes time to go a
+long way.  One who crosses my threshold must not be taller than the
+door-post.  Better to bend in youth than creep in old age.  There ...
+that's the way for a young girl to greet one who is older and wiser..."
+
+And before Lady Regina knew it, the strong old lady had put her right
+hand on her neck, her left against her waist, and with a sudden
+pressure, forced her proud guest to bow as deeply as one could desire.
+
+Lady Regina's pale cheeks were covered with a flush as red as the
+sunset sky before a storm.  More erect and prouder than before rose the
+girl's slender figure, and her dark eyes flashed fire.  She said
+nothing, but old Dorthe was determined to give Fru Marta a lesson in
+politeness on her mistress' behalf.  She advanced with lively southern
+gesticulations, and screamed, beside herself with anger:
+
+"Miserable Finnish witch, how dare you treat a high-born lady in such a
+manner?  Do you know, vile jailor, whom you have the honour of
+receiving in your house?  You do not!  Then I will tell you.  This is
+the exalted Lady Regina von Emmeritz, _née_ Princess of Emmeritz,
+Hohenloe, and Saalfield, Countess of Wertheim and Bischoffshöhe,
+heiress of Dettelsbach and Kissingen, &c.  Her father was the Prince of
+Emmeritz, who owned more castles than you, miserable wretch, have huts
+in your town.  Her mother was Princess Würtemberg, related to the
+Electoral House of Bavaria, and her still living uncle, the Right
+Reverend Bishop of Würzburg, is lord of Marienburg, and the town of
+Würzburg, with all the lands belonging to it.  You take advantage of us
+because your heretic king has taken our land and town, and made us
+prisoners; but the day will come when St. George and the Holy Virgin
+will descend and destroy you, you heathen; and if you harm a hair of
+our heads, this castle shall be levelled to the ground, and you,
+miserable witch, and your whole town, annihilated ..."
+
+It is probable that old Dorthe's outpourings would not have come to an
+end for some time, had not Fru Marta made a sign to her servants, at
+which they carried off the old woman without any ceremony, and in spite
+of her strenuous resistance, to one of the small rooms on the lower
+floor, where she was left to herself to further reflect upon the high
+lineage of her young lady.
+
+But Fru Marta took the astonished Regina, half by force, half
+voluntarily, by the arm, and led her to the allotted room near her own,
+with a view over the town.  Here the stern old lady left her for the
+present, yet not without adding the following admonitions at the door:
+
+"I can tell you, my young friend, to obey is better than to weep; the
+bird that sings too early in the morning is in the claws of the hawk
+before evening.  Follow the laws of the country you are in.  It is now
+seven o'clock.  At eight supper is served, at nine you go to bed, and
+at four in the morning you get up, and if you don't know how to card
+and spin, I will give you some sewing, so that time shall not hang
+heavy on your hands.  Then we will talk together, and when your waiting
+woman learns to hold her tongue you may have her back again.  Good
+night; don't forget to say your prayers; a psalm Prayer Book lies on
+the dressing-table."
+
+With these words Fru Marta shut the door, and Lady Regina was alone.
+Solitary, imprisoned, in a foreign land, left to the mercy of a hard
+keeper ... her thoughts were of the most depressing kind.  Lady Regina
+fell on her knees, and prayed to the saints, not from the heretic
+Prayer Book, but with the rosary of rubies which her uncle, the bishop,
+had formerly given her as sponsor.  What did she pray for?  Only Heaven
+and the black walls of Korsholm know that; but a sympathetic heart can
+imagine her petitions.  She prayed for the saints' assistance; for the
+victory of her faith and the downfall of the heretics; she prayed also
+that the saints might convert King Gustaf Adolf to the only saving
+Church; that he, another Saul, might become another Paul.  Finally she
+prayed for freedom and protection ... the hours fled; her supper was
+brought in, and still she continued her supplications.
+
+At last Lady Regina arose and looked out of the little window.  There
+lay a landscape in the sunset glow; it was not Franconia, with its
+luxuriant vineyards; it was not the rushing Main; the town yonder was
+not rich Würzburg, with its rows of cloisters and high turret spires.
+It was poor, pale Finland, with an arm of its sea; it was young little
+Vasa, with its church, Mustasaari, the oldest in East Bothnia; one
+could plainly see the reflection of the sun on the small Gothic
+windows, of stained glass belonging to Catholic times, and it seemed to
+Regina as if she saw the transfigured saints looking out from their
+former temple.  And at this moment, had not the eye of the setting sun
+itself such a beatific look, as it serenely gazed down upon the world's
+strife!  All was silent and still--the evening glow, the landscape's
+pretty verdure, the newly mown fields with their rows of sheaves, the
+small red houses with their shining windows--all conduced to devotion
+and peace.
+
+Suddenly, Lady Regina heard in the distance a mild, plaintive song,
+simple and unaffected, as if proceeding from nature's own heart, on a
+lonely evening, with a setting sun on the shore of a silent sea, when
+all sweet memories awaken in a longing breast.  At first she did not
+listen, but it came nearer ... now it was obstructed by a cottage wall,
+now by a group of hanging birches; now it was heard again, high, clear,
+and free; and finally one could distinguish the words.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE LOVE OF THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH.
+
+When the lonely singer approached one could gradually understand the
+import of the song.  It was a gentle heart, which sang in uneven but
+impressive numbers, its longings and its sorrows on the shore in the
+glow of a beautiful August evening far off in the north country.
+
+  "The sun shines bright and clear
+    O'er the waters far and near,
+  And the moon wanders in the night
+    Above in the heavenly sphere.
+  But never again will the sun supreme
+    Shine down on the forgotten troth,
+  And never again shall the gentle moon's beam
+    Illumine the brave knight's holy oath.
+
+  "The only one I loved so dear
+    Lives far away in a palace fine,
+  Surrounded by splendour he leaves me here
+    Alone with grief and sorrow mine.
+  He is served by many, I have but one knight,
+    He has castles, towns, and land.
+  I spread my pearls in the evening light
+    And sing to the waves on the strand.
+
+  "The bird flies to the south so fair,
+    Far away to the castle grand,
+  And sings on the tree a sorrowful air,
+    As I in my lonely land.
+  The brave knight listens to the song,
+    How strangely his heart doth beat,
+  And before one knows the evening long
+    Hath gone like the joys that never repeat."
+
+
+The more Lady Regina listened to the simple strains, which to her were
+foreign and strange, and yet appealing through their deep melancholy,
+the more she was affected by this sorrow so like her own.  She wished
+to breathe the fresh evening air; the little window, however, long
+resisted her attempts to open it, but all Lady Marta's prudence could
+not prevent the hinges from being old and rusty, and at last they
+yielded to the young girl's persistent efforts.  She had only been a
+guest in this castle for a few hours, and yet she inhaled the evening
+fragrance as a prisoner for long years finally breathes the air of his
+freedom.  Her heart expanded and her eyes regained their fire; her mind
+became filled with a dreamy ecstasy, and she sang softly, so as not to
+be heard by her custodian, but clearly and melodiously.
+
+
+  REGINA'S SONG.
+
+  "Great as my sufferings are
+  Still to thee I will repair.
+  Holy Virgin, wilt thou bless
+  What to thee I now confess,
+  My soul's desire sincere
+  To die without fear.
+
+  "Amongst the kings of the earth
+  My loved one hath his birth,
+  Far flash his dread strokes
+  As the Almighty's lightnings rend the oaks.
+  But victor and conqueror tho' he be
+  Yet mild and merciful is he.
+
+  "I'll all forget, and firmly stand,
+  If you give me the dread command
+  To stop the hero's great career.
+  O holy Virgin, bright and dear,
+  God's mother, thou me hear,
+  Spare the noble heart that knows no fear.
+
+  "Make the heretic king his faults forswear,
+  And that he will our glorious faith declare.
+  Then my weary heart will gain its rest.
+  O Mary, grant me this request,
+  Spare his life, his throne,
+  Let me with my death for his crime atone."
+
+
+The solitary figure which had sung the first song now slowly approached
+the castle walls; it was a woman of the people, with once beautiful
+features, now pale and expressing a winning and sympathetic heart.  She
+tried to listen to the strange girl's song, but could not succeed on
+account of the foreign language and suppressed tones.  She then seated
+herself on a stone a short distance from the castle, and fixed her mild
+gaze on the prisoner at the window.  In her turn, Regina also fastened
+her dark penetrating eyes on the visitor.  One would think that they
+perfectly understood each other, for the language of songs needs no
+other lexicon than the heart.  Or did a presentiment tell them, the
+girl of seventeen and the woman of thirty-six, that their loves were
+concentrated on the same object, and that both sang their shipwrecked
+hopes on the lonely shore, but in an infinitely differing way?
+
+Up in the north the summer nights are clear until the beginning of
+August, then a light veil spreads itself over land and sea as soon as
+the sun goes down.  By the middle of August this veil has already
+become thicker, and casts a mild soft shade over the summer leaves and
+grass.  When the moon rises upon this world of vanishing green, then
+there is nothing more sadly beautiful to be found in all nature than
+one of these lovely evenings in August.  Then the eye accustomed to
+three months unbroken day, shrinks from the darkness and yet sees this
+darkness in its loveliest aspect, like a mild sorrow softened by a ray
+of heavenly glory.  This impression would return every year even if one
+lived for centuries; it is light and darkness which at the same moment
+are struggling in the world and in the human heart.
+
+The two lonely singers felt the power of this impression; they both sat
+fixed and mute, quietly regarding each other in the twilight; neither
+of them spoke, and yet they understood each other's inmost thoughts.
+
+Then the pale woman suddenly rose and turned her face towards the town.
+She seemed to be listening to a noise which disturbed the holy peace of
+the evening.
+
+Lady Regina followed every movement of the stranger, and leaned out of
+the window so as to be able to see better.  All nature was calm and
+silent, only the strokes of oars were heard from the sea, or the
+melancholy prolonged note from some shepherd's horn.  This stillness
+increased by the first darkness of the autumn, had something solemn and
+inviting to worship about it, and made the noise which now came from
+the distant town still more singular.  It was not the surges of the
+sea, or the roar of the fors,* or the crackling of a fire in the wood.
+Although it resembled all these.  It was more like the murmur of an
+enraged populace, at once actuated by rage and want.  Directly
+afterwards the reflection of a fire was seen afar off in the northern
+portion of the town.
+
+
+* Fors, a stream peculiar to the north, like rapids.
+
+
+With the speed of the wind the lonely woman outside the wall hurried
+away in the direction of the sounds and light .... We will now precede
+her for a moment.
+
+The arrival of the man-of-war, which was destined to transport the
+conscripts, had placed the latter in a state of excitement much
+augmented by sorrow, pride, and ale.  With their under officers at
+their head, they had thronged around the ale-shops, and at this time,
+when the soldier was all important, one was often obliged to overlook
+his irregularities and keep him in a good humour.  The superior
+officers consequently pretended not to notice that 200 young men, with
+the combative temperament of East Bothnia, were in a state of
+intoxication more or less; and it is possible that this policy might
+have been the right one at the time, had not a special circumstance
+detrimental to peace brought their unrestrained passions into full play.
+
+The brave sergeant, Bengt Kristerson, did not neglect this opportunity
+to do himself every possible justice.  Filled with a sense of his own
+great importance, he had jumped on a table and easily demonstrated to
+the crowd of conscripts: first, that he especially had conquered
+Germany; secondly, that long before this he would have driven the
+Emperor Ferdinand into the River Danube, had not the latter been in
+league with Satan and bewitched the whole Swedish army, and the king
+himself first of all; thirdly, that Bengt, on the night of the
+Frankfurt ball, was on guard outside the king's bed-chamber, and there
+he had plainly seen Beelzebub in the form of a young girl, who then
+made a terrible commotion; fourthly--this thought naturally struck him
+during his inspired address--that the weal or woe of the country, yes,
+of the whole world, depended upon the witch, who was a prisoner at
+Korsholm...
+
+"You will see that the black-haired witch will bring the plague to the
+town," observed thoughtfully a Malax peasant, with very fair hair and
+shabby appearance.
+
+"The wolf-cub!"
+
+"The king's murderess!"
+
+"Shall we allow her to sit in peace and destroy both king and country
+with her witch-shots?" cried a drunken clerk of assizes, who had just
+joined the company.
+
+"Let us duck her in the sea!" shrieked a Nerpes peasant.
+
+"Let us club her on the spot!" yelled a Lappo cottager, with an eagle
+nose and dark bushy eyebrows.
+
+"And if they do not give her into our hands, we will set fire to
+Korsholm and burn the owl and the nest at the same time," said a
+ferocious Laihela peasant.
+
+"Better that, than to have the kingdom ruined," remarked a
+grave-looking seal-hunter from Replot.
+
+"Here, take brands!" shouted a Worä peasant.
+
+"To Korsholm!" cried the whole crowd. And stimulated as usual by their
+own clamour, they rushed to the big open fire-place in the large room,
+and pulled out all the brands from it.  But, unfortunately, there was a
+lot of hemp hanging in bundles on the wall in the room.  One of the
+conscripts in the scramble swung his brand too high, and the hemp
+caught fire; the strong draught from the open door fanned the flame,
+and in a few minutes the ale-house was in full blaze.
+
+All inside rushed out, and no one had time to realise how it happened.
+
+"It is a witch-shot!" cried some of them.
+
+"The witch at Korsholm will have to pay for all this!" shouted the
+others.
+
+And the whole raging mass rushed off at full speed towards the old
+castle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE SIEGE OF KORSHOLM.
+
+As soon as Meri--for she was the lonely singer--understood the wild
+crowd's intention, she flew back to Korsholm.  By the silver rays of
+the moonlight, which shone over the landscape, she plainly
+distinguished Regina's dark locks, which, blacker than the night, stood
+in relief from the room in the background, like a shadow in the midst
+of the shade.  Under these locks shone two eyes, dreamy, deep, like the
+glimmer of the stars in the dusky mirror of a lake.  The words died on
+Meri's lips; all the strange rumours rose like spectres in her mind.
+She who sat up there alone at the window, was she not, after all, a
+southern witch, weeping over her fate in being compelled to spend the
+seven years of her wondrous beauty within these walls, and then
+reassume her normal shape; a terrible monster, half-woman and
+half-serpent?
+
+Meri stood as if petrified at the foot of the wall.
+
+But nearer and nearer was heard the murmur of the wild crowd, and the
+light of the torches began to be reflected on the castle.  Then the
+superstitious countrywoman gathered courage, and raised her voice to
+the window.
+
+"Fly, your grace," she said rapidly in Swedish; "fly, a great danger
+threatens you; the soldiers are intoxicated and frantic; they say that
+you have tried to kill the king, and they demand your life."
+
+Regina saw the pale form in the moonlight, and before her imagination
+rose all the stories she had heard about this land of witchcraft.
+During her ten months' stay in Sweden she had in some degree learned to
+understand the language; she did not immediately comprehend the other's
+meaning, but a single word sufficed to attract all her attention.
+
+"The king?" she repeated in broken Swedish.  "Who are you, and what can
+you tell me about the great Gustaf Adolf?"
+
+"Lose not a moment, your grace," continued Meri, ignoring Regina's
+question.  "They are already at the gates, and Fru Marta, with six
+soldiers, will not be able to protect you against two hundred.  Quick!
+don't come out by the door, but tie together sheets and shawls, and let
+yourself down through the window; I will receive you."
+
+Regina saw that a danger threatened, but far from being terrified by
+it, she heard it with a secret joy.  Was she not a martyr to her faith,
+transported to this wild land for her zeal in trying to convert the
+mightiest enemy of her Church?  Perhaps the moment was at hand when the
+saints would grant her a martyr's-crown, richly earned by her devotion.
+Was it not the tempter himself, who in this pale woman's form, tried to
+lure her from an imperishable glory?
+
+And Regina answered:
+
+"And Satan saith unto Him: 'Cast Thyself down: for it is written, He
+shall give His angels charge concerning Thee, that they may preserve
+Thee, so that no harm may befall Thee...'"*
+
+
+* Compare Matthew iv. 6, where the Lutheran text differs from the
+Catholic.
+
+
+At these words the moon appeared round a corner of the wall and threw
+its pale beams on the beautiful girl's face.  Her cheeks glowed, and
+her eyes burned with an ecstatic fire.  Meri looked at her with wonder
+and dread ... and again it seemed to her that it was not well with a
+being, who possessed such a singular appearance, and uttered such
+strange sounds from her lips.  An overwhelming fear seized her, and she
+fled, without knowing why, back to the town.
+
+In the meantime Regina heard the murmur from the castle yard up in her
+chamber.  The drunken horde had been checked by a stout gate, and stood
+clamouring outside, threatening to burn down the fortress, unless the
+witch was immediately given up to them.  But Fru Marta, just awakened
+from a sound sleep, was not one easily scared.  She had been in more
+than one siege in her younger days, and understood like a wise
+commander, that a fortress does not fall at big words.
+
+"One who gains time, gains all," she thought, and therefore began to
+negotiate about the capitulation, wishing to know what the besiegers
+especially wanted, and why they wanted it.  In the meantime six old
+muskets were hunted up, with which the defenders were armed; the
+soldiers were also provided with clubs and pikes; the servant girls
+themselves received orders to take the poles, with which more than one
+of Fleming's horsemen received their doom during the Club or Peasants'
+War.  Thus prepared, Fru Marta thought that she could safely break off
+all negotiations; she therefore advanced to the inside of the gate, and
+began a tirade which meant action and no play.
+
+"Ye crazy boors!" shrieked the brave dame with more energy than
+courtesy, "may the devil take you all, drunken ale-bibbers!  Be off
+this instant, or, as sure as my name is Marta Ulfsparre, you shall have
+a taste of 'Master Hans' on the back, you villains, sots, shameless
+knaves, and night loafers!"
+
+"Master Hans" was a good-sized braided rattan, which seldom left Fru
+Marta's hand, and for which all the inmates of the castle entertained a
+profound respect.  But whether the noisy crowd did not know of "Master
+Hans'" fine qualities, or whether Fru Marta's words were only
+imperfectly heard in the uproar, the mob continued to press on with
+loud cries, and the strong gate shook on its hinges.
+
+"Out with the witch!" shouted the most excited, and some threw lighted
+brands against the gate, hoping to set it on fire.
+
+Fru Marta had on the ramparts two old cannon from Gustaf I.'s time,
+called "the hawk" and "the dove."  Their functions were to respond to
+the salutes of vessels arriving in the harbour, and to roar forth the
+delight of the people on royal christening days and nuptials.  It is
+true that the ramparts lay outside the high fence with its iron spikes,
+which constituted the only fortification of the castle, and were thus
+easily accessible to the besiegers.  But Fru Marta thought correctly,
+that a cannonade from the ramparts would frighten the enemy, and serve
+as a signal of distress, to summon assistance from the man-of-war and
+the town.  She therefore ordered two of her soldiers to steal out under
+cover of the night, load "the hawk" and "the dove," and directly after
+the blank charges were fired, to return quickly to the castle.
+
+The effect was instantaneous.  The uproar ceased at once, and Fru Marta
+did not let the opportunity slip from her grasp.
+
+"Do you hear, you pack of thieves?" she screamed, mounted on a ladder,
+so that her white night-cap was seen in the moonlight just above the
+gate, "if you don't take yourselves off this minute from his Majesty's
+castle, I will make my cannon shatter you into fragments, like cabbage
+stalks, you noisy, drunken swine!  Angry dogs get torn skins; and the
+chicken who sticks his neck in the jaws of the fox will have to look
+around to see where his head is.  I will cut you to pieces, you rowdy
+set," continued Fru Marta, getting more and more excited.  "I will let
+them make mince-meat of you, and throw you to the----"
+
+Unhappily the brave commander was not allowed to finish her heroic
+speech.  One of the crowd had found a rotten turnip on the ground, and
+hurled it with such good aim at the white night-cap, which shone in the
+moonlight, that Fru Marta, struck right on the brow, was obliged to
+retreat, and for the first time in her life had her tongue silenced.  A
+huge laugh now spread through the crowd, and with it Fru Marta's
+supremacy was at an end.  The enemy battered still more arrogantly
+against the gate, the hinges bent, the boards gave way, and finally
+half of the gate fell in with a great crash, and the whole crowd rushed
+into the courtyard.
+
+Now one would say that Fru Marta would have to surrender.  But no, she
+quickly withdrew with all her force to the interior of the castle,
+barred the entrance, and placed her musketeers at the windows,
+threatening to shoot down the first comers.  Such determined courage
+ought to have succeeded, but the infuriated mob neither heard or saw.
+One of the front men, who had found a crowbar, began to batter the
+door...
+
+Then confusion and outcries arose in the rear of the crowd ... those in
+the middle turned round and saw through the broken gate, as far as one
+could discern in the moonlight, the whole way filled with heads and
+muskets.  It was as if an army had sprung from the earth in order to
+annihilate the besiegers.  Could it be the shades of all the dead
+champions of Korsholm, who had risen from their graves to avenge the
+violence offered against their old fortress?
+
+In order to explain the unexpected sight which now alarmed the crowd,
+one must remember that a large portion of the country people from the
+adjacent hamlets had flocked to the town to witness the departure of
+the recruits.  It should also be mentioned that the peasant king had
+remained all night in Vasa, probably in the secret expectation of
+hearing some news about Bertel from the crew of the "Maria Eleonora."
+The burning of the ale-house and the march of the intoxicated crowd
+towards Korsholm had set all Vasa in commotion, and when Meri arrived
+in breathless haste, imploring her father to rescue the imprisoned
+lady, she found everywhere willing ears.  The East Bothnian is soon
+ready for battle, and when the peasants learned the insults put upon
+old Bertila, their best man, the ancient animosity arose within them
+against the soldiers.  They forgot that many of their own sons and
+brothers were conscripts; they could not neglect such a fine chance to
+give the soldiers a thrashing, both in the name of humanity and loyalty
+to the crown.  They marched therefore, with Bertila at their head,
+about a hundred strong, to the rescue of the castle, and what in the
+moonlight appeared to be pikes and muskets, were mostly poles and
+rails, which had been hastily snatched up, the usual weapons employed
+in the battles of that region.
+
+As soon as the soldiers saw that they were attacked in the rear, they
+tried to conceal their alarm with loud shouts and cries.  Uncertain of
+the enemy's strength, some of them already wished to beat a dangerous
+retreat over the spiked fence; others imagined that they had to deal
+with an army of goblins, called up by the incantations of the foreign
+witch.  They were soon aroused from this delusion, however, by hearing
+the sounds of Malax Swedish, and Lillkyro Finnish, which could
+reasonably be thought to come from human and not spectral lips.  At the
+moment the outer enemy blocked the gate with his forces, a silence
+arose on both sides, during which one could hear two voices speaking,
+together: one from the castle window, and the other from the ramparts.
+
+"What did I tell you?" shrieked Fru Marta from the window; "didn't I
+tell you, drunkards and vagabonds, that you ought to think seven times
+before putting your noses between the wedges of the tree, and if the
+tail has once got into the fox-trap, there is nothing left but to bite
+it off.  A large mouth needs a broad back, and now hold yourself in
+readiness to pay the fiddler."
+
+With this outburst Fru Marta drew back; possibly from fear of another
+rotten turnip.
+
+The other voice was that of an old man, who, in powerful tones, cried
+to the soldiers:
+
+"Lay down your arms, and give up your leaders, then the rest may go in
+peace.  If not, there will be a dance, the like of which Korsholm has
+never seen, and we will see to it that the bows are well rosined."
+
+"May all the demons seize you, rascal peasant!" answered a voice from
+the courtyard, which clearly belonged to the jovial sergeant, Bengt
+Kristerson.  "If I had you down here I would,
+blitz-donner-kreutz-Pappenheim, teach you to insult brave soldiers with
+offers of surrender.  Go ahead, boys; clear the gateway, and drive the
+crew back to their porridge kettles!"
+
+Fortunately none of the conscripts had muskets, which had not yet been
+distributed, and very few possessed swords.  Most of them had only
+extinguished brands, fragments of broken carriages, and faggots
+snatched from a wood-pile in the yard.  Thus armed, the warriors bore
+down upon the entrance.
+
+At the first onset the recruits were received with such vigorous blows,
+that numbers had broken heads.  Soon the press at the gate became so
+dense that no arm could be raised or blow dealt; those in front
+struggled furiously to extricate themselves, whilst the rest closed
+upon them and rendered all movement impossible.  Strong arms and broad
+shoulders exerted themselves fruitlessly to make a way through the
+crowd.  At last the pressure from within became so great, that the
+first ranks of the peasants were broken, and about half of the soldiers
+cleared a way towards the open plain outside the ramparts, whilst the
+remainder were again penned up in the courtyard.
+
+A regular battle began.  Poles, sticks, whips, and fists were used.
+Many a vigorous blow was delivered, which would have been much better
+bestowed on Isolani's Croats; many a fine exploit was performed, more
+in place on the German battlefields.  The soldiers were split in two
+parties by the gate, and although the most numerous, soon had the worst
+of it.  The youngest recruits took to flight, and ran towards the town;
+some were overpowered and badly beaten; others, including the old
+veterans, retired to the ramparts, and with backs to the wall defended
+themselves valiantly.
+
+Victory now seemed on the side of the peasants, when their opponents
+received new assistance.  The peasants at the gate, who on account of
+the struggle outside, forgot the enemy within, were surprised by the
+penned-up soldiers, who now rushed out to help their comrades.  The
+latter thus relieved, fell upon the peasants with redoubled ardour; the
+affray became more and more involved, and victory more and more
+uncertain; both parties had defeats to avenge, and the rage on both
+sides increased as their strength became equal.
+
+Over this scene of tumult, confusion, and wild conflict, the silvery
+August moon beamed like a heavenly eye.  All the inlets shone in the
+moonlight; and in the tree-tops and the moist grass glittered millions
+of dewdrops, like pearls on summer's green robe.  All nature seemed at
+peace; a gentle breeze from the west rippled the surface of the sea,
+and passed softly over the land; the monotonous roll of the surf upon
+the beach was heard in the distance, and the twinkling, silent stars
+looked down into the dark waters.  When the yard was empty, Fru Marta
+and her men ventured out again to behold the strife from the ramparts.
+The courageous old lady undoubtedly wished to join in some way in the
+contest, for she cried to the peasants in a loud voice:
+
+"That's right, boys, go ahead; let the sticks fly; many have danced to
+worse tunes!"
+
+And to the soldiers she screamed:
+
+"Good luck to you, my children; help yourselves to a little supper;
+Korsholm offers what it can give.  Be at ease; your witch is in good
+keeping; Korsholm has bolts and bars for you too, miscreants!"
+
+But as if a capricious destiny wished to convict the old lady of error
+and put her to the blush, a tall, dark female figure now appeared on
+the top of the ramparts, and was outlined against the clear night sky.
+
+Fru Marta's words froze on her lips from dismay, when she recognised
+the figure of her well-guarded prisoner.  How Lady Regina had got
+through locked doors and closed windows was an inexplicable problem,
+and for a moment she was infected by the common belief in the strange
+girl's alliance with the powers of darkness.  She renounced all idea of
+arresting the fugitive, and expected each moment to see large black
+wings grow out of her shoulders, that she might take flight like a
+monstrous raven, and soar aloft to the starry heavens.
+
+The reader, however, can easily discover a natural solution of the
+difficulty.  The din of the conflict and the cannon-shots had reached
+Regina's isolated chamber.  Every moment she expected her room to be
+invaded, and herself seized by executioners and dragged to a certain
+death; and so glorious did this martyrdom seem to her, that her
+impatience increased to the highest point.  Then an hour passed, and
+whilst the noise below continued, no footsteps approached her door.  At
+last the thought took possession of her fanatical soul that the Prince
+of Darkness envied her so grand a fate, and that the strife was
+fomented by him to ensure her a languishing life in captivity, without
+profit to herself or the Holy Faith.  Then she remembered the advice of
+the singing woman, to let herself down through the open window by means
+of sheets and shawls; she took a sudden resolve, and in a few minutes
+stood on the ramparts in full view of all the combatants.
+
+As soon as the latter saw the tall form in the moonlight, they were
+seized with the same superstitious dread which had just paralyzed Fru
+Marta's nimble tongue.  The conflict gradually subsided in the
+vicinity, and continued only at the most remote points; friend and foe
+were affected by a common horror, and near the ramparts rose a silence
+so profound, that one could hear in the distance the sea's low murmur
+on the pebbly beach.
+
+Lady Regina then spoke with a voice so strong and clear, that if her
+terribly imperfect Swedish had not stood in the way, she would have
+been understood by all those within hearing.
+
+"Ye children of Belial," she said in tones, trembling at first, but
+soon calm and composed, "ye people of the heretic faith, why do ye
+delay to take my life?  I am defenceless, without human protection,
+with the high heavens above me, and the earth and sea at my feet, and
+say to you: Your Luther was a false prophet; there is no salvation
+except in the orthodox Catholic Church.  Be converted, therefore, to
+the Holy Virgin and all the saints, acknowledge the Pope to be Christ's
+vicegerent, as he truly is, that you may avert St. George's sword from
+your heads, which is already raised to destroy you.  But you can kill
+me in order to seal the veracity of my faith; here I stand; why do you
+hesitate?  I am ready to die for my faith."
+
+It was Lady Regina's good fortune that her speech was not understood by
+the crowd, for so strong was the power of Lutheranism at this fanatical
+time, when nations and individuals sacrificed life and welfare for
+their creed, that all were filled with flaming zeal, and a blind hatred
+for the Pope and his followers--of which our crabbed but pithy old
+psalm-books bear witness to-day.  Had this crowd, whether peasants or
+soldiers, heard Regina extol the Pope, and declare Luther a false
+prophet, they would have certainly torn her to pieces in their rage.
+As it was, the young girl's meaning escaped them; they saw her bold
+bearing, and the respect which courage and misfortune together always
+inspire, did not fail to have its effect upon them; they now stood
+wavering, and at a loss what to think or do.
+
+Lady Regina again expected, in vain, to be dragged to death.  She
+descended from the rampart, and mingled with the irresolute crowd; they
+all saw that she was quite unprotected, and yet not a hand was put
+forth to seize her.
+
+"She is not honest flesh and blood; she is a shadow," said an old Worä
+peasant doubtingly.  "It seems to me that I see the moon shine right
+through her."
+
+"We will soon prove that," exclaimed a rough fellow from Ilmola, laying
+his coarse hand rather heavily on Regina's shoulder.
+
+It was a critical moment; the young girl turned round and looked her
+molester right in the face with such deep, shining eyes, that the
+latter seized with a strange feeling, immediately drew back, and stole
+away abashed.  Some of the nearest bystanders followed him.  None could
+understand the power of these dark eyes in the moonlight, but all felt
+their wondrous influence.  In a few moments the space near Regina was
+empty, and the strife had ceased.  A patrol, who now arrived, arrested
+the ringleaders.
+
+Not long, however, did the rivalry engendered by the Club War continue
+between the peasants and the soldiers; between the peaceful _plough_,
+Finland's pride, and the conquering sword, which at this time was drawn
+to subdue the Roman Emperor himself.
+
+Of Regina we need only say that she willingly allowed herself, yet with
+a sigh over the martyr's-crown she had missed, to be taken back to the
+dark, solitary prison-chamber.  But Bertila returned with his daughter
+to Storkyro; the old man with thoughts of coming greatness, the young
+woman with the memory of a past joy.  All this occurred during two days
+in the summer of 1632, thus, before King Gustaf Adolf's death.
+
+Days and months elapsed, and human destinies changed their forms, so
+that the swift word is obliged to check its flight, and remain silent
+awhile in expectation of the evenings which are to come.  For the
+surgeon's stories, like a child's joy or sorrow, lasted but a brief
+time--long enough for those who with friendship listened to them, and
+perhaps sufficiently long for the others.  But never was the thread of
+the story clipped in the middle of its course without both young and
+old anticipating more.  And the surgeon had to promise this.  He had so
+much still left to relate about the half-spun skein of two family
+histories, that next time it will probably be spun; longer--if not to
+the end, at least to the knot, which says that the skein has reached
+its right length.
+
+
+
+
+III.--FIRE AND WATER.
+
+Six weeks passed before the surgeon and his circle of listeners
+gathered again.  During that time an accident had happened to old Bäck.
+Most of us in this world possess hobbies, and old bachelors in
+particular.  Bäck had got it into his mind that he ought to have a
+certain comfort in his old age; he had in his garret a good-sized sack
+of feathers, which he increased in spring and autumn by bird-shooting.
+To what use these feathers were to be put no one knew; when he was
+asked about it, he said:
+
+"I will do like Possen at the 'Wiborg explosion'; if Finland is in
+need, I will go up some tower and shake my feathers into the air, then
+there will be as many soldiers as the sack has feathers."
+
+"You talk like a goose, my brother," replied Captain Svanholm, the
+postmaster.  "In our days one must have different stuff to make
+soldiers of.  By my soul, I think you consider us warriors like
+chickens!"
+
+"Yes," added the surgeon, when the captain was about to continue, "I
+know what you wish to say: exactly like Fieandt at Karstula."
+
+However, the fact was, that the surgeon had one fine April day gone to
+the sea-shore on a shooting expedition, with artificial decoy ducks.
+He was accompanied by an old one-eyed corporal called Ritsi (Finnish
+for Fritz), who had been a pedlar in his youth, and wandered over
+Germany with a pack on his back; but he brought home nothing except a
+change in his name.
+
+The ice still remained in patches, with gaps between; both the old men
+strolled along the edge, and discharged a shot every now and then; but
+it amounted to very little, as both of them had rather poor eyesight.
+It happened early one morning that Bäck thought he saw a pair of fine
+ducks at the further end of the ice, which could only be reached by
+making a long circuit.  He set off, and sure enough the ducks were
+there.  He crept as near as he dared, aimed, and fired ... the ducks'
+feathers were slightly agitated, but they did not stir from the spot.
+"Those creatures are pretty tough," thought Bäck; he reloaded, and
+fired again at thirty paces.  The same result followed.  Much
+astonished, Bäck went nearer, and discovered for the first time that he
+had been shooting at his own decoy ducks, which the wind had
+imperceptibly driven from the inner to the outer edge of the ice.
+
+The old gentleman now thought about returning; but this was easier said
+than done.  The wind had separated the ice on which _he_ stood, from
+the ice which held Ritsi, and the loose block was drifting out to sea.
+The two old friends looked sadly at each other; scarcely a dozen yards
+separated them, and yet the corporal could not assist his companion,
+for there was no boat.  Bäck was drifting slowly and steadily out to
+sea.
+
+"Good-bye, now, comrade," cried the surgeon, whilst still within
+hearing.  "Tell Svenonius and Svanholm that my will is locked up in the
+bureau-drawer to the right.  Tell them to have the bells rung for me
+next Sunday.  As for the funeral, you need not give yourself any
+trouble; I will attend to that myself."
+
+"God have mercy!" yelled the corporal, putting the wrong side of his
+jacket to his eyes, and returning to the shore slowly and tranquilly,
+as if nothing had happened.
+
+For the honour of the good town, it must be said, that the rest of the
+surgeon's friends were far from taking the matter like the corporal.
+The postmaster cursed and swore; the schoolmaster marched out at the
+head of his boys; and the old grandmother quietly sent off a couple of
+able-bodied pilots in their boats to cruise between the blocks of ice.
+The greatest excitement prevailed; confusion and running about
+everywhere; and those who made the most fuss accomplished the least.
+
+Two days passed without any trace of the surgeon; on the third the
+pilots came back from a fruitless search.  All gave the surgeon up for
+lost.  There was sincere mourning in the town for such an old
+institution as Bäck--everyone's friend, and everybody's confidant--he
+was one of the little town's house-spirits, without whom the community
+could not get on.  But what could be done?  When the third Sunday
+arrived, without any news of the unfortunate bird-hunter, the bells
+were rung for his soul, according to custom, and a fine eulogy composed
+by Svenonius, was read in the church, and the city magistrate appointed
+a day in the ensuing week for taking an inventory of his effects.
+
+I hope, however, that the reader, who has noticed the title of this
+veracious story, will not be alarmed.  In reality it would be very hard
+if the surgeon should be called away just now, when Regina sits
+imprisoned at Korsholm, under Fru Marta's stern control, and Bertel
+lies bleeding on the battlefield of Lützen.  And what would become of
+the gentle Meri, of the peasant king of Storkyro, and of so many other
+important personages in this narrative?  Patience! the surgeon had
+certainly gone through worse experiences in his day ... he had not been
+born for nothing on the same day as Napoleon!
+
+Everything was arranged to take the inventory.  Astonishing order
+prevailed in Bäck's garret; something unusual had happened there; the
+place was swept and cleaned.  All his things were set out: medicine
+chest dusted, stuffed birds placed in a row, the collection of eggs
+exposed to view.  The silver-headed Spanish cane stood in a corner; the
+old peruke hung with a melancholy look on its hook; the innermost
+mysteries of Bäck's bureau, the pale locks of hair from former days,
+were drawn forth to be valued in roubles and kopeks; probably not at
+high amounts.  An alderman, with an official air, had taken his place
+at the old oak table, where a large sheet of official paper now
+occupied the space usually reserved for the surgeon's carpenter's
+tools; a clerk was sharpening his pencil opposite the alderman, and the
+old grandmother as hostess, had presented herself with moist eyes to
+deliver up Bäck's property, as the old man had no relations.  One
+thing, however, was still unopened: it was the old seal-skin trunk
+under the surgeon's bed.  The official's eyes occasionally wandered
+there with a pious thought of the profit to be derived from the
+inheritance; but no one knew what the trunk contained, and who was the
+rightful and legal heir.
+
+It was time to begin.  Svanholm and Svenonius were called as
+appraisers.  The alderman coughed once or twice, assumed a judicial
+air, and then said:
+
+"Whereas it has come to the knowledge of the worthy magistrate that the
+deceased surgeon of the High Crown, Andreas Bäck, met his death on the
+ice whilst engaged in bird-shooting; and although not found in body, is
+in soul, rightfully and lawfully killed..."
+
+"I would most humbly beg to contradict that!" suddenly interrupted a
+voice from the door.
+
+The effect was truly marvellous.
+
+The magistrate lost both his wits and official bearing; he turned his
+eyes upwards, and his eloquent tongue for the first time refused its
+office.  The secretary sprang up like a rocket, and knocked over the
+learned Svenonius, who, being somewhat deaf, had not heard the cause of
+the sudden commotion.  The brave Svanholm was in a terrible plight; one
+could have sworn that not even at Karstula had he gone through such an
+ordeal.  He looked as white as a ghost, and tried in vain to compel his
+left foot to advance.  The old grandmother was the only one who showed
+self-possession; she put on her spectacles, went straight to the
+new-comer, and shook her ancient head dubiously, as if to say that it
+was very wrong of corpses to come to life again.
+
+But old Bäck--for who else could it be?--was not at all daunted.  His
+feelings had quite a different character.  When he beheld his dear old
+garret so altered, his precious effects on show, and the magistrate in
+full activity with what Bäck thought none of his business, he was
+seized, excusably enough, with righteous anger, and took the myrmidons
+of the law by the neck, one after the other, and threw them without
+ceremony from the room.  Then came the turn of brother Svenonius, who
+was not spared, and finally Svanholm, before he could utter a word,
+found himself rolling headlong down the stairs.  All this happened in
+the twinkling of an eye.  Only the grandmother remained.  When Bäck met
+her mild, reproachful glance, he was ashamed, and came to his senses.
+
+"Well, well," said he, "you must not take it ill, cousin; I shall teach
+brooms and dusters to disorder my room ... be so kind as to take a
+seat.  It would provoke a stone to see such actions.  See how these
+wretches have scrubbed my room and dusted my birds.  It is a positive
+crime!"
+
+"Dear cousin," said the grandmother, at once vexed and delighted, "I am
+the one to be blamed; we thought you must be drowned."
+
+"Drowned, indeed!" muttered the surgeon.  "I tell you, cousin, that
+poor powder isn't so easily got rid of.  It is true that I floated
+around on that miserable ice-floe for three whole days and nights.  It
+wasn't exactly a warm bed and spread table, but it served.  I shot a
+venturesome seal.  It was pretty oily, I assure you, but 'better that
+than nothing.'  I had a tinder-box and salt, too; so I made a fire of
+my game bag, and fried a steak.  On the fourth day I drifted to firm
+ice at West Bothnia, and marched ashore.  'Now it's time to go home,' I
+thought.  Said and done; I sold my gun and hired a team.  And I tell
+you what, cousin, they would have been spared from upsetting my room,
+and sticking their noses into my affairs, had not the Swedes quadrupled
+the rate, compared with old times.  My purse was empty before I came to
+Haparanda.  Then I thought, 'let the Medical College go to the dogs!'
+and began my old practice with the lancet and 'essentia dulcis,' as I
+went along; and all the old women--God bless you, I thought you were
+going to sneeze--and all the old women were amazed to see former times
+revived.  In this manner I was able to reach home--a little too late,
+but still in time to throw out my uninvited guests."
+
+The surgeon had great difficulty in pardoning his friends for their
+invasion of his peaceful kingdom.  Had they taken his treasures, or
+slandered his good name, he could have forgiven them, but to put his
+room in order was more than he could stand!  Little by little, however,
+the storm was allayed through the old grandmother's wise diplomacy; and
+so the day came when the reconciliation was celebrated with a third
+tale.  It is true that some plain people still looked upon the surgeon
+as a ghost; the magistrate doubted his right to live when he had been
+legally declared dead; the postmaster swore over his sore back, which
+still bore the marks of the meeting with brother Bäck; Svenonius sighed
+over a hole in his twenty-year-old black coat, which he had worn in
+honour of the solemn occasion.  But the old grandmother smiled as
+usual; Anne Sophie was friendly as ever; the little folks were as
+noisy; and--thus it happened that the sunshine scattered the morning
+mists, and the horizon was cleared for the captive Regina.
+
+* * * * *
+
+"My dear friends," began the surgeon, "it may puzzle you why I call
+this story 'Fire and Water.'  You understand _The King's Ring_, and how
+_The Sword and the Plough_ came into conflict.  Perhaps you think that
+I shall now treat you to natural history.  That would be well and good.
+But I entertain the opinion that in a story, humanity is the great
+thing.  If we look at pictures, we heartily admire a fruit or a game
+painting, but I believe figure-painting, with fine human forms, is
+nevertheless superior.  Therefore I do not intend to describe
+conflagrations and deluges, but have chosen my title from the fact that
+human temperaments correspond to the elements--some to fire, some to
+air, others to water and earth.  I intend to tell you about four
+persons: two of whom possessed a fiery nature, and two a watery.  All
+is not said that could be said, for most titles have the fault of only
+giving one aspect of many.  I thought of calling this part 'The Coat of
+Arms,' when I realised that it might also be called 'The Axe.'  I might
+have alarmed you with the terrible title of 'The Curse'; but when I
+came to think it over, I found that it could just as well be styled
+'The Blessing.'  Therefore you will have to be contented with the
+elements; I have now said all I wished, and I will leave you to guess
+the rest."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE TREASURE FROM THE BATTLEFIELD.
+
+The first thing to be borne in mind is, that the story of the Sword and
+the Plough happened before the Battle of Lützen.  On now going back to
+that combat, on the 6th of November, 1632, we may forget for a time
+that the "Sword and the Plough" ever existed, and imagine that we still
+stand by the great hero's dead body, as it lay embalmed in the village
+of Meuchen.
+
+It was a fine but terrible spectacle when the Pappenheimers charged the
+Finns on the east of the River Rippach.  These splendid cuirassiers
+rushed upon Stälhandske; the tired Finns and their horses reeled and
+gave way before this terrific onslaught.  But Stälhandske rallied them
+again, man to man, horse to horse; they fought to the death; and
+friends and foes were mixed together in one bleeding, confused mass.
+Here fell Pappenheim and his bravest men; half of the Finnish cavalry
+were trampled under the horses' hoofs, and yet the battle raged till
+nightfall.
+
+Bertel rode at Stalhandske's side, and here he encountered Pappenheim.
+The youth of twenty could not cope with this arm of steel; the brave
+general struck Bertel on the helmet with such tremendous force, that he
+reeled and became unconscious.  But in falling he mechanically grasped
+his horse by the mane, and the faithful Lapp galloped away, dragging
+his master with one foot in the stirrup.
+
+When Bertel opened his eyes he was in utter darkness.  He vaguely
+remembered the last incident of the combat, and Pappenheim's uplifted
+sword.  He thought he was now dead, and lay in his grave.  He then put
+his hand to his heart; it was beating: he bit his finger; it hurt him.
+He realised that he was still in existence, but how and where it was
+impossible to guess.  He reached out his hand and picked up some straw.
+He felt the damp ground under him, and the empty space above.  He tried
+to raise himself up, but his head was too heavy.  It still suffered
+from the blow of Pappenheim's sword.
+
+Then he heard a voice not far from him, half-complaining, half-mocking,
+saying in Swedish:
+
+"Saints and fiends!  Not a drop of wine!  Those rascally Wallachians
+have grabbed my flask; the miserable hen-thieves!  Hollo, Turk, or
+Jew--it is all one--here with a drop of wine!"
+
+"Is it you, Larsson?" said Bertel in a faint voice, for his tongue was
+also parched with a burning thirst.
+
+"What sort of a marmot is it whispering my name?" replied the voice in
+the darkness.  "Hurrah, boys, loose reins and a smart gallop!  Fire
+your pistols, fling them to the devil, and slash away with swords!
+Cleave their skulls; peel them like turnips!  Grind them to powder!
+The king has fallen ... Devils and heroism, what a king! ... to-day we
+bleed.  To-day we shall die, but first revenge.  That's the way, boys,
+hurrah ... pitch in, East Bothnians!"
+
+"Larsson," repeated Bertel; but his comrade did not heed him.  He
+continued in his delirium to lead his Finns to the combat.
+
+After a time a ray of the late autumn morning shone through the window
+of the miserable hut upon Bertel.  He could now distinguish the straw
+upon the bare ground, and two men asleep.
+
+Then the door opened, and a couple of uncouth, bearded men entered, and
+thrust roughly at the sleepers with the butts of their muskets.
+
+"_Raus!_" they cried in Low German; "it is the signal to start!"
+
+And outside the hut was heard the well-known trumpet-blast, which at
+that time was the usual signal for breaking up the camp.
+
+"May they spear me like a frog," said one of the men in a bad humour,
+"if I can guess what the reverend father wishes to do with these
+heretic dogs.  He should have given them a passport to the arch-fiend,
+their lord and master."
+
+"Fool!" replied the other; "do you not know that the heretic king's
+death is going to be celebrated with a great festival at Ingolstadt?
+The reverend father intends to hold a grand _auto-de-fé_ in honour of
+the happy event."
+
+The two sleepers now stood up half-awake, and Bertel could recognise by
+the faint morning light the little, thick-set Larsson and his own
+faithful Pekka.  But there was no opportunity for explanations.  All
+three were brought out, bound, and put into a cart, and then the long
+caravan, composed of wagons for the wounded and baggage, under the
+charge of the Croats, began slowly to move.
+
+Bertel knew that he and his companions were now prisoners of the
+Imperialists.  He soon recovered his memory, and learned from his
+countrymen in captivity how it all happened.  When the faithful Lapp
+felt the reins loose, he galloped with his unconscious master back to
+camp.  But this was being plundered by the wild Croats, and when they
+saw a Swedish officer dragged along half dead by his horse, they took
+him prisoner, in the hope of a good ransom.  Pekka, who would not
+forsake his master, was also taken prisoner.  Larsson, on the other
+hand, had, at the Pappenheimers' attack, charged too far amongst the
+enemy, and having received a sabre thrust in the shoulder, and a wound
+in the arm, was unable to extricate himself.  Who had triumphed Larsson
+did not know with certainty.
+
+It was now the third day after the battle; they had marched for a day
+and night in a southerly direction, and then stopped for a few hours in
+a deserted village.
+
+"Accursed crew!" exclaimed the little captain, whose jovial disposition
+did not abandon him under any circumstances; "if they had not stolen my
+flask, we might now drink Finland's health together.  But these Croats
+are thieves of the first water, compared with whom our gipsies at home
+are innocent angels.  I should like to hang a couple of hundred of them
+from the ramparts of Korsholm, as they hang petticoats on the walls of
+a Finnish garret."
+
+The march continued with brief halts for several days, not without
+great suffering and discomfort to the wounded, who, improperly
+bandaged, were prevented by their fetters from helping each other.  At
+the outset they travelled through a desolated country, where provisions
+were obtained with great difficulty, and whose population took to
+flight at the sight of the dreaded Croats.  But they soon arrived in
+richer parts, where the Catholic inhabitants assembled to curse the
+heretics, and exult over their king's fall.  The whole Catholic world
+shared this rejoicing.  It is stated that in Madrid brilliant
+performances took place, in which Gustave Adolf, another dragon, was
+conquered by Wallenstein as St. George.
+
+After seven days' wearisome journeying, the cart with the captive Finns
+drove late one evening over a clattering drawbridge, and stopped in a
+small courtyard.  The wounded prisoners were led out, and conducted up
+two crumbling flights of stairs into a turret room in the form of a
+semi-circle.  It seemed to Bertel as if he had seen this place before,
+but darkness and fatigue prevented him from making sure.  The stars
+shone through the grated windows, and the prisoners were revived with a
+cup of wine.  Larsson said with satisfaction:
+
+"I will bet anything that the thieves have stolen their wine from our
+cellars, while we lay in Würzburg, for better stuff I have never
+tasted!"
+
+"Würzburg!" said Bertel thoughtfully.  "Regina!" added he, almost
+unconsciously.
+
+"And the wine-cellar!" sighed Larsson, mocking him.  "I will tell you
+something.
+
+  'The greatest fool upon the earth
+  Is he that believes in a girl's worth.
+  When love comes, the little dear,
+  Marry instead the cup of good cheer.'
+
+
+"The black-eyed young Regina now sits and knits stockings at Korsholm.
+Yes, yes, Fru Marta is not one of the folks who sit and weep in the
+moonlight.  Since we last met I have had news from Vasa through the
+jolly sergeant, Bengt Kristerson.  He said he had fought with your
+father.  You had better believe that the old man is a trump; he carried
+Bengt out at arm's-length and threw him down the steps there at your
+home in Storkyro.  Bengt cursed and swore, declaring that he would put
+the old man and twelve of his hands into the windmill at once, and
+grind them to groats; but Meri begged for them.  Smart fellow, Bengt
+Kristerson! fights like a dragon, and lies like a skipper.  Your
+health!"
+
+"What else did you hear from East Bothnia?" inquired Bertel, who with
+the bashfulness of youth, blushed at the thought of revealing to his
+prosaic friend the secret of his heart--his love for the dark-eyed and
+unhappy Lady Regina von Emmeritz.
+
+"Not much, except the bad harvests, immense drain caused by the war,
+and heavy conscriptions.  The old men on the farm, your father and
+mine, quarrel as usual, and make it up again.  Meri pines for you and
+sings doleful songs.  Do you remember that splendid girl, Katri? round
+as a turnip, red as mountain-ash berries, and soft about the chin as a
+lump of butter.  She has run away with a soldier.  Your health, my boy!"
+
+"Nothing more?" said Bertel abstractedly.
+
+"Nothing more!  What the devil do you want to know, when you don't care
+for the prettiest girl in the whole of Storkyro.  'Yes, _noch etivas_,'
+says the German.  There has been a great affray at Korsholm.  The
+conscripts got it into their heads that Lady Regina had tried to kill
+the king with 'witch-shots,' and then they stormed Korsholm, and burned
+the girl alive.  Cursedly jolly! here's to the heretics!  We also know
+the art of holding _autos-da-fé_."
+
+Bertel started up, forgetting his wounds; but pain mastered him.
+Without a cry he sank fainting into Larsson's arms.
+
+The honest captain was both troubled and angry.  While he bathed
+Bertel's temples with the remainder of the noble fluid in the tankard,
+and presently brought him to life once more, he gave vent to his
+feelings in the following manner, crescendo from piano to forte.
+
+"There, there, Bertel ... what next?  What the deuce, boy?  Are you in
+love with the girl?  Faint like a lady's maid!  Courage! did I say that
+they had burned her?  No, my lad, she was only a little scorched,
+according to what Bengt Kristerson says, and afterwards she tore Fru
+Marta's eyes out, and climbed like a squirrel to the top of the castle.
+Such things happen every day in war ... Well, I declare, you have got
+both your eyes open at last.  You are still alive, you milk-baked wheat
+loaf ... are you not ashamed to behave like a poltroon?  You are a
+pretty soldier!  blitz-donnerwetter-kreutz-Pappenheim, you are a pomade
+pot!  D--n it, now the tankard is empty also!"
+
+The stout little warrior would perhaps have continued to vent his bad
+humour for some time longer, especially as there was no consolation now
+left in the cup, had not the door opened, and a female figure then
+stepped over the threshold.  At this sight the captain's pale and
+fluffy face brightened up.  Bertel was laid aside, and Larsson leaned
+eagerly forward, in order to see better, for the light of the single
+lamp was very faint.  But the result of his observation did not seem
+very satisfactory.
+
+"A nun!  Ah, by Heaven ... to convert us!"
+
+"Peace be with you," said a youthful voice from underneath the veil.
+"I am sent here by the worthy prioress of the cloister of 'Our Lady' to
+bind your wounds, and heal them, if it is the will of the saints."
+
+"Upon my honour, charming friend, I am much obliged; let us become
+better acquainted," said the captain, as he stretched out his hand to
+lift the nun's veil.  In a flash the latter retreated, and two soldiers
+appeared at the door.
+
+"The devil!" exclaimed Larsson, startled, "What proud nuns they have
+here!  When I was at Würzburg, I used to get a dozen kisses a day from
+the young sisters at the convent; such sins always obtain absolution.
+Well," he continued, seeing the nun still hesitating at the door, "your
+venerableness must not take offence at a soldier's freedom of speech;
+an honest soldier is a born gallant.  Although an unbelieving heretic,
+I can talk Latin like a monk.  When we stayed at Munich I was very
+intimate with a plump Bavarian nun, twenty-seven years old, with brown
+eyes and a Roman nose."
+
+"Hold your tongue!" impatiently whispered Bertel, "you will drive the
+nun away."
+
+"I haven't said a word.  Walk in; don't be frightened.  I will bet it
+is a long time since you saw twenty-seven.  _Posito_, says the
+Frenchman, that your venerableness is an old woman."
+
+The nun returned in silence, with two others, and examined Bertel's
+wounded head.  A delicate white hand drew out some scissors and cut his
+hair off on each side of the wound.  In a short time Bertel's wound was
+dressed by an experienced hand.  Bertel, touched by this compassion,
+kissed the nun's hand.
+
+"Upon my honour, charming matron," cried the voluble captain, "I am
+jealous of my friend, who is fifteen years younger than I.  Deign to
+stretch out your gentle hand and plaster this brave arm, which has
+conquered so many pious sisters' pity..."
+
+The silent nun began to undo the bandages which covered Larsson's
+wounds.  Her hand touched his.
+
+"_Potz donnerwetter!_" burst out the captain in surprise.  "What a fine
+and soft little hand!  I beg your pardon, amiable Fru doctoress; _ex
+ungua leonem_, says one of the fathers of the church ... that is to say
+in good Swedish: by the paw one knows the lion.  I will wager ten
+bottles of old Rhine against a cast-off stirrup, that this little white
+hand would much rather caress a knight's cheek than finger rosaries
+night and day."
+
+The nun drew her hand away.  The gallant captain feared the
+consequences of his gallantry.
+
+"I will say no more; I am silent as a _karthäuser_ monk.  But I will
+say that this hand is not an old woman's ... well, well, your lovely
+venerableness hears that I keep silent."
+
+"_Tempus est consummatum, itur in missam_," said a solemn voice at the
+door, and the nun hastened her task.  In a few moments the prisoners
+were again alone.
+
+"I have heard that voice before," said Bertel thoughtfully.  "We are
+surrounded by mysteries."
+
+"Bah!" replied the captain, "it was a mangy and jealous monk.  Bless
+me, what a dear little hand!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+TWO OLD ACQUAINTANCES.
+
+When the autumn sun on the following morning spread its first rays into
+the turret room, Bertel arose and looked out of the iron-barred window.
+It was a beautiful view that here met his eye.  Underneath the turret
+wound a lovely river, and on the other side of it lay a town with
+thirty spires, and beyond were seen a number of still verdant vineyards.
+
+Bertel at once recognised Würzburg.  The castle of Marienburg, where
+the prisoners were confined, had at the retreat of the Swedes fallen
+back into the bishop's hands; but his grace, on account of the
+insecurity of the times, did not return there himself, but remained in
+Vienna.  The castle had suffered much, from the last conquest, and the
+consequent plundering; one tower had been destroyed, and the moat was
+filled up in several places.  At present there were only fifty men in
+the garrison, guarding the sisters of charity from the cloisters in the
+town, and many sick and wounded.
+
+When Bertel had carefully examined his prison, he thought he recognised
+Regina's room, the same in which that beautiful young lady with her
+maids in waiting had watched the battle, and where the image of the
+Holy Virgin had been broken into fragments by the splinters from the
+cannon-shot.*
+
+
+* The surgeon forgets that this room was totally destroyed.--Author.
+
+
+"Here," thought the dreaming young man, "she slept the last night
+before the storm."
+
+For Bertel this room was sacred; when he pressed his lips against the
+cold walls, he thought he kissed the marks of Regina's tears.
+
+A wonderful thought struck him like lightning.  If the nun that visited
+them yesterday was a princess ... if the white hand belonged to Regina!
+It would be a miracle, but ... love believes in miracles.  Bertel's
+heart beat fast.
+
+His neglected wounds had greatly improved under the gentle hands of his
+nurse.  He now felt much stronger.  His unfortunate comrades were still
+asleep after their terrible journey.  Then the door was quietly opened,
+and the nun softly entered with a drink for the wounded prisoners.
+Bertel felt his head swim.  Overcome by his violent emotions, he fell
+on his knees before her.
+
+"Your name, you kind angel, who remembers the prisoners!" he cried.
+"Tell me your name, let me see your face ... Ah!  I should have known
+you amongst thousands ... you are Regina, yourself!"
+
+"You make a mistake," said the same kind voice that Bertel had heard
+the day before.  It was not Regina's voice, and still he knew the
+tones.  To whom then did it belong?
+
+Bertel rushed forward and pulled the veil from the nun's head.  In
+front of him stood the beautiful mild Ketchen with a smiling face.  The
+surprised Bertel drew back.
+
+"Imprudent one," she said, covering her face with her hands.  "I wished
+to have you in my care, but now you make me leave the place to another."
+
+Ketchen disappeared.  On the evening of the same day another nun
+entered the room.
+
+Larsson addressed a long speech to her, and put her hand to his lips,
+and impressed on it a loud kiss.  He then swore fearfully.
+
+"Millions of devils!" he said, "that I should kiss an old shrivelled
+hand like that.  The skin was like a century-old parchment."
+
+"Verily, my dear Bertel," continued the chagrined captain with
+philosophical resignation, "there are secrets in nature which will for
+ever remain concealed from human sagacity.  This hand, for
+example--_manus mana, manum_--hand, as the old Roman used to say: this
+hand, my friend, would undoubtedly occupy a shining place in the Greek
+poet Ovid's 'Metamorphoses,' which we formerly studied in the Cathedral
+School at Abo, the time my father wanted to make me a priest.
+Yesterday I could have sworn that it was the beautiful white hand of a
+young girl, and to-day I will be shaved as bare as a monk it it was not
+a hand that belongs to a seventy-year-old washerwoman.  _Sic unde ubi
+apud unquam post_, as the ancients used to say.  That is, so can a
+pretty girl be changed into a witch before anyone knows it."
+
+The prisoners' wounds healed rapidly under the care of the nuns.  The
+fierce autumn storms whistled around the castle turrets, and the heavy
+rain beat against the small panes.  The verdure of the vineyards faded,
+and a thick, heavy mist rose from the Main, and obscured the view of
+the town.
+
+"I cannot stand it any longer," growled Larsson.  "The wretches! they
+do not give us either wine or dice.  And forgive me, Saint, the devil
+may kiss their hands or lips, not I.  No.  I have a great respect for
+old women.  I cannot stand this.  I will jump out of the window."
+
+"Do it," said Bertel, provoked.
+
+"No, I will not jump out of the window," said the captain.  "No, my
+dear friend--_micus ameus_, as we learned people used to express
+ourselves--I will instead honour our companion with a game."
+
+And the inventive captain for the thirtieth time summoned Pekka to a
+game of pitch and toss.  This uninteresting game, which was his only
+diversion, was played with a Carl IX. six-öre piece.
+
+"Tell me what they are building over there on the square of Würzburg,
+just opposite the bank of the Main?" said Bertel.
+
+"An ale-house," said Larsson.  "Crown!"
+
+"It looks to me like a pyre."
+
+"Tail!" repeated Larsson monotonously.  "Dash it, what ill luck I have;
+this damned Limingo peasant will win my horse, my saddle, and my
+stirrups."
+
+"The first morning after we were taken prisoners, I heard something
+about an _auto-de-fé_, to celebrate the battle of Lützen.  What do you
+think of it?"
+
+"I?  What should I care; they might burn a dozen witches for our
+amusement."
+
+"But if we are concerned in it?  If they are waiting for the bishop's
+arrival?"
+
+Larsson dilated his small grey eyes, and took hold of his goatee.
+
+"Blitz-donner-kreutz ... the wretched Jesuits!  They would cook us like
+turnips ... we ... the conquerors of the Holy Roman Empire ... I mean,
+my friend Bertel, that in such desperate straits, an honest soldier
+would not be to blame if he tried to escape in silence--for example,
+through the window..."
+
+"There is a fall of seventy feet to the Main underneath."
+
+"The door," said the thoughtful captain.
+
+"Is guarded night and day by two armed men."
+
+The captain fell into some melancholy reflections.  Time passed on; it
+was evening; it became night.  The nun with their suppers did not
+appear.
+
+"The festival begins with a fast," muttered the captain in a gloomy
+tone.  "I am shaped like a fish, if I do not wring the head off our
+neglectful nun as soon as she appears."
+
+At this moment the door opened, and the nun entered alone.  Larsson
+exchanged a glance with his companions, suddenly approached the nun,
+caught her round the neck, and held her against the wall.
+
+"Be still, like a good child, highly honoured abbess," mockingly said
+the captain; "if you make a sound you are lost.  By right I ought to
+throw you out of the window and let you have a swim in the Main, to
+teach you _punctum preciosum_, that is, a precise punctuality in your
+attendance.  But I will give you grace for this night.  Tell me, you
+most miserable of meal bringers, what is the meaning of that fire which
+they are preparing on the square; who is going to be roasted there?"
+
+"For the sake of all the saints, speak low," whispered the nun.  "I am
+Ketchen, and have come to save you.  A great danger threatens you.
+To-morrow the bishop is expected, and Father Hieronymus, the implacable
+enemy of all the Finns, has sworn to burn you alive for the glory of
+the saints."
+
+"My fine little soft hand!" cried Larsson delighted.  "Upon my honour,
+I am a fool not to recognise it at once.  Well, my beautiful friend,
+for the glory or St. Brita I will take a kiss on the spot..."
+
+The captain kept his word.  But Ketchen freed herself, and said quickly:
+
+"If you do not behave yourself, young man, you will afford fuel for the
+flames.  Hurry! bind me to the bedpost, and tie a handkerchief over my
+mouth.
+
+"Bind you..." replied the captain; "explain yourself."
+
+"Make haste! the guard are drunk and asleep, but in twenty minutes they
+will be inspected by the pater himself.  Seize their cloaks and hurry
+to get out.  The passwords are Petrus and Paulus."
+
+"And yourself?" said the captain.
+
+"They will find me bound.  I have been overpowered, and my mouth
+stopped."
+
+"Noble girl!  The crown of all Franconia's sisters of charity; had I
+not sworn never to marry....  Very well, hasten, Bertel! hurry, Pekka,
+you lazy dog!  Farewell, little rogue! another kiss ... Good-bye!"
+
+The three prisoners hastened out.  But scarcely were they outside the
+door when they were seized by iron fists, thrown down, and bound.
+
+"Take the dogs down into the treasury," said a well-known voice.  It
+was Father Hieronymus.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE TREASURY.
+
+Bound hand and foot, the prisoners soon found themselves in the deep,
+dark, damp vault, blasted out of the rock, where the Bishop of Würzburg
+had kept his treasures before the Swedes delivered him from the
+trouble.  No ray of light penetrated the gloom, and the moisture from
+the rocks trickled through the crevices and dropped steadily on the
+ground.
+
+"Lightning and Croats! may all the devils take you, cursed earless
+monk!" bawled the captain, as soon as he felt firm ground beneath him.
+"To shut up officers of his Royal Highness and the Crown in this
+rat-trap.  _Diabolus infernalis multum plus plurimum!_ ... Are you
+alive, Bertel?"
+
+"Yes.  In order to be burned living to-morrow."
+
+"Do you believe that, Bertel?" asked the captain in a lugubrious tone.
+
+"I know this treasury.  On three sides is the solid rock, on the other
+a door of iron, and the man who guards us here is harder than either
+rock or metal.  We shall never see Finland again!  Never shall I see
+_her_ more..."
+
+"Listen to me, Bertel; you are a smart chap, but that does not prevent
+you from talking like a milksop occasionally.  You are in love with the
+black-eyed lady; well, well, I will say nothing about that; love is a
+bandit, as Ovidius so truly says.  But I cannot stand whimpering.  If
+we live, there are other girls to kiss; if we die, then good-bye to
+them all.  So you really fancy that they intend to roast us like picked
+woodcocks?"
+
+"That entirely depends upon you yourselves," answered a voice in the
+darkness.  All three prisoners started from fright.
+
+"The evil one is here in the midst of us!" exclaimed Larsson.
+
+Pekka began to say his prayers.  Then a clear ray from a dark lantern
+shot through the darkness, and they all saw the Jesuit Hieronymus
+standing alone near them.
+
+"It depends upon you," he repeated.  "To escape is impossible.  Your
+king is dead; your army defeated; the whole world acknowledges the
+power of the Church and the Emperor.  The pile is ready, and your
+bodies shall burn in honour of the saints.  But the holy Church in its
+clemency wishes to save you, and has sent me here to offer you mercy."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Larsson mockingly.  "Come, worthy father, loosen my
+bonds and let me embrace you.  I offer you my friendship, and of course
+you believe me.  How, says Seneca, _homo homini lupus_, we wolves are
+all brothers."
+
+"I offer you mercy," continued the Jesuit coldly, "on _three_
+conditions, which you will certainly accept.  The first is, that you
+abjure your heretic faith and publicly join the only saving Church."
+
+"Never!" exclaimed Bertel hastily.
+
+"Be quiet!" said the captain.  "Well, _posito_ that we abjure the
+Lutheran faith?"
+
+"Then," continued the Jesuit, "as prisoners of war you shall be
+exchanged for the high-born Lady and Princess Regina von Emmeritz, whom
+your king tyrannically sent a prisoner to the north."
+
+"It shall be done!" answered Bertel eagerly.
+
+"Be still!" cried Larsson.  "Well, go on; _posito_ that we accomplish
+the lady's deliverance?"
+
+"Only a trifle remains.  I demand of Lieutenant Bertel King Gustaf
+Adolf's ring."
+
+"Your money or your life, like a highwayman!" said Larsson derisively.
+
+"You ask for that which I do not possess," answered Bertel.
+
+The Jesuit gave him a suspicious glance.
+
+"The king ordered Duke Bernhard to give you the ring, and you must have
+received it."
+
+"All this is quite unknown to me," said Bertel with truth, but
+surprised and delighted at this unexpected news.
+
+The Jesuit resumed his smiling composure.
+
+"If that is how it stands, my dear sons," said he, "let us talk no more
+about the ring.  As far as your conversion to the true believing Church
+is concerned..."
+
+Bertel was just about to answer, but was interrupted by the captain,
+who, a moment before, had made a movement with the upper part of his
+body, which the light did not reach.
+
+"Yes, as far as that matter is concerned," Larsson hastened to add;
+"you know, reverend father, that there are two sides to it: _questio
+an_ and _questio quomodo_.  Now to speak of _questio an_ first, my
+sainted rector, Vincentius Flachsenius, used to say, always place
+_negare_ as _prima regula juris_.  Your reverence undoubtedly finds it
+unexpected and agreeable to hear a royal captain talk Latin like a
+cardinal.  Your reverence should know that we, in Abo Cathedral School,
+studied Ciceronem, Senecam, and Ovidium, also called Naso; for my part
+I have always considered Cicero a great talker, and Seneca a blockhead;
+but as for Ovid ..."
+
+The Jesuit moved towards the door, and said dryly,
+
+"Then you choose the stake?"
+
+"Rather than the disgrace of an apostasy!" exclaimed Bertel, who had
+not noticed Larsson's hints and motions.
+
+"My friend," the captain hastily added, "thinks very sensibly and
+naturally that the worst part of the matter is the public scandal.
+Thus, worthy father, let us confer about _questio quomodo_.  _Posito_
+that we become good Catholics, and enter the Emperor's service ... but
+deign to come a little closer; my friend Bertel is rather hard of
+hearing ever since he had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of
+the mighty Pappenheim."
+
+The Jesuit cautiously advanced a little nearer, after convincing
+himself with a glance that retreat stood open.
+
+"It is I who decide the conditions," said he haughtily.  "Yes or no?"
+
+"Yes, yes, of course," replied Larsson quickly, as he continued to rub
+himself.  "Consequently we are on sound grounds both with _questio an_
+and _questio quomodo_.  Your reverence possesses a persuasive tongue.
+We will now come to _questio ubi_ and _questio quando_, for according
+to _logicam_ and _meta-physicam_ ... Pardon me, worthy father, I don't
+say a word, I consent to it all.  But," continued the captain, as he
+lowered his voice, "deign to cast a glance at my friend Bertel's right
+forefinger.  I can tell your reverence my friend is a great rogue; I am
+very much mistaken if he has not got the king's ring on at this moment."
+
+The Jesuit, carried away by his curiosity, came a few steps nearer.
+Swift as an eel Larsson rolled himself to the door, for he was unable
+to rise on account of his bonds; and when the monk wished to retreat,
+the captain, who had cut through the ligatures which held his right
+arm, against a sharp stone, suddenly seized the Jesuit's legs and threw
+him down.  Father Hieronymus made desperate efforts to free himself
+from the captain's grasp; the lantern was broken into fragments, the
+light extinguished, and a thick darkness enveloped the wrestlers.
+Bertel and Pekka, both unable to get up and assist, rolled themselves
+at random towards the spot, but without reaching it.  Then the brave
+captain felt a sharp sensation in his shoulder, and directly afterwards
+a warm stream of blood.  With a mighty oath he wrenched the dagger from
+his enemy's hand, and returned the stab.  The Jesuit now begged for
+mercy.
+
+"With the greatest pleasure, my son," answered the sarcastic captain.
+"But only on three conditions: the first, that you renounce Loyola,
+your lord and master, and declare him to be an emissary of the devil.
+Do you agree to it?"
+
+"I agree to everything," murmured the pater.
+
+"The second: that you start off and hang yourself to the first hook you
+find in the ceiling."
+
+"Yes, yes, only let me go."
+
+"The third: that you travel to Beelzebub, your patron," ... and with
+these words Larsson flung his enemy violently against the rocky wall,
+after which there was a dead silence.
+
+The dagger was now used to quickly sever the prisoners' bonds, and then
+it only remained to find the door.
+
+When the three fugitives, after having secured the treasury door from
+the outside, reached the dark and narrow stairway, which led to the
+upper portion of the castle, they stayed a moment to consult together.
+Their situation even now was not enviable, for they knew of old that
+the stairs led to the bishop's former bed-chamber, from whence two or
+three rooms had to be crossed before they came to the large armoury,
+and through that to the courtyard, after which they still had to pass
+the closed drawbridge and the guard.  All the rooms, except the
+bed-chamber, which the Jesuit himself had taken possession of, had, two
+hours before, when the prisoners were carried down, been filled partly
+with soldiers, and partly with the sick and their nurses.
+
+"One thing grieves me," whispered Larsson, "and that is, that I did not
+draw the fur off the fox when I held him by the ears.  In the garments
+of piety I could have gone scot-free through purgatory like another
+_Saulus inter prophetas_.  But as it is, my friend Bertel, I ask, in my
+simplicity, how shall we get away from here?"
+
+"We will cut our way out.  The garrison are asleep; the darkness of the
+night favours us."
+
+"I confess, my friend, that if anybody, even I, Larsson himself, should
+call you a poltroon, I would call that fellow a liar.  It is true that
+you once as good as _solo_, alone, _alienus_, all by yourself, took
+this fortress; but you had then at least a sword in your hand, and a
+few thousands of brave boys in the rear.  Hush!  I heard a step on the
+stairs ... no, it was nothing.  Let us push on cautiously.  Here it
+will serve us to tread gingerly, like maidens; the heavy peasant's
+boots sound as if we were a squadron of cavalry."
+
+The fugitives had ascended about thirty or forty steps, and yet there
+seemed more, until a faint ray of light glimmered at the top in the
+passage.  They then came to a door; it stood ajar.  They stopped, and
+held their breath; not a sound could be heard.  The brave captain now
+ventured to put in his head, then his foot, and finally his whole stout
+person.
+
+"We are on the right track," he whispered; "boots off, the whole
+company must march in their stockinged feet--_posito_ that the company
+has stockings.  March!"
+
+The bishop's bed-chamber, into which the three now entered on tip-toe,
+was a large and magnificent room.  A flickering lamp faintly illumined
+the precious gobelin tapestry, the gilded images of the saints, and the
+ebony bedstead, inlaid with pearls, where the wealthy prelate used to
+fall asleep, with his goblet of Rhenish wine beside him.  No living
+creature was visible, but from one of the windows which overlooked the
+courtyard they could see the castle chapel opposite, brilliantly
+lighted and filled with people.  Even the courtyard was occupied by a
+crowd, visible owing to the reflection from the windows, and many of
+whom carried lighted candles.
+
+"I will let them salt and pickle me like a cucumber if I understand
+what all these people are doing here in the dead of night," muttered
+the enraged captain.  "You will find that they have assembled here to
+see three honest Finnish soldiers roasted by a slow fire like Aland
+herrings."
+
+"We must look for weapons, and die like men," said Bertel, as he
+glanced through the room.
+
+"Hurrah!" he exclaimed, "here are three swords, just what we require."
+
+"And three daggers," added Larsson, who, in a large niche behind the
+image of a saint, found a little arsenal of all kinds of weapons.  "The
+worthy fathers have a certain weakness for daggers, as the East
+Bothnians for 'punkkons,' or peasants' knives."
+
+"I think," joined in the taciturn Pekka, as he caught sight of a
+good-sized flask in a corner, "that to-night being Xmas eve..."
+
+"Brave boy!" interrupted the captain, inspired also by this sight, "you
+have a wonderfully keen scent where good liquor is concerned.  Pious
+Jesuit, you have, anyhow, accomplished some good in the world!  Xmas
+eve, did you say?  Stupid, why didn't you tell us at once?  It is clear
+as the day, that half of Würzburg is streaming to the chapel to hear
+Father Hieronymus say mass.  'Pon my honour, I fear that he will keep
+them waiting for some time, the good pater.  Here goes, my friend, I
+will drink to you; an officer ought to always set his troops a good
+example.  Your health, my boys ... damnation ... the miserable monk has
+basely cheated us.  I have swallowed poison.  I am a dead man!"  And
+the honest captain turned pale as a corpse.
+
+Both Bertel and Pekka had hard work to restrain their laughter,
+notwithstanding their critical position, when they saw Larsson at once
+white from fright and black from the fluid he had drank and spat out
+again.
+
+"Be more careful another time," said Bertel, "and you will avoid
+drinking ink."
+
+"Ink!  I might have known that the earless scrawler would be up to some
+devilry.  Two things trouble me to-night more than all the
+_autos-da-fé_: that the sweet Ketchen, with the soft hands, deceived
+us, and that I have swallowed the most useless stuff in the world--ink,
+bah!"*
+
+
+* Here Captain Svanholm trod on Cousin Svenonius' toes, and the latter
+thoughtfully took a pinch of snuff.
+
+
+"If we had nothing else to do I could show you something that ink has
+done," rejoined Bertel, as he hastily turned over a pile of papers on
+the writing-table.  "Here is a letter from the archbishop ... he is
+coming to-morrow ... we are to be solemnly burned ... they will tempt
+us to abjure our faith, and promise us grace ... but burn us,
+nevertheless!  Infamous!"
+
+"Roman!" observed the captain phlegmatically.
+
+In the meantime Larsson had drawn out three monks' cloaks and hoods;
+they put them on, and now ventured to proceed farther on their
+dangerous enterprise.
+
+The next two rooms were empty.  Two common beds indicated that some
+menial monks had here their abode, and were now gone to mass.
+
+"Bravo," whispered Larsson, "they will take us for sheep in wolves'
+clothing, and believe that we are also going to attend mass.  Hist!
+didn't you hear something?  A woman's voice.  Be still!"
+
+They stopped, and heard in the darkness a young female's voice, praying:
+
+"Holy Virgin, forgive me this time, and save me from death; I will
+to-morrow take the veil, and serve you for ever."
+
+"It is Ketchen's voice," said the captain.  "She may be innocent, poor
+child!  Upon my honour, it would be base of a cavalier not to deliver a
+sweet girl with such a soft hand."
+
+"Let us be off!" whispered Bertel in vexation.  But the captain had
+already discovered a little door, bolted on the outside; inside was a
+cell, and in the cell a trembling girl.  Her eyes, used to the
+darkness, saw the monk's garb, and she threw herself at the captain's
+feet, exclaiming,
+
+"Grace, my father, grace!  I will confess all; I have favoured the
+prisoners' flight; I have given wine to the guard.  But spare my life,
+have mercy upon me, I am so young.  I do not wish to die."
+
+"Who the devil has said that you are to die, my brave girl?"
+interrupted the captain's voice.  "No, you shall live, with your soft
+hand, and your warm lips, as true as I'm not a Jesuit, but Lars
+Larsson, captain in his Royal Majesty's and the Crown's service, and
+herewith take you ... as my wedded wife, for better or for worse,"
+continued the captain, no doubt because he thought that the well-known
+formula ought to be said to an end when he had once begun it.
+
+"Away, away, with or without the girl, but away; they are coming, and
+we still have to pass the large armoury!"
+
+"Allow me to tell you, my friend Bertel, that you are the greatest
+fidget I know, _maximus fiescus_, as the ancients so truly expressed
+themselves.  How is it, my girl, you are not a nun ... only a novice?
+Well, it makes no difference to me.  You shall be my wedded wife ... in
+case I ever marry.  Here is a cloak; there now, straighten yourself up
+and look bold."
+
+"It is no cloak, it is a mass-robe," whispered Ketchen, who had
+scarcely time to recover from her amazement.
+
+"The deuce, a mass-robe!  Wait, you take my cloak, and I will take the
+robe.  I shall chant in their ears _dies irae_, so that all will be
+astonished."
+
+The sound of several voices in the armoury outside interrupted the
+captain in his priestly speculations.
+
+"They have missed the Jesuit, they are looking for him, and we are lost
+through your silly jabbering," whispered the exasperated Bertel.  "We
+must be careful now not to betray ourselves.  Come along, all of you."
+
+"And Latin first!" exclaimed the captain.
+
+All four went out.  In the armoury there were about thirty sick beds,
+but only two sisters in attendance.  This sight was reassuring, but
+much more dangerous was the meeting with two monks, who were in violent
+altercation in the doorway.  When they saw Larsson in the mass-robe,
+and three figures behind him in hooded cloaks, the pious fathers were
+evidently startled.  The captain raised his arm to bless them, uttered
+a solemn _pax vobiscum_, and was then going to steal by with a grave
+step, when he was checked by the foremost monk.
+
+"Worthy father," said the latter, as he surveyed the unknown prelate
+from head to foot, "what procures our castle the honour at so unusual a
+time...?"
+
+"_Pax vobiscum!_" repeated the captain devoutly.  "The pious Father
+Hieronymus orders you to say mass with all your might ... his reverence
+is sick ... he has toothache."
+
+"Let us go and wait upon him," said one of the monks, entering the
+smaller room.  But the other seized Larsson by the robe, and regarded
+him in a way which much alarmed the brave captain.
+
+"_Quis vus et quid eltis!_" said the captain in a regular dilemma.
+"_Qui quoe quod, meus tuus suus_ ... go to the devil, you bald-headed
+baboons!" roared Larsson, unable to restrain himself any longer, and
+pushing the obstinate monk into the chamber he bolted the door.  Then
+all four hastened at full speed down to the courtyard.  The alarm was
+immediately given behind them; the monks shouting at the top of their
+voices, and the nuns joining in, until the crowd of people who thronged
+the courtyard began to listen.
+
+"We are lost!" whispered Ketchen, "if we do not reach the drawbridge by
+the back way."
+
+They hurried there ... the tumult increased ... they passed the guard
+at the large sally-port.
+
+"Halt! who's there?"
+
+"Petrus and Paulus," promptly answered Bertel.  They were allowed to
+pass.  Fortunately the drawbridge was down.  But the whole castle was
+now alarmed.
+
+"We will jump into the river, the night is dark, they will not see us!"
+cried Bertel.
+
+"No," said Larsson, "I will not leave my girl, even if it should cost
+me my head."
+
+"Here stand three saddled horses, be quick and mount."
+
+"Up, you sweetest of all the nuns in Franconia, up in the saddle!" and
+the captain hastily swung the trembling Ketchen before him on the
+horse's back.  They all galloped away into the darkness.  But behind
+them raged tumult and uproar, the alarm bells sounding in all the
+turrets, and the whole of Würzburg wondering greatly what could have
+happened on Xmas eve itself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+DUKE BERNHARD AND BERTEL.
+
+Three months after the events related in the preceding chapter we find
+Lieutenant Bertel one day in one of the rooms at the martial court,
+which Duke Bernhard of Weimar kept sometimes at Kassel and sometimes at
+Nassau, or wherever the duties of the war compelled him to go.
+
+It was a spring day in March, 1633.  Officers came and departed,
+orderlies hastened in all directions; Duke Bernhard had the greatest
+share of the south and west of Germany to look after, and the times
+were most anxious.
+
+After having waited a good while, the young officer was conducted to
+the duke.  The latter looked up irritably from his maps and papers, and
+seemed to wait to be spoken to; but Bertel remained silent.
+
+"Who are you?" asked the duke in sharp, harsh tones.
+
+"Gustaf Bertel, Lieutenant in his Royal Majesty's Finnish cavalry."
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+The young man coloured up and remained silent.  The duke noticed this
+and looked at him with a discontented air.
+
+"I understand," the latter said at last, "you have as usual been
+fighting with the German officers about the girls.  I will not allow
+this sort of thing.  A soldier's sword should be reserved for his
+country's enemies."
+
+"I have not been fighting, your highness."
+
+"All the worse.  You came to ask for a furlough to go to Finland.  I
+refuse it to you.  I want all my men here.  You will stay, Lieutenant.
+Good-bye!"
+
+"I do not come to ask for a furlough."
+
+"Well, What the devil do you want?  Can you not speak out?  Be short
+and quick!  Leave the clergy to say prayers, and the girls to blush."
+
+"Your highness has received from his Majesty, the late king, a ring..."
+
+"I cannot remember it."
+
+"... which his Majesty asked your highness to give to an officer in his
+life-guards."
+
+The duke passed his hand over his high forehead.
+
+"That officer is dead," he said.
+
+"I am that officer, your highness.  I was wounded at Lützen, and
+shortly after taken prisoner by the Imperialists."
+
+Duke Bernhard beckoned Bertel to come nearer, and gave him a searching
+look; he seemed satisfied with his examination.
+
+"Close the door," he said, "and sit down by my side."
+
+Bertel obeyed.  His cheeks were burning with anxiety.
+
+"Young man," said the duke, "you carry on your forehead the marks of
+your origin, and I ask for no further evidence.  Your mother is a
+peasant's daughter of Storkyro, in Finland, and her name is Emerentia
+Aronsdotter Bertila."
+
+"No, your highness, the person you speak of is my elder sister, born of
+my father's first marriage.  I have never seen my mother."
+
+The duke looked at him with surprise.
+
+"Very well," said he doubtfully, as he looked among some papers in his
+portfolio, "we will now speak of this sister of yours, Emerentia
+Aronsdotter.  Her father had performed great services for Carl IX., and
+he was urged to ask a favour.  He asked to be allowed to send his only
+daughter, then his only child, to Stockholm, to be educated with the
+young ladies of rank at the Court."
+
+"I know very little about this."
+
+"At thirteen years of age the peasant girl was sent to Stockholm, where
+her father's vanity and wealth procured her an abode, appearance, and
+education, far above her station.  He was consumed with ambition, and
+as he himself could not gain a noble crest, he relied upon his
+daughter's high birth on her mother's side.  Bertila's first wife was
+an orphan of the noble family Stjernkors, deprived of her inheritance
+by the war, and then rejected by her proud family on account of her
+marriage with the rich peasant Bertila."
+
+"This is all unknown to me."
+
+"The young Emerentia suffered a great deal in Stockholm from the envy
+and contempt of her aristocratic companions; for many of them were
+poorer than herself, and could not endure a plebeian at their side as
+an equal.
+
+"But her beauty was as extraordinary as her wisdom and goodness.
+Within two years she had acquired the habits of the upper classes,
+whilst preserving the rustic simplicity of her heart.  This wonderful
+combination of mental and physical graces reminded old persons of a
+lovely picture of their youthful days--Karin Mansdotter."
+
+As he said these words, the duke closely watched the young officer; but
+Bertel did not betray any agitation, and remained silent.  All this was
+something new and incomprehensible to him.
+
+"Very well," continued the duke after a pause.  "This beauty did not
+long remain unnoticed.  A very young man of high birth soon fell in
+love with the beautiful maiden, then only fifteen years old, and she
+returned his affection with the whole devotion of a first love.  This
+attachment soon became known to those who surrounded the noble youth;
+state policy was endangered, and the nobility were offended by the
+distinction thus conferred on a girl of low birth.  They resolved to
+marry the maiden to an officer of the same origin as herself, who had
+distinguished himself in the Danish War.  This intention came to the
+ears of the young people.  Poor children! they were so young; he
+seventeen, she fifteen, both inexperienced and in love.  Shortly after,
+the youth was sent to the war in Poland.  The young girl's marriage
+came to nothing, and she was sent back by the offended nobility in
+disgrace to her cabin in Finland.  Do you wish to hear any more,
+Lieutenant Bertel?"
+
+"I do not understand, your highness, what this account of my sister's
+life has to do with..."
+
+"... the ring you ask for.  Patience.  When the young man had a secret
+meeting with his beloved for the last time, just before his departure,
+she gave him a ring, whose earlier history I do not know, but which was
+probably made by a Finnish sorcerer, and had all the qualities of a
+talisman.  She conjured her lover to always wear this ring on his
+finger, in war and danger, as he would thus become invulnerable.  Twice
+this warning was forgotten, once at Dirschau..."
+
+"Great God!"
+
+"... the second time at Lützen."
+
+Bertel's emotions were of such a violent nature that all the blood left
+his cheeks, and he sat pale as a marble statue.
+
+"Young man, you now know part of what you ought to know, but you do not
+know all.  We have spoken of your sister.  We will now speak of
+yourself.  It was his Majesty's intention to offer you a nobleman's
+coat of arms, and which you with your good sword have so well deserved.
+But old Aron Bertila, actuated by his hatred for the nobility had asked
+as a favour that the king would give you an opportunity to gain any
+other distinction than that one.  The king could not refuse this
+request from a father, and therefore you are still a commoner by name.
+But I, who am not bound by any promise to your father, will offer you,
+young man, that which has hitherto been denied you: a knight's spur and
+coat of arms."
+
+"Your highness ... this favour makes me wonder and mute; how have I
+deserved it?"
+
+Duke Bernhard smiled with a strange expression.
+
+"How, my friend? you have only half understood me."
+
+Bertel remained silent.
+
+"Well, with or without your knowledge and will, my friend, I already
+regard you as a nobleman.  We will speak more about it another time.
+Your ring ... Ah!  I have forgotten it.  Do you remember what it was
+like?"
+
+The duke now searched zealously in his portfolio.  "They say that the
+king wore a copper ring, and on the inside of it magic signs were
+engraved, and the letters R.R.R."
+
+"It is possible that I have mislaid it, for I cannot find it.  And who
+the devil has time to think of such childish things?  The ring must
+have been stolen from my private casket.  If I find it again I will
+give it to you, and if not, you know that which is worth more.  Go,
+young man, and be worthy of my confidence and the great king's memory.
+No one is to know what I have told you.  Farewell; we will see each
+other again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+LOVE AND HATE AGREE.
+
+Again we fly from Germany's spring back to the North's winter.  Before
+we go further on the bloody path of the Thirty Years' War, we will pay
+a visit to two of the chief personages of this narrative high up in
+East Bothnia.
+
+It was about Advent time, 1632.  A violent storm with heavy snow beat
+against the old ramparts of Korsholm, and drove the waves of the Baltic
+against the ice-covered shores.  All navigation for the year had
+ceased.  The newly conscripted soldiers had gone to Stralsund by way of
+Stockholm, at the end of July, and were impatiently waiting for news
+from the war.  Then it happened in the middle of November that a rumour
+was spread about the country of the king's death.  Such reports fly
+through the air, one does not know how or where they come from.  Great
+misfortunes are known at a distance as presentiments, just as an
+earthquake far beyond its own circle causes a qualm in the mind.  But
+this report had more than once been spread and refuted.  The people
+relied upon King Gustaf Adolf's good fortune, and when corroboration
+did not arrive, the whole matter was forgotten, all thinking it was a
+false story.
+
+It is an ordinary fact in life that, as we hate those to whom we have
+occasioned a wrong, so we feel well disposed towards persons whom we
+have had the opportunity of serving.  Lady Marta of Korsholm was not a
+little proud of her brave defence against the drunken soldiers, and did
+not hesitate to attribute the preservation of the castle to the heroism
+she had then displayed.  That she had saved Regina's life gave the
+latter great importance in her eyes; and neither could she refuse her
+admiration for the courage and self-sacrifice which the young girl had
+shown on the same occasion.  The high-born prisoner was her pride; and
+she did not omit to watch her steps like an Argus; but she gave Regina
+a larger room, let her have old Dorthe again as a waiting woman, and
+provided her with an abundance of good food.  Regina also was less
+proud and cold, she would sometimes answer Lady Marta with a word or a
+nod; but of all the nice things that were offered her, the choice
+meats, the strong beer, etc., she took little or nothing; she had sunk
+apparently into a state of indifference, told her beads devoutly, but
+in other respects let one day pass as another.
+
+Lady Marta held the deep conviction that her prisoner, if not precisely
+the Roman Emperor's own daughter, was, nevertheless, a princess of the
+highest birth.  She therefore hit upon the unlucky idea of trying to
+convert so distinguished a person from her papistical heresy, on the
+supposition that she would thereby accomplish something very remarkable
+when the war was ended and Regina was exchanged.  Regina thus became
+exposed to the same proselytizing attempts which she herself had
+undertaken with the great Gustaf Adolf; but Lady Marta's were not so
+delicate or refined in their application as her own.  She overwhelmed
+the poor girl with Lutheran sermons, psalm-books, and tracts, also
+often made long speeches interspersed with proverbs, and when this was
+without avail, she sent the castle chaplain to preach to the prisoner.
+Of course all this occurred to deaf ears.  Regina was sufficiently firm
+in her faith to listen with patience, but she suffered from it; her
+stay at Korsholm became more unbearable every day, and who can blame
+her, if with secret longings she sighed for the day when she could
+regain her freedom.
+
+Dorthe, on the contrary, flamed up every time the heretic preacher or
+the plucky old lady began their sermons, and rattled through a whole
+string of prayers and maledictions both in Latin and Low German, the
+result generally being that she was shut up for two or three days in
+the dungeon of the castle, until her longing for her lady's company
+once more made her tractable.
+
+And so passed a half-year of Lady Regina's captivity.
+
+A better product of Lady Marta's goodwill was, that Regina was allowed
+to embroider, and fine materials were ordered for her in the autumn
+from Stockholm.  Thus it became possible for her to work a large piece
+of silk with the Virgin Mary and the infant Christ in silver and gold.
+Lady Marta in her innocence considered the work a sacrament cloth,
+which Regina might present to Vasa church, as a proof of her change of
+sentiments.  A warrior's eyes, on the other hand, would have discerned
+in it an intended flag, a Catholic banner, which the imprisoned girl
+was quietly preparing in expectation of the day when her work would
+wave at the head of the Catholic hosts.
+
+Still Lady Marta was not quite satisfied with the Holy Virgin's image,
+which seemed to her surrounded by too large a halo to be truly
+Lutheran.  She therefore considered how she could procure her prisoner
+a more suitable occupation.  It happened now and then that the daughter
+of the Storkyro peasant king, Meri, when she was in town, made an
+errand to Korsholm, and in order to gain the favour of the lady of the
+castle, presented her with several skeins of the finest and silkiest
+linen floss, which no one in the whole vicinity could spin as well as
+Meri.  Lady Marta consequently got the idea one fine day to teach her
+prisoner to spin, and to give her Meri as a teacher in this art.  Meri
+on her part desired nothing better.  The near connection in which the
+imprisoned lady had stood to the king, gave her an irresistible
+interest in Meri's eyes.  She wished to hear something about him--the
+hero, the king, the great, never-to-be-forgotten man, who stood before
+her mind's eye with more than earthly lustre.  She wished to know what
+he had said, what he had done, what he had loved and hated on earth;
+she wished for once to feel herself transported by his glory, and then
+to die herself--forgotten.  Poor Meri!
+
+So Meri made her second acquaintance with Lady Regina in the castle.
+She was received at first with coldness and indifference, and her
+spinning scarcely pleased the proud young lady.  But gradually her
+submissive mild demeanour won Regina's goodwill, and a captive's
+natural desire to communicate with beings outside the prison walls
+finally made Regina more open.
+
+They spun very little, it is true, but they talked together like
+mistress and maid, especially during the days when Dorthe was shut up
+on account of her wicked tongue, and it was quite opportune that Meri
+recollected some German from more brilliant days.  Meri knew how to
+constantly lead the conversation on to the subject of the king, and she
+soon divined Regina's enthusiastic love.  But Regina was very far from
+having any idea of Meri's earlier experiences; she ascribed her
+questions to the natural curiosity which such high personages always
+excite in the minds of the common people.  Sometimes she seemed
+astonished at the delicacy and nobleness of the simple peasant woman's
+expressions and views.  There were moments when Meri's personality
+appeared to her as an enigma full of contradictions, and then she asked
+herself whether she ought not to consider this woman as a spy.  But the
+next instant she repented this thought; and when the spinner looked at
+her with her clear, mild, penetrating gaze, then there was something
+which said to Regina's heart, this woman does not dissemble.
+
+They were sitting one day in the beginning of December, and Dorthe was
+again shut up for her unseasonable remarks to the chaplain.  There was
+a striking contrast between these two beings whom fate had brought
+together from such opposite directions, but who on one point shared the
+same interest.
+
+The first, young, proud, dark, flashing, and beautiful, a princess,
+even in captivity; the other of middle age, blonde, pale, mild, humble,
+and free, and yet very submissive.  Regina now seventeen, could be
+considered twenty; Meri now thirty-six, had something so childish and
+innocent in her whole appearance, that at certain moments she might be
+taken for seventeen.  She could have been Regina's mother, and yet she
+who had suffered so much, seemed almost like a child in comparison with
+the early matured southerner at her side.  Lady Regina had been
+spinning a little, and during the operation broken many threads.
+Provoked and impatient, she pushed the distaff away and resumed her
+embroidery.  This happened very often, and her instructress was
+accustomed to it.
+
+"That is a pretty image," said Meri, after a look at the piece of silk.
+"What does it represent?"
+
+"God's Holy Mother, Sancta Maria," answered Regina, as she made the
+sign of the cross, which she was always in the habit of doing when
+mentioning the name of the Holy Virgin.
+
+"And what is it for?" asked Meri with a naïve familiarity.
+
+Regina looked at her.  Again a suspicion came into her mind, but it
+immediately passed away.
+
+"I am embroidering the banner of the Holy Faith for Germany," replied
+Regina proudly.  "When it one day waves, the heretics will flee before
+the wrath of the mother of God."
+
+"When I think of the mother of God," said Meri, "I imagine her mild,
+good, and peaceful; I imagine her as a mother alone with her love."
+Meri said these words with a peculiar tremor in her voice.
+
+"The mother of God is Heaven's queen; she will fight against the
+godless and destroy them."
+
+"But when the mother of God takes to strife, King Gustaf Adolf will
+meet her with uncovered head and lowered sword, bend his knee to her,
+and say: 'Holy Virgin, I am not fighting for thy glory, but for that of
+thy son, our Saviour.'  'He that fights for my son also fights for me,'
+she will reply, 'because I am a mother.'"
+
+"Your king is a heretic," excitedly answered Regina.  Nothing irritated
+her more than opposition to the Catholic faith, of which the doctrine
+of the Holy Virgin as Heaven's ruler is a constituent.  "Your king is a
+tyrant and unbeliever who deserves all the anger of the saints on his
+head.  Do you know, Meri, that I hate your king?"
+
+"And I love him," said Meri in a scarcely audible voice.
+
+"Yes," continued Regina, "I hate him like sin, death, and perdition.
+If I were a man and had an arm and sword, it would be the aim of my
+life to destroy his hosts and his work.  You are happy, Meri, you know
+nothing about the war, you do not know what Gustaf Adolf has done to
+the poor Catholics.  But I have seen it, and my faith and my country
+cry out for revenge.  There are moments when I could kill him."
+
+"And when Lady Regina lifts her white hand with the gleaming dagger
+over the king's head, then the king will expose his breast where the
+great heart beats; look at her little white hand with a glance of
+sublime calmness and say, 'Thou delicate white hand, which worketh the
+image of the mother of God, strike, if thou canst, my heart is here,
+and it beats for the freedom and enlightenment of the world;' then the
+white hand will sink slowly down, and the dagger will drop from it,
+unnoticed, and God's mother on the cloth will smile again.  She knew
+well that it would be so.  It would have been just the same with
+herself.  For King Gustaf Adolf none can kill, and none hate, because
+God's angel walks by his side and turns human beings' hate to love."
+
+Regina forgot her work, and regarded Meri with her large, dark, moist
+eyes.  There was so much that surprised and astonished her in these
+words, but she kept silent.  Finally she said:
+
+"The king wears an amulet."
+
+"Yes," said Meri, "he wears a talisman, but it is not the copper ring
+that the people speak of--it is his exalted human heart which gives up
+everything for what is good and noble on earth.  When he was still very
+young, and had not yet acquired fame or renown, he only possessed his
+blonde hair, his high brow, and his mild blue eyes.  Then he wore no
+amulet, and yet blessing and love and happiness walked by his side.
+All the angels in Heaven and all human beings on earth loved him."
+
+Regina's eyes glistened with tears.
+
+"Did you see him when he was young?" she asked.
+
+"Did I see him! yes."
+
+"And you have loved him like all the others?"
+
+"More than all the others, lady."
+
+"And you love him still?"
+
+"Yes, I love him much.  Like you; but you would kill him and I would
+die for him."
+
+Regina sprang up, burst out weeping, clasped Meri in her arms and
+kissed her.
+
+"Do not think that I would kill him.  Oh, Holy Virgin, I would a
+thousand times give my life to save his!  But you do not know, Meri.
+It is an anguish that you cannot understand, it is a fearful conflict
+when one loves a man, a hero, the personification of the highest and
+grandest in life, and yet is commanded by a Holy Faith to hate this
+man, to kill him, to persecute him to the grave.  You do not know,
+happy one, who only needs to love and bless, what it means to be tossed
+between love and hate, like a ship on the mighty waves; to be obliged
+to curse one whom you bless in your heart, to sit within the walls of a
+prison a prey to the battling emotions which incessantly struggle for
+mastery in your innermost soul.  Ah! that was the night, when I tried
+to reconcile my love with my faith, and bring him, the mighty one, to
+the way of salvation.  If the saints had then allowed my weak voice to
+convince him of his error ... Then poor Regina would have followed him
+with joy as his humblest servant through all his life, and received in
+her own breast all the lances and balls that sought his heart.  But the
+saints did not grant me--unworthy being--so great an honour, and
+therefore I now sit here a prisoner on account of my faith and my love;
+and if an angel broke down the walls of my prison and said to me, 'Fly,
+your country again awaits you,' I would answer: 'It is his will, the
+beloved; for his sake I suffer, for his sake I remain,' and yet you
+believe that I wish to kill him."
+
+Regina wept much and bitterly, with all the violence of an intense
+passion which had been pent up for a long time.  Meri with gentle hands
+removed the dark locks from her brow, and looking mildly and kindly
+into her tearful eyes, said with prophetic inspiration:
+
+"Do not weep so, the day will arrive when you will be able to love
+without being obliged to curse him at the same time!"
+
+"That day will never come, Meri."
+
+"Yes, that day will come, when Gustaf Adolf is dead."
+
+"Oh, may it never come, then!  Rather would I suffer all my life ... It
+is still for his sake."
+
+"Yes, lady, that day will come, not because you are younger and he is
+older.  But have you never heard anyone say of a child which is
+brighter, kinder, and better than others, 'that child will not live
+long; it is too good for this world?'  So does it seem to me about King
+Gustaf Adolf.  He is too great, too noble, too good, to live long.
+God's angels wish to have him before his body withers and his soul
+grows weary.  Believe me, they will take him from us."
+
+Regina looked at her with an alarmed air.
+
+"Who are you that speaks such words?  How your eyes shine! you are not
+what you seem! who are you then?  Oh, Holy Virgin, protect me!"
+
+And Regina started up with all the superstitious terror that belonged
+to her time.  Probably she could not account for her fear, but Meri's
+conversation had all along seemed strange and unaccountable, coming
+from the mouth of an uncultivated peasant woman in this barbarous land.
+
+"Who am I?" repeated Meri, with the same mild look.  "I am a woman who
+loves.  That is all."
+
+"And you say that the king will die?"
+
+"God alone presides over human destinies, and the greatest among
+mortals is still but a mortal."
+
+At that moment someone opened the door, and Lady Marta entered more
+solemnly than usual, and also somewhat paler.  She now wore, instead of
+her bright striped woollen jacket, a deep mourning attire, and her
+whole appearance indicated something unusual.  Regina and Meri both
+started at the sight.
+
+Meri became pale as death, went straight to Lady Marta, looked her
+fixedly in the face, and said mechanically with a great effort,
+
+"The king is dead."
+
+"Do you know it already?" answered Lady Marta, surprised.  "God
+preserve us, the bad news came an hour ago, with a courier from Tornea."
+
+Lady Regina sank down in a swoon.
+
+Meri, with a broken heart, retained her self-possession, and tried to
+recall Regina to life.
+
+"The king has then fallen on the battlefield in the midst of victory?"
+she asked.
+
+"On the battlefield of Lützen, the 6th of November, and in the midst of
+a glorious victory," replied Lady Marta, more and more surprised at
+Meri's knowledge.
+
+"Awake, gracious lady, he has lived and died like a hero, worthy of the
+admiration of the whole world.  He has fallen in the hour of triumph,
+in the highest lustre of his glory; his name will live in all times,
+and his name we will both bless."
+
+Regina opened her dreamy eyes and clasped her hands in prayer.
+
+"Oh, Holy Virgin," she said, "I thank thee that thou hast let him go in
+his greatness from the world, and thus taken away the curse which
+rested upon my love!"
+
+And Meri dropped down at her side in prayer.
+
+But below in the castle yard stood a tall, white-haired old man, with
+his stiff features distorted by grief and despair.
+
+"A curse upon my work!" he cried; "my plan is frustrated beforehand,
+and the object for which I have lived slips from my grasp.  Oh, fool
+that I was, to count upon a human being's life, and trying to hope that
+the king would acknowledge his son, and live until the son of Aron
+Bertila's daughter had time to win a brilliant fame in war, and walk
+abreast with the heiress to the Swedish throne!  The king is dead, and
+my descendant is only a boy in his minority, who will soon be mixed
+with the multitude.  Now it is only wanting for him to gain a
+nobleman's coat of arms, and place himself amongst the vampires between
+the only true powers of the state, the king and the people.  Fool, fool
+that I was!  The king is dead!  Go, old Bertila, into the grave to
+fraternize with King John and the destroyer of aristocracy, King Carl,
+and bury thy proud plans among the same worms that have already
+consumed Prince Gustaf and Karin Mansdotter!"
+
+And the old man seized Meri, who just then came out, violently by the
+hand, and said:
+
+"Come, we have neither of us anything more to do in the world!"
+
+"Yes," said Meri with suppressed grief, "we both still have a son!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE BATTLE OF NÖRDLINGEN.
+
+Until now the Swedish lion, through the wisdom and valour of Gustaf
+Adolf, and of the leaders and men trained under him, had hastened from
+victory to victory, and overthrown all his opponents.  At last a day of
+misfortune dawned; in a great battle the Swedish arms suffered a
+terrible defeat.
+
+The brilliant Wallenstein had died the death of a traitor at Eger; now
+Gallas, the destroyer, overran central Germany, captured Regensburg,
+and advanced against the free city of Nördlingen, in Schwaben; Duke
+Bernhard and Gustaf Horn hurried with the Swedish army to its rescue.
+They had, however, but 17,000 men, whilst Gallas had 33,000.
+
+"We will attack," said the duke.
+
+"Let us wait," said Horn.
+
+They expected 5,000 men as a reinforcement, and fourteen days passed.
+Then Nördlingen came to sore straits, and began to light beacon fires
+on the walls at night.  Again the duke wished to attack; again Horn
+preferred to entrench and assist the city without battle.  Then they
+called this brave soul a cowardly man; and, indignant, but with dark
+presentiments, he resolved to fight.  Repeated victories had made the
+Swedes over-confident, and they entered the conflict assured of success
+beforehand.
+
+The battle took place on the 26th of August, 1634.  Outside Nördlingen
+is a height called Arensberg, and between it and the town a smaller
+one.  Upon the last the Imperialists had raised three redoubts.
+
+The Swedish army stood on Arensberg, Horn on the right and the duke on
+the left wing.  The battle-cry was the same as at Breitenfeld and
+Lützen: God with us!
+
+Early in the morning a heavy rain fell.  Once more the wise Horn wished
+to wait, but the duke, who held the supreme command, ordered an
+advance.  Horn obeyed, and the right wing marched down the valley
+between the two heights.  The impatience of the cavalry hastened the
+conflict, which resulted unfavourably even in the very beginning.  The
+cannon of the Imperialists in the redoubts made great gaps in the lines
+of the cavalry, and the enemy's superiority made them hesitate.  Horn
+sent two brigades to storm the middle redoubt.  They captured it and
+pursued the enemy.  Piccolomini checked their course and drove them
+back to the redoubt.  There the powder happened to take fire.  With a
+terrific explosion the earthwork flew into the air, and several
+hundreds of Swedes and Finns with it.  This was the first calamity.
+
+Upon this position, however, depended the victory.  For a few moments
+the spot stood empty; Piccolomini's soldiers, alarmed by the report and
+destruction, could not be induced to advance and occupy it.  At last
+they did so.  Horn asked for help in order to expel them.  The duke
+sent the young Bohemian, Thurn, with the yellow regiment.  He made a
+mistake, attacked the wrong redoubt, and engaged with a greatly
+superior force.  Seventeen times he charged the enemy, and as often was
+he repulsed.  In vain did Horn try to storm the height.  Thurn's error
+was the second calamity.
+
+On the left wing the duke had begun the conflict against the artillery
+and cavalry.  At the first encounter the Imperialists were hurled back,
+and the duke's German cavalry broke their ranks and pursued the enemy.
+But Tilly's spirit seemed to-day to give the Imperialists courage.
+They advanced their ordered and superior troops against the assailants,
+checked them, and drove them back with loss.  The duke tried to get
+reinforcements into Nördlingen, but failed.  In vain did he drive
+Gallas before him.  New masses of the enemy constantly opposed him, and
+in his rear the Croats plundered his baggage-wagons.
+
+It was about noon.  Horn's troops had been under fire for eight
+consecutive hours, and were worn out with fatigue.  With every hour
+their hopes of victory grew less and less, but their unflinching,
+indomitable courage remained the same.  They had observed the disorder
+in the left wing.  They themselves were in a desperate plight down in
+the valley, where Piccolomini's bullets fell every moment into the
+underbush, and sprinkled the fallen branches with blood.  Then Horn
+proposed to withdraw to Arensberg, and the duke at last consented.  He
+considered the matter, however, for nearly two hours; but these two
+hours he would afterwards have been glad to purchase with half a
+lifetime.
+
+It was three o'clock in the afternoon.  Horn made the Finnish cavalry
+make a feigned attack, so as to cover the retreat, and began like a
+prudent general to withdraw in good order.  The Imperialists perceiving
+his intention, pressed on with double force.  They began to hope, what
+they had not dared to entertain before, that even the Swedes might be
+conquered, and Piccolomini's stumpy figure flew through the ranks,
+urging his men to bear down with their collected forces upon the
+Swedes' exposed flanks, and totally crush them.
+
+In the valley behind the Swedes and between the two heights flowed a
+stream with high banks, and swollen by the abundant rains.  At the
+little village of Hirnheim, the stream was spanned by a single bridge,
+and this point Horn had carefully guarded in order to secure the
+retreat.  The artillery passed first over the bridge, and were safe on
+Arensberg.  The first lines of Horn's wing had also reached the
+village, and the rest were only a short distance from it, when a new
+calamity occurred, the third and the worst on this most disastrous day.
+Duke Bernhard had undertaken to detain the enemy with his left wing
+until Horn and his men had crossed the stream.  But he soon discovered
+that he had consulted valour rather than prudence.  The enemy
+concentrated their forces, and increased their terrible attacks.  Three
+times De Werth charged the duke's cavalry; three times was he repulsed.
+The fourth time, however, he broke through the duke's lines.  In vain
+the latter sent a squadron to take him in flank.  Mad with rage, the
+duke snatched his gold-embroidered banner from an ensign's hand, and
+followed by his bravest men, rushed into the midst of the enemy.  It
+was all useless.  His best men were slain, his horse shot under him,
+and the banner wrenched from his hand; wounded and overpowered he was
+nearly taken prisoner, when a young officer at his side lent him his
+horse, and he escaped with great difficulty.  His infantry had already
+been routed, being unable to support the attacks of the cavalry on the
+open plain; and when the wounded leader galloped away, his whole wing
+followed in the utmost disorder, convinced that all was lost.
+
+At that moment, Horn's infantry crossed the narrow bridge.  Then
+confused and loud cries arose, that the battle was lost, and the enemy
+close upon them.  First single horsemen, then whole troops of the
+duke's cavalry rushed along the road to the bridge, and rode amongst
+the infantry, trampling some under their horses' hoofs, and throwing
+the rest into fearful confusion.  The efforts of Horn and his nearest
+officers to stay the frantic rout were fruitless.  On the narrow bridge
+everything was mixed pell-mell--men, horses, wagons, dead, and wounded;
+and finally the duke's whole wing rushed to this fatal spot.  Like a
+storm Piccolomini pressed upon the rear of the fugitives; he sent some
+light guns up on the heights, where they played with terrible effect on
+the retreating mass; every ball cut long lanes through it.  Then the
+Croats fell upon the rout, and as friend and foe became mixed together,
+the artillery fire had to cease.  The long lances and swords of the
+Imperial cavalry made great slaughter.  All the Swedes and Finns seemed
+doomed to destruction.
+
+Gustaf Horn, the wise and courageous Finnish general, whom Gustaf Adolf
+called "his right hand," was now the last to retain self-possession and
+courage at this terrible crisis.  With the remains of three regiments
+he had taken up a position by the bridge, and the fugitives fled past
+him without drawing his force into the current.  They implored him to
+save himself; but his stubborn, Finnish will refused to listen to these
+appeals, and he stayed where he was.  For a time the pursuit was
+checked, the only thing that Horn hoped to gain by his intrepid
+resistance.  Gallas sent one of his best Spanish brigades to oust him.
+Horn drove them back with loss.  The victorious De Werth fell upon him
+with his dragoons.  The result was the same.  The enemy now
+concentrated their forces, and Horn was attacked on three sides at
+once.  They offered him his life if he would surrender.  He replied
+with a sword-thrust, and his men gave the same response.  Not one would
+ask for quarter.  At last, when nearly all those near him had fallen,
+he was overwhelmed by numbers and taken prisoner.  Then the few
+surviving heroes surrendered.
+
+When the Swedish army in full flight rushed over Arensberg, Duke
+Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar tore his hair, and exclaimed that he was a
+fool, and Horn a wise man.  Later on the duke consoled himself with
+Elsas, but that day he had reason to repent of his rashness.  Six
+thousand Swedes, Finns, and Germans covered the blood-stained heights
+of Nordlingen; 6,000 were taken prisoners, and amongst them the two
+Finns, Horn and Wittenberg, who were well treated by the enemy.  Of the
+other 10,000, half were wounded, and most of the remaining mercenaries
+deserted.  The army had lost 4,000 baggage-wagons, 300 banners, and all
+their artillery.  A miserable remnant made its way to Mentz, plundering
+and pillaging as it fled, and suffering from extreme want.
+
+More disastrous to Sweden than the loss of these 12,000 men was the
+damage to its prestige, and the enemy's regained belief in victory.
+The battle of Nordlingen became the turning point in the Thirty Years'
+War, and excited both joy and consternation.  throughout Europe, until
+Baner's genius and victories restored their lost lustre to the Swedish
+arms once more.
+
+Amongst those who fought at Horn's side to the last, was our old
+friend, Captain Larsson.  The sturdy little captain had on this
+occasion no time to open his talkative mouth; he perspired profusely
+from the heat, and had fought since dawn; yet he had not received the
+least scratch upon his fleshy person.  Let it be said in his praise,
+that at Nordlingen he thought of neither Rhine wine or Bavarian nuns,
+but honestly plied his weapons as well as possible.  Nevertheless, we
+will not assert that he then cut down thirty Imperialists with his
+trusty sword, as he afterwards declared in good faith.
+
+He was taken prisoner with Horn; but it was not his capture that most
+provoked the captain, but the terrible vexation he experienced on
+seeing the Croats afterwards empty at their leisure the Swedish stock
+of wine which they had captured with the baggage-wagons.
+
+Another of our friends, Lieutenant Bertel, fought at the duke's side
+all day, and was the one who offered him his horse.  We shall see,
+by-and-by, that the duke did not forget this service.  Bertel, like
+Larsson, was hotly engaged in the battle, but, less fortunate than the
+latter, received several wounds, and was finally borne along in the
+stream of fugitives to Arensberg.  Almost without knowing how, he found
+himself the next day far from the battlefield, and proceeded with the
+remnant of the duke's army to Mentz.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE LOST SON.
+
+It is Epiphany, in 1635, thus in mid-winter.  In Aron Bertila's
+"stuga,"* at Storkyro, a large fire of pine logs crackled on the
+spacious hearth, for at that time heavy forests still grew around the
+fertile fields.  Outside rages a snow-storm, with a heavy blast; the
+wolves howl on the ice of the stream; the famished lynx prowls around
+to find shelter.  It is Twelfth-day evening, an hour or two after
+twilight.  The Storkyro peasant king sits in his high-backed chair, at
+a short distance from the hearth, listening with scattered thoughts to
+his daughter Meri, who by the firelight reads aloud a chapter of
+Agricola's Finnish New Testament, for at that period the whole Bible
+had not been translated into the Finnish tongue.  Bertila has grown
+very old since we last met him, then still vigorous in his old age.
+The great ideas that constantly revolve in his bald head give him no
+peace, and yet these plans are now completely shattered by the king's
+death, like fragments from a shipwreck floating around on the stormy
+billows of a dark sea.  Strong souls like his generally succumb only by
+destroying themselves.  All the changes and misfortunes of his
+turbulent life had not been able to break his iron will; but grief over
+a ruined hope, the vain attempt to reconstruct the vanished castles in
+the air, and the sorrow of seeing his own children themselves tear down
+his work, all this gnawed like a vulture upon his inner life.  A single
+thought had made him twenty years older in two years, and this idea was
+presumptuous even to madness.
+
+
+* A large room, filling the entire house space with the exception of
+one or two small chambers.  Sleeping bunks are arranged round the
+walls.  The later peasants' houses have more rooms.
+
+
+"Why is not one of my own family at this moment King of Sweden?"  Thus
+it ran.
+
+At times Meri raises her mild blue eyes from the Holy Book and regards
+her old father with anxious looks.  She, too, looks older; the quiet
+sorrow lies like the autumn over green groves; it neither breaks or
+kills, but makes the fresh leaves wither on the tree of life.  Meri's
+glance is full of peace and submission.  The thought that shines forth
+from her soul like a sun at its setting, is none other than this:
+
+"Beyond the grave I shall again meet the joy of my heart, and then he
+will no longer wear an earthly crown."
+
+Near her, to the left, sits old Larsson, short and stout like his
+jovial son.  His good-natured, hearty face has for a time assumed a
+more solemn expression, as he listens to the reading of the sacred
+book.  His hands are folded as in prayer, and now and then he stirs the
+fire a little, with friendly attention, so that Meri can see better.
+
+Behind him in a devotional attitude sit some of the field hands; and
+this group, illuminated by the reflection of the fire, is completed by
+a purring grey cat, and a large shaggy watch-dog, curled up under
+Meri's feet, to which he seems proud to serve as a footstool.
+
+When Meri in her reading came to the place in Luke, where it speaks of
+the Prodigal Son, old Bertila's eyes began to glitter with a sinister
+light.
+
+"The reprobate!" he muttered to himself.  "To waste one's inheritance,
+that is nothing!  But to forget one's old father ... by God, that is
+shameful!"
+
+Meri read until she came to the Prodigal Son's repentance: "And he
+arose and came to his father.  But when he was yet a great way off, his
+father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and
+kissed him."
+
+"What a fool of a father!" again muttered Aron Bertila to himself.  "He
+ought to have bound him with cords, beaten him with rods, and then
+driven him away from his house back to the riotous living and the empty
+wine-cups!"
+
+"Father!" whispered Meri reproachfully.  "Be merciful, as our Heavenly
+Father is merciful, and takes the lost children to His arms."
+
+"And if your son ever returns..." began Larsson in the same tone.  But
+Bertila stopped him.
+
+"Hold your tongues, and don't trouble yourselves about me.  I have no
+longer any son ... who falls repentant at my feet," he added directly,
+when he saw two large, clear pearls glistening in Meri's eyelashes.
+
+She continued: "And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned
+against Heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called
+thy son."
+
+"Stop reading that!" burst out the old man, in a bad temper.  "See that
+my bed is in order, and let the folks go to sleep; it is now late."
+
+At this moment horses' hoofs were heard outside on the creaking snow.
+This unusual occurrence on the evening of a sacred day made Larsson go
+to the low window, and breathe on the frost-covered pane, so as to look
+out into the storm.  A sleigh, drawn by two horses, worked its way
+through the snow-drifts and drove into the yard.  Two men in sheep-skin
+cloaks jumped out.
+
+Seized with a sudden intuition, Larsson hurried out to meet the
+travellers, and quick as lightning Meri followed him.  The door swung
+to behind them, and there was a moment's delay before it opened again.
+
+But now a young man in a soldier's garb entered with bowed head, threw
+aside his plumed hat, white with snow, and going straight to old
+Bertila, knelt down, and bent his beautiful curly head still lower, as
+he said:
+
+"Father, I am here, and ask your blessing!"
+
+And behind him stood Meri and old Larsson, both with clasped hands, and
+raising their pleading eyes to the stern old man, with the same words:
+
+"Father, here is thy son, give him thy blessing!"
+
+For a brief moment Bertila struggled with himself, his lips slightly
+trembled, and his hand was unconsciously stretched out, as if to lift
+up the young man at his feet.  But soon his bald head rose higher, his
+hand drew back, his keen eyes flashed darker than ever, and his lips
+trembled no more.
+
+"Go!" said he, short and sharp; "go, you reprobate boy, back to your
+brother noblemen, and your sisters, the fine ladies.  What seek you in
+the plain peasant's 'stuga,' which you despise?  Go!  I have no longer
+a son!"
+
+But the youth went not.
+
+"Do not be angry, my father," he said, "if in my youthful ambition I
+have at any time violated your commands.  Who sent me out amongst the
+great and illustrious ones of the earth, to win fame and honour?  Who
+bade me go to the war to ennoble my peasant name with great deeds?  Who
+exposed me to the temptation of all the brilliant examples which
+surrounded the king?  You, and only you, my father; and now you thrust
+away your son, who for your sake twice refused a patent of nobility."
+
+"You!" exclaimed the old man with foaming rage.  "You renounce a patent
+of nobility, you, who have blushed for your peasant name and taken
+another which would look more imposing?  No, on your knees have you
+begged for a coat of arms.  What do I know about its being offered you;
+what do I care.  I only know that since your earliest childhood I have
+tried to implant in your soul, recreant, that there are no other
+rightful powers than the king and people, that all who place themselves
+between, whether they bear the name of aristocrats, ecclesiastics, or
+what not, are monstrosities, a ruin, a curse to State and country ...
+all this have I tried to teach you, and the fruit of my teachings has
+been that you have smuggled yourself among this nobility, which I hate
+and despise, that you have coveted its empty titles, paraded with its
+extravagant display, imbibed its prejudices, and now you stand here, in
+your father's house, with a lie on your lips, and aristocratic vanity
+in your heart.  Go, degenerate son!  Aron Bertila is what he has always
+been--a peasant!  He curses and rejects you, apostate!"
+
+With these words the old man turned away, rose and went with a firm
+step and a high head into the little bed-chamber, leaving Bertel still
+on his knees in the same place.
+
+"Hear me, father, father!" cried Bertel after him, as he quickly
+unbuttoned his coat and took out a folded paper; "this paper I have
+intended to tear to pieces at your feet!"
+
+But the old father did not hear him; the paper fell to the ground, and
+when Larsson, a moment later, unfolded and read it, he saw it contained
+a diploma from the Regency in Stockholm, conferring upon Gustaf Bertel,
+captain of horse in the "life-guards," a patent of nobility, and a coat
+of arms with the name of _Bertelsköld_* at Duke Bernhard of Weimar's
+solicitation.
+
+
+* Bertila is a Finnish peasant name.  Bertel is a burgher name.
+Bertelsköld is a noble name, indicated by the termination sköld, always
+a sign of nobility in Sweden and Finland.
+
+
+While all in the "stuga" were still perfectly stupefied by old
+Bertila's conduct, three of Fru Marta's soldiers from Korsholm entered
+in great haste.
+
+"Hullo, boys!" they exclaimed to the hands, "have you seen her?  Here
+is something that will pay.  Two hundred silver thalers reward to him
+who seizes and brings back, alive or dead, Lady Regina von Emmeritz,
+state prisoner at Korsholm."
+
+At the sound of this name Bertel was aroused from his stupefying grief,
+sprang up, and seized the speaker by the collar.
+
+"Wretch, what did you say?" he exclaimed.
+
+"Ho, ho, if you please!  Be a little more careful when you speak to the
+people of the Royal Majesty and the Crown.  I tell you that the German
+traitress, the papistical sorceress, Lady von Emmeritz, succeeded in
+escaping last night from Korsholm castle, and that he who does not help
+to catch her is a traitor and a..."
+
+The man had no time to finish his speech, before a blow from Bertel's
+strong arm stretched him at full-length on the floor.
+
+"Ha, my father, you have wished it!" cried the young man, and in a
+flash was outside the door and in his sleigh, which at the next moment
+was heard driving off through the raging tempest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE FUGITIVE LADY.
+
+We will now see what has become of Lady Regina, and what has induced
+her to exchange Fru Marta's tender care for the desperate adventure of
+fleeing in the middle of winter, through a strange country filled with
+desolate tracts, where she was profoundly ignorant of the roads and
+paths, and did not even know how to make herself understood in the
+language of the people.
+
+We must not overlook the fact that our story is laid in a period when
+Catholicism and Lutheranism were in the sharpest conflict; when
+Lutheranism, heated by the violent opposition, was as little inclined
+to religious tolerance as Catholicism itself.  Fru Marta had once for
+all been possessed by the idea that she was in duty bound to convert
+Lady Regina to the Lutheran faith, and from this well-meant but futile
+enterprise, no one could dissuade her.  She therefore persisted, in and
+out of season, to torment the poor girl with her views; sometimes with
+books, sometimes with exhortations, and at others with persuasions and
+threats, or promises of freedom; and when Regina refused to read the
+books, or listen to the preaching, the zealous old lady had prayers
+read in her prisoner's room every morning and evening, as well as
+services on Sundays.  All these means were thrown away on what Fru
+Marta considered Regina's stubbornness.  The more the former exerted
+herself, the calmer, colder, and more unyielding became her captive.
+Regina naturally looked upon herself as a martyr for her faith, and
+suffered every humiliation with apparent fortitude for the sake of the
+holy cause.
+
+But within the young girl's veins fermented the hot southern blood, and
+it was with great difficulty that she could always appear calm on the
+surface.  There were times when Regina would have blown up the whole of
+Korsholm, if it had been in her power.  But the old granite walls
+defied her silent rage, and flight finally became her only method of
+escape from the persecution.  Night and day she pondered over it; and
+at last she discovered a means of eluding Fru Marta's vigilance.
+
+In Kajaneborg castle was then confined the celebrated and unfortunate
+Johannes Messenius, who in his youth had been educated by the Jesuits
+in Braunsberg, and chosen by them to become the apostle of Catholicism
+in Sweden.  Imprisoned for his lampoons and conspiracies in the
+interest of Sigismund's party, he had now for nineteen years, under
+hard treatment, sat there like a mole in his hole, when the report of
+his learning, his misfortunes, and his Popish sentiments reached Lady
+Regina in her prison.  From this moment some bold plans began to
+ferment in the young girl's mind.
+
+One day, about New Year's time, a wandering German quack came to
+Korsholm with his medicine-chest on his back, just like peddling Jews
+at a later date.*  Such doctors and apothecaries combined in one
+individual did a lucrative business at the expense of the common
+people, and were frequently consulted even by the upper classes, for in
+the whole country there was not a single regular physician, and only
+one apothecary in Abo; and even this one was not well stocked.  No
+wonder, then, that our man found enough to do, even at Korsholm, what
+with pains, stomach-aches, and gout; nay, Fru Marta, who, every time
+she had thrashed her male servants, complained of colic and shortness
+of breath, received the foreign doctor with very good will.  In a few
+days the latter was quite at home, and thus it fell out that he was
+called in to prescribe for Lady Regina, who was suffering from a severe
+headache.
+
+
+* It was peculiar that the surgeon always spoke of quacks with great
+contempt, although he had himself travelled about with a medicine chest
+on his back.
+
+
+This time, Fru Marta's usual perspicacity deserted her.  Two days
+afterwards the young lady, old Dorthe, and the quack doctor were all
+missing.  A grating which had been broken off from the outside, and a
+rope ladder, made it certain that the quack had been instrumental in
+procuring for the prisoner a free passage over wall and ramparts.  Fru
+Marta forgot both her colic and shortness of breath, from sheer
+amazement and anger, stirred up the castle and the town, and
+immediately dispatched her soldiers in all directions to capture the
+fugitives.  It will soon be seen how far she succeeded.
+
+Let us now return for a moment to Bertel, whom we find driving ahead in
+the stormy night, attended by the faithful Pekka, and with a heart full
+of the most conflicting feelings.  The faithful attendant could not
+understand the enormous folly of leaving a cheerful fireside and good
+wholesome porridge, for snow-drifts and wolves in the wild woods, as
+soon as they had arrived.  Neither did Bertel comprehend it himself.
+On returning to the north, by way of Tornel, on a furlough from
+Germany, while the army lay in winter quarters, he had hurried through
+Storkyro to Vasa, which was his secret destination.  And now he had met
+in one place a father's anger, and in the other the empty walls, where
+she had been, but was no longer.  Regina had disappeared without
+leaving a trace.
+
+"Where shall I drive?" asked Pekka monotonously and gruffly, when they
+entered the broad highway.
+
+"Wherever you like," answered his master just as testily.
+
+Pekka turned his horses towards Vasa, about twenty miles away.  Bertel
+noticed this.
+
+"Ass!" he cried, "have I not ordered you to drive north?"
+
+"North!" repeated Pekka mechanically, and with a heavy sigh turned his
+horses towards Ny-Karleby, to which town it was quite forty miles.  At
+that time they had no regular stations, with horses provided for the
+accommodation of travellers.  But there were farms at intervals, where
+all who travelled on Government business could reckon on finding
+horses, while other travellers were obliged to bargain as best they
+could.
+
+The parsonages were the usual stopping-places for the night, and always
+had a room in order in an out-building, where beds of straw and a table
+with cold food stood hospitably prepared for travellers.
+
+It was, therefore, quite natural that Pekka, with his mind still full
+of the porridge-kettle, ventured to ask as a further question whether
+they would spend the night at Wort parsonage.
+
+"Drive to Ylihärmä," answered the captain of horse, provoked, and
+wrapping himself up in his long sheepskin cloak, for the night wind was
+icy cold.
+
+"The devil take me if I understand the pranks of these noblemen!"
+murmured Pekka to himself, as he turned off into the narrow village
+road, which from Storkyro leads northward towards Lappo parish.
+
+Here the snow had drifted several feet high between the fences, and the
+travellers could only advance step by step.  After an hour's efforts
+the horses were completely worn out, and stopped every few paces.
+
+Bertel, absorbed in his thoughts, was scarcely conscious of it.  They
+had left Kyro's wide plains behind them, and were now in the midst of
+Lappo's thick woods.  The silence of the wilderness, interrupted by the
+wailing of the storm, surrounded the travellers on all sides, and as
+far as the eye could reach there were no traces of human habitations.
+
+Pekka had for a time walked by the side of the sleigh, and with his
+broad shoulders lifted it up again, when it sank so deep in the snow
+that the horses' strength was insufficient to move it from the spot.
+
+Finally his sinewy arms also refused their services, and the sleigh
+stopped right in the midst of a mountain of snow.
+
+"Well!" exclaimed Bertel impatiently, "what is the matter?"
+
+"Nothing," replied Pekka stolidly, "except that we need neither priest
+nor undertaker to find us a grave."
+
+"How far is it from here to the nearest farm?"
+
+"Between six and seven miles, I think."
+
+"Do you not see something resembling a light, far away there in the
+woods?"
+
+"Yes, yes, it looks like it..."
+
+"Unharness the horses and let us ride there."
+
+"No, dear master, it is of no use; these woods have been fearfully
+haunted, that I know of old, ever since the peasants beat the bailiff
+to death during the Club War, and burned his house and his innocent
+children."
+
+"Nonsense!  I tell you that we will ride there."
+
+"It is all the same to me."
+
+In a few moments the horses were taken out of the traces, and the two
+travellers pushed on in the direction of the light, which sometimes
+disappeared and then again shone between the snow-covered pines.
+
+"But tell me, Pekka," resumed Bertel, "what is the story about this
+wilderness?  I remember that I often heard them speak of it in my
+childhood."
+
+"Yes, yes, your mother was born here."
+
+"There used to be quite a little colony in this wood."
+
+"Yes, indeed, it was many hundreds of acres in extent.  The bailiffs
+had laid it all out for miles, as far back as Gustaf Vasa's time; and
+here many hundreds of tons of grain have been grown, so father has told
+me; and the noble bailiff had built a fine house here, and lived like a
+prince in the wilderness; and then, as I told you, the peasants came
+and set fire to the place in the night-time, destroying both people and
+cattle, with the exception of the young 'Lady,' whom your father saved
+and afterwards took for his wife.  It is very certain that he had a
+finger in that pie."
+
+"And so the farm was never built up again."
+
+"You may depend upon it that the fields were a fat slice, and so there
+were plenty of people ready to move here and bid defiance to the devil.
+But the old Evil One was too artful for them; he began to make such a
+rumpus here with supernatural performances day and night, so that no
+one was sure of his life, much less of his sinful soul.  If they sat in
+their homes, the chairs were pulled from under them, and the
+porridge-bowl rolled of its own accord down on the floor; the stones
+were torn from the walls and were showered around people's ears.  If
+they went out in the woods they were no better off; they had to keep a
+sharp look-out that the trees did not come crashing down upon their
+heads, although the weather might be perfectly quiet, and that the
+ground did not open under their feet, and draw them down into a
+bottomless pit.  And when I think that we are now travelling through
+the same woods ... Oh, oh, I am sinking..."
+
+"You fool, it is only the pure snow!--and then you say people could not
+stand it any longer?"
+
+"They all moved away, so that there was not even a cat left, except an
+old cottager, but I suppose he died long ago.  The whole settlement was
+again deserted, the ditches filled up, the fields became covered with
+moss, and the pine-woods spread over the former grain lands.  It is now
+forty years since that time..."
+
+And Pekka, who was not in the habit of making long speeches, seemed
+astonished at his own loquacity, and came to a sudden stop as he
+reigned in his horse.
+
+"What is it now?" asked Bertel impatiently.
+
+"I don't see a glimpse of the light."
+
+"Neither do I.  It is hidden by the trees."
+
+"No, dear master, it is not concealed by the trees; it has sunk into
+the earth after decoying us here into the depths of the forest.  Did
+not I tell you that it would be so?  We shall never get out of this
+alive."
+
+"For the devil's sake ride on and do not stop, else both man and beast
+will stiffen with the cold.  It seems to me I see something like a hut
+over there."
+
+"Fine hut; it is nothing but a granite rock with grey sides, from which
+the wind has blown away the snow.  It is all over with us."
+
+"Hold your tongue, and ride on!  Here we have an open space with young
+woods; I caught a glimpse of something there between the snow-drifts."
+
+"All the saints be with us!  We are now on the very spot where the
+house stood.  Do you not see the old fire-place sticking out through
+the snow?  Not a step farther, master!"
+
+"I am not mistaken ... it is the hut."
+
+Bertel and his companion found themselves on very rough ground, where
+the horses stumbled at every step over large stones, or sank into great
+hollows covered with snow.  Deep snow-drifts and fallen trees made it
+worse still, as if to obstruct the passage to a dilapidated peasant's
+hut, which by design or chance was hidden behind two spreading firs,
+with branches hanging to the ground.  The only window of the hut had a
+shutter, which was at one moment blown open by the wind and then
+slammed to again, thus causing the light within to show itself and
+disappear by turns.
+
+Bertel dismounted from his horse, tied it to a branch of the fir, and
+approached the window to throw a glance inside.  A secret hope gave
+wings to his feet.  He took it for granted that unless the fugitives
+had gone in a northerly direction, they could not have followed the
+main highway, but had sought to escape their pursuers on the side
+roads.  But in this part of the plain of East Bothnia hundreds of small
+roads crossed each other at that time, all leading to the new
+settlements in the East.  Who told him that the fugitives would select
+just this road?
+
+Still his heart beat faster when he approached the window.  Of the four
+small panes two were of horn, which was formerly used in default of
+glass; one of them was broken and stopped up with moss; only the fourth
+was of glass, but so covered with ice and snow that at first nothing
+could be seen.  Bertel breathed on the glass, but found to his vexation
+that the frost on the inside defied his curiosity.  Just then his horse
+neighed.
+
+It seemed ridiculous to Bertel to stand spying into a poor peasant's
+hut.  He was already on the point of knocking at the door, when at that
+instant a shadow obscured the light, and the frost on the inside of the
+glass was quickly melted by the breath of a human being, as eager to
+look out as he was to look in.  Bertel was soon able to discern a face
+with burning eyes, which stared out close to the window, to discover
+the cause of a horse's neighing so late at night in the wilderness.
+
+The sight of this face had the effect of an electric shock upon the
+inquisitive captain.  With his thoughts on the beautiful Regina, Bertel
+had expected a sight not involving so great a contrast.  But instead he
+beheld a corpse-like face surrounded by a black tight-fitting, leather
+hood, and this dark frame made the pale face seem still paler.
+
+Bertel had seen these features before, and when he searched his memory,
+the picture of a terrible night in the Bavarian woods rose before his
+mental vision.  Involuntarily he drew back, and hesitated for a moment.
+This motion was observed by Pekka, who had remained on his horse so as
+to be ready to fly.
+
+"Quick, away from here!" he cried.  "I have told you that nobody but
+the devil himself lives in these woods."
+
+"Yes, you are right," said Bertel, now smiling at his own fears, and
+what he considered to be the offspring of his heated fancy.  "If ever
+the Prince of Darkness has assumed a human form, then he resides in
+this hut.  But that is just the reason why we will look the worthy
+gentleman in the face, and force him to give us lodgings for the night.
+Hullo, there! open the door to some travellers."
+
+These words were accompanied by some heavy blows on the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+DON QUIXOTE DE LA MANCHA.
+
+After some time the door was opened, and an old man, bent with age, and
+with snow-white hair, disclosed himself.  Accustomed by the right of
+war to take whatever was necessary, when it was not given voluntarily,
+Bertel pushed the old man aside and entered the miserable hut without
+ceremony.  To his great astonishment he found it empty.  A half burnt
+"perta,"* stuck in between the bricks of the fire-place, threw a
+flickering light around this abode of poverty.  There was no door
+except the entrance; no living being besides the old man and a large
+woolly dog, which lay outstretched on the hearth, and showed his teeth
+to the uninvited guest.
+
+
+* A thin stick of pine-wood, a yard long and an inch thick, which the
+peasants sometimes use instead of candles.
+
+
+"Where is the man in the black leather hood, who was here a moment
+ago?" asked Bertel sharply.
+
+"God bless your grace," answered the old man humbly and evasively, "who
+could be here but your grace?"
+
+"Out with the truth!  Somebody must be hidden here.  Under the bed ...
+no.  Behind the oven ... no.  And yet you have just had a large fire
+kindled in the fire-place.  What?  I believe it is put out with water?
+Answer."
+
+"It is so cold, your grace, and the hut is full of cracks..."
+
+Bertel's aroused suspicions were not so easily dispelled.  His eyes
+searched every part of the room, and soon discovered a little object
+which had fallen under a bench.  It was a fine and soft lady's glove,
+lined with flannel.
+
+"Will you now confess, old wretch?" burst out the excited young man.
+
+The old man seemed dismayed, but only for a moment.  He suddenly
+changed his manner, nodded slyly, and pointed to the corner nearest the
+oven.  Bertel followed the hint ... took a few steps ... and suddenly
+felt himself precipitated downwards.  He had fallen into the open hole
+of a cellar, whose entrance had been hidden by the heavy shadow of the
+fire-place.  Instantly a trap-door was closed over the opening, and he
+heard the rattling of an iron hook, which secured the trap and deprived
+him of all chance of opening the door from below.
+
+Bertel had fallen into one of those places under the floor in which
+poor people keep roots and home-brewed beer.  The cellar was not deep,
+nor his fall dangerous, but, nevertheless, Bertel's anger was quite
+natural.  The little glove had betrayed the whole story.  She must be
+here; she, the beautiful, proud, unfortunate princess, whom he had so
+long adored in secret.  Perhaps she had fallen into the hands of cruel
+robbers.  And just now, when he was near to her after years of longing,
+and when, perhaps, she most needed his help and protection, he had been
+caught in a miserable trap; imprisoned in a rat-hole, more miserable
+than the hut itself, of which the floor this moment served him for a
+ceiling.  In vain did he try to lift up the planks of the floor by the
+strength of his shoulders; they were as inexorable as the fate which
+had so long mocked his dearest hopes.
+
+Then he heard the footsteps of several persons passing over the floor
+overhead.  Then all was silent.
+
+Pekka was now Bertel's only hope, but the former had not dared to enter
+the hut.  Nothing was heard of him, however, and three or four hours
+passed in torturing suspense, increased by the prospect of perishing
+from hunger and cold.  Then steps again sounded overhead; the iron hook
+was unfastened, and the trap-door raised.  Half-frozen, Bertel crawled
+up from the damp hole, in the firm belief that Pekka had at last spied
+out his prison.  He was met instead by the old man with the snow-white
+hair, who, humble and submissive as before, offered his hand to help
+him up.
+
+The enraged young warrior seized him by his bony shoulders, and
+proceeded to catechise him in a thorough manner.
+
+"Wretch," he exclaimed, "are you tired of life, or do you not know what
+you are doing, dotard?  What hinders me from crushing your miserable
+carcase against the walls of your own hut?"
+
+The old man looked at him with an unchanging countenance.
+
+"Do so, Bertila's son," he replied; "kill your mother's old faithful
+servant if you wish; why should he live any longer?"
+
+"My mother's old servant, do you say?"
+
+"I am the last survivor of all those who formerly inhabited this
+fertile region, which is now a wilderness.  It was I who said to Aron
+Bertila, when my master's house was destroyed in blood and ashes: 'Save
+my young mistress.'  And Bertila did it; cursed is he and blessed at
+the same time!  He carried my lovely young mistress out of the flames,
+and she, a noble maiden, became the haughty peasant's humble wife."
+
+"But are you mad, old man?  If you are, as you say, my mother's old
+servant, why did you shut me up in that damned hole?  You must admit
+that your friendship is of a strange kind."
+
+"Kill me, sir.  I am ninety years of age.  Kill me, I am a Catholic!"
+
+"You!  Well, by my sword now I begin to understand you."
+
+"I am the last Catholic in this country.  I belong to King John's and
+King Sigismund's time.  I am one of the four who buried the last nun in
+Nadendal's cloister.  For twenty years I have not heard mass, or been
+sprinkled with holy water.  But all the saints be praised, an hour
+before your arrival, I had eaten of the holy wafer."
+
+"A monk has been in your hut?"
+
+"Yes, sir, one of ours."
+
+"And with him a young girl and her old waiting-maid?  Answer."
+
+"Yes, sir, they were in his company."
+
+"And on my arrival you concealed them..."
+
+"In the garret.  Yes, your grace."
+
+"Then you decoyed me into that miserable rat-hole, while you allowed
+the women and the monk to escape."
+
+"I do not deny that it is so."
+
+"And what do you think that your reward will be?"
+
+"Anything--death, perhaps."
+
+"I will spare your life on one condition: you shall show me the way the
+fugitives have taken."
+
+"My life; I told you that I was ninety years old."
+
+"And you do not fear the torture?"
+
+"The saints be praised, if I was worthy of so great an honour."
+
+"But if I burn you alive in your own hut?"
+
+"The holy martyrs have been burnt at the stake."
+
+"No, old man, I am not an executioner.  I have learnt in the service of
+my king to revere faithfulness."  And Bertel pressed the old man's hand
+with emotion.
+
+"But I will tell you one thing," he continued, "you think that I have
+come to take the fugitives back to their prison.  It is not so.  I give
+you my word of honour, that I will defend Lady Regina's freedom with my
+life's blood, and do all in my power to favour her flight.  Will you
+now tell me which way she has gone?"
+
+"No, your grace," said the calm old man; "the young lady is under the
+protection of the saints, and a wise man's guidance.  You are
+hot-blooded and young, and would bring them all to ruin.  Turn back,
+you will not find any trace of the fugitives."
+
+"Bull-head," muttered Bertel indignantly.  "Farewell, I shall get along
+without your help."
+
+"Remain here quietly until to-morrow, your grace.  To-night you are at
+liberty to walk, if you choose, six miles through the high snow-drifts,
+to the nearest farm.  To-morrow you can ride comfortably."
+
+"Wretch! you have sent my horses away?"
+
+"Yes, your grace ... you must be hungry.  Here is a kettle with boiled
+turnips; may they be to your taste."
+
+"Ah!" thought Bertel to himself, as he impatiently paced the floor, "I
+would not let Larsson see me at this moment for ten bottles of Rhine
+wine.  He would certainly compare me to the wandering knight of La
+Mancha, who, on the way to his Dulcinea, fell into the most peculiar
+adventures.  How shall I get away from here through these terrible
+snow-drifts?"
+
+"But," he added aloud, "I have an idea; I will try if one of the
+greatest amusements of my youth cannot serve me a good turn now.  Old
+man, where do you keep your snow-shoes?"
+
+"My snow-shoes?" replied the old man, confused.  "I have none."
+
+"You have, I see it in your face.  No Finn in the wilderness is without
+snow-shoes.  Out with them, quick!"
+
+And without heeding the old man, Bertel pushed open the door which led
+to the garret, and drew out a fine pair of snow-shoes.
+
+"Well, old friend," exclaimed the young cavalier, "what do you think of
+my horses? ... I call them mine, for I will bet anything that you will
+sell them to me for three hard silver thalers: swifter steeds have
+seldom hurried over high snow-drifts.  If you have any greeting for the
+monk or Lady Regina, I will take it with pleasure."
+
+"Do not go alone into the wilderness," said the old man.  "There is
+neither track or path; the woods extend for miles, and are filled with
+wolves.  It will be certain death to you."
+
+"You are wrong, my friend," replied Bertel.  "If I am not mistaken,
+there are traces in two directions: one from my horses, the other from
+the fugitives.  Tell me, did they go in a sleigh, or on horseback?"
+
+"I think they went on horseback."
+
+"Then I am certain they drove.  You are a finished rogue.  But I
+forgive you for the sake of your excellent snow-shoes.  Farewell, in a
+couple of hours I will find those whom I seek."
+
+With these words Bertel hurried out.
+
+It was yet early in the morning, a short time before sunrise.  But
+fortunately the storm had ceased, the sky was clear, and the winter
+stars twinkled brightly in the blue firmament.  The cold had increased,
+and a sharp frost had covered all the branches and snowdrifts with
+those ice diamonds, which at once dazzle and charm the wanderer's eye.
+The sight of woods and snow on a starry winter morning gives the
+Northerner a peculiar exhilarating feeling.  There is in this scene a
+grandeur, a splendour, a purity, a freshness, which carries him back to
+the impressions of his childhood and the brilliant illusions of youth.
+There is nothing to cramp the heart, or paralyze the soaring
+imagination; all is there so vast, so solemn, so free.  One might say
+that nature in this deep silence of winter and night is dead, and yet
+she lives, warm and rich, in the wanderer's heart.
+
+It is as if she had in this little spot, this solitary place in the
+wilderness, compressed all her throbbing life, only to let it exist all
+the more beautifully in the midst of silence, stillness, and the
+radiance of the stars.
+
+Bertel also experienced this feeling of freshness and life.  He was
+still young and open to every impression.  As he hastened along, light
+as the wind, between the trees and snow-drifts, he felt like a child.
+It seemed to him that he was again the boy who flew over the snow on
+Storkyro plains to spread his snares for the black-cock in the woods.
+It was true that he was a little unsteady in the beginning for lack of
+practice, and the snow-shoes slid merrily down the icy slopes;
+occasionally he made false pushes, and sometimes stumbled, but he soon
+regained his former skill, and stood firm on the uneven ground.
+
+Now it was necessary to find the traces of the fugitives, and this was
+not easy.  Bertel had wandered about for more than an hour in the
+direction of Ylihärmä, but had not discovered the slightest sign.  The
+last outbreak of the storm had destroyed all indications; one could
+only see the fresh track of the wolf, where he had just trotted along,
+and now and then a frightened bird flew between the branches which were
+heavy with snow.  Want of sleep, hunger, and fatigue, exhausted the
+young man's strength.  The cold increased as sunrise approached, and
+covered his moustache and plumed hat with frost.
+
+At last he saw on a wood-path, which the broad pines had shielded from
+the blast, fresh traces of runners and horses' feet.  Bertel followed
+these with renewed energy; at times the tracks were lost in the snow,
+and then reappeared where the road was sheltered.  The sun rose deep
+red in the south-east over the tops of the trees.  The day was cold and
+clear.  In every direction nothing was to be seen but trees and
+snow-drifts, but far away in the north a little column of smoke rose
+towards the morning sky.  Bertel aimed at this point.  The snow-shoes
+regained their speed, the road seemed smoother, and at last the weary
+adventurer reached a solitary farmhouse by the side of the high road.
+
+The first person he encountered was Pekka, who was going to feed his
+horses.
+
+"Scoundrel!" cried Bertel, with glad surprise, "who sent you here?"
+
+"Who?" repeated Pekka, equally delighted and astonished.  "Well, I
+shall tell you that the devil did it.  I waited and waited outside that
+accursed old shanty in the woods until my eyes and feet became heavy
+together, where I sat in the snow-drift.  After a little while I was
+aroused by the neighing of horses.  And then I saw a sleigh just like
+ours harnessed to two horses, dashing away along the road.  It is
+either my master or the devil.  It is all the same to me.  I will
+follow him, I said.  Then I climbed up again on the horse's back.  I
+was so hungry that it is a shame to speak of it; but I went after him.
+Finally the horse became tired and I lost sight of the sleigh; and
+thanked are both Lutheran and Catholic saints that I came here to the
+farm and got a good bowl of porridge.  For was it not at Lützen and
+Nördlingen ... it is damned cold at Ylihärmä, that is sure."
+
+"Good," said Bertel, "they shall not escape us.  But do you know one
+thing, Pekka: there are moments when hunger and want of sleep are even
+stronger than love itself.  Come, let us go in."
+
+Bertel entered, and drank a bowl of boiled milk, and threw himself,
+overcome by fatigue, on a straw bed in the "stuga."  Here we will leave
+our wandering knight for a couple of hours in peace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+KAJANEBORG.
+
+Far away in the North roar the mighty waters of the sea under vaults of
+ice; the _fors_ never freezes, the green of the pine never withers, and
+the grey rocks, which confine the foaming floods in narrow ravines,
+never shake.  Here the powers of nature have pursued their incessant
+warfare for centuries without rest, without reconciliation; the flood
+never tires of battling with the rocks, and these persist in resisting
+the stream; the hills never seem to grow old, and the immense morasses
+defy cultivation; the frosty transparent atmosphere quivers as of old
+in the northern light, and the winter sky looks down with its
+imperturbable, majestic calm upon the scattered huts on the banks of
+the streams.
+
+This is the home of night and terror; this is the shadow of Finnish
+poetry's golden pictures.  Here the light-shunning Black Art spins its
+webs around human beliefs; here are the graves of heroes; here the last
+giants spent their rude strength in the mountain wilderness; here stood
+Hüsis ancient fortress, of which the steps were each six feet in
+height; here the spirit of the middle ages brooded over its darkest
+thoughts; here it receded, step by step, before the light of a newer
+time, and here it has bled in its impotent rage; heathenism, fallen
+from its greatness, steals outlawed from place to place, in the sheep's
+clothing of Christendom, going restlessly around the country, and
+performing its miserable mummeries in churchyards at night.
+
+Before the great northern waters, irritated by their battles in
+hundreds of _forssar_* go to seek a brief repose in Uleä Sea, they once
+more pour out their anger into the two mighty waterfalls of Koivukoski
+and Ämmä, near the little Kajana.  Like two immense surfs the torrents
+throw themselves headlong down the narrow pass, and so violent is their
+fall that human daring, accustomed to struggle with nature and conquer
+in the end, has here stopped with dismay and acknowledged its
+powerlessness.  Up to the latest times the boats which have steered
+down the _forssar_ in their course towards Uleäborg, have always been
+obliged to land here and be drawn by horses through the streets of
+Kajana.**
+
+
+* Plural of fors.
+
+** After the surgeon's time, a lock was completed here at each fall,
+and the boats now continue on their way without much delay.
+
+
+In the stream, right between the two falls, Koivukoski and Ämmä, lies a
+flat rock, to which bridges are attached from both sides.  Here stand
+the grey walls of an ancient fortress, now in ruins, and constantly
+bathed by the waves of the flood.  This fortress of Kajaneborg was
+founded in 1607, during Carl IX.'s time, as a protection against
+Russian invasion.  Perhaps the time may come in our stories when we
+shall speak more of it.
+
+It is now 1635, and the castle stands in its original strength.  Its
+form resembles an arrow with the point turned towards the stream.
+Unless famine occurs, or the enemy can bring heavy artillery to the
+heights, it is considered impregnable.  But how can a hostile army find
+any road to Kajaneborg?  In the immense wilderness all around there is
+not a single road where a wheel can run.  In summer the traveller
+follows the narrow paths, and in winter the Laplander, with his
+reindeer and sleigh, drives over the frozen lakes.
+
+It is winter; a thick crust of ice on the shores and over the walls of
+the castle shows that the cold has been severe, though it has not been
+able to bind the _fors_ in its rapid course.
+
+Some soldiers, clad in sheep-skin jackets, with the fur side turned
+inwards, are busy drawing home wood from the adjacent forest.  There is
+peace in the land, the drawbridge is down, and horses' feet thunder
+over the bridge.  Then a violent squabble arises in the castle yard.
+An old woman, tall in stature, with rather disagreeable features, has
+taken possession of one of the loads of wood, and pushed away the
+soldiers, while she picks up as many pieces as she is able to carry,
+and commands another younger woman to do likewise.
+
+The soldiers utter coarse oaths, but the woman with the keen eyes does
+not deign to reply.
+
+A sub-officer, drawn there by the noise, informs himself of the cause,
+then addresses the woman with hard words, and orders her to return the
+wood she has taken.  The woman refuses to obey; the sub-officer
+endeavours to use force; the woman plants herself back to the wall,
+raises a small log of wood in the air, and threatens to break the head
+of the first man who approaches her.  The soldiers swear and laugh; the
+sub-officer hesitates; the old woman's courage holds them all in check.
+
+Then an elderly man appears on the steps, to whom all give way with
+reverence.  It is Governor Wernstedt.  As soon as the old woman sees
+him, she leaves her hostile attitude, and relates with a torrent of
+words all the injustice she has suffered.
+
+"Yes, gracious Excellency," she said, "that is the way they dare to
+treat a man who is the pride and ornament of Sweden.  It is not
+sufficient to shut him up in this miserable out-of-the-way hole, but
+they let him freeze to death in the bargain.  What wood have they given
+us?  Great God! nothing but green and rotten chunks, which fill the
+room with smoke, and do not give out heat enough to thaw the ink on his
+table.  But I tell you, Excellency, that I, Lucia Grothusen, do not
+intend to be imposed upon any longer.  This wood is good, and I take
+it, as you see, Excellency, right before the face of these vagabonds,
+who deserve to all hang upon the highest pine in the Paldamo forest.
+Pack yourselves off, you lazy, good-for-nothing rascals, and look out
+how you act before me and the Governor.  The wood is mine, and that is
+all to be said about it."
+
+The Governor smiled.
+
+"Let her keep the wood," he said to the soldiers, "or else there will
+be no peace in the castle.  And you, Lucia, I warn you to hold your
+wicked tongue, which has already done so much mischief; otherwise it
+may happen that I shall again put you and your husband in that basement
+you know of, where Erik Hare kept you, and where the stream rolls right
+under the floor.  Is this the thanks I get for the mild treatment I
+have bestowed upon you, that you are eternally exciting quarrels in the
+castle?  The day before yesterday you gave rein to your tongue, because
+you did not receive enough soap for your washing; yesterday you took a
+leg of mutton by force from my kitchen, and to-day you make a noise
+about the wood.  Take care, Lucia; my patience may be exhausted."
+
+The woman looked the Governor right in the face.
+
+"Your patience!" she repeated.  "How long do you think that mine will
+last.  I have stayed now nearly nineteen years in this owl's nest.  For
+nineteen long years has it cast a stain upon Sweden that its greatest
+man is confined here like a criminal! ... Mark what I say: Sweden's
+greatest man; for the day will arrive when you, and I, and all these
+souls of lard, all these wandering ale-jugs, will be food for worms,
+and no more thought of than the hogs you killed to-day; but the
+glorious name of Johannes Messenius will shine for all time.  Your
+patience!  Have I, then, had none--I who in these long weary years have
+been fighting with you for a bit of bread, for firewood, for a pillow
+for this great man, whom you abuse?  I, the only one who has kept his
+frail body alive, and strengthened his soul for the great work which he
+has now accomplished?  Do you realise what it means to suffer as I
+have; to be snatched away from one's children, to go about with despair
+in the heart, and a smile on the lips, so as to seem to have a hope
+when none remains? ... Do you know, your Excellency, what all this
+means?  And you stand there and talk about your patience!"
+
+The soldiers' loud laughter all at once interrupted the voluble old
+woman.  She now perceived for the first time that the Governor had
+chosen the wisest course, and gone his way.  It was not the first time
+that Lucia Grothusen had put the commander of a fortress to flight.
+She felt able to drive a whole garrison to the woods.  But it vexed her
+that she could not fully relieve her heart.  She threw a stick of wood
+at the nearest and worst of her mockers, and then hurried with the wood
+in her arms, to reach a low back door.  The soldier, struck in the leg,
+seized the stick with an oath, and flung it in his turn after the old
+woman.  Lucia, hit in the heel, uttered a cry of pain and anger ... and
+then she disappeared through the door, followed by the soldiers' loud
+laughter.
+
+During this scene of self-sacrifice on one side, and rudeness on the
+other, a group of strangers had arrived over the left castle bridge,
+and asked to be conducted to the Governor.
+
+The soldiers regarded them with curiosity.  They wore the common garb
+of peasants, but their whole appearance betrayed their foreign origin.
+An old man, with dark squinting eyes and sallow complexion, came first;
+his face partly hidden under a woolly cap of dog-skin, which with its
+ear-flaps covered the greater portion of the head.  After him followed
+a young woman in a striped home-spun skirt, and a tight-fitting jacket
+of new and fine white sheep-skin.  Her face, also, is almost entirely
+concealed under a hood of coarse felt, bordered with squirrel-skin, the
+fine fur of which is covered with frost.  One only saw a pair of
+beautiful dark eyes of unusual brilliancy, which peeped forth from the
+hood.  The third of the company was a little old woman, so wrapped up
+in furs that her short figure had widened out into the shape of a
+well-stuffed cushion.
+
+All these persons were conducted to the Governor.  The man in the
+dog-skin cap showed a passport, according to which, Albertus Simonis,
+in his royal Majesty's service, was appointed army physician to the
+troops which were to go to Germany the following spring, and was now,
+with his wife and daughter, on a journey from Dantzig to Stockholm, by
+way of the north road through Wiborg and Kajana.  The Governor closely
+examined both the document and the man, and seemed to find a
+satisfactory conclusion to his survey.  Then he sent the travellers to
+a room in the east wing of the castle, and gave orders for them to be
+provided with the necessary refreshments after such a long journey in
+the severe cold.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE PRISONER OF STATE.
+
+The room which we now enter is situated in the south tower of the
+castle, and is not very inviting.  It is large and dark.  Although with
+a sunny aspect, the narrow window, with its thick iron gratings, only
+admits a few of the winter's day sunbeams.  A large open fire-place,
+with a granite hearth, occupies one corner of the room; a rough
+unpainted bed, a couple of benches, two chairs, a clothes-chest, a
+large table under the window, and a high cupboard next to it, make up
+the furniture of the room.  All these things have a new appearance,
+which to some degree reconciles the eye to their coarseness.
+
+But the room is a curious combination of kitchen and study.  Learning
+has established its abode at the upper end nearest the window.  The
+table is adorned with ink spots, and covered with old yellow
+manuscripts and large folios of parchments.  The door of the cupboard
+is open, and shows its use as a library.  The lower part of the room,
+near the fire-place, has a different appearance.  Here stands a
+wash-tub by a sack of flour; a kettle is waiting to receive some dried
+pike and bits of salt pork, and leaves room for a bucket of water, and
+a shelf filled with coarse stone dishes.
+
+Such was the habitation which Governor Wernstedt had assigned to the
+state prisoner, Johannes Messenius, his wife, and servant, instead of
+the horrible place where Messenius' tormentor, old Erik Hare, for so
+many years confined these unfortunate beings.  The room was at least
+high and dry above the ground, and its furniture was likewise a
+friendly gift from the Governor.  Messenius occupied the upper part,
+and the women of his household the lower.
+
+By the large ink-spotted table sat a grey-haired man, with his body
+wrapped in furs, his feet clad with reindeer boots, and his head
+covered with a thick woollen cap.  One who had seen this man in the
+days of his prosperity, when he occupied the rostrum in Upsala
+"Consistorium," or proud as a king on his throne, exercising sole
+control over all the historical treasures of the Swedish state
+archives, would scarcely now recognise in this withered form, bent by
+age and misfortune, the man with the arrogant mind, the opponent of
+Rudbeck and Tegel, the learned, gifted, haughty, Jesuit conspirator,
+Johannes Messenius.
+
+But if one looked deep into those keen, restless eyes, which seemed
+constantly trying to penetrate the future as they had done the past,
+and read the words which his shaking hand had just penned--words full
+of egotism even to presumption--then one could divine that within this
+decayed tenement toiled a soul unbroken by time and events, proud as it
+had always been, ambitious as it could never cease to be.
+
+The old man's gaze was fixed upon the paper long after he had laid down
+his pen.
+
+"Yes," he said thoughtfully and reflectively, "so shall it be.  During
+my lifetime they have trampled me like a worm in the dust; once I am
+dead they will know upon whom they have trodden.  _Gloria, gloria in
+excelsis!_  The day will arrive, even if it be a century hence, when
+the miserable prisoner who, now forgotten by the whole world, pines
+away in the wilderness, shall with admiration and respect be called the
+father of Swedish history....
+
+"Then," he continued with a bitter smile, "they can do nothing more for
+me.  Then I shall be dead ... Ah, it is strange! the dead man, whose
+bones have long mouldered in the grave, lives in his works; his spirit
+goes quickening and ennobling through the ages.  All that he has
+endured while he lived, all the ignominy, all the persecutions, all the
+prison gratings are forgotten; they exist no longer, provided his name
+still shines like a star through the night of time, and posterity, with
+its short memory and its ingratitude, says, with thoughtless
+admiration, he was a great man!"
+
+During this soliloquy the old woman, whose acquaintance we made in the
+castle yard, entered the room.  She carefully opened the door, and
+walked on tip-toe, as if afraid of waking a sleeping babe.  Then she
+carefully put down the wood she carried in her arms.  A little noise,
+however, was unavoidable; the old man at the table, startled from his
+thoughts, began to upbraid the intruder:
+
+"Woman!" he said, "how dare you disturb me!  Have I not told you
+_iterum iterumque_, that you shall take away your _penates procul a
+parnasso_?  Do you understand it ... _lupa_?"
+
+"Dear Messenius, I am only bringing you a little wood.  You have been
+so cold all these days.  Do not be angry now.  I shall make the room
+nice and warm for you; it is excellent wood..."
+
+"_Quid miki tecum_.  Go to the dogs.  You vex me, woman.  You are, as
+the late King Gustaf always said, _Messenü mala herba_; my wormwood, my
+nettle."
+
+Lucia Grothusen was an extremely quick-tempered woman, angry and
+quarrelsome with the whole world; but this time she kept quite still.
+How strangely her domestic position had altered!  She had always
+idolized her husband, but as long as he was in the full strength of his
+manhood and prosperity, she had bent his unquiet, vacillating spirit
+like a reed under her will.  All that time the feared and learned
+Messenius was held in complete subjection.  Now the _rôles_ were
+changed.  As his physical strength declined, indicating more and more
+that he approached the end of his life, his wife's idolatrous love came
+into conflict with her masterful disposition, and finally produced the
+extraordinary result of reducing this character to humble submission.
+She nursed him as a mother nurses her sick child, for fear of losing
+him.  She bore everything patiently, and never had an angry word in
+reply to his querulous remarks.  Even on this occasion, only a slight
+trembling of the lips gave evidence of the effort it cost her to check
+her anger.
+
+"Never mind," she said kindly, as she went a few steps nearer, "do not
+feel angry about it, my dear, because it injures your health.  I will
+not do it again; next time I will lay a mat under the wood, so that it
+will not disturb you.  Now I will cook you a splendid leg of mutton for
+supper ... Believe me, I had trouble enough to get it.  I almost had to
+take it by force from the Governor's kitchen."
+
+"What, woman! have you dared to beg _beneficia_ from tyrants?  By
+Jupiter, do you think me a dog, that I should eat the crumbs from their
+tables?  And then you limp.  Why do you do that?  Answer me; why do you
+limp?  I suppose you have been running around like a gossiping old
+woman, and tripped on the stairs."
+
+"Do I limp?" repeated Lucia, with a forced smile.  "I really believe I
+have hurt my foot ... Ungrateful!" added she silently to herself; "it
+is for your sake that I suffer."
+
+"Go your way, and let me finish my epitaph."
+
+But Lucia did not go; she came closer to him.  Her eyes filled with
+tears, and she folded both her arms around the old man's neck.
+
+"Your epitaph!" she repeated in a voice so mild that one would never
+have expected it from those withered lips, used so very often for hard
+words and invective only.
+
+"Oh, my God!" she continued in a low tone, "shall, then, all that is
+great and glorious on earth finally become dust?  But that day is still
+far distant, my friend; yes, it must be so.  Let me see the epitaph of
+the great Johannes Messenius!"
+
+"Certainly," said the old man, consoled by her sincere flattery, "you
+are decidedly the true _persona executrix_ who ought to read my
+_epitaphium_, as you are also the one who will have to engrave it on my
+tombstone.  Look, my dear; what do you think of this?
+
+"Here lie the bones of Doctoris Johannes Messenii.  His soul is in
+God's kingdom, but his fame is all over the world!"
+
+"Never," said Lucia, weeping, "have truer words been placed over a
+great man's grave.  But let us say no more about it.  Let us speak of
+your great work, your _Scondia_.  Do you know I have a feeling that its
+glory will in a short time prepare freedom for you..."
+
+"Freedom!" repeated Messenius, in a melancholy tone.  "Yes, you are
+right; the freedom of the grave to decay wherever one chooses."
+
+"No," replied Lucia with eagerness and enthusiasm, "you shall yet
+receive the honour that is due to you.  They will read your great
+_Scondia illustrata_, they will have it printed ... with your name in
+gilded letters on the title-page ... the whole world will say, full of
+admiration: 'never has his equal existed in the North'!"
+
+"And never will exist again!" added Messenius, with confidence.  "Oh!
+who will restore me my freedom--freedom that I may behold my work and
+triumph over my enemies.  Hear me, Lord, I stretch out my hands before
+Thy face.  Save me from misery, for Thou hast said: 'I will prostrate
+thine enemies, to be trampled under thy feet.'  Who will give me
+freedom--freedom and ten years of life to witness the fruits of my
+labour?"
+
+"I," answered a muffled voice at the lower end of the room.
+
+At the sound of this voice both Messenius and his wife looked around
+with superstitious terror.  The loneliness of the prison, and the
+associations of this wild country, which in all ages has been the
+fruitful soil of superstition, had in both increased the belief in
+superhuman things to a perfect conviction.  More than once had
+Messenius' brooding spirit been on the point of plunging into the
+enticing labyrinth of the Kabala and practical Magic; but his zealous
+labours and his wife's religious exhortations had held him back.  Now
+came an unexpected answer to his question ... from Heaven or the abyss,
+no matter which, but an answer, nevertheless--a straw for his drowning
+hopes.
+
+The short winter day had drawn to a close, and twilight already spread
+its shadows over that part of the room which lay nearest the door.
+From this obscurity advanced a man, in whose sallow features one
+recognised the same person who two hours before had gained an entrance
+to the castle, under the name of Albertus Simonis.  He had probably, in
+his capacity of physician, obtained permission to see the prisoner, for
+the whole medical faculty of the castle consisted of a barber, who
+practised chirurgery, and an old soldier's widow, whose skill in curing
+internal diseases was highly commended, especially when it was assisted
+by _luvut_, or incantations, which, although forbidden by the Church,
+were still used in the vapour-baths as powerful magical aids.
+
+"_Pax vobiscum!_" said the stranger with a certain solemnity, and
+coming nearer the window.
+
+"May the Lord be with you also!" answered Messenius, in the same tone,
+and with curiosity mingled with inquietude.
+
+"May the woman's tongue be far from the consultation!" continued the
+stranger also in Latin.
+
+Lucia, in whose youth the daughters of learned men knew Latin better
+than those of the nineteenth century read French, did not wait for a
+further reminder, and left the room with an inquisitive glance at the
+mysterious stranger.
+
+Messenius made a sign to his visitor to take a seat near him.  The
+whole conversation was conducted in Latin.
+
+"Receive my greeting, great man, whom misfortune has only been able to
+elevate!" began the stranger, with artful discrimination attacking
+Messenius' weakest point.
+
+"Be welcome, you who do not disdain to visit the forsaken!" replied
+Messenius with unusual courtesy.
+
+"Do you recognise me, Johannes Messenius?" said the stranger, as he let
+the light fall on his pale face.
+
+"It seems to me that I have seen your face before," replied the
+prisoner hesitatingly; "but it must have been a long time ago."
+
+"Do you remember a boy in Braunsberg, some years younger than yourself,
+who was educated with you in the school of the holy fathers, and
+afterwards in your company visited Rome and Ingolstadt?"
+
+"Yes, I remember ... a boy who gave great promise of one day becoming a
+pillar of the church ... Hieronymus Mathiæ."
+
+"I am Hieronymus Mathiæ."
+
+Messenius felt a shudder run through his frame.  Time, the experiences
+of life, and the soul destroying doctrines of the Jesuits, had
+completely changed the features of the once blooming boy.  Pater
+Hieronymus observed this impression, and hastened to add:
+
+"Yes, my revered friend, thirty-five years' struggle for the welfare of
+the only saving Church has caused the roses in these cheeks to fade for
+ever.  I have laboured and suffered in these evil times.  Like you,
+great man, but with much lesser genius, I have dug in the vineyard,
+without any reward for my toil but the prospect of the holy martyr's
+crown in Paradise.  You were very kind to me in my youth; now I will
+repay it so far as it lies in my power.  I will restore you to freedom
+and life."
+
+"Ah, reverend father," replied the old man, with a deep sigh, "I am not
+worthy of this; you, the son of the holy Church, extending your hand to
+me, a poor apostate?  You do not know, then, that I have renounced our
+faith; that I, with my own hand and mouth, have embraced the accursed
+Lutheran religion, which I abhor in my heart; nay, even in my time
+persecuted your holy order with several godless libels."
+
+"Why should I not know all this, my honoured friend; have not the great
+Messenius' work and deeds flown on the wings of fame throughout
+Germany?  But what you have done, has been done as a blind, so as to
+work in secret for the highest good of our holy Roman Church.  Do not
+the Scriptures teach us to meet craft with craft in these godless
+times?  'Ye shall be as wily as serpents.'  The Holy Virgin will give
+you her absolution as soon as you have worked for her sake.  Yes,
+esteemed man, even had you seven times abjured your faith, and seven
+times seventy sinned against all the saints and the dogmas of the
+Church, it shall all be accounted to you for reward, and not for
+condemnation, provided you have done it with a mental reservation, and
+with the design of thereby serving the good cause.  Even if your tongue
+has lied, and your hand killed, it shall be deemed a pious and holy
+work, when it was for the purpose of bringing back the stray sheep.
+Courage, great man, I absolve you in the name of the Church."
+
+"Yes, good father, these teachings which the worthy Jesuit fathers, in
+Braunsberg so eloquently instilled into my young mind, I have
+faithfully followed in my life.  But now, in my old age, it sometimes
+seems to me as if my conscience raised some opposition in the matter..."
+
+"Temptations of the devil! nothing else.  Drive them away!"
+
+"That may well be, pious father!  Yes, to calm my conscience, I have
+written a formal confession, in which I openly declare my profession of
+the Lutheran faith a hypocritical act, and as openly proclaim my
+adherence to the Catholic Church."
+
+"Hide this confession, show it not to any mortal eye!" interrupted the
+Jesuit quickly.  "Its time will yet come."
+
+"I do not understand your reasons, pious father."
+
+"Listen attentively to what I have to say!  Do you think, old man, that
+I, without important reasons, have ventured up here in the wilderness,
+daily exposed to hunger, cold, wild beasts, and the still wilder people
+in this country, who would burn me alive if they knew who I was, and
+what I was about?  Do you think I would have left the wide field in my
+native land, had I not hoped to accomplish more here?  Well, then, I
+will briefly explain to you my point ... Can anyone hear us?  Perhaps
+there are private passages in these walls."
+
+"Be sure no mortal can hear us."
+
+"Know, then," continued the Jesuit in a low voice, "that we have again
+before us the never-abandoned plan of bringing heretic Sweden back to
+the bosom of the Roman Church.  There are only two powers which can any
+longer resist us, and the saints be praised, these powers are becoming
+day by day more harmless.  The House of Stuart, in England, is
+surrounded by our nets, and in secret does everything for our cause.
+Sweden still lies stunned by the terrible blow at Nördlingen, and
+cannot, without fresh miracles, retain its dominant position in
+Germany.  The time has come when our plans are fully matured; we must
+avail ourselves of our enemies' powerlessness.  In a few years England
+will fall into our hands like a ripe fruit.  Sweden, still proud of
+former victories, shall be forced to do the same.  The means to this
+end will be a change of dynasty."
+
+"Christina, King Gustaf's daughter..."
+
+"Is a nine-year-old child, and besides a girl!  We are not without
+allies in Sweden, who still remember the expelled royal family.  The
+weak Sigismund is dead; Uladislaus, his son, stretches out his hands,
+with all the impatience of youth, for the crown of his forefathers.  It
+shall be his."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE TEMPTER.
+
+"Uladislaus on the Swedish throne?  I doubt whether we shall ever live
+to see that day," said Messenius incredulously.
+
+"Hear me to the end," continued the Jesuit, engrossed by the stupendous
+plan his scheming head had concocted.  "You, Messenius, are the only
+one who can perform this miracle."
+
+"I ... a miserable prisoner!  Impossible."
+
+"To the saints and genius nothing is impossible.  The Swede is now well
+disposed towards royalty.  The example of his kings leads him to good
+or evil.  He has especially a great reverence for old King Gustaf Vasa.
+If it could now be proved that the said king on his death-bed, with
+repentance, declared the Lutheran doctrine to be heterodox, that he had
+abjured and cursed the Reformation, and that he had charged his
+youngest son, the papistical Johan, to atone for his great errors..."
+
+"What do you dare to say?" burst out Messenius, with undisguised
+surprise.  "Such an obvious lie is in direct opposition to Gustaf
+Vasa's last words at death, all of whose utterances have been so
+faithfully recorded..."
+
+"Calm yourself, revered friend," interrupted the Jesuit coldly.
+"Supposing it could be further demonstrated that the second founder of
+Lutheranism, Carolus IX., likewise on his death-bed declared the
+Reformation to be a blasphemy and a misfortune...?"
+
+Messenius regarded the Jesuit with dismay.
+
+"And if it can finally be proven that even Gustaf Adolf, before giving
+up the ghost at Lützen, was struck by a sudden inspiration, and died a
+heretic's death, under the greatest torment and anguish of soul...?"
+
+Messenius' pale cheeks were covered with a flush.
+
+"Then," continued the Jesuit, with the same composed daring, "there
+remains of the Vasa dynasty only the demented Erik XIV., the admitted
+papist, Johan III., and the professed Catholic, Sigismund, with all of
+whom we need not trouble ourselves in the least.  Once convinced that
+all of their greatest kings either have been papistical, or have become
+so in their last moments, the scales will fall from the eyes of the
+Swedish people; they will penitently confess their guilt, and at last
+fall back into the bosom of the only saving Roman Catholic Church.
+
+"But how will you, revered father, in the face of all the facts,
+convince the Swedes of the apostasy of their kings?"
+
+"I have already told you," replied the Jesuit flatteringly, "that such
+a great and meritorious mission can only be accomplished by the gifted
+Johannes Messenius.  All know that you are Sweden's most learned man
+and greatest historian.  They know that you possess and hold in your
+care more historical documents and secrets than anyone else in the
+whole kingdom.  Use these advantages skilfully and judiciously; compile
+documents that never existed; describe events that never happened..."
+
+"What do you dare to say?" exclaimed Messenius with burning cheeks.
+
+The Jesuit misunderstood his excitement.
+
+"Yes," continued the Jesuit, "the undertaking is a bold one, but far
+from impossible.  A hasty flight to Poland will secure your safety."
+
+"And it is to me ... to me that you make this proposal?"
+
+"Yes," added the monk, in the same tone.  "I realise that Gustaf Adolf
+will cause you the most trouble, and therefore I will be responsible
+for him.  You will have therefore Gustaf I. and Carl IX. as your share,
+to present in such a light as will best serve the cause of the holy
+Church."
+
+"_Abi a me, male spiritus!_" burst out Messenius in a fit of rage,
+which the Jesuit with all his sagacity was far from expecting.  "You
+arch-villain! you liar! you infamous traitor, to lay your hand on the
+holiest; do you think that I, Johannes Messenius, have worked for long
+years to become Sweden's greatest historian, to all of a sudden, in
+such an infamous way, violate the historical truth which I have
+re-established with such long and continuous efforts?  Be off this
+moment, quick ... away, to _Gehenna_!" ... and with these words the old
+scholar, wild with rage, flung everything that he could get hold of at
+the Jesuit's head--books, papers, inkstand, sand-box--with such
+violence that the monk started.  The latter's face became still paler
+... then he took a few steps backwards, rose to his full height, and
+opened the plaited Spanish doublet which covered his breast.  A
+crucifix of flashing diamonds, surmounted by a crown of thorns set with
+rubies, glittered suddenly in the gathering twilight.
+
+This sight seemed to have a magical effect upon Messenius.  His excited
+voice was suddenly hushed ... his rage changed immediately to fear ...
+his knees trembled; he staggered, and was on the point of falling, but
+supported himself with difficulty against the chair at the table.  The
+Jesuit again advanced slowly, and looked steadily at the prisoner with
+his piercing eyes, which were like those of the rattlesnake.
+
+"Have you forgotten, old man," he said, in a measured and commanding
+tone, whilst every word was followed by a pause to increase its effect,
+"the penalty which the Church and the laws of our holy order inflict
+for sins like yours?  For apostasy: death ... and you have seven times
+apostatized!  ... For blasphemy: death ... and you have seven times
+blasphemed! ... For disobedience: death ... and you have seven times
+disobeyed! ... For sin against the Holy Ghost: damnation ... and who
+has sinned like you? ... For heresy: the stake ... and who has merited
+it like you? ... For offence and disrespect against the holy ones of
+the Lord: the eternal fire ... and who has given offence like you?"
+
+"Grace, holy father, grace!" exclaimed Messenius, while he writhed like
+a worm under the Jesuit's terrible threats.
+
+But Father Hieronymus continued:
+
+"The celebrated Nicolaus Pragensis went over to Calvin's false
+doctrines, and dared to defy the Head of our order.  He fled to the
+farthest corner of Bohemia, but our revenge found him.  The dogs tore
+his body to pieces, and the spirits of hell obtained his soul..."
+
+"Grace! mercy!" sighed the prisoner, completely crushed.
+
+"Well, then," added the Jesuit in a haughty tone or superiority, "I
+have given you the choice between glory and perdition; I will once more
+place it before you, although you are undeserving.  Do you imagine,
+miserable apostate, that I, the head of the German and Northern
+Jesuits, who do not acknowledge any superior except the Holy Father at
+Rome--do you believe that I, who have braved myriads of dangers to seek
+you here in your miserable corner, will allow you to stop me, the
+invisible ruler of the whole North, with your disobedience and
+irresolution?  I ask you once more, in the name of our holy order, if
+you, Johannes Messenius, will be faithful to the oath you swore in your
+youth, and implicitly obey the behests and commands which I, your
+superior and judge, enjoin upon you?"
+
+"Yes, holy father," answered the trembling captive; "yes, I will."
+
+"Hear, then, the penalty I impose.  You say that for your whole life
+you have striven for a single aim; that of gaining the name of the
+greatest historian in the North, and you think that you have at last
+attained your desire?"
+
+"Yes, holy father, that has been my object, and I have obtained it."
+
+"Your aim is evil!" exclaimed the Jesuit in stern tones, "and it is
+that of the devil, for you have worked for your own glory, and not for
+that of the holy Church, as you have sworn.  Therefore, I command you
+to destroy, with your own hands, the idol of your life--your great fame
+with posterity--by perverting history and writing it, not as it is, but
+as it ought to be.  I order you to cast away fame, to serve the cause
+of the Roman Church in the North.  You shall write the history of
+Gustaf I. and Carl IX. in such a manner that all they have done for the
+Reformation may redound as a ruin and curse both to them and their
+kingdom.  And I will that you base this new history on such reliable
+documents, that in the eyes of the people they will be above suspicion
+... documents which do not exist, but which you shall manufacture ...
+documents of which the falsity may possibly be discovered in a future
+generation, but which will at present produce the desired effect."
+
+"And thus," said Messenius, in a voice trembling with the most varied
+emotions--fear, anger, and humiliation--"I shall stand before posterity
+as a base falsifier, an infamous perverter of historical truth."
+
+"Yes, and what then?" continued the Jesuit with a sardonic smile; "what
+matters it, if you, miserable tool, sacrifice your name, provided the
+Church gains its great victory?  Of what advantage is the praise of
+men, if your soul burns in the eternal fires of hell; and what matters
+humanity's contempt, if you, through this sacrifice, gain the martyr's
+crown in Heaven?"
+
+"But the cause of truth ... the inflexible judgment of posterity."
+
+"Bah! what is historical truth?  Well, is it the obedient slave who
+follows at the heels of human errors ... the parrot which thoughtlessly
+repeats all their folly?  Or is it not rather truth, such as it _ought
+to be_, purified from error, freed from crime and folly ... God's
+kingdom on earth, as wise as it is almighty, as good as it is holy and
+wise?"
+
+"But is it then we who dictate to God what is good and right?  Has He
+not Himself told us that truth, _such as it is_?"
+
+"Ha! vacillating apostate, you still dare to argue with your superior
+about right and wrong.  Choose, obey or disobey!  Choose on one side
+temporal and eternal death, and on the other the joys of Paradise and
+the glory of the saints.  Yet a word, and upon this depends your weal
+or woe.  Will you obey my commands?"
+
+"Yes, I will obey," answered the crushed and terrified prisoner.  And
+the Jesuit went away silent and cold, with a ruler's nod that the slave
+had his good grace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+AVAUNT, EVIL SPIRIT.
+
+About a week had passed since the private conversation to which we last
+listened.  The Jesuit during this time had not left the prisoner to
+himself.  He was seen to enter Messenius' room every day, under the
+pretext of medical attendance, and spent some hours with him.  He was
+too acute to rely upon the prisoner's promise.  No one in the castle
+knew what they did together, and the Governor was unsuspicious.  The
+remote situation of Kajajneborg, far from the rest of the world, had
+lulled Wernstedt into security; he rather found pleasure in the society
+of the learned and experienced foreign doctor.
+
+There was one, however, who with a constant and vigilant eye followed
+every motion of the stranger, and this was Lucia Grothusen, Messenius'
+wife.  A Catholic by education and conviction, she had always
+strengthened her husband in his faith; the Jesuit well knew this, and
+therefore felt sure of her co-operation, although he carefully avoided
+confiding his plans to the mercy of female gossip.  But the most artful
+plans are often frustrated by those hidden springs and motives in the
+human heart, especially in a woman's heart, which work in quite a
+different direction from that of cold reason.  The Jesuit, in spite of
+his astuteness, was mistaken in our Lucia.  He did not know that when
+the fanaticism in her mind shouted, push on! love cried still louder in
+her heart, hold back! and love in women always gets the upper hand.
+
+Lucia was a very penetrating person; she had looked through the Jesuit
+before he knew it.  She saw the ruinous inward strife which raged in
+Messenius; a struggle for life and death between fanaticism on the one
+hand, which bade him sacrifice fame and posterity for the victory of
+the Church, and ambition on the other, which continually pleaded to him
+not to sacrifice with his own hand his whole life's work?  "Will you,"
+it said, "blindly desecrate the sanctuary of history?  Will you expose
+to contempt the brilliant name, which in the night of captivity still
+constitutes your wealth and pride?"
+
+Lucia saw all this with the discernment of love; she saw that the man
+for whom she lived an entire life of self-denial and restraint, would
+sink under this terrible internal battle, and she resolved to save him
+with a bold and decisive stroke.
+
+Late one evening the lamp still burned on Messenius' writing-table,
+where he and the Jesuit had been working together ever since the
+morning.  Lucia had received permission to retire to her bed, which
+stood at the other end of the room near the door, and pretended to be
+asleep.  The two men had finished their work, and were conversing
+together with low voices, in Latin, which Lucia well understood.
+
+"I am satisfied with you, my friend," said the Jesuit approvingly.
+"These documents, which bear the stamp of truth, will be sufficient to
+prove the conversion of King Gustaf Vasa and King Carl, and this
+preface, signed by you, will further confirm their veracity.  I will
+now return to Germany through Sweden, and have these prayers printed,
+through our adherents in Stockholm, or if that is impossible, in Lübeck
+or Leyden."
+
+Messenius involuntarily stretched out his hand, as if to snatch back a
+precious treasure from a robber's hands.
+
+"Holy father," he exclaimed with visible consternation, "is there no
+reprieve?  My name ... my reputation ... have mercy upon me, holy
+father, and give me back my name!"
+
+The Jesuit smiled.
+
+"Do I not give you a name," he said, "far greater and more abiding than
+the one you lose--a name in the chronicles of our holy order; a name
+among the martyrs and benefactors of the Church; a name which may one
+day be counted amongst the saints?"
+
+"But, in spite of all this, a name without honour, a liar's, a forger's
+name!" burst out Messenius, with the despair of a condemned man, who is
+shown the glory of Heaven obscured by the scaffold.
+
+"Weak, vain man, you do not know that great aims are never won by the
+fear or praise of humanity!" said the Jesuit in a contemptuous tone.
+"You might have taken back your word and forfeited your claims to the
+gratitude of all Christendom.  But happily it is now impossible.  These
+documents"--and he extended his hand triumphantly with the papers--"are
+now in a hand which will know how to keep them, and, against your will,
+use them for the glory of the Church, the victory of the faith, and
+your soul's eternal welfare."
+
+Father Hieronymus had hardly uttered these words when a hand behind him
+swiftly and suddenly seized the papers, which he had so elatedly waved,
+crumpled them together, tore them in a hundred pieces, and strewed the
+bits over the floor.  This move was so unlooked for, and the Jesuit was
+so far from divining anything of the kind, that he lost his usual
+presence of mind for a moment, and thus gave the daring hand time to
+complete its work of destruction.  When the fragments lying around
+convinced him of the reality of his loss, he bit his lips with rage,
+raised his arms aloft, and with the ferocity of a wild beast, fell upon
+the presumptuous being who had dared to extinguish his plans at the
+very moment of consummation.
+
+Lucia--for she owned the intruding hand--met the monk's outbreak of
+fury with the great courage which distinguishes a woman when she
+struggles for the holiest she possesses.  In her youth she had been one
+of those who could take a man by the collar; and this more than womanly
+strength of arm had gained practice during her constant squabbles with
+the rude soldiers of the castle.  She hastily clasped her sinewy
+fingers around the monk's outstretched arms, and held them fast as in a
+vice.
+
+"Well," she said in a mocking tone, "three paces from death, sir; what
+do you wish?"
+
+"Mad woman!" screamed the Jesuit, foaming with rage, "you do not know
+what you have done!  Miserable thief, you have stolen a kingdom from
+your Church, and Paradise from your husband."
+
+"And from you I have stolen your booty; his secure prey from the wolf;
+is it not so?" replied Lucia, whose voice began to glow with the fire
+of her hasty temper.  "Monk," she added, violently shaking the eminent
+Jesuit, who in vain tried to escape, "I know a vile thief, who, in the
+sheep's clothing of the Church, comes to steal the fame of a great man;
+also the history of a nation; and from a poor, forsaken woman, her sole
+pride; her husband's peace, honour, and life.  Tell me, holy and pious
+monk, what punishment such a thief deserves?  Would not Ämmä fall be
+shallow enough for his body, and the eternal fires cool enough for his
+soul?"
+
+The Jesuit looked out of the window with a hasty movement towards the
+mighty torrent which descended with a terrible roar in the winter's
+night.
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed Lucia with a bitter smile, "you fear me, you, the
+powerful one, who rules kingdoms and consciences.  You fear lest I
+conceal a man's arm under my grey frock, which could hurl you into the
+cataract's abyss.  Be reassured.  I am only a woman, and fight with a
+woman's arms.  You see ... I do not throw you out of the window ... I
+will be content with chaining up the wild beast.  Tremble, monk, I know
+you!  Lucia Grothusen has followed your steps; you are betrayed, and
+she has done this."
+
+"Betrayed!" echoed the Jesuit; he well realised what this statement
+meant.  At a time so full of hate, when two great religions fought for
+worldly and spiritual supremacy, when the plots of the Jesuits
+irritated the Swedes to the highest extent, a member of this order,
+discovered in disguise, in the kingdom, was lost beyond redemption.
+But the dire peril restored the equilibrium of this powerful character.
+
+"My daughter, betrayed by you," he said once more, as his arms relaxed,
+and his features assumed an expression of doubt and mild grief.  "That
+is impossible."
+
+Lucia regarded him with hate and suspicion.
+
+"I your daughter!" she exclaimed, as she pushed the monk from her with
+repulsion.  "Falsehood is your daughter, and deceit your mother.  These
+are thy relatives."
+
+"Lucia Grothusen," said the Jesuit with much suavity, "when you were a
+child, and followed your father, Arnold Grothusen, who was expelled
+with King Sigismund, you came one day as an exile in need, and
+surrounded by enemies, to a peasant's hut.  They refused you a refuge,
+and threatened to deliver you up.  Then your youthful eyes discovered
+an image of the Virgin in a corner of the hut, a relic from former
+times, and now profaned as a plaything for children.  You took the
+image and kissed it; you held it up before the harsh inmates of the
+hut, and said to them, 'See, the Virgin Mary is here, she will succour
+us!'"
+
+"Well, what then?" said Lucia reluctantly in a softer voice.
+
+"Your childish trust ... no, what do I say?  The Holy Virgin moved the
+stern peasants, they gave you shelter, and placed you all in security.
+Still more, they gave you the image, which you have carefully preserved
+as your guardian angel, and there it hangs on your wall.  What you
+formerly said, you still say: 'The Virgin Mary is here, she will
+protect me!'"
+
+Lucia tried in vain to struggle against her emotions.  She bit her lip
+and made no reply.
+
+"You are right," continued the astute monk.  "I am a Catholic like you;
+persecuted like you; if they penetrated my disguise they would kill me.
+My life is in your hands; denounce me; I flee not; I die for my faith,
+and I forgive you my death."
+
+"Fly from here," said Lucia, half vanquished; "I give you till
+to-morrow, but only on condition that you do not see my husband again."
+
+"Well, then," said the Jesuit sadly, "I fly and leave behind my
+beautiful dream of a glorious future.  Ah, I had imagined that the
+great Messenius and his noble wife would reinstate the Catholic Church
+in the North; I saw the time when millions of people would say: we were
+in darkness and blindness, until the historical light of the great
+Messenius revealed to us the falseness of the Reformation."
+
+"If it could be done without injury to the truth," exclaimed Lucia,
+whose ardent spirit was more and more elevated by the future, which the
+Jesuit so skilfully placed before her in perspective.
+
+"The truth!" repeated the Jesuit persuasively.  "Oh, my friend, truth
+is our faith, falseness is the heretic's faith.  If you are convinced
+that I ask only the truth itself from your husband, will you assist
+instead of trying to destroy your Church?"
+
+"Yes, I will!" answered Lucia warmly and earnestly.
+
+"Then listen..." added the Jesuit, but was just then interrupted by
+Messenius, who, hitherto stunned and crestfallen, now seemed to awaken
+from a horrible dream.
+
+"_Abi, male spiritus!_" he frantically exclaimed, as if he feared that
+the Jesuit's serpent tongue would once more triumph.  "_Abi, Abi!_ you
+are not a human being, you are the prince of lies himself, you are the
+tempter in Paradise!  Get ye gone, ye foul spirit, to the eternal fire,
+your abiding place, to the kingdom of lies, your realm!" he said in
+Latin.  And with this he pushed the Jesuit towards the door, without
+Lucia's making the least attempt to prevent it.
+
+"_Insanit miser!_" ("the miserable raver") muttered the Jesuit as he
+disappeared.
+
+"Thanks, my dear!" said Lucia, with a lightened heart, as if freed from
+a dangerous spell.
+
+"Thanks, Lucia!" replied Messenius, with a milder manner than he had
+for a long time assumed towards his wife.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE JUDGMENT OF THE SAINTS.
+
+Early the next morning Father Hieronymus entered the room that was
+occupied by Lady Regina von Emmeritz and old Dorthe.  Pale from
+watching and suffering, the beautiful young girl sat by the bedside of
+her faithful servant.  When the Jesuit entered, Regina rose quickly.
+
+"Save Dorthe, my father!" she impetuously exclaimed ... "I have looked
+for you everywhere, and you have abandoned me!"
+
+"Hush!" said the Jesuit whispering.  "Speak low, the walls have ears.
+So ... actually? ... Dorthe is sick?  Poor old woman, it is too bad,
+but I cannot help her.  They have penetrated our disguise.  They
+suspect us.  We must fly this day--this moment."
+
+"Not before you have made Dorthe well again.  I beseech you, my father;
+you are wise, you know all the remedies; give her an immediate
+restorative, and we will follow you wherever you choose.
+
+"Impossible, we have not a moment to lose.  Come!"
+
+"Not without Dorthe, my father!  Holy Virgin, how could I abandon her,
+my nurse, my motherly friend?"
+
+The Jesuit went to the bed, took the old woman's hand, touched her
+forehead, and pointed to it in silence, with an air which Regina
+understood but too well.
+
+"She is dead!" cried the young girl with dismay.
+
+"Yes, what then?" replied the Jesuit, a marked sinister smile on his
+lips fighting with the air of regret he tried to assume.
+
+"You see, my child," he added, "that the saints have wished to spare
+our faithful old friend a toilsome journey, and have taken her instead
+to heavenly glory.  There is nothing more to be done here.  Come!"
+
+But Regina had perceived the malignant smile through her tears, and it
+struck her with an indescribable horror.  She seemed to detect a dark
+secret.
+
+"Come!" he repeated hastily.  "I will give Messenius' wife, who is a
+Catholic, the charge of burying our friend."
+
+Regina's dark eyes looked on the monk with fear and aversion.
+
+"At seven o'clock yesterday evening," she said, "Dorthe was in good
+health.  Then she drank the beverage of strengthening herbs which you
+have prepared for her every evening.  At eight o'clock she was taken
+ill ... ten hours afterwards she has ceased to live."
+
+"The fatigue of the long journey ... a cold, an _inflammation_ ...
+nothing more is wanted.  Come!" said the monk uneasily.
+
+But Regina did not move.
+
+"Monk," she said in a voice trembling with disgust and horror, "you
+have poisoned her."
+
+"My child, my daughter, what are you saying?  Grief has clouded your
+reason; come, I forgive you."
+
+"She was a burden to you ... I saw your impatience on our journey here.
+And now you wish me to place myself in your power without protection.
+Holy Virgin, save me!  I will not go with you!"
+
+The Jesuit's mobile features instantly changed their expression, and
+assumed that commanding air which had made Messenius yield.
+
+"Child," he said, "do not draw upon yourself the anger of the saints by
+listening to the voice of the tempter.  Remember _where_ you are,
+unfortunate, and _who_ you are.  A moment's delay, and I leave you here
+a prey to want, captivity, and death; a target for the heretic's scorn,
+a lost sheep abandoned by the Holy Virgin.  Here perdition and misery
+... there in your Fatherland the favour of the saints.  Choose quickly,
+for the sleigh stands waiting; the morning dawns, and day must not find
+us in this nest of heretics."
+
+Regina hesitated.
+
+"Swear," she said, "that you are innocent of Dorthe's death!"
+
+"I swear it!" exclaimed the Jesuit, "by the cross and by the holy
+Loyola's bones.  May the firm ground open under my feet, and the abyss
+swallow me alive, if I have ever given this woman any drink but what
+was healthful and medicinal."
+
+"Well, then," said Regina, "the saints have heard your oath, and
+written it down in the book of judgment.  Farewell, my mother, my
+friend!  Come, let us go!"
+
+Both hurried out.
+
+It was still dark.  A pale ray of light appeared over the dark firs on
+the edge of Koivukoski fall.  The horses stood harnessed.  The sleepy
+guard at the castle gate gave a free passage to the physician, who was
+well known to all.
+
+The Jesuit already thought himself in safety, when a sleigh from the
+mainland met the fugitives on the narrow bridge, and drove close up to
+them in the darkness.  The monk's sleigh turned on the edge, and was
+only hindered by the half-rotten railing from upsetting into the depths.
+
+Regina gave a cry of terror.
+
+At the sound of this cry a man sprang from the other sleigh and
+approached the fugitives.
+
+"Regina!" cried a well-known voice, which trembled from surprise.
+
+"You are mistaken, my friend," the Jesuit hastened to say in a
+disguised voice.  "Give way to Doctor Albertus Simonis, army physician
+in the service of his Royal Majesty."
+
+"Ha! it is you, accursed Jesuit!" cried the stranger.  "Guard, to arms!
+To arms! and seize the greatest villain on earth."  And so saying, he
+grasped the monk by his fur cloak.
+
+For an instant Hieronymus tried to disengage the sleigh and escape
+through the speed of the horses.  But when he found that this was
+impossible, he left his fur cloak behind him, wriggled from his enemy's
+grasp, and, throwing himself quickly over the railing of the bridge,
+jumped down on the ice, which, in the terrible cold, had formed between
+the castle island and the mainland.  He soon vanished in the dim
+morning light.
+
+Alarmed by the cry, the castle gate guard discharged his musket after
+the fugitive, but without effect.  Some of the soldiers seemed inclined
+to pursue him on the ice.
+
+"Do not do that, boys!" cried a bearded sergeant, "it has thawed during
+the night, and the stream has cut the ice underneath; I think it will
+break up to-day."
+
+"But the fellow jumped down there!" cried some.
+
+"The devil will get him," replied the sergeant, calmly lighting his
+morning pipe.  "I guess by this time he is not far from Ämmä."
+
+"What did you say?" cried the driver of the sleigh in alarm.
+
+"I say that the old woman* has got her breakfast to-day," answered the
+sergeant with perfect composure.  "Just listen, she barks like a
+chained dog; now she is satisfied."
+
+
+* The Finnish word ämmä means old woman.
+
+
+All listened, appalled, to the din of the waters.  It seemed to them as
+if the mighty fall roared more wildly, more terribly than before, in
+the dreary winter dawn.  The sergeant was right, it was like the howl
+of an angry dog, when they have thrown him his prey.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+BERTEL AND REGINA.
+
+We left our wandering knight of La Mancha asleep in a peasant's house
+at Ylihärmä.  We found him again just now at Kajaneborg castle, vainly
+trying to secure the feared and hated Jesuit, whom he had seen through
+the window-pane of the wretched hut.  Bertel's circuitous course during
+the days between can be perhaps imagined.  Led on a false scent in his
+chase after the fugitives, he had scoured all the roads in East
+Bothnia, and even went as far up as Uleiborg, and only when he had lost
+every sign of them did he resolve as a last resource to seek the
+runaways in the far-off Kajana desert.  Why the young cavalier pursued
+them with such unconquerable perseverance will soon be manifest.
+
+Some hours after the scene on the bridge we find Bertel in the
+apartment which the Governor had assigned to Lady Regina, under the
+protection of one of his female relatives.  More than three years have
+passed since they last met in Frankfurt-on-the-Main, in the presence of
+the great king.
+
+Bertel was then an inexperienced youth of twenty, and Regina an equally
+untrained girl of sixteen.  Both had gone through many trials since
+then; in each case the burning enthusiasm of youth had been cooled by
+struggles and sufferings.
+
+The distance between the prince's daughter and the lieutenant had been
+lessened by Bertel's military fame and lately acquired coat of arms;
+nay, at this moment, she, the abandoned prisoner, might consider
+herself honoured by a knight's attentions.  But the distance between
+their convictions, their sympathies, their hearts--had it been
+diminished by these trials, which generally steel a conviction instead
+of destroying it?
+
+Bertel approached the young girl with all the perfect courtesy which
+the etiquette of his time had retained as an inheritance from the
+chivalry of past centuries.
+
+"My lady," he said in a slightly tremulous voice, "since my hope of
+finding you at Korsholm failed, I have pursued you through forest and
+wilderness, as one pursues a criminal.  Perhaps you divine the cause
+that prompted me to do so."
+
+Regina's long black eyelashes were slowly lifted, and she looked
+inquiringly at Bertel.
+
+"Chevalier," she replied, "whatever has animated you, I am convinced
+that your reasons were noble and chivalrous.  You cannot have meant to
+take an unhappy young maiden back to prison; you have only wished to
+snatch her from a man whom the poor deceived one has ever since
+childhood regarded as a holy and pious person, and whose deeply
+concealed wickedness she has now, for the first time, learned to know
+and abhor."
+
+"You are mistaken," said Bertel warmly.  "It is true I shuddered when I
+found that you were under the escort of this villain, whose real
+character I knew before you, and I then redoubled my efforts to deliver
+you from his hands.  But before I imagined any danger from that
+quarter, I flew to find you with the glad tidings of a justice ...
+late, but I hope not too late."
+
+"A justice, you say?" repeated Regina, with an emotion which sent the
+blood to her cheeks.
+
+"Yes, my lady," continued Bertel, as he regarded her dazzling beauty
+with delight; "at last, after several years of fruitless efforts, I
+have succeeded in undoing this undeserved penalty.  You are free! you
+can now return to your Fatherland under the protection of the Swedish
+arms, and here"--with these words Bertel bent one knee and handed
+Regina a paper with the regency's seal attached--"is the document which
+ensures your freedom."
+
+Regina had controlled her first emotion, and received the precious
+paper with almost haughty dignity.
+
+"Herr chevalier," she said in short measured tones, "I know that you do
+not desire my thanks for having acted like a man of honour before any
+of your compatriots."
+
+Bertel arose, confused by this pride, which he, however, ought to have
+expected.
+
+"What I have done," he said, with a touch of coldness, "I have done to
+efface a wrong which might have thrown a shadow upon the memory of a
+great king.  Each and all of my countrymen would have done the same as
+I, had not the exigencies of war made them forget the reparation you
+had a right to demand.  First of all would the noble King Gustaf Adolf
+himself have hastened to repair a moment's indiscretion, had not
+Providence so suddenly cut short his career.  But," said Bertel,
+breaking off, "I forget that the king I love and admire, you, my lady,
+hate!"
+
+At these words the bright and beautiful colour again rose to Regina's
+cheeks.  Bertel had unknowingly touched one of the most sensitive
+chords in this ardent heart.  A new discovery, a wonderful resemblance
+in figure, voice, gesture, nay, in thought--a likeness which she had
+never before observed, and which these three years had developed in
+Bertel's whole personality, made an indescribable impression upon the
+young Southerner's soul.  It seemed to her as if she saw him himself,
+the greatest among mortals, the pride of her dreams, her life's delight
+and misery; he, the beloved and feared, her country's, her faith's, and
+her heart's conqueror ... and as if he himself had said to her in the
+well-remembered tones: "Regina, you hate me!"
+
+This impression came so swiftly, so strongly, and with such a
+surprising power, that Regina suddenly grew pale, staggered, and was
+compelled to lean on Bertel's outstretched arm.
+
+"Holy Virgin!" she whispered, bewildered, and not knowing what she
+uttered, "should I hate you ... you, whom I lo ...?"
+
+Bertel caught this half incomprehensible word, so full of meaning, with
+a surprise as sudden and unexpected as Regina's.  Beside himself with
+amazement, fear, and hope, he was still too chivalrous to avail himself
+of an involuntary confession.  Mute and respectful, he led the young
+girl to her protectress, in whose care she soon recovered from her
+sudden prostration, an effect of long-suppressed emotions, which sought
+vent.
+
+Bertel had obtained permission to escort Lady Regina to Stockholm, from
+whence she could return to her Fatherland, at the first open waters.
+He was, therefore, at liberty to remain at Kajaneborg until she was
+ready for the journey, and this was again delayed through lack of a
+fitting female companion for the high-born prisoner.
+
+Weeks passed in waiting, and during this time entirely new relations
+were formed, which one could hardly have predicted after Regina's proud
+coldness towards her deliverer.  Ah! this coldness was the ice over a
+glowing volcano; every day it grew thinner and melted away; every day
+the foundations of Regina's pride gradually became weaker, and finally
+only one barrier remained, the strongest one of all, it is true,
+namely, that of religious convictions.  Vain wall!  It, too, finally
+crumbled before the fire of a southern passion, and before these weeks
+were ended, the girl of nineteen, and the young man of twenty-three,
+had forgotten the great differences of faith and rank, and sworn each
+other fidelity for life.
+
+Did Bertel know that he had to thank the memory of Gustaf Adolf for his
+beautiful, proud, black-eyed bride?
+
+A singular destiny wished to seal this union in an unexpected and
+wonderful manner.  With a secret apprehension for his future happiness,
+Bertel had tried in vain to discover the Jesuit's fate.
+
+Since the morning when he leaped over the railing of the bridge, no one
+had heard or seen anything of him, until, three weeks afterwards, a
+peasant reported that on opening a hole in the ice, a little below Ämmä
+fall, they had discovered the body of a man without ears, clothed in a
+foreign garb, which the peasant brought with him, and which were
+recognised as those of Father Hieronymus.  In addition, the honest
+Paldamo peasant produced a small copper ring, which had been found
+hanging by a cord on the dead man's neck.
+
+Bertel looked at this ring with astonishment and delight.
+
+"At last I have you!" he exclaimed, "the ring I have so long sought ...
+and with you the certainty of this terrible man's death."
+
+"The judgment of the saints on the perjurer!" exclaimed Regina,
+awe-struck.
+
+"The judgment of the saints, which confirms our happiness!" rejoined
+Bertel, and he placed on Regina's finger the _King's Ring_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+  THE KING'S RING--THE SWORD AND THE
+  PLOUGH--FIRE AND WATER.
+
+Again we return to Storkyro, to Bertila's farm, and the old peasant
+king.
+
+It is a March day, in the year 1635.  The spring sun is already melting
+the snow, and the roofs drip on the sunny side; the icy crust bears
+one's weight on the north side of the hill, but breaks on the south.
+Aron Bertila has just come home from church with all his folks, his
+grey head is bent, and he leans on Meri's arm.  At his side walk two
+sturdy, thick-set figures--old Larsson, and his newly arrived son, the
+brave and learned captain, the faithful image of his father, except in
+age.  On the captain's arm is his young, light-hearted, and pretty
+little wife, whose features we recognise.  It is no other than Ketchen,
+the courageous and merry girl, whose soft hand once made the gallant
+captain lose his wits.  Since that day he has sworn by all the Greek
+and Roman authors, whom he formerly read in Abo Cathedral School, that
+the soft-handed novice among the Würzburg sisters of charity should
+some day become his.  And when the vicissitudes of war again brought
+them together, when Ketchen was without protection, and besides, had
+nothing against an honest, jovial soldier, this cheerful pair were
+formally wedded in the autumn at Stralsund, and then went to visit
+their kind-hearted father in Storkyro, where they were warmly welcomed,
+and received like children in the house.
+
+It must be added that Larsson had obtained his discharge from the
+service after much trouble, and without having a rise in rank.  It is
+to be regretted that he had not gathered a farthing from the booty in
+Germany, like many of his comrades.  All that he had earned--and if we
+can believe him, it must have amounted to millions--had taken wings;
+but where?  At Nördlingen, he says.  By no means.  But in revels and
+sprees with jolly fellows like himself.  Now he meant to be as regular
+and steady as a gate-post; to succeed his father as inspector of
+Bertila's large farms; to plough, sow, harvest, and _pro modulo virium
+prolen copiosam in lucem proferre_, as those in olden times so truly
+said.
+
+Old Bertila treats him with apparent favour.  Significant words have
+escaped the old man, and he has just given his will into the hands of
+the judge.
+
+As for Meri, she has withered like a flower without roots, and clings
+to life only by one heart-thread: the banished, rejected Gustaf Bertel,
+now ennobled to Bertelskold.
+
+This domestic circle, composed of such differing elements, both light
+and shadows, are now gathered in the large "stuga," surrounded by the
+numerous field hands, and old Larsson now tries, in secret alliance
+with Meri, to bring the stern peasant king to a better state of mind
+towards Bertel.  But all their prayers and reasons break against the
+old man's unyielding firmness ... Larsson turns angrily away, and Meri
+conceals her tears in the darkest corner of the room.
+
+Then sleigh-bells are again heard outside, as on Twelfth-day evening; a
+large sleigh stops in the yard, and two persons alight from it, an
+officer in his ample cloak, and a young and classically beautiful woman
+in a magnificent mantle of black velvet, lined with precious fur.  Meri
+and old Larsson turn pale at this sight; Larsson tries to hasten out,
+but it is too late.  Bertel and Regina enter the "stuga."
+
+Both the Larssons and Meri surround Bertel with warm and apparently
+embarrassed greetings.  Ketchen flies and throws herself, without
+thinking of the difference between her burgher dress and the costly
+velvet cloak, into Regina's arms, who, with emotion, clasps her
+faithful friend to her heart.
+
+Bertel gently frees himself from Meri's embrace, and goes straight up
+to old Bertila with a firm step, who, cold and silent in his high chair
+at the end of the table, does not honour him with a word or glance.
+
+All present await with dismayed looks the result of this decisive
+meeting.  The young officer has taken off his cloak and hat, his long
+fair hair falls in beautiful waves around his open brow, his cheeks are
+very pale, but the expressive blue eyes regard the grey-haired man's
+iron face with a firm and steadfast look.
+
+Bertel now, as before, bends a knee, and says in a voice at once humble
+and confident:
+
+"My father!"
+
+"Who are you?  I know you not; I have no son!" said the old man in
+chilling tones.
+
+"My father!" continued Bertel, without allowing himself to be checked,
+"I come here once more, and for the last time, to ask your forgiveness
+and blessing.  Thrust me not from you!  I am going to leave my
+Fatherland, to fight and perhaps die on German soil.  It depends upon
+you whether I ever return.  Remember, my father, that your blessing
+gives you back a son; that your curse drives him into exile for ever."
+
+The features of the old man did not change their expression, but the
+tones of his voice indicated an internal struggle.
+
+"My answer is short," he said.  "I had a son; he became unworthy of me
+and all the principles which have governed my life.  He abandoned the
+cause of the people to pay homage to the pernicious power which I hate
+and detest.  I have no longer a son.  I have to-day disinherited him."
+
+The faces of all the hearers turn pale at these words.  But Bertel
+colours slightly, and says:
+
+"My father, I do not ask for your property.  Give it to the one you
+consider more worthy than I.  I only ask your forgiveness ... your
+blessing, my father."
+
+All around the old man, except Regina, fell on their knees and
+exclaimed:
+
+"Grace for Bertel!  Grace for your son!"
+
+"And if I had a son, do you believe he would for my sake give up his
+desire for the false distinctions of nobility?  Do you think he would
+become a peasant like me, a man of the people, ready to live and die
+for their cause?  Do you fancy that he would plough the earth with his
+fine-gloved hands and choose a wife from my station, a simple plain
+woman, befitting the spouse of a husbandman?"
+
+"My father," replied Bertel, in a voice more tremulous than before,
+"what you ask is impossible on account of the education you have
+yourself bestowed on me.  I honour and respect your station, but I have
+grown accustomed to the career of a soldier, which I neither can nor
+will abandon.  To choose a wife to your mind is equally impossible.
+Here is my wife; she is a prince's daughter, but she has chosen a
+peasant's son for her husband; this is a proof that she will not blush
+to call you father."
+
+At these words Regina humbly approached the old man as if to kiss his
+hand, and all rose except Bertel and his father.  But the peasant
+king's former fiery temper now burst forth.
+
+"Did I not say so!" he shouted.  "There stands the renegade who was
+born a peasant, and became the servant of lords.  Ha! by God!  I have
+in my day seen much strife and defiance between the sword and the
+plough, but a scene like this I have never beheld.  The boy who calls
+himself my son dares to bring before my eyes his high-born harlot and
+call her his wife."
+
+Bertel sprang up and supported Regina, who nearly sank to the floor at
+these words.
+
+"Old man," he said in a voice full of anger, "thank your name of father
+and your grey head that you have been allowed to utter what no one else
+should have uttered and live an hour afterwards.  Here is the ring I
+placed on the hand of my lawfully wedded wife"--with this he took the
+king's ring from Regina's finger--"and I swear that her hand is as pure
+and worthy as that of any other mortal to wear this ring, which has for
+so many years been worn by the greatest of kings."
+
+Meri's eyes stared at the ring, her pale cheeks coloured with a deep
+flush, and she had a violent internal struggle.  Finally she stepped
+nearer, took and pressed the ring with ecstasy to her lips, and said in
+a broken voice and with an emotion so strong that it dried her tears:
+
+"My ring which _he_ has worn ... my ring which has protected _him_ ...
+you are innocent of his death; he gave you away, and then came the
+bullets and death.  Do you know, Gustaf Bertel, and you, his wife, the
+power of this ring?  In my youth I one day went into the wilderness,
+and there found a dying man, who was languishing from thirst.  I gave
+him a drink from the spring, and cooled his tongue with the juice of
+berries.  He thanked me and said: 'My friend, I die, and have no other
+recompense to give you than this ring.  I found it in former days on an
+image of the Holy Virgin, which alone lay uninjured in the midst of the
+broken fragments of Popery in Storkyro Church; and when I took the ring
+from its finger the image fell to dust.  The ring has both the power of
+the saints and that of magic, for with me the greatness of the ancient
+occult knowledge goes into the silence.  He who wears this ring is
+secure against fire, water, steel, and all kinds of dangers, on the
+sole condition that he never swears a false oath, for that destroys the
+power of the ring; with this ring goes happiness in peace, and victory
+in war; love, honour, and wealth; and when it is worn by three
+successive generations, from father to son, then from that family shall
+come brilliant statesmen and generals...'"
+
+Here Meri paused; all listened with intense expectation.
+
+"But," she added, "if the ring is worn by six generations one after the
+other, then a mighty royal house will spring from that family.  'But,'
+said the old man to me, 'you ought to know that great dangers accompany
+great gifts.  False oaths and family enmity will constantly tempt the
+owner of the ring, and thus endeavour to neutralise its power; pride
+and inordinate ambition will constantly work within him to prepare his
+fall, and a great steadfastness in the right path will be necessary,
+joined with a meek and humble heart, to vanquish these temptations.  He
+who wears this ring will enjoy all the prosperity of the world, and
+only have to conquer himself; but he will also be the most formidable
+enemy of his own happiness.  All this is signified: by the letters,
+R.R.R., which are engraved on the inside of the ring, and interpreted
+thus: _Rex Regi Rebellis_--the king rebellious against the king; the
+happiest, the mightiest among men, has to fear the greatest danger
+within himself.'"
+
+"And this ring, O Regina, is ours!" exclaimed Bertel, with both fear
+and joy.  "What a wealth and what a responsibility goes with this ring."
+
+"Power!  Honour!  Immortality!" caed Regina with transport.
+
+"Beware, my daughter!" said Meri sadly.  "Behind these words lie the
+greatest dangers."
+
+Old Bertila looked at the ring and the young people with a contemptuous
+smile.
+
+"False gold!" he said.  "Vanity!  Useless ornament!  False ambition!
+This is a worthy gift to go in inheritance from generation to
+generation among the nobility.  Come, Larsson the younger, you, who are
+also of peasant origin, and who wish to return to your station,
+although you too have been a soldier.  I will give you something which
+is neither gold or a useless ornament, but which will bring you more
+blessings than all the kings' rings in the world.  Take my old axe with
+the oak handle from the wall there; yes, fear not, there is no magic in
+that; my father forged it with his own hand, in Gustaf Vasa's time.
+With it father and I have felled many a heavy tree in the forests, and
+cleared many a field.  May it pass in inheritance within your family,
+and I promise you that he who possesses my axe shall be blessed with
+happiness and contentment of mind in his honest labour."
+
+"Thanks, thanks, Father Bertila," answered the captain joyfully, and,
+with an air of importance, tried the edge of the old man's axe.  "If we
+took a fancy to engrave any inscription on it, I should propose R.R.R.,
+_Ruris Rusticus Robustus_, which is to say briefly: 'The deuce, what a
+big, bulky chopper! a very beautiful and intellectual saying among
+those in olden times."
+
+Larsson the elder now considered the opportunity at hand to give the
+bitter contest a more amicable turn.  He stepped up to old Bertila,
+leading by the hands the two newly married pairs, and said:
+
+"Dear old friend, let us not meddle in the Lord's business.  Your boy
+and mine are a couple of great rascals, that is granted; but are they
+to blame that our Lord created one of them of fire and the other of
+water?  Bertel is like a flame--burning hot, ambitious, high-reaching,
+brilliant, ephemeral, and I will bet anything that his little wife is
+of the same sort.  My boy, here, is of the purest water."
+
+"Stop!" cried the captain.  "Water has never been my weak side!"
+
+"Hold your tongue!  My boy is the clear water ... flowing and unstable,
+contentedly keeping itself to the ground, and created especially to put
+out the other youngster's poetical blaze with its prosaic philosophy.
+As for his wife, she is of the same stuff.  Do you not see, Bertila,
+that our Lord has intended the boys for friends? ... the fire to warm
+the water, and the water to quench the fire ... and you would make them
+enemies by taking from one and giving to the other.  No, Bertila, do
+not do it, this is my advice; give your son what belongs to him; my son
+will not starve for want of it."
+
+Bertila remained silent for a moment.  Then he said vehemently:
+
+"Do not teach me the meaning of the Lord.  Can you believe that he, the
+fresh-baked nobleman, whom you compare with the fire, could be induced
+to give away the ring and take the axe in its place?"
+
+"Never!" excitedly exclaimed Bertel.
+
+Meri seized his hand, and looked beseechingly at him.
+
+"Give away the ring," she said.  "You know some of its dangers, but
+there is still one which I, from anguish, have not mentioned.  All who
+wear this ring will die a violent death."
+
+"What then!" exclaimed Bertel.  "The death of the soldier on the
+battlefield is grand, and full of honour.  I do not ask a better one."
+
+"Just listen to him," said Bertila bitterly.  "I knew it; he runs after
+fame even to the grave.  A peaceful death or a peaceful life is an
+abomination to him; but you, Larsson, tell me: have you a desire to
+give away the axe and take the ring?"
+
+"H'm!" thoughtfully replied the captain; "if the ring were of gold, I
+might sell it in town and get a good cask of ale for the money.  But as
+it is only of copper ... pshaw!  I send it to the deuce, and keep the
+axe, which is at least useful for cutting wood."
+
+"Well done!" said Bertila; "you are sprinkling water on fire, as your
+father said.  It is not I who have made fire and water eternally
+hostile to each other.  Come, Larsson, you, the sound, common-sense,
+practical man, be my son, and one day take my farms when I am no longer
+here.  My blessing on you and your descendants.  May they multiply, and
+work like ants on the land, and may there be eternal hostility between
+them and the nobility, the people with the fiery temperament.  May
+there be war and not peace between them and you until the useless
+glitter disappears from humanity.  May the axe and the ring live in
+open feud until both are melted in the same heat.  When this happens
+after a century or more, then it will be time to say, class
+distinctions have seen their last days, and a man's merit is his only
+coat of arms."
+
+"But, my father," exclaimed Bertel in an entreating voice, "have you
+then no blessing to give me, and my posterity, at the moment when we
+separate for ever?"
+
+"You!" repeated the old man, in still angry tones.  "Go, you lost,
+vain, worm-eaten branch of the people's great trunk; go in your pitiful
+parade to certain ruin.  Until the day when, as I said, the axe and the
+ring, the false gold and the true steel melt together ... until then I
+give you my curse as an inheritance, even unto the tenth generation,
+and with it shall follow dissension, hatred, war, and finally a
+despicable fall."
+
+"Hold there, Father Bertila," cried Larsson the younger.  "Grace for
+Bertel!"
+
+"No grace for nobility," replied the peasant king.
+
+"Beware, unnatural father!" cried Larsson the elder.  "The doom may
+fall on your own head."
+
+"I no longer ask any grace," said Bertel, pale, but apparently calm.
+"Farewell, my former father!  Farewell, my Fatherland!  I go never to
+see you again!"
+
+"One moment," interrupted Meri, who with a violent effort placed
+herself in his way.  "You go! yes, go ... my heart's darling, my hope,
+my life, my all ... go, I shall no longer stand in your way.  But
+before you leave me, you shall take with you the secret which has been
+both my life's highest joy and its greatest agony..."
+
+"Hear her not!" cried old Bertila in a changed and alarmed tone.
+"Listen not to what she says; madness speaks through her! ... Think of
+your honour and mine," he sternly whispered in his pale daughter's ear.
+
+"What do I care for your or my honour!" burst out Meri with an
+impetuosity never before witnessed.  "Do you not see that he goes ...
+my life's joy leaves me, to return no more?  He goes, and you, hard,
+in-human parent, wish me to let him depart with a curse to foreign
+lands.  But it shall not be.  For every curse you throw upon his head,
+I will give him a hundred blessings, and we shall see which will avail
+the most before the throne of the Supreme Being--your hatred or my
+love--the grandfather's curse or the mother's blessing..."
+
+"My mother!" exclaimed Bertel beside himself with astonishment.  Duke
+Bernhard's obscure hints now suddenly became clear.
+
+"Believe her not; she knows not--she knows not what she says!" cried
+Bertila, with a vain attempt to appear calm.
+
+Meri had sunk into Bertel's arms.
+
+"It is now said," she whispered in a weak voice.  "Gustaf ... my son.
+Ah! it is so new and so sweet to call you so.  Now you know my life's
+secret ...  and I have not long to blush over it.  Do you love me? ...
+Yes, yes!  Now I go from life rejoicing ... the veil is lifted ...
+light comes ... My father, ... I forgive you ... that you have hated
+and cursed your daughter's son ... Forgive me ... that I ... love ...
+bless ... my son!..."
+
+"My mother!" exclaimed Bertel, "hear me, my mother!  I thank you ... I
+love you! ... You shall go with me, and I will never desert you.  But
+you do not hear me.  You are so pale ... Great God ... she is dead!"
+
+"My daughter! my only child!" exclaimed the old hard-hearted peasant
+king, completely crushed.
+
+"Judge not, lest ye be judged!" said old Larsson with clasped hands.
+"And you, our children, go put into life with reconciled hearts.  Curse
+and blessing struggle for your future, and not only for yours, but for
+that of your posterity, unto the tenth generation.  Pray to Heaven that
+blessing may conquer."
+
+"Amen!" said Larsson the younger and Ketchen.
+
+"So be it!" said Bertel and Regina.
+
+
+
+
+END OF THE FIRST CYCLE.
+
+
+
+Jarrold and Sons, The Empire Press, Norwich and London.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  SELECTIONS FROM
+  JARROLD & SONS'
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+Maurus Jókai's Famous Novels.
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+Black Diamonds.
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+By MAURUS JÓKAI, Author of "The Green Book," "Poor Plutocrats," etc.
+Translated by Frances Gerard.  With Special Preface by the Author.
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+The Green Book.  (FREEDOM UNDER THE SNOW.)
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+By MAURUS JÓKAI.  Translated by Mrs. Waugh.  With a finely engraved
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+Pretty Michal.
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+By MAURUS JÖKAI.  Translated by R. Nisbet Bain.  With a specially
+engraved Photogravure Portrait of Dr. Jókai.
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+A Hungarian Nabob.
+
+By MAURUS JÖKAI.  Translated by R. Nisbet Bain.  With a fine
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+The Poor Plutocrats.  (AS WE GROW OLD.)
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+By MAURUS JÖKAI.  Translated by R. Nisbet Bain.  With a fine
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+
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+The Day of Wrath.
+
+By MAURUS JÖKAI.  Translated from the Hungarian by R. Nisbet Bain.
+With a Photogravure Portrait of Dr. Jókai.
+
+
+Dr. Dumany's Wife.
+
+By MAURUS JÖKAI.  Translated by F. Steinitz (under the author's
+personal supervision).  With specially engraved Photogravure Portrait
+of Dr. Jókai.
+
+
+The Nameless Castle.
+
+By MAURUS JÖKAI.  Translated by S. E. Boggs (under the author's
+personal supervision).  With a Photogravure Portrait of Dr. Jókai.
+
+
+Debts of Honor.
+
+By MAURUS JÖKAI.  Translated by A. B. Yolland.  With a charming
+Photogravure Portrait of Dr. and Madame Jókai.
+
+
+'Midst the Wild Carpathians.
+
+By MAURUS JÖKAI.  Translated by R. Nisbet Bain.  With a specially
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+
+
+The Lion of Janina.
+
+By MAURUS JÓKAI.  Translated by R. Nisbet Bain.  With a special
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+
+
+Eyes Like the Sea.
+
+By MAURUS JÓKAI.  Translated by R. Nisbet Bain.  With a fine
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+
+
+Halil the Pedlar; THE WHITE ROSE.
+
+By MAURUS JÓKAI.  Translated by R. Nisbet Bain.  With a Photogravure
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+
+
+Carpathia Knox.
+
+By CURTIS YORKE, Author of "Hush," "That Little Girl," "A Romance of
+Modern London," etc.  With a charming Photogravure Portrait of the
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+
+
+Jocelyn Erroll.
+
+By CURTIS YORKE, Author of "Once," "Dudley," "The Wild Ruthvens," etc.
+With a fine Photogravure Portrait of the Author.
+
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+Valentine: A STORY OF IDEALS.
+
+By CURTIS YORKE, Author of "The Medlicotts," "His Heart to Win,"
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+
+In Tight Places.
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+By MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS, Author of "Forbidden by Law," etc.
+
+
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+By KÁLMÁN MIKSZÁTH, Author of "The Good People of Palvez."  Translated
+from the original Hungarian by W. B. Worswick.  With Introduction by R.
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+The Adventures of Cyrano de Bergerac.  Captain Satan.
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+From the French of Louis Gallet.  With specially engraved Portrait of
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+A Woman's Burden,
+
+By FERGUS HUME, Author of "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab," "The Lone
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+Being the Memoirs of Our First Rebellion, by John Vivian, of Middle
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+A tale of the Great Siberian Steppe.  By MARYA RODZIEWICZ.  Translated
+from the Polish by Count S. C. de Soissons.  With a fine Photogravure
+Portrait of the Author.
+
+
+The Tone King.
+
+A Romance of the Life of Mozart.  By Heribert Rau.  Translated by J. E.
+S. Rae.  With specially engraved Portrait of Mozart.
+
+
+The Golden Dog (LE CHIEN D'OR).
+
+A Romance of the days of Louis Quinze in Quebec.  By WILLIAM KIRBY,
+F.R.S.C.
+
+
+Memory Street.
+
+By MARTHA BAKER DUNN, Author of "Sleeping Beauty," "Lias' Wife," etc.
+
+
+God's Rebel.
+
+By HULBERT FULLER, Author of "Vivian of Virginia."
+
+
+The Rejuvenation of Miss Semaphore.
+
+A Farcical Novel.  By HAL GODFREY (Miss C.  O'Conor Eccles).
+
+
+The Man Who Forgot.
+
+By JOHN MACKIE, Author of the "Prodigal's Brother," "Sinners Twain,"
+etc.  With a special Photogravure Portrait of the Author.
+
+
+
+  Jarrold & Sons'
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+  By MAURUS JOKAI.
+  Haiti the Pedlar.
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+
+
+  By COUNT LEO TOLSTOI.
+  Tales Prom Tolstoi.
+  Translated from the Russian by R. NISBET-BAIN,
+  and with Biography of the Author.
+
+
+  By the Author of "ANIMA VILIS."
+  Distaff.
+  By MARYA RODZIEWICZ.
+  Translated from the Polish by COUNT STANISLAUS
+  C. DE SOISSONS.
+
+
+  By RENÉ BAZIM.
+  Autumn Glory.
+  Translated by MRS. ELLEN WAUGH.
+
+
+  By the Author of
+  "DUKE RODNEY'S SECRET."
+  Ivy Cardew.
+  By PERRINGTON PRIMM.
+
+
+  By HULBERT FULLER.
+  God's Rebel.
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+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The King's Ring, by Zacharias Topelius
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58838 ***