Under the direction of Megret and Arwed, the preparations for breaking up the nest of robbers were made with great ability and circumspection. The ten dragoons stationed at Umea were privately summoned to Gyllensten, and the neighboring peasantry, who were collected together under the pretext of a grand wolf-hunt, were distributed among them and the governor's foresters and gamekeepers. The little force thus collected, numbering about eighty men, were divided into two commands under Megret and Arwed, and started the next night in many separate divisions, which, though connected by patroles, presented no one conspicuous mass which could excite the suspicions of the brigands. Whilst Megret proceeded in this manner directly towards Ravensten, Arwed sought to reach the other side of the rocks by a circuitous route, so as to cut off any attempted retreat to the neighboring mountains. The movement was successfully accomplished. Just before sun-rise the two divisions almost simultaneously reached the foot of the Ravensten, and slowly and cautiously ascended the narrow rocky passes. They arrived at the summit without meeting with any obstruction. There, one of the robber sentinels, being aroused, made a stand and shot down one of the dragoons by Arwed's side. The shot not only awakened the winged denizens of Ravensten, who rose affrighted and screaming into the air, but also occasioned a movement in the towers, and about twenty of the half naked brigands rushed out with such arms as they could first seize in the confusion of the moment, and fell upon the assailants. The strife was furious on both sides, but victory finally inclined in favor of the greater number of the assailing party;--want of experience was compensated by the circumspection and bravery of their leaders, and the brigands were yielding ground, when a small, fresh band, came forth to the battle and renewed the fight. At their head was a tall, well-formed man, with a dark-colored face, who first fired his pistols among the assailants, and then with great fury fell upon the peasants, sword in hand, 'That is Black Naddock!' they cried, every where retreating before him. The dragoons and foresters, however, kept their ground, and the battle raged with increased fierceness.
'That is the man who saved my life on the road to Tornea!' cried Arwed to Megret.
'It is Mac Donalbain, artificially blackened!' exclaimed the latter with envenomed scorn, attempting to fight his way to his hated rival; but some of the brigands threw themselves before him, and kept him fully employed; whilst Arwed constantly pressed nearer and nearer to the blackamoor, and soon discovered the well-known features through his disguise.
'Yield, Mac Donalbain, the victory is ours!' cried Arwed, attacking him.
'It is better to die by the sword of a brave nobleman than upon the scaffold!' exclaimed Mac Donalbain, suddenly exposing his uncovered breast to Arwed's blade.
'God forbid!' cried Arwed, checking the descending blow. 'I am no murderer!' But at that moment Megret, having disencumbered himself of his troublesome opponents, hurled the Scot to the earth.
'At last!' triumphantly exclaimed Megret, setting his foot upon the breast of his fallen foe and slowly raising his sword for the death-stroke with an infernal smile....
At that moment a woman in a peasant's dress and with a child in her arms, rushed forward with an agonizing shriek. Wildly floated the rich blond locks about her white forehead, which strangely contrasted with the bloom of the rosy faced infant. 'Christine!' cried the terrified Arwed.
'Mercy!' shrieked the unhappy woman. 'Mercy for my husband, for the father of this child!'
'You know not what you ask, madam Mac Donalbain!' said Megret, scornfully. 'Whoever is well disposed towards you and your house, cannot do a better thing than speedily to help you to a widow's veil.' He aimed a blow,--but Arwed opportunely struck up his sword and forced him back.
'Mac Donalbain is a prisoner!' cried the youth with noble indignation. 'From this moment he stands under the protection of the law, to which he is amenable, and you have no right to take his life.'
'Ah, Arwed, you are indeed always yourself!' sobbed Christine, falling at his feet with her child.
'Such generous subtlety,' said Megret, putting up his sword, 'becomes loathsome to me when practically applied in the important affairs of life.'
'In this case, generosity is more cruel than malignity!' cried Mac Donalbain, closing his eyes from exhaustion by loss of blood.
Meantime the right had fully conquered. Fifteen of the robbers had fallen in the fight, and seven had madly thrown themselves from the summit and found the death they hoped to escape, upon the sharp cliffs of Ravensten. The remainder, twelve in number, struck with terror by the fall of their chief, threw down their arms and begged for mercy.
Whilst Megret caused the prisoners to be bound together in couples, Mac Donalbain was by Arwed's direction conveyed into the lower vault of the tower, and his wounds taken care of.
Arwed then turned to Christine, who had followed them to the tower. 'Wretched woman,' cried he, grasping her powerfully, 'where is thy father?'
Christine pointed speechlessly to a corner of the cave-like room, and then threw herself in silent wretchedness upon Mac Donalbain's couch of sorrow.
Arwed hastened to the designated spot, found and sprung a trap door there, which opened into the rocky cellar of the castle. A long, winding staircase conducted him to a subterranean but well lighted room, where, still paler and weaker than when he last saw him, his poor old uncle met his view.
'My son! my preserver!' cried the old man, with outspread arms.
'Thank God, my object is accomplished!' exclaimed Arwed, with heartfelt joy. 'Yet once more has my melancholy existence been rendered really useful in the world.'
'Alas, that it has been accomplished!' cried the uncle with deep despondency, 'Rather would I have found, here an unknown and unhonored grave, than meet the overwhelming shame which must henceforth rest upon my noble name in my native land!'
Under the directions of Megret the towers and walls of Ravensten were blown up, to render them forever after incapable of serving as a place of shelter for similar bands. The wounded Mac Donalbain and his companions were secured in the prisons of Umea, and Christine with her child conveyed to Gyllensten, where her aged father, his iron constitution finally overpowered by his sorrows, lay dangerously ill. The chief judge had summoned the associate justices of his court to the sessions-chamber of the city hall of Umea, for the trial of the criminals. Arwed and Megret were present; the former at his uncle's request, and the latter, that he might witness the entire outpouring of the cup of vengeance; and, supported by his keeper and laden with chains, Mac Donalbain appeared before his judges. Harassed and tormented by his wounds, he staggered here and there, with difficulty holding himself upright; but his spirit remained unbroken, and his dark eyes flashed upon the assembly with all their former fierceness. Megret beheld the scene with a smile of internal satisfaction. Arwed gave a look of sympathy to the unhappy man, and then whispered a request to the judge. The latter nodded. The bailiffs took off Mac Donalbain's chains and placed a stool for him, upon which he seated himself with a look of gratitude towards Arwed.
'Tell us your true name, your rank, and your native country,' commenced the judge with solemn earnestness.
'Gregor Mac Donalbain,' answered the prisoner; 'a nobleman of the highlands of Scotland.'
'Do you still continue, with shameless effrontery, to make that assertion?' interposed Megret.
'Forget not, colonel,' cried Mac Donalbain with vehemence, 'that here you have no right to question me, and that I do not acknowledge any obligation to answer you.'
'Neither should you forget,' said Megret, with bitterness, 'that pride and insolence will make your bad cause still worse, and forever close the door of mercy which true repentance and humility may perhaps otherwise open for you.'
'You would indeed very willingly see me, overpowered by the fear of death, begging my life at your feet,' rejoined Mac Donalbain, disdainfully. 'But you may as well resign all hope of that pleasure. I reject and scorn all mercy for which I must be indebted to you.'
The judge commanded both of them to be silent. 'Admitting the correctness of your statement,' said he to Mac Donalbain, 'how is it possible that you could stain your nobility by abandoning yourself to so horrible and reprobate a profession?'
'It was my fate!' answered Mac Donalbain doggedly, and casting his eyes upon the ground.
'So, but too often, does man name the consequences of his passions and his crimes!' remarked the judge.
'So,' said Mac Donalbain, 'may this name be often applied to the injustice which an unfortunate man suffers from his brethren, when that injustice impels him to deeds which else would have been abhorrent to his soul. A cruel injury to my honor, which I suffered in the service of the British king, threw me into the arms of the English buccaneers. My name became known and feared in both the eastern and western oceans. The lords of the earth, however they may indulge in similar enterprizes on a great scale for the accomplishment of their projects, array themselves against little private exploits. Excluded from the ports of all civilized nations, we were at length compelled to seek an asylum in Africa. We found one in Madagascar. There we heard of the return of the hero of the north to his own country. We hoped that this prince, fond of war, and compelled as he was to engage in it, would receive us with open arms. Offering to him our services, we proposed to enter the port of Gottenburg with sixty sail of vessels. Two of his nobility closed a treaty with us in his name. I was sent here before the arrival of the fleet to prepare every thing for its reception; but a fever seized me at Gottenburg; and before my recovery the king fell before Frederickshall. Storms, and Europe'slicensedpirates, annihilated our fleet upon its way hither, and when at length I arose from my bed of sickness I was a beggar. There was no longer any hope of the fulfilment of the royal promise. With Charles's seal and signature for the rank of colonel, I could not even obtain a company. Then again awoke in me the bitter hatred of mankind. My last hope to live and fall as an honorable soldier, was destroyed. The country which denied me my well acquired rights, threw me back to the state of nature, in which every man sustains and defends himself by his own natural powers. I then felt myself authorized to make war upon my enemies, and take what I needed with the strong hand. A band of unfortunates, who like me had nothing to lose, chose me for their leader, and the struggle between myself and the crown of Sweden began. I have been overcome and am therefore in the wrong;--for which reason I pray you quickly to break the staff of justice over my head. I am ready to die.'
'Dreadful man!' cried the judge. 'Have you also such sophisms in readiness to excuse the misery and shame you have brought upon a noble house within whose walls you were hospitably received?'
'That is the curse of my life,' cried Mac Donalbain, repentantly, 'for which I cannot answer. For that must I call down justice upon myself. However hard your sentence may fall upon me, by that alone have I deserved it, and willingly bow myself before the chastening hand of the law.'
'It is the request of my uncle,' said Arwed to the judge, 'that all the wrongs which Mac Donalbain has perpetrated against our house should be passed over without investigation.'
'What, even the attempt against his excellency's person?' indignantly asked the judge, whilst Megret in silent anger ground the floor with his spurred heel.
'The band,' said Arwed, 'among whom the governor had accidentally fallen, wished to murder him for their own safety. Mac Donalbain preserved the old man's life by risking his own. Even the imprisonment was but a measure resorted to for that purpose. I also have to thank this man for the preservation of my life. He would have a strong counter reckoning to make with us. Therefore let one account be considered as balanced by the other.'
'I am astonished,' spitefully observed Megret, 'that my lord the governor has not proposed an amnesty for his dear son-in-law.'
'My uncle,' answered Arwed with earnestness, 'can pardon injuries personal to himself; but he will never allow himself to interrupt the just operation of the laws. With us Mac Donalbain has made his peace. He has now to reconcile himself with the laws and satisfy the demands of public justice, if need be, with his blood!'
'Oh, would to God it might be so!' cried Mac Donalbain. 'With my present feelings life would be to me a most sad and unwelcome gift.'
A disturbance was now heard without the session-room. The door flew open, and the breathless Christine, with her child in her arms, pressed irresistibly through the crowd of officers who sought to hold her back.
'This trial also!' sighed Mac Donalbain, turning away his face.
'In God's name, the countess Gyllenstierna!' cried the astonished judge.
'I was the countess Gyllenstierna,' said Christine. 'I am now the wedded wife of the brigand leader, Mac Donalbain, and my place is by his side, in chains or upon the gallows.'
'Christine! how could you afflict your father by this second shameful flight?' Arwed reproachingly asked.
'My father's life,' answered Christine, 'was already empoisoned beyond remedy by my guilt. Therefore allow me the merit of having fulfilled my duty towards at leastonebeing in the world, my husband. He is a prisoner, and suffering in body and mind. He needs care and consolation; and from whom can he expect either, if not from her who has bound her fate with his for this life by a solemn oath before God's altar.'
'Have you then really married the criminal?' Megret anxiously asked.
Christine gave him a scornful look and remained silent; but when the question was repeated by the judge, she drew a sealed paper from her bosom and laid it upon his table.
'A Gyllenstierna can never wholly fall,' said she proudly. 'The old curate of Lyksale, constrained by my tears, secretly married us a short time before his death.'
'This evidence,' said the judge, 'speaksagainstyour wish to share the criminal's chains. Bound to him by the holy ties of marriage, you become guiltless of the crimes in which he is implicated, in which your will had no part. There is no reasonable ground for your detention, and nothing remains but to send you back to your father.'
'Torture me not with this well-meant chicanery!' exclaimed Christine. 'Would you counsel me to ascertain which is deepest, the Umea or my misery? Or would you that I should strangle myself with the braids of my hair? So true as the Lord liveth, I will not be torn living from my husband.'
'Let it be as she wishes,' begged Arwed of the judge.
'I shall perhaps take a heavy responsibility upon myself,' answered the latter with strong emotion. 'But who could withstand her intercession? Be it so.'
'Courage, Mac Donalbain!' now exhorted Christine. 'We have men for our judges. They will listen to your defence with merciful hearts, and thus at least your life will be saved.'
'I desire not life, nor will I ask for mercy!' cried Mac Donalbain, wildly. 'My deeds are my own, and the son of my father is not accustomed to excuse or palliate them, especially to save a miserable life!'
'You speak as becomes a man and a Scottish nobleman,' said Christine; 'yet must I be allowed to speak for you as becomes your truly wedded wife. Therefore I beg of you, my lords, give that gracious hearing which you hope God will one day give you!'
'What can you offer in defence of a convicted highway robber?' asked the judge, with some appearance of sympathy.
'The heaven-crying injustice of the government!' eagerly exclaimed Christine, 'which forcibly impelled the unhappy man upon his criminal career. The indulgence which has been shown to similar transgressions. The case of the Danish deserter, who received from Charles XII great rewards and a license to rob for his own benefit, proves how mildly such transgressions have hitherto been judged in our father-land.'
'However clear may be the precedent you cite to us,' said the judge, 'it cannot be applied to the present case. Neither was this absolute sovereign authorised to grant such unheard of privileges, which, if true, owes its origin but to one of Charles's strange caprices; as the property of the subjects must be deemed sacred by the king, who is indeed their natural protector.'
'My maternal inheritance shall repair the wrong which Mac Donalbain has inflicted upon the country!' cried Christine.
'Can you make reparation for the innocent blood which has been shed by your husband's hand?' asked the judge with impressive solemnity.
'The resistance he opposed to the attack was self-defence!' cried Christine; 'besides, none of the assailants fell by his sword; and with that exception he has preserved his hands pure from the blood of his fellow men.'
'By no means!' answered the judge. 'The traveler upon the road to Lulea, and the unhappy Laplander, who conducted the governor to that den of murderers, are dumb witnesses of your husband's guilt.'
'By the God of heaven, Mac Donalbain is not guilty of their death!' cried Christine in tones of the deepest anguish. 'Ask the band, and, if either of them accuse my husband, let us both die the shameful death of criminals.'
'We would indeed very willingly hear the truth, at last, from his companions. But in their examinations they have denied all knowledge of the crimes of which they have been guilty, with unparalleled impudence.'
'The knaves deny!' cried Mac Donalbain, springing upon his feet. 'They must consider me dead or as having escaped, else they would not dare to do it, for they know me. Let them be brought here,--let them be placed before my eyes. I will reckon with them in a manner which shall change their minds.'
'It may not be advisable,' observed Megret; 'it may give them an opportunity for secret collusion.'
'I am of a different opinion, colonel,' answered the judge, directing the bailiff to bring in the band. 'This man is so bold and frank that we need not fear artifice.'
A long, deep silence ensued. Christine, weeping in silence, had seated herself upon Mac Donalbain's stool, and was absorbed in the contemplation of the blooming child, which with an angel smile was sleeping on her bosom. The brigand leader had kneeled down and hid his face in her lap, whilst her white fingers wandered among his black and curled locks. Megret looked with dark burning glances, and Arwed with the deepest sympathy upon the group, while the judge said, sighing; 'the office of a judge is sometimes very difficult to administer!'
A noise was now heard in the ante-room. Arms and chains rattled, and twelve fiend-like ruffians, in heavy chains and strongly guarded by bailiffs and soldiers, stepping in exact time, without recognizing or noticing Mac Donalbain, marched in and formed in exact line on the space before the bench.
'We have again summoned you,' began the chief judge, 'to repeat our exhortations to confess the truth, and once more to lead your minds to the conviction, that by persisting in your shameless denials, you only prolong the examination and your own imprisonment--that you expose yourselves to the torture of the rack, and moreover increase the severity of your punishment, the mitigation of which you can only hope from a free and full confession. Consider, unhappy men, that my present request is made with the kindest intentions. He, only, who honestly acknowledges and repents of his sins can hope for a merciful judgment here or hereafter.'
'It is quite pathetic and affecting to hear,' answered the most hardened of the prisoners, 'that such a lord as you should so far condescend to us miserable people, as to beg where you are accustomed only to command. We cannot indeed particularly wish to hasten an examination which with us is to end with the gallows, especially if we should say yes to all of which we are suspected to be guilty. The mitigation of punishment, with which judges always embellish their promises to prisoners, in requital of candid confessions, appears to me like the little book mentioned in the revelations of St. John, 'sweet in the mouth and bitter in the belly.' We know of many examples where prisoners have fared worse for speaking than for keeping silent. However it may be with others, we have not the least desire to talk away our own lives. Concerning the rack, which judges always present as the other alternative, we must submit to it as well as we may, all of us having strong frames and stout hearts. Nevertheless we would give you every information without the rack, if any we had. What we do know, we have honestly related; and it certainly is not our fault if you will not believe us.'
'Do you persist, then, in denying the robberies of which you are already as good as convicted?' asked the judge.
'We deny nothing,' insolently answered the prisoner, 'nor do we acknowledge anything; for we have committed no crime. We are honest Finlanders, who follow hunting through half the Lappmark, and had our head quarters upon the Ravensten.'
'And do you really know nothing of Black Naddock?' further asked the judge.
'We have heard some tales about the arrant rogue,' answered the brigand, 'but the devil knows more about him than we. There was indeed a Moor, who begged a lodging of us last night, and I thought I saw him again in the morning, when we were attacked by the dragoons and their companions; but whether he was or was not Naddock, is more than I can say. I do not know the man.'
'You do not know me, rascal?' cried Mac Donalbain, springing forward, and striking his brother robber to the earth with his fist.
'The captain!' was murmured along the ranks, and, fronting their chief, the robbers laid their right hands upon their hearts, in token of respectful greeting.
'Must I suffer this from people whom I have commanded?' angrily exclaimed Mac Donalbain. 'You have held out like heroes, against men and elements, and do you now, equivocate like common thieves from a miserable fear of death? Know that I have disclosed everything to the court, and further, that I will freely answer every question they can put to me. Do you wish to give the lie to your captain?'
'God forbid!' stammered one of the band. 'We should be disgraced for life!' cried another; and the former speaker, who by this time had risen from the floor, cried, 'let your crook-backed secretary nib his pen afresh, sir judge. We will now sing the song that you lords will but too willingly hear from such poor devils as we. Write! Everything that our captain has confessed is true from the beginning to the end.'
'Well now,' cried Megret, who could restrain himself no longer; 'you see that you may now, if you please, repay your captain for all the misfortunes he has brought upon you. The sinful ties which connected you with him are cut asunder, and you have no reason to spare him in the least. So tell the court freely and frankly--'who murdered the traveler on the road to Lulea?'
'That,' answered the robber with eagerness and proud satisfaction, 'was done by a brace of gallows-birds who did not belong to our band, but marauded on their own account, and we beg not to be confounded with them. Had we caught them we should ourselves have hung them upon the nearest tree; for we could not with indifference have permitted such good-for-nothing fellows to injure our reputation.'
'And who killed the poor Laplander, who was found hung upon the fir-tree before the entrance to your den?' asked the judge.
'Red Hialf,' answered the prisoner; 'but without orders. In consequence of which our captain arrested him, and on the morning when we were attacked, he was to have had his trial. He must have been found locked up in the vault of the second tower.'
'That place was not searched!' cried Arwed, with a shudder.
'He must have been blown into the air with the tower,' said Megret. 'There can be no question of it.'
'You must now be convinced,' said Christine, approaching the judge, 'that my husband is innocent of every murderous deed. Can you now give me any hope for him?'
'I should consider it great presumption to give you any,' answered the judge, 'and unjust to withhold it entirely. Our laws are severe and my duties strict. Yet can the queen pardon. Leave the decision to God!'
He directed the bailiffs to replace Mac Donalbain's chains. Christine watched the proceeding in silent sadness, bowed with a sweet and melancholy grace to the judges, and, supporting her child with one arm and her husband with the other, she moved with him from the room. Arwed and Megret followed her.
'Is it really your unalterable resolution, countess,' whispered the latter to her, 'to share the imprisonment of a villain, instead of fulfilling a daughter's duty by the sick bed of your noble father?'
But Christine turned away without answering him, and approached Arwed. 'Thy spirit breathed upon me in the court room,' said she with strong emotion. 'For the kindness I met there, I am indebted to thy benignant heart. Tire not! I well know that we are not worthy of all you are doing for us; but you are accustomed to the performance of all that is good and great, and will of yourself consummate your work, for its own sake, regardless of the object. Save but the life of this unhappy man, and you shall have my eternal gratitude.'
'Listen not to her prayer, count,' cried Mac Donalbain, 'but suffer me to seek in the grave that peace which life can henceforth never give me.'
The conversation was interrupted by the guards whose duty it was to conduct the prisoners to their dungeon. Christine, shuddering, left Arwed, to follow her husband, 'Diable! Elle aime le larron, et elle l'aimera jusqu'à la potence!' cried the enraged and despairing Megret as he rushed out.
It was already deep winter, and the judges were again assembled in the town hall of Umea. Once more Arwed leaned against the window, an interested spectator. Through his interposition Megret was this time denied entrance. With recovered health Mac Donalbain, his faithful nurse, his child, and his twelve comrades, were placed before the judgment seat. The chief judge showed the seal of the envelope covering the final decision, which had been received from Stockholm. After satisfying all present that the seal was still inviolate, he proceeded to break it and drew out the portentous document, through which he rapidly ran his eye.
'Your lives are spared!' cried he to Mac Donalbain with heartfelt joy. 'The mercy of the queen has commuted the death-sentence of you all into confinement to labor in the mines for life.'
'Oh my God! that is hard!' sighed Mac Donalbain.
'That is heart-breaking mercy,' dryly observed the humorous brigand, 'which compels us, who were never fond of labor, again to begin to move our bones like patient asses day after day, until happily relieved by death. However, something is always better than nothing, and we are duly grateful.'
Meanwhile Christine had fallen upon her knees in silent thanksgiving to God. She quickly arose however, and quietly asked the judge, 'what is the decision with regard to myself!'
'As was foreseen,' he answered. 'You are pronounced free from all guilt and punishment, and you are left at liberty to dissolve your marriage with the prisoner.'
'What a good thing it is to have a royal counsellor for one's uncle!' cried Christine, with derisive scorn.
'You can leave this place and go wherever you please without delay or hindrance. Yet you are expected at Gyllensten, and your noble kinsman is present to accompany you there.'
'That means, that I am to be separated from my husband by persuasion or force!' said Christine with intense anxiety, while a sudden resolution seemed all at once to re-animate her soul. 'You then are my master, Arwed,' she at length said to him. 'Against that I have no complaint to make. You will not be an unkind one, and therefore I confidently expect from you a compliance with my request. Allow me to accompany my husband to his place of destination.'
'Your father expects you to-day,' said Arwed impatiently; 'and I must not comply with your request.'
'Dear Arwed,' said she, hanging affectionately upon him, 'let me at least take a final leave of the wretched man before he parts forever from the blessed light of day. Then will I follow you to Gyllensten, or where else you please, patiently, as a lamb follows its mother. Do not this time say no. It is the last request I shall ever make of you.'
'So all-powerful is the magic of this singular being,' said Arwed to the judge, 'that she compels me to consent to what I ought to refuse. Yours is a sad case, Christine; you might have prepared an earthly heaven for some worthy man, through your love.'
'That she might!' cried Mac Donalbain, agonized with sorrow and repentance, 'that she might, had she not thrown away her love upon me. She is a cheerful sun which has lavished its rays upon a desert waste, full of monsters, instead of ripening wholesome fruits for the nourishment of men.'
'You say yes? I can prepare for the journey, can I not?' once more asked Christine, and kissing his hand as he nodded assent, she flew to make her preparations.
The wagons of the prisoners, together with Arwed's carriage containing Christine and her child, were approaching the end of their journey. On one side of them the smelting furnace of Oesterby was rolling its clouds of smoke high into the winter sky; before them towered the bald, dark-gray iron mountains of Danemora-Gruben, and already the few buildings which animate this desolate and uncomfortable region had become visible. A dragoon, who had been sent forward to announce their approach to the superintendent of the mines, now returned and led them to the nearest shaft, where a number of the miners had already assembled to receive the new comers and expedite them to their destined location under ground.
While the young miners were taking their stations at the windlass, and others were removing the robbers from the wagons, Christine drew Arwed aside.
'Arwed,' said the broken-hearted woman, 'you have always conducted yourself towards me in the noblest manner. Give me one more proof of your generosity and kindness, and thus crown your work. Allow me to descend into the mine with Mac Donalbain. My anxiety for him will be less painful when I am made acquainted with his new residence.'
'What an insensate request!' cried Mac Donalbain, who had overheard it, 'It will be much better that we take our last farewell here above ground.'
'Because I have once yielded to your importunities,' replied Arwed, 'you hold me for a weak simpleton, and think you can move and turn me at your pleasure. I have fulfilled your last request, and now I must obey your father's commands. Take your last leave of Mac Donalbain, and then return with me according to your solemn promise.'
'Hold me not so closely to my word,' entreated Christine. 'What would I not have promised for the happiness of beholding my husband some days longer! Let me descend with him.'
'You must now take your leave,' said Arwed sternly, 'and then immediately return with me to Gyllensten. My resolution is unchangeable.'
Christine looked wildly about her. The robbers were all in the tub ready to descend, and waited only for Mac Donalbain, who now embraced his wife with frantic sorrow. 'Farewell, and forgive me!' he cried, and hurried to the shaft.
'If thou hast ever loved,' shrieked Christine, clinging to Arwed's knees, 'suffer yourself this time, only this time, to be softened. Let me follow my husband. For this shall a wife leave father and mother. Hold God's word in honor, and permit an unhappy woman to descend into the bosom of the earth, from which she sprung.'
'I must do my duty; you remain behind!' decided Arwed. Meantime the windlass had commenced its revolutions, and the prisoners had disappeared in the dark and yawning gulf.
'He is gone!' moaned Christine. 'Thou hast done thy duty, barbarian; now will I do mine!'
She took the suckling from her breast, and placed it in Arwed's arms. 'Be its father!' she cried, springing to the shaft.
'Back! the tubs have already descended!' shrieked a miner, whilst Arwed hastened after her to hold her back.
'In God's name!' she exclaimed, and, grasping with both hands the tub-rope which hung suspended in the abyss, and boldly swinging herself over the shaft, she descended with frightful rapidity, and in a moment was lost to view.
'Holy God!' cried Arwed in amazement, staring with stupefaction into the horrible deep.
'She will never reach the bottom alive,' cried one of the miners at the windlass: 'God have mercy on her soul!'
Arwed had handed over the child to one of the miners' wives, and availed himself of the first tub which again came up, to descend into the pit for the purpose of looking after the unhappy mother, and doing every thing in his power for her welfare. The brave youth felt a slight shudder, when, by the celerity of his movement, the black, rocky walls around him, as if raised by some magic power, appeared to fly up into the air so swiftly as soon to shut out the light of day from the entrance, which appeared like a distant star shining down upon him; and, as his eyes gradually became accustomed to the obscurity, the terrors of the subterranean world became more and more distinctly and fearfully perceptible. Nothing was to be seen around him but dark gray rocks in gigantic masses, and occasionally caves and depths so immeasurable that they appeared to open into endless space. In singular contrast with the death-like appearance of all nature in these immense regions, appeared the active and busy movements of living men, who cheerfully labored to rend by force from old mother earth, that which she has so carefully hidden, and so pertinaciously withholds, from the curiosity and avarice of her children. There, upon an isolated group of projecting rocks, were the begrimmed miners, with their mining lamps, appearing in the far distance like so many fire-flies, assiduously digging with mallets and drills into the iron walls, for the purpose of gaining, in the least dangerous, though most tedious manner, the useful metal, which others then removed in troughs, baskets and handbarrows, and finally conveyed to the regions of day. Here, large fires were burning under the overhanging rocks, for the purpose of softening the hard stone by their heat, until they could be detached by their iron crow-bars. Upon slender rafters, supported by inserting their ends into the fissures of the rocks over unfathomable abysses, solitary individuals were composedly boring holes in the rocks for the purpose of blasting them; and near and far to a great distance, the darkness was illuminated by explosions which re-echoed through the natural arches of the pit like a subterranean battery of cannon.
'A true earthly hell!' said Arwed, while going down, 'furnished with all the terrors and torments which mortals can suffer without quickly succumbing. How can Christine prefer servitude in this eternal night to freedom in the blessed light of day? But indeed love will endure all things.'
The tub landed at the bottom of the shaft, Arwed stepped from it, and immediately perceived, by the light of a torch, the poor Christine lying exhausted upon the ground in a recess in one side of the pit. Mac Donalbain was standing by her in silent despair, and the clergyman of the mines was bandaging the bleeding hands of the suffering woman, from which the cord had torn the flesh as it slipped through them.
'So thou hast come after me, Arwed!' cried she, with a glance of heavenly kindness, and extending towards him her already bandaged right hand. 'You have always acted toward me with the best feelings and intentions.'
'My God, what desperation!' said Arwed. 'This descent might have cost you your life. At all events you have accomplished your wish. So give to Mac Donalbain your farewell kiss, and let us again return to your child and to your father.'
'Not so, Arwed!' answered Christine with determined resolution. 'My child is confided to good hands. My presence can afford neither joy nor comfort to my father. I remain with my husband. You have reason to know what will be my alternative if compulsion is used. You would not constrain me to self-murder. Therefore take my last farewell, and with it my thanks for your truly fraternal love.'
'It is now your duty to interfere, Mac Donalbain,' cried Arwed, earnestly. 'Without Christine I dare not appear before her father. The intelligence that she has persisted in remaining here would cause the old man's death, and he has not deserved that from you. Therefore dissolve the magic spell you have cast around her, and give back the daughter to her father.'
'My crimes have forever loosed the bands which bound us,' said Mac Donalbain, with almost suffocating sorrow, to his wife. 'Therefore leave me now, Christine. It would only increase my misery to know that it was shared by you.'
'I do not believe it, Mac Donalbain,' answered the resolute woman. 'That the society, the sympathy, the consolations, of a being who stands in so near a relation that henceforth she will only live and breathe for you, must lighten your sufferings, I am fully convinced; and in despite of your generous untruth I remain your companion.'
'Well, then,' cried Mac Donalbain, wildly, 'if you will at all events remain the wife of a condemned criminal, you must respect the husband's authority. The wife owes obedience to the husband, and I command you to return to your father!'
'You cannot command me to do that,' answered Christine. 'I am your wedded wife. I have never given you cause to be dissatisfied with me, but have always faithfully adhered to you, up to this sad moment. You have no right to separate yourself from me without my consent, and by Almighty God I will never give it!'
'Be merciful, as our Father in Heaven is merciful!' said the preacher to the weeping Arwed. 'So far as I understand this sad history, it appears, even to me, better to permit the unhappy woman to remain with her husband. What but severe reproof and bitter scorn can she now expect in the upper world? Here, on the contrary, she can perhaps preserve a distracted mind from despair and lead it to true repentance and amendment, which is always a commendable work and acceptable to God.'
'How can I venture,' rejoined Arwed, 'to leave the poor woman here, helpless, amid the horrors of nature and the outcasts of society, whose destiny her husband must share?'
'She shall reside in my house,' promised the preacher; 'and together with my good wife I will make every possible effort to render her yoke easy and her burden light. Confide her to me, sir officer, and I will have a father's care of her.'
'Do so, reverend sir,' said Arwed, somewhat relieved by this promise, and placing a purse in the preacher's hand. 'The governor of West Bothnia will gratefully acknowledge whatever kindness you may show to his daughter.'
The preacher raised his hands in astonishment on thus learning the high rank of the person committed to his care. 'I will plead for you with your father!' said Arwed to Christine,--and, to shorten the painful scene, he hastened to re-enter the tub. The signal was given, and Arwed soon mounted to the regions of day, accompanied by the grateful prayers of those he left behind.
Arwed sat by his uncle's sick bed, and, not without some embarrassment and hesitation, gave an account of Christine's artifice, his weakness, and her final resolution. The old man exhibited no sign of anger, as Arwed had anticipated, but on the contrary nodded his assent to the arrangement. 'She knows what is proper for her,' he at length said in a trembling voice. 'Her honor is lost beyond redemption, and I therefore consider it but reasonable and proper that she should hide herself in a place so little different from the grave. Direct my steward to send a hundred ducats to Oesterby yearly, for her use, that she may not suffer from want, and henceforth name her to me no more. With her child you will do what you think proper; you have an open treasury here, but never let it come into my presence. I cannot acknowledge a child of Mac Donalbain as my grandson.'
'Is Megret still here?' asked Arwed, for the purpose of changing the subject.
'He is,' answered the governor, 'and I wish to have some conversation with you respecting him. A great change has come over him since the Ravensten expedition, and he has daily become more and more seriously misanthropic. Since he clearly ascertained that the----person was determined at all events to accompany her husband to Danemora, it seems as if an evil spirit had entered him, and obtained entire possession of his heart. I really believe the fool did not, until then, give up all hope of gaining her hand. His presence here has become disagreeable to me. He daily harasses his poor hounds, who howl about the castle like damned spirits,--shamefully over-rides his noble horses from mere caprice, and I have frequently caught him in smiling and pleased contemplation of his bloody spurs. His groom leads a miserable life with him, and I have on that account already once or twice upbraided him severely for his eccentric and irregular course. His plan of purchasing and settling himself in this vicinity seems to be wholly given up, and he has become burdensome to every living creature at the castle, but most of all to himself. I feel that my days are numbered, and would willingly die in peace. I must therefore beg of you, Arwed, in my name and in a courteous manner, to dismiss him from the castle. Should he take it ill, a duel may indeed be the consequence; but you would not hesitate to exchange a few passes for the love of your old uncle,--would you?'
'I will set about it immediately,' said Arwed, leaving the room, rejoiced to have an opportunity of forever ridding himself of the hated Frenchman.