The rising sun of the next morning found every one busy at Gyllensten, and the travelers prepared for their excursion. Christine, who had hoped to fly in advance of the rest of the company on her swift dun courser, was compelled to take a seat in the carriage with her father, who feared his gout, and her noble horse was led after her by the domestics, who accompanied the expedition in another carriage. Arwed and Megret, with their grooms, were in the saddle. The company set forth in a northerly direction, having the gulf of Bothnia on their right, and the mountains of Lapland on their left, passing the stations Beygde and Skelleste until they arrived at the little port of Pitea, which, yet poorer than Umea, lay at the mouth of the Pitea Elf. There, with the relay horses, six Swedish dragoons, furnished by the bailiwick and led by the sheriff, marched up with drawn swords to perform escort duty for the remainder of the governor's journey.
'Wherefore trouble these people, Mr. Sheriff?' said the governor. 'The road is safe, as far as I know, and for that reason I took no escort with me from Umea.'
'For some time past,' answered the sheriff, 'a band of robbers have beset this neighborhood. Two well planned and successfully executed burglaries, in quick succession, have created much alarm; and yesterday, a man who attempted to travel to Tornea, was found slain upon the road between here and Lulea.'
'And you have yet made no effort to apprehend the perpetrators of the deed?' asked the governor discontentedly. 'If the police do their duty such transgressors cannot long escape the vengeance of the laws.'
'The waste and desolate condition of that region,' said the sheriff by way of excuse, 'facilitates the flight of the robbers and renders pursuit difficult. The inhabitants of the scattered houses and small hamlets fear to seize a single robber while their helpless situation exposes them to the vengeance of the whole band, which numbers thirty men. Their leader is called Black Naddock, and always has his face colored black when he goes out upon his predatory excursions.'
'You must cause strict search to be made,' directed the governor. 'Write to the sheriff of Umea, in my name, for as many men as he can spare. Until they arrive you must do the best you can with your dragoons. They need not accompany us. We are numerous and used to danger. Should the robbers venture to attack us, we should suffer less from the encounter than they.'
He entered his carriage and the whole company continued their route, still in a northerly direction, by the little town of Lulea, where the greater and less Lulea Elf roll their mingled waters into the sea, until they arrived at Ranea, where the gulf of Bothnia forms an angle and the road turns off to the east. So far nothing had occurred to justify the apprehensions of the sheriff, and the caution of the travelers, which had hitherto kept them in close companionship, that they might be ready to aid each other, began to relax. Megret, whom Christine jestingly accused of riding near the carriage not for hers but his own safety, had angrily ridden forward; and Arwed, giving way to his own reflections, had turned into a fir-wood on the left, in which he followed a foot-path leading toward the north. He might have followed this path for the space of an hour, when he heard at a distance ahead of him a sudden cry for help. Giving the spur to his horse, he flew in the direction whence the voice came. He soon came in view of Megret contending with four ill-looking fellows, who had seized his horse by the bridle and furiously beset him with cudgels and cutlasses.
'However little he may deserve it,' said the youth to himself, 'one must help him in his extremity!' and, with a pistol in his left, and a drawn sword in his right hand, he rushed into the fight. This attack called the attention of the ruffians from Megret, who, taking advantage of the circumstance, recovered his bridle and made off with all possible speed.
Angry at the escape of their prey, the robbers now fell upon Arwed. The latter, having fired and missed, soon had full employment for his sword and the activity of his horse, in keeping off the ruffians, who attacked him on all sides, and appeared to be well accustomed to such combats. He made an attempt to wheel his horse suddenly to the right and thus make an opening for escape; but here two other men, who by their appearance belonged to the gang, met him with well aimed rifles.
'I could have wished a more honorable death,' he murmured, and at that moment a tall man in a green hunting dress sprang from a neighboring thicket. A red plume waved from his hat, and his face was black as a Moor's. He spoke some angry words in an unintelligible jargon to the robbers, upon which they immediately abandoned Arwed and disappeared in the bushes, and the Moor motioned to Arwed to depart.
'Thanks, captain!' said Arwed, rejoiced at this unexpected rescue, and pushing forward, he soon found himself upon the highway.
There he met Megret, with both of their servants, coming to seek for him. 'Here you are, then!' said Megret out of breath, 'and, as I hope, not wounded. I should never have forgiven myself if you had been injured in rescuing me!'
'God be praised that you are alive, Arwed!' cried the beauteous Christine, flying to meet him upon her favorite dun courser, and her blue eyes flashed upon him so affectionately as to cause a fluttering at his heart.
'You see, major,' said Megret flatteringly, 'how instantaneously all were hastening to your assistance.'
'Your promptness is worthy of all thanks, colonel,' answered Arwed; 'but your help would have been of little service to me had I not been so fortunate as to make the acquaintance of Black Naddock. His command caused the fiends by whom I was hard pressed, to vanish. Had he not appeared most opportunely, you would in all probability have found only my dead body.'
'That would indeed have been purchasing the safety of a man who could leave his preserver in the danger which had been incurred for his sake, at too dear a rate,' remarked Christine, with bitterness.
Megret did not notice the sarcasm, as at that moment he was begging of Arwed, with singular eagerness, that he would describe the personal appearance of the robber-captain.
'He was a tall, well made man,' answered Arwed, 'about Mac Donalbain's size, in a hunting dress, well armed, and with a black face.'
'But the features of that face?' asked Megret, anxiously. 'Bore they no resemblance to any you have heretofore seen?'
'Really!' answered Arwed with a smile, 'I did not give myself time to examine the blackamoor. In leaving him with all convenient haste I did what you surely will excuse, as you set the first example of a resort to the spur.'
'You ought to have shot him down!' continued Megret venomously, 'and then we should have been no longer in the dark with regard to his identity.'
'At the moment when he had just saved my life?' asked Arwed, with earnestness. 'Surely, that cannot be your true meaning, colonel!'
'The countess is fainting!' screamed old Knut, spurring his horse to Christine's side, and catching the pale maiden in his arms.
'Fainting! such a heroine fainting upon so slight an occasion!' sneeringly remarked Megret. 'There must be some especial and secret cause for it! Whether that cause rides here upon the highway, or skulks there in the woods?--that is the question.'
Arwed, who had listened in silent wonder to Megret's observations, which were wholly unintelligible to him, had in the meantime ridden to the other side of Christine, and there assisted Knut in supporting the poor girl in her saddle while they slowly returned to the carriage, from which the governor had taken the horses in order to send the coachman to the belligerents, as a reinforcement.
'Thank heaven, it is not necessary!' cried he, glancing at Arwed, and, extending his hand, he affectionately exclaimed, 'my brave son!'
'We bring you a patient,' said Arwed, lifting Christine from her horse, with Knut's assistance, and placing her in the carriage by her father's side.
'Yes, no dissuasion could prevent it,' answered the governor. She would go. She has had her way, and I am glad the unmanageable girl has for once been compelled to yield to the weakness of her sex.'
At this moment Christine opened her eyes. Her glance at first fell upon Arwed with inexpressible tenderness. She then shrunk and trembled as though her soul was subdued by some horrible fear. Terror and dismay were depicted in her features, and she hid her face in the bosom of her astonished father.
The sun of the longest summer day shone brightly in the horizon, as the governor and his companions approached Tornea, the end of their journey, and the meanest among the (so called) cities of West Bothnia. It lies near the boundary of East Bothnia, upon the delta of the united rivers Tornea and Muonio, whose waters here again divide into two branches before falling into the gulf of Bothnia. The little place, with its towers, its handsome shops, and green shaded walks, nevertheless presented itself under a very pleasant aspect in the clear sunshine. In the city itself, however, the whole population of West Bothnia and its Lapponian districts appeared to have been concentrated, and in the streets and public square swarmed and pressed the joyous multitude, who were pouring in to obtain a redress of their grievances, to be relieved from their taxes, to buy and sell, and to enjoy themselves in so numerous a company. The thick-set and bold Finlanders, with flat yellow faces and dull gray eyes, their thin beards and dusky yellow hair, in their short coats, dome-shaped caps, and fur-trimmed half boots--the timid, short Laplanders, with their broad brown faces, large mouths, blear eyes, and dark brown hair, with their leather coats reaching to their knees, their small caps, and pointed, fur-trimmed sandals,--all were here,--bringing with them fat cattle, venison, sheepskins, bearskins, fish, reindeer cheeses, utensils carved from wood, reindeer's horns, and pine bark meal, in great quantities, for sale. Here came the wife of one of the poor fishermen of Lapland, in her high conical cap, turning out of the way for the reindeer upon which the wives of some of the rich mountain Laplanders proudly flaunted by, in their curved conical head-dresses. There, a Laplandish burgher-maiden ostentatiously displayed herself in her fine cloth dress, decorated with silver buttons from the girdle to the feet, as was the black bodice, and also rendered stiff and unbending with buckles and spangles. High over these rather diminutive figures towered here and there the majestic forms of the blond natives of Sweden, who were moving about like giants among a race of pigmies.
The travelers alighted before the door of the sheriff's residence, and the governor immediately entered upon business, which crowded upon him like the unceasing rush of the storm-lashed waves. Megret, with a few internally muttered oaths, was seeking Christine, who had disappeared from his view soon after their arrival, and Arwed remained standing at the house door, amusing himself with watching the confused crowd in the public square. While he was thus employed, a sudden movement occurred among the living masses, as if an island of human heads was forming in one particular spot. Arms, with and without clubs, were ever and anon raised above the thickly crowded heads, and a confused cry arose, in which Arwed soon plainly distinguished the words, 'stop him! stop him!' The next moment a man in a green hunting dress rushed from the square towards the door of the sheriff's house, ran by Arwed with such impetuosity that he came near throwing him down, and hastily entered the room where the governor was holding his official sitting. While the astonished Arwed was looking after the fugitive, a Lapland village constable (or magistrate) came puffing and blowing from the same direction in the square. A dozen other Laplanders followed in his wake, armed with hunting spears, oars and cudgels. With the timidity to which the oppressed are early accustomed by their oppressors, the little constable looked up to the tall Swedish warrior, took off his cap, and with cringing humility asked him if he knew what had become of the green-coat who had just before fled into the house.
'Impossible!' cried he, as Arwed pointed towards the session room; 'how could such a thievish fox seek refuge in the tent of the huntsman? Not that I in the least doubt the truth of your intimation, noble sir,' added he, courteously, 'but Enontekis must have mistaken the man, and he cannot be the one whom we seek.'
'He is the same,' asseverated one of the Laplanders; 'I have marked the features of his face but too well, and should know him among a thousand.'
'So then we must pluck up fresh courage,' said the constable in a very dispirited tone, 'and request an audience of the gentlemen within. Come with me, Enontekis, to enter your complaint; and you others, guard the door, that this beast of prey may not escape.'
The two Laplanders entered the session room. Arwed followed them with highly excited curiosity. The first object that met his eye was the huntsman, whom he now for the first time recognised as Mac Donalbain, in close and friendly conversation with the governor. While he was vainly endeavoring to find the key to these singular occurrences, the constable and his companion, afraid to speak aloud in the presence of their superiors, were disputing in vehement pantomime, the former denying and the latter affirming, although with constantly increasing uncertainty and anxiety. Finally, the constable approached the bar and slightly touched the arm of the sheriff.
'With your leave, respected sir,' asked he, as the latter turned toward him, 'does the stranger huntsman there enjoy the acquaintance of the lord governor?'
'So it would seem,' answered the sheriff, 'as the governor has just now invited him to dinner.'
At that moment the governor shook the Scot kindly by the hand, and the Laplander started back in affright.
'Do you not now perceive that you must have been blind?' whispered he to the good Enontekis. 'My God! what trouble might I not have prepared for myself through my zeal for the discharge of my official duty! To follow a friend and guest of our most noble governor as a criminal! But happily the gentlemen have not perceived us, and we cannot do better than to make a speedy retreat.'
With anxious haste he drew his somewhat reluctant companion out of the room. Meanwhile Mac Donalbain had taken his leave of the governor, and now quickly, but with a courteous greeting, dashed past Arwed, who followed him to the door of the room. There he saw him cast a wild glance toward the crowd assembled before the front door, and then turn off to the right toward the back door, which opened into the garden. The constable was standing there, engaged in a warm dispute with poor Enontekis, who was still unsatisfied that he could have been mistaken. Their armed followers, whose thirst for battle did not appear to be very strong, were standing solemnly around them. Mac Donalbain stood for a moment regarding the group as if considering what course to take, and then marched boldly up to his pursuers.
'Out of the way, Laplanders!' thundered he, hurling them to the right and left; and in this manner he passed through the assemblage and disappeared.
'That was very uncourteous, sir Swede!' cried the terrified constable after him when he had got out of hearing. 'We call ourselves Samolazes, and not Laplanders. Our enemies only call us so, when they wish to insult us; but we poor people are treated justly nowhere upon earth, and must be patient under all our injuries until we appear before the final judgment seat!'
The tone of the little man grew constantly weaker and weaker during this speech. Weeping, he went forth; weeping, Enontekis followed him; and sobbing and wiping their eyes, the twelve warriors followed them.
'What can all this mean?' Arwed asked himself, as he returned to the session room.
'Mac Donalbain,' observed he to the governor, 'appeared to seek you with great haste; had he any very important favor to ask?'
'Not that I know of,' answered the governor. 'He came here only for a moment, to fulfill his promise that he would greet me at Tornea. He was obliged to decline my invitation to dinner because of an engagement with a hunting party.'
'Has Mac Donalbain been here?' asked Megret, hastily entering the room.
'But a moment since,' answered Arwed, 'and he cannot now be far off. What do you wish of him?'
'A crowd of Laplanders,' said Megret, 'are seeking, with spears and poles, in all the streets of Tornea for a huntsman, who, according to their description, can be no other than Mac Donalbain; and I should be very happy to place the noble gentleman before the good people, so that I might learn precisely what they want of him.'
'We shall probably find him in the garden,' answered Arwed, and they hastened there together. But the garden was empty. 'Incomprehensible!' exclaimed the sheriff, who had followed them. 'The garden gate leading to the street is closed, and I have the key with me.'
'Not so incomprehensible as you may suppose,' rejoined Megret, pointing to a hedge-row by the garden wall whose freshly broken and trampled branches plainly showed that some one had recently clambered over them.
'Your pardon, sir officer,' stammered the sheriff, examining the damaged hedge, 'that is still more incomprehensible,--for what could have induced the gentleman to climb over the wall, and thus do me so great an injury?'
'That, master sheriff,' answered Megret, 'is to me most comprehensible, if I am right in my suspicions.'
'What do you mean by that?' asked Arwed; but Megret, who was busily examining the marks of injury upon the hedge, did not hear him. 'So the weasel has escaped me,' said he, grating his teeth; 'but, by my honor, he is lost if he again venture into my snare.'
'The royal taxes were raised, the constantly recurring lawsuits of the Finns and Laplanders about pasturage, the chase and the fishery, were settled in some way, by power and with mildness, the sun was approaching the horizon, and the hum of the crowd in the market place grew fainter and fainter.
'My business is finished,' said the governor to Arwed, 'and it will soon be time to view the spectacle for which you have given yourself the trouble to come here. Seek Christine. We shall set out immediately.'
Arwed searched the house, garden, and the whole of the little town, without being able to find her. As he was returning in the ill humor naturally consequent upon his want of success, he was met by the sheriff's little daughter.
'Perhaps you can tell me, my child,' he asked, 'where I can find the governor's daughter?'
The little thing gave him an arch look and placed her finger on her nose. 'That indeed can I,' answered she; 'but I know not whether I may venture to do so.'
'I will answer for it that you may,' Arwed jestingly assured her. 'I am a messenger from her father--'
'And possibly for that reason I may not. Fathers must not be allowed to know every thing. The countess told me that, should a handsome slender man in a green hunting dress ask for her, I might direct him where she was. Now you are indeed handsome and slender, but the green dress is wanting.'
'Who knows if she will be able to see the green coat to-day,' answered Arwed significantly. 'Lead me to her. Perhaps she will be willing to receive, for once, a blue coat instead of the green.'
'Well, at your own risk!' cried the child, leading him by some deserted passages through the house and garden into the open fields, where the waters of a meandering stream glistened among the trees in the evening sun.
'She is there behind that thicket of alder bushes upon the border of the stream!' whispered the child. 'Good success to you, sir officer!' and she ran back to the house.
'Even at the north pole,' said Arwed, proceeding forward, 'the sex indulge in amorous intrigues, and promote those of others when they have none of their own.' He came to the bushes, and was not a little astonished when, instead of Christine, he beheld a Finnish peasant girl, who sat angling on the bank with her back towards him. But the disguise was soon betrayed by the beauteous golden locks of the girl, and the deep reverie into which she had fallen,--and he silently approached through the bushes, that he might surprise his fair cousin.
The latter discovered by the slight movements of the foliage that some one was approaching; but, pretending not to have remarked it, she sang in her sweetest tones a Finnish song, in keeping with her assumed character. The words were as follows:
Oh! if the dear and only lovedMight by some magic art appear,Though on his mouth the wolfs blood hung,My lips should kiss its beauty clear!Though round his hand a serpent's coilEnvious, had twined its venom'd ring,Would not all-powerful love defyThe danger of the reptile's sting!
Why lacks the wind a fervent soulLike that which glows within my breast?Why lives not language in its sigh?Then could it speed my fond request!Then, truant, then the whisp'ring breezeThy thoughts might interchange with mine;And, faithful carrier, swiftly bearThe throbbings of this heart to thine!
'Poor maiden!' sighed Arwed with fearful misgivings. 'God grant that the man thy heart has chosen, drip only with the blood of the wolf, that the serpents of hell be not coiled around the hand which thou wouldst press so tenderly in thine!'
Meanwhile Christine, having ended her song, listened a moment, and then turning towards the thicket, exclaimed, 'tease me no longer, Mac Donalbain, it is you--I hear your breathing.'
'The lover hears acutely, but not always rightly,' said Arwed advancing. 'It is only the breathing of your insignificant kinsman.'
'My God, what have I done!' shrieked the terrified Christine, covering her face with her hands.
'Lost the secret,' answered Arwed 'that you once promised to confide to me. I am indebted to accident for what I now know, and not to your confidence.'
'Can that be any excuse for your betraying me?' asked Christine, grasping his hand and searching deeply into his soul with her beautiful blue eyes.
'Do I look like a betrayer?' asked Arwed, indignantly withdrawing his hand. 'The knowledge of what I only conjectured till now, at least authorises me to exercise the fraternal right which you have conceded to me, and earnestly to warn you against this Scot, who, by the mildest judgment, is only an adventurer. Even if the garb in which you have to-day so strangely clothed yourself did actually belong to you, you could not hope to derive any especial honor from such a connection; the countess Gyllenstierna degrades her rank and reputation when she throws herself away upon a suspected vagabond.'
'Then cast I from me both rank and reputation,' cried the maiden, with the defiance of desperation, 'and retain the garb which brings me nearer to him, and in which I am allowed to love him.'
'Has it gone so far with you, cousin? Then indeed must this masquerade have some secret object, and you were at least willing to try, how it would become you against the time when it may be adopted for life. There is too much meaning in this, and I should but discharge the duty of a guest and kinsman by informing your father of the affair.'
Christine gave the youth a piercing glance, and sprung upon a rock which jutted out far over the stream. 'Give me your word of honor, Arwed,' cried she from her place of refuge, 'that you will remain silent to every one upon this matter, or I will instantly throw myself into the stream.'
'What madness!' cried Arwed, advancing to take her from her dangerous situation.
'Back!' screamed she wildly. 'The first step you take toward me shall plunge me in a cold and watery grave. By my mother's ashes, I will keep my word! In any event life has henceforth no joy for me.'
'Well, come down!' cried Arwed, angrily; 'by my honor I will be silent.'
'Thanks, thanks!' said Christine descending; 'you are a Gyllenstierna and will keep your word. And now, nothing more upon this unpleasant subject. Let us return to our companions. My disguise is a jest I played off upon you. Do you understand me, Arwed?'
'Perfectly!' answered the latter; and, troubled by the cloud hanging over the maiden's fate, as well as vexed that he had taken upon himself the thankless office of confidant, he gave his arm to the beauteous Finlander, and they proceeded back to the house in moody silence.
At ten o'clock in the evening, which, however, was no evening there, the whole party found themselves assembled in the church of Tornea. The governor was standing near the altar in earnest contemplation of a suspended tablet which narrated in golden letters how Charles XI had observed the midnight sun from the tower of that church, in the year 1694. At the same time the pastor of the church, a venerable old man, was calling the attention of Christine to a medal which had been struck upon that occasion. Looking over her shoulder Arwed read the inscription:Soli inocciduo sol obvius alter,--and asked if this metaphor were not too much in the oriental style for Charles XI.
'Charles XI,' answered Megret, approaching the group, 'left to his son a throne well supported at home and respected abroad; with a full treasury, and many flourishing provinces, besides the hereditary states. How happy would it have been for Sweden had his son been willing to rest contented with the glory of having preserved his paternal inheritance.'
The uncle and nephew simultaneously turned towards the speaker, with noble indignation, to defend the character of their adored king against his foreign traducer;--but before they could find words, the pastor, accustomed to speak in that house, and stirred by the occasion, took the answer upon himself. 'The judgment,' cried he, in his deep, resounding voice, 'which you have passed upon our immortal king is as unjust as it is harsh. You forget that his first wars were purely defensive; that even his victories, which rendered Sweden illustrious in the eyes of all Europe, involved him in circumstances which at last brought misfortunes upon his head. You judge him by the situation in which he left his realm when God removed him from it in the bloom of manhood, and entirely overlook what he would have accomplished for Sweden had he been allowed time for the fulfilment of his designs for her prosperity. It is a sad truth that the country now finds itself on the brink of misery; but far be it from us to complain of our immortal king, on that account. Let us rather curse the murderous villain whose bullet ended that great man's life before Frederickshall! Him, him alone, has the kingdom to thank for its calamities; and may all the tears and blood which have flowed since that black night, and which must flow hereafter, be poured into the balance of his sins, until he may sink down to the regions of everlasting torment, overborne by their weight!'
'So you are one of those,' said Megret, with embarrassed mockery, 'who, from your passion for the romantic and marvellous, will have it that no man of consequence can die except by assassination! In consequence of the rashness with which the king exposed himself to the fire of the enemy, it would rather have been matter of astonishment had he escaped alive. The balls flew so thick, that the agency of assassins was not necessary to account for his death.'
'I have my convictions!' cried the pastor, in the heat of his indignation, 'and those convictions are neither to be sneered nor subtilized away! God, however, who proves the heart and the reins, must pass judgment upon the concealed guilt, and punish the murderer according to his deserts--here, through the worm that never dies, and there, in the fire that is never quenched! Amen.'
'You are pale, colonel!' cried Arwed, suddenly giving Megret a searching look. 'Are you ill?'
'I was heated when I entered the church,' answered Megret in a faint voice, placing his hand upon his forehead; 'and this place seems to me to be very cold. I feel as though suffering from an ague fit, which however a few moments in the open air will dissipate.'
He retired with uncertain steps. All followed him with looks of surprise and inquiry, and a long pause ensued.
'Is it now your excellency's pleasure,' said the pastor to the governor, 'to ascend the church tower and thence, like Charles XI, observe the circular course of the day-star?'
'I thank you, sir pastor,' answered the governor. 'I have already looked me out a place upon the level ground, where we can better enjoy the beauties of nature together with this rare spectacle, than from so high a point of view, and you will do me a pleasure by accompanying us.'
The pastor accepted the invitation. The party left the church, and, without encountering Megret on their way, entered a boat in readiness for the occasion, and were conveyed to a small island which appeared to swim in the stream, opposite the town of Tornea. A solitary house, surrounded by some small huts, and a wind-mill, stood near the landing-place. The travelers, ascending, laid themselves upon the bank, their faces turned towards the sun, and silently enjoyed the view, at once attractive and awful, there presented to them.
The still, clear waters of the Tornea and Munio, upon which white fishing sails were gliding here and there, blushed in the rays of the evening sun, and were adorned on either side by high bushy banks. In the middle ground, the city, with its spires, was sweetly reflected in the peaceful waters. The back ground was closed by bare and sterile heights which were linked into each other like a chain, and concealed the opening through which the united streams rolled on in their course toward the sea.
At the edge of the horizon, behind the city, shone the nocturnal sun with rays that with difficulty dissipated the vapors collected by the evening air, as the forerunners of a night, which, on this occasion, was not permitted to make its appearance. The illumination had something dismal about it, for the magnificent sphere seemed to have lost the substance of its splendor as at the time of an annular eclipse, and threw, but a pale light upon land and water. The silence of death prevailed over the face of all nature. The mills upon the height behind Tornea, as well as that upon the island, were standing still,--the bewildered birds had flown to their roosts,--and the whole less resembled an actual world, than a landscape in a magic glass, lighted by a magic sun, which lacked the powerful life of nature. Meanwhile Tornea's church bell tolled the midnight hour.
'Great and wonderful are the works of the Lord!' suddenly exclaimed the devout pastor; 'and he, who considers them aright, has great pleasure therein.'
'I also adore the great Creator in the exhibition of his terrors,' said Arwed. 'But I must acknowledge that the silent, friendly, and dusky star-lit night of my own Upland, is dearer to me than this wonderful day. A sun which seems always to approach its setting, and yet never sets, but remains mournfully suspended between life and death, is in truth no joyous sight.'
'An image of my poor native country!' said the governor, soliloquising.
'And of my fate!' whispered Christine, almost inaudibly, as she leaned her weeping face upon Arwed's shoulder.
At this moment a row-boat from Tornea approached the island. Megret sprang out of it. 'Despatches from Umea!' cried he. 'The courier appeared to come in great haste; wherefore I took it upon myself to bring them directly to you.'
'You bring me nothing good,' said the governor, forebodingly, as he hastily opened the letter. 'As I conjectured! Let us start! We must this night commence our homeward journey.'
'In heaven's name, father, what is the matter?' asked Christine, in sympathy with her father's alarm.
'The Danes have invaded Bahuslehn,' answered the governor; 'the Russians have landed in Upland. Unless God perform miracles in our favor, Sweden is lost. Let us hence to Umea.'
As Arwed entered the castle of Gyllensten he was met by old Brodin, who, with a face highly expressive of sorrow and condolence, bowed to him in silence.
'What do you bring me, old honesty?' asked Arwed, with alarm' 'Not sad news, I hope? How does my father?'
'The lord counsellor's excellency,' answered Brodin, 'is as well as could be desired, and sends his kind regards to you. I am charged with an important commission, for the execution of which I must beg a private audience.'
'It concerns Georgina!' cried Arwed, with a sudden presentiment, and without awaiting Brodin's answer he led him into his private chamber. 'Now speak!' cried he with vehemence. 'I am prepared to hear all.'
'Were you a weak-nerved lady,' commenced Brodin, slowly drawing a letter from the pocket of his traveling coat, 'it might be necessary to preface the unpleasant intelligence of which I am the bearer with a fitting preamble. But you are a stout young man, as well as a brave soldier, and therefore I may venture to spare you the torment of fear and expectation.'
'Silence!' cried Arwed, tearing the letter from his hand. 'It is her writing!' he exclaimed, breaking the seal, and then proceeded to read:
'My Noble Gyllenstierna!
'The sympathy you continue to evince for the poor Georgina, blesses, while it rends her heart. Notwithstanding the clearness with which I explained myself, you are yet unwilling to consider our connection dissolved. Nothing therefore remains for me but to effect a last and eternal separation. I could have desired to spend the remainder of my life wedded to the remembrance of my first and only love; but you have yourself rendered this impossible. 'While I live, lives also your hope of one day possessing me!' By this resolution of your true heart, you have made it my duty to become dead to you for this world. Your father wishes to place the hand of his only son in that of his love-deserving niece, and thereby secure a continuation of the power and splendor of your noble house. I was the only obstruction to the accomplishment of this rational wish. I must not so continue. I could not answer to myself for destroying the welfare of a youth, whom I would so willingly have made happy by my faithful love, by my irresolution. To make you free, I have bound myself. To spare you the sacrifice you were determined to make, I have sacrificed myself. Since yesterday I have been the wife of a worthy man, whose character I must respect, and whom I could have loved, had I never known you. In his arms I may find, with the peace which results from the performance of duty, that quiet happiness which can result from a marriage, in the contracting of which passion had no voice. May you also be truly happy! May you deserve that happiness through obedience to your father's wishes! Believe me, Arwed, there is something better in this life than the intoxication of passion. I feel it in this heavy hour. Think of me sometimes, not only without anger, but with tranquil kindness, as you would of a beloved being who has preceded you to that eternal world where you hope to see her once again. I shall never forget you.
'GEORGINA VON EYBEN.'
Poor Arwed sank upon a seat as if annihilated. The faithful Brodin observed him with looks of the deepest sympathy. All at once the youth's eyes began to flash with savage fury. He sprung up, and, seizing the old man with a lion's rage, thundered in his ears, 'this whole affair is a fable devised for my deception!'
'Holy Savior! what is it you think?' cried the trembling Brodin.
'I have read in many old tales,' cried Arwed, with bitter anguish, 'of pretended marriages, and forged letters of renunciation, by which hearts have been artfully torn asunder, that would else have remained eternally united.'
'Why, hey, count Arwed,' said Brodin chidingly, 'how can you so misjudge your noble father as to suppose him guilty of such an offence?'
'I know,' answered Arwed, 'that my father considers the dissolution of my connection with Georgina a matter of the utmost importance. A counsellor of the realm stands high enough to permit himself to do many things that would carry a common citizen to a criminal's dungeon. The whole may be a specimen of the newest Swedish political management.'
'Believe what you please, major!' angrily exclaimed Brodin. 'The letter you have just read, I received from the hands of the writer, when I was with her in obedience to your father's command.'
'Brodin!' said the agitated Arwed, 'you are an old man! So near the grave, you will not defile your soul with a lie; therefore answer me, honest and true, as you have been through the whole course of your long life--is Georgina actually married?'
'By my God and his holy gospel!' cried the gray old man, solemnly placing his hand upon his heart, 'I was myself, by her command, in the cathedral church of Lubec, and saw her married to the imperial counsellor von Eyben.'
'It is then true!' sighed Arwed, again sinking back into his seat.
Brodin approached, with humid eyes, to speak some words of consolation,--but Arwed motioned him back, and the old man left the room in silent sorrow.
As Arwed was still sitting in his chamber, his arms convulsively folded upon his breast, as if he would stifle his inward grief by the outward pressure, with large tear-drops occasionally rolling down his pallid cheeks, a stranger suddenly entered the room. He was enveloped in a gray traveling cloak, and his hat was drawn down over his eyes. Stepping directly in front of Arwed, he threw off his cloak and cap.
'Swedenborg!' exclaimed Arwed, in a languid tone.
'The oldFatum,' spoke the seer, 'has again most unhappily kept troth with my presentiments. I see you again in the heaviest hour of your life, as I expected. But what I could not have expected is, to see you sinking under your sorrow. It becomes a man to struggle manfully against this evil fiend, and gloriously to vanquish; not to lay down his arms before him, like a wounded and disabled combatant.'
'You have never loved!' ejaculated Arwed; 'you cannot know the anguish which rends my heart.'
'I have loved!' exclaimed Swedenborg, with radiant eyes; 'I yet love, and with a passion which shall be eternal! Not, indeed, a perishable woman, but the celestialSophiam! Would to God that you also would choose her for your bride. How vain and trifling would all the earthly sorrows which now afflict you, then appear.'
'Do you know the stroke I have received?' asked Arwed, passionately.
'I know it,' answered Swedenborg mysteriously, 'as well as most things which concern you. Your image has often floated before my inward vision, and the spirits have often conversed with me of you.'
'All my misery,' rejoined Arwed, 'comes from the cold, malicious Ulrika. Her barbarity has torn from my brows the garland with which true love would have crowned me.'
'Sweden's vassal,' cried Swedenborg with solemn earnestness; 'blaspheme not Sweden's queen!'
'How!' cried Arwed, with astonishment, 'Youtake her part? You, who prophecied wo to Sweden under her reign?'
'That is still my opinion,' rejoined Swedenborg. 'But since Ulrika, by the unanimous voice of the people, sits upon her father's throne, she must be to us an object of veneration only. If she has done evil, she will not escape its punishment; and as the Lord oftentimes takes care to punish the sinner directly in that wherein he sinned, so perhaps will the man for whom she has done every thing, at some time become an instrument of divine wrath and take the crown from her head to place it on his own, repaying her with the basest treachery.'
'Alas, her crimes had wings,' complained Arwed; 'and this requital creeps snail-like after them.'
'Know then, you, who are so eager for vengeance,' indignantly rejoined Swedenborg, 'that the fate of Sweden aids you. Your country is at this moment the prey of her two bitterest enemies, and Ulrika may soon be a queen without a realm.'
'I had already heard of the threatened invasions of the Danes and Russians,' answered Arwed; 'but I did not apprehend such disastrous results.'
'They have already entered,' rejoined Swedenborg. 'Bahuslehn is as good as conquered. Stroemstadt and Marstrand have already surrendered to the Danes; Carlsten has by this time fallen; and the Russians are raging like wild beasts in the eastern part of the kingdom. Norrkoeping, Nykoeping, and many other cities, hundreds of noblemen's seats, and thousands of hamlets, are already in ashes. Heaps of slaughtered animals infect the atmosphere; the youths of our land are borne by Russian ships to ignominious slavery; and, while we are speaking, general Lascy is moving with a strong army directly upon Stockholm.'
Arwed's blue eyes flashed. His heroic form became more erect. He involuntarily grasped the hilt of his sword, and moved towards the door.
'Whither would you go?' Swedendorg asked, in a kindly tone.
'To the garden, into the free air!' quickly answered Arwed. 'It is becoming too warm for me here. Besides, I need solitude, that I may be able to form a proper determination.'
'I know it,' said Swedenborg. 'You will resolve as becomes you, and so, farewell. The Lord be with your sword!'
'We shall see each other again before I go,' said Arwed.
'I must travel still further to-day,' answered Swedenborg. 'I am now going to the Nasaalpe lead mines. I must afterwards visit the iron and copper mines in Tornea-Lappmark, and in a month I must be on my way back.'
'Possibly we may meet in Stockholm,' said Arwed, forgetting his banishment, 'and heaven grant it may be under better auspices!'
'Quo fata trahunt, retrahuntque sequamur!' cried Swedenborg with unction, and the youth hastened out.
'A noble spirit!' said Swedenborg, looking with complacency at his retreating form. 'It lay prostrate, sickened with love's pain and bitter hate; and behold, with only two drops of that steel-tincture, and his country's need, its strength revives, and labors, and throws off themateriam peccantem, and his heart is as pure, and fresh, and strong, as ever it was. Hail to the physician of the soul, who finds the seat of the disease; but thrice hail to the patient whose good disposition aids the cure.'