"What can be accomplished," indignantly replied the general, "when one has to do with a boy who is governed by fools? He relies confidently upon the strength of his party. He will inherit the royal power wholly unimpaired or not at all. And it is most certain that with his confidence and indolence he will be compelled to accept the latter alternative."
"The last effort vain!" said Swedenborg, taking his hat. "G.o.d preserve your excellency! I am going."
"Will you also desert me, my dear ally?" asked Duecker despairingly.
"How can I be further useful in this place?" said Swedenborg. "The siege is raised; my knowledge can never more be needed here. I go again to the examination of the mines. Under the present circ.u.mstances this upper air will no longer exactly agree with me, and I must see whether that of the mines will not be better for my const.i.tution." He now turned to Arwed. "We shall meet again!" said he with a mysterious emphasis.
"Who knows!" answered Arwed, who looked to the future with sad misgivings.
"We shall meet again!" cried Swedenborg with greater emphasis; "It is revealed to me by a dark, voiceless feeling which is vouchsafed to me by the Lord rather as a chastis.e.m.e.nt than as a mercy-gift. We shall meet again, and if I do not deceive myself, in the heaviest hour of your life. G.o.d give you strength to bear it." He strode forth.
"Did you accomplish your object, Gyllenstierna?" Duecker now anxiously asked.
"Had I but reached Goertz an hour earlier," answered Arwed. "I witnessed his arrest."
"That was the last hope!" cried Duecker, sorrowfully. "Now is Goertz lost, as is also Sweden to the duke, beyond remedy!"
"Hast thou hoped until now?" asked Brenner with astonishment.
"Of what was not his spirit capable?" retorted Duecker. "I have just now learned to know him aright from a letter of his to the king. Had Goertz saved himself, he had sufficient influence with the czar to have the occupation of the throne by the duke made the condition of peace.
We can hardly imagine what he could not have accomplished. He was the man for Charles"s gigantic plans; he was the man to save the tottering kingdom. Now will the sick in their paroxysms call upon the physician for cure, and who will help them?"
"Your fears carry you too far, general," said Arwed. "The enemies of Goertz may not be so embittered but that his life may be respected, if only from a holy fear of the manes of their fallen king."
"You are too young to understand your nation thoroughly," retorted Duecker. "The proud senators will never forgive the foreigner for annihilating the last remains of their power by his bold measures; the people, who never dared to impeach their adored king, sought in Goertz the source of his misfortunes. Ulrika hates him, as she hates her nephew,--she fears his activity in the cause of the latter, and she can make an agreeable sacrifice to their prejudices by offering him up. He is a dead man!"
"Then must you a.s.sist in procuring my immediate discharge from the service, dear general," said Arwed earnestly.
"Wherefore?--What has entered your head?" asked Duecker. "You choose an unsuitable time. A great number of promotions will be immediately made, to win the army; your father is a strong supporter of the queen, and you may perhaps leap the rank of major and obtain a regiment."
"I fear on the contrary," answered Arwed gloomily, "that I can no longer honorably remain a Swedish officer. But that is the least. A being, dearer to me than all others, can now hope for help and consolation from me alone. I must instantly proceed to Stockholm, even should I be compelled to desert from the army for that purpose."
"There is yet no necessity for that," said Duecker. "The guards break up to-day for Stockholm, and will proceed there in advance of the remainder of the forces. Therefore do nothing precipitately. If your wish for a discharge should continue, I will endeavor to obtain its accomplishment at a proper time. Such a request, just at this time, would only render you suspected and hated, and would probably be unsuccessful."
"That is the voice of a father," said Arwed feelingly, "You best know what is the most proper course for me, and I willingly hearken to you."
At that moment the field music was heard in the distance sounding a wild alarm, and the thunder of the artillery through the city accompanied the peal like a powerful ba.s.s.
"What is that?" asked Brenner with surprise.
"The prince has operated suddenly and powerfully," answered Duecker; "more suddenly and energetically to obtain Sweden"s crown for his wife, than to obtain a victory over Sweden"s enemies. The army is won, and Ulrika is queen. That is what the thunder of the cannon denotes."
CHAPTER XVI.
The guards had marched into Stockholm. Arwed had performed all the duties of his service, and now flew towards the Blasiusholm to the house of the post-captain who had freely received and sheltered the deserted daughters of the unhappy Goertz. The moment he mentioned his name he was shown into Georgina"s room. With a pale face and wasted frame she came forward to meet him. Ardently would he have folded her in his arms, but she held back and merely presented to him her thin white hand, whose icy coldness filled him with alarm.
"Thou hast not saved my father?" asked she with a trembling voice.
"By my honor!" cried Arwed, grieved at the silent reproach conveyed by the question; "I did every thing in my power, but hard fate was stronger than my honest endeavors."
"I must believe it," answered Georgina, "and thank you for your good intentions. If you are yet willing to make further efforts in my behalf, procure for me through your influence an interview with my father. They have hitherto rejected all my pet.i.tions with inhuman severity."
"Whatever lies in my power I will essay for the accomplishment of your wish," replied Arwed with much agitation.
"Leave me then for the present," said Georgina. "Go and make the effort and bring me word that they will extend towards my father a privilege which even robbers and murderers would not be denied."
"Do you drive me from you so soon, Greorgina?" asked Arwed mournfully.
"Is this the welcome of a beloved and loving betrothed?"
"Betrothed?" sighed Georgina with a melancholy smile. "Ah, dear Arwed!
that is a subject upon which we must speak no more. The daughter of the man whom Sweden accuses of high treason, can never give her hand in marriage to a Swede."
"Thinkest thou so meanly of me?" cried Arwed, with great earnestness.
"But no, you do not really think so. You only pretend indignation to conceal your want of affection. From the youth whom you once deemed worthy of your love, you must at least expect that your present misfortunes will bind him to you with still stronger chains."
A faint blush flitted over Georgina"s pale cheeks, and her eyes glistened. She hastily approached Arwed and laid her hand upon his breast. "I know," said she proudly, "that whatever love and honor may demand of a Gyllenstierna, you will obey their voice in every circ.u.mstance of life. But a n.o.ble German maiden dares not forget what concerns her own honor,--and this commands me to refuse you my hand so long as your own countrymen can with propriety p.r.o.nounce your union with me a misalliance."
"You no longer love me!" complained Arwed.
Georgina gave him a glance in which shone all the glow of her first love, and, unconsciously, her eyes filled with tears. At last the all-powerful pa.s.sion conquered. She threw her arms about his neck and pressed him to her bosom. "Go, and strive!" sobbed she, retreating into a side cabinet.
Arwed wished to follow her, but hearing her draw the bolt on the inner side, he departed, bitterly afflicted with a confused throng of contending feelings.
CHAPTER XVII.
While the new royal counsellor, Nils count Gyllenstierna was sitting, as two months before, employed at his writing table, Arwed timidly entered the room.
"Aha!" said he satirically, "the brave captain has at last the goodness, after my repeated requests, to grant me an interview. I beg you will take a seat upon the sofa, and I will be at your service directly."
Arwed, however, remained standing with a sad and resigned countenance, as he had determined to submit patiently to the censures of his pa.s.sionate father, whose political ambition had now attained its utmost gratification.
The old counsellor continued writing for a short time, and then, signing his name with an energetic stroke of the pen, he arose and stepped immediately in front of his son, with folded arms and an angry countenance.
"Where shall I begin with my reproaches!" bl.u.s.tered he at length. "You have committed so many excesses in so short a time, that it is difficult for me to select, and I can only fix my mind upon the result--that you are a ruined, yes, in the strictest sense, a _lost son_, with whom I am destined to have much trouble and sorrow."
"That I went to the king"s army against your will...?" commenced Arwed, pleadingly.
"That is the least!" proceeded the father, interrupting him. "You have proceeded so far in your evil way, that even so shameless an act of disobedience has become a mere trifle, unworthy of consideration in comparison with your ulterior conduct. Besides, you may find some excuse for that act, in what has recently happened. According to despatches this day received, Armfelt"s corps has been miserably frozen up in the ice mountains on its retreat towards Jemtland, and although you have caused me much sorrow, I am yet glad that your obstinacy has this time saved you from an inglorious death."
"Thanks to thee, true warner," said Arwed tremblingly to himself;--then addressing his father: "if that be not the cause of your anger, may I beg of you to name my other transgressions. From your justice I have a right to hope that I shall be allowed to exculpate myself."