"You shall not thus frivolously deprive me of my best joy," said Conradi, struck by the weight of his objection.
"All your suppositions," continued Arwed, "are founded upon the hypothesis that the queen will persevere in maintaining her hereditary right. But she will not persevere. As soon as it clearly appears to her that she can purchase the crown only at this price, she will become an elective queen, or charity queen, or whatever else it may please the diet to name her."
"Do you think so?" asked Conradi with alarm.
"Has she not already yielded the sovereignty?" asked Arwed. "She who can lend herself to become a state puppet, to be decked out with crown and sceptre on festival days, that the people may imagine they have a queen, will, not be obstinate upon minor points. Let her but retain the t.i.tle of queen, and that will be enough for a vain-glorious woman."
"Destroy not so cruelly my last air-built castle, Arwed!" said Georgina, stepping out of her chamber, her eyes red with weeping. "I have enjoyed to-day the first cheerful moment for months, through the intelligence brought me by the good Conradi, and your contradiction of it cuts me to the heart."
"Do not lose courage yet, baroness!" said Conradi, consolingly.
"Notwithstanding the captain despairs of every thing, the anchor of my hopes still holds fast in this tempest. Let the _plenum plenorum_ be only once held, and then will Gyllenstierna hold another language."
"Then may we very soon expect their decision," said Arwed. "The _plenum plenorum_ is already organized. May its deliberations result differently from my antic.i.p.ations!"
"Organized to-day?" asked Conradi with great astonishment. "I thought that to-day would be occupied in examining credentials and establishing forms of procedure."
"That had been previously done," answered Arwed. "I know for a certainty, by means of my father"s secretary, that the full action of the diet commences to-day."
"Then count Tessin has not dealt fairly with me," murmured Conradi, shaking his head. "Probably he wished to lull me to sleep and find out what further means might be at my command. That is not cavalier-like.
When the lion creeps and watches like the cat, it becomes only a common animal."
A long pause ensued, during which each one was occupied with his own thoughts. Georgina leaned her head upon the back of her chair, whilst her breast labored with the anguish of fearful expectation. Arwed stood there with his arms folded, casting glances of love and compa.s.sion upon the maiden. The little Magdalena, unaware of the importance of the moment, was innocently playing with his sword knot; while Conradi had stepped to the window, and was listening attentively to every sound from without.
"Did you not hear something like the sound of a distant bell?" he asked Arwed. The latter hastened anxiously to the window, and listened to the faint sounds. Directly more distinct tones fell upon his ear.
"Those are the bells of Jacob"s church!" cried Georgina, springing up.
"What means this general ringing of the bells at so unusual an hour?"
"Something of importance either for good or evil," said Conradi. "I think the diet must have decided, and these bells are to celebrate their choice."
"Arwed!" sighed Georgina, stretching out her hands imploringly towards the youth.
"I will go into the city and procure intelligence," said he, seizing his hat. "G.o.d grant that I may bring you back good news."
He hastened out, threw himself upon his horse, and coursed back to the city. From every tower rung out the merry peal of the bells, and in all the streets through which he rode, floated joyous mult.i.tudes of people.
In the great square they were crowded head to head, and ten thousand hands pointed towards the capitol. "The hour of decision has arrived,"
said Arwed to himself. Leaping from his horse, and throwing the bridle reins to his servant, he pushed his way through the crowd to the portal of the building.
There stood the pompous equipage of the duke of Holstein. The duke sat therein, viewing the windows of the hall of a.s.sembly with a countenance expressive of sorrow and offended pride. An elderly gentleman in the uniform of a Holstein general, and with a pensive air, stepped out of the door of the capitol."
"Now, Bauer?" cried the duke to him impatiently, throwing open the door of the carriage.
"All in vain, your grace!" said Bauer, stepping into the carriage. "I did not even obtain an opportunity to read your protest to the end."
"Sweden, Sweden, to whom I have offered up every thing," growled the duke, "is this your grat.i.tude!" Hastily catching hold of the general, he drew him into the carriage and shut the door, crying, "forward!" The carriage soon rattled out of Arwed"s view.
Trumpets now sounded from the balcony of the capitol, attracting Arwed"s attention to the place. The president of the senate, count Horn, accompanied by many of the senators, stepped out upon the balcony. "Silence!" cried he to the crowd below, waving his hand.
"Silence!" cried the people in return, and all was still.
"Free Swedes!" cried the orator, "the royal council and the a.s.sembled diet of this kingdom, by virtue of the elective right vested in them, in consequence of the throne having become vacant without immediate heirs, have elected to be queen of the Swedes and Goths the full sister of our immortal lord, her royal highness and princely grace the landgravine Ulrika Eleonora of Hesse. This gracious princess having solemnly renounced the sovereignty, so named, or unlimited sovereign power, we hereby declare the said unlimited power to be forever alienated from the throne, and will hold as an enemy to the kingdom whoever may hereafter, by secret artifice or the open exertion of force, attempt the a.s.sumption or exercise of absolute power. Long live her majesty, queen Ulrika Eleonora!"
"Long live her majesty Ulrika Eleonora!" roared the numberless throng, mingling their voices with the trumpet blasts; and, as if raised by a whirlwind, their hats and caps flew high in air.
"All is lost!" cried Arwed indignantly, as he opened a way for himself through the crowd.
CHAPTER XXII.
On the twenty-first day of February, 1719, Arwed entered the prison of the unhappy Goertz, in company with lieutenant general Rank.
"I bring to you a suppliant, my poor friend," said Rank, with a melancholy smile, to Goertz. "The captain has not ceased to besiege his royal highness, until he obtained his permission for this interview with you. He has a great favor to ask, and if my word is ent.i.tled to any weight, I am his witness that he has well deserved it. He has, through his ceaseless activity in your behalf, drawn down upon himself the hatred of the Swedish n.o.bility; and could he purchase your life with his own, I am fully satisfied that he would make the sacrifice with joy."
"Good man!" said Goertz much agitated, extending his hand to Arwed.
"G.o.d grant that you may have something to ask of me that my duty will allow me to perform."
"You know my love for your Georgina, my father," said Arwed, pressing the old man"s hand upon his heart. "I beg your benediction upon our union."
"I have antic.i.p.ated this request," sighed Goertz. "It does you honor under the present circ.u.mstances, but I must not say yes to it."
"Oh retract those hard words!" begged Arwed. "You yourself just now called me a good man. By heaven I am so. Your daughter loves me--and our glorious king, the evening before his death, promised to crown my wishes."
"I know it all," said Goertz, "but I can give no other answer."
"You hate the Swede in me," said Arwed in a tone of the deepest sorrow; "nor can I blame you for it."
"Have you no better opinion of the father of your beloved?" asked Goertz, with mild reproach. "I love the man in you, and you may learn of my daughter that I was not opposed to your wishes, when I yet stood in my former elevated position. But what would the world say of me, should I willfully make you unhappy by consenting to your marriage with the daughter of an unfortunate man whom your father hates, and whose life and honor will soon be destroyed by one sharp stroke. If, when my fate shall have been sealed, my daughter"s pa.s.sion remain stronger than her remembrance of it, she is then at liberty to follow the dictates of her own heart. I neither advise nor forbid the connection, and shall earnestly pray to G.o.d that all may go well with you, and that you may never have cause to repent the inconsiderate step."
"Ah, that is a comfortless consent," said Arwed sorrowfully.
"Georgina"s overstrained delicacy induces her to take the same ground against me, and I have now come to beg your intercession with her, which is necessary to my success."
"My daughter feels as a Goertz must feel," answered the old man, "It is n.o.ble in you to persist in your request. Concede to us also the generosity of the refusal."
"You make not me alone unhappy!" cried Arwed with vehemence. "I may, indeed, in time become reconciled to it. But your daughter will also be made miserable at the same time. Her love is stronger than she, in the depth of her filial sorrow, at present supposes it. She may, indeed, give me up, but she can never forget me."
"The consciousness of having done right will help her to bear much, my son," answered Goertz. "Let us talk of it no more."
"You rend my heart," said Rank with weeping eyes. "But I thank you for this sorrow. It is a high and holy privilege to behold virtue struggling with heavy and undeserved affliction."
At this moment the keys were heard rattling in the prison door. It creaked upon its hinges, and in stepped, with the proud dignity of his black official robes, and with deep traces of hidden malice and bodily suffering in his yellow face, the speaker Hylten, delegate of the citizens to the imperial diet of the realm, and a member of the commission inst.i.tuted for the trial of the prisoner.--He was followed by one of the clerks of the court, with his arm full of doc.u.ments.
"I come, von Goertz," unceremoniously commenced Hylten, "to make known to you the sentence of the special commission. Receive it with becoming respect."
"I must indeed," answered Goertz with a bitter smile, slightly rattling his chains. He rose up, and Hylten took a large sealed doc.u.ment from the hands of the clerk.
"Do you wish that we should retire, sir commissioner?" asked Rank.