Tales from the German. Volume I.

by C. F. van der Velde

CHAPTER LII.

At the appointed hour Arwed entered the shaft of the first mine in Danemora, with his pistols under his arm. In consequence of the perfect mental repose with which he proceeded upon his bloody business, he had this time a better opportunity to look about him and observe the peculiarities of the monstrous cavity. A strange feeling seized him when he took a nearer view of the active operations of this subterranean world. The miserable huts and wooden booths here and there erected among the rocks; the larger hut with a small belfry which denoted the church of the immense abyss; the market, which the venders of the indispensable necessaries of life, attracted by all-powerful avarice, held here below; the ceaseless prosecution of the mining operations--gave to the whole scene the appearance of an abortive attempt to create a subterranean city; while the black dresses and earth colored faces of the perpetual residents of these melancholy regions were well calculated to strengthen the illusion. The whole was lighted only by pans of pitch which fumed and smoked here and there in their elevated niches. No glimmer of daylight penetrated there. The firmament of these abodes was the roof of the mines, which, indeed, had no sun, but had its fixed and wandering stars in the fires, torches and lamps of the workmen--and, in the frequent explosions which took place, their thunder and lightning, like the upper world. Arwed bent his course directly to the little edifice which served for the church, and upon reaching it discovered in its rear a small building, which rather more than the others deserved the name of a house. It was the dwelling of the clergyman. Upon entering he discovered Christine, whom sorrow and confinement had rendered still more pale and emaciated, busily plying her needle by lamp light.

'Ah, Arwed!' cried she overjoyed, and springing towards him she held out her bandaged hand as before. A dark cloud soon flitted over her beautiful countenance, and she asked distrustfully, 'have you no secret object in this visit?'

'A very secret and serious one,' answered Arwed--'from which, however, you have nothing to fear. On the contrary, I bring you your father's permission to remain here, the consolation that your child is well attended to, and the assurance of a pecuniary allowance sufficient to preserve you from want.'

'And I have to thank you, still you, for all these blessings!' cried Christine with grateful enthusiasm. 'Ah, how happy you make me, and at the same time how inexpressibly unhappy!'

'Poor Christine!' said he with deep sympathy--'How miserable has the vehemence of thy nature rendered thee!'

He laid his pistols upon, the table, and listened to ascertain if any one was approaching.

'You said just now,' remarked Christine sorrowfully, 'that a secret and serious purpose brought you here. I hope those weapons which you have brought with you into this peaceful hut, have no connection with it?'

Arwed walked silently to the window and looked impatiently out into the eternal night.

'Do you apprehend any further malice from my husband?' Christine anxiously asked. 'I will be answerable for him with my life. He reveres you as our guardian angel. Moreover he has become much better in this abode of darkness than he was in the upper world; and should I with the aid of time be enabled to banish the deep sorrow which still constantly hovers about him, I have reason to hope that we may once more attain to something like happiness.'

Arwed, who had scarcely listened to the poor sufferer, now suddenly asked, 'has not Megret been recently here?'

'Do you then seek him?' cried Christine with astonishment. 'Yes, he was here scarcely an hour since. He caused Mac Donalbain to be called from his labor, and retired far into the mine in private and earnest conversation with him. I had already become somewhat alarmed on account of their long absence. Megret is a fiend, and bears the most bitter hatred towards my husband.'

At this moment Arwed heard voices from without. He raised the window, and to his astonishment saw Megret arm in arm with Mac Donalbain and in earnest conversation with an old clerk of the mine.

'I repeat it my friend,' said Megret, 'your way of exploding is bad. Greater results may be produced with half the labor and powder, when one begins right.'

'I have all proper respect for your mathematical sciences, sir officer,' the clerk peevishly answered; 'but still I think that we, who are in constant practice here, must better understand how to obtain the ore than you can by theoretical calculations.'

'Must not the engineer be also familiar with the practice?' asked Megret. 'Our mines traverse every variety of earth, and we are often under the necessity of calculating the resistance of walls and masses of stone.'

The clerk, who adhered as pertinaciously to old customs as the ore to its native mountains, shook his head in token of disbelief.

'You want proof,' said Megret, with some apparent irritation. 'Show me a suitable place and let me spring a mine in my way. I will pay for the labor and powder if I do not make my words good.'

'Vivat!' cried the clerk, confident of victory; at that moment Arwed stepped directly in front of Megret, with his pistols in his hand and bowed in silence.

'I rejoice to find you here,' said Megret with great equanimity, courteously returning his greeting. 'Allow me but to settle a contest between the old practice and the new science, and I shall immediately afterwards have the pleasure to be at your service.'

During these few moments Mac Donalbain had hastened into the house, and now returning in a state of great excitement, seized Megret by the arm and drew him away.

The clerk followed them, talking to himself and gesticulating with great animation, and they all soon disappeared in the dark windings of the mine.

Christine now came out, casting her troubled glances in every direction. As soon as she perceived Arwed she hastened to him. 'Mac Donalbain was with me just now,' said she anxiously. 'He pressed me silently to his bosom, and then rushed forth as if frantic! Where is he? where is Megret?'

'Megret is essaying a new method of springing mines,' answered Arwed, 'and will soon be here again.'

'And Mac Donalbain has accompanied him!' cried the trembling wife. 'I fear some mischief is on foot here.'

'Causeless apprehension!' said Arwed; 'the clerk is with them. Megret's undertaking will require the presence of several workmen, and his honor as an officer is pledged for his speedy return.'

'What have you to do with that bad man?' asked the still suspicious Christine--but the approach of two men prevented a reply. They were Swedenborg and the superintendent of the mines. The latter separated from Swedenborg with a respectful inclination, and passed on in obedience to the calls of duty to some other portion of the mine. Swedenborg however advanced towards Arwed.

'I greet you, vigorous swimmer upon the sea of misfortune,' said Swedenborg to Arwed, offering his hand in a most friendly manner.

'Welcome to your kingdom, sir mining-counsellor!' answered Arwed. 'What news do you bring from the upper world into this abyss?'

'I bring news of a diet which will take Ulrika's crown and place it upon her husband's head,' said Swedenborg; 'of an armistice with Denmark, and peace with Poland and Prussia.'

'And Russia?' asked Arwed hastily.

'Remains implacable, and is making new preparations,' answered Swedenborg, shrugging his shoulders.

'These false steps are a great misfortune to my father-land!' cried Arwed despondingly. 'Peace with powerful Russia should have been the first object.'

Swedenborg had meantime kept his eyes immovably fixed upon the youth, and now appeared to have subjected the lineaments of his face to a sufficient trial. He became so gloomy, and the glances of his black eyes so piercing, that Arwed could hardly support it.

'How came you by this love of peace?' he finally asked the youth in a reproachful tone, 'when your heart is destitute of it, and you have descended into this mine with bloody intentions?'

'If your spiritual eyes are sharp enough to read my heart,' answered Arwed, with surprise, 'you must know and honor the motives which actuate me.'

'Every motive is blameworthy,' answered Swedenborg, with an elevated voice, 'which induces an earthworm to endeavor to anticipate the dispensations of Providence. Yet will His mercy spare you this sin; for behold, the arm of the fearful Nemesis is already raised, and at the Lord's command it will fall in destruction upon the criminal.'

Christine had drawn close to Arwed during this conversation, and he now perceived the feverish trembling of her frame, caused by Swedenborg's prophecy.

At this moment a young miner came and asked, 'where shall I find major Gyllenstierna.'

'Here he stands!' answered Arwed, 'probably you wish to bring me to the officer who was just now here.'

'No, he merely sends you this billet,' said the young man, departing.

'What can he have to write to me about, situated as we are?' Arwed peevishly exclaimed. Unfolding the billet, which was written in pencil, and stepping to the nearest pitch-pan, he read as follows:

'To appease the manes of your king, you have demanded satisfaction of me. I had however previously promised it to myself and to myself therefore, precedence is due. From you I have only to expect a possible death. I shall inflict it upon myself with a surer hand. Mac Donalbain shares my fate. In gratitude to the countess Gyllenstierna for the manner in which she rejected my addresses, I have persuaded her husband that he belongs to this earth as little as myself. Many will think the manner of my death strange; but I wish to die in the way of my profession, and at the same time to preserve my body from the ignominy of a judicial investigation. I have the honor to greet you. Au revoir, I dare not say.

Megret.'

The horror-stricken Arwed had hardly read to the end, when suddenly the whole broad space swam in a sea of fire. A terrible explosion, as of a powder magazine, of which echo increased the frightful roar a thousand fold, shook the ground under Arwed's feet, and displaced heavy masses of stone from the sides of the cavern which fell with a crash to the bottom of the mine. Loud screams suddenly arose on all sides, to which a mournful silence immediately succeeded, and from the direction in which Megret and Mac Donalbain had gone, came rolling in a dense white-gray powder-smoke, which twirled in waving clouds along the top of the arch, and soon filling the whole mine, wrapped every object in its impenetrable veil.

'What was that?' stammered Christine, clinging to Arwed for support.

'God's judgment!' solemnly and majestically answered Swedenborg. 'Wo to the sinner who wickedly and presumptuously draws it down upon his head before the appointed time.'

'Let us go and see if it be possible to render any assistance,' proposed Arwed; and proceeded with Swedenborg toward the place whence the smoke issued. Christine followed them with a misgiving heart. They were met by the old clerk, who ran up to them with a black and disfigured face.

'You appear to have been near the scene of the accident,' said Arwed to him. 'Are there many people injured?'

'Thank God only two; who, moreover, are no great loss!' answered the clerk, turning again to show them the way. 'An officer, wishing to instruct us how to blow out the ore, so managed that instead of the ore he blew himself into the air, and a piece of the roof of the mine with him.'

'The explosion was too violent for a mere removal of ore,' remarked Swedenborg.

'Very true, most honored sir,' answered the clerk. 'There also went with it a small cask of powder which was standing near.'

By this time they had arrived at the place. The thick smoke almost suffocated them. The torches of the miners, hurrying to and fro, like nebulous stars, faintly lighted the scene of destruction. A monstrous mountain mass, consisting mostly of rocks and stones, had become loosened by the force of the shock, and covered the bottom to a great height with fragments, through the fissures of which little flames were seen playing.

'They will lie quietly in this coffin until the last day!' observed the clerk.

'In God's name!' shrieked Christine, 'who is the other sufferer?'

'The brigand leader, who was sentenced here for life,' answered the clerk, with indifference.

'Mac Donalbain!' murmured the poor wife, sinking lifeless to the earth.