Tales from the German. Volume I.

by C. F. van der Velde

CHAPTER VIII.

Arwed arrived at the king's quarters.--Upon giving his name, the ordnance officer on duty showed him into the royal chamber, without further annunciation. With a prayer book in his lap, and a miniature in his hand which he was attentively viewing, Charles sat by the chimney, in which some sheets of paper were burning. A heap of glowing ashes showed that a large quantity of paper had been previously destroyed in the same manner.--Arwed approached the king, who, sitting with his back towards him and absorbed in the contemplation of the miniature, was not aware of his presence. Arwed saw and recognized the picture. It was the portrait of Gustavus Adolphus. Then suddenly Swedenborg's prophecy came into his mind, and a secret apprehension respecting the hero, drew from him a deep sigh.

The king looked around. 'Aha, captain Gyllenstierna!' said he, rising up and carefully putting aside the prayer book and portrait. 'You showed much bravery against the enemy in yesterday's action. You are too young for the rank of major, and I do not like to give stars and orders. Have you any favor to ask?'

'This commendation from my king is the greatest favor that could be conferred upon me,' answered Arwed. 'If your majesty will but continue as kindly disposed towards me, I shall be more than rewarded.'

'No!' said the king vehemently, 'I will not remain your debtor. God may call me to himself to-day or to-morrow, and then must my earthly accounts be balanced. Ask some favor of me. I am well disposed towards you.'

'Now or never!' said Arwed to himself, and turning to the king: 'I love the daughter of your majesty's minister, baron von Goertz: the animosity of our respective fathers opposes an insurmountable obstacle to our union: vouchsafe, your majesty, to intercede for us.'

'You are a simpleton!' replied the king scornfully, while with long and rapid strides he paced up and down the chamber. 'Silly request!' exclaimed he after a while, smiling in his peculiar manner: 'and I think it unjust, since you know my opinion of matrimony.' After which, he walked two or three times up and down the room, and then stopping directly in front of Arwed, asked him, 'you are so good a soldier, Gyllenstierna, how have you been able to attach yourself to a woman?'

'Baroness von Goertz,' answered Arwed, 'is so lovely that your majesty would find it natural enough were you once to see her.'

'That may you very naturally believe,' answered the king smilingly. After a pause, shaking his head, he observed, 'I only wish to know what delight men can find in what is called love?'

'It is indeed the greatest happiness in life, your majesty,' answered Arwed with enthusiasm.

'It would not be well for me that it should be so, for then should I have missed the greatest good,' said the king. 'Yet will a place in history always remain to me, and fame with posterity!' He walked to the chimney, and, collecting the coals together with his foot, observed, 'I will cause her father to be written to. I will speak to Goertz myself. I expect him about this time from Aland.'

'Your majesty!'--stammered the surprised and delighted youth.

'It is very well!' said the king, interrupting him, and at that moment Siquier entered.

'Your majesty is now about to visit the trenches,' said Arwed, recollecting Swedenborg's request. 'May I be allowed to accompany you? I might, perhaps, learn something practically of the duties appertaining to a siege.'

The king kindly nodded assent. Siquier made a disagreeable face, and they started.

At the entrance of the trenches they were received by count Schwerin, who commanded there, captain Posse and adjutant Kolbert; and not without some embarrassment, came colonel Megret to meet them. The king now sent away Posse and Kolbert upon some secret errand, and proceeded with Megret and Siquier into the trench. Arwed followed at some distance. It was a bitter cold, moonless night, but the stars shone clear. The Danes fired incessantly from Frederickshall, and their balls often struck within the walls of the trench; but the king, paying no attention to it, proceeded quietly forward with his companions. They now came to a place where the passage in the trench made an angle with the parallel, and from beyond which the pickaxes and shovels of the sappers could be heard.

There the king suddenly stopped and leaned upon his long sword. 'No farther advanced, Megret?' asked he, with evident displeasure.

'The soil is frozen hard, your majesty!' apologized the latter, somewhat perplexed. 'Were we compelled to open the trenches through rocks, it would not be much more difficult.'

'There has been time enough!' said Charles. 'I am very much dissatisfied!'

'I will pledge my head,' said Megret, 'that we have the fortress in eight days!'

'We shall see,' answered the king, kneeling upon the inner scarp; leaning his head upon the parapet with his face turned towards the enemy, he looked long and anxiously towards the sappers, who were quietly and assiduously pursuing their labors.

At this moment a confused noise was heard from the camp. 'Go and see what is the matter, Gyllenstierna,' commanded the king: 'and bring me a report.'

'Do you command it, your majesty?' replied Arwed, with a heavy heart; for at such a moment he dared not leave the king alone with the two Frenchmen.

'Hasten, captain,' whispered Siquier to him. 'The king loves not loiterers, and to-day, especially, he is not in the best humor.'

Arwed obeyed with a sigh. As he came out of the trenches all had become still again, and from count Posse, whom he met, he learned that two unruly horses had been the whole cause of the alarm. While they were yet speaking of it Swedenborg came hastily up to them. With an ice-cold hand he seized Arwed's and drew him hastily aside.

'Where have you left the king?' asked he, with much earnestness.

'At the extremity of the trench,' answered Arwed. 'Megret and Siquier are with him.'

'Oh, why have you absented yourself from your lord?' cried Swedenborg, wringing his hands. 'I begged of you so earnestly!'

'By his command;'--answered Arwed, now much alarmed.

'For God's sake return immediately to him,' supplicated Swedenborg, dragging him forward. 'God grant that we come not too late!'

They both proceeded rapidly along the trench. In the narrow passage, they were met by Siquier.

'Where is the king?' quickly asked Arwed of him.

'That is what I wished to ask of you!' returned Siquier, with an insolent yet trembling voice. 'I left him soon after you did, and in the darkness cannot find him again.'

'That is strange!' said Arwed. 'You had better go with me, and let us seek our lord where I left him in your company.'

Siquier reluctantly obeyed. They came finally to the old place, which was well known to Arwed. Already at some, distance he saw the king still in the same position, leaning upon the parapet. At the same time Megret, joining them, suddenly approached the king and bent over him.

'He is dead!' said he after a while, very quietly.

'The king dead!' shrieked Arwed, with wild amazement, and running to the nearest guard post, he immediately returned with a blazing torch. The light disclosed a horrid scene. Covered with blood, Charles's beautiful hero-like form rested upon the inner scarp of the trench. His head had sunk down upon the parapet. On the right temple was the death-wound. The left eye was sunken in; the right, strained wholly out of its orbit, stared horribly forth; and the right hand, which held the hilt of his sword with a convulsive grasp, proved that the brave spirit, even on the instant of its flight, was disposed to resist the impending death.

A long and fearful pause succeeded the discovery. 'The play is out!' finally observed Megret, breaking the general silence: 'We may now go to supper.'

Arwed looked shudderingly upon the man who could treat the sudden and awful death of his general and king with such cool insolence--and at that moment a horrible suspicion pervaded his soul.

'This sad occurrence must be concealed from the troops,' said Siquier. 'It would entirely dispirit them. I will merely inform the prince of Hesse, and he can command what further is to be done.'

He departed in haste. Megret followed him. Arwed remained with Swedenborg by the corpse, holding fast its lifeless left hand, and covering it with his kisses and tears.

'So, it is thy fate to be destroyed by assassination, thou kingly hero!' mourned the faithful Swedenborg. 'Why couldst thou not have fallen worthy of thyself, by the hand of an honorable enemy, in the open field of battle?'

'Let us not judge too rashly and uncharitably,' said Arwed, combating, in Swedenborg's, his own suspicions. 'That the king was hit by one of the balls from the batteries of the enemy, is more probable than the monstrous crime which you seem to conjecture.'

'The king's face was turned toward the enemy,' said Swedenborg, with grave significancy: 'and the ball hit him on the right side. The calibre, to judge from the size of the wound, was too small for a heavy gun, and no musket would reach this place from the walls of Frederickshall.'

'Impossible!' cried Arwed. 'Who could have projected such a crime--who could have committed it?'

'He who eats my bread tramples me under foot,--was done to Gustavus by the fourth man who rode with him out of the camp:'--said Swedenborg in a chanting tone, as if in answer to both questions. The trench had now become illuminated with torches and filled with warriors. Through the hastening crowd of officers pressed the prince of Hesse.

'It is too true!' stammered he, palsied by the horrid spectacle, and trembling in every limb. 'Who was present when my deceased brother-in-law was struck?' asked he at length with a trembling voice.

'God only can answer that question, your highness,' said Swedenborg. 'God, who with his heavenly, thousand-starred eyes has seen what has happened here. We found the royal corpse alone.'

'Alone,' cried the prince, 'alone has ended the life of the hero whose warlike deeds have filled all Europe with fear and admiration! What is human greatness?'

Megret and Siquier now returned with four grenadiers of the guards, who with sad, lingering steps, brought forward a litter.

'Let the body be brought to head-quarters, Siquier,' commanded the prince: 'and keep the king's death secret until we have taken such measures as the occasion may require. The generals will in the mean time assemble at my quarters in council of war. Let sentinels be placed on every avenue towards Sweden, and let no one venture to leave the camp until further orders.'

'And general Duecker?'--asked Siquier, artfully, as if he wished to remind the prince of something of importance.

'He shall immediately depart with his corps,' answered the prince, after a moment's reflection, 'and traverse the passes toward Denmark. Bear to him the order,' Yet one look of horror cast he upon the dead form of his brother-in-law, and then hastily departed.

With pert insolence Siquier advanced to the corpse, threw over it a soldier's gray cloak, placed his own hat upon the insensible head, and made a sign to the grenadiers. The latter advanced weeping, and placing the dead body in the litter, closed it.

'If you are asked on the way whom you bear,' said Siquier, as they raised the litter, 'answer captain Carlberg.'

The mournful train moved forward. Siquier picked up the bloody hat of the king, which lay upon the ground, and followed. With sad murmurs the officers separated. Swedenborg also had disappeared. Arwed remained standing alone, still mechanically holding the torch on high, staring unconsciously upon the bloody ground from which its light was reflected. At length recollecting himself, he angrily thrust the torch in the snow upon the parapet until its sparkling and crackling flame was extinguished. 'Die! thou paltry flame!' exclaimed he, with uncontrollable grief: 'die! This night Sweden's light is extinguished and never, never more will my poor country see the dawn of happiness.'