Tales from the German. Volume I.

by C. F. van der Velde

CHAPTER XIII.

The wearied Arwed pushed the little gothlander, which he had purchased at the Rakalse inn instead of his overridden Norman, into a smart trot upon the high road to Stroemstadt. The rider was almost exhausted, but his determined spirit, animated by love and generosity, impelled the obedient body to renewed exertions of its diminishing powers. At length lie caught a glance of a fast rolling carriage, relieved against the border of a snow-clad forest. 'Now is the crisis!' cried he, burying his spurs so unmercifully in his horse's flanks that he flew with him in furious career over the frozen ground. After a hard ride of a quarter of an hour he overtook the carriage. In it sat baron Goertz, wrapped in a fur cloak, and so attentively reading some papers that he did not perceive the approaching horseman. 'I bless my fate,' called out the latter, as he reached the carriage, 'that I have found your excellency in good time. I bring you important intelligence.'

'Who are you, sir?' asked Goertz, disturbed in his occupation, with a tone of displeasure.

'Captain Gyllenstierna,' answered Arwed. 'I have ridden after you from Stockholm to give you warning and save you from a great misfortune.'

'Gyllenstierna!' cried Goertz with a friendly smile, leaning back that he might hear his voice above the rattling of the carriage. 'Then you bring me news from my daughter, or a message from her. You cannot well deliver it from your saddle; therefore be pleased to hitch your horse to mine and take a seat by me in the carriage.'

'I accept your invitation with thanks,' answered Arwed, and attaching his reins to the collar of a saddle-horse, he sprang into the carriage. 'Have the goodness,' said he, 'to change the direction of your journey immediately, and on the way I will tell you the cause.'

'What are you dreaming of?' asked Goertz with an angry brow.

'There comes a whole troop of dragoons to meet us,' cried the coachman, 'and they are pressing forward under whip and spur.' Arwed examined them attentively for a moment. 'My God, I have come too late!' stammered he, recognizing the gray coat of colonel Baumgardt advancing at their head.

'Are you in your right mind, young man, or rather are you not some other than the person you pretend to be?' asked Goertz yet more angrily, drawing a pistol from the pocket of the carriage.

'For God's sake!' untreated Arwed, grasping his hand, 'reserve your weapons for your enemies, who are coming to meet us. By you sits your friend, who is ready to die in your defence. Turn back instantly, perhaps we may yet avoid them.'

As Goertz sharply examined his countenance his features relaxed into a milder expression at the perusal of his honest face. 'I have no longer an ill opinion of you,' said he smilingly. 'It is my impression, however, that you desire to increase your importance with me a little by pressing upon me your protection against a pretended danger; and I can pardon something on account of your youth and the motive by which you are impelled. Another time, however, you must find some more probable pretence. That the horsemen who are approaching us are no robbers, but honest Swedish dragoons, a child may see; and, if I mistake not, that is colonel Baumgardt, whom I well know, riding at their head.'

In a moment the troops had reached the carriage.

'Good evening, your excellency!' cried Baumgardt, wheeling about his horse and raising his hat. Three other officers, who followed him, likewise wheeled about and remained, courteously greeting the baron, before and on both sides of the carriage, while the dragoons trotted past and closed up behind it.

'Good evening, colonel!' answered Goertz serenely. 'Whither so late?'

'To meet your excellency,' said the colonel politely. 'We lost our way in the driving snow, and have been riding about in a state of perplexity for two days. We bring with us important news from the camp.'

'Whatever it may be,' answered Goertz, 'I bring you from Aland yet better and more important. But it can all be more conveniently told in a warm room with a bottle of old wine. I shall stop for the night at the parsonage of Tanum, and bear with me a good bottle case. Will the gentlemen be my guests? We will pass a pleasant evening together, and in the morning I will proceed to Frederickshall under your safeguard.'

'It will be an honor to myself and officers,' said the colonel. The other officers bowed silently, and the carriage rolled rapidly onward, surrounded by its armed escort, towards the solitary parsonage which, an old dark-gray mass of stone, with tall dark fir trees rustling about it, offered no very tempting shelter even in that desert region.

The travellers alighted, and the minister entered one of the lower rooms of the house. Arwed followed him, prepared for the tragic scene which was approaching. With impetuous haste, that their victim might not escape them, the officers pressed in after him, and the last one closed the door.

'What means this?' asked Goertz, rising, as he remarked it.

The colonel then replaced his hat upon his head and drew his sword, exclaiming in the roughest military tone, 'in the name of the king, Goertz, I demand of you the surrender of your sword!'

With surprise and astonishment Goertz started back. At first, unable to speak, he looked around upon the officers who surrounded him with drawn swords and insultingly triumphant glances.

This unknightly conduct excited Arwed; his blood boiled, and forgetful of the mischief that a powerless opposition must cause, he fixed upon Goertz his eager, enquiring eyes, in which the question was plainly asked if he should draw the sword, whose hilt he firmly grasped, for the deliverance of his friend. But, as with dignified earnestness the minister motioned him to desist from his intention, he withdrew his hand, and leaned against a window in silent despair at witnessing the perpetration of a wrong which he had not power to prevent.

'In the name of the king?' asked Goertz, after a long pause, unbuckling his sword; 'that word is a falsehood! From Charles I might expect any thing rather than the offering up of his truest friend. This destiny is not decreed by him! Nevertheless I see that I must yield to necessity. Take my sword! I have long expected something of the kind. It is the reward for all the service I have rendered to the crown of Sweden!'

'The right reward yet awaits you at Stockholm!' said colonel Baumgardt with bitterness. Then turned he to Arwed and roughly asked him, 'how came you here, captain Gyllenstierna!'

'From Stockholm,' answered the latter: 'whither I accompanied colonel Brenner as a courier, and am upon my return to the camp.'

'And you have deserted your superior officer?' asked Baumgardt in reply: 'and we find you in the carriage with Goertz. That is suspicious!'

'It was but a moment before you met us,' hastily interposed Goertz, 'that the captain first overtook me, bringing me a message from my daughter. His horse now stands without, tied to mine.'

Baumgardt walked to the window, as if to ascertain the truth of the assertion.

'If you, however, yet think the affair suspicious, colonel,' cried Arwed, vehemently, 'I propose to you to take me as a prisoner, together with the minister, to Stockholm. Then will you at least be secured against the imputation of having acted with too great mildness.'

'That would be perhaps very agreeable to you,' answered Baumgardt, scornfully. 'But I am not accustomed to receive directions from subalterns, and prudence requires that I should pursue a course directly opposite to that proposed by a suspected person. It is desirable rather, to ensure your safe return to the camp. Myself, with lieutenant colonel Bioernskioeld will accompany you there. Adjutant general Rosenhahn and lieutenant Loewen with their followers will proceed to Stockholm with the prisoner, and thus each one of us will be in his right place.'

Arwed gnashed his teeth at this injurious treatment, but the iron chain of subordination held the young lion fast bound, and he remained silent.

'Forward, Herr von Goertz,' cried the adjutant general, pointing towards the door.

'Farewell, my son!' cried Goertz, embracing Arwed affectionately. And, while embracing, whispered to him, 'I now understand your true intentions and your real friendship for me. Be certain that you shall be satisfied with my gratitude if my enemies leave me the power of proving it.'

He went forth and stepped into his carriage, upon the box of which one of the dragoons was seated, and which was now employed to convey its former owner to a dungeon, Rosenhahn seated himself by the minister's side. The other officers, together with Arwed, threw themselves upon their horses,--Lieutenant Loewen made a sign to his dragoons, who surrounded the carriage with their swords drawn, and the prisoner, with his escort, galloped quickly towards the south, whilst Arwed, with his unwelcome companions, rode sadly towards the north.