Tales from the German. Volume I.

by C. F. van der Velde

CHAPTER XLVI.

Under the directions of Megret the towers and walls of Ravensten were blown up, to render them forever after incapable of serving as a place of shelter for similar bands. The wounded Mac Donalbain and his companions were secured in the prisons of Umea, and Christine with her child conveyed to Gyllensten, where her aged father, his iron constitution finally overpowered by his sorrows, lay dangerously ill. The chief judge had summoned the associate justices of his court to the sessions-chamber of the city hall of Umea, for the trial of the criminals. Arwed and Megret were present; the former at his uncle's request, and the latter, that he might witness the entire outpouring of the cup of vengeance; and, supported by his keeper and laden with chains, Mac Donalbain appeared before his judges. Harassed and tormented by his wounds, he staggered here and there, with difficulty holding himself upright; but his spirit remained unbroken, and his dark eyes flashed upon the assembly with all their former fierceness. Megret beheld the scene with a smile of internal satisfaction. Arwed gave a look of sympathy to the unhappy man, and then whispered a request to the judge. The latter nodded. The bailiffs took off Mac Donalbain's chains and placed a stool for him, upon which he seated himself with a look of gratitude towards Arwed.

'Tell us your true name, your rank, and your native country,' commenced the judge with solemn earnestness.

'Gregor Mac Donalbain,' answered the prisoner; 'a nobleman of the highlands of Scotland.'

'Do you still continue, with shameless effrontery, to make that assertion?' interposed Megret.

'Forget not, colonel,' cried Mac Donalbain with vehemence, 'that here you have no right to question me, and that I do not acknowledge any obligation to answer you.'

'Neither should you forget,' said Megret, with bitterness, 'that pride and insolence will make your bad cause still worse, and forever close the door of mercy which true repentance and humility may perhaps otherwise open for you.'

'You would indeed very willingly see me, overpowered by the fear of death, begging my life at your feet,' rejoined Mac Donalbain, disdainfully. 'But you may as well resign all hope of that pleasure. I reject and scorn all mercy for which I must be indebted to you.'

The judge commanded both of them to be silent. 'Admitting the correctness of your statement,' said he to Mac Donalbain, 'how is it possible that you could stain your nobility by abandoning yourself to so horrible and reprobate a profession?'

'It was my fate!' answered Mac Donalbain doggedly, and casting his eyes upon the ground.

'So, but too often, does man name the consequences of his passions and his crimes!' remarked the judge.

'So,' said Mac Donalbain, 'may this name be often applied to the injustice which an unfortunate man suffers from his brethren, when that injustice impels him to deeds which else would have been abhorrent to his soul. A cruel injury to my honor, which I suffered in the service of the British king, threw me into the arms of the English buccaneers. My name became known and feared in both the eastern and western oceans. The lords of the earth, however they may indulge in similar enterprizes on a great scale for the accomplishment of their projects, array themselves against little private exploits. Excluded from the ports of all civilized nations, we were at length compelled to seek an asylum in Africa. We found one in Madagascar. There we heard of the return of the hero of the north to his own country. We hoped that this prince, fond of war, and compelled as he was to engage in it, would receive us with open arms. Offering to him our services, we proposed to enter the port of Gottenburg with sixty sail of vessels. Two of his nobility closed a treaty with us in his name. I was sent here before the arrival of the fleet to prepare every thing for its reception; but a fever seized me at Gottenburg; and before my recovery the king fell before Frederickshall. Storms, and Europe's licensed pirates, annihilated our fleet upon its way hither, and when at length I arose from my bed of sickness I was a beggar. There was no longer any hope of the fulfilment of the royal promise. With Charles's seal and signature for the rank of colonel, I could not even obtain a company. Then again awoke in me the bitter hatred of mankind. My last hope to live and fall as an honorable soldier, was destroyed. The country which denied me my well acquired rights, threw me back to the state of nature, in which every man sustains and defends himself by his own natural powers. I then felt myself authorized to make war upon my enemies, and take what I needed with the strong hand. A band of unfortunates, who like me had nothing to lose, chose me for their leader, and the struggle between myself and the crown of Sweden began. I have been overcome and am therefore in the wrong;--for which reason I pray you quickly to break the staff of justice over my head. I am ready to die.'

'Dreadful man!' cried the judge. 'Have you also such sophisms in readiness to excuse the misery and shame you have brought upon a noble house within whose walls you were hospitably received?'

'That is the curse of my life,' cried Mac Donalbain, repentantly, 'for which I cannot answer. For that must I call down justice upon myself. However hard your sentence may fall upon me, by that alone have I deserved it, and willingly bow myself before the chastening hand of the law.'

'It is the request of my uncle,' said Arwed to the judge, 'that all the wrongs which Mac Donalbain has perpetrated against our house should be passed over without investigation.'

'What, even the attempt against his excellency's person?' indignantly asked the judge, whilst Megret in silent anger ground the floor with his spurred heel.

'The band,' said Arwed, 'among whom the governor had accidentally fallen, wished to murder him for their own safety. Mac Donalbain preserved the old man's life by risking his own. Even the imprisonment was but a measure resorted to for that purpose. I also have to thank this man for the preservation of my life. He would have a strong counter reckoning to make with us. Therefore let one account be considered as balanced by the other.'

'I am astonished,' spitefully observed Megret, 'that my lord the governor has not proposed an amnesty for his dear son-in-law.'

'My uncle,' answered Arwed with earnestness, 'can pardon injuries personal to himself; but he will never allow himself to interrupt the just operation of the laws. With us Mac Donalbain has made his peace. He has now to reconcile himself with the laws and satisfy the demands of public justice, if need be, with his blood!'

'Oh, would to God it might be so!' cried Mac Donalbain. 'With my present feelings life would be to me a most sad and unwelcome gift.'

A disturbance was now heard without the session-room. The door flew open, and the breathless Christine, with her child in her arms, pressed irresistibly through the crowd of officers who sought to hold her back.

'This trial also!' sighed Mac Donalbain, turning away his face.

'In God's name, the countess Gyllenstierna!' cried the astonished judge.

'I was the countess Gyllenstierna,' said Christine. 'I am now the wedded wife of the brigand leader, Mac Donalbain, and my place is by his side, in chains or upon the gallows.'

'Christine! how could you afflict your father by this second shameful flight?' Arwed reproachingly asked.

'My father's life,' answered Christine, 'was already empoisoned beyond remedy by my guilt. Therefore allow me the merit of having fulfilled my duty towards at least one being in the world, my husband. He is a prisoner, and suffering in body and mind. He needs care and consolation; and from whom can he expect either, if not from her who has bound her fate with his for this life by a solemn oath before God's altar.'

'Have you then really married the criminal?' Megret anxiously asked.

Christine gave him a scornful look and remained silent; but when the question was repeated by the judge, she drew a sealed paper from her bosom and laid it upon his table.

'A Gyllenstierna can never wholly fall,' said she proudly. 'The old curate of Lyksale, constrained by my tears, secretly married us a short time before his death.'

'This evidence,' said the judge, 'speaks against your wish to share the criminal's chains. Bound to him by the holy ties of marriage, you become guiltless of the crimes in which he is implicated, in which your will had no part. There is no reasonable ground for your detention, and nothing remains but to send you back to your father.'

'Torture me not with this well-meant chicanery!' exclaimed Christine. 'Would you counsel me to ascertain which is deepest, the Umea or my misery? Or would you that I should strangle myself with the braids of my hair? So true as the Lord liveth, I will not be torn living from my husband.'

'Let it be as she wishes,' begged Arwed of the judge.

'I shall perhaps take a heavy responsibility upon myself,' answered the latter with strong emotion. 'But who could withstand her intercession? Be it so.'

'Courage, Mac Donalbain!' now exhorted Christine. 'We have men for our judges. They will listen to your defence with merciful hearts, and thus at least your life will be saved.'

'I desire not life, nor will I ask for mercy!' cried Mac Donalbain, wildly. 'My deeds are my own, and the son of my father is not accustomed to excuse or palliate them, especially to save a miserable life!'

'You speak as becomes a man and a Scottish nobleman,' said Christine; 'yet must I be allowed to speak for you as becomes your truly wedded wife. Therefore I beg of you, my lords, give that gracious hearing which you hope God will one day give you!'

'What can you offer in defence of a convicted highway robber?' asked the judge, with some appearance of sympathy.

'The heaven-crying injustice of the government!' eagerly exclaimed Christine, 'which forcibly impelled the unhappy man upon his criminal career. The indulgence which has been shown to similar transgressions. The case of the Danish deserter, who received from Charles XII great rewards and a license to rob for his own benefit, proves how mildly such transgressions have hitherto been judged in our father-land.'

'However clear may be the precedent you cite to us,' said the judge, 'it cannot be applied to the present case. Neither was this absolute sovereign authorised to grant such unheard of privileges, which, if true, owes its origin but to one of Charles's strange caprices; as the property of the subjects must be deemed sacred by the king, who is indeed their natural protector.'

'My maternal inheritance shall repair the wrong which Mac Donalbain has inflicted upon the country!' cried Christine.

'Can you make reparation for the innocent blood which has been shed by your husband's hand?' asked the judge with impressive solemnity.

'The resistance he opposed to the attack was self-defence!' cried Christine; 'besides, none of the assailants fell by his sword; and with that exception he has preserved his hands pure from the blood of his fellow men.'

'By no means!' answered the judge. 'The traveler upon the road to Lulea, and the unhappy Laplander, who conducted the governor to that den of murderers, are dumb witnesses of your husband's guilt.'

'By the God of heaven, Mac Donalbain is not guilty of their death!' cried Christine in tones of the deepest anguish. 'Ask the band, and, if either of them accuse my husband, let us both die the shameful death of criminals.'

'We would indeed very willingly hear the truth, at last, from his companions. But in their examinations they have denied all knowledge of the crimes of which they have been guilty, with unparalleled impudence.'

'The knaves deny!' cried Mac Donalbain, springing upon his feet. 'They must consider me dead or as having escaped, else they would not dare to do it, for they know me. Let them be brought here,--let them be placed before my eyes. I will reckon with them in a manner which shall change their minds.'

'It may not be advisable,' observed Megret; 'it may give them an opportunity for secret collusion.'

'I am of a different opinion, colonel,' answered the judge, directing the bailiff to bring in the band. 'This man is so bold and frank that we need not fear artifice.'

A long, deep silence ensued. Christine, weeping in silence, had seated herself upon Mac Donalbain's stool, and was absorbed in the contemplation of the blooming child, which with an angel smile was sleeping on her bosom. The brigand leader had kneeled down and hid his face in her lap, whilst her white fingers wandered among his black and curled locks. Megret looked with dark burning glances, and Arwed with the deepest sympathy upon the group, while the judge said, sighing; 'the office of a judge is sometimes very difficult to administer!'

A noise was now heard in the ante-room. Arms and chains rattled, and twelve fiend-like ruffians, in heavy chains and strongly guarded by bailiffs and soldiers, stepping in exact time, without recognizing or noticing Mac Donalbain, marched in and formed in exact line on the space before the bench.

'We have again summoned you,' began the chief judge, 'to repeat our exhortations to confess the truth, and once more to lead your minds to the conviction, that by persisting in your shameless denials, you only prolong the examination and your own imprisonment--that you expose yourselves to the torture of the rack, and moreover increase the severity of your punishment, the mitigation of which you can only hope from a free and full confession. Consider, unhappy men, that my present request is made with the kindest intentions. He, only, who honestly acknowledges and repents of his sins can hope for a merciful judgment here or hereafter.'

'It is quite pathetic and affecting to hear,' answered the most hardened of the prisoners, 'that such a lord as you should so far condescend to us miserable people, as to beg where you are accustomed only to command. We cannot indeed particularly wish to hasten an examination which with us is to end with the gallows, especially if we should say yes to all of which we are suspected to be guilty. The mitigation of punishment, with which judges always embellish their promises to prisoners, in requital of candid confessions, appears to me like the little book mentioned in the revelations of St. John, 'sweet in the mouth and bitter in the belly.' We know of many examples where prisoners have fared worse for speaking than for keeping silent. However it may be with others, we have not the least desire to talk away our own lives. Concerning the rack, which judges always present as the other alternative, we must submit to it as well as we may, all of us having strong frames and stout hearts. Nevertheless we would give you every information without the rack, if any we had. What we do know, we have honestly related; and it certainly is not our fault if you will not believe us.'

'Do you persist, then, in denying the robberies of which you are already as good as convicted?' asked the judge.

'We deny nothing,' insolently answered the prisoner, 'nor do we acknowledge anything; for we have committed no crime. We are honest Finlanders, who follow hunting through half the Lappmark, and had our head quarters upon the Ravensten.'

'And do you really know nothing of Black Naddock?' further asked the judge.

'We have heard some tales about the arrant rogue,' answered the brigand, 'but the devil knows more about him than we. There was indeed a Moor, who begged a lodging of us last night, and I thought I saw him again in the morning, when we were attacked by the dragoons and their companions; but whether he was or was not Naddock, is more than I can say. I do not know the man.'

'You do not know me, rascal?' cried Mac Donalbain, springing forward, and striking his brother robber to the earth with his fist.

'The captain!' was murmured along the ranks, and, fronting their chief, the robbers laid their right hands upon their hearts, in token of respectful greeting.

'Must I suffer this from people whom I have commanded?' angrily exclaimed Mac Donalbain. 'You have held out like heroes, against men and elements, and do you now, equivocate like common thieves from a miserable fear of death? Know that I have disclosed everything to the court, and further, that I will freely answer every question they can put to me. Do you wish to give the lie to your captain?'

'God forbid!' stammered one of the band. 'We should be disgraced for life!' cried another; and the former speaker, who by this time had risen from the floor, cried, 'let your crook-backed secretary nib his pen afresh, sir judge. We will now sing the song that you lords will but too willingly hear from such poor devils as we. Write! Everything that our captain has confessed is true from the beginning to the end.'

'Well now,' cried Megret, who could restrain himself no longer; 'you see that you may now, if you please, repay your captain for all the misfortunes he has brought upon you. The sinful ties which connected you with him are cut asunder, and you have no reason to spare him in the least. So tell the court freely and frankly--'who murdered the traveler on the road to Lulea?'

'That,' answered the robber with eagerness and proud satisfaction, 'was done by a brace of gallows-birds who did not belong to our band, but marauded on their own account, and we beg not to be confounded with them. Had we caught them we should ourselves have hung them upon the nearest tree; for we could not with indifference have permitted such good-for-nothing fellows to injure our reputation.'

'And who killed the poor Laplander, who was found hung upon the fir-tree before the entrance to your den?' asked the judge.

'Red Hialf,' answered the prisoner; 'but without orders. In consequence of which our captain arrested him, and on the morning when we were attacked, he was to have had his trial. He must have been found locked up in the vault of the second tower.'

'That place was not searched!' cried Arwed, with a shudder.

'He must have been blown into the air with the tower,' said Megret. 'There can be no question of it.'

'You must now be convinced,' said Christine, approaching the judge, 'that my husband is innocent of every murderous deed. Can you now give me any hope for him?'

'I should consider it great presumption to give you any,' answered the judge, 'and unjust to withhold it entirely. Our laws are severe and my duties strict. Yet can the queen pardon. Leave the decision to God!'

He directed the bailiffs to replace Mac Donalbain's chains. Christine watched the proceeding in silent sadness, bowed with a sweet and melancholy grace to the judges, and, supporting her child with one arm and her husband with the other, she moved with him from the room. Arwed and Megret followed her.

'Is it really your unalterable resolution, countess,' whispered the latter to her, 'to share the imprisonment of a villain, instead of fulfilling a daughter's duty by the sick bed of your noble father?'

But Christine turned away without answering him, and approached Arwed. 'Thy spirit breathed upon me in the court room,' said she with strong emotion. 'For the kindness I met there, I am indebted to thy benignant heart. Tire not! I well know that we are not worthy of all you are doing for us; but you are accustomed to the performance of all that is good and great, and will of yourself consummate your work, for its own sake, regardless of the object. Save but the life of this unhappy man, and you shall have my eternal gratitude.'

'Listen not to her prayer, count,' cried Mac Donalbain, 'but suffer me to seek in the grave that peace which life can henceforth never give me.'

The conversation was interrupted by the guards whose duty it was to conduct the prisoners to their dungeon. Christine, shuddering, left Arwed, to follow her husband, 'Diable! Elle aime le larron, et elle l'aimera jusqu'à la potence!' cried the enraged and despairing Megret as he rushed out.