Tales from the German. Volume I.

by C. F. van der Velde

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 entitled 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 nobility; 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. 'God 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 anticipated this request,' sighed Goertz. 'It does you honor under the present circumstances, 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 passion 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 God 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 noble 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 instituted for the trial of the prisoner.--He was followed by one of the clerks of the court, with his arm full of documents.

'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 document from the hands of the clerk.

'Do you wish that we should retire, sir commissioner?' asked Rank.

'You may remain here forever, if you please, sir lieutenant general,' answered Hylten contemptuously. 'The crimes of this man are notorious, as his punishment will also be, and where justice is sustained by the general voice, there can be no necessity for avoiding publicity.'

'The royal commission,' read he, with a sharp and discordant voice, 'having heard and considered all the accusations brought by the attorney general, Fehmann, and also the replications of the baron von Goertz thereto....'

'Without consenting to receive my written defence!' interposed Goertz.

'And all the plots and devices of the said Goertz,' proceeded Hylten without noticing the interruption, since his coming into this kingdom, having for their object to bring by wicked means the subjects of the said kingdom into great discredit with the king ...'

'All?' asked Goertz. 'He who affirms too much, affirms nothing.'

'And how he,' proceeded Hylten, 'represented them as evil-minded and idle persons, who were unwilling to contribute towards the general welfare.'

'Could that have been a crime?' asked Goertz.

'And also,' read Hylten, 'endeavored to destroy the confidence of the king in the senators, counsellors and others of his true servants, removing the same from all important public employments, so that the whole patronage of the government should go through his own hands, contrary to the laws and statutes of this country....'

'I was the minister of an absolute sovereign,' interposed Goertz. 'How can I be made answerable for the decisions of his iron will?'

'And moreover,' proceeded Hylten, 'such schemes brought to light as could serve no other end than to rob the king's subjects of all their property....'

'The stamped tokens and notes of the mint had already been issued before the time of my administration,' cried Goertz indignantly.

'And finally,' read Hylten, 'according to letters of his, which have been discovered, he has not ceased to labor for the prolongation of the war, thereby placing the king and the country in a very embarrassing and dangerous situation....'

'Who dares assert these lies?' cried Goertz with indignation. 'For fourteen years had Sweden carried on an uninterrupted, and for six years an unsuccessful war, when Charles confided the helm of state to me. Since that time, I have honestly labored to extinguish the fire which destroyed the prosperity of our country. A glorious peace with our most fearful enemy was brought by me near to a conclusion, when the king's sudden death changed....'

'You appear to forget,' said Hylten angrily, 'that you have here only to listen, and not to speak.'

'Then in God's name read to the end,' said Goertz, becoming calm. 'I wilt interrupt you no more.'

'Satisfied of the truth of these charges,' resumed Hylten, 'without examining further into the evil conduct of the said Goertz, a full investigation of which certain causes will not allow, it appears clear to us that he is the dishonest cause of all the misfortunes which this country has suffered, and also that through the above named employments he has become a citizen of this kingdom, and subject to its laws; upon which the royal commission, having weighed these and other crimes, have decided and adjudged, that the said Goertz, for the punishment of his evil deeds, and for an example to other false counsellors and disturbers of the peace of the kingdom, shall be beheaded and afterwards buried at the place of execution.'

'Ha! this sentence....' began Arwed with ungovernable rage, but Rank gently laid his hand upon his mouth.

Goertz had accompanied the close of the reading with only a sigh and shrug of the shoulders. At length he observed, 'that is, in every point of view, a monstrous sentence, informal, unjust, void, and repugnant to common sense. The grounds upon which it is supported are unimportant or untrue; the most unheard of circumstance, however, is, that they take away my life for transgressions which are not specified. From this fault, at least, the legal knowledge of the members of the commission should have preserved them.'

'I am not here to listen to your complaints,' answered Hylten, pettishly. 'The sentence of the commission is unalterable, and will be executed as soon as it is approved by the diet and royal council, and ratified by the queen.'

'So I supposed,' said Goertz; 'and submit to power, which, alas! is every where above right. I only wish to make one remark. They have passed over my management of the national revenue in perfect silence. I beg to be allowed time to prepare my accounts and lay them before the diet, and thus at least inform the world that I have managed the finances like an honest man. Should this request be refused, however, I yet hope at least from the magnanimity of the diet, that they will demand of my heirs no settlement of my accounts, of which they can know nothing.'

'I doubt,' said Hylten with some apparent mortification, 'whether the diet will grant you this delay. I will, however, lay your request before them, and have only to advise you to prepare yourself in the meanwhile for your approaching death.'

'Wo to me,' cried Goertz, 'if my whole life has not been a preparation for death! Yet I thank you for your counsel. My blood be not upon your head!'

Hylten hastened away in confusion, and the weeping Rank threw himself upon the breast of his friend. Arwed fell upon his knee before him, and clasping his hand exclaimed, 'give me Georgina for my wife, my father. She needs strong support in her trying situation, and I feel myself capable of affording it to her.'

'Even now?' cried Goertz, heartily embracing the youth, 'thou true heart! But I must still answer with a decided negative. The only sprout of one of the noblest houses of Sweden must never, under any circumstances, connect himself with the daughter of a condemned and dishonored traitor, whose body must moulder under the gallows.'

His voice was broken by the excess of his feelings. Arwed, despairing, rose up. 'Can I then do nothing for you?' asked Rank, wringing his hands.

'I cannot be saved,' said Goertz, 'and have already been long prepared for death. Only the ignominy of a public execution, and the outrage which awaits my mortal remains, trouble me; not on my own account, but on that of my poor children and innocent connexions. If you are disposed to give me a last proof of your love, you will on my behalf, petition the queen that I may die in my prison and have an honorable grave.'

'I will immediately speak with the prince,' said Rank. 'He was never your enemy. His wife loves him more tenderly than one would suppose her cold heart capable of loving. I hope to be able to render you this service.'--He departed.

'I will throw myself at my father's feet,' cried Arwed, 'and never cease my supplications until he shall promise me to aid in the accomplishment of your last wish.--Oh, my God! that I cannot save you! It is only through this infamous sentence that your purity has become fully clear to me. Your blood be upon the heads of your unworthy murderers.'

He strode forth. Goertz, however, folded his hands, raised his eyes to heaven, and prayed with silent resignation.