CHAPTER XXXVII.
As Arwed entered the castle of Gyllensten he was met by old Brodin, who, with a face highly expressive of sorrow and condolence, bowed to him in silence.
'What do you bring me, old honesty?' asked Arwed, with alarm' 'Not sad news, I hope? How does my father?'
'The lord counsellor's excellency,' answered Brodin, 'is as well as could be desired, and sends his kind regards to you. I am charged with an important commission, for the execution of which I must beg a private audience.'
'It concerns Georgina!' cried Arwed, with a sudden presentiment, and without awaiting Brodin's answer he led him into his private chamber. 'Now speak!' cried he with vehemence. 'I am prepared to hear all.'
'Were you a weak-nerved lady,' commenced Brodin, slowly drawing a letter from the pocket of his traveling coat, 'it might be necessary to preface the unpleasant intelligence of which I am the bearer with a fitting preamble. But you are a stout young man, as well as a brave soldier, and therefore I may venture to spare you the torment of fear and expectation.'
'Silence!' cried Arwed, tearing the letter from his hand. 'It is her writing!' he exclaimed, breaking the seal, and then proceeded to read:
'My Noble Gyllenstierna!
'The sympathy you continue to evince for the poor Georgina, blesses, while it rends her heart. Notwithstanding the clearness with which I explained myself, you are yet unwilling to consider our connection dissolved. Nothing therefore remains for me but to effect a last and eternal separation. I could have desired to spend the remainder of my life wedded to the remembrance of my first and only love; but you have yourself rendered this impossible. 'While I live, lives also your hope of one day possessing me!' By this resolution of your true heart, you have made it my duty to become dead to you for this world. Your father wishes to place the hand of his only son in that of his love-deserving niece, and thereby secure a continuation of the power and splendor of your noble house. I was the only obstruction to the accomplishment of this rational wish. I must not so continue. I could not answer to myself for destroying the welfare of a youth, whom I would so willingly have made happy by my faithful love, by my irresolution. To make you free, I have bound myself. To spare you the sacrifice you were determined to make, I have sacrificed myself. Since yesterday I have been the wife of a worthy man, whose character I must respect, and whom I could have loved, had I never known you. In his arms I may find, with the peace which results from the performance of duty, that quiet happiness which can result from a marriage, in the contracting of which passion had no voice. May you also be truly happy! May you deserve that happiness through obedience to your father's wishes! Believe me, Arwed, there is something better in this life than the intoxication of passion. I feel it in this heavy hour. Think of me sometimes, not only without anger, but with tranquil kindness, as you would of a beloved being who has preceded you to that eternal world where you hope to see her once again. I shall never forget you.
'GEORGINA VON EYBEN.'
Poor Arwed sank upon a seat as if annihilated. The faithful Brodin observed him with looks of the deepest sympathy. All at once the youth's eyes began to flash with savage fury. He sprung up, and, seizing the old man with a lion's rage, thundered in his ears, 'this whole affair is a fable devised for my deception!'
'Holy Savior! what is it you think?' cried the trembling Brodin.
'I have read in many old tales,' cried Arwed, with bitter anguish, 'of pretended marriages, and forged letters of renunciation, by which hearts have been artfully torn asunder, that would else have remained eternally united.'
'Why, hey, count Arwed,' said Brodin chidingly, 'how can you so misjudge your noble father as to suppose him guilty of such an offence?'
'I know,' answered Arwed, 'that my father considers the dissolution of my connection with Georgina a matter of the utmost importance. A counsellor of the realm stands high enough to permit himself to do many things that would carry a common citizen to a criminal's dungeon. The whole may be a specimen of the newest Swedish political management.'
'Believe what you please, major!' angrily exclaimed Brodin. 'The letter you have just read, I received from the hands of the writer, when I was with her in obedience to your father's command.'
'Brodin!' said the agitated Arwed, 'you are an old man! So near the grave, you will not defile your soul with a lie; therefore answer me, honest and true, as you have been through the whole course of your long life--is Georgina actually married?'
'By my God and his holy gospel!' cried the gray old man, solemnly placing his hand upon his heart, 'I was myself, by her command, in the cathedral church of Lubec, and saw her married to the imperial counsellor von Eyben.'
'It is then true!' sighed Arwed, again sinking back into his seat.
Brodin approached, with humid eyes, to speak some words of consolation,--but Arwed motioned him back, and the old man left the room in silent sorrow.