'Every motive is blameworthy,' answered Swedenborg, with an elevated voice, 'which induces an earthworm to endeavor to anticipate the dispensations of Providence. Yet will His mercy spare you this sin; for behold, the arm of the fearful Nemesis is already raised, and at the Lord's command it will fall in destruction upon the criminal.'
Christine had drawn close to Arwed during this conversation, and he now perceived the feverish trembling of her frame, caused by Swedenborg's prophecy.
At this moment a young miner came and asked, 'where shall I find major Gyllenstierna.'
'Here he stands!' answered Arwed, 'probably you wish to bring me to the officer who was just now here.'
'No, he merely sends you this billet,' said the young man, departing.
'What can he have to write to me about, situated as we are?' Arwed peevishly exclaimed. Unfolding the billet, which was written in pencil, and stepping to the nearest pitch-pan, he read as follows:
'To appease the manes of your king, you have demanded satisfaction of me. I had however previously promised it to myself and to myself therefore, precedence is due. From you I have only to expect a possible death. I shall inflict it upon myself with a surer hand. Mac Donalbain shares my fate. In gratitude to the countess Gyllenstierna for the manner in which she rejected my addresses, I have persuaded her husband that he belongs to this earth as little as myself. Many will think the manner of my death strange; but I wish to die in the way of my profession, and at the same time to preserve my body from the ignominy of a judicial investigation. I have the honor to greet you. Au revoir, I dare not say.
Megret.'
The horror-stricken Arwed had hardly read to the end, when suddenly the whole broad space swam in a sea of fire. A terrible explosion, as of a powder magazine, of which echo increased the frightful roar a thousand fold, shook the ground under Arwed's feet, and displaced heavy masses of stone from the sides of the cavern which fell with a crash to the bottom of the mine. Loud screams suddenly arose on all sides, to which a mournful silence immediately succeeded, and from the direction in which Megret and Mac Donalbain had gone, came rolling in a dense white-gray powder-smoke, which twirled in waving clouds along the top of the arch, and soon filling the whole mine, wrapped every object in its impenetrable veil.
'What was that?' stammered Christine, clinging to Arwed for support.