'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.