'Do you know me, reverend sir?' asked Arwed with surprise.
'Only from the conversations of the unfortunate man to whom you just now wished to purchase admission,' answered the clergyman, proceeding with him towards the city. 'But your whole manner and bearing told me that you must be captain Gyllenstierna, and there is no one to whom I could better appeal than you. I am preacher to the German community in this place. Baron von Goertz has requested my spiritual assistance, which I have truly rendered to him with both joy and sorrow. But the undeserved fate of my unhappy countryman has so affected me that I am determined to do something more for him. His immortal soul is well prepared by a blameless life, and by a true and genuine faith which I have perceived in him. I would also gladly save his mortal body, that the intelligent and well disposed man may be enabled yet further to labor for the benefit of this country, or for some other, if Sweden is unwise enough to repudiate him.'
'Worthy servant of God!' exclaimed Arwed, with a sudden pressure of his hand.
'First of all,' proceeded the preacher, 'I will make an effort with the queen. I have been to the palace three times already. Her majesty, however, was never to be spoken with, which I attribute to the numerous enemies which Goertz has made amongst the courtiers.'
'You might as well attribute it to the ill will of the queen herself,' said Arwed.
'So much the better!' cried the preacher. 'That would be a good sign for me. Then does she shun the truth, which she would hear from me; and if I can only succeed in obtaining an audience, I augur the happiest consequences. You are well acquainted at the palace, count. Procure me an audience of the queen, and the rest shall be my care. She is, at any rate, a woman, and must have a compassionate heart.'
'You have chosen a bad protector, sir pastor,' said Arwed, with a sad smile. 'But I will procure for you an audience with the queen, if I have to open a path to her with my sword.'
While they were thus conversing they had passed the bridge connecting the Suedermalm with the city, the streets of which they threaded until they approached the Ritterholm.
'Announce us to the queen,' begged Arwed of the valet-de-chambre whom they found before the door of the queen's apartments, flipping some pieces of gold into his hands. 'The count Gyllenstierna and pastor Conradi beg that she will graciously grant them a short audience upon a most pressing concern.'
'I will do my best,' said the valet-de-chambre in the most friendly manner, going in.