'Honor!' cried the counsellor angrily. 'You dare to talk of honor, you!'
'What mean you by that? 'asked Arwed with vehemence.
'Where were you on the evening of the king's funeral solemnities?' thundered the father.
'With Georgina,' answered he, not without great astonishment at the question.
'The body of Goertz,' said the counsellor, with fierce energy, 'was on that very night stolen from the place of execution. You, perhaps, can tell how it happened.'
'I find it very natural,' answered Arwed, 'that those who loved the unhappy man, and are firmly convinced of the injustice of his condemnation, should, at least, have borne off his remains from the unworthy resting place in which he was left by the malice of his enemies.'
'And if,' proceeded the counsellor, in a slow, cutting tone, 'if a Swedish officer had commanded this nocturnal expedition, what fate do you think would await him under the present government?'
Arwed, by this question, perceiving with a secret shudder that his father knew all, remained silent.
'Dishonorable dismission!' sternly exclaimed the counsellor; 'and possibly, as an especial mercy, imprisonment for life!'
'If the senate require only my confession to enable it to pass the sentence,' cried Arwed with violence, 'you may be the bearer of that confession to it. I am too proud to deny what my heart impelled me to do.'