"Awake, gracious lady, he has lived and died like a hero, worthy of the admiration of the whole world. He has fallen in the hour of triumph, in the highest lustre of his glory; his name will live in all times, and his name we will both bless."
Regina opened her dreamy eyes and clasped her hands in prayer.
"Oh, Holy Virgin," she said, "I thank thee that thou hast let him go in his greatness from the world, and thus taken away the curse which rested upon my love!"
And Meri dropped down at her side in prayer.
But below in the castle yard stood a tall, white-haired old man, with his stiff features distorted by grief and despair.
"A curse upon my work!" he cried; "my plan is frustrated beforehand, and the object for which I have lived slips from my grasp. Oh, fool that I was, to count upon a human being's life, and trying to hope that the king would acknowledge his son, and live until the son of Aron Bertila's daughter had time to win a brilliant fame in war, and walk abreast with the heiress to the Swedish throne! The king is dead, and my descendant is only a boy in his minority, who will soon be mixed with the multitude. Now it is only wanting for him to gain a nobleman's coat of arms, and place himself amongst the vampires between the only true powers of the state, the king and the people. Fool, fool that I was! The king is dead! Go, old Bertila, into the grave to fraternize with King John and the destroyer of aristocracy, King Carl, and bury thy proud plans among the same worms that have already consumed Prince Gustaf and Karin Mansdotter!"
And the old man seized Meri, who just then came out, violently by the hand, and said:
"Come, we have neither of us anything more to do in the world!"
"Yes," said Meri with suppressed grief, "we both still have a son!"