Two hundred recruits regarded with mixed feelings the vessel which was perhaps destined to take them from their Fatherland for ever. Behind them stood a large crowd of mothers, sisters, and sweethearts, crying bitterly at the thought of the approaching separation.
The Commissary-General, Ulfsparre, was away in Sweden. The next authority, Steward Peder Thun, as well as the military commander, received the new-comers; the recruits formed in ranks, and the captain of the "Maria Eleonora" offered his arm courteously to Lady Regina, to escort her to Korsholm. But at this moment the proud young girl felt that she was a prisoner; she declined the officer's arm, and walked alone with a royal bearing between the ranks of the recruits and the gaping crowd.
Such a strange sight put the whole town in a great commotion. In a moment the strangest rumours about her arose and spread.
"She is an Austrian princess," said some; "the Emperor's daughter, taken prisoner during the war, and sent here for safety."
Others pretended she was the Queen Maria Eleonora; but why did she come to Korsholm?
"I will tell you," said one, whispering with an important air to another. "She is in league with her German countrymen against the king, and therefore she is to be confined in remote Korsholm."
"That is not true," rejoined another, who had heard some vague stories of the conspiracies against the king's life. "It is," added he in a low voice, as if fearing to be heard by the object of his remarks, "a nun from Walskland, hired by the Jesuits to make away with the king. Six times she has given him deadly poison, and six times he has been warned in dreams not to drink. When she offered him the draught for the seventh time, the king drew his sword and forced her to swallow her own poison."
"Then how can she be here alive?" said an old lady very innocently.
"Alive!" repeated the story-teller, without being put out in any degree; "oh, that is another matter. These creatures can dissemble to such an extent... Yes, indeed; do you remember the Hollanders last year, how they bolted molten lead? I do not wish to say anything, but just look—the black-haired nun is as pale as death!"
"Has she given the king poison?" cried a trembling female voice close behind.