While the new royal counsellor, Nils count Gyllenstierna was sitting,
as two months before, employed at his writing table, Arwed timidly
entered the room.
'Aha!' said he satirically, 'the brave captain has at last the
goodness, after my repeated requests, to grant me an interview. I beg
you will take a seat upon the sofa, and I will be at your service
directly.'
Arwed, however, remained standing with a sad and resigned countenance,
as he had determined to submit patiently to the censures of his
passionate father, whose political ambition had now attained its utmost
gratification.
The old counsellor continued writing for a short time, and then,
signing his name with an energetic stroke of the pen, he arose and
stepped immediately in front of his son, with folded arms and an angry
countenance.
'Where shall I begin with my reproaches!' blustered he at length. 'You
have committed so many excesses in so short a time, that it is
difficult for me to select, and I can only fix my mind upon the
result--that you are a ruined, yes, in the strictest sense, a _lost
son_, with whom I am destined to have much trouble and sorrow.'
'That I went to the king's army against your will...?' commenced Arwed,
pleadingly.
'That is the least!' proceeded the father, interrupting him. 'You have
proceeded so far in your evil way, that even so shameless an act of
disobedience has become a mere trifle, unworthy of consideration in
comparison with your ulterior conduct. Besides, you may find some
excuse for that act, in what has recently happened. According to
despatches this day received, Armfelt's corps has been miserably frozen
up in the ice mountains on its retreat towards Jemtland, and although
you have caused me much sorrow, I am yet glad that your obstinacy has
this time saved you from an inglorious death.'
'Thanks to thee, true warner,' said Arwed tremblingly to himself;--then
addressing his father: 'if that be not the cause of your anger, may I
beg of you to name my other transgressions. From your justice I have a
right to hope that I shall be allowed to exculpate myself.'
'Bold and insolent as usual!' grumbled the old man. '_Quasi re bene
gesta_ comes he before me, while he thinks I am not acquainted with his
conduct. Who joined himself to the deputation which endeavored to have
the duke of Holstein proclaimed in the camp as king of Sweden? Who
obtruded himself as a companion upon colonel Brenner, that he might
insult the queen and warn Goertz of his well-deserved fate? Who
threatened colonel Baumgardt with a challenge for doing his duty? Who
has been this very day to visit the daughter of the arch-traitor, for
whom the scaffold is already preparing?'
'You are very accurately informed, my father,' answered Arwed. 'I am
too proud to deny what I have done, nor do I believe it deserves your
anger. The king, when he appointed me a captain in the royal service,
thereby rendered me independent of parental authority, and thenceforth
free to follow the dictates of my own judgment. You yourself must
concede, that the right was doubtful between the princess and the duke.
I, however, am firmly convinced that it is entirely on the side of the
latter, and have acted accordingly. I wished to save Goertz, because I
believed him innocent. His crime is, that the king, so little in the
habit of receiving advice from others, honored him with his exclusive
confidence; that he is a foreigner, and the capable and dreaded servant
of a young prince who is a candidate for a crown which you think he
ought not to have.'
'You believe all this, because you love his daughter!' remarked the
father.
'Colonel Baumgardt,' proceeded Arwed, 'has injured me personally, and
we shall settle that matter as is usual among men of honor, as soon as
my cares for Georgina may leave me time.'
'Arwed!' cried the father, 'do you then really entertain a hope that I
will give my consent to this foolish connection?'
'Do as you think proper, my father,' answered Arwed. 'My resolution is
taken, whatever may betide. Nor could you yourself approve my conduct
if, now that the storm is breaking over her innocent head, I should
desert the maiden whose heart I won when the sun of prosperity shone
brightly upon her.'
'The queen will forbid the union,' said the old man.
'And were it the bold Margaret herself,' cried Arwed with passionate
warmth, 'who united upon her own head the three northern crowns, and
held them there with a strong hand, she would not dare attempt to
regulate the impulses of our hearts! How much less, then, this poor
Ulrika, whose only crown, to which she has no right, was shamefully
bought with the costliest jewel of royalty, the sovereignty.'
'You are deep in constitutional principles,' said the counsellor
peevishly--but his strong displeasure was already melted into secret
satisfaction with the talent and spirit of his son. He appeared,
standing there before him with his flashing blue eyes, his scarred
cheek and noble bearing, as if he were about to plant again the Swedish
standard upon a stormed wall. 'Upon honor!' at length exclaimed the old
man, 'if you had not conducted yourself so bravely before
Frederickshall, I would reckon with you in another fashion. But the
deed of arms which Charles the XIIth rewarded with an embrace, must be
considered as truly heroic--and to a hero much must be forgiven. To
that, we Swedes have long been accustomed.'
'Nor was that embrace the best of the king's favors,' said Arwed
eagerly. 'For beating back a sally of the Danes, I had his word for my
marriage with Greorgina. And surely you would not have resisted the
request of Charles.'
'Yes,' answered his father, turning away from him; 'and now all that
has been changed forever by one bullet! I pity you, poor youth, but
your case cannot be helped!'
'I do not yet give up every hope,' said Arwed. 'They dare not murder
Goertz without a trial, and if they will but give him a fair one he
must be acquitted.'
'Do you think so?' murmured the old man; 'so do not we think here in
Stockholm, and all Sweden cries out guilty against him.'
'The voice of the people is not always the voice of God,' said Arwed.
'I still trust in holy justice. But I have a favor to ask of you, my
father. The baron's daughter wishes to see her father. Give me the
necessary permission.'
'That is not to be thought of for the present,' answered the father.
'Perhaps it may be obtained a little later, after the sentence has been
pronounced. Besides I am not the person who has power to grant it. Upon
such a request the president of the special commission, landmarshal
Ribbing, must decide.'
'Alas, that heart of stone!' cried Arwed. 'Give me at least a letter of
introduction to him, that he may do from favor what is only a duty.'
'I can have nothing to do with the affair,' said the father angrily.
'You presume upon my forbearance.'
He pointed towards the door. Arwed wished to speak to him yet once
again, but the counsellor, turning his back upon him, walked to his
writing-table and the son in sadness departed.