On the twenty-first day of February, 1719, Arwed entered the prison of
the unhappy Goertz, in company with lieutenant general Rank.
'I bring to you a suppliant, my poor friend,' said Rank, with a
melancholy smile, to Goertz. 'The captain has not ceased to besiege his
royal highness, until he obtained his permission for this interview
with you. He has a great favor to ask, and if my word is entitled to
any weight, I am his witness that he has well deserved it. He has,
through his ceaseless activity in your behalf, drawn down upon himself
the hatred of the Swedish nobility; and could he purchase your life
with his own, I am fully satisfied that he would make the sacrifice
with joy.'
'Good man!' said Goertz much agitated, extending his hand to Arwed.
'God grant that you may have something to ask of me that my duty will
allow me to perform.'
'You know my love for your Georgina, my father,' said Arwed, pressing
the old man's hand upon his heart. 'I beg your benediction upon our
union.'
'I have anticipated this request,' sighed Goertz. 'It does you honor
under the present circumstances, but I must not say yes to it.'
'Oh retract those hard words!' begged Arwed. 'You yourself just now
called me a good man. By heaven I am so. Your daughter loves me--and
our glorious king, the evening before his death, promised to crown my
wishes.'
'I know it all,' said Goertz, 'but I can give no other answer.'
'You hate the Swede in me,' said Arwed in a tone of the deepest sorrow;
'nor can I blame you for it.'
'Have you no better opinion of the father of your beloved?' asked
Goertz, with mild reproach. 'I love the man in you, and you may learn
of my daughter that I was not opposed to your wishes, when I yet stood
in my former elevated position. But what would the world say of me,
should I willfully make you unhappy by consenting to your marriage with
the daughter of an unfortunate man whom your father hates, and whose
life and honor will soon be destroyed by one sharp stroke. If, when my
fate shall have been sealed, my daughter's passion remain stronger than
her remembrance of it, she is then at liberty to follow the dictates of
her own heart. I neither advise nor forbid the connection, and shall
earnestly pray to God that all may go well with you, and that you may
never have cause to repent the inconsiderate step.'
'Ah, that is a comfortless consent,' said Arwed sorrowfully.
'Georgina's overstrained delicacy induces her to take the same ground
against me, and I have now come to beg your intercession with her,
which is necessary to my success.'
'My daughter feels as a Goertz must feel,' answered the old man, 'It is
noble in you to persist in your request. Concede to us also the
generosity of the refusal.'
'You make not me alone unhappy!' cried Arwed with vehemence. 'I may,
indeed, in time become reconciled to it. But your daughter will also be
made miserable at the same time. Her love is stronger than she, in the
depth of her filial sorrow, at present supposes it. She may, indeed,
give me up, but she can never forget me.'
'The consciousness of having done right will help her to bear much, my
son,' answered Goertz. 'Let us talk of it no more.'
'You rend my heart,' said Rank with weeping eyes. 'But I thank you for
this sorrow. It is a high and holy privilege to behold virtue
struggling with heavy and undeserved affliction.'
At this moment the keys were heard rattling in the prison door. It
creaked upon its hinges, and in stepped, with the proud dignity of his
black official robes, and with deep traces of hidden malice and bodily
suffering in his yellow face, the speaker Hylten, delegate of the
citizens to the imperial diet of the realm, and a member of the
commission instituted for the trial of the prisoner.--He was followed
by one of the clerks of the court, with his arm full of documents.
'I come, von Goertz,' unceremoniously commenced Hylten, 'to make known
to you the sentence of the special commission. Receive it with becoming
respect.'
'I must indeed,' answered Goertz with a bitter smile, slightly rattling
his chains. He rose up, and Hylten took a large sealed document from
the hands of the clerk.
'Do you wish that we should retire, sir commissioner?' asked Rank.
'You may remain here forever, if you please, sir lieutenant general,'
answered Hylten contemptuously. 'The crimes of this man are notorious,
as his punishment will also be, and where justice is sustained by the
general voice, there can be no necessity for avoiding publicity.'
'The royal commission,' read he, with a sharp and discordant voice,
'having heard and considered all the accusations brought by the
attorney general, Fehmann, and also the replications of the baron von
Goertz thereto....'
'Without consenting to receive my written defence!' interposed Goertz.
'And all the plots and devices of the said Goertz,' proceeded Hylten
without noticing the interruption, since his coming into this kingdom,
having for their object to bring by wicked means the subjects of the
said kingdom into great discredit with the king ...'
'All?' asked Goertz. 'He who affirms too much, affirms nothing.'
'And how he,' proceeded Hylten, 'represented them as evil-minded and
idle persons, who were unwilling to contribute towards the general
welfare.'
'Could that have been a crime?' asked Goertz.
'And also,' read Hylten, 'endeavored to destroy the confidence of the
king in the senators, counsellors and others of his true servants,
removing the same from all important public employments, so that the
whole patronage of the government should go through his own hands,
contrary to the laws and statutes of this country....'
'I was the minister of an absolute sovereign,' interposed Goertz. 'How
can I be made answerable for the decisions of his iron will?'
'And moreover,' proceeded Hylten, 'such schemes brought to light as
could serve no other end than to rob the king's subjects of all their
property....'
'The stamped tokens and notes of the mint had already been issued
before the time of my administration,' cried Goertz indignantly.
'And finally,' read Hylten, 'according to letters of his, which have
been discovered, he has not ceased to labor for the prolongation of the
war, thereby placing the king and the country in a very embarrassing
and dangerous situation....'
'Who dares assert these lies?' cried Goertz with indignation. 'For
fourteen years had Sweden carried on an uninterrupted, and for six
years an unsuccessful war, when Charles confided the helm of state to
me. Since that time, I have honestly labored to extinguish the fire
which destroyed the prosperity of our country. A glorious peace with
our most fearful enemy was brought by me near to a conclusion, when the
king's sudden death changed....'
'You appear to forget,' said Hylten angrily, 'that you have here only
to listen, and not to speak.'
'Then in God's name read to the end,' said Goertz, becoming calm. 'I
wilt interrupt you no more.'
'Satisfied of the truth of these charges,' resumed Hylten, 'without
examining further into the evil conduct of the said Goertz, a full
investigation of which certain causes will not allow, it appears clear
to us that he is the dishonest cause of all the misfortunes which this
country has suffered, and also that through the above named employments
he has become a citizen of this kingdom, and subject to its laws; upon
which the royal commission, having weighed these and other crimes, have
decided and adjudged, that the said Goertz, for the punishment of his
evil deeds, and for an example to other false counsellors and
disturbers of the peace of the kingdom, shall be beheaded and
afterwards buried at the place of execution.'
'Ha! this sentence....' began Arwed with ungovernable rage, but Rank
gently laid his hand upon his mouth.
Goertz had accompanied the close of the reading with only a sigh and
shrug of the shoulders. At length he observed, 'that is, in every point
of view, a monstrous sentence, informal, unjust, void, and repugnant to
common sense. The grounds upon which it is supported are unimportant or
untrue; the most unheard of circumstance, however, is, that they take
away my life for transgressions which are not specified. From this
fault, at least, the legal knowledge of the members of the commission
should have preserved them.'
'I am not here to listen to your complaints,' answered Hylten,
pettishly. 'The sentence of the commission is unalterable, and will be
executed as soon as it is approved by the diet and royal council, and
ratified by the queen.'
'So I supposed,' said Goertz; 'and submit to power, which, alas! is
every where above right. I only wish to make one remark. They have
passed over my management of the national revenue in perfect silence. I
beg to be allowed time to prepare my accounts and lay them before the
diet, and thus at least inform the world that I have managed the
finances like an honest man. Should this request be refused, however, I
yet hope at least from the magnanimity of the diet, that they will
demand of my heirs no settlement of my accounts, of which they can know
nothing.'
'I doubt,' said Hylten with some apparent mortification, 'whether the
diet will grant you this delay. I will, however, lay your request
before them, and have only to advise you to prepare yourself in the
meanwhile for your approaching death.'
'Wo to me,' cried Goertz, 'if my whole life has not been a preparation
for death! Yet I thank you for your counsel. My blood be not upon your
head!'
Hylten hastened away in confusion, and the weeping Rank threw himself
upon the breast of his friend. Arwed fell upon his knee before him, and
clasping his hand exclaimed, 'give me Georgina for my wife, my father.
She needs strong support in her trying situation, and I feel myself
capable of affording it to her.'
'Even now?' cried Goertz, heartily embracing the youth, 'thou true
heart! But I must still answer with a decided negative. The only sprout
of one of the noblest houses of Sweden must never, under any
circumstances, connect himself with the daughter of a condemned and
dishonored traitor, whose body must moulder under the gallows.'
His voice was broken by the excess of his feelings. Arwed, despairing,
rose up. 'Can I then do nothing for you?' asked Rank, wringing his
hands.
'I cannot be saved,' said Goertz, 'and have already been long prepared
for death. Only the ignominy of a public execution, and the outrage
which awaits my mortal remains, trouble me; not on my own account, but
on that of my poor children and innocent connexions. If you are
disposed to give me a last proof of your love, you will on my behalf,
petition the queen that I may die in my prison and have an honorable
grave.'
'I will immediately speak with the prince,' said Rank. 'He was never
your enemy. His wife loves him more tenderly than one would suppose her
cold heart capable of loving. I hope to be able to render you this
service.'--He departed.
'I will throw myself at my father's feet,' cried Arwed, 'and never
cease my supplications until he shall promise me to aid in the
accomplishment of your last wish.--Oh, my God! that I cannot save you!
It is only through this infamous sentence that your purity has become
fully clear to me. Your blood be upon the heads of your unworthy
murderers.'
He strode forth. Goertz, however, folded his hands, raised his eyes to
heaven, and prayed with silent resignation.