Arwed was sitting in his quarters, and his regimental surgeon had just
finished bandaging the wound in his arm, when old Brodin entered in
great perplexity.
'His excellency, your father,' whispered he, 'desires to speak with you
alone. He will be here directly.'
'It will not be a very pleasant interview,' sighed Arwed, motioning the
surgeon to absent himself.
'You are not far out of the way,' said Brodin, after the surgeon had
retired. 'His excellency is very angry with you. I have, therefore,
hastened here before him to prepare you for his visit and to beg of
you, as an old, true and zealous servant of your house--if the anger of
the old gentleman should carry him too far, that you will still
remember that he is your father, and listen to what he may please to
say to you, not as a captain of the guards, but as a son.'
'I thank you for the warning, worthy friend, and will obey you,'
answered Arwed.
The door now opened, and with a flaming, red face, the old counsellor
entered.
'The old tell-tale already here,' cried he, 'plotting with the lost
son? I would be alone with the captain.'
Brodin made a submissive, exculpatory gesture, whereby he at the same
time seemed to beg permission to remain--but the old man pointed
angrily towards the door, and Brodin unwillingly retired.
'So, you have fought to-day with major general Baumgardt?' asked the
father with assumed calmness.
'Yes,' answered the son, 'but without any important consequences. I am
but slightly injured, and his life is also out of danger.'
'Right!' cried the father, with somewhat increasing vehemence. 'So the
trifle of rendering a general, who is particularly valued by the queen,
a cripple for life, is a mere ordinary affair.'
He walked two or three times up and down the room, and then opened a
window and looked out. After a while he turned again towards Arwed.
'God is my witness,' cried he, shutting the window with great violence,
'God is my witness, that I have been forbearing as an angel, but your
conduct would make an Epictetus furious. To challenge the major general
just at the moment when the queen, by promotion and knighthood, had
declared him her favorite--to shatter his arm, and then confidentially
to tell him that it was on account of his arresting Goertz, to which
arrest Ulrika is probably indebted for her crown! Would it indeed be
possible, by the widest stretch of fancy, to imagine a proceeding more
senseless and ruinous than yours?'
'The party spirit,' answered Arwed, 'which divides our country, early
teaches every Swede to choose his side; and, in a land so disturbed by
political storms, a peculiar disgrace seems to rest upon neutrality.
Blame me not then, my dear father, if I also have formed my principles;
and be not angry because they are not exactly like yours. If you have
nothing to pardon me for, except that, having once chosen my party, I
have remained true to it in every emergency, that circumstance should,
as I think, honor me in your eyes.'
'_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.'
The father stood a long time looking at his son with powerful emotion.
'Yes!' he finally broke forth, 'yes, you are a Gyllenstierna! With our
failings you unite all the virtues of our family. Holding fast that
which has been once chosen--noble even in our errors--so were we
always. And so much the deeper is my regret that so many good qualities
must be forever lost to the country.'
'From these expressions,' said Arwed, 'I must infer that you bring me
already the decision of my fate. If so, speak it without hesitation. I
am prepared to receive it.'
'The queen was beside herself,' answered the counsellor, 'when she
heard of your last misdeed; and had she obeyed the first suggestions of
her rage, you would now have been in chains, awaiting a decision
involving life or death.'
'Little souls are generally cruel,' observed Arwed.
'As a father I pleaded for my disobedient son,' continued the
counsellor; 'and it is not strange that the man, whose duty it will be
to place the crown upon Ulrika's head at Upsala, should not plead
entirely in vain. A full pardon was not, indeed, to be thought of. Yet
have I succeeded so far in the business, that she has left the
designation of your punishment to her husband. To him I shall now lead
you; and what he thinks proper to inflict, must be received by you with
humility and thankfulness.'
'If consistent with honor,' answered Arwed, taking his hat; 'otherwise
I shall demand a court martial.'
They went forth together. In the entrance-hall they were joined by two
officers of the guards, who, with them, entered a carriage which was
waiting at the door. They soon arrived at the palace upon the
Ritterholm. The two Gyllenstiernas, with their companions, ascended the
steps to the apartments of the prince of Hesse, who came forward to
meet them with a sealed paper in his hand. Only lieutenant general Rank
was with him, who gave an encouraging wink to Arwed.
'You have deeply erred, captain Gyllenstierna,' said the prince,
earnestly. 'The severe letter of the law must inevitably crush you,
were not the hand of mercy interposed. But my wife wishes to convince
the nobles of the land that her royal heart gladly inclines to mercy,
willingly pardoning when it is in her power to do so, and she also
wishes to evince her respect for your worthy father, by even undeserved
kindness towards his son. Yet must you be informed, that a man who has
declared open war against the state through his audacious acts,
cannot remain in his country's service, and that the government
must be secured from any repetition of his offences. Therefore receive
from me your dismission from the Swedish army. You may thank your
heroism before Frederickshall, and the distinction of which my royal
brother-in-law thought you worthy, that this dismissal is united with
the title of major, which you will henceforth be entitled to bear. Yet
your crime must not go entirely unpunished. Wherefore the queen
banishes you forever from the limits of the capital, and exacts from
you a promise that you will never pass the frontier of the nation, and
that you will never again meddle with the political affairs of this
kingdom, under pain of death. Your father will receive your promise,
and will determine your future place of residence. May time make you
wiser!'
Handing to the youth the paper containing his discharge from the
service, he departed and was followed by Rank. 'God bless your royal
highness!' cried the elder Gyllenstierna after him.
'So, I am a prisoner of state in Sweden,' said Arwed with a bitter
smile. 'It is fortunate that my prison is tolerably spacious. Where is
it your pleasure that I shall go, my father?'
'To Gyllensten, to my brother,' answered the counsellor, 'after you
have signed the required promise, which I must return to her majesty.'
He pointed to a paper lying upon the marble table. Arwed hastily run
his eye through the written promise, and subscribed his name to it;
upon which the two officers, who had hitherto guarded the door,
immediately left the room.
'To Gyllensten!' exclaimed Arwed, gratefully kissing his father's hand,
'to the loved resort of my childhood, to my good old-uncle! How good
you still are, my father, even when you punish. How deeply do I regret
that I have caused you so much sorrow.'
'You bad boy!' cried the father with strong emotion, pressing him to
his bosom. 'And if I pardon you every thing else, I will not pardon you
for depriving yourself of the power of serving your father-land, whose
golden age is just commencing.'
'May heaven grant,' answered Arwed, 'that Sweden may not soon wish back
the departed _iron_ age! I shall always think that the strong will of
one only ruler can direct the government more consistently and happily,
than the constantly divided opinions of the four and twenty little
kings who are now to rule the country, even though you yourself are one
of these kings, my father.'
'Silence! you are incorrigible!' cried the old counsellor, drawing his
son with him out of the palace.
ARWED GYLLENSTIERNA.
A TALE OF THE EARLY PART OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
BY C. F. VAN DER VELDE.
PART SECOND.