In the dining room, innumerable dishes were already smoking upon the
supper table as Megret and Arwed entered; yet the governor was sitting
at the sideboard, in accordance with an old Norman custom, amusing
himself with the favorite Swedish preliminary to a good meal, knakebrod
and whiskey. Occasionally he cast an impatient glance towards the door.
'Where is my daughter?' asked he of a servant, who had just entered.
'The countess is ill,' he answered, 'and begs you will receive her
apology for not being able to appear at the table.'
'This is another of her whims,' said the old man angrily, 'of which she
has more than my Polish charger. Go again to her, Rasmus, and say, I
command her to be instantly well, and to come and preside at the
table.'
Megret advanced to speak a kind word in behalf of the capricious
beauty--but the governor motioned him back, and the servant departed.
Christine soon made her appearance, her eyes cast down and her face
glowing with displeasure. She silently took her place by her chair, and
motioned to the persons present to seat themselves.
'Before we are seated,' said her father, sternly, 'the affair between
you and the colonel must be adjusted. You will ask his pardon.'
'Spare me, my father!' implored Christine. 'If the colonel requires
satisfaction I will exchange shots with him; but sooner may you drive
me from the castle than I will ask the pardon of any man upon earth.'
'Que Dieu m'en garde!' cried Megret laughing. 'Your eyes are accustomed
to hitting and wounding men's hearts, and you would have a manifest
advantage over me. A blow from so beauteous a hand can as little
inflict dishonor as the knight-creating stroke of a king's sword upon a
victorious battle-field.'
'You have more luck than understanding,' remarked the governor, at the
same time causing himself to be conveyed to the table. For the future,
however, I shall expect that you will not forget the treatment which is
due to thy father's worthy guests.'
The maiden submissively kissed her father's hand and took her place on
his left; Megret seated himself on his right, and Christine nodded to
Arwed to sit by her; but he went round the table and seated himself by
Megret.
Christine observed this movement with great surprise. 'I love free
conversation at the table,' whispered he smilingly to her, 'and have no
helmet to protect me.'
'Insufferable!' murmured she, and in her anger at his unsparing irony,
filled her father's goblet so full, that the good old burgundy
overflowed and colored the exquisite damask table cloth.
Her father was again reproving her for this new impropriety, when the
servant announced sir Mac Donalbain, and Christine started with a look
of mingled joy and alarm.
'He is heartily welcome!' cried the governor, and a tall, well built
man, about thirty years old, entered the hall. He wore a short, green
overcoat with copper buttons. At his broad leather girdle, in which two
pistols were inserted, hung a broad sabre, and in his hand he carried a
double-barrelled gun. His sunburnt face was not regularly handsome, but
the spirit and boldness which characterized it, rendered it
interesting. The wild black eyes, however, which peered from under his
dark brows, and a few wrinkles on his forehead and about his mouth,
gave him a grim and disagreeable expression. Arwed, who glanced now at
him and now at the polished Frenchman, compared the two, and came to
the conclusion that he was not in the very best of company.
'Whence do you come so late, sir Mac Donalbain?' kindly asked the
governor.
'I have been hunting in the Asele Lappmark,' answered the guest, laying
aside his weapons and boldly seating himself near Christine. 'I had got
belated, and the light of your hospitable castle shone so invitingly
that I concluded to ask of you entertainment for the night.'
'This worthy Scot is in a certain sense a brother sufferer of yours,
dear major, in so far as the death of our king has destroyed his
prosperity as well as yours. He had the assurance of an advantageous
post in our army, made a long journey to come here, found his hopes
annihilated by the death of the king, and for the present lives upon
his income, at Hernoesand, awaiting better times.'
'Singular!' remarked Megret, whilst the brother sufferers bowed
silently to each other. 'I was lately at Hernoesand, and could hear
nothing of you there, although I took particular pains to find you.'
'I reside there no longer,' answered Mac Donalbain, not without some
embarrassment. 'A difficulty which I had there, induced me to remove to
Arnaes.'
'A difficulty?' asked Megret, smiling. 'I am sorry for that. I hope it
was not with the public authorities?'
'One readily perceives, colonel,' interfered Christine, with
bitterness, 'that you are a foreigner. In hospitable Sweden, such
questions are not allowable, even from the host himself, much less from
one guest to another.'
'Why so excited, countess?' asked Megret with his customary cold smile.
'If sir Mac Donalbain _will_ not or _cannot_ answer my question, I
shall be content. He has my sympathy, notwithstanding; and, in my
journey back to Stockholm, I should be pleased to go round by Arnaes to
take personal leave of him.'
'However agreeable that might be to me,' said Mac Donalbain
equivocally, 'I must yet by anticipation regret that probably you would
not meet me. The amusement of the chase is my passion, and I am almost
always abroad.'
'So it appears,' said Megret with a piercing glance, and, turning to
the governor, he commenced a conversation with him, respecting the
preparations for war making by Denmark and Russia, which threatened
poor Sweden anew. Arwed who took a part in this discussion, could not
forbear casting an occasional scrutinizing glance at Mac Donalbain, who
had commenced a low and apparently interesting conversation with
Christine. He saw how the dark eyes of the Scot flashed upon the
angelic countenance of the maiden, saw how the latter regarded her wild
neighbor with a mixture of fear and anger, of passion and aversion, and
he thought, 'what a pity it would be, if this beautiful and innocent
creature should have thrown away her heart upon such a man!'
The table was at length cleared. Megret and Mac Donalbain bade their
host good night and went to their chambers. Christine kissed her father
with humble tenderness, and in a low voice asked him, 'are you still
angry?'
'Amend yourself, perverse girl,' said the old man; and gently parting
the golden locks from her fair forehead, impressed upon it an
affectionate parental kiss.
'My kind, kind father! indeed I do not deserve so much love,' cried the
maiden, with deep emotion, pressing his hand to her heaving bosom. She
then arose and departed, giving an unfriendly glance and a slighting
nod as she passed Arwed. He also wished to seek his bed; but his uncle
drew him into a chair near him and filled his goblet again.
'You must help me finish the last bottle, major,' said he. 'I have not
at all enjoyed your company yet, and must say to you once more, now we
are alone, how dear you are to me. Truly you have come to my house in a
good hour! and I hope at some future time to have much to thank you
for.'
'How mean you that, dear uncle?' asked Arwed, with some surprise, and
partly anticipating the point to which the old man was leading.
'Why should I dissemble with you?' burst forth the old man. 'Your
father, indeed, gave me long and broad instructions at Upsala, how I
should conduct myself toward you; but this spying and tacking and
managing may be all very proper in the royal council, and yet not with
so clear and honorable a Swedish mind as yours. Therefore, short and
round, you are the right man for my Christine,--you or none.'
'I, dear uncle!' answered Arwed, laughing. 'The commencement of our
renewed acquaintance did not seem like it.'
'That indeed, I observed with regret,' confessed the uncle. 'But who
regards women's humors, which change as quickly as the fashion of their
garments. Bucephalus was a wild and vicious horse, and yet he found his
man who knew how to manage him.'
'That was the great Alexander, however,' replied Arwed, continuing the
jest. 'I have not vanity enough to put myself on a par with that hero;
and, even if I were compelled to attempt the one or the other, I should
rather undertake the taming of Bucephalus than of my fair cousin.'
'She is headstrong,' sighed the uncle; 'that, alas! I must myself
acknowledge; I, her father, who have permitted her to grow up without
proper restraints. But, nevertheless, I believe you would succeed in
rendering her submissive. You have, to-day, said such things to her as
she has not been accustomed to hear. Because she is handsome, every one
who has seen has flattered and indulged her caprices, and, in that way,
she has been spoiled. You will let nothing pass without its just
comment, I see plainly. She will consequently at first fear, and then
respect you, and, after that, between people of your stamp, love will
find its way of itself.'
'It occasions me much regret,' said Arwed with sudden earnestness,
'that I am compelled to interpose an insurmountable obstacle to the
accomplishment of a hope which, in the fulness of parental love, you so
feelingly express. But, in this case, unreserved candor is the holiest
duty. My heart is no longer free, good uncle, and my choice is made for
life.'
'Your father has already made me acquainted with that affair,' answered
the uncle fretfully; 'but I did not suppose that foolish passion, which
can hardly endure long, could reasonably interpose any obstacle. The
daughter of an executed criminal....'
'An innocent offering at the shrine of contemptible party interests,'
said Arwed, with great vehemence, interrupting him; 'truly a martyr to
his honesty and to the gigantic plans of his king.'
'And as your father says,' continued the uncle, 'the maiden has herself
given you up and bidden an eternal farewell to Sweden.'
'She was compelled by the necessity of satisfying her own conscience;
but that cannot release _me_ from the performance of my duty. So long
as Georgina lives, so long shall I continue to hope, and truly will I
keep my troth.'
'Such troth is senseless,' answered the uncle, suppressing his emotion.
'However, there is something in your constancy which pleases me. Do as
you will. I hope at any rate, you will place so much confidence in me
as to believe that I would not urge my daughter upon you, in opposition
to your feelings. I am firmly persuaded, however, that the affair will
gradually work itself right. Rank, figure, affinity, wealth, all
fitting. By heaven! you were created for each other or no couple ever
were. Sleep before you determine. As for the rest, what has been said
upon these matters must remain within the walls of this room--to that
promise give me your hand.'
Arwed gave the required pledge. The governor rang for his attendants,
bade Arwed good night, and was rolled to his sleeping room.
'This is a strange entanglement in which I shall henceforth be obliged
to act!' said Arwed to himself, while the servants were waiting at the
door, with branched silver candlesticks, to show him to his room;
'Georgina and myself--I and my uncle, and Christine--and Christine and
Megret--and Mac Donalbain and Christine!--and this Megret and Mac
Donalbain, who again appear to stand in hostile constellations; and I,
who, as I already foresee, shall at some future time be compelled to
encounter both of them--this Mac Donalbain who spears to me like the
serpent in paradise endeavoring to seduce the poor innocent, foolish
mother of mankind. This Megret!--ah, this Megret! I will go to bed. God
preserve me from wicked dreams.'