The rising sun of the next morning found every one busy at Gyllensten,
and the travelers prepared for their excursion. Christine, who had
hoped to fly in advance of the rest of the company on her swift dun
courser, was compelled to take a seat in the carriage with her father,
who feared his gout, and her noble horse was led after her by the
domestics, who accompanied the expedition in another carriage. Arwed
and Megret, with their grooms, were in the saddle. The company set
forth in a northerly direction, having the gulf of Bothnia on their
right, and the mountains of Lapland on their left, passing the stations
Beygde and Skelleste until they arrived at the little port of Pitea,
which, yet poorer than Umea, lay at the mouth of the Pitea Elf. There,
with the relay horses, six Swedish dragoons, furnished by the bailiwick
and led by the sheriff, marched up with drawn swords to perform escort
duty for the remainder of the governor's journey.
'Wherefore trouble these people, Mr. Sheriff?' said the governor. 'The
road is safe, as far as I know, and for that reason I took no escort
with me from Umea.'
'For some time past,' answered the sheriff, 'a band of robbers have
beset this neighborhood. Two well planned and successfully executed
burglaries, in quick succession, have created much alarm; and
yesterday, a man who attempted to travel to Tornea, was found slain
upon the road between here and Lulea.'
'And you have yet made no effort to apprehend the perpetrators of the
deed?' asked the governor discontentedly. 'If the police do their duty
such transgressors cannot long escape the vengeance of the laws.'
'The waste and desolate condition of that region,' said the sheriff by
way of excuse, 'facilitates the flight of the robbers and renders
pursuit difficult. The inhabitants of the scattered houses and small
hamlets fear to seize a single robber while their helpless situation
exposes them to the vengeance of the whole band, which numbers thirty
men. Their leader is called Black Naddock, and always has his face
colored black when he goes out upon his predatory excursions.'
'You must cause strict search to be made,' directed the governor.
'Write to the sheriff of Umea, in my name, for as many men as he can
spare. Until they arrive you must do the best you can with your
dragoons. They need not accompany us. We are numerous and used to
danger. Should the robbers venture to attack us, we should suffer less
from the encounter than they.'
He entered his carriage and the whole company continued their route,
still in a northerly direction, by the little town of Lulea, where the
greater and less Lulea Elf roll their mingled waters into the sea,
until they arrived at Ranea, where the gulf of Bothnia forms an angle
and the road turns off to the east. So far nothing had occurred to
justify the apprehensions of the sheriff, and the caution of the
travelers, which had hitherto kept them in close companionship, that
they might be ready to aid each other, began to relax. Megret, whom
Christine jestingly accused of riding near the carriage not for hers
but his own safety, had angrily ridden forward; and Arwed, giving way
to his own reflections, had turned into a fir-wood on the left, in
which he followed a foot-path leading toward the north. He might have
followed this path for the space of an hour, when he heard at a
distance ahead of him a sudden cry for help. Giving the spur to his
horse, he flew in the direction whence the voice came. He soon came in
view of Megret contending with four ill-looking fellows, who had seized
his horse by the bridle and furiously beset him with cudgels and
cutlasses.
'However little he may deserve it,' said the youth to himself, 'one
must help him in his extremity!' and, with a pistol in his left, and a
drawn sword in his right hand, he rushed into the fight. This attack
called the attention of the ruffians from Megret, who, taking advantage
of the circumstance, recovered his bridle and made off with all
possible speed.
Angry at the escape of their prey, the robbers now fell upon Arwed. The
latter, having fired and missed, soon had full employment for his sword
and the activity of his horse, in keeping off the ruffians, who
attacked him on all sides, and appeared to be well accustomed to such
combats. He made an attempt to wheel his horse suddenly to the right
and thus make an opening for escape; but here two other men, who by
their appearance belonged to the gang, met him with well aimed rifles.
'I could have wished a more honorable death,' he murmured, and at that
moment a tall man in a green hunting dress sprang from a neighboring
thicket. A red plume waved from his hat, and his face was black as a
Moor's. He spoke some angry words in an unintelligible jargon to the
robbers, upon which they immediately abandoned Arwed and disappeared in
the bushes, and the Moor motioned to Arwed to depart.
'Thanks, captain!' said Arwed, rejoiced at this unexpected rescue, and
pushing forward, he soon found himself upon the highway.
There he met Megret, with both of their servants, coming to seek for
him. 'Here you are, then!' said Megret out of breath, 'and, as I hope,
not wounded. I should never have forgiven myself if you had been
injured in rescuing me!'
'God be praised that you are alive, Arwed!' cried the beauteous
Christine, flying to meet him upon her favorite dun courser, and her
blue eyes flashed upon him so affectionately as to cause a fluttering
at his heart.
'You see, major,' said Megret flatteringly, 'how instantaneously all
were hastening to your assistance.'
'Your promptness is worthy of all thanks, colonel,' answered Arwed;
'but your help would have been of little service to me had I not been
so fortunate as to make the acquaintance of Black Naddock. His command
caused the fiends by whom I was hard pressed, to vanish. Had he not
appeared most opportunely, you would in all probability have found only
my dead body.'
'That would indeed have been purchasing the safety of a man who could
leave his preserver in the danger which had been incurred for his sake,
at too dear a rate,' remarked Christine, with bitterness.
Megret did not notice the sarcasm, as at that moment he was begging of
Arwed, with singular eagerness, that he would describe the personal
appearance of the robber-captain.
'He was a tall, well made man,' answered Arwed, 'about Mac Donalbain's
size, in a hunting dress, well armed, and with a black face.'
'But the features of that face?' asked Megret, anxiously. 'Bore they no
resemblance to any you have heretofore seen?'
'Really!' answered Arwed with a smile, 'I did not give myself time to
examine the blackamoor. In leaving him with all convenient haste I did
what you surely will excuse, as you set the first example of a resort
to the spur.'
'You ought to have shot him down!' continued Megret venomously, 'and
then we should have been no longer in the dark with regard to his
identity.'
'At the moment when he had just saved my life?' asked Arwed, with
earnestness. 'Surely, that cannot be your true meaning, colonel!'
'The countess is fainting!' screamed old Knut, spurring his horse to
Christine's side, and catching the pale maiden in his arms.
'Fainting! such a heroine fainting upon so slight an occasion!'
sneeringly remarked Megret. 'There must be some especial and secret
cause for it! Whether that cause rides here upon the highway, or skulks
there in the woods?--that is the question.'
Arwed, who had listened in silent wonder to Megret's observations,
which were wholly unintelligible to him, had in the meantime ridden to
the other side of Christine, and there assisted Knut in supporting the
poor girl in her saddle while they slowly returned to the carriage,
from which the governor had taken the horses in order to send the
coachman to the belligerents, as a reinforcement.
'Thank heaven, it is not necessary!' cried he, glancing at Arwed, and,
extending his hand, he affectionately exclaimed, 'my brave son!'
'We bring you a patient,' said Arwed, lifting Christine from her horse,
with Knut's assistance, and placing her in the carriage by her father's
side.
'Yes, no dissuasion could prevent it,' answered the governor. She would
go. She has had her way, and I am glad the unmanageable girl has for
once been compelled to yield to the weakness of her sex.'
At this moment Christine opened her eyes. Her glance at first fell upon
Arwed with inexpressible tenderness. She then shrunk and trembled as
though her soul was subdued by some horrible fear. Terror and dismay
were depicted in her features, and she hid her face in the bosom of her
astonished father.