They had been traveling silently for some hours, when the forest
opened, and an arm of the mountain which divides the Umea Lappmark lay
before them, in all its awful magnificence. Naked rocks and icebergs
stretched up into the clouds, and the pale green vallies interspersed
between the masses of stone, ice and snow, appeared as if nature was
here already preparing for her long winter's repose.
At the moment when the wanderers had arrived at the foot of the first
ascent, Arwed's guide, giving a shriek of terror, and pointing with a
trembling hand towards a black fir-tree in the road, turned and fled so
suddenly into the forest, that Arwed was soon obliged to give up all
thoughts of calling him back. Surprised, he now looked toward the
fir-tree which had caused the Laplander's panic. The view was
sufficiently horrible. The bloody head of a Laplander was affixed to
one of the under branches of the tree. Near it was suspended a tablet,
upon which in large letters was inscribed--'Punishment of treachery to
Naddock and his brethren.'
'Shameless insolence!' exclaimed Arwed, with indignation at the
impudence of the robber, who, to screen his own crimes, had here
executed a lawless penal judgment with Turkish barbarity. Approaching
the tree, he long and sorrowfully examined the mute, pale, yellow face.
'Poor victim,' he exclaimed, 'how mournfully thou lookest down upon me,
as if thou wouldst warn me from the path which probably led thee to
death. It would indeed be hard for me so to end my life. Yet my second
father must be saved, and it is unbecoming a man to turn back from an
enterprise which he has once commenced. No, fearlessly and cheerfully
will I go on, and if my undertaking succeed, thy death also shall find
an avenger!'
A clattering, as if from the approach of many people, interrupted the
earnest monologue. Arwed slipped among the bushes beside the way,
and about ten men, of wild and ferocious aspect, armed with knives,
iron-mounted cudgels, and some of them with muskets, came down from the
mountain and passed directly by him, gabbling among themselves in their
unintelligible gibberish, without being aware of his near proximity.
They had no sooner showed him their backs, than he hastily arose and
proceeded up the mountain with rapid strides.
With toilsome efforts Arwed succeeded in following the Laplander's
directions. At length he found the glacier brook, and at the same time
the end of his journey. A huge mass of bare, dark-gray rocks,
surrounded by ice-mountains, towered up into the clouds in terrible
majesty. Upon their summit lay the ruins of an ancient castle, of which
only a couple of towers with their connecting wall were standing, and
above them swarmed innumerable multitudes of rooks and daws, some of
which sat in thick rows upon the battlements, while others fluttered in
flocks about them in wild commotion. Their harsh croakings resounded
amid the deep stillness of the place, boding misfortune. 'Truly, not
alone in the battlefield is the courage of man called into exercise!'
said he to himself, while seeking the way which led up to the ruins. At
length he had found a foot-path, when a rough voice cried out to him,
'Halt!' He looked up, and upon a high rock hardly ten steps before him
stood a brigand, whose rifle was aimed at his head.
'What may be the matter?' cried Arwed, roughly, taking his gun from his
shoulder.
'Lay aside your arms, or I will shoot you down!' commanded the robber.
'That is not my custom,' answered Arwed. 'Shoot, rascal! But be sure to
hit, or you are lost.'
And presenting his gun with his left hand, as he would have presented a
pistol, he rushed towards his adversary. The latter, daunted by his
boldness, fired and missed; and instantly afterwards, with Arwed's
bullet in his head, he fell upon the rock, whence, yet struggling with
death, he tumbled down a neighboring and unfathomable abyss. Frightened
by the firing, the whole flock of funereal birds arose croaking from
the summit, with the rustling of a thousand wings, and fluttered like a
dark rushing cloud in the air, for some minutes obscuring the light of
the sun.
'Those villanous birds will alarm the garrison and bring the whole gang
in an uproar upon me,' thought Arwed, as he reloaded his gun. 'I would
willingly have ascended further, but now I must not venture it. Every
thing depends upon my safely reaching Gyllensten with the knowledge I
have acquired. I have obtained the necessary information concerning the
enemy's position. It has indeed cost one man's life, but he is no great
loss to the world.'
He hastened homeward. Soon the dangerous mountain lay far behind him;
and, just as the stars began to twinkle in the firmament, he reached
Gyllensten in safety.