Tales from the German Volume I Part 5

'Swedenborg!' cried Megret, laughingly, from the other table, 'do you find yourself here again? What news do you bring with you? How stand affairs in the celestial and subterranean regions?'

'The angels axe weeping and the devils laughing!' answered Swedenborg with awful earnestness.

'And what say your spirits thereto?' sneeringly added the Frenchman.

'They are silent in the presence of impure souls,' resumed the prophet in a tone of thunder, which closed the lips of the scorner.

'Is captain Gyllenstierna here?' cried adjutant general Siquier, putting his head in at the door.

'He is here,' answered Arwed, rising from his seat.

'In an hour the king will expect you at his quarters,' said Siquier, stepping to the pharo table.

'Most certainly, he wishes to say a friendly word in relation to your conduct in the late action,' observed count Posse. 'Your enemies, even, must acknowledge that you have deserved it.'

'Thank you, captain, for the acknowledgment that I did my duty,' said Arwed modestly. 'Yet there were many others who did as much, if not more, in that action.'

'Whoso abaseth himself shall be exalted,' said Swedenborg, with benevolent kindness, laying his hand upon Arwed's shoulder.

'You are come opportunely, Siquier,' said Megret derisively. 'You have long been desirous of having your horoscope cast. There stands a professor of the high art, the great Swedenborg. Give him a good word.'

'It would occupy too much of my time,' answered Siquier. 'It takes long, I have heard, to make the calculations, and I must shortly return to the prince. But Swedenborg must also be an experienced chiromancer, and can foretell my good fortune from my hand.'

With malicious levity, he held out his hand to the insulted man. But the latter threw it forcibly back, exclaiming, 'your hand smells of blood. I have nothing to do with you!'

The scoffer stood a long time, as if suddenly struck by a thunderbolt, staring with amazement at the prophet. Soon collecting himself, however, he strode out of the room.

'What was that?' asked count Posse, looking inquiringly at Megret. The latter, visibly disturbed, shuffled the cards anew, and at length said with a forced smile, 'one fool makes many others.'

'That was too much in earnest for folly,' thought Posse.

'If it be agreeable to you,' said Arwed in ill humor to Kolbert, 'we will leave our game unfinished. I have no longer the ability to play.

My head has become unusually disturbed by the strange conversation to which I have been compelled to listen.'

Kolbert, acquiescing, threw the chessmen in a heap. Arwed stepped to the pharo table and seized some cards which were quickly thrown to him.

'Take the king,' said Swedenborg to him: 'he is the banker's enemy.'

Megret was evidently startled, and with a Vehemence vastly disproportionate to the occasion, he asked Swedenborg, 'what do you mean? Do you intend to insult me?'

'He who is evil has evil thoughts,' answered Swedenborg quietly. 'I gave to my young friend good advice, founded upon my calculations of the game.'

'I prefer to advise myself,' said Arwed,--impatient of the obtrusiveness of the stranger,--retaining the old cards which uninterruptedly fell from the banker.

'Make the experiment with the king once, to gratify me,' begged Kolbert in an under tone, 'if only from curiosity. If you lose we shall then be enabled to ridicule your adviser.'

'Not willingly,' said Arwed. Finally, however, he set the card which had been recommended.--It won.

'His majesty bears himself bravely,' said Kolbert, laughing; 'the banker can obtain no advantage over him.'

Megret angrily threw to Arwed his winnings, at the same time fixing his rolling eyes upon the prophet. A pa.s.sionate remark appeared to hover upon his tongue, but he suppressed it and the playing proceeded.

'How stands it now with our expedition against Drontheim?' asked Kolbert at the close of the game. 'I am surprised that we have had no well-founded intelligence from thence for so long a time.'

'According to my calculations,' said Posse, 'Armfelt must have already entered Drontheim. Have you no news from thence, Herr Swedenborg? What is our army about?'

'They are plundering the copper mines of Roeraas,' answered Swedenborg coolly.

'That would not be very agreeable to me!' said Posse jestingly, 'The position is somewhat distant from the capital, and would give the appearance of a retreat. This time, however, I firmly believe in a glorious victory for our arms. Do you not, also?'

'Excuse my answering,' said Swedenborg sorrowfully. 'The powerful elements hate mankind, and they are the stronger!'

The officers looked thoughtfully at each other, and a profound stillness pervaded the a.s.sembly.

'Let the Finlanders protect their own skins,' said Kolbert, finally breaking the mournful silence. 'We will stick to Frederickshall, which we have already in our hands. The golden lion battery has been won after a brilliant engagement. When once the trenches are pushed a little further, then with a resolute escalade, we shall be there.'

'For G.o.d's sake, my dear friend!' said Swedenborg, anxiously, 'rely not so confidently upon the uncertain fortune of war! Bound to the wild steed of accident, the G.o.ddess of fortune ranges through the world--and when she stops and looks back upon her b.l.o.o.d.y and smoking path, she finds that she has only described a hopeless circle. She stands upon the point whence she started, and all the life and happiness, which she has trampled down in her furious course, is offered up in vain.'

'You speak so learnedly that I cannot wholly understand you,'

laughingly observed Kolbert; 'but I gather from your conversation, that you lack the true soldier's faith. You have done well, therefore, in consecrating yourself to the pen. The sword would make you too deeply anxious. We, on the contrary, when our king leads us forth, would cheerfully grapple with the devil himself in his own dominions, and sing over him the _te deum praenumerando_.'

'And who can guarantee, proud man,' asked Swedenborg with a piercing glance, 'that your king will see the breaking of another morning, to lead you on to strife and victory?'

He speedily withdrew. An indignant murmur arose among the officers; 'It is almost too bad,' said count Posse.

'Yes, indeed!' grumbled Megret. 'And the worst of it is, that they should permit such fools to run about freely in the camp, exciting and perplexing weak minds.'

'Swedenborg certainly is not a fool,' said Posse; 'but a warning example of the disorder which fanciful ideas may create in a clear and ripe understanding.'

'Besides, he is never once original,' said Kolbert. 'The prophecy of the king's approaching death has been circulating through the camp for several days.'

'Original or copy,' said Megret, spitefully, 'one should not publish his fanciful ideas on every occasion. And whatever of sound understanding he may have, according to the count's opinion, might be allowed by all parties to circulate freely, and no harm done.'

At this moment Siquier re-entered with evident agitation, and whispered to Megret, 'the king visits the trenches this evening.'

'Diable!' cried Megret, snapping his fingers. 'Cannot you dissuade him from it?'

'Dissuade him!' said Siquier. 'Dost thou not know the king? Make your preparations.'

'To-morrow evening I shall have the honor to give the gentlemen their revenge,' said Megret courteously, closing his box. 'I must now repair to the trenches, Come, Siquier, our way lies in the same direction for some distance, and I have yet much to say to you.'

The two Frenchmen went, forth together, arm in arm. Arwed followed them, out, and saw that they were engaged in very earnest conversation and struck their hands together with much vehemence. The circ.u.mstance surprised him, he knew not wherefore, and he made an effort to catch something of their conversation, which was carried on in rather a loud voice. The tones came distinctly to his ear in the stillness of the evening, but he could not understand a word of it, and soon convinced himself that they were conversing in a language whose barbarous sounds were unknown to him. 'What can all this mean?' he asked himself, looking dubiously after the two officers until they disappeared from his eyes into the trenches.

'The hour has elapsed,' suddenly observed some one near him. 'You may as well go now to the king, sir captain.'

Arwed peered about him through the evening dusk, and thought he perceived near him the tall, meagre form of Swedenborg.

'How came you here, sir, taking so active a part in my affairs?' asked he morosely.