Tales from the German Volume I Part 8

'Obtain me but the permission, general,' persisted Arwed: 'the rest shall be my care. I ride a Norman of unequalled speed and bottom.'

'I will make the effort,' said Duecker; 'but hardly hope for success.

Since Charles's death I am only the _late_ Duecker, and my influence has become a shadow.'

He had proceeded as far as the door when he was met by colonel Brenner.

'I come to take leave of you, my old friend,' said the latter, heartily embracing the general. 'I go this moment with post-horses to the capital.'

'Every body seems to wish to go to Stockholm tonight,' said Duecker.

'What hast thou to ask there?'

'His royal highness the prince of Hesse, as he already suffers himself to be called,' answered Brenner ironically, 'has already sent forward his beloved and trusty Siquier with the mournful news. It might afterwards, however, have occurred to him that it would not seem exactly proper to leave the communication of so important an event to the equivocal Frenchman. Wherefore must an honorable Swede follow him as the messenger of death; and as I might perhaps be troublesome here, I am in mercy selected for that duty.'

'Will you do me a pleasure and take the captain with you?' said Duecker. 'He has a sudden and urgent call to Stockholm, and may not in any other way be able to obtain leave of absence.'

'The prince has allowed me to choose my companion,' answered Brenner; 'and what would I not do to pleasure you? We set off directly, captain.

Farewell till happier times, my Duecker!'

He hastened forth. Arwed gratefully pressed the general's hand, who in return drew him to his heart. 'G.o.d protect you and bless your undertaking!' said the latter with emotion--and Arwed rushed forth in the cold, gray dawn of the awakening mom.

CHAPTER X.

Courtiers and lacqueys were running about and jostling each other in confusion and alarm, when colonel Brenner with Arwed mounted the broad stone steps of the royal palace upon the Ritterholm. With great trouble they found a valet-de-chambre, who announced them to the princess Ulrika. As they entered the ante-chamber, the folding doors of the princess' room opened, and Siquier, with shy glances, brushed past them. At a motion of the valet they entered the audience room. Ulrika was standing by a pier-table, upon which lay the king's perforated and b.l.o.o.d.y hat, holding, with a decent appearance of grief, a handkerchief before her dry eyes.

'I have the melancholy honor,' said Brenner, drawing his despatches from his bosom, 'to present to your royal highness these letters from your princely husband.'

'Siquier has already informed me of the sad occurrence,' answered Ulrika, taking the despatch with great coolness: 'nevertheless I thank you for the zeal with which you have executed the commission of the hereditary prince.'

'This officer,' continued Brenner, pointing to Arwed, 'was one of the first who found the hero's corpse. He can inform your royal highness of all the circ.u.mstances accompanying this so wholly unexpected death.'

'Wherefore the details?' cried Ulrika, 'which serve no purpose but to lacerate my heart. If my maternal love for this land forces upon me the conviction that this death is fortunate for Sweden, yet will the ties of blood claim their holy rights--and although I could never boast of my royal brother's love, yet my heart feels his loss with a sorrow which needs no additional poignancy.'

At this moment the chief governor, baron Taube, entered the room with a face in which alarm, feigned sorrow, and ill-concealed joy, struggled for mastery.

'You know it already, governor?' cried Ulrika, advancing hastily to meet him.

He silently bowed a.s.sent.

'I am confident that in you I have a truly devoted friend,' said she to him with a gracious stateliness, extending her hand for him to kiss.

'My life for your royal highness!' cried Taube with graceful enthusiasm, tenderly kissing the proffered hand.

'What should be done first, think you?' she asked him confidentially.

'I advise that the senate should be a.s.sembled this evening,' answered Taube. 'To be sure its numbers are not complete. Three of its members are with the army as generals, but in their stead the royal counsellors are devoted to your royal highness with their lives and fortunes.'

'If ever I have a voice in these lands,' said Ulrika, warmly, 'these good gentlemen shall not much longer wear these t.i.tles. I have never approved of my father's course in making them servants of his own will, instead of counsellors of the empire.'

'The senate know the gracious intuitions of your royal highness,'

answered Taube; 'and I am certain of the happy consequences. If any thing could make me fear, it would be the cabals which baron Goertz will not fail to set on foot for the young duke.'

'Goertz is taken care of!' cried Ulzika, with a look of hate. 'While we are now speaking here, all power to do further mischief is, as I hope, taken from him. Let only his house be promptly occupied and his papers and property secured.'

'Then there are his Holstein accomplices,' added Taube: 'Dernath, Ecklef, Paulsen, Sallern----'

'They must all be arrested this night,' decided Ulrika; 'all at the same hour, so that no one may be warned by the fate of the others. See to it, dear governor.'

'I will have the whole garrison under arms,' answered Taube, bowing.

'This business must be carried through with rapidity and decision, as every thing depends upon the proper employment of the present moment.'

'And tell me, dear baron,' asked Ulrika, grasping both of his hands with the most winning kindness, 'the senate will not compel me to buy the crown at too high a price, will they?'

'In relation to that,' answered Taube, with a warning glance towards the officers, who in the heat of the conversation had been overlooked until now; 'in relation to that, I will lay my humble opinions before your royal highness at a more private audience.'

Somewhat alarmed, Ulrika turned towards Brenner, and her glance fell directly upon Arwed's large blue eyes, sparkling with displeasure, which were fixed steadily upon her. She started back, and, with difficulty summoning composure, asked, 'who is that moody young man?'

'My companion, the captain count Gyllenstierna,' answered Brenner for his silent friend. 'A brave soldier. He was the first upon the walls of the Golden Lion, and won the particular approbation of our late blessed king.'

'Gyllenstierna?' asked Taube, eagerly. 'He is then the son of the senator, and was sent by his father to Armfelt's army.'

'The worthy old man was always one of our truest friends,' said Ulrika, interrupting him, and bowing graciously to Arwed. And it will be most agreeable to us to learn that the son follows in the father's footsteps. We shall remember to bestow upon him some peculiar mark of our favor.'

She held out her hand for him to kiss. But Arwed, highly incensed at all he had heard, would not be compelled to show this mark of reverence to a woman whom he hated. He stood stiff and motionless, and the hand of the queen remained in expectancy, unclasped and unkissed, suspended in the air.

Shocked at the gross impropriety, the chief governor hemmed emphatically. Colonel Brenner anxiously endeavored to push Arwed forward, but he would not move a limb, and the hand of the princess finally sank down by her side.

'The young man is certainly not well!' said Ulrika, with much bitterness.

'After his long and forced journey it would not be strange,' said Brenner, apologetically. 'He has need of rest. Is it the pleasure of your royal highness that we now retire?'

'You can receive your despatches early in the morning from the governor,' answered Ulrika with displeasure; 'and for your companion, may he in time learn the courtesy due from every gentleman to a lady, even though she were not the sister of his king.'

CHAPTER XI.

'Most a.s.suredly,' said Brenner to Arwed, as soon as they had left the palace behind them, 'you have a very peculiar talent for making your way at court. You ought, at the least, to be made a master of ceremonies. I have taken you with me to an audience once, but I would never do it again.'

'Had you left me behind you, as I earnestly begged of you, colonel,'

answered Arwed, 'you would have spared me the pain of witnessing the thoroughly disgusting scene, and yourself the mortification of my awkwardness.'

'You do not understand the matter,' bl.u.s.tered Brenner. 'It was proper for me to present my companion; and in doing so I was actuated by the best intentions towards you. If our own hearts bled at the sad news we brought, yet I knew well that it would be right welcome here; and the face that brings good news may expect to win the good will of those in authority. And every thing was going on so well, and the warm sun of favor was beginning to s.h.i.+ne clear and bright upon you, when satan must come all at once into your back so that you could not bend it, into your arm that you could not stretch it out, and into your lips that you could not kiss,--and now the opportunity has pa.s.sed for time and eternity!'