A KING

And His Campaigners

VON HEIDENSTAM

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A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

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1. TWENTY-SIX MEN AND A GIRL. By MAXIM GORKY.

2. EL OMBtr. By W. H. HUDSON.

3. A KING AND His CAMPAIGNERS. By VERNER VON

HEIDENSTAM.

Others in the Press.

VERNER VON HEIDENSTAM

A KING AND HIS
CAMPAIGNERS

Rendered into English by
AXEL TEGNIER

LONDON

DUCKWORTH & CO.,

3, HENRIETTA STREET, W.C.

MDCCCCII.

PRINTED BY R. FOLKARD AND SON,

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CONTENTS.

CHATTER. PACK.

I. — The Green Passage I

II. — The Conversion of the King .... 20

III.— After the Coronation 28

IV. — A Midsummer Venture 50

V. — Gunnel, Keeper of the Castle Stores 65

VI. — Maans the Frenchman 71

VII. — Queen of the Land-rakers - - - - - 93

VIII. — Mazeppa and His Emissary • - - - 113

IX. — Fifteen Years Later 124

X. — The Beleaguered House 147

XL— A Clean White Shroud 167

XIL— Poltawa ........ 173

XIII. — Behold, these are My Children .... 209

XIV.— In Council - 214

XV.— The Church Square 218

XVI.— The Captives 223

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

VERNER VON HEIDENSTAM, a great Little Master in
latter-day Swedish literature, is in his narrative style
inclined towards impressionism. The very simplicity
of his style, its bald directness of effect, his suggestion
of environment and character by means of scanty but
illuminating detail, and the veiledness of his root in-
tention, make the effort to render his writings into
proper English invidious and hard to achieve with
any just measure of success.

The stories in this volume, the first of the series
entitled " Karolinerna " in the Swedish, deal with the
condition of the country and the personality of
Charles XII., that military genius of the early part
of the eighteenth century. At the age of eighteen
he smote Russia, Denmark, and Saxony with her
Polish sovereign, who were conspiring to partition
his kingdom ; and to him Marlborough could say,
"I wish I could serve in some campaign under so
great a general as your Majesty, that I might learn
what I yet want to know."

Heidenstam's work, vivid and picturesque, is
charged with a deep knowledge of the period treated.
Local colour is dealt out with a sparing hand ; only
here and there a patch of it lightens the monotone of

TRANSLATOR S NOTE Vlll.

his general scheme ; and superfluous detail is rigor-
ously eschewed. His delineation of Charles, that ul-
timate example of splendid but vacillating obstinacy,
is impartial and unsympathetic, even to coldness.
But whether or no it be correct, considered from the
historical standpoint, it is aye set forth with distinc-
tion and the sure touch of conviction.

Heidenstam is always the inspired craftsman in his
work. Yet impressionism in any form of art tends to
obscurity of outline and purport : and it is as much
owing to this as to the intensity of vehement imagina-
tion, conceiving mental visuality, and likewise obscur-
ing it in part, that his narrative occasionally fails in
clearness and cohesion. His defects are the defects
of his method.

In these tales, the subject matter has been closely
followed, not literatim nor with an eye to the nuances
of style, but with as much attention to the truthful-
ness of its presentment as to its right array in fitting
English. I trust that language and form are such as
the author himself would have used were he an
Englishman.

A.

CHAPTER I.
THE GREEN GALLERY.

IN the castle-quarter, where the firewarden sold
brandy and beer, a tall narrow-shouldered customer
had been cast out headlong upon the steps ; his
pewter pot, thrown after him, rolled down before his
feet. The worsted stockings of the man were dirty
and darned. His neck-cloth was pulled up about his
mouth and unshaven chaps. He kept his hands
behind him, thrust into the back pocket of his coat.

"Throw out Ekerot. The idiot ! " cried the fire-
warden, " He has blown tobacco into the beer, and
struck Peter Malermeistar with a darning needle ; he's
full of every kind of mischief and devilry ! Then
close-to the table ; order has come to shut the gates.
The King is dying."

Old Haakon, a lifelong retainer of Charles XL,
was one of those present. He bore a friendly
countenance, and in his tight-fitting livery walked
so bowlegged, that he looked as if he had just got
off horse-back. He lifted the pewter pot, and in an
amicable fashion thrust it under Ekerot's arm.

B

2 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

" I will see the officer home," said he, " or the
lieutenant, or whatever he calls himself ! "

" Lars Ekerot is Captain in the King's Navy ! "
answered Ekerot, " and far travelled and cunning in
tongues, too, is he ! But for all this, the folk here
know not enough to make any allowance for him. I'll
complain about them, I'll make a charge ; that I
shall ! Have I not told you : Heaven will soon rain
judgment on this place, and every rafter in it will be
ablaze ? Corrupt councillors and unjust judges —
false testimony and many miseries — these have be-
come our daily bread. The Lord's Anger lies heavy
on the Land."

" My good sir, lieutenant or captain, in all truth
you need prophesy no worse misfortunes than those
which God has already laid on us ! Fires are break-
ing out everywhere in the outskirts of the town ; for
ten autumns, now, we've had barren harvests and
famines ; and this year a ton of rye already costs ten
silver rix-dollars. The fodder, too, '11 soon be at an
end in the Royal Stables ; and the grain ships lie out-
side, fast in the ice ! "

Ekerot went with him along the staircase, and
looking about. His beady, restless eyes did not notice
anything. Now and then he stood still, cackling and
talking in an undertone to himself.

Through the windows they saw the Burg beneath
them, with the raised perron and its statues, and the
sentinels tramping up and down the Trumpeters'
Gallery. Behind its snowy towers and roofs small
black groups of men were to be seen travelling on the

THE GREEN GALLERY 3

ice between Kungsholmlandet and Soder ; and the
setting March sun, shining athwart the windows of a
chamber in the left wing, made as it were the concen-
trated lustre of the Crown glistening there.

" Yes ! " murmured Ekerot, " yes ! it must all, all,
burn ! all that has been our shame and our greatness.
Charles's Wain I have seen shine bright in the night
sky, and when to-night I sit, pipe in hand, amid the
tobacco smoke, I note wonderful stars foretelling that
the old ordering of the world is out of place. In
Hungary and Germany swarms of Arabian locusts
have fallen. The fire-spouting mountains throw up
burning stones. In February, two years gone, we
had green grass finger high in Djurgaarden, and heard
the birds of spring merrily singing : but we were
using sledges again in May. Hoar frosts whitened
the corn in August: yet in September I plucked
strawberries on Essingen. In such times it is, that
the Lord God opens the eyes of His own, so that they
may perceive hidden things."

" God-a-mercy, say not so ! " stammered Haakon.
" Does he give this sight, then, to folks asleep or
waking ? "

" When one is between the two ! "

" Every word I promise to tell to the King, if you,
lieutenant, would give me the full truth of what you
have seen and know. Look there, at the two
windows with their shutters drawn-to ; I was inside
that room not more than two hours ago ! The King
sits there, in a chair padded round with pillows and
thick coverings : he is so shrivelled and little now, that

B— 2

4 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

his face is all nose and lips ; he cannot raise his head at
all. Poor, wretched King! what agonies he must
suffer, and he, too, only in his forties ! When he was
wont to come limping through the chamber, I was
glad if I could get away ; but, for all I'm one of the
least of his servants, he would immediately take me
around the neck, and, streaming with tears, affection-
ately press me to him ; I do not believe he feels
warmer towards his son or his wife ! When he does
send for him, he is usually chary of speaking, and sits
and looks at him. He only talks about the Country
now, always about the Country. A week ago, I saw
some documents of his concerning the tax on house-
surveys and town-dues and like affairs ; and now he
has written his last and secret advice for the son's use,
and put the letter safe away into a locked iron box ;
and as soon as anyone comes into the room his eyes
seem to mean the very same as his words always
do. ' Help me, help me, to keep the Country, to
make my son worthy and wise. The Country ! The
Country.' "

Haakon passed his hand over his forehead ; and
they continued along the passage from window to
window.

" In that room yonder, to the left behind us, her
Majesty lives, the Queen- widow. For the last few
days she has shut herself up, and not even Tessin, the
Master Builder, will get in to her. No one knows how
she busies herself ; but I am thinking she spends the
time at cards ! There is a tinkling and clinking of
trinkets against the card table, and a swishing and

THE GREEN GALLERY 5

rustling of lace and silks . . . and the Spanish cane
with the gold knobs on it falls on the floor. . ."

"... And the lady in-waiting, beautiful Hed-
wig Stenbock, does she not take a hand in it ? "

" She may well leave it alone, for she's been long
married, and is old and wicked, and at home within
four walls ! My good sir, you only live in that which
was, and which ought to be ! "

" Possibly ! " and Ekerot gazed craftily and with
insinuation at the new north wing, newly recon-
structed by Tessin, the previous one having been
razed to the ground. Some of the scaffolding yet
stood there, the rough spruce twigs still on the ends
of the topmost baulks.

" Well, who lives on the other side, now ? No one,
not even the devil, eh ! and henceforth, too, none '11
live there, — I know as much ! Why could not every-
thing remain as of old ? Understand, that according
as every man has a soul, so in every old house there
lodges some evil spirit or other, something of the
Devil, that aye will break out and come to no good,
when one begins to use mattock and trowel ! Do you
bring to mind the Green Gallery that formerly ran
down there, under the roof over the old Castle Church ?
It was there my eyes were first opened ! Yes, yes,
I'll tell you. I will tell you everything, ifyou'll come
home with me, and later on keep your promise to
recount every word to the King."

They had now passed out at the Castle gates, and
were crossing the bridge above the burying ground.
Just then a courier, with a leather satchel at his back,

6 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

was dismounting. Through the tramping of feet and
words of command was to be heard his answer to the
many questions : " Six mile round, north of Stockholm,
only three men seen. . . . Sitting by the road-
side, devouring a dead beast ... in Norrland a
pound of meal mixed with crushed bark costs four
silver rix thalers. The soldiers are starving ; the
regiments are reduced to half-strength! "

Ekerot nodded in assent, as if he was long acquainted
with the entire state of affairs. Then together with
Haakon he held on again, the pewter pot under his
arm, his hands in his back pocket.

As they were climbing the stairs to his chamber in
Traangsund he threw a suspicious sidelong glance at
Haakon, and on inserting the key closely examined
whether or no the door had been opened in his absence.
The room was spacious and empty. At the window
stood a cage with a squirrel therein. On one of the
walls a number of various coins were fastened in rows :
bright thalers, and great and small copper coins, a
five ducat piece, and also a couple of notes, worthless
for thirty years past.

" The fool," said Ekerot, " hides his treasure so
cunningly, that he cannot watch it ; but I will always
keep mine before my eyes, so I can quickly tell it into
a bag when the great fire comes! "

From a corner he drew forth five sulphur-tipped
wooden matches, laid them on the hearth, and kindled
them by means of flint and steel. Then he and Haakon
ceased blowing up the fire ; and as no chairs were there,
seated themselves on the floor in front of the blaze.

THE GREEN GALLERY 7

" And now let us hear the tale," said Haakon.

Said Ekerot, " Never have I seen anything so full
of horror as that Green Gallery! It was the time
when I was an officer in the Navy. Nowadays they
throw into my pocket the paltry pension of two
hundred and fifty thalers, and let me be: I can take
it all ! They hunted me out of the Service for fear I
had become the Admiral; and Hans Wachtmeister
wished to become that ! c The fellow's mad,' he yelled
on deck, when I asked him, most courteously, first to
bow before ordering me into the rigging ; so then, all
was ended as far as I was concerned. ' Mad Ekerot,'
I was always called, wherever I went. Yes, it is ever
the same in the world. A poor comrade carries a
friend to the grave, then his master; and in the end,
this and that one, for a bare doit ; he gets himself an
oilskin cap and a long black cloak ; and when he is in
a hurry his lists of dead slip out of his pocket ; and
the children take to their heels, weeping and yelling,
1 The undertaker ! The undertaker ! ' But, though
one can become such terrifying wraith, we are all
kneaded out of the same common clay.

" And now this, that I will say, you must repeat
word for word to the King himself.

" At the time which I talk about, I was sent into
drawing and design. One day before that quarrel
with Wachtmeister, I was ordered, according to
gracious command, to take a second with me, named
Nils, and instal myself in an empty lumber-room
above the Papists' Church in the Castle tower, next
the river. Here we were to draw from a defective

8 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

ship's lantern on Matar one desired by the queen-
widow for her sloop.

" One day as we sat there, playing hazard, and
arguing about the lantern, which was designed
cursedly wrong, some fun came into my head. Cried
I, ' Nils, have you ever seen a dog with five legs? '
When Nils but gave a shrug, I continued, ' I have,
— in the Iron Mart; it went on four legs, and the
fifth it had in its mouth,— but it was not its own!*
Nils began to growl, so to tease him I cried still louder,
' Witty you are not ! Now we'd like to see very much
if you're mettlesome? I wager this pot, full of the
right good Spanish wine, and a ducat at the bottom
of it all, that I will go all alone through the Green
Gallery at curfew !

" He answered, ' I know, that when you take a
brisk notion into your head, you're not to be put off
it ; yet I would not have it laid to my avarice that I
could not agree to the wager ; so, Ekerot, I take it up
as you wish ! But I would like to justify myself ever
so little to your old mother, if any harm come to you,
so I'll go home now. In the day-time, this place is
heartsome enough to look at, but at night-time it
becomes lonely here; I'd rather sleep in the most
wretched hole outside.'

" I called him a coward, and let him go. WThen
by myself I noticed the darkening was already setting
in ; and to harden myself I went quickly down the
stairs to the Green Gallery, and peered through the
key-hole. The green tint was painted on most of the
place, so that the older and ruddier colour lightened

THE GREEN GALLERY ' $

underneath it. Along the walls stood all sorts of
furniture out-of-date, and so stored here; I saw
presses, and chairs, and paintings of dogs and horses,
and farther on a bed with curtains drawn together.
Along the sides were recesses and dark corners, where
the rain dropped down from the leaking roof.

" It was about the time of Walpurgis, thus the night
somewhat clear, and this gave me a certain feeling of
security, so that I durst set myself down on the stairs
to wait. I knew that strange creatures had their
lurking places there, beneath the flooring of the
Gallery. The servants called them Witches of the
Night, because it needs always be pitch dark afore
they heaved up the loose boards and showed their
heads. They were no larger than thirteen-year-old
children, and wholly brown and naked, and possessing
the shape of woman. Often and often would they
climb on the presses, and swing themselves round by
means of their arms ; and anyone who had the mis-
fortune to encounter one of them, most surely must
die before the year ran out. Well, as soon as I hear
the bells, I opened the door. I took one step ; but my
fear was so big, that I stood still, with both hands
on the door-posts, and staring into the deepening
twilight. Through a hole in the boarded windows
I could see out, as far as the Tower on Brunke-
berg, and this so heartened me, that I straightway
stepped into the Green Gallery, so that the ringing
might not stop before I was come back. As long
as the bells rang out, the creatures of darkness had
no power.

ID" A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

" When I was halfway, maybe, I suddenly saw
something dark glide in front of me, out from behind
the bed-curtains, and slip down into an old elbow-
chair, as if to hide itself or awaiting me : I felt as if
my knees failed me, and I heard the echo of my
scream shrilly repeat itself. Hear you now! From
that very moment my eyes became opened, and since
then men call me ' Idiot.1

" Against the light from the window I saw it was a
man. He did not remain stiff-still like to myself.
He instantly seized me by the arm, and hissed
between his teeth ' Figlio di un cane ! Spy ? Servant
of the Queen- Widow? '

" ' God be praised! ' I stammered, when I knew it
was a man, and understood by his shaking, unapt,
fumbling hold of me that he was as much affrighted.
Likewise I perceived he went bare in his stocking-
soles, and had thrust the shoes into the breast of his
coat.

" I collected myself, and told him of my innocent
notion. In the end he believed me.

" ' Such an accursed, rotten old hole,' growled the
man, to conceal his perturbation. ' There is so much
rain dripping down from the roof that my feet are wet.
As I do live, a new house should be built here. . . .
My good man, can you find the way? Then help me
through this maze to the Ballet Hall. Who I am is
a matter of indifference to you ! '

"'Certainly!' I replied. 'Although I do know
Tessin the master-builder, and Chamberlain, perfectly
well!1 '

THE GREEN GALLERY I I

" He bowed, and took me by the coat-tails, so then
I turned myself and went before him; at bottom, I
believe, each was equally glad to have met the other.
When we had found the way down to the Hall, he
ordered me to stay outside; but I heard the Witches
jumping in the darkness behind us, and put my hand
on the door-lock, so that I could open the door, and
unperceived slip in behind him. Through the window
one looked down on the river. Within the Hall a
number of side-scenes were leant against the walls,
painted finely with trim woods and white-walled
temples.

" Tessin remained standing in the middle of the
Hall, and softly clapped his hands.

11 A woman rose up from behind the staging, and
opened a small dark lanthorn: she was Hedwig
Stenbock, the Queen- Widow's great maid-of-honour.
So now, you may understand how the foreign fop has
climbed so high !

" Hedwig, my dearest on earth! ' said he. ' We're
just searching for your room. No answer, ma
chere ? '

41 Hedwig Stenbock was at that time nigh almost on
five and thirty, and she approached him so stiff and
full of ceremony, that I thought she had neither heart
nor soul; but suddenly she changed; the red blood
flushed her cheeks when he embraced her. Then I
forgot myself and cried fairly loud. 4 Aha ! aha ! '
Tessin lurched about; but he was so drunk with
desire, that he only drew together his eyebrows in
rebuke.

12 A KING AND HtS CAMPAlGNEkS

"He explained my presence.

" ' We must have an accomplice at any rate ; and
Ekerot can be as capable as anyone, at that ! If he
understands to keep his mouth shut, he'll not go un-
rewarded ! '

"Thereupon he bade me take the lanthorn and go
through the empty council chambers — thanks for the
honour; and again, by a way which he directed me,
down to where the Court Ladies of the Queen-Widow
lived. May you aye sleep in peace, my fair ones!
And as soon as I had made sure that nothing was a-
go there, I was to come back and advise them.

" But I had to tell something wholly different when
I returned in safety. I had had to hear the Witches
rioting behind the door of the cabinet ; and see them
leap with small sparks of fire playing from their hands
before the Chamber of Archives, where the State
papers are kept in chests along the wainscotting.
But at last I had found the night attendant of the
Queen-Dowager. He was sitting in the corridor by
his hand-lamp, and fast asleep, his shoulders against
the wall.

" ' He has been sent for, after I left ! ' Said Hedvvig
Stenbock, standing proud and stiff as ever. ' He has
no idea, the bird has flown though. But, how now
to get back ? '

" She thrust Tessin's arm away from her, and
became very thoughtful.

" ' I have long feared this, and thought over it.
Scandal will break out about us, to-night. Her
Majesty herself is jealous! '

TPIE GREEN GALLERY 13

"Tessin clutched the air as if at seeming swords
and daggers, and his eyes sparkled.

" ' Jealous ? About me ? She is forty years old, and
grey-haired already ; her voice is as coarse as a man's !
Should I, then, always be hearing of this madness?
Before whom should I have laid my works, from
whom should I have sought protection, if not with
Sweden's Hedwig Eleonora.' He bows. ' But fear
not, my dearest, no shame shall cloud your name;
to-night you accompany me; we can speedily get a
sledge ; . . . and a little later. . . . Addio !
I have friends in Italy ! '

" ' God in Heaven is my witness,' she answered,
' that I am aye ready to follow you, wherever you go ;
and from folk I ask nothing, but rather would be with
you. Yet first must we take care and examine what
is discreet, with a trusty friend and protector. I think
on Erik Lindskiold, he sits and drinks with the King
to-night. Ekerot can go down by the Burg court-
yard to the little staircase leading from the King's
Chambers, and wait there till Lindskiold appears.
Then he will ask him, with many excuses, to come
here at once ... to me.'

" Tessin motioned me away with his hand : I did
not heed him, but found a delectable pleasure in obey-
ing so noble a lady.

" The night was already far-spent when I came
back with Lindskiold. He had questioned me closely
about the whole affair. He shook his periwig ; cursed
in a friendly fashion ; laughed loud, and behaved as if
the whole castle belonged to him,

14 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

" When he was come into the Hall, he bent on one
knee, and threw his hat into the air, and cried ! ' Dear
folks, are you wholly decided then ? You would
inflame love, then run away and laugh at them all
that guard you ? Your passion begets suffering then,
and no joys ? Pish! Pish! A master architect, an
adventurer — not without censure either, of some recent
nobility — hopes to win our beautiful Lady-in-waiting.
All woes and sorrows began that morn when mother
Eve stood in Paradise, nude, new-made, and beautiful,
and Adam awoke, and full of hot admiration cried,
Madam I congratulate you, for the birth- day ! '

" ' Damnation, he is almost tipsy ! ' muttered Tessin
to her. ' C'est ce que Ton appelle 1'esprit sue'dois !
Lindskiold is drunk.'

" ' Only a very little ! He is in the right mood.'

" Lindskiold heard them not, but continued speak-
ing ; his voice echoing through the great place. ' For
a long time past I have had some suspicion about
this ; and the noble descendant of the Stenbocks will
take it in good part ! But to travel to Italy ? bah !
The country for the Chamberlain lies here : it needs
his genius ! Look me in the face, sir, and tell me if
you can run away from the drawings, spread out by
you on my table, or if there's anything in the world
so dear to you as your art ? '

" ' I am resolved to marry the Chamberlain, and
there the matter is ! ' quoth Hedwig Stenbock.

" Lindskiold laid his hand above his heart.

" ' Certainement ! certainement ! ' cries the Dowa-
ger ! 'I myself will make a wreath of blossom off my

THE GREEN GALLERY 1 5

own lime trees ! I have no forefathers buried in the
vault beneath the church-vane : Schmied was my
father's name, and what was he ? Plainly a burgo-
master of Skenning ! Now if only it was the Cham-
berlain who came out of Skenning, how would he
have been forced to make shift to build ? A new
castle for the King? — after the Skenning sort ! That
town ? Puh, I had enough hatred for it ! However,
because he is what he is, the Chamberlain is both
supercilious and without any cunning ! '

" Lindskiold took Tessin by the arm, then he drew
himself up, erect and haughty, with a bearing as if he
had suddenly thrown aside a distasteful masquerading
costume.

" ' His passion will cool down in a month or so !
Now, as a beginning, the Chamberlain kisses the hand
of her he delighteth to honour, and goes back three
steps, makes an obesiance, then follows me. Be
calm ! my word goes far, you know, in the King's
ear ! Then Ekerot returns to the attendant of the
Queen-widow, blows out his lanthorn, gives him a
right sound thumping on the ear, and throws his
shoes behind him ; so then the man believes it is all
owing to the witches, and our worthy lady can reach
her room in tranquillity. However, it is further
determined that in a short time she betake herself
on a journey to Pomerania : the Chamberlain meets
and marries her there, without any unnecessary stir.
Her Majesty I'll take upon my own conscience — the
accursed misfortune — I mean the Queen-widow, that
cunning woman . . . aye, the devil himself qan-

1 6 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

not manage her. But I have heard how they laid the
unjust hand on the unfriendly nobles at the recovery
of the crown lands ; and know how much she gained
from that ; and will put her in mind thereon. New
times are coming, you may be certain! Ah, my
dear children, my dear children, if you only knew how
the heart grows big with anxiety when one is at the
rudder of state, and steering towards far-off beacons,
the very names of which one durst not even mention
before the King. But believe my words, and do what
I say. Here, then, where we now stand the Cham-
berlain will some day establish his immortality ! '

" Tessin, all bewildered, took Lindskiold's hand
and carried it to his lips. When I had done my errand
on the attendant, he offered me, with a grimace, these
two notes, there on the wall. « Now,' said he, ' he
has the promised reward of his silence.'

" But after this adventure all my visions and my
ill-luck began, and, whenever, being unwell, I had to
stay at home, my vapours were the common talk of
every quarter ; and I had gout, too, consumption,
asthma, even St. Vitus's dance, and a buzzing in my
head. Even at the time I took the notes I was aware
they had been out of circulation many years ! And
now give a strict account in the presence of His
Majesty the King of all I have told you."

Ekerot wished to say more, but there came a
sudden knocking on the door, and a messenger called
Haakon to the King, whose condition had changed for
the worst.

A little time after, it was the day following Easter,

THE GREEN GALLERY 17

the people were informed that the King was in the
last extremity, but Ekerot only nodded in his accus-
tomary fashion, as if it all were already known to
him. A multitude of starving men and women, to
whom work had been promised outside on the neigh-
bouring land, stood in the snow on the streets, shelter-
less and desperate. With his hands in the back pocket
of his coat, Ekerot went from group to group, listening
intently to their murmurs, and nodding and nodding
again in corroboration. He wrote down predictions
concerning the coming night, which he delivered to
the Court Chaplain, Wallin, calamities he prophesied
were wont to evince themselves during the hours of
darkness, so that they might make plain to the
envisioned Blessed that which is disguised and hidden
by the light.

It was on a windy April day, shortly after he had
shoved his last prediction under Wallin's outer door,
that Ekerot seated himself at his window, and talked to
his squirrel. Then he bit at a dry pear which he took
out of a chest of drawers. Now, as he sat there, he
heard, all of a sudden, alarms and clangings of bells,
and when he stretched himself out of the window he
saw the Castle roof enveloped in fiery smoke. He
turned about and began to take his money off the wall,
carefully he counted it into his pocket. He trembled,
and his teeth chattered ; but with the squirrel under
one arm, and the pewter pot below the other he
stumbled down the stairs to the street. He got thrust
against the walls of the houses by the crush of folk, and
out of wind, so he stood still and stared up at the

c

1 8 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

Castle, where the licking flames were already beating
among its brittle rafters. Soon the three great wings
were blazing like enormous heaps of wood ; the thun-
derous roaring of the flames overpowered the pealing
of bells and the rolling of the drums.

«' Behold, behold," cried he, " the witches now
must flee into the bright day. See how they fly in files
along the ridges of the roof, with fire in their hands.
They climb the roof of the Tower, and hop down on
Tessin's new gable ; 'twas he disturbed their ease !
They will be consumed. This is but the beginning.
All shall be burnt to the ground. All. All."

Soldiers and servants forced their way out over the
Castle bridge, between casks of water and furniture
and pictures. Under the two lions, upon which rested
the Royal Escutcheon above the fold of the great
door, appeared Hedwig Eleonora, the mother and
grandmother of the two Karls. Two courtiers sup-
ported her ; they almost had to carry her, for she
sank down to the ground, and constantly desired to
remain still and look back. The mantilla over her
silver-grey hair was motioned by the wind, and the
following instant it swathed her face like to a dark veil
covering the weeping eyes, the proud aristocratic nose,
and vividly rouged cheeks.

" The bier burns beneath the body of thy son,"
Ekerot cried, and stretched forth his hand, " and the
Throne burns, upon which thy son's son is mounted,
and before thou closeth thine eyes will the whole
kingdom be buried below ashes. Thou needst re-
member no more than this : but that he was born with

THE GREEN GALLERY 1 9

blood upon his hands." Then he violently forced his
way through the press, alongside the walls of the
houses, towards Traansund.

The sparks of the conflagation arose heavenward
like stars. Behind the walls of the Church-court one
saw the great Tower of the Castle, the Three Crowns
rearing itself four stories higher than the highest roof,
in each of its stories now carried by fire, dense smoke
was puffing out through the empty window openings
like to puffs of cannon smoke. There are the witches,
thought he, making glad over the victory, while the
Burg of the Vasa Kings is being consumed.

Again and again the smoke wrapped round the
ancient emblems of the Kingdom ; again and again,
up there in the dizzy height, those three Golden
Crowns glimmered out like three storm-birds rocking
themselves on the wing. The bellringers in the
Church of St. Nicholas climbed up the stairs to save
their great bell, but when they heard the roaring of
the fires, as the floors and galleries gave way, and the
great Tower with the Escutcheon broke into a down-
fall of stones and mortar, they turned and escaped.

Seized with fright, women and children began to
sob, and then to run. It was they who said that at
Soderport they saw a man with a squirrel in his
hand and a pewter pot under his arm, making
stealthily into the farther country, and he was softly
singing to himself an old penitential Psalm.

c — 2

CHAPTER II.
THE CONVERSION OF THE KING.

IN the Great Church of Stockholm the audience
had arisen in their pews, and were gazing towards
its entrance. Before it Karl XII. of Sweden was
alighting from the state carriage.

He was a handsome youth, something thin and
undergrown. His plumed hat appeared comically
small, its brim being up-turned ludicrously high over
his large and disordered peruke. When he thrust it
under his arm, his mien was nervous and constrained.
He walked with a mincing step and knees bent some-
what accordingto the prevailing mode. His eyes he kept
groundwards. He was finely attired in a mourning
suit, its facing of ermine, his gloves were tipped with
the same, and on his high-heeled shoes of Cordova
leather he wore buckles with rosettes.

Ill at ease by reason of the many inquisitive glances,
he took his seat beneath the Golden Crown. He sat
stiffly there, fronting the communion table, unable to
fix his mind on the holy ceremony. When, at last,
the Pastor mounted the pulpit, and with a stout blow
on the reading desk, gave out a roll of murmured

THE CONVERSION OF THE KING 21

words, the King flushed deeply as if caught in the
very act of remissness. Yet, soon his thoughts again
escaped him, following their own trend ; and he began
to pluck at the black tails of the ermine to gloss over
his embarrassment.

" Look there ! " said a woman, sitting in a pew at
the farther end of the Church. " He should have felt
a little more of the fatherly rod, he should ! Perhaps,
though, the devil has bitten his ringer ! "

"Hold your tongue, you jiber, he has smuggled
himself into a better seat than you have come to ! "
her neighbour replied, shoving her out head first into
the passage.

At the door stood the Beadle with his staff; his
duty was to go the round of the congregation and
arouse any sleepers. As he now raised his hands in
protection of himself, he let his staff fall to the floor ;
the clatter echoed up the Church as far as the nobility.
Some turned round to view the brawl. The Pastor
hastened to deliver the following exordium :

" Peace, I say, the Christian peace, and whither does
it tend, with its delectable, Heavenly manna ? Per-
chance into the households of the folk. Thereupon it
keeps firm and steadfast. And perchance it is found in
God's own house, or with your Majesty, in your very
person ! Whosoever find, feed ye well upon it. And
thus, I say unto you, thou Prince of this earth : Strive
ever towards peace and love. Encourage not unto
discord that sword set into your hand by God Al-
mighty for the protection of your subjects."

At this the King's face became blood red, and in

22 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

a confused manner he laughed outright. Hedwig
Eleonora, the Queen Dowager, opposite him, herself
nodded and cackled, but the young Princesses laughed
most. Of course Ulrica Eleonora sat stiff as ever ;
yet Hedwig Sophia stretched out her lanky neck, and
held her prayer-book before her mouth, glad in the
consciousness that now the keen-eyed dames were
eyeing her fine gloves.

The King grew bolder by degrees, and looked
around him. In what a strange temple of God he
found himself ! The entire Church was stored with
furnishings and works of art saved from the fire ; only
the middle aisle was unencumbered. In the corner,
facing the communion table, stood the paintings of the
Last Judgment and the Crucifixion, the canvasses
rolled up together, and there behind the sarcophagus
he recognised the plumes and green tapestry hangings
of that bed in which his father had breathed his last,
propped up with pillows.

Yet this recollection did not touch the King. He
had felt for his parent scarce any other feeling except
that of fear. He had looked on him more as the
representative established by God than as a dear and
near kinsman. In his thoughts, likewise his speech, his
fondest appellation of him was only " the old King."

Like two bees in quest, his eyes roamed over the
numerous well-known objects, and in the end they
rested a long while on the last pillar in the Church.
There, buried some years ago under the flagstones, lay
his tutor, Nordenhjelm, the good-hearted old Norco-
pensis, on whom he had been wont to cling with

THE CONVERSION OF THE KING 23

childish affection. He recalled the early lessons in
the wintry mornings, when he sat beside him cipher-
ing the four rules, and occasionally snuffing the wicks,
or when Nordenhjelm told him about the heroes of
Greece and Rome.

Since the death of the Old King he had been going
about like one in a dream. He knew it to be un-
seemly of him to show any lightsomeness, and that
he was to expect nothing but demonstrations of grief
from others ; yet at the same time he was well aware
that in secret folk considered the affair very collectedly
indeed, and sought to win his favour while he was
trying to amuse himself as quietly as possible, now
through this, now through that. Even His Excel-
lency, Piper himself, could suddenly dry his tears
and implore him not wholly to renounce youthful
recreations, but on the contrary to take part in a
hawking party.

The stern, lugubrious countenances now on all
sides so wrought on him, that tears came unwittingly
into his eyes. Yet out of the hidden depths of the
boy's soul mounted the dizzying, intoxicating incense
of victory ; for these grim, stubborn old nobles, whom,
formerly, he had feared and evaded, he had found
unexpectedly submissive and obedient. Sometimes,
as they sat at the board, their faces mournful as ever,
he had thrown fruit pips at their lachrymose features,
and observed how thereupon everyone did laugh, yet
directly afterwards they would approach the Queen
Dowager and surround her with their most sorrowful
selves.

24 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

The fire, with its scenes and danger, had been to him
of extreme interest and suspense. Yes, altogether
that had been the most enjoyable day of his life
hitherto ! The terrors of the others, the swooning of
his grandmother, had only combined to make the rare
spectacle more singular and unprecedented. Every-
thing was ended now, so far as former times were
concerned : the Old King was gone, the Burg a place
of ashes ; it would be the new, it would be all that
after which Sweden was hankering, which should now
arise with him, even as a flame of fire. And so think-
ing, he sat there solitary, and only fourteen years of
age.

Now it seemed to him that Nordenhjelm was
standing there, in the pulpit, behind the Pastor,
prompting his discourse. The Pastor had shaken
but for a little time the cap and bells, as it were, to
place himself on a more intimate footing with his
audience. Then he had addressed himself to his
sovereign, and, before the great congregation, charged
him with his high calling, most earnestly and strenu-
ously. He adjured him in the name of God not to
permit himself the toleration of parasites and flatterers
lest self-love and arrogance become his portion, but
willingly to devote his every action to the faithful
people of Sweden, so that he too in later years could
close his weary eyes in peace, and, attended by the
benedictions of all, enter into the Eternal Glories of
God.

The voice of truth rang clamant throughout the
vaulted arches of the church; and the young King

THE CONVERSION OF THE KING 25

was moved almost to tears. Anew he engaged his
thoughts on other and indifferent things; but each
word of the Pastor smote his open, childish heart;
and there he sat with bowed head.

It was a relief to him when he was again brought
to Karlberg. There he shut himself into his chamber.
Not even an imperative command from the Queen-
Widow could induce him to appear.

In his anteroom lay the books used by him in hours
of study, now become increasingly rare. Already he
liked to philosophise over the problems of existence.
Thirst for knowledge was overpowering him; yet
likewise had he begun to contemn learning and lore
of books, and to yearn after life itself, even like to the
lusty and daring troubadour.

The topmost book treated of geography. He
turned over its leaves here and there, and threw it
aside. Then, irascible and at random, he took up the
next volume. In the end it seized his attention.

This book was used, and tattered at its corners ; it
contained only a few pages, wherein was that evening
prayer which he had been taught to repeat as a child:
some of the words and their meanings were wholly
gone from his memory. But, when he now saw the
well-known letters again, he only required to read
them over three or four times to know them once
more by heart.

That night he partook of one tassie of beer; and
then the servants of the bedchamber began to undress
him. He wanted so strongly to hide his agitation,
that they imagined he was but very tired. After they

26 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

had removed the periwig off his short wavy hair, and
he clad in his shirt stepped into the great bed, he
looked just like a little girl.

His dog, Pompey, crouched down at his feet. At
the end of the bed the servants placed a lit candle
within a silver basin full of water ; for the King feared
the dark. It was also their custom to leave the door
of the outer chamber ajar, and that a page or play-
mate spent the night there. This night Karl ordered
in a firm voice that his door was to be shut, now and
hereafter. When the servants heard this they began
to wonder and be alarmed, noticing, too, that he was
agitated.

" Ah, bah! " growled old Haakon, trusty servant of
his father's time. He stubbornly continued to treat
the King as a child. " What's that for? "

" It is as I have spoken," was answered in a decided
tone. " And from to-morrow I will no longer need
the night-light."

The servants bowed, and stepping backwards left
the room. But when Haakon had shut the door, he
set himself without, on the threshold. He heard the
King tossing hither and thither on his bed. On
moving himself up on his knees he saw obscurely
through the door-lock, by the light of the candle, that
his young Sovereign was now sitting up in bed.

The night wind swirled in gusty eddies along the
terraces r.nd among the creaking linden trees ; but all
was still and peaceful within the Castle. Then it was
to the astounded Haakon that he heard a low
murmuring voice. With difficulty he distinguished

THE CONVERSION OF THE KING 2 7

some of the words; he became attentive, and gave
close ear. It was the King offering up that prayer of
early childhood years.

" Teach me, O Lord, to rule myself, so that I
become not corrupted by the tongue of flattery unto
waywardness and pride of self, and thus fall short in
that esteem which I am owing to Thou, O God, and
to man."

Old Haakon bowed the knee and folded his hands
in prayer. And in the silence of the sleeping Castle
and through the low siftering of the wind came again
the words of the King.

" Though I be a king's son and heir to a mighty
kingdom, yet constantly will I keep in mind that these
are but the signal favour and blessing of God, and
for that reason must I apply myself towards wisdom
and virtue, so that I may become worthy and fitted
for so high a calling. Almighty God, Thou, Thou
who puttest Kings of the earth upon their thrones
and settest them down likewise, teach me always to
walk in Thy commandments, lest I misuse that power
bestowed on me, to my own destruction and the
oppression of others. According to Thy Holy Name,
O Lord. Amen."

CHAPTER III.
AFTER THE CORONATION.

How weary it was. How tedious the days passed at
the little palace. The black-clad Councillors yawned,
lolling in their seats, and stared before them as if they
were incessantly pondering how it came that they
wore like shoes on both feet, and not a top-boot on
one and a silken shoe on the other. They gaped, and
without, in the passages, on the stairs, the servants
gaped, too. And crowded into the great kitchen the
cooks tasted the dishes with their fingers, and asked
one another if the times were not sour enough to turn
even the acrid faces of the Lords in authority.

Before the black state carriage, with its horses and
their mourning plumes and rosettes, stood the King's
grooms. In Graamunkholm Church, where the old
King was buried, the black canopy and hangings were
yet in place. The King's chimes echoed far over the
land. When at last the coronation procession had
wound through the snow-covered streets, every one
was in mourning; only the young King wore his
purple. And no sooner had the last boom of the
guns reverberated over Tyskbagareberg, than the
intolerable monotony instantly settled down. , . .

AFTER THE CORONATION 29

But one gray forenoon, the cook of the Queen
Dowager began to caper about. In his hand he held
a jar containing some cooked tomatoes. " Ah, good
times, good times!" he exclaimed. "We will do
something to-day. His Serene Highness, the Duke
of Holstein, — it seems he is expected to arrive soon,
— has sent a right good present of fruit. His Majesty
and the Lady Greta Wrangel have already partaken
of some. The Chamberlain, himself, is coming down
into the kitchen to give us a hand. Stand ye gaping
there, youngsters ! Quick. Get a cloth, and polish
up that kettle there ! "

This little court, at the verge of civilised earth, had
now obtained something whereon to sharpen its wits.
At table, then, all conversation turned on the tomatoes ;
every one had something to say concerning their smell
and savour. Afterwards, every one drank heartily;
and elderly Councillors forgot rank and distinction,
and recounted droll amiabilities to each other.

When the repast was over, the King buttonholed
Lars Wallenstedt, the Councillor. He drew him into
a window corner, like to leading a panting, growling
bear by its nose-ring.

"Tell me," said the King, earnestly, "in what
manner should a King sacrifice himself for his people?
I cannot forget the sermon, that day in spring! "

Wallenstedt was wont, in speaking, to blow out his
lips as if he intended to say, " Puh ! puh ! "

Accustomed to the King's precocious questions, he
answered :

" A Prince must renounce all trifling aims, unite

30 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

entire authority in himself, and become the sole token,
insignia, the very will of his people. Certainly we
did listen unto a very edifying sermon; but did not
the Pastor likewise say that subjects should be as the
very slaves of their ruler ? The Council and the nobles
are now striving for the control, since the death of
your Majesty's most blessed father. And Oxenstjerna,
and Gallenstjerna, and . . . No! but one hears
things ! And that is the reason why I have consistently
sustained your Majesty's desire, even at your tender
years, to take the sore burden of the Government off
the shoulders of Her Majesty."

When Cronhjelm, now tutor to the King, standing
in the recess of the window, heard the words about
the sore burden of the Government, he wrote with his
finger-tip on the moisture-laden pane: " The yoke of
the old woman is like to the fontange, pleasant and
light!"

" Yes, yes, my good Wallenstedt ! " the King replied,
" in my own inmost thoughts I have always felt my
will thrust me that way : it must be a man who sits
on the throne. Yet, a strange tormenting thing is the
will ! What is it ? To-day I may feel inclined to ride
to Kungsor to hunt the bear; but, wherefore? As
well could I purpose something clean contrary. Will
is like a fixed, fastwelted ring round my heart ; out of
it I cannot escape! It is master, I am slave."

The wax candles were lit when he entered his own
chamber. Upon the table stood the locked casket of
iron, into which the old King had confided his last
and most fatherly advices. Some few days were yet

AFTER THE CORONATION 3!

to elapse before the old and resigning Councillors let
the young King slip from their control. Hitherto he
had not been able to constrain himself to open the
casket. It is true that one night he had violently
wrest away its seal, but incontinently had turned
away. This evening he felt that his irrevocable
decision was now arrived.

As he twisted the creaking key, his old panic of the
dark seized him once more; before him, too, he saw,
as it had been the metal coffin of his father ; and it
was as if he were now standing eye-to-eye with the
dead. Hurriedly he called Haakon in to him, and
ordered him to attend to the fire.

Then he unlocked the box, raised the lid, and with
a cold shudder smoothed the cramptly written paper.
" Take the authority into your own hand," he read,
" and safeguard yourself from the great nobles who
surround you, and from those with wives out of
France. These all making much ado most fervently
seek but their own ends: the best of men oft-times
wralk solitary in their own gardens." And the King,
while reading this disquieting warning, did not observe
Haakon leaving the room.

Now he was King in all Swedish lands. Arrogant
lords had thronged at his doors to avouch his coming-
of-age; they were without ken whether his words
savoured of accustomary smoothness or whether
spoken of direct and genuine purpose : they loved him,
so they averred, dearer than sons and brothers. Yet
he could never converse confidentially with these old
nobles; they so carefully trimmed every word and

32 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

gesture, and laid them in the balance of suspicion.
And if he might speak in full trust to his elders in
knowledge and human nature, they were but a set of
nervous, amiable, ancient puppets, ignorant of the
main trend of the times. Lonely he was as never
heretofore ; and, alone, would he sustain the sceptre
of his father. In Sweden nought could be above him,
and of all Swedish kings he would become the greatest.
Had he not received a pledge from the hand of the
Almighty, in that He had made him sovereign at so
youthful an age, and had given him leave to expect
so many years of life. The generation which had
incurred His wrath was now passed; it sang in
Heaven ; it made glad with trump and harp.

The King stood erect ; with his hand he dealt a light
blow on the edge of the table. Piper was correct ; he
had declared that Sweden was a big country, with a
small ignoble Court, situated at the end of the earth.
All was to be changed now ! Himself had placed the
crown on his head, and so attired had ridden into the
church. Did he not receive it from the Lord of Hosts
at the very hour of birth, that fine June morning when
the bright star, the Lion's Heart, had stood over
against the eastern horizon ?

Only the hoofs of his horse had trampled holes in
the carpets laid on the street, the nobles all had to
go on foot ; the State Councillors themselves had
borne his canopy, and like to the veriest menial
served him at meat. Why should he dissimulate,
why should he pay honour to them whom he honoured
not, even in secret ? After all, had he to enlighten

AFTER THE CORONATION 33

them regarding the true tenor of a king's assurance,
according to circumstances beyond his control had
he taken his oath to the people of Sweden. His
real oath as King, he had sworn before God, when
standing in silence at the communion table. But,
now, now was he ruler over the land of Sweden.

He stepped to the mirror, and in contentment
examined the small-pox marks in his fair, girlish skin,
and with the fingers squeezed wrinkles of fierceness
on his forehead. Then thrusting an arm into the air
he straddled himself over a chair, and began galloping
round the room. . * " On, on, my men ! Forward
for your King. . . Jump ! jump ! Splendid. Jump !
On, on. . ." He was picturing that he was riding
over a battlefield towards the enemy, and that hun-
dreds of bullets beat harmless on his breast, and
flattening out fell down amid the green grass ; on the
neighbouring heights stood spectators, and in the
distance the King of France himself was coming
on a white horse to greet him, waving his hat.

Beneath, in the salon, the powerful aristocrats of
the Kingdom were gathered in earnest deliberation.
On hearing the noise they held their peace for a
moment, and listened. Cronhjelm, drawing with his
finger-tip on the misty window pane, murmured almost
loudly, "It is only His Majesty devoting himself to
the cares of government. Maybe he is pondering over
the gracious recompence he intends to give us for our
acceptance of his accession !" Wallenstedt, puffing
out his lips, shot a furious look at him.

When the King had ended his prancing, a thought

D

34 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

suddenly came into his head. He stepped to the
door.

" Klinckovstrom ! " he cried. " Klinckovstrom, can
you tell me why I have such a longing to ride to
Kungsor to hunt the bear ? "

Klinckovstrom, a jolly page, with ruddy cheeks and
a ready tongue, replied :

" On this account, sire, because it is rough weather,
black as pitch without, and no bear has been driven
in, and the hunt is not practicable ! Will I give order
for horse and linkman ? "

" Have ye anything better to suggest ? "

" Many, maybe, better, but . . ."

" You are right ! To Kungsor we must ride, even
now, seeing that the affair looks impracticable, and
because we desire it ! "

An hour later, as the King was riding up Drott-
ninggatan, he closely skirted a suburb stretching
from the graveyard out as far as a yellow painted
hostelry.

An old widow, Mother Malin, kept this house. It
was surrounded by a wooden fence, upon which the
journeymen from the Castle had drawn triumphal
cars, and obelisks, and dancing Italians, while they
emptied their beakers. In one corner of it stood a
pleasure house, with fireplace and chimney : one of the
windows of this little house looked towards Drott-
ninggatan, the other into the garden, upon plum trees
and flower beds. For some months past Mother
Malin had daily carried out food to some habitant,
there. But none, no! even of her old customers

AFTER THE CORONATION 35

knew anything about her guest. And at a public sale
of the household gear of an impoverished, but noble,
family she had purchased a spinet ; of an evening,
now, one heard foreign melodies ring out in demure,
faint tones from behind the closed shutters.

As now the link-bearers of the King rode nearer,
Mother Malin stood at a crack in the paling and
looked down the dark street.

" It is himself ! " she cried quickly to herself, and
turned away to knock hastily on the door of the
pleasure house. " The King is coming this way.
Quick ! put out the light, and look out at the dormer
window at him." The next moment the King pricked
by in a wild ride.

Said she to herself, " How downy his cheeks are,
the dear young King ! And how I hear he ought to
live a clean and upright life ! But why would he do
nothing but tempt providence by putting the crown
on with his own hands ! That was why it was about
to tumble off again, and the Oil fell on the Church
floor." And she went back slowly to the inn.

That night passed on, and one month succeeded
another : in the garden of the hostelry the chestnuts
and plum trees behind the currant bushes began to
burst into leaf, and the barberries to renew their green.
The May-pole was set up again, and the Court went
by to Karlberg.

Next to the King sat the Duke of Holstein, who
was now here to marry the Princess Hedwig
Sophia, sister of the King ; and bring the intolerable
monotony to an end. As he passed the pleasure

D— 2

36 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

house it so came that he, by chance, looked through
its wide open window.

The same evening a man with the collar of his
cloak turned high for concealment, knocked lightly on
the inn door. Mother Malin examined him closely,
with some mistrust.

Said she, " He may go to the devil, with his high
collar, he may ! "

The fellow laughed loud ; in broken Swedish he
replied :

" I stay aboard a German ship down there, and
wish only to drink a pot of beer in the garden here !
Quick ! " And with that slipping two pieces of money
into her hand he shoved her aside.

She had almost given him a smack in the face, but
on hastily counting the money changed her mind.
The pot of ale she fetched, and placed it on a table in
the garden, then, seating herself behind a half- shut
window, maintained an inquisitive eye on her new
customer, who sat and supped a little of the ale,
traced on the ground with his heel, and looked about
him.

After he had remained still some while, and, unob-
served he thought, he arose and pulled down the
collar of his roquelaure. A goodly young man he was,
with a quick, merry face. Slowly he made his way to
the pleasure house.

" The rascal," muttered Mother Malin, " I fairly
believe he intends to knock."

The door remained barred. He went a few steps
further, to the open side window. Here he stopped,

AFTER THE CORONATION 37

and bowed courteously to someone inside. Then he
swung himself upon the window sill, and began to
converse in low, eager undertones.

Mother Malin lost patience. She came out,
cautiously crept along the gravelled walk, her head
cocked in suspicion ; and raking up all the insolence
she would outpour. Scarcely was she gone a few
steps when the young man strode out upon her from
behind a barberry bush.

Said he in furious anger, " Accursed old hag ! get
gone. I am the Duke of Holstein. Not a word
about it ! " And so taken aback was she, that she
could answer nothing, but twirled herself round, and
incessantly hit herself on the knee. Even when she
returned to the inn she was still slapping at herself,
scarce able to realise that so great and rare a business
was being enacted under her humble roof.

After this it often occurred that, in the clear
summer nights, when no winds rustled the cherry
trees, the Duke came to the hostelry. The pleasure
house door was never opened for all he tapped so
coaxing ; he durst only set himself outside on the
window ledge. Mother Malin now and then getting
a white ducat slid into her palm, served him there
with ale and wine, and once even with a raisin-and-fig
cake, around which she had inscribed with white of
egg : " Prince, in all the kingdoms, is not thy like."

One night the Duke remained longer than usual*
and from out the pleasure house resounded the notes
of the spinet.

When at last he rose to go, said he, " Power,

38 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

power ! Yes, they all cry out for that nowadays. Why
should you alone keep silent ? Are you doing this
because your father lost his last piece in play at the play.
Adieu, adieu. If you aim in vain at the lion, promise
me that afterwards you open the door to the wolf ! "

The Duke stood before the window. A deep still-
ness held all around in the inn at the foot of the walk ;
every one was abed.

" You do not answer," he continued ; " Maybe
from coyness ! Give me a sign, a token then, in reply.
A harmony on the spinet means ' Yes ' ; but if you
play with the tips of the little finger it is c No,' irre-
vocably, ' No.' "

Tardily he withdrew to the walk. The sky of night
was clear ; the land lay without a shadow. He tarried
beside a gooseberry bush, searching for unripe fruit,
but found none. It was then rang out the soft har-
monious chord. Instantly he drew his hat over his
brows, pulled up the collar of his roquelaure, and with
joyful footsteps hastened away. From this evening
Mother Malin waited in vain for her ducal guest, and
finally in her discontent began counting the ducats
out of her pockets, and cursing herself for not having
extracted more from him by means of some timely
arrangement.

Now, one night, the widow of a barber was buried
in the Klara churchyard, and after the last linkman
was gone, two men remained behind to watch beside
the grave.

" All of us must pay the fine ! And there the old
body lies in her coffin, with her nightcap of cambric

AFTER THE CORONATION 39

and her long ribands, like a duchess, and fine breads
and preserves and suchlike stand on the table for
folks, but to us they have not sent as much as half a
pot of small beer ! "

" I see a light. There. Over the wall, in Mother
Malin's window ! Let us get over and knock ! "

They went out and across the street, and clappered
on the door. Mother Malin half opened the dormer
window.

" Right welcome lads, are ye ! " said she, after they
had explained. " Nowadays a treat is not to be got
all at once ! Yet ye can earn a bonny gold piece at
this very minute if ye wish ? " She opened the window
wider, and lowered her voice. " Here, each of ye — a
whole carolus. Yes, yes ! only mind, you pair, ye
both lend a hand to him that gives the coin. Inside
here is a page of the royal household ; he'll soon come
down to you. Now, at break of day, the roisterers up
at the Castle usually ride this way. What should the
two of ye do, then, but throw the young lord about,
and pummel him well, and then take to your heels.
That is all."

" Easily done, too ! " said the fellows. " The most
ticklesome part will be not to lay on too hard, for fear
we hurt him ! " Then, hearing Mother Malin and the
page whispering overhead, they went back to the
churchyard gate, and stood there awaiting.

Time passed slowly to them. A star twinkled
through the summer night just above the deadhouse.
The watchmen on Brunkeberg sounded their calls.
At last day began to spring.

4O A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

A creaking and squeaking came from Malin's stair,
and the page descended to them. He walked rather
knock-kneed, and was restlessly fingering the clasps
of his mantel. A hubbub and a trampling of horses
rang out in the direction of Drottninggatan. In front
of the cavalcade rode Kluckovstrom, so drunk that he
had to hold on by means of his horse's mane. Behind
him one distinguished the King and the Duke of
Holstein, and, further behind, ten other horsemen.
All had swords in their hands, and, save the King, wore
only their shirts. Karl was wild with intoxication,
smashed at windows with his blade, tore away sign-
boards, and beat on the wooden doors. There were
none in the world whom he had to obey ! He could
now do what pleased him alone, and who durst say
one word ? At the supper table he had knocked the
dishes out of the page's hands, and pelted the others
with cream tarts till their clothes looked thick with
snow. The intolerable old times were gone. Let the
aged lords gape and mutter as much as they liked
behind their snuff boxes : they had no more to do now
but to play the fool, for his kingdom of old bears he
was only consecrating to the joys and freedom of youth.
In time all Europe should stand agape, for now 'twas
he that was King over the broad leagues of Sweden.

The unknown page, meanwhile, had laid himself on
the ground at the door to the churchyard ; the loons
were thwacking and smacking and thumping him to
their hearts' content, and clutching him by the gullet.

" Who is there ? " cried the King, jumping down
among them. The men immediately fled over the

AFTER THE CORONATION 41

graves and round the tombstones. But he was on
them, and slashed at one so repeatedly, that the blood
began to trickle down his arm. In the end they had
to seize planks from the half-filled grave, and defend
themselves as best they could ; thereupon the King
turned away laughing, and ran back to the others.

The unknown was now standing.

" One of us?" queried the King, "why! are you
so bedazed that you do not recollect the password of
ours, ' Snuff on the periwigs ? ' Never mind. Sit up
there beside our friend Klinckovstrom, and keep him
safe on his Wallachian. Forward!'1 Then lustily
singing and yelling, the shirt-tailed troop scurried on
once more, up street and down hill, brandishing
swords and making sport of the sleepy-headed cits
appearing at their house doors.

When the panes at Marshall Stenbock's com-
menced to jingle, the celebrated old man himself came
in his nightshirt to the window ; and, though first
bending low, straightened himself to complain that at
this rate he would soon require to leave the country.

But the King snatched off his wig, and, throwing it
into the air, cut it in two halves with his sword.

" That's life ! " the Duke cried. " Hats in the air.
Ah, if now we only could get at the languishing
beauties, there, moping in their beds ! Wigs in the
air. Raise up in your stirrups, and let out, away, away
over your horses' heads. Like this, you youngsters.
The devil will look after you ! Vivat Carolus, Rex
succorum et scandalorum."

Their shirt tails blew out in the wind. Hats, peri-

42 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

wigs, and gloves lay on the street. Their horses,
striking sparks from the cobble, dashed forward as if
through lightning sheen. When the mad riders
reached the Castle they sprang out of their saddles,
and let the horses run free. They smashed the hang-
ing lights in the entrance passage, and fired their
pistols at a marble Venus.

" Forward," shouted the King. With his following
he stormed into the Chapel, where he wrote freely on
the pews : "On Sundays the breeches of the folk
here should be lined with splinters."

Then the Duke knocked on the floor, and asked for
attention. Klinckovstrom, lying on the communion
table, was playing dice ; he took hold of his mouth to
keep it still.

" My dear hearers," began the Duke, " nothing
would add more to the pleasure of this our solemn
festival, than if our noble and much-loved cousin, at
this morning hour, now give us a hint concerning the
little affairs of his heart. But let us digress upon the
ardent fair. Let us consider that fair damsel from
Bavaria, who with her sweet mother journeyed hither,
although after the burning of the Castle scarce a
lodging was to be found. ' Huh-huh ! ' cries the owl.
She is only older than your Majesty by some eight
little summers. Or let us speak of the Princess of
Wurtemberg, who already has shown her great love.
Or consider the Princess of Mecklenburg-Grabow,
who, it seems, at present is hastening here with her
little mother. Or the Prussian Princess, older by only
two tiny sweet-pea years. Or the Danish Princess,

AFTER THE CORONATION 43

the darling little gold-bird, older than yourself but
five short, rosy years. All, one with another, have
they hastened to the wooing, and that with all the
blandishments and adornments of their countenances
and persons ; for love torments them greatly ! "

The King grew angry.

" Have I not aye declared," he replied, " that no
man need think of marrying till he is forty ! "

When the Duke noticed his confusion, he winked
to the page from the inn, and again rapped on the
floor with his sword.

" Good ! the King of Sweden will share his glory
and the love of his people with none but the brave
and joyous. Snuff on the periwigs ! Were I King, I
would first terrorise all the parents, and then summon
the fairest of their daughters to our carousals. The
devil ! Wouldn't they sit on our saddles before us,
eh, and take part in the fun, till the cock crowed
thrice. God strike me dead on the spot ! — I can
speak no more. Put your knees against the pews.
Hack and smash away at them, lads, stamp them to
the floor. Good God, bring water, the King is ill.
Water or wine. Ay, wine ! wine ! "

The King was now pallid. He thrust his hands on
his brows. It mattered not to him that the features
of the others were inflamed, and themselves unsteady
on their feet. In reality none were so dear to him
that he should grieve. What could it have to do with
him if they did drunkenly revile each other. No
person durst insinuate that about him — him, God's
own anointed !

44 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

" Now, that is enough, lads ! " he cried, attempting
to sheath his sword.

He observed, however, that he had lost its scab-
bard. Calmly he stuck the weapon through the
stuff of his coat, and went with firm steps to the
door.

The unknown page the Duke took by the arm, and,
making some signs with his hands, whispered into
his ear. The page hurried away behind the King,
opened the door for him, and followed him down the
stairs.

Thought the King, whether I drink wine again or
no, I could not tolerate having it related that I had
blabbered out words and hugged my pages ; and in
such an affair why should any one think better of me
than of the others ? And, after all, wine does not
taste much better than small beer ; it is all a matter
of custom. But, a brave warrior drinks water. So
they passed on, through the corridors and down the
staircases, to his sleeping chamber.

Here Wallenstedt, with two other important nobles,
was already in waiting. Wallenstedt puffed out his
lips, he began with :

" It is our wont, sire, to come here about six o'clock
of a morning to submit details of government. . ."

" Yes ! if they are concerned with misdemeanour,",
replied the King, " otherwise I desire no advices.
From hence I will consider and determine matters
as I think fit."

He was not fiery like his father. He demeaned
himself with as assertive a sense of dignity as a well-

AFTER THE CORONATION 45

born dame on her seat of honour. Smiling and
bowing about him, he so pressed back the lords that
they had to leave the chamber.

" That is our reward for setting a child on the
Throne ! " they murmured maliciously into Wallen-
stedt's ear.

The page closed the doors behind them, with sub-
missive yet disdainful smile. The King was pleased.
He stood leaning against the tester-bed, next to the
chest in which his father had kept jewels and such-
like, and which had been brought up from the
treasure-vault.

" What is your name ? " he asked the page. " Why
do you not answer ? "

The page breathed quickly. In a confused manner
he hid himself in his clothes.

" Answer me, boy. You surely know full well your
own name ? You turn your shoulders so much to-
ward me, that I cannot see your face ! "

Now did the page step into the middle of the room,
snatch away the periwig, and toss it on the bedside
table.

" I am called Rhoda . . . Rhoda d'Elleville."

Before him the King saw a young girl. Her brown
eyebrows were sharply pencilled. Her yellow hair
lay ruffled and in curls; about the sensitive mouth
a little pucker cast its shadow.

She leapt to him, she threw her arms round his
neck, and lightly kissed him on the left cheek.

For the first time in his life of seventeen years, self-
possession deserted him. His eyes burned, his cheeks

46 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

became ashy-pale, his hands hung helpless, powerless.
He only saw that the unbuttoned coat left her bosom
open.

She held him in a fast embrace, and pressed a long
kiss on his mouth. He did not return it ; he offered
resistance. At first he raised his hands, then thrust
her arms, like a ring, up over his head. Stammering
and bowing, and with many compliments, he stepped
aside. Stiffly he bowed, clacking his heels together
every time, bowed and bowed again, always increas-
ing the distance between them.

" Pardon. Pardon."

How often had she not rehearsed every word of her
attack. Now she recollected nothing. She spoke
wholly at random.

" Mercy, Sire, mercy. It is for God to punish such
presumption as mine." She went on bended knee
upon the carpet. " Sire, I have seen you on horse-
back from my window. In my dreams you appeared
to me long before I had travelled the long way hither.
You, my King, my Alexander. . ."

But instantly he had sprung to her side, offered his
arm, and, with a grave courtesy beyond his years, was
leading her to a chair. " Not so ! Not so! I beg of
you, seat yourself. Seat yourself."

For a little while she kept his hand in hers, wrinkled
her forehead somewhat, and looked him searchingly
and openly in the eyes. She gave a ringing, unbur-
dened laugh.

" Well, you are at least a man, Sire. No trace of
the preacher in you. You are the first Swede to

AFTER THE CORONATION 47

understand that virtue casts its eyes inward, and
squints not wickedly at aught else. Your favourites
drink and dice, and dally with the ladies of the
chamber, unless you forbid them ; yet you yourself
hardly pay any heed to it at all. Speak to us, Sire,
about chastity."

The perfume of her, the odour from her hair, her
body, made him so sick that he almost retched. Con-
tact with her warm hands caused in him a sensation
as repulsive as he were touching a rat or cadaver.
He deemed himself insulted and lowered, as well
the King elected by God, as the man himself,
through a stranger touching his clothes, his counte-
nance and hands. One, even a woman, had seized on
him as booty, yea, even as a prisoner bound. Who-
ever so touched him straightway became his foe ; one
with whom he would fight, aye, cut down in the
street for violation of his person.

" When I was still a child," she went on, " my con-
fessor fell in love with me. He wrung his hands,
wrestled with himself, and babbered prayers ; but I
made him play the fool all the same ! Sire, you never
strive with yourself, how different you are ! You are
wholly callous, Sire, that is all. Chastity is so inborn
with you, that " — she laughed slyly — " I do not even
know if one can term it chastity ! "

Employing more strength, he sought to release his
hand. How had they all been besieging his ear during
the last few weeks — the Duke, the pages, even the
servants — every one full of the delights of the beautiful
and amorous ladies of the chamber. Was this, then,

48 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

some play behind his back ? Could they not leave
him in peace.

" Pardon, Mademoiselle."

" I know, Sire, that you can sit for hours . turning
over Tessin's engravings, and that in particular you
pay attention to the pictures of dainty young women.
Maybe it is all owing to that love of the beautiful
which you have inherited from your great and worthy
Aunt, but should it always be so ? I am no lifeless
picture, Sire ! "

Whilst he still continued to bow, he suddenly
wrenched himself away with such force, that he dragged
her off the seat.

" No, you are a living page, indeed, Mademoiselle !
To the page I give order to go down into the Chapel,
and send my companions to the east antechamber."

Immediately she recognised that her trick was lost
beyond all hope. The little puckers about her mouth
became graver and drooping.

" The page must obey ! " she replied.

The King grew calm when he was left to himself,
only now and then sharp anger blazed across his face.
This unexpected adventure had driven the fumes of
drink from his brain ; and after all the experiences of
the night he did not wish to get abed like a mere
youngling.

He threw off his coat. In shirt sleeves and sword
in hand he betook him to his boon companions.

The east room was blotched over all with dried
blood ; its floor was splashed with the same ; lumps
of hair and congealed gore adhered to the portraits

AFTER THE CORONATION 49

hanging upon the walls, their eyes pricked out. From
the neighbouring apartment there was to be heard the
lowing of a calf.

The animal was brought in, and set in the middle
of the floor. The King bit his netherlip to whiteness,
then with one whistling blow of his sword beheaded
the calf. With blood on his fingers and under his nails
he cast its head through the open window out upon the
passers-by.

Without the door of the ante chamber, the Duke
whispered feverishly to Rhoda d'Elliville.

" So it seems, then, that my good cousin will do
nothing through obstinacy. Hjarne, a strange old
man, here, talks about compounding a love potion for
him ; but that will be no good ! Had he not inherited
the coldness of his father he might become the arch
Borgia of Sweden — he, with all his waywardness. If
he cannot grow into a demi-god, he'll grow into a
devil ! When such a bird on the wing finds no
pleasure, it demolishes the walls of its very house.
Hush, some one comes. Do not forget, now. To-
night, at Mother Malin's. And have some raisins and
figs at hand."

Behind them trusty Haakon was coming up the
stairs, leading two she-goats. He stood still, and held
up his hands. Full of fear he groaned.

" What have they done to him ? Never before
have I seen such on-goings in the Swedish Household.
Almighty God, be merciful, and send us a great mis-
fortune ; Sweden can endure neither the present peace
nor such a King ! "

CHAPTER IV.
A MIDSUMMER VENTURE.

THE little maids were standing in the garden, holding
a riddle. Near them, sitting on a mossy stone, was
their brother Axel Friedrich, idle and almost asleep ;
twenty years old he was to-day.

His betrothed, timorous little Ulrica, stood beside
the juniper bushes, bending their branches down into
the sieve. She was lopping off the twigs ; and the
little maidens with outstretched hands helped to keep
them together. The melting snow was dripping
heavily from the birches and alders.

" See," cried Ulrica, " there is grandfather himself
coming out, in this fine weather !" pointing over to
the house.

The little girls began to sing and romp about, then,
lifting up the riddle, they turned towards the house.
Beating measure with the swinging sieve they trilled :

" And the birds of the Spring they sing so rarely,
Come, ye goatherds, come,
To-night it is, ye dance so merrily."

At the further end of the garden, where the pines
begin to encroach, Elias the serf was fetching home
the last load of wood from the forest ; the water

A MIDSUMMER VENTURE 5!

squelched over his wooden shoes. About the yokes
of his red-coloured wain, Silfverhorn and Storbonda
twigs were stuck plentifully in protection against the
witches. He, too, was humming :

" And the birds sing so clear and joyous

1 Come, goats, come,'
This night flowers bloom
Among your clean fresh straw."

He stopped. Bending over the fence, said he to
Axel Friedrich, " The powder smells bad now, when
you fire a piece, and the soot in the chimneys is fall-
ing down : the thaw will hold ! "

The roofing of the house-entry was of turf. In
summer time a goat usually browsed thereon, among
the house-leek and catch-fly, but at present the snow
was still covering it. The old man was sitting be-
neath its shelter ; clad he was in his grey cloth coat
with brass buttons.

Ulrica brought the little maids forward to greet
him. They were clad in homespun, dyed blue. When
they made their curtesy, rings of violet shimmered out
in the wet upon the steps.

The old man stroked Ulrica's cheek with the back
of his hand. " You will soon grow up, little one, and
be a helpmate to Axel Friedrich."

" Oh, if I was only sure of that, grandfather ! But
here, there are so many things, and important things,
too, that one must look after. I am not used to it at
all ! "

" Yes, yes. Ah, I am very sorry for Axel Fried-
rich : he lost his parents so soon. There are no kins-

s— a

52 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

folk of his alive, save his two aunts, and the old
grandfather here. We looked after him to the best
of our abilities : you will soon learn, little one, to take
our place. The worst is, his broken health, the good
lad ! Ah, dear child, praise God for this sweet spring
day and the blessed years of peace." Then the old
man handled the juniper twigs, and was glad to find
them so damp ; they would take up much dust
then.

The two aunts stood at the kitchen window, be-
hind him. They were making ready a mess of beaver-
stone oil and bay berry for a sick calf. Both were
clothed simply in black, and had white, carefully-
smoothed hair."

" Why is Axel Friedrich not with you ? " they
asked Ulrica. " Remember, he is to get his favourite
dish to-night, at supper — honey groats and syrup ;
and afterwards there is to be bacon and onions.

"Yes, yes," cried the old man. "The folk, too,
must have this night to themselves."

Ulrica started off to go to the servants' room, where
they were cleaning tow. She was not gone many
steps, when her timid face, yet small and undeveloped,
took on an anxious air. She listened.

" But, Ulrica," the old man was calling, " I do not
understand this. Ulrica ! Come here, Ulrica ! "

She again hung up the bunch of keys just taken
down from the door-post, and went outside.

"Is that not a horseman, coming this way?" the
old man asked. " I have not been worried with
letters, these three months past, I am aye anxious

A MIDSUMMER VENTURE 53

when I get one! See. See! He fumbles about in
his pocket."

Then the rider stopped for a second at the foot of
the steps, handing him a document, much folded and
sealed carefully.

The aunts placed themselves on each side of him in
the elbow chairs. They gave him his spectacles ; but
his hands trembled so much, that he could hardly
manage to break the seal. Then all wished to read
the letter at once. Ulrica came out of herself so
much, that she leant over the old man's arm, and with
her little finger pointing out the words, read them
aloud.

Of a sudden, she beat her hands together, and
stared straight before her, tears welling into her eyes.

" Axel Friedrich, Axel Friedrich," she cried, speed-
ing across the court-yard into the garden. "Axel
Friedrich ! For God's sake, Axel Friedrich ! "

"What do you want?" answered he, throwing
aside the liquorice which he was chewing. A full,
round face had Axel ; a delicate rosy skin, and voice
kindly but unspirited.

She remained stock still at first, then seized his
hand.

" Do you not know? The order is come that the
regiment is to get itself in readiness and join the
Colours ; for the invasion of the Danes in Holstein ! "
And with her clinging to him, he came into the house.

" My dear child," faltered the old man. " Ah,
that I must now have such a trial ! War is come
at last."

54 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

Axel stood pondering for a few moments. At last
he looked up. Said he, " I will not go! "

Restlessly his grandparent tramped up and down,
and with him tripped his aunts.

" You are enrolled, my dear lad ! The one chance
is, that we may be able to buy a substitute."

"That will be done, easily! " Axel replied, in an
indifferent tone. And he stepped into the house.
But Ulrica trailed herself upstairs, her apron at her
eyes, and cast herself upon her bed.

When the honey groats were cooked, and all sat
round the board, the old man, as was his wont, desired
to weave a hundred meshes on the fish net. But now
his hands shook overmuch.

" There must have been some evil ongoings, in
Stockholm, there," said he; " the rumours soon spread
about. Ballets, masquerades, and other buffonery
seem to have been daily fare with our new King ; and
when the money was at an end, he began giving away
the Crown Jewels. Ay! Our indulgent sovereign
must learn another lesson, now! "

Axel thrust away his plate. Lazily he rested his
elbows on the table while his aunts and Ulrica cleared
away the dishes. His grandfather nodded to himself,
and coughed. He continued :

" All these years of peace have only begotten
avarice and corruption in our Court ; certainly, they
are the most cunning who have pressed nearest the
throne ! These fatted oxen will fare rarely hard now,
they will ! You should have seen the olden times —
when I was young and called out to join the Colours ;

A MIDSUMMER VENTURE 55

when the Royal Standard, now in the Castle Armoury,
was unfurled, and the King mounted his fine parade
horse: it led the van, its long saddlecloth embroidered
with crowns in the four corners : and then, in our fine
galliard coats we formed up, while bugles began to
call — calling and calling. . . ."

Again he took up the net and sought to weave, but
soon threw it from him. He got upon his feet.

" Aye, Axel Friedrich, you should only have seen
it all! Even in the moonlight, when we were drawn
up in the snow, and began to sing psalms before the
onset, I recognised the red and white of the Nerkingers,
who looked liked striped tulips, and the yellow
Kronobergar, and the lads in gray from Kalmar, and
the merry Dai-regiment in blue, and the Westgothens,
who wore yellow and black. It was a pleasure to look
at them all ; and every one, too, as still as in the house
of God. No, no! Nowadays, there's a different race
of men altogether! Different uniforms, too !" And
silence fell in the room.

Axel broke out with, " If my uniform and arms
were in good order, perhaps, I would have some
merry times . . . ? "

The old man shook his head.

" You are much too ailing ; and then, there will
be the heavy long marches, through the whole
country down to the sea; and then over into Den-
mark."

" Yes, but I would not go in that fashion. Could
I not take Elias and the long wagon with me? "

" Of course, we would allow you; but you have no

56 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

tent, with poles, and pegs, and rings, and things
necessary."

" Elias could buy them for me, on the way down.
The uniform, I can get together, I think."

" We will see. We will see just now! "

The old man grew eager. Hobbling over to the
clothes press, he opened it.

" Ulrica, come here. Quick, Ulrica ! Read out the
Order, lying on the table, there, just as it is written
by His Majesty," and he bowed. " Here we have
the cloak with the brass buttons, lined with plain
Swedish woollen. It is right ; and the waistcoat, also.
Read about the coat, now."

Ulrica snuffed the tallow candle. She seated herself
beside the table. With her hands folded upon her
brows she began to read aloud, slowly and monoto-
nously.

"The coat, of blue unpressed cloth, the collar red
with lining of madder-red woollen, twelve brass
buttons down the front, four above and three under
the flaps of the pockets, one button on the face
of each pocket, and three small buttons on each
arm.

" Eight . . . twelve . . . right. Now
come the breeches.

" Breeches, of strong goat or deerskin, three buttons
on the same, covered with chamois leather."

"These, here, are worn thin with riding; there will
soon be holes in the seat of them. But Elias can try
and get you a new pair, on the way. And now, the
hat and gloves. Where are they? "

A MIDSUMMER VENTURE 57

"They are in the chest, above the store-room,"
Axel Friedrich answered.

Ulrica continued: " Gloves, with large gauntlets of
yellow neats* skin, strong, thick, and chamois-dressed,
the palms to be of good goats' leather. Boots, of
sound Swedish waxed leather, with strap cut out of
one entire piece : the sole, one binding sole, together
with one middle sole. The buckles, of brass."

" The boots are here and in fair condition. You
can get my spurs. Now, you should be a fine
Swedish soldier, I tell you, my lad! "

" Neckcloth, of black Swedish wroollen crape, one
quarter long and nine good inches broad, with a half
yard of Parduan ribands, two white, at both ends."

" Elias must buy these for you in Orebo."

" Pistols, two pairs. Holster, of black leather, with
flaps lined with napped woollen."

"You can have mine; and my broadsword is in
right preservation, too, with its sheath of calf s skin
and hilt of elk's. Thus should a Swedish warrior be
fitted for the fight. But now we must be thinking
about supplies for Elias, and getting ready the knap-
sack and things appertaining."

Axel arose, and stretched himself. Said he, " It
will be for the best if I get abed, so that I can rise
betimes."

Throughout the whole house now began a bustle
and running about; every one was busy. All day
long there went on a rapping, and a hammering,
and in the kitchen stewing and baking. At night
candles were lit, and work was continued. The only

58 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

room in which reigned darkness was Axel Friedrich's.
On the last evening of all no one went to bed save
him.

When day dawned and lights were to be ex-
tinguished, his aunts awoke him. They brought
him, too, a warm drink and cordial drops, having
heard him coughing much during the night.

When he came downstairs every one was already
gathered ; the table was common to all. They eat in
silence. When the meal was ended every one stood
up : the Bible was put before his grandfather at the
top of the board ; and Ulrica, in a choking voice, read
aloud the Sacred Writ.

When she had finished, the old man folded his
hands. With closed eyes, he prayed :

" Even as my fathers have done before me, so will
I now in the hour of thy departure lay my hands on
thee, on thee, my daughter's son, and bless thee ; for
my years are many, and who knoweth when my time
is at hand. To God the Almighty I pray, in the dust
I pray, that He lead you to glory, and that the heavy
trials awaiting us all may exalt our little people into
one great and God-fearing."

At the table-edge Axel was standing, pressing his
thumbs on a plate; noisily it tilted upward. From
without there echoed in the loud rattling of the long
wagon, as it drew up before the door.

All crowded outside. Snugly wrapped in his grand-
father's wolfskin, for with the continued thaw wet was
falling from roof and tree, Axel Friedrich seated him-
self beside Elias.

A MIDSUMMER VENTURE 59

" Here is the butter tub," said his aunts, " and the
breadsack. Elias, put them in. The great cheese is
in the wagon-box, and the flask of cordial. Now,
dear Axel Friedrich, when the fatigues and hazards
get too great for you, never forget the road home is
aye open! "

But the old man pressed forward between them,
and thrust his hand into the wagon.

" Is that box well tied down, now? And let me see:
here are the brushes, the towels and combs . . .
and here we have the haversack and flask. Every-
thing is as it should be — the casting mould, the
shears, and the casting ladle are all in the chest,
there. . . ."

Ulrica stood behind him, unnoticed by any. Softly
she cried :

" Axel Friedrich, when summer comes in, I'll go
out of a night and tie the Thread of Joy and the
Thread of Sorrow on the rye ; and next morning will
see which is waxed the greater. . . ."

" Everything is right, now ! " the old man in-
terrupted with, not hearing her. " God be with you
and Elias."

But, just in the very instant of departing, when
Elias was raising his whip, Axel laid a hand on the
reins.

" Maybe this journey will have a bad ending," said
he.

" It would seem so in any case," answered Elias,
" and the more if we unyoked now, and later on were
to start again."

60 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

Akel Friedrich put his hand up the cuff of his furs
again, and through the rows of mute women and
bondmen and labourers the wagon rolled away. . .

The weeks passed, and trees began to burst into
green. Weary was the journey in pursuit of the
Nerikesen regiment through depopulated Sweden.
Beside Elias, Axel sat, mostly sleeping ; his faculties
all in a whirl. On his hands he was now wearing
mittens of soft goats' hair. Then a good way out of
Landskrona the wagon got among the baggage of the
army : and the horse stood at ease in the sun and
browsed along the ditch side. Master and man fell
asleep, shoulder to shoulder.

The horse kicked out at the flies, and the water
trickled along the ditch bottoms ; two vagrants abused
the sleepers ; but still they remained in undisturbed
and tranquil slumber. Then a rider came galloping
furiously behind them. Plainly clad was he, and wore
a great yellow periwig. When close upon the wagon
he checked his chestnut.

Elias jogged Axel in the side, and pulled on his
reins. The young master would not open his eyes.

" Yes, yes," he murmured, " drive on. I need all
the rest against the coming fatigues."

Elias jogged him again. " Rouse up, rouse up,"
he whispered.

Then Axel unclosed a drowsy eye. The next mo-
ment he had jumped up, his face flushing hotly, and
saluted. It was the King, whom he had straightway
recognised, from pictures of him. Yet he had imagined
a person entirely different. Was this tall, self-conscious,

A MIDSUMMER VENTURE 6 1

somewhat stately looking young man he who only a
few months previous had been beheading calves and
goats, and breaking windows ? He was not over
middle-height ; was small efface, but with brows high
and noble ; and from his full, deep-blue eyes shot
persuasive glances.

" Sir, you must take off these furs, so that I can
inspect your uniform," said he in a measured voice.
" Everything seems to go well." Axel groaned within
himself, and stripped off the old man's wolfskin.

The King examined the coat and buttons, poked
and fingered about them. He examined everything.

" Fair," cried he, in a voice weighted with pre-
cocious gravity. " Ah, now we all should be wholly
new men ! "

Axel stood still, heavy with sleep but erect. His
eyes were fixed hard on the wagon wheel. The King
slowly added :

" A few days hence, maybe, we have the fortune to
face the enemy. I have been told that in a fight
nothing afflicts one so sore as drouth. So, if ye
should meet me in the brawl, come forward and pass
me your flask." And putting spurs to his horse, he set
off again.

Axel Friedrich sat down. He had not formed
impressions either of affection or hatred, nor had he
experienced fear or delight ; but the words of the
King he kept turning over in his mind. And the fur-
skin remained lying between him and Elias.

When the wagon rattled into Landskrona, tents
were already pitched, Axel look about for the fine

62 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

arrays and carousings concerning which he had oft-
times dreamed : he found only sad-visaged comrades,
who but wrung his hand, and stood together in
groups, staring over the Sound. There the waves
surged wild beneath lowering heavens, and flags and
pennants streamed multitudinous above the forests of
masts.

Elias took the precaution of hiding the horse and
wagon in a barn, for the Crown had pressed all con-
veyances. Four and twenty hours after the fleet
sailed, he was to follow in a fishing boat, and land in
Zealand.

He was standing on the shore, at the edge of the
water, when the quaint anchors dripping sludge were
hove up with cables and windlasses acreaking. Swel-
ling canvas crowded yard after yard ; and the sun-
beams sparkled on the high lanterns and quarters of the
ships ; and the swell in glittering sallies made the tall-
sided vessels dance and cluster and gambol about, as,
bedecked with laurel and tridents for the victory, they
were wafted towards distant unacquainted lands, to-
wards adventure and the deeds of heroes.

By now the massy vapour hung low down the
horizon, the sky was clear, and the air azure as ever
in a fairy tale. The King, who was standing in the
stern of his ship, close by its lantern, clean forgot him-
self ; the child in him conquered ; he clapped his
hands for very joy. About him the grey-headed
warriors of his father's time laughed and likewise
began clapping. Even His Excellency Piper, the
Count, leapt up the hatchway, nimble as a seaman.

A MIDSUMMER VENTURE 63

Here was no senility and sickliness, no self-seeking
wranglers ; the host was the host of youth. Then, as
at a signal all trumpets and bugles pealed, swords flew
out of scabbards, and, the Admiral's order ringing
wide, a psalm arose out of the nineteen ships of war
and their smaller craft, from thousands of throats.

Elias discerned his young master again ; he was
wedged among gabions, earthbags, and Spanish horse,
and sitting on his grandfather's wolfskin. He also
noted how tardy Axel arose and drew the sword like
his fellows.

After he had watched the fleet slowly disappear, he
went back to the barn. He passed his hand over his
eyes, and shook his head. He muttered, " How will
he manage to look after himself, in his ill-health, till I
come up with him ? "

Some days after this Elias once more journeyed
with his wagon through Smaaland. The peasant
wives recalling him to be the man who had travelled
by with the officer slumbering at his side, opened their
door halfway, and asked him if it was true that the
Swedes were landed in Zealand, and that the King,
when on bended knee to thank God for the victory,
had stammered in sad confusion. He only nodded in
reply.

Day after day, step by step, he went up into the
North. All the time he trudged, reins in hand, along-
side the conveyance, over which a piece of canvas was
spread. And at last he approached the garden beside
the homestead.

64 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

Everyone knew by the noise that it was the wagon.
All in consternation they ran to the windows; the
grandfather, himself, came out upon the steps;
Ulrica stood midway in the courtyard. But Elias
never hurried.

At the steps the horse came to a stand of its own
accord. Elias carefully drew aside the canvas. A
long, narrow, rough-hewn coffin of deal lay there, a
withered wreath of beechen leaves upon its lid.

" I brought him home," said Elias. " The bullet
hit him in the breast as he was springing forward to
the King, and passing him the flask."

CHAPTER V.

GUNNEL, THE KEEPER OF THE CASTLE
STORES.

IN a dwelling within the fortress of Riga, Gunnel
sat spinning. Eighty years old was she. Her long
arms were sinewy, their veins outstanding ; thin and
flat was her bosom, like to that of a man ; a few scanty
locks of white hair hung loose over her eyes. She
wore about her head a cloth resembling a round cap.

As her spinning wheel whirred, a young trumpeter
lying on the stone flags before the fire spoke out.

" Grandmother," said he, " can ye not sing some-
thing as ye spin ? Never yet have I heard aught from
you but scolding and wrangling ! "

She turned her tired, crafty, lack-lustre eyes on him.

" Sing. Maybe of your mother ? they put her into
a cart and sent her over to the Muscovites. Of your
father, eh ? strung up in the chimney of the brew-
house. I will curse the night I was born ; curse
myself and every man I meet. Tell me of a single
person who is not worse than he is said to be ! "

" Grandmother, sing a song ; ye would grow cheer-
ful. Fain would I see ye cheerful this night."

F

66 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

" Aye, when one sees a person laughing and making
sport, 'tis but because he knows how to cozen. It is
all shame and starvation with us ; it is for our sins
and debauchery the Saxons are lying before the town.
Hear to the cannon ? how they crack and roar ! But
why are ye not on the ramparts, doing duty with the
rest, instead of sitting lazily in doors ? "

" Can ye not say one kind word to me, grandmother,
afore I go out ? "

" I would thrash ye instead, but am too frail now !
Ay, so bowed down with years am I, that I can never
again lift my eyes skyward. Will ye have the truth ?
Do not folk call me the soothsayer ? What if I should
say then, that the slanting line above your eyebrows
tells of a sudden death. I read the ages to come, see
into them for a time and a time ; yet with all my far
vision I perceive nought only wickedness and base-
ness. You are worse than I am ; I am worse than
my mother was ; and all those born will become
worse than those who die."

He arose, and put the fire-wood in order.

" I will tell, grandmother, why I am here to-night,
and am asking for a kind word. The old Governor-
General has given order this day, that on the night
after this all our women, young and old, sick and
strong, are to be thrust without the gates, so that there
be bread for us men. How can ye endure tramping
about in the winter cold through field and forest ? In
the last ten years ye have been no further than across
the courtyard to the store rooms ! "

She laughed. Faster and faster she whirled the

THE KEEPER OF THE CASTLE STORES 67

spinning wheel. " Ha ! ha ! I have expected it, for
all I have so faithfully kept our great lord's store-
rooms, and everything that was his. And you, Jan ?
Ye are troubled, because there will be nobody now to
make up the bed on the sleeping shelf, and cook and
bake? Are there any thoughts but these in the
minds of the young ? Yet, glory be to God, God,
who in the end throws us all under the scourge of
His Anger."

Jan folded his hands round his curly brown hair.

" Grandmother ! grandmother ! "

" Go, I say. Let me sit in peace and spin my flax
till I open the door and creep out to that spot where
I shall lose my earthly life."

He worked the distaff for a little, then of a sudden
turned round and went out. She whirled and whirled
the spinning wheel, till the fire was burnt out. . .
In the morning, when Jan returned, the dwelling was
empty.

The siege was now become fierce and lengthy.

Accordingly, after divine service, all the womenfolk
were turned out into that snowy day of February, the
weak and ailing being put on wagons, and barrows,
and stretchers. Riga became a throng of men who
had not bite nor sup to give the hordes of women
begging piteously for meat, as they skulked at the
base of the city walls ; there was scarce enough for
the defenders themselves. In the stables hunger-
maddened horses tore at each other, crunched their
bits, or gnawed great holes in the sides of the stalls.
Smoke hung thick over the fired suburbs. Often were

p_ 3

68 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

the garrison aroused by the alarm bells to out and
draw the sword.

When the trumpeter returned that evening, he
found his bread already made up, and a dish of mouldy
victuals on a stool. He was ashamed to tell anyone
about this ; he feared that his grandmother lay
smothered deep in a snow wreath, and now was
haunting his vicinity, in repentance of her hard-
heartedness. After he had strengthened himself in
prayer he grew calmer.

But as time passed he became more troubled and
afraid. Occasionally he found the bed unmade,
and no platter on the stool. So he must needs
busy himself at the spinning wheel; and softly
treading it, listened with growing reassurance to the
well-known sound ; from his birth had he listened
to it.

Now it came one morning that Eric Dahlberg, the
Governor-General, of seventy-five years fame, heard a
sudden outburst of musketry. In haste and irritation
he got up from his plans and waxen model of the
fortifications. . . As a recollection of the joyous
incursions of his younger days into the realm of
beauty, there hung on the walls of his room numerous
magnificent engravings of the ruins of Rome. But
now his features, formerly mild and beneficent, wore a
cast of sombre, brooding thought ; a line of sternness
curved about his small, well-nigh colourless lips, now
close-knit.

He pulled his full-bottomed wig straight, stroked
his thin moustache with a shaky finger, and stepped

THE KEEPER OF THE CASTLE STORES 69

out into the staircase. He struck his stick hard
against a step.

"Ah, we Swedes," he muttered, " we kinsmen of
the Vasa Kings, who can but curse and accuse in their
old age, and in the end are afraid of themselves in the
dark of their own chambers, black seed lies sown
in our souls. With years, a vast outspreading tree
will shoot up from it, full of the bitterest of gall-
nuts."

As he descended, his mood became the harder and
more acerb, until, when he stood upon the ramparts
he would speak to no person.

A battalion had formed up, with colours flying and
drums a-rub-dubbing. But the venture was over by
now ; already loose bands of the tired and wounded
were filing through the gateway. Rearmost, came a
very meagre and exhausted ancient. A ruddy sabre
cut gaped in his chest, yet with strenuous exertion he
was trailing home a dead boy lying in his arms.

Eric Dahlberg shaded his eyes with his hands, to
see the better. Was it not Jan, the trumpeter, the
lad from the fort overhead ?

The exhausted soldier sank down on a low mullion
in the vaulted archway. Here he remained, his
wound guttering, the dead upon his knee. Troopers
bent over him to examine his wound ; and the bloody
shirt over his bosom was slit open.

"What!" cried they, starting back. "It is a
woman ! "

In acute surprise they leant down, and scrutinised
her face. Her head was now sunk against the wall ;

7O A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

the fur cap was fallen to one side ; locks of white hair
were revealed.

"She is Gunnel, the Stewardess," they ejaculated. *

She breathed heavily. Her dimming eyes un-
closed. She panted :

" I did not want to leave my bairn alone in this evil
world ; but I put on a man's clothes ; and day and
night have done my work with the others. I thought
I had a right, then, to eat the soldiers' bread."

The officers and men look irresolutely at the
Governor-General, whose decree she had broken.
He was standing there, gloomy, sinister, reserved as
ever.

The stick shook in his hand, and fell on the flag-
ging. Slowly he turned round to the battalion. His
lips moved apart.

11 Dip the colours," said he.

CHAPTER VI.
MAANS THE FRENCHMAN.

A LEATHERN-COVERED army wagon was stuck fast in a
Polish marsh; its horses were already being unyoked.
On the wagon stood a young man, who a little while
previous had joined the forces, in an endeavour to
better himself. Maans the Frenchman, his comrades
had nicknamed him, inasmuch as on his accompany-
ing a distinguished young nobleman to Frankfort, as
tutor, he had stuffed his baggage with all kinds of
fine apparel. Near by, Olof Oxehufvud the Captain,
and his officers and men, were tarrying for him. The
snow was beating heavily against their faces.

Cried Oxehufvud, " The wagon and baggage must
needs stay here."

Maans, opening his things, began to take out as
much as he could carry.

"What a rare dressing-gown, with lace and.tassels ! "
exclaimed the Captain and his officers. " What fine
slippers ! "

" And note, too, the false calves for his legs ! "

" Aye, and the hats, there."

11 It is a cadeau of my mo "

" Away with it, into the snow ! "

" - — of my mother's."

72 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

"See, the little perukes, there, and the great full-
bottom, too ! "

Oxehufvud could no longer contain himself. He
laid hold of Maans.

" Into the snow, with one and all, I say!"
' Maans' jocund, somewhat delicate-looking face
flamed red. He drew his sword. Cried he:

" Captain, so wor "

" So worthy a personage can easily retard our
march, you mean ? "

" No ! So worthy and victorious an army, I
thought to say, must not go clad of a night in dressing-
gowns, old as the days of ' King Orres.' "

" Madman ! Petit-maitre ! Thickest of simple-
tons!"

" You treat me as a mere slave, Captain ! I have
had much experience, I tell you! Ay, through the
whole of France I have travelled ; and even stood
eye-to-eye with the famous Vauban."

" Indeed ! And what said Vauban ? "

11 What said he ? "

" Yes ! "

" ' Va t'en,1 quoth he, for it was in his own door-
way, and I was standing in his way."

" Is that so ? Is that so ? But down from the
wagon with you at once. Quick ! Once — twice —
thrice. And two men of you, there, step forward to
carry this little masterpiece in a gold chair."

Maans bundled up the slippers and perukes in the
fine dressing-gown, threw the pack upon his back, and
put his lorgnette to his eyes ; then he trudged forward.

MAANS THE FRENCHMAN 73

On arriving on sound ground Oxehufvud came close
to him Long and lanky was the Captain, with ruddy
cheeks and a small black moustache.

" Will monsieur listen. What does he think to do
in particular in the field ? Aught at all ?

"Although, I am not noble born, I trow so," cried
Maans. " Who knows ! Maybe, some day, I will
have a patent of nobility in my pocket ! "

" You can go to hottest hell, so far as I am con-
cerned, with your nobility ! " the Captain replied.
" Nothing is asked about that in this army. Every
one must serve as serve he can ! "

Oxehufvud, as superior officer, had now vented his
irritation on Maans, and teased and tormented him in
full. The spirit of camaraderie arose in him.

" If monsieur carries himself brave enough," he
growled something more amicably, " he can begin
with me to win his right to the authority of an officer ;
already, we've given finishing touches to several
Swedish coxcombs, of monsieur's kidney ; made them
into men of stuff. Does monsieur see that white
house behind the wood, there. At that spot he will
take up his post, till I send further orders ; the rest of
us station ourselves one-quarter mile further in the
forest. We are but twenty-five all told, so I cannot
give monsieur a single man. Now, keep alert and
your eyes quick, for fear the enemy fall upon our
rear."

Oxehufvud drew away with his little troop; and
Maans turned to the dwelling, his bundle on his back.
Not a person was to be seen. Irresolutely he took

74 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

shelter behind the wall of the house. Nigh frozen
was he, wet to the skin, and yet what troubled him
most was the dirt and soil bemiring his boots. Could
he not keep a wary outlook from a window ? And he
longed too for a sweet-smelling bed, with silken eider-
down and snug foot-muff.

A shed slanted out from the side of the house, and
thither he went, skirting the wall with great circum-
spection. He wiped the moisture off his lorgnette,
put it to his eyes, and, bending forward, peered into
the darkness of the shed. Something began to rustle
and stamp about. The next instant he saw two
glowing eyes. With his heart clappering, he jumped
back, and drew his sword. A black horse dashed out
into the court-yard, and wildly careered hither and
thither, scattering the snow with its hoofs.

I had better not seize that mad beast, thought
Maans. When a trooper mounts a brute like that,
its dead owner rises out of the marsh, and leaps on
behind him, and tears him out of the saddle. Aye,
one hears the tale every night round the camp
fires !

Menacing" the horse with his sword, he stepped
inside. The wings of the door in the opposite side
he shoved apart; and his neighbourhood became
much more distinct. It was observable, that the
door of the house was built up. Snorting and
trampling, the brute returned on him; but Maans
jagged it with his blade, and drove it away. Then he
went out and round to the front of the dwelling, and
shouted valiantly.

MAANS THE FRENCHMAN 75

A gray-haired serving-maid put her head out at a
window.

" Whoever lives here, is he for King Stanislaus, or
the Saxon drunkards ? " cried he.

" An old solitary lives here, who is an enemy of no
man ! and has no man as his enemy ! "

" Good ! Then he will not refuse shelter to a half-
frozen Swedish soldier? " Maans, cried anxiously.

The woman disappeared. In some little time she
came back with a ladder, up which he scrambled into
the house. The room was spacious; and plain, but
well-scrubbed chairs stood along the bare untapestried
walls. When by chance his scabbard struck against
one of the seats, the maid hastily pulled him in place
again. Before him two girls came and went without
speaking. Theirs were fair features and curling
tresses. Whenever one of the twain lagged behind,
she hurried again in all anxiety to her sister ; they
kept close to each other; and, notwithstanding the
daylight still held, bore two flaming lamps before them.
When the serving-maid was finished brushing the dirt
from his boots, and cleansing the floor of his dirty
footprints, she opened the door of a neighbouring room,
noiselessly and with caution. Said she, in a whisper,
" Step in lightly."

Within stood a middle-aged man, wearing a dressing-
gown. His was the sharpest and most impertinent
nose ever imaginable. Never before had man worn
such a finely curled and bepowdered wig. His fingers
sparkled with rarely-jewelled rings.

Maans set his bundle down and eyed him through

76 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

his lorgnette. Much contented with his restored
appearance, he gave a salutation with his arms, and
bowed low.

" Sir, I am present on no rogue's errand," cried he.
" In all humility do I ask the favour of knowing to
what nobleman I have the happiness to address
myself?" '

"Be seated, sir. I would you be seated! I am
nothing more than an old and forgotten recluse.
But you, sir, appear to be a man of quality ; thus will
I explain to you what possibly seems so singular."
With all necessary punctilios both seated themselves,
their hands upon their knees.

" Once-a-day I was a gay man of the world," said
the recluse, " and all Varszava talked about my
clothes. But when my thirtieth birthday came round,
and I sat making merry with my boon companions, I
lifted up my goblet. Said I, as if fortuitously : 'My
friends, with every year that passes, the eye grows
harder and the heart chills. The one, here, is for
King Stanislaus with the white cheeks, and the other,
there, for King Augustus with his great paunch ; and
accordingly both of you intrigue and strive for high
places and emoluments; now, I do not intend to
descend to the grave with the melancholy recollection
that each of my friends became in the end a Cain. I
treasure friendship much higher than personal regard,
for it paramountly binds soul and soul. Thus it is, I
take my last farewell of you all, while we are yet young.
Never again will you hear anything concerning me;
and as I appear to you now, so will you aye be present

MAANS THE FRENCHMAN 77

in my mind's eye ; and thus will accompany me when
I am old and lonely; and when the serving-maid
hears me talking to myself,' ' There,' she will say,
' he is speaking with the dear companions of his
younger days ! ' '

" And then, after you had said farewell? "

" I came home, here, and bade them wall up the
door; the servant folks can get in and out as best
they can."

"Ah! Happy the guest of a host filled with such
fine sentiments."

" Happy! you say. Both my twin daughters,
who perambulate the house, as you see, with
their lamps, are half-witted! their mother was an
abducted nun! . . . And yet, I have but told
the least. . . ."

"Perhaps, you mean that I disturb you?" Maans
cried hastily.

"No! I will not say that, but. . . . Do you
hear the ghost?" And the nostrils of the recluse
expanded ; he stood rubbing his hands, in some hidden
enjoyment. " I think it is my duty to tell you the
truth! It is a dead lackey who haunts the house;
Jonathan is his name. Wearing a brown livery with
black braid on it, he lingers in the window-nooks and
hides behind doors. The iron of servitude is yet so
embedded in him, that when any guest appears
and needs the slightest service, he comes from the
dead, and must needs wait upon his desires. 'Tis
lucky for me, I have few guests ! Tell me, are you a
count? "

78 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

"I? No!"

" Are you a baron? "

" No! I am not yet a baron."

"You are not a plain nobleman, even?"

Maans reddened in confusion. Cried he, " Do you
think to insult me? "

Yet he thought, certainly the title is my dearest
dream, and God grant that soon I may have it. Then
no one durst call me ' Petit-maitre.1 They will say,
then, ' Oh, 'twas very plain, he would be made a
noble some day.'

"Can such a simple question annoy you?" the
solitary said, tickled with greater amusement than
before.

" I am a noble, certainly! " replied Maans in haste.
11 My stock is ancient."

" Oh, all will be well, then," said the recluse.
" Although Jonathan was given a Christian burial and
all due ceremonies, yet he is not purged of earthly
humours. He is such an inveterate attendant on
right true aristocrats, that he is quite capable of all
possible wickednesses when he realises he is attending
a mere commoner or startling! "

Maans stroked his little moustache with his small
finger-nail, and in uneasiness swung his lorgnette to
and fro. At last, said he :

" My lord, are you a lover of Syracuse wine? "

"No!"

" I also prefer a tassie of Frontignac. My favourite
dish is a ragout with mushrooms, yet I will not con-
temn a. hash of mutton and thyme seasoning withal,

MAANS THE FRENCHMAN 79

In this world, much depends on the sauce, too ! I
admit, when I am at home, I do not want sweets at
all ; nor the dark of the night."

" The darkness ? You are thinking on the summer
evenings ? "

" Ah, they are clear enough."

" And the winter nights are likewise clear, for then
there is the snow. But, if you are "afraid of the dark,
never travel further south than this ! In your country,
you will have great artists and scholars ? "

" We neither have them, nor do we need them,"
Maans answered.

" You do not over-value your countrymen, then ? "
ejaculated the solitary.

11 My lord," said Maans, " I have seen something
of the world. For two whole months I have done
nought but travel in France ; even seen Le Roi Soleil
with these very eyes ! "

" You ? Have you seen Louis the Fourteenth? "

" That I have," Maans replied proudly. " In the
theatre ... for all I had but the fewest inches
of standing room in the pit, I saw him. Oh, since
Augustus, never has such an august lived. Take at
random just the method way with which he greets
one."

" But the King of Sweden ? " the solitary cried
ironically, " he is a man, also."

" He is," Maans asserted. " He has drawn all eyes
abroad to look upon us. Yet, how poor he is ! "

" Poor, you mean ? But there, lately, in Vars-
zava? — when Stanislaus entered the Church of

8o A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

the Coronation, his Queen bashful and trembling as
usual, and with the sceptre, the apple, the sword, the
ermine, the girdle, and the shoes of your King ; even
the banner, and the hangings from the church walls,
the table plate, and the Crown monies which soon got
scattered abroad again ! And then the troops were on
the watch, and fired salvoes . . . and in the end
he thanked and kissed His Excellency Piper's hand.
But, are you yourself poor ? "

" Poor ? I ! " And Maans recollected with misery
his whole wealth, the two pieces of gold sewn into
the hem of his coat. Yet he tapped carelessly on
the table with his eyeglass.

" My means are quite unusual," he replied in some
little hurry. " The play amuses me : seldom do I go
out with less than ten louisd'ors in my purse."

" Will you lend me five ? " the solitary asked all in
a rap.

Maans looked up at the ceiling.

" Truth to tell, unfortunately I left my purse in my
great coat hanging up in the tent. But I will take
it upon me to send you the trifle at the first chance.
Yet you must not imagine that we embarrassed Swedes,
my lord, are grand seigneurs ! And I ? — However
high I rise, Maans will aye be peering between the
seams of my clothes."

" Embarrassed," ejaculated the solitary. " It was
but lately, that on our own battle-fields, here,
Arvid Horn sat, notebook in hand, putting down
all those opposing the Swedish authority ; and
pur Province- Marshall, here, broke his baton in

MAANS THE FRENCHMAN 8 1

despair ! . . . Now, make yourself as easy in my
house an it were your own. The tobacco pipe lies
next to the smelling bottle, and the smelling bottle is
on the powder box, and the powder box on the tobacco
box, and the tobacco box lies on the night stool ; and
it you had best seek speedily, for time goes quickly."
So speaking, he took up a leathern-bound volume, and
began to read.

" Thanks, thanks," Maans answered, looking some-
thing askance at him with greatening mistrust. Yet
he thought to himself : Wait, yet a little while, till I
have my patent, then they will say, " That nobleman,
there, is our new and gallant M. Magnus Gabriell."

Again the young women glided through the chamber,
lightening the gloom with their lamps. Maans stood
up, and bowed. When the recluse deep in reading,
gave no attention to him, he picked up his bundle,
and returned to the adjoining apartment.

" Time wears on, and it is getting dark," quoth he
to the ancient serving woman. " I am too tired, to be
company to him any longer ! "

" Your bed is ready ; to the left, here, in the great
hall," she answered. " It is the only room heated
against the night."

This apartment was lengthy, and painted white,
with rows of inhospitable looking chairs arrayed along
its wainscot, and containing two rough-made folding
tables. Near the door stood a bed with curtains of
hollands stuff.

The ancient lighted the four tapers in the candelabra,
then left. Shivering somewhat, Maans looked about
him. He laid his sword on the nearer table, and

G

8 2 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

began to unpack his bundle. Then three of the
candles he blew out, and hung thereon his little, his
larger, and his largest perukes ; but with the fourth
light he looked under the bed and in the window
corners,

" Impertinent buck ! " he muttered. " I had liefer
I had stopped outside in the snow ; but seeing that I
have got inside, I needs keep watch. I'll go often to
the window, and spy about and listen."

The door he endeavoured to secure from the inside,
but there was neither bolt nor lock. After he had
laboured in vain to slip off his wet boots, the smell from
which annoyed him, he attired himself in his fine
dressing-gown and laid him down on the bed.

Now and again he heard the hollow-sounding snort-
ing and tramping of the horse beneath him, but in
time all was still. The one candle was giving out an
obscure illumination; all nooks and corners lay in
deep darkness. To sharpen his sight, Maans picked
up his lorgnette, and turned his eyes into every niche
and cranny of the chamber, yet lying motionless.

On a sudden he perceived, close to the doorway at
the head of the bed, a tall, stiffish lackey : his coat
was of black cloth, trimmed with brown braid. Erect
and still stood he there. A spasm of fear contracted
Maans' throat ; everything swam before his sight ;
yet thought he within himself, the good God sends
this visitation for that I dream of high honours and
nobility.

Noiseless and imperceptible to the lackey, he
gripped the side of the bed with both hands to over-

MAANS THE FRENCHMAN 83

master his shaking body. Then he thrust his right
foot out between the hangings. Said he firmly :

" Jonathan, take off my boot."

The lackey grinned ; his mouth curved back to his
ears ; but he did not move.

Maans' teeth started achittering ; yet he drew not
back his limb.

"Jonathan! is that how ye serve a noble?" The
ghost but grinned the more portentous, and gave
a disdainful motion of the hand.

Maans the Frenchman knew then that the lackey
apprehended his lies ; it was as a startling, and gross
commoner he was treating him. His terror swelled
so great, that he groaned aloud. Yet, despite all, he
maintained the outstretched limb.

" Pull off my boot, Jonathan ! " His voice now
was but a whisper.

The ghost made a despicable motion of his hips,
and, grinning the more, remained stockstill. At the
same moment the beast below neighed long and
shrilly, and from out the distance other horses replied.
Maans leapt from the bed.

" I forget my duty," cried he. "It is the enemy ! "

He dashed forward for his sword ; but with long
steps the lackey came instantly beside him, and stared
into his eyes : Maans' strength went from him ; he
stood there like one charmed ; and the lackey was
seizing the sword with one hand while with the other
he reached up to the candelabra. Lifting down the
largest peruke with two fingers, he extinguished the
remaining light.

G — 2

84 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

" Lord God," stammered Maans. " 1 have gone
but seldom into Thy house, and have sinned and
done all sorts of wickedness; but Thou help me
in this hour, that I do not neglect my duty, and
get shame ; then afterwards punish me for all
eternity."

The nickering of steeds grew louder and louder;
and the horse below in the shed continued its fierce
stamping and snorting. Maans clenched both hands
over his head, and launched himself through the dark-
ness upon the lackey.

" Thou spark of Beelzebub !" he shouted.
He tore the sword away from him, and beat about
with it on all sides; chairs fell hither and thither.
Never he laid a hand on Jonathan. Then his fists
knocked against the wall, and the door flew open.
There appeared the twin sisters with their lamps ;
with nothing on save their white linen shifts, being
too ignorant to be ashamed ; and clinging close to
each other. Wide-eyed they stared at the stranger,
who had awakened them with his hurly-burly.

Maans gave himself no time for courteous airs. He
threw up the window, and jumped to the ground. In
dressing-gown, and sword in his fist he took to his
heels. He heard a raucous voice behind him ; but
knew not if it came from the solitary, or Jonathan, or
both.

" I saw at once ye were a fool," it cried, "a pro-
digious fool ; and wished to rid me of you ! The
troops have cast their eye on you now ; you will be
fighting hand-to-hand, in a little ; and my house, my

MAANS THE FRENCHMAN 85

house, my refuge from the world, will be a heap of
ashes before cock-crow."

Maans never looked round, but ran on among the
trees. His sole thought was: now is the promise of
my becoming an officer. And then the patent. The
patent !

The moonbeams pierced the thinning snow-storm ;
he saw the Poles with their waving aigrettes hurriedly
riding about on all sides ; one might have taken them
for shadows of the night. When they came danger-
ously near, he dived behind some coppice or tree
trunk. At last he saw in the dimness a stockade.
Covered with snow it was.

As he approached, a soldier, rising from behind its
logs and tree-stems, challenged him.

" Who goes there ? " he asked in a whisper.

" God with us ! good comrades," Maans answered,
and clambered into the little triangular breastwork.

" The enemy is at our heels."

" It is a fair time since I first heard the trampling
of their horses," replied Oxehufvud in a low, cautious
voice. " In the end, the best for us may be to get
back and occupy that house."

" Captain, do not ask me to know the road ! I
was received there as a guest, and thus am bounden
to them. I would rather shoot myself! "

" And how were you treated? "

" As a very Excellency."

" Would you just . . . No, too late now !
Present, men, fire."

A swarm of Polish horse was galloping upon them,

86 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

The enemy thrust their lances over the breastwork,
at the Swedes ; but the first discharge emptied their
saddles.

" Oh-a-haa. Oh-a-haa." The call re-echoed in the
forest. And shadowy dragoons and ranks of infantry
surrounded them, far as the eye carried. The dim
spectacle was like to nothing else than multitudinous
dark bushes slowly motioned by the wind.

" I think this will be a good brush with the
enemy! " said Oxehufvud. " We are five and twenty
men, and they are almost three battalions."

" Now we are only four and twenty," replied
Maans, snatching the piece from the dead man's
hand.

" Now we are nineteen," cried Oxehufvud, after a
little while. For bullets pouring in on them were
slaying man for man.

On the foe falling back, the Swedes reserved fire ;
but when, allured by the pretence of devastation and
the stark silence within the stockade, the Poles hurled
themselves forward, they were received with bullets
and swords, and stones, and tree branches. Hour
after hour the defence was continued.

Oxehufvud looked about. Half-aloud he counted.
" Eight, nine, thirteen. . . Now we are thirteen.
A bad number." He also had seized a musket, and
was at present bending down for ammunition out of a
dead man's cartouche.

" Comrade," said he, without rising ; and he plucked
at Maans' dressing-gown. " I treated you badly to-
day in the marsh,"

MAANS THE FRENCHMAN 87

Maans only said, " We are seven now ; " and re-
loaded and fired. " We will have held out for some
three hours."

" You are not the first to show that we Swedes
are not always right in laughing at our young cox-
combs. Mind you, sometimes it happens that what
begins with a noble periwig ends with a noble
deed ! "

"Now we are but two."

"Barely two, for I am already done," replied Oxe-
hufvud, sinking back, " Not two."

Now among the dead Maans was standing alone.
He tore the dressing-gown off his body, and wrapped
a strip round his left arm, which was bleeding freely.
Likewise his vest he threw away. The lorgnette he
shoved into the leg of his boat. Then he lay down
among the others, creeping as much as possible under
the branches and trees of the breastwork. The Poles
whirled down again ; but all was still silent. With a
wild shout they crowded over ; and the plundering
began ; but seeing Maans, half naked, motionless, and
all bloody, they left him undisturbed. At the gray of
the morning their forces withdrew.

Now, thought Maans, now I come into my authority ;
the patent will follow later. And he crept out and
away.

Near the house he found his perukes in the snow,
for they had been thrown out after him.

"The wretch!" he muttered. "This is all the
thanks for my having saved his nest for him."

All that day he held on through the forest, perukes

88 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

under his arm. It was late in the night when the
outposts challenged him.

The tents and huts of the Swedes were standing in
the open, unfortified. On the field wagons or before
their huts, set apart in a section of their own, the
women hushed their babes or conversed lightsome and
merrily in undertones with their men. Round the
camp fires the bowls of clay pipes glowed in scarred
hands. There Braakenhjelm, cornet of horse, and the
intrepid Lieutenant Pistol took account of their adven-
tures. Lieutenant Orbom let them feel with their
fingers the bullet of Klissov, still behind the left ear,
having passed in under the left eye and through his
Jiead. Per Adlerfelt, the dancing master, made moan
that the enemy, aye, aimed so low, even as recently at
Diina ; his shapely limbs were still suffering. Here,
jested the audacious Dumky, who yet wore on his
arm the garter stolen by him from a little Silesian
duchess ; Svante Horn linked to his trusty Lidbom,
was saying that he could never fight well until he
felt a Cossack spear or sword flesh him ; and in
front of him stood Field-surgeon Teuffenweiser, that
courteous, whiteheaded old man, who was continually
putting on and taking off his glasses. It was he
who aye wanted a dram before he would attend
wealthy patients.

All were talking about the chances in war ; how
that some were allowed to grow expert in danger and
old in honour, without being grazed even by a bullet,
and others, in the spring of life, were cut.down at the
very first shot of all. Not an echo of carousal was in

MAANS THE FRENCHMAN 89

the air ; but the King had ordered the drums and
flutes to play merry-ways the whole night long.
This was a camp wherein the subdued bustle sounded
like the murmuring of a clear forest-stream under the
leaves of June.

It had been against the King's desire that his Life
Guards had thatched his tent with straw, and laid turf
thereon, so that it resembled nothing so much as a
pile of charcoal. It was not pitched in the centre but
was the very last of the tents, and almost outside the
firelight. They had put together a fireplace of stones
beside the tent pole, and from time to time laid in it
red-hot cannon-ball.

The King's laver was of pure silver. On the table
there lay, next to " The Life of Alexander the Great,"
and the Bible garnished with covers of gold, a small
silver cast of his dog Pompey, now dead. Already
faded was the once bright blue silk of the seats and
the bed wherein the dogs Turk and Snushane were
lying ; the King himself was sleeping on pine boughs
strewn on the ground.

By now even small beer was lacking in the com-
missariat ; Huliman, his body servant, had been able
to proffer nothing more than a tassie of snow-water
and two hard biscuits. Then the King had spread
his cloak around about him, and put on his night-
cap. There, in the height of his triumph, slum-
bered Sweden's King — his shapely head in the glare
of the ruddy cannon-shot. Long past was the time
since he had uttered in his privy chamber that
prayer of childhood, while the night wind rustled

9O A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

the lime trees in Karlberg Park. Little by little his
Deity had darkened into the God of wrath of the Old
Testament ; then changed into the vengeful Lord of
Hosts, whose commands he heard echoing in his soul
without any hearkening on his part ; and now Thor
and the Aesir Gods were storming upon his camp in
the bellowing blasts of the night wind, greeting on
trumps their youngest-born on earth.

The King's hounds began to growl. Max of Wur-
temberg, the Little Prince, was approaching, all
radiant and overjoyed. His voice rang like that of a
child.

" Your Majesty ! Waken, Your Majesty ! Five
and twenty Smaalanders have started and had sport
with the enemy."

Maans stood behind him. Schmiedeberg, the
mighty captain, supported him ; he himself was yet
going on crutches, after his stout affray about the
baggage; there, with twelve men, he had engaged
three hundred Poles. Maans had never borne* his
head prouder and more satisfied, although he was
sinking with fatigue.

When he heard he was before the King's tent,
he stopped in dismay, then stooped, and hurriedly
washed the blood-stains from his hands. He threw
off his hat, his large peruke, and the small one;
and without recollecting the regulations, put on his
great full-bottom. His toilette ended, with arms stiff
by his sides he stepped into the tent. Through
stuttering lips and with chittering teeth he gave his
account to the King.

MAANS THE FRENCHMAN 9 1

Charles, sitting upon his bed of pine branches, re-
peated every word of it to himself, slowly and with
emphasis ; not to let slip the meanest detail. Ho
rejoiced and made glad, like a child concerning a tale
of wonder. At the end he gave his hand to Maans.

" Oxehufvud was right," said he, " our men have
had a merry brush with the enemy ! Since the solitary
asked in jest for five louisd'ors, I will pay out ten ;
and you, my man, can go back and throw them through
the window at him ! "

Maans stepped backward out of the tent ; and
Schmiedeberg took him round the waist, and carried
him into the midst of the officers awaiting him in
curiosity. Cornets were there, and lieutenants, and
captains : his equals in years, but already holding
higher rank.

" Maans the Frenchman ! " they murmured. " None
of us, now, durst laugh any more about your lorgnette
and perukes ! But what of the rank of officer and the
patent ? The patent ? "

" Hush," said Schmiedeberg. " Rewards are for the
mean. It is His Majesty's will that no reward is
given. The King would rather have one fight and
fall for the glory, and the glory only." And none
there ventured to gainsay him.

He let the new protege stand free, and hobbled
on his crutches some feet nearer the fire. Said he
softly :

" Saw ye not, saw ye not, how His Majesty himself
gave him his hand, just as to an equal ! "

" I got my award, at that, for time and eternity,"
cried Maans the Frenchman,

92 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

Attired in his fine full-bottom and tattered clothes,
he held himself prouder and more erect, his arms
by his sides. His mouth was trembling with the
cold.

" And thy letters patent ? " Schmiedeberg replied
softly : " When ye fall in the fight."

CHAPTER VII.
QUEEN OF THE LAND-RAKERS.

THE bells of Narva Church Tower stormed out no
more. Among the stones from the gaping ramparts
lay the hacked and rifled bodies of the heroic Swedish
defenders. The Russians had carried the day.

Some Cossacks had sewed a live cat within the
belly of an inn-keeper, and were standing around their
victim, yelling with laughter. But the colossal Tzar,
Peter Alexievitch, was crushing his way through the
thick of the soldiery, felling his own people down in
an endeavour to repress outrage. From his own feats
in the fight the right sleeve of his coat was soppy with
blood up to its shoulder.

In time, one troop after another, wearied with the
slaughter, gathered in the market-place and the
churchyard. On the pretext that the church was
defiled by unbelievers buried therein, they began to
violate and rifle the graves. They raised the tomb-
stones in the church with crowbars, and opened the
graves outside it with spades ; coffins were smashed
in pieces, and thrown broadcast in confusion; the

94 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

pillagers cast lots for the silver handles and case-
bands. All day long the coffins of metal and wood,
rusty and decayed, lay strewn in the streets previously
deluged with boiling pitch and burning wood, cast by
desperate inhabitants on the first melees, but now
with gutters running deep in gore ; and the hair of
some of the dead was waxed so thick, that it had
forced itself out between the chinks. A few of the
corpses were embalmed, and thus well preserved,
their flesh brown and withered; but for the most,
yellowed and grinning skeletons lay amid their rotted
and musty winding-sheets.

At the fall of the darkness, men slunk out and
examined the name-plates, oft-times reading thereon
the name of a near relation, or mother, or sister.
They saw the body-riflers tear out foetid remains and
fling them into the river ; but often, protected by the
night, they succeeded in securing these last evidences
of loved ones. Frequently during the darkness there
was to be descried an old man or woman, with their
children and servants, struggling laboriously and in
timor to bear away some coffin.

A swarm of sacrilegious soldiers were bivouacked in
a corner of the churchyard. What a pleasure it was
to make a fire of bedsteads, mattresses, chairs, broken
coffins, and everything that could be dragged together.
High the sparks shot up, even to the eaves of the
pastor's house. Some coffins stood piled up about the
fire ; the bottom was fallen out of the topmost one ;
and the deceased treasurer came to view, long and
lanky, with a full-bottom still upon his head. He

QUEEN OF THE LAND-RAKERS 95

looked as if he was about to say, " Heavens ! into
what sort of company have I descended? "

"Haha! little father," yelled the troopers at him,
while spreading their apples and onions to roast.
" You also want to have something in your throat,
eh?"

The firelight illumed the living-room of the pastor,

and the sparks fell through its broken windows. In

the room was one table, much cracked, and one chair.

The pastor was seated thereon, his head in his hands.

His silvery hair fell on his shoulders, his snowy

beard swept his chest. As an army chaplain he had

experienced well-nigh most things in the heyday of

his youth ; and never had he refused a beaker of good

liquor ; yet, later in life, had served the Lord his God

in joy and well-doing. A widower, he was ; and 'twas

whispered that when a fair handmaid served in the

pastor's house, he was wont from the very outset not

to flee from temptation. His heart was as staunch

as his body, which, as becomes a man of war, was still

unbent by the stress of years ; he was bearing the

calamities with more courage and equanimity than

the others his fellows.

"Who knows ! Maybe I will succeed," he muttered,
rising up as if he had found the key to some intricate
puzzle.

He arose and went out into the passage. Carefully
he pulled some four or five rusty nails out of the
panelling, hiding a small narrow secret place under
the stairway, and shoved it aside.
" Come out, my child," he cried.

96 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

On no one obeying, his voice grew louder. " Come
out, Lina ! The other maids were bound hand and
foot and taken away ; I hid you just at the right time.
But it will soon be four and twenty hours since ; and
one cannot live without meat and drink ! "

When, despite him, he was not obeyed yet, he
thrust his head back in affront. Said he, in a rough,
commanding voice :

" Why do ye not obey ? " Think ye there is any
food in the house ? there is not so much as a pinch
of salt, now ! And do ye know, too, ye must be
smuggled out of the town? If things go amiss,
and a soldier seizes you, then, dear child, I give but
this advice: put your arms round his neck, mount
behind him, and ride off with him whithersoever he
takes you. Ay, often in the broils of my younger days
I have seen that done ; even I have thrown my roque«
laure over the pastor's frock ; and had a hand in a
like affair before the happy conclusion to it all. Are
ye listening, my girl ? When that father of yours —
drunkard he was, too, to tell the truth about him —
who was my stable man, drew me out of the hole in
the ice, I promised to care for his wife and child. And
then, too, he was a Swede, like myself! Have I not
aye been a fatherly master to you ? or what has your
Grace to object to? Have you clean forgone your
understanding, or what ? "

At last something began to stir in the pitch-dark-
ness of the recess. An elbow was shoved against the
wall ; and with much effort Lina Andersdotter came
out in her white shift, with naked feet, her brown

QUEEN OF THE LAND-RAKERS 97

tresses streaming down her back, and wearing a torn
red jacket, lacking sleeves, but with an unharmed
body. The firelight poured through the window.
Huddling herself together, she pulled her shift down
between her knees. Yet her fresh, healthy face, with
its broad, open features, was as cheerful as if she
were arisen from sleep in the first grey light of a
winter's morning.

The old man's blood yet ran hot in his veins ; but
at this particular moment he was entirely the friend
and father. Said he, stroking her naked shoulders
in a kindly manner :

" I did not know that anyone in my simple house-
hold had such over-weening modesty ! "

She looked up. " No ! " was her answer. " It is
because I am so cold."

"Ay, that is believable," said he. "But I can-
not give you any clothing. And every moment the
house may take fire. Yet, I myself may be able to
slip out unmolested, and have still a Riga rix-dollar
in my pocket ; who asks questions about an old man.
But it is quite different with you, Lina ! — I know well
the wild business that would ensue ! I can think of
only one device to get you away in safety ; yet durst
not tell you, you are sure to become too much afraid ! "

"Afraid ? I am not ! " she replied. "What is to
be done to me — will be done. And I am no better
than any of the others. Oh, if I was not so fright-
fully cold."

" Come, then, to the door; but do not take fright.
See, there, outside in the doorway, the villains have

H

98 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

placed a smallish, wooden coffin. It cannot be too
weighty for me to carry, and mayhap you will find
room in it. An ye have enough courage to lay down
in it, perhaps I can smuggle you out of the town."

" I have the courage now," cried she.

Her teeth were chittering with the cold, her whole
body was atremble. But she straightened herself,
letting the shift hang short, and stepped forth into the
doorway.

The pastor raised the damp lid that hung loose, and
found nothing more in the rifled coffin than shavings
and a brown blanket.

" That is just what I need," stuttered Lina Anders-
dotter, drawing it out.

Then she enveloped herself in it, and laid herself
down, back on the shavings. The pastor bent over
her. He put both hands on her shoulders, and peered
into her frank eyes. She was between eighteen and
nineteen years ; her glossy braids of hair were
smoothed back from the temples. It came into his
head that not always had he looked upon her with as
pure and fatherly eyes as he ought to have done, and
as he himself had pretended ; but now, he was doing
it for a righteous end.

His long, white locks fell over his face, and down
on her cheeks.

" May all go well with you, child," he cried earnestly.
" I am old ; it matters but little whether my life is
taken ! In my time, I had part in many rogues' ploys
and have done many wicked deeds ; and towards the
remission of my sins J would that I do some good act,"

QUEEN OF THE LAND-RAKERS 99

He nodded several times to her, then straightened
himself. Without, the brawling was growing louder.

He put on the lid, and jammed down the long screw-
nails as best he could. Thereupon he knelt down and
passed a rope round the coffin ; with strong arms he
lifted the heavy burden upon his shoulders, and with
bowed back went staggering into the open.

" Look there," cried one of the band in the church-
yard.

His nearest comrade silenced him. " Let the old
dullard go on. It is a pauper's coffin ! "

The sweat trickled down the pastor's brows ; back
and arms ached exceedingly ; but, step for step, he drew
forward through the empty street. Now and again to
get breath, he had to rest the coffin on the ground ;
but even then he stood with one hand on its lid ; then
in fear he again had to bestir himself and push on, or
remain to get cut down by marauders. Frequently
he had to avoid the great wagons laden with men
and women who were to be carried hundreds of miles
into Russia, to populate the steppes. The great Tzar
was a sower, who measured not the crop he sowed.

When at last the old man neared the gates, and the
guard stepped forward, he strained his last forces with
the whole energy of deadly fear. While with one
hand he kept the coffin on his back, he took out his
rix-dollar with the other. He handed it to the soldier.
The man nodded to him to pass without the gates.
He tried to step forward, but could not, yet through
the gateway plainly saw the free fields and shimmer-
ing river, Of a sudden everything became dark to him.

H— 3

100 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

In his helplessness, yet ever careful of his burden, he
let the coffin slip gently to the ground. Then falling
forward on his face, he died.

Soldiers sprang hither. They began calling and
complaining, for the coffin could not remain there, in
the gateway. Their officers, who had been sitting at
cards inside the gatehouse, also made their appear-
ance. One of them, in shape small and thin and
weakling, with spectacles square in shape, and
resembling more a writer than a soldier, took a lant-
horn, and coming forward raised the lid of the coffin
just a little with his scabbard. The first time, he
hastily drew back his head and almost dropped the
light ; but he bent down again, directing the illumina-
tion inside the coffin. He paused longer this occasion,
and looked with more accurate attention. He began
to stroke his face with his hand, as if to conceal some
thought. Finally he took off his spectacles, and stood
there, pondering. When he stooped the third time,
he flashed the lanthorn full along the slight gap
betwixt lid and shell ; there lay Lina Andersdotter,
at peace, and blinking at him without knowing what
had happened.

Quoth she, " I am hungry."

The officer put the light on the ground, and took
a couple of steps up and down the gateway, his hands
behind his back. Then a mischievous and brisk
expression played on his stiff features.

All unnoticed by his comrades he took an apple
from his pocket. Cautiously he slipped it into the
coffin. Then cried he to his men ;

QUEEN OF THE LAND-RAKERS IOI

" Here, you lads. Eight of you to carry this coffin
to General Ogilvy. Give him my humble greetings,
and tell him that this is a meagre gift from his ser-
vant Ivan Alexievitch. Other eight of you, the men,
there, just returned from the fortifications, go behind,
and blow the march of the regiment on the trumpets.
A couple of men, also, are to go before, with lighted
torches. Forward ! "

The soldiers looked in amazement at each other,
but obeyed. Amid much laughter they raised their
burden upon their muskets. Two long poles plaited
around with straw were found in a corner of the gate-
house, lit at the lanthorn, and the procession set out
towards the camp that lay without, in the fields.
Merrily the trumpeters blew their blasts.

When they reached the camp, the escort formed
up, in the torchlight, around the coffin. General
Ogilvy, who had been sitting at meat, came out of his
tent.

" Little father," said the spokesman of the men,
" Ivan Alexievitch, our lieutenant, sends this present
to thee in all humility."

Ogilvy paled somewhat. He bit his lips under the
bushy, grey moustache. His features wore a stern
expression, though at bottom he was full of kindness
and beneficence.

" Is he a fool ? " he thundered in feigned anger, for
truth to tell he was now out of countenance like a
startled schoolboy. " Put the coffin down, here, and
break open its lid."

The men shoved their swords between the boards,

IO2 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

and the lid fell aside. Ogilvy gave one look, then
burst into loud laughter. He laughed so much that
he had to sit down ; the soldiers laughed too ; along
the entire street of tents the merriment spread, till
men stotted hither and thither, falling against and
propping up one another, as if intoxicated. For in the
coffin lay Lina, wide-eyed, and with the half-eaten
apple in her hand. She was warm by now ; her
cheeks glowed pink like a doll's.

" By the Saints ! " cried Ogilvy. " One sees no such
wonder in the catacomb of St. Anthony himself. This
is a kind of corpse which must be sent to the Tzar."

" By no means, your Excellency," said one of his
officers. " Yesterday, I despatched two small, short-
legged blondes to him ; but his desires are all for
slim, brown-haired women."

" No, indeed, if that is so," Ogilvy replied. With
a gesture he turned towards Narva. " Greet, then
Ivan Alexievitch from me, and say to him that if the
coffin be sent back, his promotion ought to lay inside
it ! Hoho ! my little darling ! " And he chucked
Lina Andersdotter under the chin.

Instantly she got up, seized him by the hair, and
gave him a resounding box on the ear. She followed
it up with another. But he did not evince the slightest
embarrassment, and continued to laugh.

" I will have you, now," he cried, " I will ! I'll make
you Queen of Land-Rakers, my chick ; and, as token,
I give you this armlet with the turquoise clasp ; some
of our cleverest knaves stole it just now out of Count
Horn's coffin in Narva." And on his shaking the

QUEEN OF THE LAND-RAKERS IO3

bracelet off his wrist, Lina Andersdotter eagerly
seized it.

A little time later that night she sat at table with
General Ogilvy. Now was she dressed in a gown of
figured stuff, made in the French mode, and wore a
head-dress of fine lace. She had to eat her food with
gloves on her hands, with their great, clumsy fingers ;
and the red skin of her wrists showed out between
the fastenings.

" Haha ! Haha ! " yelled the generals. " Her hands,
there, make more merriment than tankardfuls of
Hungary wine! Fasten her girdle for her; catches us
under the arms. No one here can look at her without
killing himself with laughter."

She pilfered as much of the sweets as she could,
and thus through her audacity Ogilvy needs keep his
sword on high to ward the dishes. This displeased
her somewhat, and she made grimaces. In all truth
her appetite was not small ; but on the contrary she
would not drink ; she took but one sip of wine, then
spewed it out on the generals. Their oaths and worst
terms of speech she immediately attained. And there
she sat, blooming and merry.

The generals were choking with laughter. Cried
they :

" Blow out the lights, so that we cannot see her.
Oh, save us all ! Oh ! We are suffocating. Made-
moiselle, perhaps smoking a pipe of tobacco may be
one of your little pleasing traits ? "

" Why the devil can you not leave me in peace!"
replied she.

IO4 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

Ogilvy was adroit enough to hold aloof, so that none
might be able to turn the laugh against him. None
nudge him. None pluck at his coat-tails and say, "Ah,
little father, now you have a douse of cold water over
that bald head of yours. God bless you, little father,
bless you aye, and your little disappointment too."

He always contrived to behave to her rather as the
benevolent acquaintance than aught else. In public
he never sat so close to her, but that his hound could
lay between them. Nor did he take hold of her in
public, if any one was nigh ; and, even in private, he
did but very seldom ; for she was wont to smack his
face. Oft-times so hard did she hit, that the glove
split, and out came her robust hand in all its yokel
ruddiness. Frequently she belaboured him with a
good will, and jeered at none so much as him. But
he just laughed like the others. And never aforetime
had such rioting and brawling reigned in the camp.

Ogilvy often resolved to let her feel the weight of
the knout, yet was he ashamed, for his officers would
hear the affair through the thin covering of the tent.
Then they would form some idea regarding his non-
success with the virgin.

" Ay, only wait ! " he muttered between his teeth.
11 We will be alone some day, soon ; between four
walls and behind lock and key ! Only wait, Made-
moiselle ! "

One day the generals cried to her : " You trail your
dress on the ground. We'll take hold of it for you !
Now! Bless me! Look there! Just look, but
merely take one peep ! "

QUEEN OF THE LAND-RAKERS IO5

" Carry it, then," said she. " But do it fair and
decently, and the better for you ! " Then the officers,
thronging about her, bore her train for her, both on
her going in to meat, and coming therefrom.

Now it came one night as they all sat drinking,
Lina Andersdotter among them, that an adjutant
entered, all perplexed and in irresolution. He stepped
up to General Ogilvy.

" Dare I venture to speak plainly to you, your
Excellency ? "

" Of course, my man," the general replied.

" And will you pardon me ? "

" On my word of honour. Only say what you
desire."

" The Tzar is on his way to the camp ? "

" That is all right enough. He is my noble
sovereign."

The adjutant nodded in the direction of Lina
Andersdotter. Quoth Ogilvy : " Only the slender
ones please the Tzar."

" Your Excellency. This last time, his taste is
changed."

" Good ! " cried Ogilvy, jumping up. " Call the
men to arms, then get me a three-horse conveyance."

The call was sounded. There was a soaring of
bugles and a blaring of trumpets ; wagons rumbled
about ; sharp orders and the trampling of the cavalry
filled the ear of night. The carousal instantly came
to an end.

Lina was placed in the wagon. A soldier sprang
up, lanthorn in hand, and seated himself next to the

IC6 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

peasant driver. The wench heard the latter ask in a
low voice for his directions. " To the Tzar," replied
the taciturn man of war, pointing with his thumb over
his shoulder at her.

The driver shuddered as if struck by a frosty blast.
He whipped the fiercer at his small shaggy horses ;
and, crying and beating at them, forced them into a
speedier gallop.

The lanthorn gleam glinted among the trees, and
over the burnt-down houses ; the wagon rattled and
rumbled and creaked along the stony highway ; and
Lina Andersdotter lay on her back, and looked up at
the stars. Where were they taking her ? What fate
awaited her ? She wondered and wondered on these
thoughts. Round her wrist still hung the armlet,
like to a talisman ; a pledge it was towards the ful-
filment of the General's strange prophecy. Queen of
Land-rakers. The term sounded so natural to her,
for all she had arrived at its meaning with much
difficulty.

For a while she fingered and tugged at the little
silver ornament. Then she rose up a little, and,
bending over, looked at the rough track in the lanthorn
illumination. With caution she trailed herself more
and more towards the end of the wagon, and, all
unseen, climbed over the back board, and let herself
slip feet first towards the ground. She wondered
whether, at the furious rate they were travelling, she
would break any of her limbs, and only remain laying
on the road exposed to more danger. The next
moment she lost her grip, and was being trailed along

QUEEN OF THE LAND-RAKERS 1 07

the ground, to stumble, and fall heavily on the hard
road. The conveyance thundered on, and in a short
time had disappeared into the distance, with its
dancing light and galloping horses. Lina got upon
her feet, dried the blood off her cheeks, and took her
way into the trackless forest.

Here she fell in with some refugees, who taking
pity on her comely face, plucked her roots and berries,
and followed her. Soon she discovered a whole
household of fugitives. She straightway showed the
strong hand, so that they durst not even touch so
much as her clothes ; yet, in truth, among themselves
they were always quarrelling and striking each other.
At last, one day, she took service with the wife of a
seaman, who intended to set sail for Dantzic. But
scarcely was the gloaming fallen, than the others also
appeared and offered their hands. Then the seaman
sat in the moonlight, on the top of his cabin, and blew
his shawm for joy. So willing a crew he had never
had, nor his wife so strong a servant.

Hardly were they on the sea, than Lina Andersdotter
placed herself with folded arms beside the shipman,
and her vagabonds laid down on their backs. Merrily
they all sang to the music of the shawm.

Said Lina to the man's wife :

" Think ye, I will scour and scrub your tubs ? "

" Beat her ! Beat her ! " the woman cried. But
her husband leant the closer to Lina Andersdotter,
and continued playing.

Night and day the vessel floated onward, with
flapping canvas. The seaman all the time blew on

I08 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

the shawm to please Lina. In the cabin below his
wife sat and wept.

On arriving at Dantzic, the shipman put his shawm
under his arm and slunk away, by night, with Lina
Andersdotter and her companions. They understood
by now that her end was to join the Swedish troops
that were marching against the Poles.

When with her folk she came singing into the camp,
and along to the section for the women, she found
resentment and clamour active there. For twice four
and twenty hours the camp followers had remained
on their wagons, without food. The last provisions
had been given up to the sutler, and were now divided
among the soldiery.

Lina Andersdotter went up to the first corporal she
saw. Putting her arms akimbo, she cried to him :

" Are ye not ashamed to let my women folk starve,
when ye cannot do without them ? "

"Your women folk," quoth the corporal. "And
who may you be ? "

She pointed to her armlet.

" I am Lina Andersdotter, Queen of the Land-
rakers. Now take ye five men, and follow me."

The soldier looked at his captain, the foolhardy
Jacob Elfsberg. Then he gazed first at Lina's pleasing
face, and finally at his men, who already, musket in
hand, stood round her. Her women folk had taken
to themselves whips and cudgels. So when the flare
of their fires flushed the night sky, the King, sharpened
with curiosity, sprang into the saddle.

On the wild gang coming back with heavily laden

QUEEN OF THE LAND-RAKERS 109

wagons, with oxen and sheep, the troops were jubilant.
Their shouts rang lusty and loud: "Long live King
Charles ! Long live Queen Caroline ! "

The women thronged so close upon the King, that
his lackeys had to fend them off. Lina Andersdotter
stepped straight to him to receive the shake of his
hand. But he had raised himself in his stirrups.
Over the heads of the surging women he cried to the
corporal and the five men ;

" Well done ! Rare good plunder ye've got, my
men."

From this hour forth she would hear no more the
King's name mentioned in her presence, but when
she met a man, be he general or private, belaboured
him to his face with the worst of words. When
Bjorkmann, the young guardsman, already famous
from his heroic feats, offered his hand to her, in irony
she put her empty, tattered purse into his palm. But
never was she more furious than when Mayerfelt, the
major general, rode past her, whistling merrily as he
cantered at the head of his dragoons, or when she
recognised the yellow-brown cheeks and raven-black
bobtail wig of Colonel Grothusen. Yet if a poor
wounded lay on the road, she would give him the
very last drop in her water bottle, and put him upon
her wagon.

Frost and scars soon tanned her cheeks. She
always sat on the top of her baggage wagon, and
with her whip controlled all the odd after-guard ;
the punks and wedded wives and thieving wretches
that streamed from east and west in the wake of the

I 10 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

army. When the glare of fires illumed the heavens
at night, the troops knew that Queen Caroline was
out on her foray.

Now after days and years were gone by, and after
the pleasant winter quarters in Saxony, the army of
the Swedes advanced into the Ukraine. The King
commanded that all their women be left behind.

" He does it all to suit himself ! " murmured Lina
Andersdotter, but she kept quite calm.

No sooner was the army arrived at the Berezina
than the camp women broke out into clamouring, and
weeping and wailing. They gathered round Lina
Andersdotter's wagon, some wringing their hands,
others holding up their little children.

" What will you do now ? " was the intense cry.
" The troops are over the water, already ; and break
down all the bridges. They have left us to the
Cossacks."

There she sat, her whip in her lap, and wearing
topboots like a man. On her wrist still sparkled the
armlet with the turquoise clasp. The lamentation
and blubbering of the deserted women increased.
Out of the close-wagons, like to huge boxes, crept
powdered and painted wantons, some in satin gowns
and having gold chains around their necks. They
crowded about her ; on all sides she saw women,
strangers to her, whom she had never set eyes on
heretofore.

" Low drabs ! " she muttered. " I understand now
what sort of smuggled goods the captains and lieuten-
ants carried twith them. What do you here, among

QUEEN OF THE LAND-RAKERS I I I

my poor folks. Ah, the whole lot of us, now, know
the worth of a man when his haversack is light of
provisions.

Still they all kept thronging on her. They plucked
at her garments, and besought her, as if she of her-
self could avert approaching doom.

She cried : "Is there not one who knows that
Psalm, ' What though I walk in Death's dark vale ? '
Sing it ! Sing it ! "

Some of them struck up the Psalm, in choking,
whimpering voices. But others fled down to the
river bank, and sought boats, and began to row
across ; each that had a husband or lover hoping to
be taken back and somehow concealed from autho-
rity's eye. It was all the lowest of the women,
those who never at any time belonged to one man,
who were standing now clustered around Lina
Andersdotter.

Among the bushes the Cossacks began to skulk
towards them.

Then Lina felt her heart grow faint, and she got
down from her seat.

" Poor, poor children," said she, stroking their
tender cheeks. " I will not leave ye ; but now ye
must, devil take me, pray God that he washes your
blood-red sins white and clean. I can say no more
to you than that ye shall shame men and die a proper
death."

She opened the covering of her wagon, and searched
among her spoils for some pikes and sabres. These
she gave to the women, and herself seized an empty

112

musket ; powder and shot she had none. So there
they stood in that ominous atmosphere, high upon the
bank, with the ruddy sunlight streaming down.

When the other women saw from the water how
the Cossacks rushed the baggage, and cut down their
comrades, thinking they were men in disguise, they
turned away the boats.

The Swedes sped from their ranks back to the river-
side, and opened fire. They cried, a thousand throats
as one : "

" Long live King Charles. Long live. . . No.
'Tis too late ! Look. Look! It is Queen Caroline,
who, surrounded by harlots, is dying like a virgin,
with the musket in her hand."

CHAPTER VIII.
MAZEPPA AND HIS EMISSARY.

IN a bed-chamber, garnished with sumptuous furni-
ture, stood a tester bed. Plumes waved upon its four
posts. Behind its half-drawn curtains lay a man up-
ward of sixty years of age ; the bed-covering he had
drawn up under his beard, and his long white hair lay
spread out. The entire forehead of him was hidden
under a medicated plaster. 'Twas Mazeppa.

On the carpet by the bed two medicinal phials were
strewn, and a few volumes of Latin and French poetry.
At the door a small, meagre-bodied priest was holding
a whispered conversation with two men in garbs of
green ; messengers they were, from the Tzar.

" He scarce understands your words," whispered
the priest, throwing a troubled and searching glance
at the sick man. " For hours he reclines there, with-
out speaking. Who could ever imagine that the
lively old man would be struck down so suddenly ? "

" Ivan Stefanovitich," said one of the strangers in
a loud voice, and nearing the bed, " our right noble
Tzar, thy master, sends greeting. Bethink thyself!
Three Cossacks of thine that fled to him and told of

114 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

thy plotting against his authority, he gave orders to
be taken prisoners ; and has sent them back to thee
in gift. Ivan Stefanovitich, he but relies upon thy
fidelity."

Inert and dull the eyes of Mazeppa disclosed them-
selves. His lips made motion. They but drove
forth an incomprehensible murmur.

" We understand you," the Muscovites cried. " We
understand you. You bless him, you thank him for
his mercy ; and we are to inform him that eld has
crushed your strength ; that every thought of yours is
already turning on that which is not of this perishable
earth."

" I fear," murmured the priest beside them, " that
he is nearing the end."

The Tzar's messengers bowed their heads in sorrow,
and retiring backwards went from the chamber.

Immediately they were without, the priest bolted the
door.

" They are away," said he.

Instantly Mazeppa arose. He tore the plaster from
his forehead, and threw it on the floor. His dark,
wide-open eyes sparkled ; the colour came and went
in his cheeks ; and under his fine curved nose his
teeth showed themselves white and fresh like to those
of a young man. He thrust the clothes aside, and
sprang out of bed. From head to foot he was dressed,
even to great coat and top-boots with spurs.

Gaily he poked the priest in the side.

" You little rogue of a priest ! Oh, ye vagabond !
In fair truth we've got ourselves out of the affair not

MAZEPPA AND HIS EMISSARY 115

badly, this time : in Moscow they will be believing,
now, that old Mazeppa is lying on his back, all idle
and out of mischief ! God be good to them, simple
souls ! Ha, ha ! You little blackguard of a priest !
Oh, you hypocrite ! "

The priest laughed drily. He was a deposed Bishop
out of Bulgaria. His round head, with its short
nose and far-receding eyes, resembled a dead man's
skull.

Mazeppa became exceeding merry. " Mazeppa
dying ? Ask his little sweetheart. Just ask ! Ho,
you great Tzar of mine in Moscow, now we work to
live and get rid of ye."

" The Tzar mistrusts you, my lord. But he will
disarm you through his very magnanimity. 'Tis a
way of his ! "

" And, even so, he had overcome me if he had not
dealt that blow on my ear the other night at table,
when we were drunk. I hold my ear even as sacred
as he does his ; and I never forgive an insult ; it
rankles in my soul, and gnaws and gnaws at me. If
I am no king by birth, I am of a kingly nature ! And
what can he do against my fine Cossacks ? Eh ! To
business now. Narrate your adventure, you rogue ! "

" My lord, clad as a beggar, I passed through the
country to the Swedish Head-quarters : but on the
way I fondled the change-house maids on my knee,
and had my stoup of liquor by me at the table ; and
if then I looked down and saw my toes peeping
through the tattered leather, thought I about myself,
Now, this is the Emissary of Mazeppa ! "

1—2

Il6 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

" Good — good ! How did you find, then, our
buck ? "

" Buck ? "

"Of course! His Swedish Majesty! D'ye not
think that he, beggarly appearance and all, must
needs air himself even more than any perfumed
Prince of France in silken stockings and all. And he
has, too, that strange levity of the Northerner, who
may knout one incessantly and shout : ' A mere trifle !
It's just nothing ! That won't hurt ye ! ' He has never
been able to grieve over misfortune longer than the
dark lasts ; that has been the secret of his strength.
Alack for him and his fortune when once he lies,
night after night, awake and brooding. I'm eager
to see him. I long to meet him. But speak on."

" First, I found him in peruke and field dress on
the aprons and kerchiefs of the tavern-girls ; then on
the glasses out of which I drank ; on the sweet cakes
I ate ; also on table-covers, box-lids, snuff-boxes ; and
painted on the market stalls. Folk spoke of nothing
save him ; and the children, placing themselves in line,
played the game of God, his Swedish Servant. The
people termed him the Protestant-Papist, Elect of
God, reverently bowing thereat."

" Good ! But how did you find him, himself, on
reaching head-quarters ? "

" I warn you ; I foretell nothing good. I saw the
worse tokens. I found him boastful and arrogant,
like to some great man when the whole world bows
down before him. Marlborough, after his audience
in Saxony, left the camp shrugging his shoulders ; and

MAZEPPA AND HIS EMISSARY 117

the sovereigns, too, began to laugh at him behind his
back ; his own generals become tired of him."

" Then you mean that he is become the common
folks' hero : even such a man I need, to gather
the wild hordes around me. Unless you assure me
you have seen him eat and drink I'll not believe he's a
living man ! I would say, then, that the young Prince
of Sweden fell in the broil at Narva ; but his wraith
yet rides before the troops ; and the snow falls and
falls, and the benumbed battalions know not whither
he is leading them. When the foe recognise him in
the cannon-smoke, all aghast they drop their muskets,
and durst not shoot ; and he knows not that oft-times
he cuts down men sinking on their knees in terror
before him. Hired bravos throw away their weapons
when his eye falls on them, and accuse themselves ;
he lets them go unpunished. Speak not to him of
kingdoms and dominions, and Settlements-in-Treaty.
Gold ? Lands ? From Austria he demanded a
chamberlain who had slandered him black as the very
Devil ; and a swarm of Russian soldiers fled thither ;
and liberty of conscience for the protestant folk.
From Prussia he got imprisonment of a Colonel who
had betrayed advices to the Tzar, and the banishment
of a writer who had criticised his remissions to the
bigots. From Saxony he demanded Patkull and all
deserters, and liberty for the Sobieskies and Saxons
gone over to Sweden. He compelled King Augustus
to pack up in a velvet-lined box all the old Polish
regalia, and restore them to Stanislaus. After he has
deposed King Augustus in Poland, he will cast down

Il8 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

the Tzar or challenge him to single combat. But as
for their crowns and sovereignties, he will never have
them in a present ! Since the times of old no more
strange individual has handled the sword or borne
the sceptre."

Mazeppa, whilst speaking, had clung so vehemently
to one of the bed-posts, that the plumes of the silken
canopy nodded and nodded.

But the priest raised his third finger in the air.

«' I have warned you," he answered. " All that
comes in touch with him is doomed to death or
destruction. In all truth he is a patron saint of
adventure. He has invested adventure with eminence
and endured it with steadfastness. And you too, my
lord, are an adventurer ! And myself am one of the
most addicted. Therefore will I be submissive ! "

He let his hand fall, and came nearer Mazeppa, with
less respect in his air of familiarity.

" Ivan Stefanovitich, have you never conjectured
why I directed my steps straight to your gates ? "

" You got hunted off your Bishop's Stool through
your unbeliefs and villainous pranks ! "

" In main it was on account of a little trifling piece
of pilfering. There were a couple of pearls in the
iconastare ? "

" Which ye, setting in their stead bits of glass, sold
privily, to enable yourself to live somewhat easier
and more worthy of a servant of the Church ! "

" Let us talk no more of that ! When I heard speak
of Mazeppa, that famous page of Johannes Kasimir's
Court, he that did pay homage to the seducing sex,

MAZEPPA AND HIS EMISSARY 1 19

till in the end an over-jealous spouse had him bound
naked on the back of a horse and driven out into the
wilderness ; and there he founded his realm of adven-
ture. St. Andrew protect you, Mazeppa ! I needed
a Little Master, one too much ashamed to cut off a
good head, and who would suffer me to read in peace
my Greek and Machiavelli ; one to whom I could
say, ' Be it so, O master mine. All is but a phantasma.
Even this, that you are the over-lord and I am the
servant ! ' Therefore came I to you. But the blood
of the adventurer cannot now endure the restraint ;
and, of a truth, is got weary of thy watered wines,
for, Mazeppa, ye are a great miser ! So, seeing that
now you think to have a right affair with musket balls,
I follow you. And since the Swedish King gives ear
no longer to his generals, nor to the beseeching letters
from his grandmother and his people, because that
the most dangerous and impracticable way of all tends
hither, he will accept your prayer to form an alliance.
With you and your Cossacks he will go against the
Tzar. Here are the papers."

The priest, throwing aside his cloak, stood in Cos-
sack dress, with pistols in his belt. He withdrew one
much-folded document from his breast. Mazeppa
grew pale, and seized it, and held it long pressed
against his mouth, whilst inclining his forehead and
bowing himself as if before some invisible holy
picture.

" The drums — the drums," he stammered in excite-
ment. But when the priest was even at the door, he
called him back. " No ! let the drums be beat at the

I2O A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

first of the morning." Then he stepped to a simple
wooden table in the ante-chamber and seated himself
at his accounts.

His stewards he called together, and cast the
reckonings for, and bade them observe greater fru-
gality. A raider, yet a wise and economical owner,
he himself in the end overlooked the packing of his
many coffers and chests, and occasionally also helped.
The next morning he clad himself in an old, rich
embroidered Cossack hablement. All in a flurry, he
no sooner sat down than he sprang up again. He
remained standing before the mirror for nigh an hour,
and stroking now and then again his moustaches
with his small, delicate white hands. As soon as the
drums were rolled he sprang into the saddle, and in-
cessantly kept his horse at the gallop.

One morning, some time after, he was riding
in the King's retinue through the snowstorm. The
priest urged his horse, as if by chance, alongside him.
All around, the troops were marching, soiled with dirt,
their weapons and cannon shielded against corrosion ;
baggage wagons rattled onward, creaking under loads
of commissariat, the sick, and covered coffins.

Drunk Zaparogs, prancing Cossacks, and vigo-
rously trumpeting Poles rode about, clad in their
green and red cloaks, and with tall, tinkling, brass
helmets ; some flourished lances decked with tassels
and tags, or long muskets inlaid with silver and
ivory ; others, again, played strange and mournful
tunes on wooden flutes. It was somewhat of a
romantic march, through unbeaten and unknown

MAZEPPA AND HIS EMISSARY 121

forest tracts, across frozen swamps, and beneath snow-
laden firs, into the enigmatical East.

" Mazeppa," began the priest in a low voice, " ye
promised to join the Swedes with 30,000 Cossacks,
but only 4000 followed thee ! '*

Mazeppa let his sorrel unchecked leap into a gallop,
and nodded in silence. But the priest was grown
tired of being fooled.

" The day before yesterday the half of your follow-
ing took fright. Yesterday, yet more. Soon but 200
will remain, only the dwarfs that guard your coffers
and two tons of ducats. Your fellow conspirators are
seized ; your towns are burnt ; your few trusty ser-
vants bound to planks and cast headlong into the
river. Soon ye will be naught but a spruce cavalier
in the following of the Swedish King ! " On Mazeppa
saying naught, the priest continued ; " This day I
also abandon ye : the Swedish small beer is too
sour, to my taste ! and my toes gape over-much in
my footgear. Thy Emissary, O Mazeppa, requires
a richer master ! Farewell, Ivan Stefanovitich "

Mazeppa answered : " So long as I still have my
head on my shoulders and retain my philosophy, I
remain Mazeppa. Whilst my Cossacks turn and flee,
I bid the staff and insignia of hetman be borne before
me ; and ride on again to the King, as if the millions
of Xerxes were behind me. And he, for all his im-
poverished kingdom, his malcontent generals, and his
waning fame, receives me like to the most felicitated
of Princes. What matters it to him or myself how
many ride behind us ? He has a sufficiency of kingly

122 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

honours : will be the most favoured of God. He looks
on this venture as a love-sick swain on his beloved.
Through his birthright he will not win favour, but
from himself ! And should we two, he and I, be the
last of living men, and hid in a burrow in the steppe,
despite all will we maintain our diversion in philosophy,
and mutually pay honour to each other an we were
sitting before a Coronation Banquet."

" You speak of his setting sun. You have read the
signs aright ! He cannot open his mouth without
boasting like a very baggage knave."

" Easy it is for one to have modesty when others sing
his praises ! " And with a proud gesture Mazeppa flung
back his curled white locks, then galloped to the King,
who saluted him, bending again and again in his saddle.

In their vicinity some of the generals busied them-
selves in talking loud, so that the King could hear
them.

Said Anders Lagerkrona : " When I get to Moscow,
I'll patch the seat of my riding breeches with the
Tzar's nightcap ! "

" Shame on you ! " rejoined Axel Sparre. " D'ye
not know an old saying, that in time to come, a Sparre
is to be Governor at the Kremlin ? "

" Hear ! " cried the ensigns. " Shoot him down,
that durst hinder so great and illustrious a Prince
from accomplishing his end ! "

The King laughed and hummed : " The Russian is
to run ! The Russian is to run ! " But when the
speakers were beyond his ear, their faces changed, and
their demeanours became vehement and melancholic.

MAZEPPA AND HIS EMISSARY

" Your Majesty ! " cried Mazeppa, in sorry Latin,
with gleaming eyes, " So far might your all-conquering
arms be thrust forward now that of a fine morning we
be scarce eight miles from Asia ! "

" On that must the learned dispute," answered the
King, all amused, but seeking for the Latin words,
and gazing on Mazeppa's white, comely hands. " If
the boundary be not so far off, we must find it ; and
thus be able to say that we, too, have been in Asia ! "

And in time their voices died away.

The priest reined in his horse.

" Asia ! " he murmured. " Asia lays not in the
middle of Europe, my lords ! Ride on, ride on, my
right venturesome masters. I have so often changed
my garb and name, that none of your Swedes have
made out to a certainty who I am. But do you forget
not, it was the beggarly monk, that vagabond, Ma-
zeppa's emissary, who, through cunning parleying,
laid his finger, blue with frost, down on thy fate, and
on that of thy Demi-God, when in the steppes he
discovered to you the way. Thou art right, King
Karolus ! And thou, also, Mazeppa ! All, all in the
end, rests on one isolated individual."

It snowed and snowed ; but still he sat motionless
on his thin nag while the battalions drew by, silent
and long-suffering. The last of the soldiers, turning
round, looked at the solitary horseman, unknown to
them, and stared at his small, death-like features ;
then, taken with sinister affright, hurried onward.

CHAPTER IX.
FIFTEEN YEARS LATER.

WHEN the porridge was eaten, and the two tallow
candles by the pewter dish were half burnt, seats were
drawn in towards the fire. The residence was one of
the smallest and poorest in the neighbourhood, but
this night one marked a lack of nothing. On the floor
the straw lay like a soft carpet ; fresh twigs of juniper
were stuck sideways in the obscured, rain-bespattered
window panes ; the radiance of the fire on the open
hearth streamed yellow on the whitewashed wooden
walls ; and over and above, a stoup of liquor had gone
the round just a short time past. Everyone knew that
now was come the hour of jollity. The two serving-
maids, who had donned their best, worsted bodices,
cleared the board as tardily as possible, and remained
standing by the door, for Hook, the old Captain, the
Karolinean, tobacco-box in hand, had taken the seat
of honour before the fire. But first he made himself
feel right comfortable, after he had drawn off his
heavy boots, sewn with cobblers' thread, and set his
feet in their thick white stockings, one upon the other
at the edge of the hearth, to get them thoroughly
warmed.

FIFTEEN YEARS LATER 125

In truth, that night he had already taken all the
talk to himself, relating even about Ehrenkrona, who
had received the Sword of Honour from Frederick,
the Danish King, but had made no more over it other
than taking it along with him in a box. This time,
however, the Captain assumed an earnest and settled
demeanour, and went on to a fresh tale. In the main
it was considered that he lied most inveterate ; but
none concerned themselves : all the importance was,
that he told a good story.

He was an oldish man, with a snub nose bitten blue
with frost ; his smooth hair and moustache, curled like
to a youth's, had aye been so fair, that no one noticed
if the years had whitened them here and there.
Moreover, in his short, tight-buttoned tunic, he sat
sturdy and straight as ever.

" Yes," he began, in his wonted method, " that
autumn I lost myself in the forest, things went ill
with me. I mean that time in Severia. Lewenhaupt
had destroyed our baggage, and was taking us along
the Soza river, to find a safe place for fording ; his
purpose being, that later on we were to join the King
on the other side. Now many of the foot stayed
behind to plunder the baggage. I was an ensign at
that time, and was sent back, with a few others, by
General Mayor Stachelberg, to bring these men to
reason ; but already the Muscovite was at them ; and
I hardly yet know how in the darkness it came that
I saved myself by swimming across the river.

" Dripping with water and mud, I happened on a
dragoon at the far side. He was of my own regiment,

126 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

and we called him Long Jan, because he was one of
the tallest and the thinnest that ever bore a Swedish
weapon. His chest was spare, but his hands were
large. His arms and legs seemed to have not a sinew
in them ; and his lean and simple face, recognisable
by any from its slanting mouth and thick nether-lip,
was wholly bare — not a hair grew on it. God knows
why he was ever taken along with us !

" At this time, however, I was as glad to see his
meagre person as ever my sweetheart ; and as fast as
our legs could take us we made off at random, to warm
ourselves and dry our clothes ; then towards break of
day we threw ourselves down and slept. For many
days we held on in this fashion, through forests and
marshes, and all the time our clothes were never right
dry. Once we took them off, and hung them on a
bough ; yet that helped but little in the damp autumn
air ; and they were none the better ; only much colder
when we put them on again with much trouble. And
our boots ! It was just impossible to take them off.
Betimes they got dried in the walking, but soon got as
wet as ever in a morass ; and one burst of rain
followed on another. I had a small piece of bacon and
some black bread, which I shared with my taciturn
and as it appeared submissive comrade in misfortune ;
and after this was finished, we chewed leaves and bark
and everything eatable we happed on. Our hunger did
not cause such a death-like pain as did the constant
fatigue. And by degrees all strength began to go,
and our limbs became so stiff, that we could not rest
without torture.

FIFTEEN YEARS LATER 127

" But one night we heard, of a sudden, the barking
of a dog. For some minutes I felt as if I burned alive
with joy, but immediately sense came back, and I
thought on the danger. So I turned in the opposite
direction, and Long Jan followed, silent as ever.
When we had walked for some time, I noted that we
only came nearer to the sound. I took the soldier by
the arm, and set myself in another direction ; yet, as if
forced by some hidden irresistible temptation, despite
every effort, we came aye the nearer to the sound.

" When in the end I let go Jan's arm, he stepped
out faster than afore.

" ' Halt ! ' I cried after him. For, though I was
terribly suffering from fatigue, I had no wish to walk
straight into an enemy's house, where in all proba-
bility the very best axe was awaiting us.

" ' Halt, halt ! ' Jan repeated obediently, but for all
that he ran on again.

" I rushed after him and brought him to a stand. So
long as I had a grip, he kept steady and motionless.
As soon as I let go, he began to run once more.

" ' Halt ! Stand still,' I thundered, all enraged as if
under fire. I was fairly confounded at this sudden
mutinous waywardness of a man trained in our iron dis-
cipline. ' Will ye not obey your own ensign, fellow ? '

" ' Halt ! Stand still,' he repeated, but continued to
gallop as before, just as if he was no more the master
of his own feet.

" ' In Jesu's name, then,' cried I, ' things cannot be
worse than they are ! But then, ye've now turned
yourself into an ensign, for ye are of the ranks ; and

128 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

me into the private ? Well and good then ! But
forget it not ! '

44 Long Jan did not answer. Maybe he did not
even hear me. So then I had to follow him.

"After some minutes we reached an open plain,
with secluded houses and barns on it. Before us stood
a great wooden building of several stories. The rain-
drops on the moss, which made watertight the walls
consisting of huge tree trunks, glistened in the rays of
the drooping sun ; and the window panes gleamed as
if lit with countless candles ; but the door was shut,
and no smoke came out of the chimneys. The place
was like to a stricken body, with closed mouth and lack-
ing breath, but with eyes, that all sinister, were illumed
with baneful light from without. Behind a haystack,
slanting and tumbled down, cringed a dog tied to a
stake. On seeing us it wagged its tail.

" Jan stepped straight up to the door, and knocked,
but no one opened.

" Thereupon he drew his sword, and with the handle
beat in the nearest window. Instantly we heard a
frightened woman's voice crying ' Varvara ! ' many
times.

" The shattered glass jingled to the floor. The lead
casing of the window was all bent and broken. We
heard hasty footsteps in the house. Almost that
moment the door was opened by a slender and stately
serving maid ; a broad plait of bright hair hanging
down her back ; and on her little black cap, as on her
tight-fitting red and green bodice, numberless silver
coins were dangling. In her hand she held an unlit

FIFTEEN YEARS LATER I2Q

lanthorn, presumably picked up through force of habit
in her terror.

" ' We will do no harm, 'said I, trying to speak cor-
rectly in that difficult tongue. ' The Lord keep us from
such horrors, Mademoiselle. . . . But we are
starving, and before everything we must '

" ' Have dry clothing,' interrupted Long Jan, his
teeth all chittering.

" It was the first time during our long wanderings
that I had heard this strange fellow speak of his own
free will. And now into the bargain he had the
effrontery to take the words out of my very mouth !

" When the girl, turning round, left the door half-
open, he stepped to the side, however, to give me place.

" Said I, to him in irritation, ' The Ensign must
aye go first ! '

" ' God keep me from that ! ' he answered, his spurs
clashing together in salute.

" But half glad at our peaceful reception, and yet
half angry, I continued to say, with some sharpness in
my tones, that he could not doubt my earnestness :
1 Or the Devil take the Ensign, then ! '

" At that he drew his long body through the half-
open door.

" We found ourselves in a great hall, the house
having no vestibule. In the middle of it the stove,
built of many coloured Dutch tiles, rose like a tower.
Along the walls, that were made of the rough-hewn
tree trunks, thickly packed with moss, stood some black
envarnished seats, and on a dresser glittered pewter
utensils.

a K

I3O A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

" The serving maid ran hither and thither, crying
on Varvara, who at last appeared, heavy with sleep
and all in terror, in the furthest corner of the dark
place. There the two of them stood trembling and
whispering in alarm. After a little they grew calmer,
and on my addressing them to their surprise as
« Mademoiselles,' and acting as if I did not know them
to be but poor bond maids, they could not but ex-
change glances and appear more amiable. It was all
like a drop of hot oil on the creaking wagon.

"They told us, now that their folk had gone away,
some two weeks past, at the first whisper of the
Swedish invasion. Moreover they assured us that
nothing of any worth was left in the house, and that
they would willingly do their best to be of avail
to us.

" Varvara had beautiful teeth and black curly hair,
but was too small, too thick. She likewise laughed
in a loud and ringing manner, that affected me un-
pleasantly. The golden-locked maid, called Katharina,
I could well endure ; and could not but pinch her ear
as she was carrying in the wood for the stove.

" Meantime, Jan, without more delay, had taken
off his tattered blue tunic, and as he owned neither
vest nor shirt, he soon stood naked to the skin, in all
his pitiful thinness. So that no one there but himself
could keep from merriment. Never at any time
had I seen a flicker of amusement on his stiff coun-
tenance.

"After each of us had got a sheep's skin, and satisfied
pur hunger for the most, we laid ourselves on the

FIFTEEN YEARS LATER 131

stove, our swords between our knees. I also ventured
to bid the ensign keep alternate watch with me, lest
they assail us unawares. I also forbade the two
women to leave the hall, and then, aloud in Swedish,
I commended us to the protection of the Almighty.
But oft-times He has it that we men occasion our
own surprises !

" As no one spoke to me, I slept peaceful and long,
till I became awakened by stinging heat ; I had better
have said a torture. But at any rate it made me recollect
that I was no more a wandering skeleton, but a living
man. And now imagine my panic when I saw the
suffocating place was dark and untenanted, but heard
shrieks and cries from out the neighbouring room.
Instantly I seized my sword, and leaping to the door,
thrust it open. Then I perceived a raging kitchen
fire, and before it Jan, clothed in a chequered dressing-
gown of bright cashmere, and with high-heeled shoes.

" Apparently the rascal had some talent for foraging :
a fowl was already on the spit ; and into a boiling
kettle he was throwing every eatable he could lay
hands on. Between times he took one rare goblet
after another out of a rifled cupboard before him,
smashed them against the edge of the hearth, and
threw the fragments on the floor.

" I leapt forward, and clasped the rapscallion round
the body ; but was not in a state to make him budge.
His untoward obstinacy lent the strength of a giant
to his weakened body ; I myself was yet exhausted
with past sufferings. On him turning his face to me,
I noted that his eyes were glassy and fixed, and a

K — 2

132 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

strong smell of liquor came from him. I let him
stumble free, all stupified. He was drunk !

" Golden-haired Katharina, as much amused as
troubled, meantime came to me and told me in her
soft voice. . . . Humph ! At that time Hook, the
old Captain, was a young and comely fellow . . . !

" Where were we then ? Yes, she told me that Jan
had gone from room to room, and broken everything,
vases as well as clocks. In the end he had gone
through every section of the cellar below, except one,
the key to which was lost. She added hastily : ' But,
then, you, poor man, will likewise be very hungry ; '
and shoved me into another room of the most rare
splendour.

" On its walls hung green tapestry enwrought with
Diana Hunting. The most priceless vestments lay
about on the shiny floor : the leathern chairs were all
gilt ; and beside a dish in the middle of the table, stood
jars filled with clear, golden wine; not kvass or beer.

" Now at the sight of so much splendour I lost my
senses, and my distrust became somewhat dashed,
for both serving-maids appeared totally content in
being able for once to dissipate and destroy things,
and likewise felt themselves on unfriendly ground
in the very house where formerly they served as
bond women, all humble and submissive. To them,
'twas plainly an intoxication of victory, to be able
to waste the dainties which hitherto they had never
durst touch ; to throw themselves into fine carved
chairs, before which they had had to curtsey low ; to
trample under foot valuable clothes, which aforetime

FIFTEEN YEARS LATER 133

they had not been thought even worthy enough to
touch.

" They chose for me a coat of stiff silver brocade,
its skirts stiffened with whalebone, so that they looked
as baggy as women's ; and on my feet, from which the
previous night I had cut off the boots with great
difficulty, they put silk stockings and scarlet shoes.
All the same I never ventured to lay aside my sword,
for I could not away with the notion of some subtle
treachery.

" With full simple frankness of a very Queen of
hearts, Katharina clapped her hands, soft as they were
white, and confessed that she was really amused, for
with me, who was on the same footing, they could be
and do as they wished ; but concerning the Ensign,
maybe a great Lord, they had to be on their guard.

" I seated myself at table on one of the leathern
chairs, my glistering coat tails almost concealing it.
On each side of me I bade one of the maids take her
place ; and I clinked glasses with them, and drank
right heavily.

" ' The ensign is of very noble parts,' said I.
' Perhaps he may become a Councillor ! ' At that
time my worst curse was on people that fought with
the pen.

" ' But Mademoiselles will know full well, that the
nobility sometime through an unlucky dispensation,
be born as simple-witted as wayward : that is the
reason, then, why I sometimes think myself obliged,
so to speak, to lead his understanding aright ! '

" As a soldier, I have had aye one fault. 'Tis true,

134 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

I have dealt blows at the right time, and could safe-
guard myself; but in the main, I have been docile
and somewhat too soft hearted. So now I let Jan
run riot in the kitchen, as it pleased him ; and myself
ate and drank to my heart's content. But with every
gulp, I felt how the liquor was robbing me of my
senses. And the reason that I became not im-
portunate with my merry hostesses, was less owing
to virtue, with which the Almighty often invests, and
prudently, too, the beauty in a woman, than to my
fatigue, which was now affecting me like a sleeping
potion. Caution advised me to set aside the bumper ;
but after the hardships of the last few days, the wine
was irresistible.

41 1 sank into sleep, sitting there, my hands crossed
over my sword hilt. ' Now I hear lurking footsteps,'
said I to myself, in dreams, ' They are aye coming
near me, here, behind my chair ! I must draw my
sword in haste. But what is it ? — I can stir neither
hand nor foot, for all I'm so awake that I can make
out Diana and her hounds on the hanging. All the
air is but a swirling mist playing round the faces of
the chattering girls, and the flames of the tapers. I
am clean drunk ! There's no doubt on't ! But now
I'll go asleep again. Again, there are the lurking
footsteps behind my chair. A serf stands there, with
his axe. This very moment he's raising it. The
next, I'll be feeling it like a stroke of lightning on my
neck . . . and then all is over ! Why may the
chair not keep still ? I can't keep myself steady if
you leap. B-r-r, horse ! Do you know aught on this

FIFTEEN YEARS LATER 135

earth that's able to frighten me ! But to keep myself
turned on the haunches of a galloping steed of the
King. ... I cannot ! Yes, you see well enough,
I'm lying here in all the mud of the street. Fah !
Why are you laughing ? And the vault in the cellar.
. . . Why did ye just say that one . . . one
. . . one, two, one two, one two, boys blue,
two, three, with powder and lead, three, four, we're
serving, four, five, land and country, five, six, Carolus
Rex. . . ."

" Twas then I raised myself up on my elbows, and
sang the whole of the Sixth Psalm, from the first to
the very last verse, and this, with so stout a voice, that
all evil needs in terror betake itself. Many a time I
have had a drunken rally, but never one that gave me
more agony !

" Awakening betimes next morning, I sprang up
from the floor where I had been lying on my back
under the chair. Certain was I, now, of falling into
some ambuscade ; and, therefore, was overjoyed to
find both the maids asleep on a sheep- skin by the
table. But without, in the kitchen, I heard strange
noises. There I found an old one-eyed hag, Natalia
by name, and a hairy serf, called Makar, especially
resembling him of my dream. They confessed that
they had kept themselves close, but had crept out on
noting that we intended no evil. They also related
that many inhabitants of the town near by, on learning
of our arrival, had put their goods and chattels on
wagons during the night, and gone off at full gallop.

" I felt myself now free of suspicion, and in my joy

136 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

went back into the room, and bending over charming
Katharina, still slumbering, warmly kissed her. She
awoke somewhat, laughed softly, and turned on her
other side to go asleep again. But I kissed her anew.
This time she defended herself ; and then sprang up,
wide awake and amused.

"'You're a charming girl, Katharina; and I mis-
trust you no longer,' said I. ' Get me now fresh
water and something salt.'

" Whilst she came and went, serving the breakfast,
I often slipped my arm round her waist — not too slender
was it — and kissed her. In the end, she kissed me,
and, pressing close on me, sometimes grew merry,
sometimes sad.

" To and fro we went through the many chambers.
But when before a certain door she aye was very dis-
creet in her behaviour, for in the room beyond it my
lord the ensign was pleased to rest himself in one of
the most princely beplumed beds. In the end we
seated ourselves in a great chair of fine yellow leather,
and I took her on my knee, and caressed her thick
tresses. It was no untruth I told when I murmured
in her ear that the hardened heart of a soldier had
seldom beat faster. I lose myself in melancholy when
thinking of the happy times that followed ; and rather
than recall them hour for hour, I leave it to you folk, in
particular to the younger, to image them all ; and
right lively ones, too !

"Every night, nevertheless, I ordered Makar to
keep watch before the house, and never laid aside my
sword. Frequently Katharina was wont to snatch it

FIFTEEN YEARS LATER

from my side, then carry it before her, both hands
round the hilt. Up and down the room she would
parade with it, while the autumn rains crackled on
the panes, and I had good cheer. The loose hangings
would wave behind her in her careering, the pictures
taking on life. The walls re-echoed her when, with
her little black cap drawn down over her head like a
warrior, she cried, ' Forward — Charge.' Then I built
barricades of tables and gilt leather chairs ; till in the
end I leapt forward into the very midst of the attack,
and secured the weapon-bearer as well as the weapon.
Never a thought took I of my comrades, who mayhap
were starving and bleeding for our King. My one
desire was aye to remain there.

" Katharina was aye smelling of lavender. We
kept for ourselves a nook, close under lock and key ;
and in here she had lugged her great chest, which
was covered over and over with blue chequered paper.
It contained her clothes and other belongings, and
was never opened but the odour of lavender filled the
whole chamber. Her greatest delight was to go
down on her knees, and take out all her clothes and a
great number of boxes ; and pack them in again with
even greater care than afore. When all this seemed
too tedious to me, or the room now and then got too
cold, I persuaded her to go into the hall with me and
seat ourselves on the stove.

" Then I tried to take her attention with tales of
the adventures of my broad-sword, and on occasion
was not sparing with my words. I knew of a cer-
tainty it had already taken eleven men's lives, and

138 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

could show on my arm marks of gunshot wounds and
sword-cuts. But she did not ask much about all
this!

" Then, when I told her the tales of Prince Gideon
of Maxibrandar, she grew peevish.

" ' For all that, such a thing never happened ! '
quoth she, beginning with vigour to sow red and
green scalloping on a pair of lacing boots. One plainly
saw that they needs became a masterpiece in their kind.

" My Lord the Ensign lived in continual drunken-
ness, and showed a high disdain of both women.
Katharina maintained she found this very agreeable,
seeing that it was awkward for a woman of her class
to reprove an aristocrat if he importuned. However,
one morning the ensign bethought himself of the
close vault below, which both of us had forgotten.

" Down went he. Straightway Katharina got so
carried away with terror, that she could not suppress
tokens of it. Squeezing both my hands, she implored
me to keep him back. So completely was I the
captive of my heart, that although my former mis-
trust was now revived, I found myself ready to help
her.

" We went after him, and found him already busy
breaking open the locked door, which was of wood.

" ' Leave it alone ! ' I ordered.

11 He answered, ' Yes ! ' but with imperturbable
obstinacy continued to crash on the door.

" Thereupon I excused myself to my sobbing com-
panion by saying that a mere private like myself could
not command his officer. The next moment the wood

FIFTEEN YEARS LATER 1 39

gave way. Within the vault a lamp was burning
under a gilded Russian picture of the Virgin, and
alongside a bed stood a table covered with various
victuals. Between the bed and the wall moved some-
thing dark and roundish, which, when we neared,
was recognised to be the shoulders of an old man.

" When he saw he was discovered, he crept out,
and embracing the knees of the ensign implored for
mercy. He avowed himself to be the master of the
house, and that he had hidden himself here after
having sent away his family ; also he promised to be
our trusty servant if we would but spare his life.

" ' Be calm,' I answered, helping the trembling
ancient from the ground. ' Now ye'll be our drum-
mer, when we sit at meat ! '

" That night we sat down to a sumptuous meal.
My lord the ensign, as was his wont, occupied the
chief seat, and myself and Katharina sat beside him.

" On a table a little to the left of us stood the white-
haired, shaking old noble, with a brass mortar and
pestle In his hand, and Makar with two pot-lids.
They thwacked their kitchen utensils in time with the
beat of the melancholy folk-song sung by ugly old
Natalia sitting between them on the table.

" I know not the reason, but her wailing voice bereft
me of my lively spirits, and I began thinking on the
many many thousands of my far-away fellows. Be-
tween my vest and shirt I carried a big packet of
letters from anxious relatives to near and dear ones
in the field ; and these they had prayed on me to
deliver when I reached the King's encampment.

140 A KING AND MIS CAMPAIGNERS

" I withdrew them from my breast ; they held no
secrets from me ; for on my last night in Riga I had
received many of them unsealed. Drawing a candle
nearer me, I glanced at random through one of them.
It was writ in a shaky hand. Thus it read : ' Give
this into the hand of Hans. My dear son, receive the
blessing of thy father, though parted far from him
by land and sea, and soon near to that world where
crocodiles, scorpions, and other creeping things strike
fear into man. . . .'

" I felt the sacred responsibility of the delivery of
this benediction.- My conscience grew heavier and
heavier. Maybe my face showed my feelings. I
noted that Katharina pressed my foot more than usual.
But I did but press it in return, and deemed it to be
only a love token.

" On re-folding the note, I saw that nevertheless she
sat there pale as a corpse, and touching neither meat
nor sup. So that she might whisper to me, I bent
somewhat in to her. But the old noble on the table
stared fixedly at her, whilst more zealously than ever
he beat his uplifted mortar like a bell.

" I grew perplexed, and knew not what to employ
for a pretext. Then I bethought myself on saying
that I was cold. I got up, and went into the sleeping
chamber ; and searching around in the darkness,
cried : ' Katharina, my lass, where have ye put my
sheepskin ? '

" When she came in, she threw herself on my
neck.

" ' Heard ye not ? " she whispered, ' Makar telling

FIFTEEN YEARS LATER 141

the master in all that noise, that he has got more than
sixty serfs together ? As soon as he gives them the
signal, by breaking the window in the hall, they'll
burst in and cut ye both down.'

" I remained somewhat steady, and sought to com-
fort her ; but, with her voice thick with tears, she told
further that at the outset she might have taken a part
in ensnaring us, yet that now she did not believe she
could live a day without me. Pressing her closer, I
kissed her burning mouth and beating forehead. But,
despite everything, at that very moment I experienced
a strange peace in my soul, for, of a sudden, our
acquaintanceship was soon to be a thing of the past.
Later on I have bitterly repented me, aye and
wondered at myself, that 1 had so little to give her in
all sweet faith, that parting hour. But I know naught
else to blame, except the reading of the letter and the
instant danger.

" 'If I could take you with me,' I stammered in a
low voice.

" I could plainly discern her in the half-light from
the opened door. She shook her head, and drew me
to the window, and besought me to get out and away.
Thereupon I burst into anger as it had been, and
shoved her far over the polished floor.

" Cried I, in a loud voice. ' What do ye take me
for, girl ? ' And with that I drew my sword, and
went back into the hall.

" When the ensign saw me thus, he leapt from the
table, and in a flash also drew his blade.

" Thereupon the old man raised his pestle to throw

142 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

it at the window. Instantly wa stood before him,
threatening him with our swords.

" In his mortal fear his knees knocked together.

" He cowered more and more, the pestle almost
falling out of his hand. Natalia, holding her peace,
crossed herself ; and Makar, seeing his master was on
the point of swooning, let his pot-lids clatter on the
floor, and took him from behind, under the shoulders.

" He tried to wrest the pestle away for himself, yet
the ancient only held it firmer. For a good time then
we stood there, fronting each other, and without in
the kitchen we heard the kettle singing. But soon
we also heard clattering footsteps, for the serfs, spying
through the window, had witnessed the affair. The
doorway soon became packed tight with dirty sheep-
skins, and among them a bald forehead showing here
and there. Then a shot cracked, and the smoke
spread out over the matted heads.

" I forgot about our play at ensign and private, and
made to shove Jan aside, to essay against them ; but
now I was to find out in all truth whom I had for a
comrade. Jan stood as stiff as ever. Budge he would
not. He even took me by the arms and thrust me
aside with irresistible power.

" ' Ensign, ye've made me into the ensign and your-
self into the private. Ye'll know our custom ? — that an
officer leads.' And like a clap of thunder he burst
among the sheepskins, his big broad hands clasped
firm about the sword hilt. Now over his head the
blade crashed into the wood of the door, now ripped
up both clothes and flesh,

FIFTEEN YEARS LATER 143

" I heard another report, and saw axes and pitch-
forks all around. Jan let fall his arm that was be-
ginning to gout with blood, and now could only wield
his weapon with one hand ; but I was at his side,
hacking and stabbing at them. We were pressed
into a corner of the kitchen ; and my out-spreading
coat-tails got torn into rags, the black whale-bone
sticking out in all directions.

" Blackened with smoke till he was nigh irrecognis-
able, Jan tottered, and fell against my shoulder. Seiz-
ing his unwounded hand I pressed it like a brother's.

" Cried I to him. ' Now I know who ye are, Jan,
and once we're out of this with whole skins we'll aye
betogether.'

" He did not reply. One of his eyes was closed up ;
the other, wide open. With a heavy thud he stotted
on the floor. And this was the last I saw of Long
Jan, the man at whom I had so often laughed, and
who had angered me so frequently, but to whom I had
shown through the grip of my hand that I esteemed
him friend and equal.

" At first I tried to take care of his body, but
speedily saw the uselessness of this last office. So a
minute later I was once more amid the bushwood, but
with a wound on my forefinger.

" I had the luck, however, to fall in with some
twenty other Swedes, also strayed. Up a fir tree I
climbed then, to make out the occasion of a long streak
of fiery reflection in the murky heavens overhead.

" ' What see ye ? ' asked my fellows.

" ' I see pitch darkness. But on shutting my eyes

144 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

I see more. Then I see an enemy's camp before me ;
below me, marshy ground that almost sucks up our feet
in its desire to be the deathbed of a few poor, wretched
soldiers ; behind me I mark unbounded waste land,
where the bodies of our brothers lie livid and rotting
under the October leaves, where no fowl cackles before
the burnt courtyards, and the horses find no fodder but
of tree bark. Farther behind lays the sea ; and behind
the waters I see a long road, its signposts all decayed,
that leads up to a red, poverty-stricken house. Inside
it the starving fare has just been removed from table,
and while the venerable old man takes out the book
in which a goose feather lays as a marker at the First
of Revelations, he sinks into thought, wondering if
now we at last have joined the King with the rein-
forcements, and if now his dear ones, maybe this very
hour, try to make out his scarce readable letter.'

" 'Tis true I did not say all this at the time, but I
know, I thought the like, for by now Katharina was
almost gone from my mind.

" ' What see ye now ? ' asked my comrades. ' Ye've
climbed higher ! '

" Far away over the trees I saw beacons or camp fires
as they had been lumps of molten iron in the murky
night vapour ; the series of peaked tents there recalled
some foggy coast showing out in a beacon flare.

" ' This fine light,' said I in a low voice to them,
' is like to a goodly apple into which over many pips
are stuck ; and we must have our swords ready. But,
hush ! Wait . . . that was not Russian ! Hear
ye the outposts calling to each other ? As true as I

FIFTEEN YEARS LATER 145

live was that not our own dear mother-tongue ? If I
have not heard " To the Devil " at least seven times,
the Devil take me ! '

" I don't remember how I came down out of that
tree. But on all sides I was shaking outstretched
hands, and fell out of one embrace into another among
the yellow-and-blue coats. Ay, how many longed-for
greetings had I to deliver at this desolate end of the
earth ! How many adventures to relate !

" Half-carried, half-shoved, I went further into the
camp ; and was almost brought to a stand with their
peals of laughter, when they marked my tattered
foppery, with its whalebones flapping about at every
movement. But, for myself, I verily shouted in joy.
" ' I have a letter for Captain Bagge,' cried I.
" ' Killed, long ago.'
" ' Also one for Cederstjerna, a Lieutenant.'

" ' Killed .'

11 1 stumbled over a dead horse lying agrin in my
way, and almost burnt by the glowing logs of a neigh-
bouring fire. The rain had put out the flames, but
in the illumed space behind it I saw some sinister-
looking officers seated in a circle. On the ground be-
fore them a man was outstretched ; his fur cap drawn
well over his forehead, and the collar of his cloak
pulled high up.

" I waved the packet of letters, and made to step
over him. A hand clutched me by the shoulder.
Quick and sternly was I checked by the words :
" 'Are ye mad ? See ye not, it is his Majesty ? '
" Then in salute I brought my heels together, and

L

146 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

raised my hand with the letters to my head, and tears
starting to my eyes fell down my cheeks. . ."

Captain Hook got up after ending his tale, and bade
goodnight. But when he was out, and in the entry,
the others heard him stop stockstill on the stairs.

So one of the serving maids drew on her worsted
jacket, loosened the last candle end from the plate,
and with her hand beneath it, to prevent any of
the burning wick falling among the straw, she went
out to light the captain over the way. All knew
that he never liked to cross by himself, because in the
pit of the night, he, the Karolinean, became afraid.

CHAPTER X.
THE BELEAGUERED HOUSE.

SURPRISED by the biting cold of winter, the Swedes
had taken up their quarters behind the ramparts of
Hadjatsk, thronging in with great confusion. Soon not
a house was to be found which was not crowded with
frost-bitten and dying soldiery. Their agonised cries
were echoing into the streets, and their amputated
fingers, feet, and limbs, lay thrown out on the stone
steps. The wagons had come in fast, one after the
other ; and were now all at a stand from the town
gates to the market place ; and so close packed, that
the frost-bitten troopers streaming by had to creep
between the wheels and the sledge runners.

The horses, sorely lacerated by chafing harness and
white with rime, were cowering away from the snarl-
ing wind. They had got no fodder for many days,
nor had anyone attended to them. Some of their
drivers sat frozen to the box-seats, their hands still
stuck into the cuffs of their great coats.

Some of the conveyances were like huge boxes
or coffins. Through the chinks in their flat tops one
marked faces sad and sullen, some bent over prayer-
books, some enfevered and full of yearning, staring at

L — 2

148 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

the sheltering houses by them. Thousands of poor
wretches, in undertones or in the recesses of their
hearts, besought the Lord for mercy.

The soldiery stood in long lines by the ramparts ;
many of them had red Cossack cloaks buttoned over
their tattered uniforms, and sheepskins about their
naked feet. Wood pigeons and sparrows, frozen so
stark, that one could catch them with the hand, had
perched themselves on the heads and shoulders of the
dead still standing erect there ; and pitifully they
flapped their wings on the chaplains coming forward
to administer to the dying the last Sacrament. It was
served with brandy.

In the market place, between two burnt-out sites
stood a great house, out of which loud voices were
resounding. A soldier delivered a bundle of faggots
to a cornet standing in the doorway. On regaining
the street he shrugged his shoulders.

Said he to a fellow of his, hearing the noise : " It's
only the officers of the Chancellery quarrelling ! "

The cornet at the door was newly arrived in the
Lewenhaupt command. He took the faggots into the
room, and threw them on the hearth ; instantly the
officers became silent. But as soon as he had closed
the door behind him, their voices burst out louder than
before.

It was his Excellency, Count Piper, himself, with
frowning face, cheeks all aglow, and quivering nostrils,
who was standing in the middle of the chamber.

" And I think the whole affair is naught but folly,"
he cried. " Folly ! Folly ! "

THE BELEAGURED HOUSE 149

Hermelin, of the pointed nose, kept his eyes and
hands in motion, and sprang about like to a small tame
rat. But beside the hearth, Field Marshal Rehnskiold,
handsome and of a fine carriage, was murmuring un-
intelligible words, and humming softly to himself.
Had he not muttered and hummed, the trouble had
now been to seek, all present being in fair accord for
once ; but his continual muttering and twittering to
himself, instead of either speaking out or keeping
silent, was not to be endured.

Lewenhaupt, standing by the window, took snuff
and clappered the lid of his box. His brown eyes
were near out of his head ; and his odd peruke, as it
were, was growing bigger and bigger. If Rehnskiold
had not been there with his aggravating mouthing,
Lewenhaupt had controlled himself as ever. But at
present his anger over-mastered him.

He clacked to the lid of his snuff-box for the last
time. Between his teeth broke out the loud murmur :
" I am not anxious that his Majesty should busy him-
self in state-craft. But of late he also thinks of lead-
ing the troops ! Has he ever shown right judgment
at any reconnoitre or attack? Trained and tried
veterans, who never can be replaced, he throws away
day after day in futile and useless actions of bravado.
If our men storm a rampart he thinks there is no need
of them to use fascines, and so they get mercilessly
massacred. In plain truth, my sirs, I can excuse a
studiosus Upsaliensis many stupid deeds, but I think
otherwise of a general in castris. Surely it is for the
good of none to go into action under such a leader ! "

I5O A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

" And so," replied Piper, " his Majesty does not
trouble my Lord the General, just now, with too im-
portant a command ! At first, before anyone succeeded
in winning the preference, all went better ; but now
his Majesty must aye be playing the mediator between
ye all ! The continual smirking he needs employ
drives a man mad ! "

He gesticulated with his arms. He had talked him-
self into a fury, lost to sense and control, for all he
was at one with Lewenhaupt.

Even as he spoke, he turned about and left the room.
The door fell to with such a crash that Rehnskiold
saw fit to redouble his whistling and muttering. Had
he only yet said something. But no, he would not !

Gyllenkrook, sitting at the table and busily revising
the march route, was red with anger.

Said a small, withered General, whispering malici-
ously into his ear : " Diamond earrings for Piper's
Countess, maybe, might help Lewenhaupt into
another post ! "

Had Rehnskiold now made an end to all his fooling
then perhaps Lewenhaupt had been able to master
himself ; and taking out the reports which he carried
beneath his great coat, had taken a seat by the table.
But, instead, he was now incensed even more ; and
he, too, wont to be taciturn and orderly !

In some indecision he wheeled and made for the
door. Of a sudden he paused there. Straightening
himself, he clicked his heels together in salute, like
to any private. Instantly Rehnskiold dropped into
siler.ce> The door was opened.. An icy blast drove

THE BELEAGURED HOUSE 15!

in. Then the cornet announced, in a shrill, high
voice, as of a sentinel calling the camp to arms, " His
Majesty."

No longer was the King the bedazzled and unwordly
and undeveloped youth as of yore. Nought remained
the same in him but the boyish figure with its narrow
shoulders. His great cloak was shabby and dirty.
The line now deeper about his arching upper-lip now
added something of a simper to his face.

On his nose and both cheeks were frost-bites ; his
eyelids were swollen red with constant cold ; the
combed hair on his baldish head stood up like a
serrated crown. He held his cap in both hands, and
sought to hide embarrassment under some stiff and
chilly ceremony.

Smiling on those present, he bowed to them
severally ; each one bowed aye deeper in return.
When he was come into the middle of the room, he
stood still, bowing on both sides, but this time more
hasty, apparently being full of what he had to say.
Then for a little while he remained standing in deep
silence. He stepped to Rehnskiold, and, with a little
short beck, took hold of him by the coat button.

" I pray you, your Excellency, give me two or three
men as escort for a little outing of mine. I already
have a couple of guardsmen with me."

" But, your Majesty ! The neighbourhood is over-
run with Cossacks. Even now, it is full hazardous to
ride from your Majesty's quarters into the town here."

" Oh ! Trifles ! Mere trifles ! Do as I say, your
Excellency. One of the generals here, off duty, can

152 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

also come along with us, and also take one of his
staff."

Lewenhaupt made his leg. The King looked at
him irresolutely, without a word, and remained in
silence after Rehnskiold had hastened outside. None
present found it fitting to break in or bestir them-
selves. A good while after, the King once more
inclined himself to each individually, then passed into
the open.

" Now then, cornet, come with me," said Lewen-
haupt, clapping him on the shoulder, for his usual
good nature had returned. " It is the first time ye've
seen his Majesty face to face ? "

" Never had I thought of him as he is."

" He is never otherwise ! He is overmuch of a
King to order a man about ! " And the two went
after his Majesty, who was clambering over wagons
and fallen animals. His motions were nimble, never
vehement, but measured and constant. Not for a
single second did he forget his dignity.

At last, when he had forced a passage through the
press about the town gates, he and his escort of seven
men, sprang into their saddles. The horses slid about
over the frozen bodies, some stumbling to the ground ;
but Lewenhaupt's protest only made the King use
his spurs more recklessly. The night long, Hultman
in attendance had been reading or recounting Sagas
to him. In the end, he had made the King merry by
averring that, if God had not made him the Sovereign,
he would have been a shy, stay-at-home his life
through, thinking out as many fine verses as the

THE BELEAGURED HOUSE 153

blessed Messenius himself in Disa pa Bollhustt, and
above all, writing the most stirring epics. Now he
tried to think on Rolf Gotrekson, that had aye ridden
first, at the head of his men ; but to-day could not
succeed in confining his thoughts within the narrow
circle of the Saga. The troubles, which of late had
thrust their claws into the body of his thoughts and
feelings, would not release their prey. The heated
countenances at the staff head-quarters still held with
him. Though long past the diversions of childhood,
he was engrossed with creating in imagination the
world of fantasy formed in olden times, and this
made him turn a deaf ear to the clamant notes of the
troubles around him, rendering him also distrustful of
any whose acuter hearing took perception of them.
As in former days, he scarce marked that now some-
one gave him the best-nourished and most powerful
charger of all, and the loaf with least salt in it, and of
a morning dropped a purse with five hundred ducats
into his pocket, and that, at the first insubordination,
the horse forming a ring about him, gave themselves
up to the death blows which himself provoked. So
it came to pass, that the troops greeted him with
sinister silence : and this misfortune had made him
suspicious, even of those nearest him. He took note
of the most prudent conversations, of the lightest dis-
approval, without betraying his attention ; but every
word remained in his recollection, gnawing at his
spirit. To him it was as if he were losing every hour a
right good officer, on whom he had had stable reliance :
and thus his heart was aye growing the colder. His

154 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

mortified ambition writhed and bled beneath the
crushing weights of his ill-successes. But now, the
further he left head-quarters behind, he breathed the
lighter, the livelier.

Of a sudden, Lewenhaupt reined in his horse, and
turned about, hoping to influence the King.

" My brave Ajax," said he, stroking his steaming
horse. " "Tis true, ye're an old crib-biter, but for all
that, I will not have you founder without there is an
end in view. But in the name of Jesu, fellows, follow
the King. Who can ! " And noting the Cornet's un-
easy look at his Majesty, he continued in a softer
voice: "Rest easy, my lad. His Majesty never
storms as we do. He is too much of a King to threaten
and abuse any one."

The King held on as if he had noticed nothing.
Wilder and wilder grew the rush over ice and snow,
without prudence, without purport. Now he had but
four of an escort. After some time a horse fell head-
long, breaking its fore leg, and its rider, out of mercy,
put a bullet through its eye. Alone and on foot he
went in the cold to meet his uncertain fate.

At last, the cornet was the only one able to follow
the King. The two were now among coppices and
brushwood, where the horses could only go on at
walking pace. Up on the hill, over against them, lay
a dirty grey house, with narrow lattice windows, and
a wall surrounding its courtyard. At that moment
came a report.

" Where did that go ? " asked the King, looking
about him.

THE BELEAGURED HOUSE . 155

" The little devil did not shoot amiss ! He has
missed my ear, but hit my hat-brim," answered the
cornet, wholly ignorant of a subject's address to his
King. He spoke with a soft Smaaland accent, and
laughed unreservedly in contentment.

Intoxicated with the felicity of being companion to
the King, to him more dear than all men living, he
continued :

" We should go up, and beard them."

This greatly pleased his Majesty. In a leap he was
on the ground.

" We will tie our horses to the bushes here,"
cried he, merrily, his cheeks a fiery red, " and then
go and cut the man down, that shoots in such a
manner ! "

Leaving the panting horses, they openly climbed
the hill among the brushwood. Over the wall, round
the courtyard of the house, there peered out some
yellow Cossack heads, with locks hanging down, and
features all twisted agrin, as they were those of
decapitated malefactors.

" Look ! " cried the King, clapping his hands,
"There they are, trying to close their rotten old gate,
oh the fox-tails ! "

Instantly his eyes, so often listless, grew wide
open, and gleaming with excitement. He drew his
sword, and with both hands, raised it high above his
head. Like to a young God, he stormed through
the half-shut gateway. And at his side was the
cornet, hewing and stabbing. Frequently was he
almost cut down from behind by the weapon of the

156 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

King, whose right sleeve was scorched by a musket
discharge.

Four men were overthrown in the gateway. A fifth,
pursued by the King, fled into the court, a fire shovel
in his hand. The King shoved his bloody sword in
the snow, put two ducats on the Cossack's shovel,
and cried with growing merriment. " It is no pleasure
fighting with idiots like you, who never hit back, but
take to your heels. Come back, will ye, when ye've
bought yourself a serviceable sword ! "

The Cossack, who understood not, grabbed the
gold, slunk alongside the wall towards the gate, and
made off. As he scurried further and further away,
they heard him calling on his comrades, strangely and
complaining, "Ohahaa! Ohahaa!" The King trilled
after him, as he were jeering at an invisible foe, " O
ye Cossack mannikin ! O ye Cossack mannikin !
Only get ye together all your own little rogues."

Round the court of the house the walls were ruined
and black, and from its depths came an unending,
long-drawn moaning. In curiosity, the King opened
the door of the house. It consisted of but one great
half-lit room, and before the hearth lay a heap of
blood-stained clothing, which the rifiars had plundered
from fallen Swedes. A sharp gust of wind slammed
the door, and the King stepped further on to the
stable. There, the strange noise was made explicable,
for, tied to an iron ring in the wall, a white horse was
lying, dying of hunger. An uplifted sword could not
have kept back the King, yet the uncertain twilight
in the place caused him to stay by the threshold, and

THE BELEAGURED HOUSE 1 57

he was trembling somewhat, for in the dark Karl
became sorely afraid. Yet never he betrayed himself,
but merely beckoned to the cornet. Down a steep
stairway they went into a cellar. Round the creaking
windlass of a draw well, here, a deaf Cossack, without
a notion of danger, was driving with whip and bridle,
a man in the uniform of a Swedish officer. When
they had unloosed the prisoner, and bound the
Cossack in his stead, they recognised Feuerhausen,
the Holsteiner, Major in one of the recruited dragoon
regiments. He fell on his knees.

" Your Majesty ! " he stammered in broken Swedish.
" I believe not my very eyes ! My reconnaissance.

The King gaily interrupted him, turning to the cor-
net : " Bring up the two horses and stable them. It
is not meet that three men ride on two horses, and
therefore we remain here until the Cossacks come
back. Then we take a third horse from them. You,
sir, keep watch at the gateway." Hereupon the
King stepped back into the house, and with his own
hands, closed the door behind him.

The hungry horses, ravenously nibbling the bark
off the bushes, were stabled, and the cornet took up
his post. Wearily the hours slipped by. At the first
of the darkening, the storm burst stronger, and by
sundown the snow was whistling thick over the
desolate stretches of ice-bound land. Cossacks, their
faces a cadaverous yellow, emerged from behind the
woody growths. Borne on the wind from afar echoed
their call, " Ohahaa ! Ohahaa ! "

158 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

Then came Feuerhausen out of the stable where he
had been sitting between the two horses to keep the
cold out of his wound. He went up to the door.

" Your Majesty," he stammered, " the Cossacks
gather in force. Soon it will be night. Allow us,
myself and the cornet, to mount on one horse. If
we stay here, this will surely be your Majesty's
last night, which God forbid ! "
The King replied from within :
" It is as I have spoken. It is not meet that three
men ride on two horses."

The Holsteiner shook his head, and went down to
the cornet.

" That's your King, your accursed Swede ! In the
stable, there, I easily heard how he is aye walking up
and down, never resting a tittle. Aye, the bite of
illness and the bite of conscience is there indeed.
The Muscovite Tzar is like the father of a family
among his subjects : he makes a pastry-seller his
friend, and a low serving-lass he puts on his illustrious
throne ; when he carouses, his habits are detestable,
and he treats woman-kind a la Fran$ais ; but his first
and last word is for Russia's good. King Karolus, he
leaves his country a smoking ash-heap. He has not
a single live friend, even among his nearest and
dearest. He is more lonely than the poorest serf.
He has not even a comrade to whom he could pour
himself forth. Among fine folk and kept women,
and periwigs, he wanders about like a ghost out of
a thousand-year-old mausoleum — and for the most,
ghosts do wander alone ! Is he something of a states-

THE BELEAGURED HOUSE 159

man ? — no head at all for the common-weal ! Is he
a general ? — all amiss ! Never a care of the troops !
But to break down bridges, put gabions in place,
and clap hands over a captured standard and a pair
of kettle-drums, he can do that ! No head for the
kingdom and his army, only for men ! "

" Therefore we also can have a head ! " answered
the cornet.

He walked swiftly up and down. By now his fingers
were so stiff with cold, that he hardly could keep a
grip on his unsheathed sword.

The Holsteiner drew the torn collar of his coat up
about his cheeks.

With deep sounding voice, and vigorous gestures,
he cried :

" King Karolus, he laughs in delight if the bridges
break, and men and beasts drown most miserably.
He has no heart at all ! To hell with him ! King
Karolus? He is nought but a little half-genius of
a Swede, that has strayed out into the world with
a blare of trumpets and much parade ; but now
comes the break-down in the play, and all the pit
hisses ! "

" And, even so, the Swedes go to death for him ! "
replied the Cornet.

" Be not so heady, comrade ! I myself have made
play, when of late ill luck came our way ! "

" Willingly I listen to you, Major, but meantime
I am freezing. Would you not go up again, and
listen ? "

The Holsteiner went upstairs and gave an ear.

l6o A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

On his return he said :

" He does nothing but walk about the room and
sigh like a man of grievous, heavy heart. Now it aye
appears to be, that his Majesty sleeps no more of a
night ! The mummer feels his part important no
more, and of all tortures that is the worst — wounded
ambition ! "

" Then must it also be the last to make merry on.
Durst I ask you to rub my hand with snow, it is
numb ! "

The Holsteiner did as desired, and turned again to
the King's chamber.

His greyish moustache stood out all bushy. He
beat himself on the forehead with both hands. He
muttered, " Lord God ! Lord God ! Soon 'twill be
too dark for us to return."

Called the cornet. " Good sir, durst I ask you to
rub my face with snow. My cheeks are frozen. I'll
not speak of the pain in my feet. Oh ! oh ! I can
endure it no longer."

The Holsteiner took hold of his hands all covered
with snow.

" Let me keep watch," said he. " At least for an
hour!"

" No, no. The King has given order that I stay
here by the gate."

" Ah, this King ! I know him, believe me ! I will
answer for him. Speak of philosophies, and relate
intrigues to him. He is aye amused to hear about
lovers. Often he takes a sly look at the women when
they are beautiful. But to him they exist only for

THE BELEAGURED HOUSE l6l

his imagination, not for the lust of his flesh ; for that
is beneath his dignity ! And he is so shy. If a woman,
in truth, desires to have him at her feet, she herself
must attack him, and act as she had fled to him for
protection, and all others must work and agitate
against the liaison. His most gracious grandmother
has spoilt all by aye crying ' Marriage. Marriage.'
Save for his man's face, he resembles the Swedish
Queen Christina. Had the two sat on the throne,
there would have been a neat little pair of them!
Ah, you Swedes. A man may ride his bent to
the death, may ruin army, folk, and kingdom; yet,,
after all this, he has a noble heart and soul, to your
idea ; and is among all that is best ; and this only
because his blood is something of a sluggard's in
amorous intrigue. No more to me, now ! I know
heroes of right noble heart and parts, who have been
loved in all reality and passion by two and three
different wenches or dames ; aye, and all in one and
the same week, too ! "

" Yes, and so are we ! So are we ! But for Christ's
sake rub my hand again ; and forgive my cries and
groans."

Near by, in the gateway which was unclosable, lay
the dead Cossacks, white as marble with the frost.
The yellow heavens were become grey. And ever
nearing, ever increasing, resounded ihe plaintive
holloaing, " Ohahaa. Ohahaa." It was now that the
King opened the door, and came down into the court.
His riding in the wind had aggravated the pains in his
head, from which hea frequently suffered, and which

1 62 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

made his glance dull and spiritless. His face bore
traces of his endured loneliness. Yet immediately he
approached them, his mouth wore its wonted smile.
The grime from the musket discharge still besmutched
his temple.

" The wind has freshened," said he, drawing a loaf
out from under his coat.

He divided it into three, so that each had an equal
part. After this he took his cloak, and threw it round
the shoulders of the cornet. Confused at his own
action, he impetuously seized the Holsteiner by the
arm, and led him across the yard, whilst they munched
the hard bread.

Now or never, thought the Major. I must be clever
now, and seize the King's attention, and discreetly
give a word of advice.

" One could be in a worse plight," he began, still
munching. " Ah, yes, it all puts me in mind so
well of an intrigue once set ago near Dresden."
The King still retained his arm, so he lowered his
voice.

The tale was droll and piquant, and the King grew
inquisitive. But nevertheless the most obvious broad
allusions aye occasioned the same awkward inspirited
laughter. His Majesty listened to him like to one
desperate and nigh distraught, with need of immedi-
ate distraction.

When the Holsteiner warily began to turn the talk
on the present danger, the King again became earnest
and life-like.

" Mere nothing ! — nothing ! " he replied. " Not

THE BELEAGURED HOUSE 163

worth a word if we only keep a good front when the
blackguards assail us again ; all three of us but place
ourselves in the gateway ; and look to ourselves with
our swords ! "

In despair, the Holsteiner rubbed his forehead and
changed the theme. He commenced to talk of the
myriad stars twinkling overhead, and enumerated a
rule for measuring their distances from the earth.
Now the King gave him a better hearing. With
acutely reasoned and ingenious questions he inter-
rupted him, and to the given reason devised new con-
clusions with untiring gratification. One question
succeeded another, and soon the conversation dwelt
on the universe and the immortality of the soul, to
come back once to the constellations in the heavens
above, which were glittering bright by now. The King
gave out what he knew about the sundial. He thrust
his sword in the snow, and its point he set toward the
pole star, so that they could read the time in the
coming morning.

" Either," said he, " must the earth be the centre
of the universe ; or that star standing over against
Sweden. There is nought above Sweden.

Before the walls the Cossacks called to one another.
But when the Holsteiner again sought to bring the
talk on their dangerous proximity, straightway the
King grew tongue-tied.

Said he :

" When morning begins to lighten, we ride back
to Hadjatsk. By that time we will have seized a
third horse ; then each of us can ride in his own

M — 2

164 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

saddle." And after he had said this, he retired into
the house.

With quick steps the Major came down to the
cornet. Half-turning to the King's door, he cried :

" Forgive me, cornet. We Germans do not
weigh our words, when our wounds are smarting, I
surrender, and leave the victory to you, for I, too,
could die for the man up there. None have under-
stood him who have not seen him. But surely you
dare stay no longer out there in the cold ? "

The cornet answered :

" No cloak has ever warmed me so gloriously as
that I am now wrapped in, and I cast all my sorrows
on Christ. But in God's name, Major, go back
to the door and listen ; the King might do injury to
himself."

" His Majesty will not fall by his own sword, but
yearns after that of others ! "

'• Now I hear his footsteps, hear them even down
here ! They grow aye quicker and wilder. He is so
lonely. When I first saw him in Hadjatsk, and how
he bowed, and bowed, and bowed again before his
generals, I had but one thought : How lonely he
is."

" Ay ! And if this little Holstein man gets out of
this, with his life, he will ever bethink himself of these
footsteps we're hearing to-night. And this place he
will aye name the place of the Mount of Olives."

The cornet nodded in assent.

" Go ye back into the stable, Major," he said, "and
seek some rest and shelter between the mares. And

THE BELEAGURED HOUSE 165

there, too, ye can better hear the King, through the
wall, and have a care of him."
Then he began to sing with loud voice :

" In Thy mercy, oh tender Father."

The Holsteiner stepped over the yard, and into the
stable, and himself shaking with cold voiced in tremu-
lous tones : —

11 In all seasons put I my soul
And all that in me is
Within Thy custody."

" Ohahaa. Ohahaa," answered the Cossacks
through the storm. And already it was late in the
night.

The Major pressed himself between the two horses,
and lay awake for a long time in a listening posture,
till tiredness overcame him, and his head sank aside.

Towards the dawn of morning a tumult awoke
him. He sprang out into the open. Already the
King was down in the yard, and reckoning the hour
of morning from the sword. But Cossacks were
gathering in front of the gateway. Yet on marking
the ever immoveable sentinel they took to retreat in a
panic of superstition, bethinking themselves on all
the rumoured spells wrought by Swedes against sword-
play and bullets.

The Holsteiner gripped the cornet by the arm.

" What now," cried he. " Brandy, eh ? "

But the same instant he let go. For the cornet
was standing there, frozen to death, his shoulders
against the gateway wall, his hands hard and fast

1 66 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

round the hilt of his blade, and himself still wrapped
in the cloak of his sovereign.

" Now," said his Majesty, drawing his weapon out
of the snow, " we are but two men. We can ride off
now, each on his horse, as I said." But with re-
kindled hatred the Holsteiner stared him full in the
face and stood stock-still as if he had heard not a
word.

In the end he led out the horses; but his hands
so shook and clenched themselves, that he scarce was
able to fasten the saddle girths. And with their
swords and lances the Cossacks threatened to make
fight. Yet ever the Swedish sentinel stood on guard.

Impetuously the King swung himself up into his
saddle, and went off at full gallop. Unclouded was
his forehead. His cheeks flamed red. Like the very
sun's ray, his sword gleamed gloriously bright.

The Holsteiner looked at him. Then his grim
look softened, and with his hand at the salute he rode
by the sentinel.

" That is but the joy," he muttered between his
teeth, "of one hero over the rare death of another.
My comrade, I do thank thee now."

CHAPTER XI.
A CLEAN WHITE SHROUD.

BENGT GETING, the dragoon, was pierced through
the breast by a Cossack lance. His comrades had
laid him down on a heap of faggots in the little wood
near by ; and here Pastor Rabenius administered the
last sacrament to him.

The Swedes were now on the ice-covered fields
before Wegerik. And out of the north a screaming
wind was tearing the withered leaves off the trees.

" The Lord be with thee," said Rabenius in a
tender and fatherly voice. " Are ye ready, Bengt
Geting, to depart when this day's work is done ?"

Bleeding to death, Bengt Geting lay there, motion-
less and with clenched hands and stark staring eyes.
The skin of his bony, obstinate countenance was
tanned so thick with the frost and the sun's rays, that
the blue pallor of death was only apparent on his lips.

" No," answered he.

" Bengt Geting. It is the first time that I have
ever heard ye utter a word."

Clenching his hands tighter, the dying man bit
these lips of his that opened against his will.

1 68 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

" Surely, for once." said he slowly, " the most
wretched and unruly man of all the Swedish troops
will be allowed to speak."

He raised himself a little on his elbow. At that
such a lamentable cry of agony escaped him that
Rabenius knew not whether it came from tortured
soul or body. So he set the cup on the ground,
spreading his handkerchief over it, lest the fluttering
leaves should fall into the brandy. He pressed his
hands upon his forehead.

" And this," he faltered, " and this must I, a ser-
vant of Christ, behold from morn till night, and from
one day after another."

On all sides the soldiers thronged forward betwixt
the coppices, to look at the stricken man, and hearken.
Their captain broke into hot anger. He thrust him-
self between them with drawn sword. Cried he :

" Bind a cloth over the fellow's mouth. He was
aye the most mulish in the whole battalion. I am as
human as the others, but must do my duty. I have
a great number of new and untried recruits newly
arrived with Lewenhaupt's command. Bengt Geting's
groaning has put them in fear ; and they refuse to
advance. Why do ye not obey, there? Am I in
command here ? "

Rabenius took a step toward him. On his white
full-bottomed wig there already lay as it were a
wreath of yellow leaves.

" Captain," said he, " among the dying the servant
of the Lord alone commands. Three years now have
I seen Bengt Geting in rank and file ; but until now,

A CLEAN WHITE SHROUD 169

never have I seen him speak to any man. Now, when
on the threshold to the judgment of God, none can
force him to keep silent any longer."

" With whom should I speak ? " the dragoon
asked in all bitterness. " My tongue is as grown up
and stricken with palsy. Weeks and weeks passed,
and I never uttered one word. Nobody has, at any
time, asked me about anything. It was only my ear
which had to keep at the ready, for fear it neglected
hearing. ' Go on,' we were bidden, ' through fen
and snow. Go on.' There was nothing to say in
reply."

Rabenius went on his knees, and gently took both
hands in his.

" But now, Bengt Geting, ye should speak. Speak.
Speak out. All are now gathered to hear ye. Of us
all only you have the right to speak out freely. Have
ye got a wife ? or an old mother at home ? Whom I
should greet for you ? "

" My mother let me starve, and put me to follow
the sword. Since then never a woman has had a word
to say other than, ' Get out of the way, Bengt Geting.
Get out of the way. Get out ! What want you with
us?'"

"Then it is something at heart that you repent
of?"

" I repent that when a child I did not jump into the
mill-stream ; and I am sorry, too, that when ye stood
before the regiment and did exhort us to go on again
aye in patience, I did not start out and fell ye with
the butt of my musket ! But will ye know then what

170 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

troubles me ? Have ye never heard the baggagers
and out-posts say how in the moonlight they have
seen their dead comrades hobbling in throngs back to
the troops, and heard them cry, ' Greet my mother
for me.' They call them the Black Battalion. In that
Black Battalion I must also march. But the worst is
that I should be buried in my miserable rags and
bloody shirt. It Is that which tortures me. A
common dragoon does not wish to be buried like to
the good General Liewen ; but I think on the comrades
killed at Dorfsniki : to each of them the King bade
be given out two boards for a coffin, and one clean
white shroud. Why should they be better off than
myself? In this unhappy time now, where a man
falls, there he lies. And I am sunk so deep in misery
that the only thing in the world for which I envy
all others is each his clean white shroud."

" My poor friend," Rabenius answered tenderly,
" in the Black Battalion, if ye believe truly therein,
ye are in right great company : Gyldenstolpe, and
Sperling, and Colonel Morner already lay dead on the
field. And recall the thousands of others. Recall
the friendly Colonel Wattrang, who came riding up to
our regiment, and gave every man an apple, how he
is lying with the guardsmen and all the comrades
under the high road at Holofzin. And have ye in
mind my predeceaser, Niklas Uppendich, powerful
preacher of the Word, who fell, in his vestments, at
Kalisch. The grass is grown over his grave, and the
snow-storm swept over it, and no man can show
truly the place where he sleeps."

A CLEAN WHITE SHROUD i;i

Rabenius bent lower over the dying man, and
smoothed his forehead and hands.

" In ten or fifteen minutes, at most, you will have
ceased to live. Maybe it is, that in these few minutes
you can make up for what you have neglected in the
past three years, if you turn them to right account.
No more are ye one of us. Do ye not see your Pastor
on his knee beside you, with bared head ? Speak
now, and tell me thy last wish, nay, command one.
Think of one. The regiment stands in disorder by
reason of you, while the others storm forward, or by
now are on the scaling ladders. Fear have ye put
into the young men through your death wound and
agony ; none but you can make amends. They are
listening to you, Bengt Geting, and only you have
the power to bestir them to advance. Bethink your-
self. Your last words will long resound. Maybe in
coming years they will be repeated at home before
those who sit and roast their pears behind the stove."

Bengt Geting lay still. Into his eyes came an in-
tense expression. Slowly he raised his arms as if in
supplication.

He whispered :

" Help me, Lord, even to bring about this." Then
he signified that he could but whisper, so Rabenius,
putting his face close to his, heard him.

The Pastor beckoned the soldiers. But his voice
was so tremulous, that scarce could he make himself
understood.

" Bengt Geting has now spoken. It is his last wish
that ye take him between you on your muskets, and

172 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

carry him to his old place in the ranks, where he has
marched in obstinate silence, day after day, year after
year."

The advance was sounded, and to the bugles flaring
Bengt Geting, leaning against the shoulder of a fellow
private, was borne step by step over the battlefield, on
towards the enemy. And after him followed the
entire regiment.

Behind him walked Rabenius with uncovered head,
and marked not that already Bengt Geting was dead.

" I will see to it," said he softly, " that ye get a
clean white shroud. Thou knowest, the King thinks
himself not higher than the lowest of his soldiers.
And he himself will be the same, one day."

CHAPTER XII.
POLTAWA.

ON the first of May, Field Marshal Rehnskiold gave
a supper. Colonel Appelgren was flushed and heated,
and was rolling the bread into little pellets with his
fingers. Cunningly he looked about him. All in-
quisitive he put the question :

" Maybe your Excellency can tell me why Poltawa
should so suddenly be beseiged ? "

" His Majesty desires some amusement, till the
Poles and Tartars come to his assistance."

" And yet we all know well that not a single one
comes. Ah ! Europe begins to forget our Court : our
Court a la Diogenes, with its ministers of State
scouring round, chancellors fighting, chamberlains
killed, and with its seats of honour on tree-stumps.
. . . Our Court with its Palace of canvas, and
nothing but rice cakes and small beer on the Royal
table."

" His Majesty would instruct himself in the science
of laying a siege, and would enjoy camp life ; so he
prolongs the affair as long as he desires. There is no
hurry ! Poltawa is a paltry piece of fortification. To

174 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

all evidence, 'twill surrender at the first crack of our
guns."

Of a sudden the Field Marshal became silent, and
let his fork fall.

" I do believe our folks are in some disorder out
there, and defend themselves." Without, a continuous
rolling of musketry was to be heard. All leapt to
their feet. Rehnskiold ran outside, and threw himself
into the saddle, the others on his heels.

It was the nightly custom of the Russian sentinels
on Poltawa ramparts, to taunt the Swedes, loud and
vociferous, with yells of " Good bread ! Good liquor ! "

Now during this hubbub of theirs, Colonel Gyllen-
krook, all unheard, had begun to open up his trenches,
and placed a covering party therein. At the same
time the King came galloping over the field, and
speaking somewhat loud to the Adjutant General.
Gyllenkrook begged of him to lower his voice, lest it
give the alarm. But even as the Colonel spoke, the
sentinels held their peace, and immediately after that
their flares were set alight, and the firing broke out.
Ascending fireballs threw their glare over the hillocks
and on the grassy plain, gleaming also on the waters
of the fast flowing Vorshla. Gyllenkrook's sappers
fled from their spades and gabions; the covering
party, at first beat back the sappers with the flat of
their swords ; in the end, they also began to retreat or
throw themselves, stretched out on the ground. In
this way, then the fusillade was begun.

" Behold, Sire," cried Gyllenkrook, standing behind
a tree trunk, together with the King and the Little

POLTAWA 1 75

Prince, " how a trifling affair can beget such a
tremendous commotion ! Once more may I suggest to
your Majesty that you raise the siege ? Our worn-out
troops join in this entreaty, and all your unhappy
subjects at home. Why are we not sent hither in
winter ? the town could then be taken with no trouble !
But now its garrison is growing stronger every day,
and the entire army of the enemy is on the march.
We have but thirty pieces of cannon left. Our
powder, too, often wet and redried, carries the ball
short."

" Trifles ! Mere trifles ! For all that, we have shot
through many balks thicker than a palisade."

"But, here, Sire, we must needs batter in many
hundreds !"

" If one can be pierced, so can hundreds. In truth,
it is the uncommon which we must achieve to win
our fame and honour. Now we would show the
sappers that they can work without the slightest
danger." And with his broad-sword under his arm,
the King walked over the field through a rain of
musket-balls.

Behind him came the Little Prince. White-faced
he was, and solemn as a stripling of olden times in
festival procession to the sacrifice.

By the trenches two great stakes, like to posts, had
been driven into the earth, and here the King re-
mained, standing behind a pan of flaming pitch.

The Little Prince eyed him askance, his hand
trembling as its fingers slid up and down the sword
hilt. Then he climbed up one of the stakes, seated

176 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

himself at the top, and let his arms dangle by his sides.
A sergeant, Maarten Predikare by name, instantly
mounted the other. Motionless, like two holy images
of painted wood, by the Catholic's roadside, the two
remained on guard behind their King. The infuriated
Russians trained their culverins, cannons, and muskets
upon the strange spectacle. The air flashed fire,
whizzed and whistled as if beaten with whipthongs,
blustered and thundered like a stormy blast ; the
ricochetting cannon balls threw high the sand and
turf, and the solid earth shook like to a frightened
horse. Splinters of wood and bits of stone flew thick
about them.

" The King is there. They will kill him ! " cried
the soldiers ; and, leaping forward, forced the sappers
along with them.

Again spades were plied, and again the sappers
tore up the sods. They delved holes for shelter. But
there, in the glare of the burning pitch, stood he who,
to his nobles and generals, was his Majesty ; to the
soldiers, a comrade ; and who, at the same time, was
a veritable knight of the road, king, and philosopher.

All that day sinister recollections had filled his
heart. He thought of Axel Haard, whom he himself
had unwittingly killed, and of dead Klinckowstrom,
friend of his youth. He did not miss their company,
but could not forget their blood-besmirched clothing.
Now, as he heard the bullets, there awoke in him once
more all the Heaven-storming bravado of his youth,
and it silenced heavy thought. He had tasted the
beaker of war to its very dregs : now every sip re-

POLTAWA 177

quired a stronger seasoning. He took a colder
enjoyment in his great, tumultuous victories, as they
became the fewer. Yet sometimes he could speak
bravely fine, of how that he purposed ruling over a
great and extending dominion ; but this was all to the
end that his talk daily provided him with strong,
fresh guardsmen. Never did he forget that any
moment might be his last, and that the years of mis-
fortune were come. Yea, how goodly rest i" the
grave would be after an honourable death. It was
something to have an end in view, and to feel that
one had the strength to accomplish that end, yet to
fail therein, and become a thing of derision because
succour from others failed — that was even as the bitter
frosty breath of the autumn of life. His fate he would
challenge ! He would show the world that still he was
the Elect of God ; if he were not, then would he fall,
even as one of the commonest of his soldiers.

In the meanwhile, Maarten Predikare became so
eager for fight, that he could sit still no longer. Who
knew not Maarten Predikare, the incomparable sharp-
shooter ? His Majesty himself applauded him.

He snatched the musket off his back. Amidst that
crackling fusillade he chattered and laughed most
merrily. Levelling his piece, he let fly a shot at a
shadow espied high up among some cherry trees in
the distance. Down it dropped like a bird amid the
branches.

The hunter's lust leapt up in Maarten, and he
sprang down and ran to the place. An old man lay
dead there.

N

A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

A girl of nineteen was standing beside the body.

Said she, with never a tear, " It is father : " and
looked Maarten Predikare full in the face. " We came
out to pluck nettles, and were now on the way home.
We heard the shooting ; so father climbed up to look
about. The cherry trees are his own ! "

Maarten shook his head, took off his hat, passed his
hand over his hair, and at length seated himself on
the ground.

" God forgive me ... the old man never did
aught to me . . . dear child ... ye cannot
understand : . . . but I have a ducat in my
pocket, here, take it ! Lass, I am a hunter, ye under-
stand ; a real born old hunter ! In early times I had
my little place at home, and my wife that aye cuffed
me because I would never handle a spade. — D'ye
know, now, what a spade is ? — But I sat in the woods,
and listened to the notes of the blackcock. Hear now,
what I say ! One morning I took my gun and my
dog, and went my way out, out into the wide world."

The girl examined the ducat in the glare of the
fires. He took her upon his knees, and lightly
stroked her cheeks.

" The very first day, after I had left her, I shot my
dog ! The second day I gave all my guelders to a
woodcutter, who showed me the way ; then I had
nothing left me ! "

" Can I buy things with this ? "

" Ay, of course you can ! When I became a soldier,
then, and they gave me a musket, you can just believe
what happened ; I became a hunter again ! But God

POLTAWA 1 79

have mercy. . . . Every night, now, at the
darkening, ye must come softly to me, and then ye'll
get the half of my ration and all I can scrape together
for you."

He looked at his gun lying among the grass, then
got up and went away leaving it lying there.

" The lass surely cannot know that it was I that
fired the shot, and she must never know ! I am a
Judas, the slayer of an innocent man. Do no murder.
Do no murder." And with his hands on his forehead,
Maarten staggered across the field. In time he came
to d'Albeduhl's Dragoons, who were lying round a
fire of wood, and reading the prayer-book. Here, he
sat him down, and also read the Holy Scrip ; and in
the end, began to pray aloud, and to hold forth. . . .

"What is there fresh?" the soldiers asked next
morning of Brakels, the red-haired sutler.

A little omniscient man was he. In his grey smock
he was standing amid his pots and pans, and the
lines of dangling clothes.

"Fresh? I' faith Maarten Predikare has got sun-
stroke in the middle of the night, and is fit for nought
else but the mad-house ! Bare-headed and all he is
down there by the water, groaning and praying, and
making much noise. When the preaching craze
takes him, it's clear he has killed his man ! "

Lowering and all in silence the soldiers got their tin
bowls, now scarcely half filled with victuals.

" Food or death ! Why do they not let us storm
the town before it is too late ? "

" The King tries, by carrying forward the trenches ;

N — 2

l8o A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

Gyllenkrook has to work night and day. Hark ye,
listen to Maarten Predikare down at the water side. In
these times, now, with all this praying and psalm dron-
ing about us, 'twill warm the heart again when once
the Field Marshal comes bellowing at us."

Maarten Predikare, at the darkening, furtively made
off to the cherry trees. The girl was awaiting him.
Her glossy flaxen tresses were almost white, and her
face was grave. He had his ration with him. He
also gave her the last kopeck in his pouch, for leave
to kiss her on both cheeks.

" Is your mother living? " She shook her head.

" What do they call you ? "

" Dunja ! "

He wished to kiss her again ; but she withdrew
herself from his hold.

44 Give me a kopeck, first ! " was her cry.

He went to the camp and begged kopecks from
everyone he met.

Said he to himself:

44 I'll protect that lass when we storm the town.
She is like a little princess ! Something out of my
pay I will lay by for her, too, so some day she'll have
a little dowry when she marries. Why should she not
marry ? Certainly, certainly ! I have one wife at
home ! and another one here, among the baggage ! I
am moreover a murderer. Of a certain a little prin-
cess must get married ! "

He had procured a copy of St. John's Gospel, so
now he set himself to read out of it to d'Albeduhl's
dragoons.

POLTAWA 1 8 1

The spring laughed in all its bravery of green on
the hilly stretches of country as far as Vorshla down
the yellow river ; but the Swedes only looked Poltawa
ward. Upon an acclivity amidst the woods the town
peered out, with its white monasteries, wooden towers,
palisadoes ; and its walls upon which young and old,
women and children, piled high a breastwork of bags
of earth, wagons, boughs, bundles of faggots, and
puncheons.

" What is there fresh ? Are we never to be led
against the enemy ? " the soldiers asked the sutler.

" The enemy is courteous enough to come and
meet us," he answered, drying his sweaty brows.
" To-night I listened to the cannon. Most of the
cracks are not roaring out from here : we have no
more shot left except what the Zaporogs pick up off
the field. The Tzar's whole army, too, is already on
the far side of the river ! "

Then General Major Lagerkrona came galloping
along, and calling out that the King was wounded in
the foot. Beside the King's ambulance sat the Field
Marshal, showing him, in his note-book the position
of the seventeen redoubts which the enemy had
already begun to throw up at Pietruska.

" What's new ? " the men growled day by day.

" They have nothing to offer us ; I am the
richer, then ! " replied the sutler, and described a
circle with his ladle on the green turf-floor. " The
King's foot is mortifying ; all the brandy is drunk ;
the bread is eaten ; I have but some porridge for you,
to-day, and then the groats are also finished. The

1 82 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

enemy have beaten us ; they will force us to retreat.
Hell take it, that we Swedes have to stand such hard
fortune ! "

He stamped on the ground, put the ladle to his
jowl, and, like an assassin, took aim in the direction
of the King's booth. But the trusty soldiery turned
away their eyes, notwithstanding their sore hunger
and suffering.

" Do no murder," whispered Maarten Predikare
with uplifted arm.

So the month of May passed away, and the rays of
the June sun streamed through the tent-tops. The
troops sat in line, plaiting wreaths for the May-poles.
But they never uttered a word. They were thinking
on the green reaches of pastures in their own dear
land, on their homes, on the wide, wide stretches of
sandy field.

On Sunday, a little before vespers, Maarten slunk
off to the plantation. For a few kopecks little Dunja
handed him a basketful of the first half-ripened straw-
berries ; and he divided them with her. He stroked
her small hands ; and played with her, carrying her
like a little child ; but never could he get her to
laugh ; aye kept she a grave countenance. Yet for
his last three kopecks she suffered him to kiss her
cheeks.

When he returned to the camp, he found all in
commotion and uproar. Officers were inspecting the
equipment of the troops, and examining swords, some
of which were ground so thin, that they more resembled
scythes than serviceable blades. Brakels, the sutler,

POLTAWA 183

was getting his empty cooking-pots together. The
King had decided to offer fight.

On the seat of turfs before the King's booth, the
leaders were already sitting, to receive orders and in-
structions. There sat melancholy Lewenhaupt, with
his big, clear eyes, and a small Latin lexicon between
the breast buttons of his coat. There sat mighty
Creutz, his hands resting on his sword-hilt ; and there
Sparre and Lagercrona carried on a lively conversa-
tion. Colonel Gyllenkrook was standing at a table,
bent over his drawings ; so engrossed was he, that he
paid no heed to the others ; only, now and then he
brushed a sandfly off his beloved plans. Leaning
over a little behind him, and in his worst mood,
stood the Field Marshal, with his sharpish snub nose
and girlish mouth contracted and purple lipped.

The march took place at eventide with colours cased
and silent drums. For a while the King's litter was
set down in a little wood in front of the guards. Then
it could be heard from the scene of the siege how the
enemy, hitherto cooped up, were now battering down
their palisadoes, and were busily building a scaffold.
The host of the Karolineans, once so arrogant,
were now so short of powder and ball, that they
could take into action only four cannon. And when
they heard the crashing of the enemy's axes so near,
scarred old veterans were seized with so pricking a
dread, that they besought their companions for ducats
to buy brandy, and in this wise win courage ; but to
no avail !

The moon was now dropped. The horses stood

184 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

saddled, and the men with their carabines or muskets
in their hands. A loud murmuring arose from a
regiment of infantry as their pastor served Com-
munion. The gloom was so thick, that he had to feel
before him with the left hand to fetch the cup to the
mouths of his communicants. Round the ambulance,
by the side of which the King had thrust in his
sword, the generals had laid themselves down for a
little, covered with their cloaks ; and Piper sat on a
saddle, his shoulders against the stem of a tree.
Thinking to drive away sullen thoughts, they all
engaged in a philosophical discourse with his Majesty.
There he sat, then, in a circle of wise and learned
men, as a master in his school ; and Levvenhaupt, the
true old Roman read aloud Latin verses.

When he came to an end he took a flaring torch
from the lackey, and illumed the countenance of the
King, whose head was fallen to the side. Piper and
every one of the generals rose up ; their enmity they
let slip ; so beautiful was the spectacle of the slum-
berer to them. His hat lay on his knee ; the covering
was spread over the bandaged foot ; his thin, fever-
stricken face, frost-bitten on the nose and cheeks,
seemed smaller, harder, and more inflexible in ex-
pression than afore, but, sallow and wrinkled, it already
bore the marks of premature old age. A painful
expression came and went about the corners of his
mouth. 'Twas like the King was dreaming.

The King of the Karolineans dreamed he saw an
interminable row of laughing, grinning men hurrying
by, and holding their hands before their faces to hide

POLTAWA 185

their merriment from him. Some were of a bright
green, and some blue, and some red ; and when they
laughed they were full of flame, like to burning lant-
horns. At last a tall man ranged past, mounted on a
dark chestnut steed, and clothed over all in soiled
black taffeta. " Out, out with you, you lame, sallow-
faced Swede ! " cried he, loudly laughing down at him.
" On this very spot, three hundred years ago, the
hordes of Tamerlane drove back the whole army of
the West. What will you do to me and my myriads ?
You, with your few worn-out regiments and your four
pieces of cannon ? Of a truth my men are but wild
thieves and vagabonds ; are of no more account to me
than nails are to a plank ; but, many, many such
nails have I. A great ship I build, that is to last for
thousands of years ; and to-day I am still the same
who once stood on the wharves at Saardam ; nought
but a simple joiner man. Millions and millions will
call blessings on my work." And the King would
that he could answer, yet was tongue-tied.

It was just then that Lewenhaupt, on bended knee,
with bared head, was lightly touching his Majesty on
the shoulder.

" Sire ! Sire ! Day dawns ! And I implore the
protection of God on your royal person and on the
work of your hands this day."

When the King opened his eyes the morn was
already glowing red between the trees. Instantly he
clutched his sword, but on marking the many about
him, Nordberg, the bearded chaplain, and all the
others, his expression straightway altered ; and he

1 86 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

bowed with his usual friendly reserve. Yet the vision
held in his soul : and it was to him as if the rest, also,
had seen it.

"My people," said he, " is too small to establish an
extending dominion, but strong enough to fashion
great men. What is a dominion ? A contingency of
fortune ! a wide-spreading possession, with fortified
frontiers ! And, O Tzar, hadst thou power over
millions but none over thyself, what then ? For the
Lord our God can so order it in one, that he may care
but little for the State and the things of State, but
more for the individual man in himself. If I defeat
you, O Tzar, thy mighty craft takes fire, and is turned
into a heap of ashes ; but if ye beat me and mine, ye
consummate merely the triumph of my personal task
of self."

Lewenhaupt plucked at Creutz's sleeve.

" Dear brother," said he in dejection, " sinister
forebodings will not leave me. Will we all ever again
stand together under God's open heavens ? Do ye hear
how the Field Marshal, behind there, curses and raves
at the Uppland men ? Gyllenkrook durst not once
go near him. Even you have some hesitation. And
see how Piper regards us with haughty looks ! "

" The Swedes aye measure each other with such
looks. And therefore will they be overthrown one day,
and their name blotted from out the book of nations.
Our children will live over the hour of it all in ten or
twenty ballads. What takes place to-day is but the
beginning ! "

" The Lord forgive you for your words ! Never

POLTAWA 187

have I seen such glorious heroes 'fore God as the
Swedes ; and never a nation so entirely without dis-
trust of the King's will and his heavy hand. But his
Majesty is now too ill to hold the men together,
although he is as confident as a young cornet. At
his birth he got that lightheartedness which the Gods
give their darlings : but now "

"Now?"

" Now he has recourse to an impenetrable self-
reserve and despair, like to all beloved of the Gods
when forsaken by them."

Lewenhaupt firmly pressed his hat on his head, and
drew his sword. But once more he turned to Creutz.

" Maybe it is that men like myself," he said, " with
my care for the troops, and Gyllenkrook with his com-
passes and all his palisadoed redoubts, have never
understood him aright. Thou and thy sword have
ever given him blind obedience. Ah, I would that it
is granted to us all this day to accomplish his mission ;
for I prophesy that he who lives at even will miss his
comrades, gone by then into the bliss of the Kingdom
of Heaven." And Lewenhaupt went off to his in-
fantry. By now the horse were in the saddle.

At open break of day they saw the battlefield be-
fore them. It was black, for the ground had already
been fired. A mere waste place of ashes it was, with-
out flower or stubble, and stretching far over to dis-
appear between groves of trees on the farther steppe.
It was so flat, that ammunition wagons could travel
easily over every part.

Before the hugest of the Muscovite redoubts, a,

1 88 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

horseman clad in scarlet came spurring out, and fired
a pistol. At this the enemy rolled loud their drums
behind the fortifications, on which numberless troops,
standards, culverins, and field-pieces were to be dis-
cerned. Immediately there was clashed in reply the
marches of all the Swedish regiments, each in its turn.

Dauntless Axel Sparre and Karl Gustavus Roos,
leapt forward with their battalions, and stormed the
fieldworks. Horses snorted, accoutrements clattered,
carabines and broad-swords clashed. Dust and ashes
swirled up, covering the trees so thick that the foliage
disappeared. Creutz, with the left wing, was dis-
patched by the King to reinforce victorious Sparre :
and behind the works the enemy's cavalry were routed
over the swamps toward the Vorshla. On the other
side Lewenhaupt thrust forward with his foot, stormed
two redoubts, and then disposed himself to carry the
enemy's camp at the point of the bayonet. Here the
consternation was tumultuous and great, and the
women-folk commenced to yoke the horses into the
baggage wagons. But the Tzarina, a tall woman, in
the twenties of life, full-breasted, with a white fore-
head and high-coloured cheeks, never stirred ; calm
and steadfast, she remained without, among the
bandages and water flasks beside the wounded.

The generals, in the meantime, were gathering
round the King's stretcher, some little way off the
East Gotha regiment, and alongside a morass. A
halt was called, and with bared head and bended
knee, some began already to congratulate his Majesty,
and desire a further advance.

POLTAWA 1 89

While Hultman, the attendant, was filtering marsh
water, collecting it in a silver cup, the King said :

" Major General Roos has got surrounded, so the
Field Marshal has held back the other troops ; but
Lagercrona and Sparre are sent to the relief, and
soon he ought to be here."

The Swedish army had to remain here for some
time. But speedily Sparre came back, splashed with
blood, and reported that, the enemy being in great
force, he was not able to cut his way through. So
now the troops were marched hither and thither, their
officers not knowing where to place them. And in
the lost time the Russians gathered fresh courage.

Then Lewenhaupt set himself in motion towards
the little wood held by Creutz's Dragoons, and gave
the word for the infantry to 'advance in line. None
knew who had issued the order. Beside himself with
rage, the Field Marshal galloped to the King's
stretcher, which was being borne alongside the Life-
guards.

" Did your Majesty command Lewenhaupt to ad-
vance in line upon the enemy ? "

His disrespectful tone astonished the King. In a
flash, it became evident to him how his very nearest
favourites regarded him with weariness and in-
difference.

" No ! " he answered with hesitation ; but he flamed
red. And all knew he lied.

With this, the last spark of regard and trust was
extinguished in the furious and enraged Field Marshal.
Because of his love for the truth, to him the far-famed

I9O A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

King was instantly degraded into a common soldier,
that, behaving like a crass-headed lout, proffered a
clumsy lie. No second thought took the Field
Marshal. The moment of rupture was come. He
controlled himself no longer, but gave way to the
animosity and mistrust nourished by all in the past
months. He burned to be able to punish, to humble,
and to avenge himself. Now he could not act as if
he believed the untruth, nor, no more would he use
the accustomary address to his Majesty.

" Aye, aye," cried he, down from horseback, " the
King is always doing this ! By God, I wish he would
hand the command over to me." And with that he
turned his back on his Majesty.

The King sat motionless on his ambulance. He
had been put to shame in the face of the entire army.
Through his nervousness and antipathy to wordy
strife, he had been drawn into his untoward and sorry
cowardice. His own folk had heard him lie like to
any knavish baggager, and further without more pre-
varication, he could not take back his words. What
he was suffering, as a man, from his humiliation was
more intolerable than if he had lost his throne. His
wish now was to leap up, throw himself on horse-
back, and ride thence with his men, the common
soldiers, who still believed he was the Elect of
God ; but the pain in his foot and grievous weakness
kept him fettered. Hotly flushed were his cheeks ;
but now it was with the fever of his illness ; and for
the first time his sword shook violently in his hand,
which now he scarce could lift up.

POLTAWA 191

" The litter to the front," was his cry. " The litter
to the front."

Gyllenkrook cried in passion to him, " The horse is
not yet pushed forward. Is it possible, the fight will
only now begin ? "

" Now they advance," replied the King, all harassed.
" The enemy is also throwing his foot forward." So
then Gyllenkrook, commending his Majesty to the
protection of the Almighty, threw himself into the
saddle, and spurred on to the Guards, who had
already advanced and fired the first salvo.

The Swedish field badge was a piece of straw on
their headgear. Through the furious crashing of
cannon and clamour of battle, and blaring of trumpets
and hautboys, and thudding of drums and rattling of
kettle-drums, the war cry of the Swedes rang con-
tinually, " God with us. God with us." In the thick
of the press, and on the plain, old campaigners
encountered each other, and called out a last fare-
well ; or near relations, once boon companions at
the feast and merry makings. Where the space
ranged wider, the captains, and lieutenants, and
ensigns were marching in front of their battalions,
pale-faced, but keeping time with the music, as though
they were on parade in the Castle-yard at old Tre-
kronor. But the hands of the men were clenched
tight over their empty cartridge boxes.

Under fire from the redoubts, the Guards advanced
in close order, their muskets shouldered. On nearing
the enemy, they furiously gripped the useless pieces,
and fixed bayonets. But the dust and the gunpowder

A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

tinted friend and foe alike grey ; the green tunics of
the enemy were not to be distinguished from the
Swedish blue, and Swede raised the sword against
Swede.

In the front of Kruses' Dragoons, Cornet Dveckselt
dropped from his horse, with a bullet in his body,
and the colours in his arms. Ridderborg, Captain
of horse, who that morning had witnessed his
gray-haired parent fall among the Guards around the
King's litter, was carried senseless out of the hand-to-
hand melee. Colonel Torstenson fell at the head of
Hyland's Regiment ; Lieutenant Gyllenbogel had a
bullet wound through both cheeks : daylight streamed
through them. In the thicket behind the Schonen
Dragoons, Captain Horn writhed about, severely
wounded in the right lung ; his trusty servant, Daniel
Lidbom, had clasped him to him, and was drying
his beady forehead. The cavalry man, Per Windropp,
sat his horse, dead, with the fringes of a torn company-
colour in his hands ; Lieutenant PauK, thinking him
to be nought more than wounded, asked him for his
field-flask. Leading the Kalmar Regiment, Colonel
Rank fell, hit in the heart ; Major Lejonhjelm lay
with both legs shot away ; and beside the corpse of
Lieutenant- Colonel Silfversparre, Ensign Djurklo
fought with broken sword to save the colours, until
he, too, sank dying. Around him lay half of the
non-commissioned officers, and half of the company,
like as it had been a guard of honour. The Jonkoping
Regiment, first at the redoubts, took its wounded
Colonel with it ; and when Lieutenant-Colonel Natt-

POLTAWA 193

och-Dag and Major Oxe lay in their blood, Captain
Morner took command. Before him, stretched on
the soil, lay the Ensign Tigerskiold, bleeding from
five wounds, his face buried in his hands, and
supporting himself on his elbows. Hardly the fourth
part of the regiment could wield a weapon.

It was then that the Field Marshal came galloping
over the field, and roared in great anger to Morner :

" Where the devil are the officers of this regiment ? "

"They lay there, wounded or dead."

" Why the hell then, are ye not lying there also ? "

" No ! The prayer of my old mother has placed
me in the shelter of God, and so I still live, and have
the honour to take command over this regiment,
which has aye done its duty with honour, and aye
will do. ... Keep steady, men. Keep steady."

Already Colonel Wrangel lay dead and unrecognis-
able, and his men strove in vain to seize hold of him
under his arms and get him on his feet. Colonel
Ulfsparre, leading on the West Gotha Regiment, fell,
his hands pressed over his heart, and his Major, reck-
less Sven Lagerberg, tumbled backwards to the
ground, hit with a musket bullet. The whole army
of the enemy charged in his direction. He heard the
trampling of horses and the clattering of the ammu-
nition wagons. Between the stiffening corpses and
moaning wounded he was forced into the mud and the
ashes, was trampled on and bruised, until, at last, a
wounded dragoon put him on his horse and haled him
forth to the baggage.

Still fluttered the beloved, shot-riddled old colours

o

194 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

above the furious sea of men. But now they were
rising and falling. Their stuff got more tattered ;
their staves broken ; till at last they began to sink
and disappear one after the other.

The Uppland Regiment, most of the men of which
were drawn from the heart of Sweden, out of the old-
time home in the Malar valley, was in the last throes.
The colours, with the cross-crowned apple in the
corner, were wrenched away from the clenched hands
of their fallen bearer. Their Colonel Stjernhook was
struck down beneath Cossack spears, and swords, and
musket butt- ends, while murmuring, " Now is the
time come when we must cry, Father, it is ended."
Lieutenant Colonel von Post and Major Anrep fell
almost side by side. Captains Gripenberg and Hjul-
hammer, and Lieutenant Essen, and the three boyish
ensigns, tall and beardless, Flygare, Brinck, and Diiben,
lay in the last breath of death.

" Stand fast, men. Stand fast ! " cried officers and
men alike ; and fell down the one on the other, so that
with the dead, and their torn clothing, and the turf,
and sand, a mound accumulated which served the
living as a breastwork. Whistling bullets, grenades,
grape and canister shot stormed down. The atmo-
sphere was so dense now with smoke and dust, that
scarce could one see a horse-length away.

The Swedes began to waver. Lewenhaupt drew
his holster pistols and levelled them at his own troops.
Threatening them, he yelled :

" Keep your ground, men, in Jesu's name ! I see
the King's litter."

POLTAWA 195

41 If he is here, we will stand fast," answered the
soldiers. And they yelled to one another, as if to
overmaster their own sweaty blood-besmutched limbs,
" Stand men. Stand firm. God with us."

Yet, despite all, were they driven back step by step.

The Swedish horse were repelled, till in the end,
their hands and faces all hacked and hewed, they
turned about their horses, man for man, in wild flight.
Through the smoke they saw the King. He was
lying on the ground among his fallen Guards, bearers,
and attendants, hatless, and supporting himself on his
elbows : his wounded foot high up on the wrecked
ambulance, over which some had spread the blood-
flecked cloak of Oxehufvud, the dead Guardsman.
Blackened was his rigid face with gunpowder ; but
his eyes were gleaming.

He stammered, "Swedes! Swedes!" And many
among the fleeing horse drew rein on recognising that
voice once more, for it came to them that if they
escaped they must needs hear that awful and soli-
tary calling anew when they lay dying.

The King could not arise of himself, but they lifted
him upon their crossed lances, like to a doomed and
irresolute sick person. Anew the bearers were shot
down. Yet even in that moment, as, all bleeding,
they stumbled on their knees, they threw out their
arms to keep him from falling. Then Major Wolf-
felt lifted him on his horse, himself instantly to be
struck down by the pursuing Cossacks. His Majesty's
foot, set across the neck of the horse, was bleeding
heavily, and its bandage trailing on the ground. A

0—2

198 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

" All are dead."

" Where is the Little Prince, and Piper, and the
Field Marshal ? " And they standing around shook
their heads, and looked at one another.

Should they tell him, for once, the entire truth ?
On this day of judgment should they discover to him
all his isolation ? Should they tell him that she, the
sister dearest to him, Hedwig Sophia, had lain for
one half year in her coffin, unburied ? Not a man of
them all durst have the courage.

" Prisoners," they replied, after some hesitation.

" Prisoners ! Prisoners to the Muscovite ? Then
better the Turks ! Forward." His Majesty was
deathly pale, but spoke in composed, almost trium-
phant, voice ; the same smile as ever was on his lips.

A grey-haired soldier among the Dalecarlians
whispered to his comrades :

*' In all fair truth, I have not seen him so happy
and young since that day at Narva, when we went
out with Steinbock. To him, this day is a day of
victory ! "

The wagon rolled away. And at the head of his
disorderly, unruly, fleeing host of loud-mouthed land-
rakers, camp-followers, cursing and blaspheming,
cripples groaning and moaning loudly, and lame, hob-
bling horses, the King of Sweden moved off with
colours flying and drums abeating as if he had won his
most triumphant victory.

The last salvoes on the field were fired about
two o'clock. After that a hush lay on the plain

POLTAWA 199

where the last Cossacks of Mazeppa and numberless
Zaporogs were spitted alive on stakes. The habi-
tations and mills were burnt down ; the woods
destroyed ; the fallen were covered with ashes and
earth, and, stark staring, they all lay there as if
looking back from another world on their past years
and on the living.

A captive pastor and some soldiers were roaming
about seeking for the bodies of their own folk. They
dug a deep grave ; and in the darkness of that fine
June night the service for the dead was softly mur-
mured over it, in the speech of the distant home-land.
The tomb was then filled, to become overgrown in
time with the bent and the prickly thistle. For
these last hundred years the wind of the steppe
moans over it, down there in the gloomy stretch of
morass named by the Russians " The graveyard of
Sweden."

When one of the chaplains found Wetzel, the
Lieutenant-Colonel who had died together with his
two sons, he lifted up the empty covers of a prayer-
book lying on the ground beside the Colonel. They
were emblazoned with Wetzel's family bearings.

" Thou art the last of your line," said he ; " and, to-
day, many families are blotted out : Galle, Siegeroth,
Mannersvard, Rosenkiold, von Borgen. . . . And
now, while in the name of my mourning, stricken
country, I rend these arms off these covers, I destroy
the escutcheons of you all."

In front of the redoubt, where the fight had raged
most fierce, a multitude of corpses were thrown to-

198 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

" All are dead."

" Where is the Little Prince, and Piper, and the
Field Marshal ? " And they standing around shook
their heads, and looked at one another.

Should they tell him, for once, the entire truth ?
On this day of judgment should they discover to him
all his isolation ? Should they tell him that she, the
sister dearest to him, Hedwig Sophia, had lain for
one half year in her coffin, unburied ? Not a man of
them all durst have the courage.

" Prisoners," they replied, after some hesitation.

" Prisoners ! Prisoners to the Muscovite ? Then
better the Turks ! Forward." His Majesty was
deathly pale, but spoke in composed, almost trium-
phant, voice ; the same smile as ever was on his lips.

A grey-haired soldier among the Dalecarlians
whispered to his comrades :

" In all fair truth, I have not seen him so happy
and young since that day at Narva, when we went
out with Steinbock. To him, this day is a day of
victory ! "

The wagon rolled away. And at the head of his
disorderly, unruly, fleeing host of loud-mouthed land-
rakers, camp-followers, cursing and blaspheming,
cripples groaning and moaning loudly, and lame, hob-
bling horses, the King of Sweden moved off with
colours flying and drums abeating as if he had won his
most triumphant victory.

The last salvoes on the field were fired about
two o'clock. After that a hush lay on the plain

POLTAWA 199

where the last Cossacks of Mazeppa and numberless
Zaporogs were spitted alive on stakes. The habi-
tations and mills were burnt down ; the woods
destroyed ; the fallen were covered with ashes and
earth, and, stark staring, they all lay there as if
looking back from another world on their past years
and on the living.

A captive pastor and some soldiers were roaming
about seeking for the bodies of their own folk. They
dug a deep grave ; and in the darkness of that fine
June night the service for the dead was softly mur-
mured over it, in the speech of the distant home-land.
The tomb was then filled, to become overgrown in
time with the bent and the prickly thistle. For
these last hundred years the wind of the steppe
moans over it, down there in the gloomy stretch of
morass named by the Russians " The graveyard of
Sweden."

When one of the chaplains found Wetzel, the
Lieutenant-Colonel who had died together with his
two sons, he lifted up the empty covers of a prayer-
book lying on the ground beside the Colonel. They
were emblazoned with Wetzel's family bearings.

" Thou art the last of your line," said he ; " and, to-
day, many families are blotted out : Galle, Siegeroth,
Mannersvard, Rosenkiold, von Borgen. . . . And
now, while in the name of my mourning, stricken
country, I rend these arms off these covers, I destroy
the escutcheons of you all."

In front of the redoubt, where the fight had raged
most fierce, a multitude of corpses were thrown to-

200 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

gather in a heap ; but the rest were left strewn about
the plain. The air soon became filled with the ex-
halations of rot and decay, and with countless carrion
crows. With the deepening night silence fell dreadful
over the great immensity of graves ; only the wounded
broke it ; calling continually for water. Those of
them that were worst mutilated only made supplica-
tion that some one would take pity on them and give
them the death blow ; or trailed themselves to a dead
horse, tore the pistol out of the holster, and took their
own life, after they, with trembling lips, had besought
God's blessing on all at home, and repeated the Lord's
Prayer. Then a dragoon, stricken unto death, began
to speak great words of comfort, thanking the Al-
mighty for the honourable death vouchsafed him. He
repeated the collect of burial over himself and his
comrades, and three times he took some earth into
his hand and besprinkled his bosom : " From the
dust art thou taken, and unto the dust wilt thou
return." All enrapt, he held forth concerning the
Resurrection, and in the end voiced loud and with
much cheer a burial psalm. Under the starry heavens
of that night it was responded to by twenty or thirty
voices in the distance.

Maarten Predikare, creeping without dread over the
field, continued the psalm when the dragoon became
silent. Then he took note of an old hag nearing him,
a torch in her hand ; and behind her a file of peasants
dragging long carts, which they were loading with
clothes and all sorts of plunder.

An ensign, not yet dead, would not suffer them to

POLTAWA 2O I

steal a necklet of his, with a small silver cross to it.
With all his strength he resisted ; but they felled
him with a pitchfork. At this Maarten Predikare
approached. Cried he in a low voice, " Do no murder.
Do no murder."

Then among the marauding females he recognised
once more his Dunja, his little Dunja. His whole
countenance altered. Half like to a father, half like
to a bashful lover, he stretched forth his arms to
her.

She stared at him, and burst into idiotic laughter.

" It is the beastly Swede," cried she, " that bribed
me with money for cherries and kisses." And she
sprang at him like a cat.

His earrings she tore away, so that the blood
trickled down both sides of his neck. He fell. The
women beat him, and rent the clothes off his body.
They found his Epistle of St. John, and strewed the
pages about like to feathers of a plucked fowl. They
pulled off his top-boots and tattered stockings. But
when he marked that his little Dunja grabbed the
pitchfork, he tore himself loose, with all the force of
upstart hatred, and fled away in his shirt over the
dying and wounded.

" Not even the trust of an innocent heart is granted
to us any longer," he murmured, mounting a lame
horse that had come close to him in the night. " God
has forsaken us. Judgment is fallen on us. All is
ended ; and the whole world is dark."

For two nights and two days he rode on, and the
lagging wounded directed him. The fugitive Swedes

2O2 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

he found again on a neck of land between Vorshla
and the shining Dnieper, that broadened here into a
sea between its low banks overgrown with trees,
thickets, and reeds. The Russian was close upon
them to landward. But when the outposts descried
Maarten in his bloody shirt, and riding the saddleless
horse, they sprang aside in terror ; they only fired
when he was already past .

The sun burning fierce, the wounded and invalid
were bedded under the woody growths at the water's
edge. The generals were standing together, con-
versing.

Lewenhaupt turned in sadness to Creutz.

"With the King a captive," said he, " the Swedes,
to a man, will go home, and give up their last stiver
to get him ransomed. We bear the responsibility.
This war is like to a game of chess, in which all is to
protect the King. On my bended knees I have
implored him to allow himself to be ferried over, but
he thrust me away, saying he had weighty matters to
think on."

" You speak to him as ye were speaking to a gouty
statesman. Above all, talk not to him as to a young
man, but talk ye to him as if to a stripling who stands
with pride on his manhood."

Creutz neared the King's wagon, violently brandish-
ing his gloves, as if he intended to hit him on the
forehead ; but the King's clear, steady eye straight-
way put him in confusion.

" Your Majesty is busy thinking ? "

" I fight but poorly with the pen, so I have re-

POLTAWA 2O3

course to thought. I would make my last testament,
and arrange the succession. And then, should it go
amiss with me, if I remain on the field, I will be
buried in my shirt, like to any common soldier, on the
spot where I fall."

Creutz twisted and tugged at his gloves. Like
to his fellows, he was overmastered, and he had to
incline his head.

" Sire, I am not one of those that call on God to
let them live, for right well do I apprehend the dearest
wish of a hero. The bullet intended for your Majesty
may reach you. No ! No ! In Jesu's name ! But,
Sire, you may not stay long in the saddle to-day.
God forgive my words, but your Majesty must suffer
himself to be carried about like to some poor,
miserable wretch, and when the last of us is dead,
you, Sire, must needs remain behind all alone, and
fall into captivity."

"Not only should a man stand one against five,
but he should be able to stand against the whole
world.

" True ! True ! But devil take it, we common
comrades of the uniform are not strong enough for
that ! One against all : that is one against the entire
world. It needs men of wholly another sort ; we are
such weak folk, that we have nought but swords for
our protection ! Now, after I, in all simplicity, have
placed the situation even as it is, I beseech your
Majesty to abide with us, and not to cross the river,
for then you, Sire, set yourself one against the world.
It will be said then, ' Behold, the Alexander, who

2O4 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

himself flees, and abandons his men to the Muscovite !
What a miserable, wretched thing of a man ! Look !
Look ! And the silver plate and barrels of gold that
he carried away from Saxony, he leaves to the Russ !
Ah, yes ! Haha ! ' We poor plain-spoken subjects in
no wise can permit your Majesty to front the world
in any way by yourself, and expose your royal person
to be bespattered by the ignorant and the stupid ; the
same as the Field Marshal, or Piper, or Lewenhaupt,
or any other of us. When were the unknowing taught
to know misfortune ? Your Majesty desires to die : all
we old campaigners wish that; but pride — your
Majesty's pride — to offer up your pride to your
subjects, that is an offering which they could not
accept. It is given that the troops cannot cross
the river : we have neither flat-bottoms nor anchors,
nor stakes, nor piles, nor any carpenters. There-
fore I ask your Majesty to remain here, and not
to throw the gauntlet down against the whole
world."

" Let the boat be made ready," was the King's
command.

Mazeppa, the chivalrous owner, had got together
his baggage, and his two tons of ducats ; and sitting on
his wagon, was well over the water by now. Zaporogs
and troops of soldiers fastened their clothes on their
backs ; under their arms they put boards off the
wagons, and boughs from the trees, and leapt into the
river. About midnight, the wagon of the King was
lifted on two boats lashed together. Gyllenkrook,
standing at his feet, silently handed over the map of

POLTAWA 2O5

the farther countries drawn upon a piece of board.
No one spoke. The starry night was deep with
silence. The stroke of the guards' oars died away
over the shimmering water.

" We two will see him never again," muttered
Creutz to Lewenhaupt. " His eyes of late were
strange. There is still oil in the lamp ; but I look
forward with suspense to his fortunes. How will he
encounter life as the defeated, as the derided, as an
old man ? "

Lewenhaupt answered : " The cross he made for
himself has slipped down upon the shoulders of his
subjects. For all time will he remain in that marish
plain, there, lying on the forgotten graves. We
must be grateful to him for all that which he made
of us."

Through the night came the voice of Maarten
Predikare in the distance. " He has made me a by-
word of the people, and to a derision am I become.
My power . is become darkened through sorrow, and
all my limbs are but as a shadow. To corruption
I have said, Thou art mine father : to the worm,
my mother and sister. And where is now my hope ?
It goes down to the gates of death, when I and it
rest together in the dust."

The day dawned : and, in his bloody shirt,
Maarten Predikare rode from troop to troop, ex-
amining in the Catechism and knowledge of the
Book. The soldiery stood in silence around the
empty tent of the King. But when the cry ran
that they had to surrender, and brown-faced Bauer

2O6 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

the Russian General, appeared on the hill to take
possession of the trophies, then Maarten Predikare
came off his horse and wrung his hands. Round
about sat the Cossacks upon their tired and spent
horses. In front of them were laid the kettle-
drums, and bugles and drums, and muskets, the
thunderings of which had rolled over the bat-
talions ; and the well-known colours, which in days
bygone Swedish mothers and wives had greeted
in farewell, nodding from their doors, and win-
dows, and stairways. They glanced and glittered,
lying there. Non-commissioned officers, old and
grim, fell on each other's necks and sobbed ; some,
tearing asunder their bandages, let their life's blood
gutter ; and two comrades, with one accord, slew each
other as they were throwing down their weapons
before the conquerors. Dour-faced and lowering the
maimed drew past. There came young men with
frost-bitten chaps, and without nose and ears ; more
wraiths than human men, they were. . . . There
Piper, the young Ensign, hobbled by on his crutches,
his feet shot through ; there went Giinterfelt, who
had lost both hands, and in their stead, had got in
France a pair of wooden ones, black and shiny ; they
were fingering up and down his coat. Wooden limbs
clacked and creaked, and hand staves, and stretchers,
and ambulance wagons.

Maarten Predikare stood there, with his hands
folded. His eyes were glowing with fire. His being
was violently moved within him ; the old preaching
spirit came upon him. He heard how the voice

POLTAWA 207

now faltered and grew more husky, but now became
so mighty in volume, that it was to him as if he himself
would be borne hence, and changed into a flame of
fire. Waving toward the surrendered weapons, he
addressed himself to the King's tent.

" He alone is the evil-doer. Thou mother or widow,
in mourning garb, turn his picture to the wall. For-
bid the children to utter his name. Thou, little Dunja,
with thy playmates, wilt soon be plucking flowers on
the graves of our dead ; and build thy monuments up
of skulls and horses' heads. Thou cripple, strike thy
crutch on the hollow sounding earth, and summons
him to the meeting with the thousands of victims
awaiting him there, whom he did sacrifice. And
yet, for all this, I know that some day we all
will come before the Justice Seat, hirrupling on
our wooden legs and crutches, and will say, ' For-
give him, Father, even as we forgive him, for it
was our love that proved his victory as well as
his destruction.' "

When no one replied, but all stood in silence and
with bowed head, as if by that he was answered, his
agitation grew bitter sore ; and he covered his face
with his hands.

" Tell me, for God's sake, tell me if he lives ? " he
cried.

Giinterfelt took off his hat with his black wooden
fingers. He replied : " His Majesty is safe."

Then Maarten Predikare bent his shaking knees.
He recovered himself; and this was his stammered
cry:

208 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

"Praised be the Lord of Hosts! If the King is
spared, I will endure every burden which fate lays
upon me."

" Yea, yea," the Swedes repeated in a murmur.
' Praised be the Lord of Hosts ! " And they all slowly
bared the head.

CHAPTER XIII.
BEHOLD, THESE ARE MY CHILDREN.

CORPORAL ANDERS GRAABERG stood on the Turkish
waste-land, holding his field flask. Around him the
fleeing Swedes and Zaporogs were passing by — many
staggering about ; and on the wagons lay the wounded
of Poltawa. Throughout the whole night and all that
morning Anders had endured his thirst, to save the
last of his water for some more neccessitous occasion ;
and now his torment was become unbearable. But the
instant he put the flask to his lips, he let it sink again.
" My God, my God," he stammered, " why should
only I drink, when all the others thirst. Thou hast
led us through the wastes, so that Thou canst now
say : ' Out of your poor snow-clad fastnesses I led you,
the musket on your shoulder, out into the world,
so that ye might become heroes and conquerors ; yet
when I searched your hearts and saw that ye had re-
mained clean, that still ye were My children, I tore
your clothes into pieces, and gave you crutches into
your hands, and wooden limbs for bone, so that ye no
longer should try to have power over men, but that
ye might enter into My Holiness. Such power have
I granted unto you.' "

p

2IO A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

Anders Graaberg remained for a little time with the
flask in his hand. Then he stepped to the King, who
was lying between straw sacks on his wagon, in a burn-
ing fever. He proffered him the flask. The tongue of
the King clove to the roof of his mouth; his lips
stuck together ; they bled when he opened them. But
this was his whisper :

" No ! No ! Give the water to the wounded. I
have still one beaker full."

Right well did Anders Graaberg know that the
King had none. Himself was the only one who had
taken thought on the coming day, and had stored up
water ; for miles around them were neither wells nor
pools.

But now, as he turned from the King, longing and
temptation to drink once more attacked him. He
hung the flask again by his side, and went off to offer
it to the wounded. He pressed his hand on its pewter
top ; he strove against himself ; and every time he
put the flask to his mouth he let it fall again, for he
durst not quench his thirst. Thought he to himself :
" Perchance I will be able to come at a serene mind,
once I have busied myself in other things."

At mid-day, the sun burning fiercely, he noticed
an old grey-haired sergeant that, almost naked, and
with unbandaged wounds on his shoulders, was march-
ing onwards with his fellows ; Anders Graaberg tore
his shirt into strips and bound up the wounds. But
on his hand again touching the flask, his old anguish
waxed anew. Thereupon he gave the staff in his
hand to a wretched young baggager with feet bare

211

and bleeding. Yet, when after all he could not for-
tune to gulp down his water with a good conscience,
he grew bitter and full of ire. Swearing and sneering
he turned to Mazeppa's barrels of gold and silver.
There they rattled along on the two wagons ; and the
ill-starred soldiers were unable to buy even so much
as a dish-full of muddy water.

" Fell the horses," cried he. " Fell the horses, so
that the money barrels remain not behind us. Kill
the men too."

The soldiers did not answer him. Now he was
again showing his true nature ; formerly, in better
times, he was wont to be even as insolent and hot-
headed when marching. They observed not, that he
scarce knew what he said, before his head was down
again, and he was muttering to himself.

" Is it then wholly necessary that I must give up
the one thing of worth to me. Haha ! In that case
let us roll the barrels also into the grass there, and
touch them no more with our fingers. My God !
My God ! Once at Weperik I heard Bengt Geting,
the dying dragoon, speak with envy about the dead
that got each man of them a clean white shroud.
Mine is not so ambitious a wish ; mine is even as
lowly. Ah, I wish only not to be left behind, lying
in the wilderness, here ; I wish only to be buried in
the earth, and have the clods and green grass over me.
. . . And the few words in the lists . . .
* Anders Graaberg : fate unknown.' "

A halt was made, at the setting in of the murk, to
bury those who had died during the day ; already two

212 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

Zaporogs were shoving their spades into the earth.
Among the sharp-bladed bent were a few bushes bear-
ing cherries ; and the officers and men in the mean-
time pulled them, and divided the fruit among
themselves as a gift from the very hand of God.

Then Anders Graaberg slipped behind the bushes
to drink the water unseen of the others. But just
then the trumpeters began to blare, which was the
token that the Muscovites were again appearing on
the skyline, and visible on the far-away knolls of the
parched stretches. Anders Graaberg opened his flask ;
but the more he breathed the dankness of the water,
the more violent did his heart throb.

In the nearest wagon, dying Borje Kove, Steward
of the Silver, raising himself, stared at him. Anders
tried to withstand the look ; but was unable ; and
again he thrust the life-giving liquid from him.

" Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after
righteousness," said he.

As a servant of the Lord administering the sacra-
ment, he carried the flask before him with outstretched
arm, and put it to the Steward's mouth. The dying
man drank the water, even to the very last drop.

Tight did Anders Graaberg hold to the side of the
wagon. But when it rolled away, his hands slipped
aside, and he sank in a heap among the grass.

" There is no room on the wagon for me," said he.
" For all I'm but thirty years old, I'm as worn-out
and tired as a man of ninety." He laid hold of one
of the spades. '-Yet, leave me this spade, so that I,
if my strength holds, can at least open up the ground

BEHOLD, THESE ARE MY CHILDREN 213

and lay me down in my last bed. Asleep is now mine
anguish. A voice is crying in my ear : ' Behold,
these are My children.' "

Anew the soldiers began their march beside the
rumbling wagons, and the trumpeters turned round in
the saddle. Flights of storks hovered above the
darkening wastes. On the steppe Anders Graaberg
was still kneeling, the spade in his hand.

None have ever known anything of his fate.

CHAPTER XIV.
IN COUNCIL.

IN the ante-room of the Council Chamber, Secretary
Schmedeman was standing with the roll of the Heads
of the people in his hand ; they from whom unfortu-
nate Sweden did desire fresh guidance, and who were
now about to subscribe thereto.

The nobles began to assemble. In a corner beside
Falkenberg, who was ailing, Frolich, the ancient, sat
with crossed arms, slumbering somewhat lightly. On
a sudden he awoke.

" We must hand over the entire treasury to the
King," said he.

Arvid Horn leaped to his feet with such force that
his chair fell backwards to the floor. Shooting his
arms into the air, he cried :

" He may keep to himself that manifestation from
Heaven, and his closetings with Eva Greta ; but
not turn us into thieves, out of blind affection for his
Majesty ! "

" That is right ! " Falkenberg responded, thrumming
his bloodless ringers on the back of the chair. " Day
after day insinuations and accusations spread among
us, Not a Swede has a thought for the honour of his

IN COUNCIL 215

fellows; yet none durst say a single judicious word
about him who alone caused all the blame. Ay, Horn !
Do not seat yourself again ! Folk are most furious
against you. They think you wanted to win the same
fine position by the Princess Ulrica Eleonora through
the smoke of your salvoes-in-salute, as Creutz took
with the thrice-blessed Princess Hedwig Sophia.
Yes, yes ! Speak no more about the King ; read his
letter instead. Read ! Find you a single line there
worthy of the Head of an unfortunate people ? "

" Bah ! Say little about the letter," answered
Horn, seating himself. " Tittle-tattle for women ;
excuses ; indifferent matter ! But how can anyone
wish that a man, who never bared himself in conver-
sation, should sit him down in his tent and open out
his heart on paper ? But I am one with you in this :
that some day he must be called to account for all
this misery."

" Some day, say you ! " ejaculated Falkenberg,
arising all in a quiver. "Some day ! Are the Swedes
then become nought but cringers and flatterers !
Neither Christian Thyrann nor Erik XIV. did as
much evil to us as this one has ; he must be of the
very devil himself ! Ah, since our men are all fallen
on the field, the living have only the hearts of old
women. And now from such must the Swedish race
be propagated ! "

Fabian Wrede, amicable and honourable, stood
among the speakers. His voice rang out strangely
mild and full of tranquillity :

" The meeting begins!" said he, turning to the open

2l6 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

door. " I am not one that cringes ; nor was I one
of those that thronged around the young King to
declare him of age ; and I am fallen into disgrace.
The country is everything to me, is my father and
mother, my home and my very memory ; is all, all !
I know my country bleeds to death. I know likewise
that some day its doom will be uttered. But the
present is not the time to spend our thoughts on that,
for when God of His accord puts a crown of thorns on
our heads, the greatest is not he that evades it but
who presses it the closer to his head, saying, ' Father,
here am I, to serve Thee.' And I tell you, that never,
never, in all the past years of triumph, has our little
nation been so near the true imperishable greatness
as it is now."

Horn was stepping to the Council Chamber, but he
turned to Falkenberg. Said he, with suppressed
voice :

" My mother had other sons besides me ; the bullets
have found them all. Must I be worse than they ?
And if one man can induce a whole nation to offer up
such sacrifice, must not that man be far more than
all others?"

Wrede took Falkenberg softly by the shoulder.
With suppressed voice he likewise said :

" And the people, who have borne so much. . .
Would you hinder these people from pressing the
martyr's crown, this day, hard upon their head ? "

The nobles went into the Council Chamber, but
Falkenberg, his stick supporting him, walked up and
down the ante-room. At last, when he seated himself

IN COUNCIL 217

in council, the Secretary already had read aloud the
long despatch. The names of the subscribers to it were
being desired by him.

No man gave his name.

Falkenberg sat there, sunk deep in thought. His
eyes were moist and sorrowful. All heedless of pre-
cedence, he hastily put out his hand.

" The pen. The pen," he whispered.

CHAPTER XV.
IN THE CHURCH SQUARE.

THE broad-shouldered peasant, Jons Snare, in Mora,
was eating porridge with his neighbours, Maans and
Mathias. So avaricious was he, that throughout the
whole winter he lay and slept in his box-bed to save
light. Illumed from the skylight above, his big, flat
face gleamed ill-favoured and wrinkled like to that of
a hobgoblin. Slow was his speech, in a voice deep
and menacing :

" I prophecy," said he, beating his hand on the
wooden dish, " that the time is coming when we will
chew the bark of trees. To-morrow, I kill my last
cow. Every year brings fresh taxes and imposts.
Now they would take the church bell, and the sacra-
ment plate, and the corn for the poors' house."

" Ay, that's true," quoth Maans, rubbing his grey
cheeks.

He put another pinch of salt into his porridge, for it
was the Sabbath.

Maans also was covetous ; he went round the neigh-
bours, counting on the salt for his porridge and the
billets of wood under the kettle,

IN THE CHURCH SQUARE 2 19

Mathias bent himself well over the table. How
wrinkled and evil-faced he was, with his black teeth
and snake-like eyes. Beyond all, he was the greediest
of the three. Such a niggard had never existed in all
the parish. So miserly was he, that he went into the
sacristy to the pastor, and bade him wear wooden
clogs on weekdays like to the rest of folk.

" To my simple way of thinking," said he, " God
has put us, the common folk, to keep the thumb on
the purse of the rich. Not a shilling will I put into
the bailiffs fist ! "

" But steal my nets ! " Jons Snare replied ; " ye
can do that ! "

Quoth Maans. " Ay, that's true."

Mathias grinned, and broke the hard bread into
pieces with the hammer.

" What should a man do then, when he's starving? "

Jons Snare shook his long matted locks. He got
upon his feet. His words rang so loud, that they
could be heard without, before the door :

" Thou sluggard ! Rather should ye take your
father's old piece down from the wall, shoot the bailiff
and the tax-gatherer, and hide them in the hay-stack.
And before ye pipe another tune, or come to the
gallows, rather should ye go to Stockholm with me,
and let the fine Lords there know the peasants'
mind. Peace we demand ; and peace we must have ! "

" That is true. Aye, we go with you ! " cried Maans,
standing up, his knees trembling.

Mathias likewise arose, and shook Jons Snare by
the hand, Said he ;

22O A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

"We begin now, then, by going to the church
and speaking to the folk. We must insist on our
rights."

" I'll see to it," answered Jons Snare. " Peace
there must be : we demand it."

They left the house, and, on the way, harangued to
women and girls, old men and young. When they
came to the square they had a following of between
twenty or thirty folk.

The autumn sun shone cool and clear upon the
wooded mountain heights, upon the cool sea, and
the long white-washed church. In the square the
peasants thronged in front of the cattle stalls, be-
tween the wagons and carts, but the penitents at
Communion were not yet come out again further
than the vestibule. Shaggy-haired ancients, who
were come down from the forests, and already
were walking about in furs, made much ado when
they recognised Jons Snare ; all considered him
to be the most stubborn and masterful peasant
in the parish. Also the other Dalecarlians— these
with the bright, open eyes, and white shirts
visible between the leather breeches — turned to
him. There was nothing on earth more weighty,
it seemed to them, than his tardy and peevish
conversation.

" Ye've been busy church-goers! " cried he to them.
" That's right, ye'll learn by rote the new prayer for
what is owing from subjects ! "

None took time to answer him. All pressed vehe-
mently forward. Cried they in a burst :

IN THE CHURCH SQUARE 221

" The King is taken ! The King is taken ! The
King is taken ! "

" Is the King taken ? " And Jons Snare stood with
tightened fists, and looked from one to the other.

" That's true ! " quoth Maans.

" Be silent, thickhead, what know ye about this ? "
roared Jons Snare, throwing out his clenched fists
so that all fled from him.

He seated himself on the bench before the cattle
stalls. But the Dalecarlians would not depart. Closer
grew the ring, for none wished to lose a single word.

" Is the King taken ? " he asked again.

" One tells it to another. A smith out of Falum
has said that he was taken prisoner by the Pagans."

Mathias slowly crept forward. He bent himself,
and stretched out his long fingers.

" What say ye, Jons Snare about this news ? I ask
in all simpleness."

Jons Snare sat with his hands on his knees, and
the sunlight played upon his stiff, impassive forehead
and the hard lips. He looked on the ground.

The Dalecarlians inquired, " What say ye ? "

" In Stockholm, one of the Lords of Council gives
his gold, another his silver plate, and the third makes
suggestion that every well-to-do subject should give
his riches to the Crown, and then own no more than
the poor man. Only the Queen-Widow wants her
income uncurtailed ; she, that grab-all ! And the folk
in the street break the windows of Countess Piper."

" And we," cried Mathias, " we will take the
musket down from the wall, says Jons Snare,"

222 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

"That is true," quoth Maans in assent.

Yet Jons Snare continued wordless. About him
all grew so silent, that nothing was to be heard save
the bells.

"Ay," was his response, after a little time; and
his voice sounded more bitter, deeper, and more
menacing than afore. " We will take the musket
off the wall, and march off as one man. By God,
ye true men of Dalon, if the King is taken, then we
demand that we be led against the foe to free him
and help him to return."

Mathias became thoughtful. But speedily his fore-
head cleared, his eyes gleamed with cunning.

" To be sure, this demand is part of our old, true
right ! "

" That is true ! " asserted Maans.

" Yea, yea, that demand is part of our old, true
right," cried the Dalecarlians, raising their hands for
the oath. And such a tumult and hurly-burly arose,
that no longer could anyone hear the bells.

CHAPTER XVI.
THE CAPTIVES.

FAR over the desolate stretches of Smaa-land and
Finnveden, there appeared strange signs and wonders
in the heavens ; and now since work had lost all its
worth, and the coming day its every hope, the people
hungered, or ate and drank riotously amid muttered
maledictions. In every farmhouse a mourning mother
or widow was to be found ; and while she went about
the duties of the day, she talked of her fallen or cap-
tured ; and at night started out of her sleep thinking
that she heard the rumbling of that sinister cart, the
driver of which, all clad in black, took away the
victims of the pestilence.

In Riddarholm Church, the body of Princess Hed-
wig Sophia had lain unburied for seven years, from
lack of money for the necessary expenses.

There also now lay Hedwig, the aged Queen Dow-
ager, ancestress of the King. Some drowsy women-
in-waiting were keeping watch about the bier. Waxen
candles were burning dim alongside the corpse, which
was wrapped in a plain linen sheet.

224 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

The youngest of the women arose, yawning. She
went to the window, and drawing aside the black
hangings, observed if day was about to break.

Noisy footsteps rang loud from the vestibule ; and a
smallish man, stiff and gnarled, trying in every
possible way to lessen the noise occasioned by his
wooden leg, approached the corpse. His bright,
almost white hair lay thick on his head, reaching down
to his shoulders.

With deep obeisance he lifted the winding-sheet.
He poured an embalming preparation out of a flask
into a funnel, which he introduced into the corpse.
But, on the potion being somewhat slowly absorbed,
he placed the flask on the matting beside the bier, and
hobbled to the dame at the window.

" Is it not seven o'clock yet, Blomberg ? said she
in a low voice.

" Seven has just struck. It is ill-weather outside ;
I feel by the stump of my leg that a storm is brewing.
Ah ! For a long time now in Sweden one cannot
prophesy anything propitious. Believe me, this time
also there will be just as little money for a well-
ordered burial. It was but the beginning of all, when
the blessed Ekerot prophesied misery and conflagra-
tions. And after the great fire in the Castle, likewise
came the fire on the island opposite. The glare of
the burning Minster and Castle shone all over Upsala
plain ; in Vesteraas and Lindkoping, the wind blew the
ashes on the cooled sites of other conflagrations. . . .
And now every end and corner of the Kingdom is
ablaze. My noble lady, forgive me my free speech ;

THE CAPTIVES 225

but one accomplishes more through truth than lies !
That is my old saw. Once it saved my life down
there by the Dnieper ! "

" Saved your life ! Then at that time you were
Field-Surgeon, with your regiment? You must sit
down beside me, and relate the story. Time passes
so slowly ! "

Blomberg talked in soft, respectful tones. Now and
then he raised his index and middle fingers in the air,
whilst keeping the others closed.

Both threw a look at the dead ; there she slept in
her shroud ; rouged and painted with skill, her tresses
finely dressed, the deepest wrinkles on her face filled
in with wax. Then they seated themselves on the
bench in the window-niche before the black hanging.
And Blomberg, speaking low, began the tale.

" I lay senseless on the marshy field of Poltawa.
My wooden leg had tripped me up, and I had got a
blow from a horse's hoof. It was night when I came
to myself. I felt a strange, cold hand fumbling be-
neath my coat. The deeds of the wicked are
an abomination unto the Lord, but soft words are
blessed, thought I ; and without calling out I quickly
seized the plunderer by the breast. From the words
he stammered out in fright, I gathered he was one of
those Zaporogs who had concluded an alliance with
us. As a surgeon, I had attended many of them, also
captive Poles and Russians ; so I could make myself
fairly understood in their different tongues.

" ' The heart of man is vile from youth upward,'
said I softly, ' But God's word will endure. No evil

0

226 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

can befall the upright, but the godless are full of
malice.1

" ' Forgive me, good sir,' the Zaporog cried in a low
voice. ' The Swedish Tzar has left us wretched
Zaporogs to our fate, and the Muscovite with whom
we broke our word will hack, and hew, and torture,
and put us to death. I would get me a Swedish coat
to pass myself off as one of yourselves. Be not
wrathful with me, O merciful sir.'

" To mark whether or no he had a knife, I sought
for my flint and tinder while he was yet speaking ;
and kindled some thistles and twigs at my feet.
Immediately I observed that before me was a small,
timorous old man, with a crafty, knavish face, and
empty hands. Hastily leaping up like to a beast on
its prey, he bent himself in the firelight over a Swed-
ish ensign who lay dead on the grass within the
firelight. It seemed to me that a dead man could
well afford his coat to a defenceless ally, and I did
nothing to hinder. But when he was drawing the
garment off, a letter fell out of the dead man's
pocket. I noted by the superscription that the
youngster lying there, handsome and calm as though
he were fallen asleep on the way home, was called
Falkenberg. The letter was from his sister ; and
I only read it as far as the words which have been
my motto since that time : ' Ye accomplish more
through truth than with lies ; ' for the next instant
the Zaporog put out the fire.

" ' Are ye mad ? ' said he. ' Sir, do not draw the
plunderers hither ! '

THE CAPTIVES 227

" I heeded his words but little. I repeated again
and again, 'Through truth ye accomplish more than
with lies.'

" ' A great phrase, old man ! And ye will see, I do
as much by means of it as you with your garment ! '

" ' That depends,' answered the Zaporog. ' But
we must promise each other that the one who sur-
vives says a prayer for the other's soul.'

" ' That's a promise,' I cried, reaching him my hand.
And I felt how I in misfortune had happed on a brother
and a friend even in this barbarian.

" He helped me ; and at dawn we were marching
in the long train of wounded and abandoned entering
Poltawa to give themselves up. Readily they tried
to hide the Zaporog among them. Huge riding boots
reached up to his thighs ; the skirts of the great coat
hung down to his spurs ; and as soon as any Cossack
eyed him, he turned himself to one of us, and cried
loud the only few Swedish words he had learned :

" ' I am a Swede, devil take me.'

" Quarters were given to my Zaporog and myself,
together with eight comrades, in the garrets of a great
stone-built house. We two were the first to come ; and
chose for ourselves a separate little attic room, with
one window to the street. There was nothing in this
room save two straw mattresses. But in my pocket
I had a tin flute taken at Starodub off a dead Cossack,
and on it I had practisied some beautiful psalm tunes.
With this I shortened away the time then. Soon we
took notice that a young woman on the other side of
the street came to her window as often as I made

Q— 2

228 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

melody. Perhaps, then, I played more often than
otherwise would have been agreeable to me. I do
not know aright whether she was more comely and
attractive than all other women ; or whether the long
intermingling among men had rendered my eye less
fastidious ; but on every occasion I had great enjoy-
ment in beholding her. Notwithstanding, I never
looked when she turned her face toward our window,
for aye I have been embarrassed in my behaviour to-
ward womenfolk, and never have understood correctly
how to hold myself in their company ; likewise I have
never sought the fellowship of men that have their
heads stuffed with tales of women, and that pursue
nought but amorous intrigues. Every man should
keep his chastity holy, says Paul, and live not in the
lusts of the heathen who know not God, so that none
do wrong to his brother therein, and offer him affront,
for in such the Lord is a mighty avenger.

" Nevertheless, I was of the opinion that a man
ought aye conduct himself full courteous and hand-
some ; and because one of my coat sleeves was in
tatters, I aye turned the other side to the window
when I played. She was wont to cross her arms on
the window-sill, and her hand, even if it was large,
was rounded and white. Also she wore a scarlet
bodice with silver tassels and many loopings. An old
hag of a huckster, who now and then sold bread and
pickles beneath her window, called her Feodosova.

" When the dark set in she lit a lamp, and as
neither she nor we had shutters on the windows , we
could follow her with our eyes. But I found it more

THE CAPTIVES 2 29

decorous to turn away from the window, and recline
with my Zaporog on the straw in the corner.

"In addition to my prayer book I possessed some
loose pages of Muller's homilies ; I read some of these
and translated them to my Zaporog. When, however,
I noted that he did not pay attention, I went back to
things of the world again, enquiring from him about
our neighbour on the other side of the street. She
was not a wife, he told me. The young women of
that county aye wear a long braid of hair plaited with
ribbon, with a small silken knot thereon. When
they are widows they wear their hair loose, as a
token of mourning.

"When the dark was fallen, and we had laid our-
selves down among the straw, I discovered that the
Zaporog had pilfered my silver snuff spoon. But after
I had got it back and reproached him for his error
we slept together as friends.

" When it was day again, I was almost ashamed
of myself because of my lightheartedness. Yet as
soon as I had prayers with my Zaporog, and carefully
cleansed and dressed myself, I was off to the window,
playing one of my most select tunes.

" Feodosova was already sitting in the sunshine.
So to let her see how different the Swedes be to her
own people, I bade the Zaporog wash out our room ;
and after a few hours the whitewashed walls of it were
glancing white, and without any cobwebs. All this
helped to turn my attention. But straightway I
sat me down again, arose my bitter thoughts that
I could be so cheerful when so much pain and

230 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

trouble were about me. Without, sat comrades of
mine on benches and the floor of their room,
making moans and speaking in whispers of their
dear ones at home.

" Two of us, in turns, durst go into the open every
day, and even down to the ramparts. But that night,
when I laid me asleep, I was abashed to entreat of
God that the lot fall on me in the coming morning.
Right well knew I that if I were hankering for an
hour's liberty, it was but to find some motive to go
into the opposite house. And yet for all this I felt
that if the turn, without my prayer for it, did in
truth fall on me, I would not even then venture to
go there.

" The next morning, when I went to the window,
Feodosova lay clothed on the floor, asleep, with a
pillow under her neck. It was yet early in the day,
and cool ; and I did not put the flute to my mouth.
Meantime, while I was standing there, she must
have found out in her sleep I was watching her, for
she looked up, laughed, and stretched her arms ; and
all this so quick, that I had no leisure to withdraw
myself unnoted. I reddened violently ; put the flute
away ; and on the whole acted so awkwardly, that
never have I been more discontented with myself. I
fastened my waistbelt the tighter, and moved about.
I took the flute off the sill, examined it, and acted as
if I were blowing some dust off it. When in the end
the Russian sergeant, who had the oversight of us un-
fortunates, explained to my Zaporog that he was one
of the two allowed to go out into the town this day, I

THE CAPTIVES

drew him into a corner and reminded him with many
words not to forget to pluck me a nosegay of yellow
asters which I had seen grow in the neighbourhood of
the burnt houses by the ramparts. At some oppor-
tunity, then, we would present them to Feodosova, said
I : she had the look of a good and worthy woman,
who perhaps would send us poor devils some fruit and
nuts, said I : the miserable dole of bread from the
Tzar would not satisfy the hunger of any man, said I.

" He was ashamed to show himself in the sunlight
out of doors. But he likewise feared to awake suspi-
cion if he remained, so he obeyed, and went out.
Hardly was he before the door than I began to rue
that I had not detained him ; for, now I was all alone,
my embarrassment grew the greater. I seated me on
the straw in a close corner, wherein I could not be
viewed ; and there I stayed.

" Despite all, the time passed not slow to me, for
I had enough to think on. After awhile I heard my
Zaporog's voice. Without reflecting on what I did,
I went to the window. I beheld him standing with
Feodosova ; in his hand a large, beautiful nosegay of
asters, more recalling the flag-flower. At first she
would not accept of them, saying that they were
unclean things, being the gift of a pagan. He acted
as if he understood her not, as if on the whole
he knew but few words of her tongue; yet, with
winkings, and noddings, and gestures, he made plain
to her that I had sent the flowers. In the end, she
took them.

" Beside myself with rage, I went back into my

232 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

corner, and when the Zaporog returned, I seized him
by the shoulder. Vigorously I shook him and butted
him athwart the wall.

" Nevertheless I had scarce let him go, than he was
standing again at the window in his heedless levity,
making signs to her and throwing kisses from all five
fingers. Thereupon I came nearer, thrust him aside,
and myself made a leg. Feodosova sat and pulled
apart the blooms, chewing the leaves and letting them
fall one by one. My inborn courtesy prompted me :
I took courage, and began to speak before considering
how I could begin the conversation.

" ' I pray you, worthy lady, not to misinterpret the
conduct and unbecoming gestures of my companion,' I
stammered out.

" More eagerly she tugged at the flowers.

" After a time she replied :

" ' When my man was alive, he was wont to say
that, from top to toe, there were never any soldiers
so well built as the Swedes ! He had seen Swedish
captives undressed and thrashed by the women-
folk ; and how in the end the women had become so
charmed with the Swedes' good looks, that putting
their rods under their arms, they cried over the bruises.
So, to-day, I have been very inquisitive, so far : and
the fine music you play sounds so strange.1

" Now her speech by no means pleased me. Like-
wise I found it not seemly to answer her in a like
fashion, as if I admired her figure and her white arms.
Instead I made a bow, took up my flute and played
my favourite Psalm, ' In my deep distress I call on

THE CAPTIVES 233

Thee.' After this we talked about many things ; and
although my stock of words was small, we soon
understood each other so well, that no day has ever
seemed shorter to me.

" At dinner time, after she had rattled for some time
among the plates and bowls, she fetched out from
under the roof a net, with which her husband had
formerly caught fish in the river. Into this net she
put a small coggie filled with steaming green kale,
and a wooden flask of kvass ; and the rod of the net
was so long, that it could reach across the narrow
street. When I drank to her health, she bowed,
laughed, and said, that she thought it was no wrong
to take pity on captive pagans.

" Towards evening she placed her spinning-wheel
at the window, and we talked again, till darkening set
in. To me it seemed nought but a sin to be so happy
in the midst of our affliction, for my intentions were
pure and guileless. Yet even as between the burnt
and desolated dwellings by the ramparts I had
seen the flag-flower gleam above the heaps of
ashes, so now my heart's rejoicing seemed like
unto a hymn of thanksgiving for the goodness of
God to me.

" When night came on, and I had prayers with my
Zaporog, and once again had caught him stealing my
snuff spoon, the talkative man began to speak softly
to me.

" ' Well do I see, little father, you have won over
dear Feodosova, and in fair truth she is as good and
pure a woman as you could take to wife. That you

234 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

would never engage in a love affair of any sort, I have
understood from the very first moment ! '

" ' Nonsense ! ' I answered. ' Nonsense ! '

" ' Through truth one accomplishes more than with
lies, you were wont to say.'

" When he combated me with my own proverb, I
grew confused.

" He continued :

" ' The Tzar has promised every one of you Swedes,
who becomes a subject, and embraces the True Faith,
a good appointment and great reward.'

" ' You are out of your senses ! But, could I take
to my heels and have her with me on my horse, I
would do it at once ! '

"The next morning, when I had played my Psalm,
I received the information, that 'twas my turn that
day to go out.

" I grew ardent and restless. More careful than
usual I dressed and brushed myself, borrowing, too,
the ensign's coat from the Zaporog, so that I need
not wear my tattered one. All the time I was
deliberating : ought I to go up to her ? and then
what ought I to say ? when in all likelihood this was
the one time in my life I would be able to speak
to her. How deeply would I rue it later on, in my
grey old age, if I let slip this one chance from nought
but embarrassment. My heart was beating more vio-
lently than ever in any affair with the enemy, myself
standing with my pouch of dressings among the flying
bullets and the fallen. I put the flute in my pocket
and went,

THE CAPTIVES 235

" When I got into the narrow street, she was sitting
at the window, and never giving an eye to me. I did
not wish to ascend without having first asked her for
permission, and knew not aright how I ought to set
about it. And while yet considering the case, I took
a couple of steps forward. Thereupon she heard me,
and looked out.

" Courteously I lifted my hat. But with a wide-
resounding burst of laughter she leapt up. Cried she :

" ' Haha ! Look, look ! He has a wooden leg ! '

" I stood with my hat in my hand, and staring and
staring into the air, wholly void of thought, of feeling.
To me it was as if my heart had burst, and filled my
breast to breaking. I believe I spluttered forth some
words.

" I only yet recall that I knew not in what direction
I should turn ; that aye I heard her laugh ; that to
me everything in the world was become indifferent ;
that liberty in the open now called forth deep dismay
to me ; that all at once I was changed into a broken-
hearted man.

" Vaguely I recollect a long, steep street without
any paving, and a big market-place, where I was
spoken to by other Swedish prisoners. Mayhap L
answered them, enquired after their circumstances,
and at the same time took a pull of the tobacco pipe
which they offered me. I believe also that I troubled
myself how long it was yet until night time, and how
that I must needs return the same way, past her
window, in the bright sunshine. I tried in all ways
to pass the time : spoke now with this, now with that

236 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

person. But it was not long ere the Muscovite
dragoons, coming along, ordered me to get home.

" As I went along the street I made up my mind
not to betray myself, but to bow up to the window in
some friendly fashion. Was it her blame that so
many Swedish soldiers, of whom she had expected
vigour and comeliness, were now pitiful cripples,
hobbling about on wooden legs ?

" ' Make haste there ! ' thundered the dragoon. I
quickened my steps, and the thud of my wooden leg
echoed between the houses.

" ' Kind Father in Heaven,' I murmured, ' I have
served my earthly master in all uprightness, is this
now the reward Thou givest me : that Thou makest me
into a defenceless prisoner, whom the people pelt with
dirt ; into a miserable cripple, at whom the women
laugh ? Yea, 'tis the reward : and Thou wilt abase
me yet more, so that one day I be worthy of the
Crown of Salvation.'

" When I was come beneath the window I marked
that Feodosova was away from it, which was no more
relief to me. I stumbled up to my prison, and at every
step I heard the thumping of my wooden limb.

" ' I have spoken with Feodosova,' whispered the
Zaporog.

" I gave no answer. My luck, my blossoms grown
in the ashes, lay perished on the ground, and if now
they bloomed anew, I myself, full of anguish and
despair, would scatter them with my wooden limb.
Of what account could the whisperings of the Zaporog
be to me ?

THE CAPTIVES 237

" ' Ah,' he went on with, ' when you were gone out
I made reproach to Feodosova, and told her that she
had no idea how much you loved her, and that, were
you not a stranger and heathen to boot, you would
ask her to become your wife.'

" In silence I folded my hands, and bit my lips to
keep my shame and affliction locked fast ; and gave
thanks to God, that He, through shame and the
laughter of folk, every hour abased me the more be-
fore men.

" Opening the door to the outer room, I began to
talk with the others.

" ' As the wild colts in the wilderness we seek
laboriously our bread. On fields which belong not
to us we harvest, and store the grapes of the
ungodly, and the whole night long we lay naked
from lack of clothing, and without covering against
the cold. The floods of rain from the mountains
wash down upon us, and from lack of shelter
we cling to the rocks. But we supplicate not for
deliverance, O Almighty God, we only pray, " Direct
us Thou, O God. Abide by us. Behold, Thou has
turned Thy countenance from my folk, and put the
thorn into our shoe, so that we remain Thy servants
and children. In the dust of the field of battle sleep
our brothers. But a more beautiful psalm of victory,
than that of those conquering with the sword, Thou
sayest to Thy chosen! "

" ' Yea, Lord, guide Thou us. Abide by us, O
Lord,' repeated the prisoners in a murmur.

" Out of the darkest corner arose a voice :

238 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

" ' O that I were as in olden days when God pro-
tected me, when His lamp burnt upon my temples,
when I walked in the darkness by His light. Yea,
even as I was in the autumn of my life, when under
my roof was fellowship with God, and my children
encompassed me about. My heart calls out together
with Job ; but no more do I hear it ; and no more I
call forth, "Take Thou this trial away from me."
With mine ear have I heard speak of Thee, my God.
But now mine eye has taken witness of Thee.'

" ' Hush. Hush,' the Zaporog whispered, and he
seized hold of me, his hands cold and trembling.
' That can be none other than the Tzar himself, com-
ing up the street there.'

" The street was filled with men, beggars, urchins,
old women, and soldiers.

" In the midst of the throng the Tzar stepped along.
Tall and thin was he, wholly composed and without
any guard. His only following was a swarm of jump-
ing, yelling dwarfs. From time to time he turned
round, and, embracing the smallest of them, kissed
him in a fatherly manner on the forehead. He came
astand here and there in front of a house, where he
was offered a beaker of brandy, which, all in laughter,
he drained dry at one gulp. It could be no other than
the Tzar, for instantly one was made aware by him
that he had rule over men and dominions. He came
so near to me below my window, that I was able to
note his green headgear and brown coat with its worn
metal buttons. On his shirt he had a large silver stud
with a sham stone ; an'd on his legs coarse woollen

THE CAPTIVES 239

stockings. His brown eyes sparkled and glittered.
His little black moustache stood up above his lips.

" Glancing at Feodosova, he fairly went beside him-
self. When she came down into the street and knelt
down, with a goblet in her hand, he pinched her ear,
took her by the chin, and raised her head up, so that
he could look into her eyes.

" ' Tell me, child,' he asked, ' can ye find me a big
room where I can take bite and sup ? With you,
maybe ? "

" On his journeying the Tzar seldom had a Master-
of- Ceremonies with him, or other court official.
Neither bed nor bed-linen he took with him, likewise
no provisions, not even kitchen utensils or table ser-
vice ; but all had to be furnished in a twinkling,
wherever it pleased him to take a meal. So now there
was a hubbub and ado at all doors and on all
steps* From one place they came with the kettles ;
from the other, with earthen dishes ; from a third,
with ladles and pot liquors. Up in Feodosova's room
the floor was covered deep with straw. The Tzar
himself took part in the labour, like to a common
soldier ; and chief control was taken by a hunched-
back mannikin, that now and then set the women all
at sixes and sevens, and blew his nose into the air, or
contrived knavish tricks about which I cannot speak
in the presence of a lady of quality.

" One time when the Tzar, with arms crossed,
turned to the window, he observed me and my Zapo-
rog, and nodded to us as one nods to a fellow com-
panion. The Zaporog threw himself head-first on

24O A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

the floor, stammering out his, ' I am a Swede, devil
take me ! ' But I shoved him aside with my foot,
and prayed on him to get up and hold his tongue,
for no Swede demeaned himself in that wise. In
order, then, to protect him as much as possible, I
placed myself before him, and formed front.

" ' Dat is niet iibel,' said the Tzar. But immedi-
ately he went back again to his mother tongue, and
asked who I was.

" « Blomberg, surgeon in the Uppland regiment,' I
replied.

"With one glance, the Tzar examined me — a
glance so searching, that never have I met so all-
knowing an eye.

" ' Thy regiment exists no more,' cried the Tzar,
and here ye see Rehnskiold's sword.' He drew the
sword with the sheath out of his belt, and threw it
down on the table, making the dishes rattle. ' But,
without a doubt, you're a rogue : you're wearing the
uniform of an ensign or captain.'

" I replied : ' That is a hard speech,' says John the
Evangelist. ' The coat I have borrowed because my
own was in tatters. Should this be thought wrong
of me, I will still hope for mercy, for my proverb is
worded, " With truth one accomplishes, in time,
more than with lies." '

" ' Good ! Then if ye say that, take thy servant,
and come over, so that we may put thy saying to the
test.'

" The Zaporog shook and flinched on stepping over
the way with me. But immediately we entered, the

THE CAPTIVES 241

Tzar pointed out to me a seat among the rest at the
table, as if I were his equal.

" ' Seat yourself, Wooden Leg.'

" He had taken Feodosova on his knee, without
thinking what was to be said against such conduct.
Round about him there walked and whispered a
number of boyars, now beginning to assemble.

" A dwarf, Judas by name, so called because he
had a picture of that arch-villain on his necklet, took
a handful of shrimps off the nearest plate, and threw
them into the air, so that they fell on both men and
platters. When in this wise he got the others to turn
against him, he pointed to the Tzar. Making a face,
he in all calm blood cried out to him :

" ' Ye do amuse yourself, Little Father ! Outside
the town I had already heard folk talk of the beauti-
ful Feodosova. But ye aye pick up the best, Little
Father ! '

" ' Ye do that,' cried the other mannikins round
about. ' Ye're a true-born thief, Peter Alexievitich.'

" Now and then the Tzar gave a laugh and
answered them. Yet for the most he sat full earnest
and thoughtful, his eyes moving like two glittering
insects in the sunshine.

" There came into my mind how that once I had
witnessed Karl XL, of blessed memory, in conversa-
tion with Rudbeck, and how at the time it had seemed
to me that Rudbeck, for all his many becks and bows,
stood far higher in importance than the King. Here
it was the contrary. For although the very Tzar went
about, and worked, and let himself be treated worse

242 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

than a knave, yet for all this I perceived but him alone
• . . and Feodosova. In the most trifling things,
I descried his mind.

" That buzzed in my brain : and humbly, among
the straw, I bowed my knee.

" « Your Majesty,' I stammered, ' To speak the truth
is fess dangerous than to lie. Therefore I supplicate
of you to let me drink of some liquor yet once more,
for my worthy master, who is as like as well as un-
like your Majesty, has accustomed me these last few
years to drink of nought but filtered marsh water.

" Hereupon the right cheek of the Tzar started
atwitching,

" « Yes, by St. Andrew,' said he ; ' I am unlike my
brother Charles. He hates women like a woman ; and
squanders the wealth of his folk as a woman does the
wealth of her husband ; and slanders me like a woman.
But I honour him as a man. To his health, Wooden
Leg. Drink ! Drink ! '

44 The Tzar sprang to me, took me by the hair and
held the goblet to my mouth ; the Astrakan beer ran
down my chin and neck. At each health two soldiers
in yellow and brown uniforms with blue collars
entered and let off their pistols, so that the stuffy
room, already filled with tobacco smoke and the stink
of garlic, grew thick with gunpowder smoke.

" Once more the Tzar seated himself at the table.
Throughout the hubbub he would remain seated,
thinking ; but never did he allow the others to cease
toasting and become as serious as himself. Again he
drew Feodosova on his knee. Poor, poor Feodosova !

THE CAPTIVES 243

There she sat, drawn together a little ; her arms
hanging down, and mouth somewhat open, an she
were expecting blows and thrashings in the midst
of all his caressings. Thus it was she had not the
courage to snatch the sword off the table, press
her artery against its sharp edge, and so save
her honour ere it was too late. What mattered it
that she had made sport of my wooden leg and mis-
fortune. Oh ! I would that it were only granted me to
preserve her honour with my life. Never aforetime
had I been so near her, and never had I seen so clearly
how wonderfully beautiful she had been made by the
hands of the Creator. Poor, poor Feodosova! If
only you had known in your heart that pure intent with
which one friend viewed thee in thy abasement, and
offered prayer for thy well-being !

" The orgy lasted hour after hour. The most
licentious of the boyars and dwarfs already lay on
the straw, or retched, and made water. But the
Tzar, himself, aye just arose and leant out over the
window.

" ' Drink, Wooden Leg, drink,' he ordered, and
hunted me round the room with a bumper in his
hand, and bade the boyars hold me till I emptied it.
The twitching on his face aye got the more gruesome
to view.

" When in the end we sat again at the board, he
filled three earthern bowls to the brim, and set them
before me.

" ' Now, Wooden Leg,' said he, ' must ye drink
enow of these, and explain the import of thy saw.'

244 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

" I got up, as well as I could.

" ' Thy health, O Tzar,' cried I. ' For truly thou
art born to command.'

" ' Wherefore,' asked he, ' should the soldiers present
arms and salute me, if there were any others more
worthy to rule ? What in the world is more useless
than an unserviceable prince? The day I find my
own son not worthy to inherit my great and beloved
dominion, the same day he must die. Thy first truth,
Wooden Leg, needs no toasting ! ' And the pistols
cracked, and all drank save the Tzar.

" Then I gathered the rest of my understanding to-
gether, even as a miser his coins, for I thought that
if I could talk soft and smooth to the Tzar, maybe my
Feodosova might be saved.

" ' Yea, indeed, your Majesty,' I continued, taking
up one of the bowls. ' This is Astrakan beer, brewed
of mead and brandy, with pepper and tobacco in it.
Strong does it burn the throat before it refreshes one ;
and when it does refresh one, it makes him drowsy.'
With this I threw the bowl on the floor, so that it
broke into a thousand atoms.

" Then I took up the second one.

" ' This is wine of Hungary. " No longer drink
water," says the Apostle Paul to Timotheus, " but
take a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and because
thou art oft-times ailing." So says a holy man to one
a weakling and stay-at-home. But go ye out on the
battlefield, among the freezing and the pain-stricken,
and, tell me, could this bowl of sweet wine be passed
round the many unfortunate, parched ones, to slaken

THE CAPTIVES 245

thirst and ease qualms of death ? ' With this, like-
wise, throwing the bowl on the floor, I broke it into
pieces.

" At last I took up the third one.

" ' This is brandy. It is treasured little by the rich
and fortunate, for with them it is not thirst which
longs for gratification, as the beast of burden longs
for the spring ; with them they but wish something
wherewith to increase pleasure. But brandy is all
potent the very moment it passes over the tongue,
even as an autocrat is, the very instant he steps over
the threshold ; and a few drops of it also brings ease
to the dying and those lying bleeding. Therefore I
term brandy the best of drinks, for I am speaking as
an old campaigner. And through truth one accom-
plishes more than with lies.'

" « That is right ! That is right ! ' the Tzar shouted
lustily, accepting the toast ; and he drank while the
pistols crashed. Then he gave me two gold pieces.
' You must have a pass and a horse ; and, aye where-
ever you go, you must tell of Poltawa ! '

" Then once more I knelt down in the straw and
stammered :

" « Your Majesty ... in my humbleness and
simplicity. . . . There sits a ... a good and
pure woman.'

" ' Haha ! ' yelled the boyars and dwarfs, trying, all
astagger, to rise to their feet.

" The Tzar got up, and led Feodosova to me.

" ' I understand. Even he that hobbles along with a
wooden leg can fall in love ! Good. I present her to

246 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

thee, as she is and stands ; and ye must have a good
post with me. I have promised that every Swede
who enters our service, and goes over to our faith, he
should be one of us.'

"Feodosova stood like one asleep, and stretched
out her hand to me. She had laughed at me ? What
about that ! I had forgotten it ! She would soon
have paid no more attention to my wooden limb, for
I would have taken care of her, and worked for her,
and made a comfortable home for her. I would have
taken her into my arms like to a child, and asked her
if a true and upright heart could not bring another to
surrender. Mayhap she already had her answer on
her lips ; for now her whole demeanour was greatly
radiant, and grew warm to me ; and her countenance
cleared.

" Far away, in the corner house at Prastgatan,
in Stockholm, sat an old and lonely woman with her
book of sermons, giving ear, full of expectation that
a letter would be left at her door, or an invalid enter
with greetings from remote lands — one whom she
could ask whether never again would I return, or was I
already under the sod. For her, I had put up a prayer
every night. In the tumult of battle, amongst the
stretchers and the moaning wounded, I had thought of
her. But at this hour I had now no more mind of her.

" I saw and comprehended nought else but Feodo-
sova. Yet, despite all, I was struggling within me ;
I thrilled with some weighty significance which was
for ever pressing on my heart. I did not apprehend it.
Only little by little I could make it clear to myself.

THE CAPTIVES 247

" I bent over Feodosova, to kiss her hand. But
she whispered :

" ' The Tzar's hand ! The Tzar's hand ! '

" Then did I bend over to him, and kissed his hand.

" ' To my faith,' I murmured very slow, ' and to my
Royal Master I must not be untrue.'

" The Tzar's cheek twitched more violently, and the
dwarfs in their fright dragged the Zaporog out of his
corner. The Tzar himself made merry over the
comical figure of him, and laughed. But his arm
began to move in convulsive spasms. His face
became ashen-grey. His body shivered with one of
his dreadful nervous attacks. He stepped to the
Zaporog, and dealt a blow with his clenched fist ; the
blood gouted from the man's nose and mouth.

" In a voice of fury, and so changed that one could
scarce have known it again, the Tzar roared :

" « You liar ! I have seen through ye, since first
you came into the room. You are a Zaporog ; a rebel
concealed in Swedish clothing. . . . On the wheel
with him ! . . . On the wheel with him ! '

" All, even to the tipsy, commenced to tremble, and
pressed to the door.

" One of the boyars in his terror let cry :

" ' Put forward the woman ! Shove her on ! As
soon as he sees the comely faces and bodies of women-
folk, he'll be quiet again.'

" They seized Feodosova, and tore her bodice open
over her bosom. Sobbing softly, she was thrust step
by step to the Tzar.

" All became dark before my eyes. Going backward,

248 A KING AND HIS CAMPAIGNERS

I staggered out of the room. Under the stars I re-
mained standing in the street, and heard how the
din died down and the dwarfs began to sing.

" Then I folded my hands and brought to mind
that promise made upon the field, to pray for the soul
of the poor sinner. But the more I spake to God
inwardly, anew my thoughts went astray. My prayer
became a supplication for one, a greater sinner : for
him who, with his last faithful followers, was wander-
ing about on desolate steppes. . . ."

With a troubled glance at the coffin, the surgeon
became silent. Then the lady and he approached the
catafalque.

"Amen," said she. And both again spread the
covering over the waxen white Queen Dowager,
mother of the Charleses.

3S514

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