Tales from the German Volume I Part 23

In the dining room, innumerable dishes were already smoking upon the supper table as Megret and Arwed entered; yet the governor was sitting at the sideboard, in accordance with an old Norman custom, amusing himself with the favorite Swedish preliminary to a good meal, knakebrod and whiskey. Occasionally he cast an impatient glance towards the door.

'Where is my daughter?' asked he of a servant, who had just entered.

'The countess is ill,' he answered, 'and begs you will receive her apology for not being able to appear at the table.'

'This is another of her whims,' said the old man angrily, 'of which she has more than my Polish charger. Go again to her, Rasmus, and say, I command her to be instantly well, and to come and preside at the table.'

Megret advanced to speak a kind word in behalf of the capricious beauty--but the governor motioned him back, and the servant departed.

Christine soon made her appearance, her eyes cast down and her face glowing with displeasure. She silently took her place by her chair, and motioned to the persons present to seat themselves.

'Before we are seated,' said her father, sternly, 'the affair between you and the colonel must be adjusted. You will ask his pardon.'

'Spare me, my father!' implored Christine. 'If the colonel requires satisfaction I will exchange shots with him; but sooner may you drive me from the castle than I will ask the pardon of any man upon earth.'

'Que Dieu m'en garde!' cried Megret laughing. 'Your eyes are accustomed to hitting and wounding men's hearts, and you would have a manifest advantage over me. A blow from so beauteous a hand can as little inflict dishonor as the knight-creating stroke of a king's sword upon a victorious battle-field.'

'You have more luck than understanding,' remarked the governor, at the same time causing himself to be conveyed to the table. For the future, however, I shall expect that you will not forget the treatment which is due to thy father's worthy guests.'

The maiden submissively kissed her father's hand and took her place on his left; Megret seated himself on his right, and Christine nodded to Arwed to sit by her; but he went round the table and seated himself by Megret.

Christine observed this movement with great surprise. 'I love free conversation at the table,' whispered he smilingly to her, 'and have no helmet to protect me.'

'Insufferable!' murmured she, and in her anger at his unsparing irony, filled her father's goblet so full, that the good old burgundy overflowed and colored the exquisite damask table cloth.

Her father was again reproving her for this new impropriety, when the servant announced sir Mac Donalbain, and Christine started with a look of mingled joy and alarm.

'He is heartily welcome!' cried the governor, and a tall, well built man, about thirty years old, entered the hall. He wore a short, green overcoat with copper b.u.t.tons. At his broad leather girdle, in which two pistols were inserted, hung a broad sabre, and in his hand he carried a double-barrelled gun. His sunburnt face was not regularly handsome, but the spirit and boldness which characterized it, rendered it interesting. The wild black eyes, however, which peered from under his dark brows, and a few wrinkles on his forehead and about his mouth, gave him a grim and disagreeable expression. Arwed, who glanced now at him and now at the polished Frenchman, compared the two, and came to the conclusion that he was not in the very best of company.

'Whence do you come so late, sir Mac Donalbain?' kindly asked the governor.

'I have been hunting in the Asele Lappmark,' answered the guest, laying aside his weapons and boldly seating himself near Christine. 'I had got belated, and the light of your hospitable castle shone so invitingly that I concluded to ask of you entertainment for the night.'

'This worthy Scot is in a certain sense a brother sufferer of yours, dear major, in so far as the death of our king has destroyed his prosperity as well as yours. He had the a.s.surance of an advantageous post in our army, made a long journey to come here, found his hopes annihilated by the death of the king, and for the present lives upon his income, at Hernoesand, awaiting better times.'

'Singular!' remarked Megret, whilst the brother sufferers bowed silently to each other. 'I was lately at Hernoesand, and could hear nothing of you there, although I took particular pains to find you.'

'I reside there no longer,' answered Mac Donalbain, not without some embarra.s.sment. 'A difficulty which I had there, induced me to remove to Arnaes.'

'A difficulty?' asked Megret, smiling. 'I am sorry for that. I hope it was not with the public authorities?'

'One readily perceives, colonel,' interfered Christine, with bitterness, 'that you are a foreigner. In hospitable Sweden, such questions are not allowable, even from the host himself, much less from one guest to another.'

'Why so excited, countess?' asked Megret with his customary cold smile.

'If sir Mac Donalbain _will_ not or _cannot_ answer my question, I shall be content. He has my sympathy, notwithstanding; and, in my journey back to Stockholm, I should be pleased to go round by Arnaes to take personal leave of him.'

'However agreeable that might be to me,' said Mac Donalbain equivocally, 'I must yet by antic.i.p.ation regret that probably you would not meet me. The amus.e.m.e.nt of the chase is my pa.s.sion, and I am almost always abroad.'

'So it appears,' said Megret with a piercing glance, and, turning to the governor, he commenced a conversation with him, respecting the preparations for war making by Denmark and Russia, which threatened poor Sweden anew. Arwed who took a part in this discussion, could not forbear casting an occasional scrutinizing glance at Mac Donalbain, who had commenced a low and apparently interesting conversation with Christine. He saw how the dark eyes of the Scot flashed upon the angelic countenance of the maiden, saw how the latter regarded her wild neighbor with a mixture of fear and anger, of pa.s.sion and aversion, and he thought, 'what a pity it would be, if this beautiful and innocent creature should have thrown away her heart upon such a man!'

The table was at length cleared. Megret and Mac Donalbain bade their host good night and went to their chambers. Christine kissed her father with humble tenderness, and in a low voice asked him, 'are you still angry?'

'Amend yourself, perverse girl,' said the old man; and gently parting the golden locks from her fair forehead, impressed upon it an affectionate parental kiss.

'My kind, kind father! indeed I do not deserve so much love,' cried the maiden, with deep emotion, pressing his hand to her heaving bosom. She then arose and departed, giving an unfriendly glance and a slighting nod as she pa.s.sed Arwed. He also wished to seek his bed; but his uncle drew him into a chair near him and filled his goblet again.

'You must help me finish the last bottle, major,' said he. 'I have not at all enjoyed your company yet, and must say to you once more, now we are alone, how dear you are to me. Truly you have come to my house in a good hour! and I hope at some future time to have much to thank you for.'

'How mean you that, dear uncle?' asked Arwed, with some surprise, and partly antic.i.p.ating the point to which the old man was leading.

'Why should I dissemble with you?' burst forth the old man. 'Your father, indeed, gave me long and broad instructions at Upsala, how I should conduct myself toward you; but this spying and tacking and managing may be all very proper in the royal council, and yet not with so clear and honorable a Swedish mind as yours. Therefore, short and round, you are the right man for my Christine,--you or none.'

'I, dear uncle!' answered Arwed, laughing. 'The commencement of our renewed acquaintance did not seem like it.'

'That indeed, I observed with regret,' confessed the uncle. 'But who regards women's humors, which change as quickly as the fashion of their garments. Bucephalus was a wild and vicious horse, and yet he found his man who knew how to manage him.'

'That was the great Alexander, however,' replied Arwed, continuing the jest. 'I have not vanity enough to put myself on a par with that hero; and, even if I were compelled to attempt the one or the other, I should rather undertake the taming of Bucephalus than of my fair cousin.'

'She is headstrong,' sighed the uncle; 'that, alas! I must myself acknowledge; I, her father, who have permitted her to grow up without proper restraints. But, nevertheless, I believe you would succeed in rendering her submissive. You have, to-day, said such things to her as she has not been accustomed to hear. Because she is handsome, every one who has seen has flattered and indulged her caprices, and, in that way, she has been spoiled. You will let nothing pa.s.s without its just comment, I see plainly. She will consequently at first fear, and then respect you, and, after that, between people of your stamp, love will find its way of itself.'

'It occasions me much regret,' said Arwed with sudden earnestness, 'that I am compelled to interpose an insurmountable obstacle to the accomplishment of a hope which, in the fulness of parental love, you so feelingly express. But, in this case, unreserved candor is the holiest duty. My heart is no longer free, good uncle, and my choice is made for life.'

'Your father has already made me acquainted with that affair,' answered the uncle fretfully; 'but I did not suppose that foolish pa.s.sion, which can hardly endure long, could reasonably interpose any obstacle. The daughter of an executed criminal....'

'An innocent offering at the shrine of contemptible party interests,'

said Arwed, with great vehemence, interrupting him; 'truly a martyr to his honesty and to the gigantic plans of his king.'

'And as your father says,' continued the uncle, 'the maiden has herself given you up and bidden an eternal farewell to Sweden.'

'She was compelled by the necessity of satisfying her own conscience; but that cannot release _me_ from the performance of my duty. So long as Georgina lives, so long shall I continue to hope, and truly will I keep my troth.'

'Such troth is senseless,' answered the uncle, suppressing his emotion.

'However, there is something in your constancy which pleases me. Do as you will. I hope at any rate, you will place so much confidence in me as to believe that I would not urge my daughter upon you, in opposition to your feelings. I am firmly persuaded, however, that the affair will gradually work itself right. Rank, figure, affinity, wealth, all fitting. By heaven! you were created for each other or no couple ever were. Sleep before you determine. As for the rest, what has been said upon these matters must remain within the walls of this room--to that promise give me your hand.'

Arwed gave the required pledge. The governor rang for his attendants, bade Arwed good night, and was rolled to his sleeping room.

'This is a strange entanglement in which I shall henceforth be obliged to act!' said Arwed to himself, while the servants were waiting at the door, with branched silver candlesticks, to show him to his room; 'Georgina and myself--I and my uncle, and Christine--and Christine and Megret--and Mac Donalbain and Christine!--and this Megret and Mac Donalbain, who again appear to stand in hostile constellations; and I, who, as I already foresee, shall at some future time be compelled to encounter both of them--this Mac Donalbain who spears to me like the serpent in paradise endeavoring to seduce the poor innocent, foolish mother of mankind. This Megret!--ah, this Megret! I will go to bed. G.o.d preserve me from wicked dreams.'

CHAPTER x.x.xI.

The hunting bugle-call and the baying of hounds awoke Arwed from his morning slumbers. As he opened his eyes they were greeted by the imaged orb with which the rays of the morning sun announced its rising, glowingly and tremblingly reflected from the bosom of the sea. Arwed sprang from his bed, threw his cloak over his shoulders, and raised the window to enjoy the beauty of awakening nature. In the court below, the huntsmen, horses and hounds were moving about with loud and joyous tumult, and old Knut, who had saddled Arwed's black charger, was now leading him from the stable.

'By whose command is this?' asked Arwed of the man below.

'The countess Christine!' cried Knut.

'Lead him back to his stall and take the saddle off,' commanded Arwed.