The King with Two Faces

Front matter

BY M. E. COLERIDGE AUTHOR O "THE SEVEN SLEEPERS OF EPHESUS" EDWARD ARNOLD LONDON NEW YORK 37 Bedford Street 70 Fifth Avenue 1897 (All rights reserved) CONTENTS CHAP. PACE I. IN WHICH THE HERO IS EXPECTED . . -9 II. IN WHICH THE HERO APPEARS . . .14 HI. IN WHICH THE HERO RIDES AWAV . . .21 IV. IN WHICH THE HERO REFLECTS . . .26 V. THE CASTLE OF CARL DE GEER . . -3' VI. A HOUSE DIVIDED . . . . -35 VII. A HOUSE AT UNITY . . . . - 39 VIII. IN THE GREAT WOODS . . . .46 IX. TWO GENTLEMEN LAY A BET . . -54 X. GOTHENBURG . . . . . .68 XI. FERSEN'S TOWER . . . . -72 XII. BESIEGED . . . . -75 XIII. THE SEALED LETTER . . . . 83 XIV. THE THIRD OF OCTOBER . . . .88 XV. FERSEN WATCHES . . . . .98 XVI. THE KING SPEAKS . . . . . 104 XVII. THE KING CHOOSES . . . . . IIO XVIII. BELOW GROUND . . . . . 118 XIX.

THE MAN IN THE BLACK CLOAK . . . 1 20 XX. A TOKEN . . . . . .133 CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE XXI. BEFORE AND AFTER . . . . 138 XXII. THE PROMISE ...... 148 XXIII. THE ARABIAN NIGHTS. .... 155 XXIV. THE BEGGAR'S OPERA. .... 163 XXV. THE TWO QUEENS . . . . • '73 XXVI. THE MESSAGE . . . . . 191 XXVII. AT STOCKHOLM ..... 203 XXVIII. THE KING AND HIS COUNCILLORS . . .211 XXIX. THE ARRESTS ...... 219 XXX. IN THE VELVET CHAMBER .... 237 XXXI. THE KING'S JUSTICE ..... 239 XXXII. BETWEEN TWO FIRES ..... 244 XXXIII. THE HOUSEHOLD OF THE DUKE . . . 254 XXXIV. TALA RECEIVES HER ANSWER . . . 262 XXXV. TRIUMPH ...... 269 XXXVI. " FINE FEATHERS MAKE FINE BIRDS " . . 271 XXXVII. EN ATTENDANT ..... 279 XXXVIII. THE KING'S MERCY ..... 283 XXXIX. THE ROAD TO VINCENNES .... 297 XL. THE GIPSY HAT ..... 310 XLI. FAREWELL, MADAME DE STAEL \ . . -321 XLII.

FAREWELL, FERSEN ! . . . . 326 XLIII. BAD NEWS ...... 332 XLIV. THE RETURN ...... 337 XLV. ST. BRITA'S CROSS ..... 342 XLVI. CLAS HORN'S VISITOR ..... 344 XLVII. THE MAN OF ACTION ..... 352 XLVIII. THE KING AT THE WINDOW .... CONTENTS 7 CHAP. PAGE XLIX. THE SCARLET COAT ..... 367 L. THE KING'S LIFE . . . . -371 LI. THE NIGHT BEFORE ..... 377 LII. THE MASQUERADE ..... 382 LIII. THE END OF THE BALL .... 390 LIV. THE PAYING OF THE DEBT , . . . 396 LV. DE LA GARDIE TO THE RESCUE . . . 403 LVI. THE KING'S RULING ..... 407 LVII. FREE ! . . . . . . . 414 NOTE The writer owes much to Mr. Nisbet Bain's most interesting work, Gustav III. and his Contemporaries.

Chapter I In Which The Hero Is Expected Four

horses, saddled and bridled, stood ready. Four loaded pistols lay on the table. A. had a book in his hand, but he was not reading. B. was writing a letter, but the regular scratching of his pen had ceased some time before. C, with his hands in his pockets, was trying to sit listlessly before the fire, but he was not sitting listlessly. D. had thrown himself on to the sofa and closed his eyes, but he was not asleep. Very lightly and slightly, apologetically, as it were, because his ears were tired of long listening with nothing to listen to, B. began to whistle a tune from Thetis and Peleus. " Be quiet, cannot you ? " D. said angrily. And B. took up his pen again, while the speaker shut his eyes in the resolute manner of a person who will not remain awake. The slow ticking of the clock seemed to each one of them like the beating of a hammer on a bare nerve.

Yet, when at length it struck eleven, three out of the four started, for there is nothing so sudden as the arrival of a long-expected moment. In the interval between the first stroke and the eleventh, each man saw sharply defined before him a different picture — different and yet the same. Each man beheld two figures — one dead, one living. The dead man was the same in all the pictures ; the living man, who stood over him, varied. A. saw this picture on the open page of his book, B. on the blank sheet of letter-paper before him, C. in the glowing embers, D. on his own eyelids. When the last vibration of the last stroke had died away, the silence settled down again more leadenly than before. Three out of the four men began to wonder where they would be this time to-morrow. " It will not do," said B. abruptly.

" He ought to keep time." " He will keep time," said A. "Hark!" D. started up and curled his hand over his ear. "What?" " Hush ! It's coming nearer." " Thank Heaven ! " cried B. " You left the gate open ? " "Yes." " And there are lights in the avenue ? ' "Yes, yes." " Unbar the door, somebody ! " D. ran to do so. The cold, keen, peaceful stillness of the air without refreshed him after the full, feverish atmosphere in which he had been breathing. But there was no sound. He waited a second or two, and then, oddly frightened lest he should be the first to hear what they were all waiting for, he shut the door again and rejoined his comrades. " A false alarm ! " muttered A. " I thought so." " I tell you I will bear this no longer," cried B., after another interval of palpitating dumbness. "A man's nerves won't stand it.

I am no coward, I hope, but I tell you fairly, A., the thing is not possible. If he is to be shot, in Heaven's name challenge the poor young fellow, and do it decently ! No adversary of IN WHICH THE HERO IS EXPECTED 11 yours has ever been known to escape. This is too much like murder for my taste." " It is murder," said A. coolly. " There is always a certain element of chance in a duel. I have never fallen, but I might fall ; and the fate of my companions demands that I should not fall — yet. Murder, if managed well, is certain. What right have you to object to murder ? May I ask you to recollect your oath ? " "You forget that I am a gentleman," cried B. hotly. " You yourself have no right to remember it. You have vowed to the gentlemen of your country not only all you have, but all you are.

It is of the utmost importance to those whom you represent, that the King should not receive the message, whatever it may be, which this young man carries. Messages to the King by his special messenger are never written ; they are — I thought you knew this — transmitted by word of mouth. Therefore, as we cannot take the despatches from him, nothing but his treachery or his death can avail us ; and he comes of too good a stock to turn traitor." " Why not imprison him ? " A. gave a short laugh. "Where is the prison?" he said. "Find that, and we will make a prisoner of him by all means ! This house is ours for to-night only. There is no other that we can claim within fifty miles. Where is the prison? " B. dropped his head upon his hands and made no answer. "Why not fire on him in the open?" suggested D. "It would be easier.

He would have no more chance of escape, practically speaking, than here, between four walls, he being defenceless and we leagued together against him. Bah ! you may say what you like, A., but I am of B.'s opinion; it smacks too much of common murder. We shall never fire steadily." " It is not to be risked," said A. "Why?" " Because I say so." D. was silent. '"Tis an abominable business," muttered C. "Of all the accursed courtiers, why choose the only one that's worth his salt ? " A. turned on him fiercely. " Because he is the only one likely to thwart our aim. The others are but a pack of cards ; he has the mettle of a hero. Adonis has found it out too ; he showers his favours upon him. He knows when a fish is worth catching." "So do you, for the matter of that ; only you bait your hook with fear, not with favour," said C. "There's an extraordinary fascination about fear.

I fear nothing in this world that I am aware of, A., except yourself ; and I follow you because I am afraid of you and would rather be afraid of you than in love with another." A. nodded his head. " You do well," said he. " The fear of me will carry you farther than the love of anyone else. I am doomed. I go straight as a cannon-ball to the mark." " Are you sure he will come to the house to-night ? " asked B. "He might go on. He has but five miles farther to ride in order to reach the village, and he may think that he can do his errand here to-morrow, and still rejoin the King in time. In that case " — "We shall hear him galloping past the gate; we shall mount and follow. Every objection has been fore seen and answered, as you are, by this time, aware ; else I should not have allowed this conversation to proceed.

The horses are standing ready, but I am much mistaken, or they do not leave the stables to night. There he is!" The last words were spoken as quietly as all the rest. The three accomplices sprang forward. A. raised his hand deprecatingly. "Be seated, gentlemen!" he said, in a tone which had the effect of physical force. "Let the groom open the door. Do you not see that, if one of us went out to meet him, he might hand in the letter without IN WHICH THE HERO IS EXPECTED 13 dismounting? It is our object to decoy him into this room. When he enters, bow to him, but take no further notice. The shutters are bolted. While I am speaking, C. will lock the door and secure the key. I shall try to get him into the garden. If it can be done there, so much the better. If not, the business must be finished here.

Remember that no one sees whose shot it is which takes effect. Have you your weapons ? Good ! When you hear me say The King, fire ! " In a second the pistols had vanished from the table. D. was asleep again upon the sofa. B. was writing as if he were writing for a wager. C. sat before the fire, the picture of indolent reverie. The galloping hoofs came nearer, the sound grew louder and louder, and stopped short suddenly just outside. There was a thundering knock on the door.

Chapter II In Which The Hero Appears

" TS Colonel Engestrom's cousin at home?" said a fresh young voice, broken and panting, for the rider was out of breath with the speed he had made. "He is, sir." " Ask him to speak to me at once. I am pressed for time." "My master gave me the strictest injunctions that you should be shown into his private room, sir. I dare not disobey him. If you will step this way " — " Be quick, then ! " cried the voice, as, with a hurried oath, the rider dismounted. " My business is urgent ; I cannot wait." The servant ushered him in A., who had turned out the lamp just before, so that the faces of himself and his companions might not be recognised, rose courteously and bowed ; the rest, excepting for the slight inclination which politeness required, kept their positions. How is that we can, nay, that we must see, whenever we do not wish to look ?

Is there some other sense than that of sight, by which, in moments of intense excitement, the bodily image of a man is transferred to the brain? They all beheld the person who had just entered the room. Not one of them but would have cried, had he been questioned at the moment, I did not know he was like that ; and nothing could have shaken their nerve more. For he was handsome ; there was nothing about him which could have led to any repulsion — IN WHICH THE HERO APPEARS 15 rather a certain careless nobility of air and gesture, that did not solicit but commanded admiration. And above all he was young — they were all, except their leader, about the same age. "To what circumstances do I owe the honour of this visit, so late at night? " said A. The young man answered with frank impatience. "To no desire of mine to make your acquaintance, sir," he said.

" I was entreated by Colonel Engestrom to bring you this letter. You are his cousin, I presume? " "The presumption is quite correct." " He begged me to deliver it into no hands but your own. Will you bear witness that I have performed my commission? I am in great haste, and shall be glad if you will not detain me any longer." He tendered the letter that he held. "A cold night !" said A., leaning his elbow on the mantelpiece and his head on his hand. "A very cold night ! The stars are strangely brilliant. I do not remember that I ever saw so many in the group of the Pleiades excepting once before." He spoke slowly and deliberately. Had the young man been quick of apprehension, he might have noticed that a figure which was more immediately in his shadow, as he stood there, stole to the door and back again.

" As a rule," continued A., without pausing, " only a limited number are visible to the naked eye ; but on that occasion, it was the anniversary ofthe birth of" — " Pardon me ! " interrupted the young man. "The history of the stars visible in the Pleiades on the occasion to vvhich you allude would, no doubt, interest an astronomer. My present business is with earthly and not with heavenly bodies. And I am engaged in an affair of life and death." Again he might have remarked a simultaneous movement of all the men in the room at the very moment when he began to speak ; but it was over directly, and he was too much absorbed in his own sensations to take any heed. "You are engaged in an affair of life and death?" said A. "Good! I am much obliged to you," and, with a murmured word of thanks, he took the letter.

The young man lifted his hat and went to the door. The handle turned but it would not open. He looked for the key ; there was none. Again he tried the handle. "What does this mean, gentlemen ? " said he. "It means," said A., looking up from his letter, " that you will not leave this room by the door." The young man shrugged his shoulders. " I am at a loss to comprehend you," he said. " Be so good as to explain." "There are certain words which explain a good deal," said A., "your own name, for instance. I have the honour to address Count Ribbing, have I not? " " I have no need to be ashamed of my name, sir. It has been borne for over five hundred years in Sweden by men who have done nothing to disgrace it." "Just so," said A. "It has been borne for over five hundred years in Sweden. High time it should die !

" Ribbing changed colour suddenly. He recollected that he was quite unarmed, that they were four to one, and the door was locked. He glanced up at the windows ; they were shuttered and barred. There was no possible means of retreat. He thought of all this before it occurred to him to wonder why his life was threatened. A., having paused an instant to let his words take effect, continued — "We wish you to understand that we have no personal grudge against you — that we are, in fact, not persons at all, but representatives. The cause we represent demands your life — except on one con dition." "The condition?" said Ribbing, in a voice that was perfectly calm, but sounded to himself like some one else's. " I ask your forgiveness for mentioning it before- IN WHICH THE HERO APPEARS 17 hand. You comprehend that my doing so is the merest formality.

It is a condition which no gentleman could accept, namely, that you reveal to us the message with which you are charged." " I thought," said Ribbing, in the same voice, though he was angrily conscious that his heart was beating louder and faster than usual, "that I was among men of honour. It is my good fortune, apparently, to have fallen in with a band of assassins." " Do not take the name of fortune in vain, sir," said A. " Destiny is but another title for God. See that your last words are not of such a light and frivolous character, that they move the celestial powers to darkness at the very moment when most you need their help. I have been young myself; in years, even now, I am not old. Although your eyes are steel and your voice unshaken and you play the man well enough for a boy, I know your heart is beating so that you are afraid we shall hear it ; I know your breath comes unevenly, and I have marked your hand closing and unclosing twenty times in the last minute.

It is useless to pretend before me. I know that you would, at the present moment, give anything except honour to be able to reveal what you will never reveal because honour forbids it. Further than this, I know that you would give anything — would you not ? — for the mere chance of an impossible make believe of resistance, so as to get your blood up and die with a little more colour about it ; but we are all armed men and you are utterly defenceless. If you will be guided by me, you will make no foolish and undignified struggle ; you will give me your word not to attempt escape. In that case, I shall use no force. I shall not bind you hand and foot, as I shall be com pelled to do, if you show yourself obstinate. I shall only ask you to accompany us to the garden, and to place yourself with your back to the wall.

These gentlemen are all good marksmen ; we shall not hurt you." "This condition at least I can accept," said Ribbing grandiloquently. It vexed him to feel that he was turning theatrical to avoid the semblance of cowardice ; but to act well is difficult, when once the audience has reminded a man that it knows he is acting. D. , who was but a boy himself, experienced a sudden impulse of indignant, irrepressible pity. " If the Count has any last wish that we could fulfil " — he whispered nervously to his chief. " It is unlikely," said A. "The Count knows that our friends are not his. Still," — he turned to his prisoner, — " if you have any wish of the kind, speak ! " " I have a wish of the kind, and it is very simple," said Ribbing. The timid murmur of sympathy had, in some strange manner, recalled him to himself; he no longer felt as if his intellect were paralysed.

" This house stands on the highest hill in the neighbourhood, does it not ? " "I believe it does," said D., surprised at the question. " Will you allow me," said Ribbing, addressing himself to the leader, "to go to one of the rooms on the upper floor and to look out ofthe window? " " No," returned A. drily. " If I give you my word that I will not attempt to escape ? " " I will send one of these gentlemen, if he can pleasure you by going." "That will do just as well," said Ribbing. "All that I wish to ascertain is, whether the light of a bonfire can be seen on the summit of a hill three miles due east from the spot on which we are standing." "You can go, D. Be as quiet as you can ! Lock the door after you. We will await your return here." The leader seated himself and signed to Ribbing to occupy the place left vacant by the person he called D. " It will take him five minutes at least to go up and five minutes to come down again," thought the young Count.

" He has some heart in him." The door was unlocked and locked again. The light, swift footsteps were heard ascending the staircase all too fast. Then they were lost above. When IN WHICH THE HERO APPEARS 19 they were heard once more, all hope would be over. Ribbing knew well enough that there was no light in the direction which he had indicated ; he had asked for the assurance simply because he could devise no other means of gaining time. Time ! Time ! Time ! It was more than half up by this, and still his mind was a blank. In desperation he opened his eyes — he had closed them that he might think more connectedly — and gazed around him. The room was bare of furniture, with the exception of a few chairs, an old couch, a wooden table in the centre, and a forest of branching antlers, which covered the walls in every direction, interwreathing their fantastic, angular shadows in the firelight.

It seemed to him that he could do nothing for the tracery of the shadows of these deer's horns ; from those of the great elk over the door to those of the gazelle over the chimneypiece he tried to disentangle each one separately and to get it clear, but it was no use. They were thickest over the clock. He could hear the loud ticks, but he could not see the face. He went on still at his work of disentangling, and this although he knew the minutes must be counted by seconds now. If he could only have seen the clock instead of hearing it — if he could only have known the limit of the time at his command, he could have thought. But the clock stood in a dark corner, and, so long as he did not know, he could not think. Time ! Time ! Time! "And there shall be no more time." The words possessed him.

"I wish I had never wished at all," he said to himself. " Why did I insist upon dying, when I was offered death without it? I must be as great a coward as that man thinks I am. Fie upon all such ! I might as well be dead already and down among the shades, for all the light there is, or the conversation either, in this grave of a room. What will it feel like, I wonder? We will not hurt you. As if he knew ! " "You are wondering what it will feel like," said A., lifting his eyes from the book that he was reading by the fire. "That plan of sending someone to the top of the house was only an expedient to gain time. You are not quite what I thought you." A blush of hot shame and anger tinged Ribbing's pale cheek, but he contained himself and said nothing. "You are wrong," went on A. "You do but lengthen your own suffering.

D. was wrong too, although he meant well. B. and C. would have thought me cruel had I denied his request ; but the real cruelty lay in granting it. I regret the last few moments more than you, who are not responsible, can possibly regret them. Reassure yourself, Count ! A sudden pang, no worse than that which you experience when a tooth is drawn, and then a sudden sleep ; death means no more than that. But if you think about it, it grows mysterious and dreadful. Try rather to distract the mind ! I feel for you. I know you wish to preserve your dignity to the end. Do you take any interest in subjects of this kind?" He handed Ribbing the book on which he had been engaged. The Count took it mechanically, and even at that pass, could not forbear a smile at the grotesque ness of the incident, when he read the title : On the Proper Cultivation of the Coffee Plant in the Island of Ceylon.

He was about to give it back, when an idea occurred to him. There flashed before his eyes the recollection of an old woman poring over the grounds in a coffee-cup, as she had been described to him a day or two since. He almost laughed aloud. On that old woman depended his one thin chance of life. It was a desperate move indeed, yet he was quite resolved to play. He was not one of those who throw over the chessboard when once checkmate appears to be inevitable.

Chapter III In Which The Hero Rides Away Every

energy of Ribbing's mind was bent to the move. Holding the open volume like a shield between himself and his enemy — for he had an instinctive fear that the latter would read his thoughts, even by that dim light, as easily as a printed page, if he did not interpose a solid, substantial non-conductor — he wondered whether this man were superstitious or not. It seemed hard to be within whispering distance of him, and not even to know what his features were like, so as to have some clue ; but Adolf dared not risk so much as a glance. He was a revolutionist of the type then called Illumine — so much was clear — and he took an interest in coffee-planting and agriculture. Beyond that the Count knew nothing ; but he determined to play as boldly as if he did. It was some comfort to him to reflect that he could not make his case more desperate than it was already.

One slight circumstance fanned the spark of hope that a chance word had kindled, and one alone. Dangling upon the chiefs watch-chain, as he hung thoughtfully over the fire, Ribbing saw a little fork shaped piece of coral, such as is worn by peasants in Italy, to avert the Evil Eye from their persons. He knew what it meant, for his mother possessed an amulet of the same kind ; but he could not allow himself to build much upon so trivial an indication. A moment more, and the messenger was heard descending the staircase with heavy and slow steps. The key groaned in the lock, and the door creaked as it turned on its hinges, thrust open by an unwilling hand. The critical moment was come, and Ribbing braced himself to meet it, and thought resolutely of nothing. "Well?" inquired A. "Was there a bonfire burning on the summit of a hill, three miles due east from the spot on which you are standing ?

" D. shook his head. "Have you any more last wishes?" went on A. scornfully. "Would you like to know whether there is a bonfire on a hill three miles due west ? " "No." "Once more, then, and for the last time, will you betray the King, or will you follow me ? " "I will do neither," said Ribbing, with a sudden audacity. " I will not betray the King, but you — if you are a wise man — will do me no harm." "Why?" " Because," said the Count, mimicking as well as he could his enemy's sang-froid, though he felt conscious that the imitation was but a clumsy one, "it is by my hand that the King will fall." "Are you mad?" said A., with some contempt. " Do you yourself believe what you are saying ? " "No," said Ribbing; and this time his voice had the ring of conviction. "If I did, I should entreat you to fulfil the sentence which you have just pro nounced immediately.

But you will believe it. It was spoken by Noorna Arfridson." The person whom he addressed gave a slight start. Was the move indeed a successful one ? Whether it were or no, to have shaken the equanimity of that man of ice, even for one instant, was nothing less than a triumph ; and death would come easier. "What proof have you to give of this?" said the leader abruptly. " We have only your word for it." " I should never have dreamed of asking the present company to rely on the word of a man of honour, " said the young Count, shrugging his shoulders. " But it so happens that I have in my pocket a letter addressed IN WHICH THE HERO RIDES AWAY 23 to my mother, which contains a detailed account of the whole transaction. It is perhaps just possible that you will credit me, when I tell you that it has not been forged during the last ten minutes.