Category: Short Stories

Tales from the German. Volume I.

Most men, whatever the nature of their avocations, have, or may have, occasional hours of leisure and relaxation. To spend those hours profitably as well as pleasantly, should be a study: to spend them harmlessly, is a duty. Among other recent employments of the little leisure...

Chapters

47. CHAPTER XLVI.

Under the directions of Megret the towers and walls of Ravensten were blown up, to render them forever after incapable of serving as a place of shelter for similar bands. The wo...

30. CHAPTER XXIX.

Directly northward, by the west coast of the gulf of Bothnia, through Gestrikland, Helsingland, Medelpat, and Angermannland, Arwed rapidly pursued his expiatory journey, until h...

40. CHAPTER XXXIX.

As Arwed was striding back and forth in the most remote and darkly shaded avenue of the garden, buried in his own reflections, colonel Megret met him with a disturbed countenanc...

8. CHAPTER VII.

The afternoon service of the first Advent Sunday had ended in the camp before Frederickshall. The warriors were dispersing, and, arm in arm with adjutant Kolbert, Arwed sauntere...

2. CHAPTER I.

In October of the year 1718, the royal counsellor, Nils count Gyllenstierna, was sitting before his desk in his cabinet at Stockholm. Behind him stood Arwed, his son, a tall Swe...

19. CHAPTER XVIII.

Every effort to move, to win, to alarm, which the eloquence of the soul could inspire, had Arwed lavished upon landmarshal Ribbing. But powerless as the waves against the rocks,...

53. CHAPTER LII.

At the appointed hour Arwed entered the shaft of the first mine in Danemora, with his pistols under his arm. In consequence of the perfect mental repose with which he proceeded...

9. CHAPTER VIII.

Arwed arrived at the king's quarters.--Upon giving his name, the ordnance officer on duty showed him into the royal chamber, without further annunciation. With a prayer book in...

31. CHAPTER XXX.

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...

23. CHAPTER XXII.

'I bring to you a suppliant, my poor friend,' said Rank, with a melancholy smile, to Goertz. 'The captain has not ceased to besiege his royal highness, until he obtained his per...

3. CHAPTER II.

Alone, with folded arms, on the following evening, Arwed wandered up and down the northern bank of the Suedermalm in the new volunteer uniform, anxiously glancing across lake Ma...

49. CHAPTER XLVIII.

The wagons of the prisoners, together with Arwed's carriage containing Christine and her child, were approaching the end of their journey. On one side of them the smelting furna...

10. CHAPTER IX.

As Arwed emerged from the trenches he was met by adjutant Kolbert. 'It is well that I have found you,' said he eagerly: 'I have been some time seeking you. Come directly with me.'

33. CHAPTER XXXII.

Arwed had soon become accustomed and reconciled to his exile at Gyllensten. Excursions among its environs under the pretext of hunting, afforded him ample enjoyment of the beaut...

22. CHAPTER XXI.

The diet of Sweden had assembled at the capital. To the house of assembly hastened the Swedish lords, counts and barons, the knights, the lower nobility, and the good men of the...

29. CHAPTER XXVIII.

'You are not far out of the way,' said Brodin, after the surgeon had retired. 'His excellency is very angry with you. I have, therefore, hastened here before him to prepare you...

27. CHAPTER XXVI.

'And I have something of yet greater importance to do, sir general,' answered Arwed in a singular tone. 'I shall take upon myself to act as a lawyer, and talk to the judges abou...

35. CHAPTER XXXIV.

The sun of the longest summer day shone brightly in the horizon, as the governor and his companions approached Tornea, the end of their journey, and the meanest among the (so ca...

32. CHAPTER XXXI.

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 morni...

24. CHAPTER XXIII.

Accompanied by the trusty Brodin, on the next day, Arwed stood trembling as with a paroxysm of ague, in the ante-chamber of the hall in which the royal council held its sittings...

7. CHAPTER VI.

The fieldmarshal Rhenskioeld sat waiting, upon the sofa in the cabinet of baron von Goertz. The latter returned from the palace, and his indignation at the offensive answer he h...

14. CHAPTER XIII.

The wearied Arwed pushed the little gothlander, which he had purchased at the Rakalse inn instead of his overridden Norman, into a smart trot upon the high road to Stroemstadt....

34. CHAPTER XXXIII.

The rising sun of the next morning found every one busy at Gyllensten, and the travelers prepared for their excursion. Christine, who had hoped to fly in advance of the rest of...

16. CHAPTER XV.

They found the army near the city of Amal, upon lake Dalboe, beyond the borders of Norway. Baumgardt rode with his companions directly towards Amal, where the head quarters were...

37. CHAPTER XXXVI.

At ten o'clock in the evening, which, however, was no evening there, the whole party found themselves assembled in the church of Tornea. The governor was standing near the altar...

57. CHAPTER LVI.

The hour had struck. The daughter opened the door of the cabinet, and, accompanied by his adopted son, Arwed count Gyllenstierna entered. Neither years nor sufferings had been a...

18. CHAPTER XVII.

'Aha!' said he satirically, 'the brave captain has at last the goodness, after my repeated requests, to grant me an interview. I beg you will take a seat upon the sofa, and I wi...

42. CHAPTER XLI.

Late in the autumn of the same year the governor was again sitting in the hall of his forefathers, whose statues remained, hung with mourning crape. Before him stood a chess boa...

36. CHAPTER XXXV.

'The royal taxes were raised, the constantly recurring lawsuits of the Finns and Laplanders about pasturage, the chase and the fishery, were settled in some way, by power and wi...

21. CHAPTER XX.

At the council house upon the Suedermalm, in the arched and grated room occupied by Goertz, the pale Georgina sat waiting, her weary head resting upon Arwed's shoulder. With a m...

44. CHAPTER XLIII.

Arwed had waded through the Lais Elf about a thousand yards from where it falls into the Umea, and turning into the pine forest to the right from the road, he proceeded onward u...

51. CHAPTER L.

In answer to his inquiries for Megret, Arwed learned that he had retired into the garden in company with a strange officer. He followed him there, and their voices guided him th...

41. CHAPTER XL.

The morning had dawned. The governor, with Arwed, had accompanied Megret down to the courtyard, where his horses stood ready saddled for the journey, and the traveler held out h...

26. CHAPTER XXV.

Nine days had passed, since the ground under the Swedish gallows had drunk the blood of the worthy German. The evening was closing in, all the bells of the capital were tolling,...

11. CHAPTER X.

Courtiers and lacqueys were running about and jostling each other in confusion and alarm, when colonel Brenner with Arwed mounted the broad stone steps of the royal palace upon...

46. CHAPTER XLV.

Under the direction of Megret and Arwed, the preparations for breaking up the nest of robbers were made with great ability and circumspection. The ten dragoons stationed at Umea...

28. CHAPTER XXVII.

The next morning Arwed was walking silently up and down the banks of the Peckholm with lieutenant general Rank, awaiting the arrival of the boat which was to bring his adversary...

38. CHAPTER XXXVII.

'The lord counsellor's excellency,' answered Brodin, 'is as well as could be desired, and sends his kind regards to you. I am charged with an important commission, for the execu...

4. CHAPTER III.

The Swedish trumpets were sounding and the drums beating an alarm, as Arwed and his groom rode into the camp before Frederickshall. In every direction the footsoldiers were para...

6. CHAPTER V.

Brightly shone the light of chandelier and gueridon through the plate glass windows of the royal palace on the Ritterholm, and most beautifully was its brilliancy reflected by t...

39. CHAPTER XXXVIII.

As Arwed was still sitting in his chamber, his arms convulsively folded upon his breast, as if he would stifle his inward grief by the outward pressure, with large tear-drops oc...

56. CHAPTER LV.

Long years had passed, and Gustavus the third sat firmly upon Sweden's throne, as at Lubec a noble dame, upon whose pure beauty time had left no traces, sat upon a sofa in her c...

45. CHAPTER XLIV.

They had been traveling silently for some hours, when the forest opened, and an arm of the mountain which divides the Umea Lappmark lay before them, in all its awful magnificenc...

13. CHAPTER XII.

Dark and gigantic in the evening dusk arose the proud palace of the baron von Goertz, and the unlighted windows and the perfect silence which reigned in and about it gave it the...

5. CHAPTER IV.

The entrenchments of the Golden Lion were thronged with red-coats. With the battle cry, 'God with us!' the Swedish battalions charged upon them. Then opened the battery upon its...

54. CHAPTER LIII.

Christine lay at the parsonage in that last hard struggle which releases the soul from its earthly imprisonment. At her bed-side sat Arwed, with humid eyes, his hands in the col...

25. CHAPTER XXIV.

On the 12th March, all Stockholm was stirring with unusual commotion. The streets leading to the place of execution were thronged with people impelled by strongly excited curios...

20. CHAPTER XIX.

'What is now to be done to advance the main object?' asked Conradi of the sullenly silent Arwed. 'I think we had better send a pressing petition to the diet, although I should h...

48. CHAPTER XLVII.

It was already deep winter, and the judges were again assembled in the town hall of Umea. Once more Arwed leaned against the window, an interested spectator. Through his interpo...

52. CHAPTER LI.

'You are deceiving me,' said the old man reprovingly. 'Your business is of a more unpleasant nature. You have executed the charge I gave you. Megret has left us, and your journe...

12. CHAPTER XI.

'Most assuredly,' said Brenner to Arwed, as soon as they had left the palace behind them, 'you have a very peculiar talent for making your way at court. You ought, at the least,...

17. CHAPTER XVI.

The guards had marched into Stockholm. Arwed had performed all the duties of his service, and now flew towards the Blasiusholm to the house of the post-captain who had freely re...

43. CHAPTER XLII.

Arwed had just risen the next morning, when the old steward came to him with a troubled countenance. 'By your permission,' asked he with great deference, 'did my lord inform you...

50. CHAPTER XLIX.

Arwed sat by his uncle's sick bed, and, not without some embarrassment and hesitation, gave an account of Christine's artifice, his weakness, and her final resolution. The old m...

1. VOLUME I.

Most men, whatever the nature of their avocations, have, or may have, occasional hours of leisure and relaxation. To spend those hours profitably as well as pleasantly, should b...

15. CHAPTER XIV.

Deserted and empty stood the camp before Frederickshall, as Arwed and the two other officers rode into it. Baggage-men and other camp followers swarmed about the barracks, searc...

55. CHAPTER LIV.

The black funereal flag was waving from the towers of Gyllensten as Arwed slowly approached it with the remains of poor Christine. The tolling of bells was heard from the castle...