cannot or will not advance them, and it must be conceded that colonel Megret understands his business.'

'I know what you would say, Duecker,' said Charles with a severe countenance. 'But I will give you a useful lesson. You must not speak ill of any one when you are speaking with your king.'

Making an effort to suppress his feelings, and followed by the scornful smile of the eldest prince, Duecker retired,--whilst the other, a youth of about Arwed's age, amused himself with examining the new comer with a far from becoming hauteur.

The king, following the glance of his nephew, perceived Arwed and advanced towards him.

'Who?' asked he with some embarrassment.

'Gyllenstierna,' answered Arwed with a profound inclination: 'a Swedish nobleman, who begs of your majesty that be may be permitted to fight under your banners.'

'Count Gyllenstierna?' inquired Charles, leaning on his giant sword, 'The father is a determined opponent of my administration!' said he to his brother-in-law, as Arwed bowed affirmatively, and a convulsive smile distorted the lips of his well-formed mouth.

'Yet full of devotion for his king and his native land!' earnestly interposed Arwed. 'If your majesty will but permit his son to prove it.'

The king gave him a complacent look. 'I am now about to take the battery called the Golden Lion from the Danes,' said he: 'you can remain by my side.'

'Heaven reward your majesty!' cried Arwed in ecstasies, and seized the hand of the hero to kiss it.

'I like not that,' said the king, hastily withdrawing his hand,--and at that moment adjutant general Siquier, a slender Frenchman, with a cunning but wasted face, entered the room.

'Every thing is in readiness for the attack, your majesty!' announced he.

'God with us, comrades!' exclaimed the king, putting on his immense gauntlets of yellow leather.

'This attack will cost many men!' said Duecker, in an under tone to the young duke.

'Oh!' whispered Siquier, who overheard the remark, 'a great French general under whom I once served was accustomed to say before the slaughter: 'If God will but remain neutral to-day, then shall these Messieurs be finely flogged.''

The king, who was already at the door, once more returned. 'Your great general,' said he to Siquier,--indignant at the quotation of the irreverent speech,--'spoke then like a great fool.'

With a countenance which badly concealed his rage at this unexpected reproof, Siquier cast down his eyes, and the warriors silently followed their heroic leader.

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 assailants, hurling death among their ranks from twenty thundering throats of fire. Unmoved, at first, the warriors saw their comrades falling on either hand, and pressed bravely onward. Now, however, the grape and canister shot of the enemy began its work of destruction, and in constantly increasing rapidity of succession sank the victims in their blood, until finally the weakened survivors gave ground and slowly retreated.

The king, surrounded by his retinue, sat upon his charger, within the range of the enemy's artillery, as quietly as if at a review. Arwed, at his side, observed this new spectacle with a spirit-stirring pleasure. Presently one of the weakened and retreating battalions came near the king. With indignation in his eye he sprang to meet them. 'You are Swedes,' thundered he, 'and do you fly? Back to the enemy!'

'We have lost all our officers, your majesty!' cried an old corporal.

Trembling with eager desire to enter the lists, Arwed instantly threw himself out of his saddle, and asked, his foot still in the stirrup: 'may I lead these troops once more against the battery?'

'You may make the attempt!' replied the king kindly to him, and immediately galloped to the other side of the battery, where also the Swedes had begun to give ground. In a transport of joy Arwed sprang from his horse, drew his sword, and cried to the soldiers: 'in the king's name, halt, left wheel!'

The soldiers obeyed, and Arwed placed himself at their head.

'Think of the hero whose soldiers you are,' cried he: 'and of your own glory; and, in God's name, march!'

'God be with us!' cried the newly encouraged band, rushing on after their leader. Several lives were lost in the advance, but the main part, strengthened by the fragments of the other battalions, soon stood by the palisades safely sheltered from the fire of the enemy's cannon. But now the little musket balls whistled from the breastworks, and murderous grenades were bursting among them at almost every moment.

'Force out the palisades and pass the trench!' commanded Arwed, and with prodigious strength he removed some of the pales, which he placed over the hard frozen ditch and pushed forward. The soldiers followed the example, and the opposite side of the wall was soon covered with the clambering troops. The Danes defended themselves with great fury, and the dear victory was purchased with the sacrifice of many Swedish lives. Two musket balls passed through Arwed's hat, but in an instant thereafter, he stood upon the breastwork and pierced the heart of one of the marksmen with his sword. A bayonet-thrust of the other grazed his cheek. This one fell under the blows given by the clubbed muskets of the closely following Swedes, and soon the Swedish banner floated proudly over the stormed works.

Meanwhile the king, who had been attempting an entrance on the other side of the wall, hastened hither at the head of one of his battalions, and the few remaining Danes threw down their arms and begged for quarter.

'What, before me, upon the walls!' cried the royal hero, embracing the bleeding Arwed. 'There is yet a true Swede! You are a captain of the guards, Gyllenstierna.'

'We have two companies, prisoners,' said Siquier, stepping up to the king with a sanguinary expression of countenance. They have compelled us to storm the place, and their lives are forfeited. Does your majesty command their execution?'

'Right, Siquier,' answered Charles, affecting to misunderstand him, 'Let the poor creatures be fed in our camp,--and when they have satiated their appetites, let them promise not to fight against me again in this war--and then, in God's name, let them go in peace.'

'As your majesty commands!' said Siquier, grating his teeth and proceeding to the execution of the unwelcome commission.

'If the lord has remitted ten thousand shekels to us,' said Charles, turning graciously to Arwed, 'surely we can remit a trifling debt to our fellow men;--can we not, my dear captain?'

'Hail to the hero who knows how to pardon as well as to conquer!' exclaimed Arwed with enthusiasm.

'No flattery!' cried Charles, stamping angrily. 'I know that it was fairly meant, but I do not like it.'

He departed. Arwed leaned against the breastwork and observed the trains of Danish prisoners who were being escorted into the camp. Then glancing proudly upon the blood-besprinkled place he had conquered--and afterwards towards the east, where Stockholm lay;--he sighed, 'had but Georgina seen me!'

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