officers, many of whom placed themselves behind their chairs to overlook the game.

Suddenly, with angry impetuosity, Arwed took one of his opponent's knights with his king.

'Stop!' cried Kolbert, holding fast his officer. 'Your bishop will by that movement remain uncovered, and I shall immediately take him.'

'Take him,' said Arwed. 'Your knight is troublesome to me, and must die.'

'A mere exchange, for the sake of exchanging,--that is manifestly contrary to the etiquette of the game!'

'It was not a mere exchange,' protested Arwed. 'You had a mischievous plan. Had you led him out, I were lost. Your knight in the place where he stood was worth more than an ordinary officer, and I could no longer defend myself against him. Wherefore I exchanged to advantage, and I should always do the same under like circumstances. Even if my opponent lose no more than myself by the movement, yet I win temporary relief at least, break up his attack, and compel him to resort to new manœuvres.'

'And to use the king like a subaltern officer is not civil,' grumbled Kolbert.

'My king shall not keep himself behind the cannon, like a Persian shah,' answered Arwed. 'Whenever necessity requires it, he must expose himself as well as one of his soldiers.'

'A regular Charles XIIth,' cried some one behind him, with a scornful laugh. Arwed turned suddenly round and perceived the chief engineer, Megret, a Frenchman by birth, who with a satyr-like face was leaning over the back of his chair.

'I thank you for the comparison, colonel, even though it was ironically intended,' said the youth in a decidedly cutting tone. 'Would to God that we all, not excepting even you, were able to imitate the elevated character of our noble king in good and evil fortune; what accomplished men should we then be!'

Megret bit his lips and retired to another table, where he got up a company to play pharo.

'This is my first campaign,' proceeded Arwed with enthusiasm: 'and I have seen the king in battle only twice in my life, but that has furnished sufficient proof of his worth as a brave warrior and skilful commander. He is always great, but when he has his sword in his hand he is more than man--almost a demi-god--and one feels tempted to worship him.'

'Not so, young man,' answered a hollow voice. 'That was a very improper speech.'

Arwed recognised the voice as one he had heard before. Raising his eyes, he saw behind Kolbert's chair a meagre man about thirty years of age, in the dress of a civilian. His close-bodied coat, with broad turned-up sleeves, his long waistcoat and his small clothes, all of one colour, ash-gray velvet, together with his dark colored wig, gave him an uncommonly strange and solemn appearance, which his fixed and expressive eye rendered still more disagreeable.

Indignant at the reproof conveyed by the words of the stranger, Arwed abruptly and harshly asked the gray form, 'what do you mean by that, sir?'

'I mean,' answered the gray coat, 'that it always makes my flesh crawl to hear a true hero so excessively praised. His renown cannot be increased thereby, and the old Fatum becomes easily jealous of such idolatry and oftentimes wreaks its vengeance upon the idol. Think of the anticipations of the great Gustavus Adolphus, to whom Germany did slavish homage in the altitude of his fortunes, and recollect his sad fate.'

'I do not like these nursery tales,' said Arwed angrily; 'and superstition, when it makes lofty pretensions, is highly offensive to me.'

'You cannot know the man to whom you speak,' said captain count Posse, stepping forward to appease Arwed. 'That we are here so near to Frederickshall, and that you have here acquired your first laurels, you may thank him alone. Through his deep science was general Duecker enabled to construct the wooden pier between the bays of Stevemstadt and Idefiall, over which our ships were transported upon ingenious machines from one navigable water to the other.'

'Is it possible! Swedenborg?' quickly exclaimed the softened Arwed with joyful surprise, offering the hand of peace to the gray-coat. 'Swedenborg! Swebenborg!' the murmur ran through the company, and the officers pressed around to catch a glance at the wonderful man.

'Swedenborg!' cried Megret, laughingly, from the other table, 'do you find yourself here again? What news do you bring with you? How stand affairs in the celestial and subterranean regions?'

'The angels axe weeping and the devils laughing!' answered Swedenborg with awful earnestness.

'And what say your spirits thereto?' sneeringly added the Frenchman.

'They are silent in the presence of impure souls,' resumed the prophet in a tone of thunder, which closed the lips of the scorner.

'Is captain Gyllenstierna here?' cried adjutant general Siquier, putting his head in at the door.

'He is here,' answered Arwed, rising from his seat.

'In an hour the king will expect you at his quarters,' said Siquier, stepping to the pharo table.

'Most certainly, he wishes to say a friendly word in relation to your conduct in the late action,' observed count Posse. 'Your enemies, even, must acknowledge that you have deserved it.'

'Thank you, captain, for the acknowledgment that I did my duty,' said Arwed modestly. 'Yet there were many others who did as much, if not more, in that action.'

'Whoso abaseth himself shall be exalted,' said Swedenborg, with benevolent kindness, laying his hand upon Arwed's shoulder.

'You are come opportunely, Siquier,' said Megret derisively. 'You have long been desirous of having your horoscope cast. There stands a professor of the high art, the great Swedenborg. Give him a good word.'

'It would occupy too much of my time,' answered Siquier. 'It takes long, I have heard, to make the calculations, and I must shortly return to the prince. But Swedenborg must also be an experienced chiromancer, and can foretell my good fortune from my hand.'

With malicious levity, he held out his hand to the insulted man. But the latter threw it forcibly back, exclaiming, 'your hand smells of blood. I have nothing to do with you!'

The scoffer stood a long time, as if suddenly struck by a thunderbolt, staring with amazement at the prophet. Soon collecting himself, however, he strode out of the room.

'What was that?' asked count Posse, looking inquiringly at Megret. The latter, visibly disturbed, shuffled the cards anew, and at length said with a forced smile, 'one fool makes many others.'

'That was too much in earnest for folly,' thought Posse.

'If it be agreeable to you,' said Arwed in ill humor to Kolbert, 'we will leave our game unfinished. I have no longer the ability to play. My head has become unusually disturbed by the strange conversation to which I have been compelled to listen.'

Kolbert, acquiescing, threw the chessmen in a heap. Arwed stepped to the pharo table and seized some cards which were quickly thrown to him.

'Take the king,' said Swedenborg to him: 'he is the banker's enemy.'

Megret was evidently startled, and with a Vehemence vastly disproportionate to the occasion, he asked Swedenborg, 'what do you mean? Do you intend to insult me?'

'He who is evil has evil thoughts,' answered Swedenborg quietly. 'I gave to my young friend good advice, founded upon my calculations of the game.'

'I prefer to advise myself,' said Arwed,--impatient of the