'I am
too proud to deny what I have done, nor do I believe it deserves your
anger. The king, when he appointed me a captain in the royal service,
thereby rendered me independent of parental authority, and thenceforth
free to follow the dictates of my own judgment. You yourself must
concede, that the right was doubtful between the princess and the duke.
I, however, am firmly convinced that it is entirely on the side of the
latter, and have acted accordingly. I wished to save Goertz, because I
believed him innocent. His crime is, that the king, so little in the
habit of receiving advice from others, honored him with his exclusive
confidence; that he is a foreigner, and the capable and dreaded servant
of a young prince who is a candidate for a crown which you think he
ought not to have.'

'You believe all this, because you love his daughter!' remarked the
father.

'Colonel Baumgardt,' proceeded Arwed, 'has injured me personally, and
we shall settle that matter as is usual among men of honor, as soon as
my cares for Georgina may leave me time.'

'Arwed!' cried the father, 'do you then really entertain a hope that I
will give my consent to this foolish connection?'

'Do as you think proper, my father,' answered Arwed. 'My resolution is
taken, whatever may betide. Nor could you yourself approve my conduct
if, now that the storm is breaking over her innocent head, I should
desert the maiden whose heart I won when the sun of prosperity shone
brightly upon her.'

'The queen will forbid the union,' said the old man.

'And were it the bold Margaret herself,' cried Arwed with passionate
warmth, 'who united upon her own head the three northern crowns, and
held them there with a strong hand, she would not dare attempt to
regulate the impulses of our hearts! How much less, then, this poor
Ulrika, whose only crown, to which she has no right, was shamefully
bought with the costliest jewel of royalty, the sovereignty.'

'You are deep in constitutional principles,' said the counsellor
peevishly--but his strong displeasure was already melted into secret
satisfaction with the talent and spirit of his son. He appeared,
standing there before him with his flashing blue eyes, his scarred
cheek and noble bearing, as if he were about to plant again the Swedish
standard upon a stormed wall. 'Upon honor!' at length exclaimed the old
man, 'if you had not conducted yourself so bravely before
Frederickshall, I would reckon with you in anothe