yal
highness!' cried the elder Gyllenstierna after him.

'So, I am a prisoner of state in Sweden,' said Arwed with a bitter
smile. 'It is fortunate that my prison is tolerably spacious. Where is
it your pleasure that I shall go, my father?'

'To Gyllensten, to my brother,' answered the counsellor, 'after you
have signed the required promise, which I must return to her majesty.'

He pointed to a paper lying upon the marble table. Arwed hastily run
his eye through the written promise, and subscribed his name to it;
upon which the two officers, who had hitherto guarded the door,
immediately left the room.

'To Gyllensten!' exclaimed Arwed, gratefully kissing his father's hand,
'to the loved resort of my childhood, to my good old-uncle! How good
you still are, my father, even when you punish. How deeply do I regret
that I have caused you so much sorrow.'

'You bad boy!' cried the father with strong emotion, pressing him to
his bosom. 'And if I pardon you every thing else, I will not pardon you
for depriving yourself of the power of serving your father-land, whose
golden age is just commencing.'

'May heaven grant,' answered Arwed, 'that Sweden may not soon wish back
the departed _iron_ age! I shall always think that the strong will of
one only ruler can direct the government more consistently and happily,
than the constantly divided opinions of the four and twenty little
kings who are now to rule the country, even though you yourself are one
of these kings, my father.'

'Silence! you are incorrigible!' cried the old counsellor, drawing his
son with him out of the palace.

ARWED GYLLENSTIERNA.

A TALE OF THE EARLY PART OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

BY C. F. VAN DER VELDE.

PART SECOND.

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 he reached the southern boundary
of the province of West Bothnia, in which Nicodemus, count
Gyllenstierna, the counsellor's elder brother, presided as governor. On
arriving at the broad river Umea, which here empties its floods into
the gulf of Bothnia, Arwed reined in his horse, and, while his groom
made a signal for the ferry-boat stationed on the opposite side,
reviewed the scenery which had always remai