him for redress and
deliverance, his loss was a heartrending sorrow. Grave and aged senators
wrung their hands and sobbed aloud when intelligence reached Stockholm.
In the unfortunate Frederick of Bohemia it produced, as we have seen, a
depression that contributed probably to this death.

Nor was the grief shown by the many merely political or selfish, excited
because the public or individual hopes centred in the King seemed to
have perished with him. A heartfelt loyalty, a strong personal
admiration and attachment, intermingled with other sources of regret and
dignified the sorrow.

It would have been strange had it been otherwise. There were in Gustavus
most of the advantages and amenities of person and character which make
a popular king, a man admired and beloved. In his latter years, indeed,
he no longer possessed the graceful form that had belonged to him when
he was an ardent and favored suitor of Ebba Brahe; but the slight
inclination to corpulency that grew with him as he advanced toward
middle age detracted probably little, if at all, from the commanding
dignity of his person. His countenance to the last retained its
captivating sweetness and expressive variety. It was a countenance of
which the most accomplished pencil could give in one effort only an
inadequate idea, and which Vandyke--to whose portrait of the King none
of the engravings which I have seen, probably, do justice--has
represented only in repose.

But in the varying play of Gustavus' features men could read his
kindness of heart, his large powers of sympathy, his quick intelligence,
his noble, chivalrous nature. And these were infinitely attractive.
There, too--it must not be concealed--they could often discern the flash
of anger, to be followed quickly by the rough speech which gave pain and
offence where a little self-control and consideration might have spared
a pang and prevented a quarrel.

This propensity to anger diminished in some degree both the popularity
and merit of Gustavus; yet he rarely permitted his anger to rage beyond
a harsh expression, and with generous instinct he knew how to open the
door of reconciliation, not only by frankly confessing his irritability,
and by conferring fresh favors, but also by demanding fresh services
from those noble natures which in his heat and rashness he had injured
or pained.

In the field he shared the dangers of his soldiers with a courage
liable, doubtless, to the charge of temerity, but