them by muttering
between his teeth, "You may remain; I have no wish to sleep." This
permission, with which the drowsy courtiers would willingly have
dispensed, but which was really equivalent to a command, was succeeded
by an attempt on their part to enliven his majesty with different
subjects of conversation. No topic, however, that they introduced could
outlive the second or third phrase. The king was in one of his gloomy
moods; for royalty, with reverence be it spoken, has its moments of
merriment and ill-humour, its mixture of sunshine and of cloud; and be
it known to thee, gentle reader, that ticklish is the position of a
courtier when majesty is in the dumps. To mend, or rather to mar the
matter, the grand chamberlain, imagining that the sadness which
overshadowed the royal brow came from regret, fixed his eyes upon a
portrait of the queen, hung up in the cabinet, and with a sigh of pathos
exclaimed, "How striking the resemblance! and who could not recognise
the expression of majesty and gentleness, that----" "Fudge!" cried the
king. Conscience had probably something to do with the abruptness of the
exclamation. The old chamberlain had unwittingly touched a tender chord;
every allusion to the queen appearing like a tacit reproach to the
august and widowed spouse. "That portrait," added the king, "is too
flattering, the queen was far from handsome"; then, as if inwardly
repentant of his harshness, he rose from his seat and paced the
apartment with hasty strides, to conceal the tears that had well-nigh
betrayed his emotion. He sat in the embrasure of a window which looked
upon the court; the moon was obscured by a thick veil of clouds; not
even a solitary star twinkled through the darkness. The palace at
present inhabited by the kings of Sweden was not at that time finished;
and Charles XI., in whose reign it had been commenced, usually resided
in an old-fashioned edifice, built something in the shape of a
horseshoe, and situated at the point of Ritterholm, commanding a view of
Lake Mader. The royal cabinet was at one of the extremities, nearly
opposite to the grand hall or council-chamber, in which the States were
accustomed to assemble when a message or communication from the crown
was expected. Just at this moment the windows of the council-chamber
appeared brilliantly illuminated. The king was lost in surprise. He at
first imagined the light to proceed from the torch of some domestic. Yet
what could occasion so