ead the letter--had followed him to the ball. Enigma of
crime--a pitying assassin! the mind thus divided between the thirst for,
and horror of, his benefactor's blood.

VIII.

Gustavus died slowly: he saw death approach and recede with the same
indifference, or the same resignation; received his court, conversed
with his friends, even reconciled himself to the opponents of his
government, who did not conceal their opposition, but did not push their
aristocratic resentment to assassination. "I am consoled," he said, to
the Count de Brahe, one of the greatest of the nobility and chief of the
malcontents, "since death enables me to recover an old friend in you."

He watched to the very last over his kingdom; nominated the Duke of
Sudermania regent, instituted a council of regency, made his friend
Armsfeld military governor of Stockholm, surrounded the young king, only
thirteen years of age, with all that could strengthen his position
during his minority. He prepared his passage from one world to another,
awaiting his death, so that it should be an event to himself alone. "My
son," he wrote, a few hours before he died, "will not come of age before
he is eighteen, but I hope he will be king at sixteen;" thus predicting
for his successor that precocity of courage and genius which had enabled
him to reign and govern before the time. He said to his grand almoner,
in confessing himself, "I do not think I shall take with me great merits
before God, but at least I shall have the consciousness of never having
willingly done harm to any person." Then, having requested a moment's
repose to acquire strength, in order to embrace his family for the last
time, he bid adieu, with a smile, to his friend Bergenstiern, and,
falling asleep, never waked again.

The prince royal, proclaimed king, mounted the throne the same day. The
people, whom Gustavus had emancipated from the yoke of the senate, swore
spontaneously to defend his institutions in his son. He had so well
employed the day, which God had allowed him between assassination and
death, that nothing perished but himself, and his shade seemed to
continue to reign over Sweden.

This prince had nothing great but his soul, nor handsome but his eyes.
Small in size, with broad shoulders, his haunches badly set on, his
forehead singularly shaped, long nose, large mouth, the grace and
animation of his countenance overcame every imperfection of figure, and
rendered Gustavus one of the m