as corroding his vitals.
He had drained a little phial just before stepping into the presence
of Lillesparre, as they discovered upon inquiries made after he had
collapsed dead at their feet.

This caused them to bring back Ankarstrom, that he might be searched,
lest he, too, should take some similar way of escaping them. When he
search was done, having discovered nothing, Lillesparre commanded that
he should not have knife or fork or metal comb, or anything with which
he might take his life.

"You need not fear that I shall seek to evade the sacrifice," he assured
them, his demeanour haughty, his eyes aglow with fanatic zeal. "It is
the price I pay for having rid Nature of a monster and my country of a
false, perjured tyrant, and I pay it gladly." As he ceased he smiled,
and drew from the gold lace of his sleeve a surgeon's lancet. "This was
supplied me against my need to open a vein. But the laws of God and man
may require my death upon the scaffold."

And, smiling, he placed the lancet on Lillesparre's table.

Upon his conviction execution followed, and it lasted three days--from
April 19th to 21 st--being attended by all the horrible and gradual
torturings reserved for regicides. Yet possibly he did not suffer more
than his victim, whose agony had lasted for thirteen days, and who
perished miserably in the consciousness that he deserved his fate,
whilst Ankarstrom was uplifted and fortified by his fanaticism.

The scaffold was erected on the Stora Torget, facing the Opera House
of Stockholm, where the assassination had taken place. Thence the
dismembered remains of Ankarstrom were conveyed to the ordinary gallows
in the suburb of Sodermalm to be exhibited, the right hand being nailed
below the head. Under this hand on the morrow was found a tablet bearing
the legend:

Blessed the hand
That saved the Fatherland.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Historical Nights' Entertainment, by
Rafael Sabatini

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENT ***

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