upon which it is supported are unimportant or
untrue; the most unheard of circumstance, however, is, that they take
away my life for transgressions which are not specified. From this
fault, at least, the legal knowledge of the members of the commission
should have preserved them.'

'I am not here to listen to your complaints,' answered Hylten,
pettishly. 'The sentence of the commission is unalterable, and will be
executed as soon as it is approved by the diet and royal council, and
ratified by the queen.'

'So I supposed,' said Goertz; 'and submit to power, which, alas! is
every where above right. I only wish to make one remark. They have
passed over my management of the national revenue in perfect silence. I
beg to be allowed time to prepare my accounts and lay them before the
diet, and thus at least inform the world that I have managed the
finances like an honest man. Should this request be refused, however, I
yet hope at least from the magnanimity of the diet, that they will
demand of my heirs no settlement of my accounts, of which they can know
nothing.'

'I doubt,' said Hylten with some apparent mortification, 'whether the
diet will grant you this delay. I will, however, lay your request
before them, and have only to advise you to prepare yourself in the
meanwhile for your approaching death.'

'Wo to me,' cried Goertz, 'if my whole life has not been a preparation
for death! Yet I thank you for your counsel. My blood be not upon your
head!'

Hylten hastened away in confusion, and the weeping Rank threw himself
upon the breast of his friend. Arwed fell upon his knee before him, and
clasping his hand exclaimed, 'give me Georgina for my wife, my father.
She needs strong support in her trying situation, and I feel myself
capable of affording it to her.'

'Even now?' cried Goertz, heartily embracing the youth, 'thou true
heart! But I must still answer with a decided negative. The only sprout
of one of the noblest houses of Sweden must never, under any
circumstances, connect himself with the daughter of a condemned and
dishonored traitor, whose body must moulder under the gallows.'

His voice was broken by the excess of his feelings. Arwed, despairing,
rose up. 'Can I then do nothing for you?' asked Rank, wringing his
hands.

'I cannot be saved,' said Goertz, 'and have already been long prepared
for death. Only the ignominy of a public execution, and the outrage
which awaits my mortal remains, trouble me; not o