rame, caused by Swedenborg's
prophecy.

At this moment a young miner came and asked, 'where shall I find major
Gyllenstierna.'

'Here he stands!' answered Arwed, 'probably you wish to bring me to the
officer who was just now here.'

'No, he merely sends you this billet,' said the young man, departing.

'What can he have to write to me about, situated as we are?' Arwed
peevishly exclaimed. Unfolding the billet, which was written in pencil,
and stepping to the nearest pitch-pan, he read as follows:

'To appease the manes of your king, you have demanded satisfaction of
me. I had however previously promised it to myself and to myself
therefore, precedence is due. From you I have only to expect a
_possible_ death. I shall inflict it upon myself with a surer hand. Mac
Donalbain shares my fate. In gratitude to the countess Gyllenstierna
for the manner in which she rejected my addresses, I have persuaded her
husband that he belongs to this earth as little as myself. Many will
think the manner of my death strange; but I wish to die in the way of
my profession, and at the same time to preserve my body from the
ignominy of a judicial investigation. I have the honor to greet you.
_Au revoir_, I dare not say.
MEGRET.'

The horror-stricken Arwed had hardly read to the end, when suddenly the
whole broad space swam in a sea of fire. A terrible explosion, as of a
powder magazine, of which echo increased the frightful roar a thousand
fold, shook the ground under Arwed's feet, and displaced heavy masses
of stone from the sides of the cavern which fell with a crash to the
bottom of the mine. Loud screams suddenly arose on all sides, to which
a mournful silence immediately succeeded, and from the direction in
which Megret and Mac Donalbain had gone, came rolling in a dense
white-gray powder-smoke, which twirled in waving clouds along the top
of the arch, and soon filling the whole mine, wrapped every object in
its impenetrable veil.

'What was that?' stammered Christine, clinging to Arwed for support.

'God's judgment!' solemnly and majestically answered Swedenborg. 'Wo to
the sinner who wickedly and presumptuously draws it down upon his head
before the appointed time.'

'Let us go and see if it be possible to render any assistance,'
proposed Arwed; and proceeded with Swedenborg toward the place whence
the smoke issued. Christine followed them with a misgiving heart.