'I have loved!' exclaimed Swedenborg, with radiant eyes; 'I yet love, and with a passion which shall be eternal! Not, indeed, a perishable woman, but the celestial _Sophiam_! Would to God that you also would choose her for your bride. How vain and trifling would all the earthly sorrows which now afflict you, then appear.' 'Do you know the stroke I have received?' asked Arwed, passionately. 'I know it,' answered Swedenborg mysteriously, 'as well as most things which concern you. Your image has often floated before my inward vision, and the spirits have often conversed with me of you.' 'All my misery,' rejoined Arwed, 'comes from the cold, malicious Ulrika. Her barbarity has torn from my brows the garland with which true love would have crowned me.' 'Sweden's vassal,' cried Swedenborg with solemn earnestness; 'blaspheme not Sweden's queen!' 'How!' cried Arwed, with astonishment, '_You_ take her part? You, who prophecied wo to Sweden under her reign?' 'That is still my opinion,' rejoined Swedenborg. 'But since Ulrika, by the unanimous voice of the people, sits upon her father's throne, she must be to us an object of veneration only. If she has done evil, she will not escape its punishment; and as the Lord oftentimes takes care to punish the sinner directly in that wherein he sinned, so perhaps will the man for whom she has done every thing, at some time become an instrument of divine wrath and take the crown from her head to place it on his own, repaying her with the basest treachery.' 'Alas, her crimes had wings,' complained Arwed; 'and this requital creeps snail-like after them.' 'Know then, you, who are so eager for vengeance,' indignantly rejoined Swedenborg, 'that the fate of Sweden aids you. Your country is at this moment the prey of her two bitterest enemies, and Ulrika may soon be a queen without a realm.' 'I had already heard of the threatened invasions of the Danes and Russians,' answered Arwed; 'but I did not apprehend such disastrous results.' 'They have already entered,' rejoined Swedenborg. 'Bahuslehn is as good as conquered. Stroemstadt and Marstrand have already surrendered to the Danes; Carlsten has by this time fallen; and the Russians are raging like wild beasts in the eastern part of the kingdom. Norrkoeping, Nykoeping, and many other cities, hundreds of noblemen's seats, and thousands of hamlets, are already in ashes. Heaps of slaughtered animals infect the atmosphere; the youths of our land are borne by Russian ships to ignominious slavery; and, while we are speaking, general Lascy is moving with a strong army directly upon Stockholm.' Arwed's blue eyes flashed. His heroic form became more erect. He involuntarily grasped the hilt of his sword, and moved towards the door. 'Whither would you go?' Swedendorg asked, in a kindly tone. 'To the garden, into the free air!' quickly answered Arwed. 'It is becoming too warm for me here. Besides, I need solitude, that I may be able to form a proper determination.'