'Yet full of devotion for his king and his native land!' earnestly interposed Arwed. 'If your majesty will but permit his son to prove it.' The king gave him a complacent look. 'I am now about to take the battery called the Golden Lion from the Danes,' said he: 'you can remain by my side.' 'Heaven reward your majesty!' cried Arwed in ecstasies, and seized the hand of the hero to kiss it. 'I like not that,' said the king, hastily withdrawing his hand,--and at that moment adjutant general Siquier, a slender Frenchman, with a cunning but wasted face, entered the room. 'Every thing is in readiness for the attack, your majesty!' announced he. 'God with us, comrades!' exclaimed the king, putting on his immense gauntlets of yellow leather. 'This attack will cost many men!' said Duecker, in an under tone to the young duke. 'Oh!' whispered Siquier, who overheard the remark, 'a great French general under whom I once served was accustomed to say before the slaughter: 'If God will but remain neutral to-day, then shall these Messieurs be finely flogged.'' The king, who was already at the door, once more returned. 'Your great general,' said he to Siquier,--indignant at the quotation of the irreverent speech,--'spoke then like a great fool.' With a countenance which badly concealed his rage at this unexpected reproof, Siquier cast down his eyes, and the warriors silently followed their heroic leader. CHAPTER IV. The entrenchments of the Golden Lion were thronged with red-coats. With the battle cry, 'God with us!' the Swedish battalions charged upon them. Then opened the battery upon its assailants, hurling death among their ranks from twenty thundering throats of fire. Unmoved, at first, the warriors saw their comrades falling on either hand, and pressed bravely onward. Now, however, the grape and canister shot of the enemy began its work of destruction, and in constantly increasing rapidity of succession sank the victims in their blood, until finally the weakened survivors gave ground and slowly retreated. The king, surrounded by his retinue, sat upon his charger, within the range of the enemy's artillery, as quietly as if at a review. Arwed, at his side, observed this new spectacle with a spirit-stirring pleasure. Presently one of the weakened and retreating battalions came near the king. With indignation in his eye he sprang to meet them. 'You are Swedes,' thundered he, 'and do you fly? Back to the enemy!' 'We have lost all our officers, your majesty!' cried an old corporal. Trembling with eager desire to enter the lists, Arwed instantly threw himself out of his saddle, and asked, his foot still in the stirrup: 'may I lead these troops once more against the battery?'