Times of Battle and of Rest

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1883. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XV. The King's Ring. NEARLY six weeks have flitted by, and we are at the end of April, 1697. Count Bertelskold, now a prisoner, occupied two large rooms in Abo castle which Baron Creutz had fitted up for him, the chivalrous commander not even requiring his word of honor, although permitting the count to go and come at pleasure, within the precincts of the castle. Bertelskold availed himself but little of this freedom. His mind was gloomy and depressed; for more than a month he had had no news of his family in Sweden, as the mail-service across Aland sea was then less perfectly regulated than now, and it was no uncommon thing in autumn or spring for four to six weeks to pass without any direct communication between Sweden and Finland. The trial of the count and his servants had been conducted fairly in the high court, and the governor had transmitted a report of it to the king, together with a statement of all the extenuating circumstances of the case. The issue depended to some extent upon the life of the wounded soldier. His wound was rather dangerous; the man had received both bullets in his breast, and only one had been extracted. Contrary to all expectations, however, he kept up; and after hovering some time between life and death, he gradually began to mend. As a result, the case was still more protracted. For a time, some of the count's servants were imprisoned in the castle; but those less implicated were released, for a very peculiar reason: the high crown had no food to give them. Lampi-Maths, against whom the gravest charges had been made, succeeded in escaping by flight, and was nowhere to be found. Anxiety and sorrow at last placed Count Bertelskold upon a sick-bed. Every day he looked through his small window out upon the castle fiord; as ...