Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 June 1892 — A VISION Of CHARLES XI. [ARTICLE]

A VISION Of CHARLES XI.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF PROSPER MERIMKB BY FRANCIS J. AMY. “There are more things in heav’n and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” —[Shakespeare— Hamlet. People are apt to laugh at supernatural visions and apparitions. Some of those, however, are so* well attested that one cannot consistently refuse to believe them, without at the same time rejecting all the mass of historical evidences. A report, drawn in due form, and bearing the signatures of four trustworthy witnesses, guarantees the authenticity of the inoident I am about to relate. I will add that the prediction contained therein was known and cited long before its confirmation by events occurring during our days. Charles XI., father of the famous Charles XII., was one of the most despotic, but at the same time one of the wisest, among the monarchs that Sweden ever had. He curtailed the monstrous privileges of the nobility, abolished the power of the senate and made laws to suit himself; in one word, he altered the constitution of the country, which up to that time had been oligarchical, and compelled the States General to invest him with absolute authority. Aside from this, he was an enlightened man, brave, strongly attached to the Lutheran faith, of an inflexible, cold, positive nature, wholly destitute of imagination. He had but reoently lost his wife, Ulrica Eleonora. Though his harshness towards that prinoess, it was said, had hastened her end. He had held her in great esteem and appeared more affected by her death than was to be expeoted of so stern a heart. After this bereavement he became more gloomy and morose than ever, and devoted himself to work with an assiduity which bespoke the imperious need of dispelling painful thoughts. At the close of an autumn evening he was sitting in gown and slippers before a fire lighted in his study at the palace of Stockholm. With him were his ohamberlain, Count Brahe, whom he honored with his good graoes, and the physician Baumgarton, who, be it said by the way, posed as an asprit fort, and pretended to doubt everything outside of medicine. He had been summoned that evening to be oonsulted on some sort -of indisposition. It was getting rather late, and the king, contrary to his custom, had failed to signify, by bidding them good-night, that it was time for retiring. With his bead bent low, and his eye's fixed upon the embers, he maintained an absolute silence. He was tired of his company, and yet feared, he knew not why, to be left alone. Count Brahe could not help noticing that his presence had ceased to be agreeable, and more than once ventured the suggestion that His Majesty might need some rest. Each time a gesture of the king had detained him in bis ohair. In his turn, the doctor talked about tbe unhealthy effects of protracted watchings. But the king replied between his teeth: “Stay, I am not yet sleepy.” And they took up different themes of conversation, which were wholly exhausted at the second or third remark. It was evident that His Majesty was in one of his gloomy moods, and under such ciroumstances the position of a courtier was extromely delicate. Count Brahe, suspecting that the king’s sadness arose from his sorrow for the loss of his wife, looked attentively at the portrait of the queen, whioh hung in the study, and exolaimed with a deep sigh: “What an admirable likeness 1 Observe that expression, at once august and gentle.” “Bah!” brusquely responded the king, who thought he heard a reproach whenever the queen’s name was mentioned in his presence. “This portrait flatters her. The queen was homely.” Thetf, inwardly reproving himself for his harshness, he arose and strode About the room to hide an emotion of whioh he was ashamed. He stopped before the window which opened upon the oourt. The night was dark and the moon At its first quarter. The palace where the kings of Sweden reside to-day was not yet completed, and Charles XI., who had commenced it, lived at the time in tho old palace, situ* Ated At the point of the Ritterholm, looking upon Lake Mseler. It was a large structure, shaped like a horseshoe. The king’s study occupied one of the extremities, and, nearly opposite, stood the largo hall where the States General met whenever they had some communication to reoeive from the throne. Tbe windows of this hall appeared at that moment all aglow with a brilliant light. This struck the King as being very strange. He at first thought it was caused by a torch in the hands of some valet. But what business could any one have at that hour in a hall which had not been opened for so long a time? Moreover, the light was too great to prooeed from a single toroh. It looked more like a conflagration, but no smoke was to be seen; tbe panes were not shattered; no sound was heard; all had rather the appearance of an illumination. Charles looked at these windows for a while, without speaking. However, Count Brahe stretched out his hand toward the string of a bell, and was about to ring for a page to send to inquire into the cause of this singular phenomenon, but he was arrested by the King, who said: “I will go myself.” As he uttered these words he was seen to turn pale, and his countenanoe expressed something like a religious terror. But be left the room with a firm step;

the ohamberlain and the dootor following him, each with a lighted taper in his hand. The porter, who kept the keys, was already in bed. Baumgarten went to Awake hih and convey the king’s order to straightway open the doors of the legislative hall. Great was the surprise of the poor man at such an unexpected command. He hastily dressed himself and joined the king with his bunoh of keys. He first opened the door of a gallery whioh served as ante-ohamber, or passage to the main hall. The king entered. What was his astonishment when he saw that the walls were draped in mourning. “Who ordered the hall to be thus dooorated?” he asked in an angry tone. “Sire, nobody to my knowledge,” responded the bewildered porter. “The last time I had the gallery swept, the oak of the oeiling was bare, as it has always been. Surely, these hangings do not come from your Majesty’s lumberroom.” Meantime, the king, walking with a quick pace, had already penetrated through more tbun two-thirds of the gallery. The count and porter followed at his heels, while Doctor Baumgarten lagged behind, struggling between the fear of remaining alone, and that of faoing an adventure whioh had announoed itself in such a strange fashion. “Proceed no further, sire!” cried the porter. “On my soul, there’s sorcery here. At this hour—and since the death of the queen, your gracious consort—’tis said that she haunts this gallery. God defend us!” “Hold, sire!” exolaimed the count in his turn. “Do you not hear the noise coming from the legislative hall? Who knows what dangers await Your Majesty!” “Sire,” put in Baumgarten,whose light had been blown out by a current of air, “allow me at least to go and fetch twenty of your majesty’s trabans.” “Let us get in!” said the king firmly, stopping before the door of the large hall. “Portor, open quick!" He struck it with his foot, and the sound, repeated by the echoes of the vault, reverberated in the gallery like the discharge of a cannon. The porter was in suoh a trepidation, I that his key rattled againt the lock, and ho oould not manage to insert it. “An old soldier trembling!” cried the king, shrugging his shoulders. “Come, count, open thou the door for us.” “Sire,” replied the Count, stepping back, “let Your Majesty command me to march to the mouth of a Danish or 1 German onnnoo. and I will go without flinching: but this would be defying the powers of hell!” The king snatched the keys from the hand of the porter, and said in a tone of contempt: “I see that this affair concerns me alone.” And before his suit could prevent it, he had opened the thick oaken door and entered the great hall, muttering the words, “With the help of God.” His three acolytes, impelled by curiosity, more powerful than fear, and perhaps ashamed to forsake their k ; ng, entered with him. The large hall was illumined with innumerable torches. A blaok drapery had replaced the antique figured tapestry. All along the wails were seen, arranged in order as usual, the German, Danish and Muscovite standards —trophies of the soldiers of Gustavus Adolphus. In the oentre were prominently displayed Swedish banners shrouded in funeral crape. An immense assembly filled the benohes. The four orders of the State — nobility, clergy, burghers and peasants —occupied seats according to their respective ranks. All were dressed In black, and this multitude of human faces, gleaming against the sombre background, so dazzled tho eye, that none of the four witnesses of this extraordinary scene oould recognize any. In like manner an actor, facing a dense audience, only sees a confused mass, where his wandering gazo fails to distinguish a single individual.

Upon a raised throne, from whioh the king was wont to address the assembly, they saw a bleeding corpse, clad in the insignias of royalty. On its right stood a boy with a crown upon his head and a ■sceptre in his hand; on the left, an old man, or, rather, another phantom, leaned against the throne. He was attired in the mantle of state worn by the old administrators of Sweden ere yet Wasa had transformed it into a kingdom. Facing the throne several grave and austere personages, dressed in flowing black robes, who seemed to be judges, were seated before a table filled with large folios and sundry parchments. Between the throne and the benches of the assembly stood a block covered with crape, and‘an axe lying beside it. Nobody, in this superhuman concourse Appeared to notice the presence of Charles and his three companions. As they entered they heard a confused hum, from out of which no articulate word could be distinguished. Presently the older of the judges in black robes, who seemed the president, arose and knocked thrice with his fist upon a volume open before him. A deep silence followed. Several young men of gentle appearance, richly attired, and with their hands pinioned behind their backs, entered the hall through a door opposite the one Charles Xl.fhad just crossed. They advanced with head erect and firm look. Behind them a stalwart young man, wearing a brows leather coat, held the end of the cord wherewith their hands were tied. The one who walked in front and Beemed the most important of the prisoners, stopped in the middle of the nail, close to the block, which he surveyed with haughty disdain. At the Bame time the corpse seemed to shudder convulsively, and a fresh crimson stream flowed from its wound. The young man knelt, and laid his head upon the block. The ax gleamed in the air and instantly fell with a thud. A gory rivulet babbled upon the platform, and mingled with that of the oorpse. The head, rebounding several times upon the reddened pavement, rolled to the very feet of Charles, which it stained with blood. Up to that moment surprise had paralyzed his speech; but at sight of this horrible spectacle, bis tongue was loosened. He advanced a few # steps toward the platform, and addressing the figure draped in the mantle of administrator, he uttered boldly the well known formula, "If thou art from God, speak; if from the other, leave us in peaoe.” The phantom replied slowly, and with solemn tone: “Charles, King! This blood will not flow under thy reign (here the voice became less distinct), but five reigns after. Woe, woe, woe to the blood of Wasa!” Thereupon the forms of the countless persons composing this weird assembly began to grow dim, appearing only as shadows, and then dissolved altogether. The fantastic torches were extinguished, and those of Charles and his companions illumined only the old tapestries, softly stirred by the wind. They still heard for a while something like a melodious

noise, whioh one of the witnesses com* pared to the rustle of leaves, and another to the sound produoed by the snapping chords of a harp while being tuned. All were agreed as to the duration of the apparition, which they judged had lasted about ten minutes. The blaok draperies, the detruncated head, the sports of blood staining the floor, had all vanished with the phantoms. The slipper of Charles XI. alone retained the crimson blot which by itself would have sufficed to remind him of the scenes of that dreadful night, had they not been already too well engraved in his memory. When he returned to his study, the king caused a minute report to be written of what he had witnessed; made his companions sign it, and himself affixed his signature to it. Despite the precautions taken to keep the contents of this document from the publio, they managed in some mysterious manner to leak out, even during the lifetime of Charles XI. The document is still extant, and up to this day nobody has ventured to raise a doubt as to its genuineness. Its dosing paragraph is remarkable. Says tho king: “And, if what I have related be not the exact truth, I renounce all hope o£ a better life, the whioh I may have deserved through some good deeds, and, above all, through my zeal in laboring for the welfare of my people, and the defence of the faith of my ancestors.” Now then, if we recall the death of Gustavus 111., and the judgment of Ankarstroem, his assassin, we shall find more than our point of contact between this event and the oircumstanoes attending that singular propheoy. The young man, beheaded in the presence of the assombly, points to Ankara troem. • The crowned corpse, to Gustavus 111. The boy, to his son and suooessor, Gustavus Adolphus IV. Lastly, the old man, to the Duke of Sodermanland, uncle of Gustavus IV., who was regent of the kingdom, and afterwards king, upon the deposition of his nephew.