Dennis Wheatley - The Shadow of Tyburn Tree

They found the Prebendary at home and were shown up at once to the book-lined room in which Roger had had his fateful interview with the Swedish King. Nordin's surprise at seeing Mr. Elliot was only equalled by his joy. Rising from his desk he said with a grave smile:

"Your Excellency finds us in most dire straits; but even if you bring bad news it will be more than counterbalanced by the effect of your presence among us."

"I thank you, Sir," Elliot replied, "and only trust that your hope may be justified. Having formed the opinion that the only chance of saving Sweden is to arrange an immediate accommodation with the Danes I am come to offer my services as mediator should His Majesty be pleased to accept them."

"His Majesty has never doubted your Excellency's kind intentions towards us," said the Prebendary a shade uncomfortably. "But unfortunately your Government has so far shown no signs of implement­ing the promises you have made on its behalf. Therefore, 'tis only fair to tell you that, seeing his affairs in so critical a state, His Majesty has recently contemplated renewing his old friendship with France, and asking King Louis to endeavour to arrange an accommodation between him and his enemies."

" 'Tis for His Majesty to decide," replied Elliot quickly. "But were he to do that I fear he would have cause to rue it. This is no occasion to enter into the respective advantages which a lasting friendship with either country would offer His Majesty; but one factor is clear. Any delay in an attempt to open negotiations with the Danes must now spell his final ruin. There is no time to seek the good offices of the Court of Versailles, whereas I am on the spot, and if His Majesty is willing, could act immediately."

"Our plight is bad, but not yet desperate," countered Nordin.

"I fear you are mistaken, Sir," Roger cut in, and he then disclosed the Danish plan to swing south on Gothenborg.

As the Prebendary listened his expression became one of the deep­est gloom, and when Roger had done, he muttered: "Since the Danes announced their intention to honour their treaty with Russia we have taken such measures as we could. 'Tis believed that they mean to invade us by way of the Friedrikshald gap. Our fortress of Quistrum, there, should hold them for a time; but once it is passed the province of Nordmark will be open to them. It is natural to anticipate that they would advance due east upon the capital, and His Majesty intends to deploy such forces as he can muster in their path. As he has little but a rabble of armed peasants with which to oppose them our case even then would be bad enough. But if their objective is Gothenborg our situation is indeed desperate; and nought but your Excellency's good offices, immediately applied, can save us."

The British Minister nodded. "With Sweden now so weak the Danes must know that they have victory in their grasp before the war's begun; so 'twill be no easy task to induce them to throw away its fruits and agree a settlement. I can but try, and pray that they may be delayed in launching their attack. Are there no troops at all between them and Gothenborg?"

"None but a small garrison at Uddevalla. The country was almost denuded of troops for the Finnish campaign, and most of our best regiments are still moribund there under His Majesty's second brother, the Duke of Ostrogothia. Yet, such is the King's courage and resource that on his return he refused to be dismayed by our new danger. Lacking adequate regular troops to form another army he resorted to an extraordinary expedient. When his illustrious predecessor, Gustavus the First, was in a similar predicament he appealed to the Dalecarlians to rise and deliver Sweden from the Danish yoke, and these sturdy mine-workers achieved the seemingly impossible."

"Has His Majesty left Stockholm to do likewise, then?" asked Roger quickly.

The Prebendary nodded. "First, with his usual energy, he secured the adherence of the bourgeois in the capital. They were heartily sickened with the defection of the nobility and army, and the more readily pledged their loyalty to the King. In a short time we had raised three thousand burghers vowed to defend both their city and the throne. Having secured his rear from the risk of a coup d'etat by the nobles, His Majesty hurried to the Dales and is touring the mines, making a series of those patriotic orations of which he is such a master. From such news as reaches us I gather that the results are fully justifying his exertions, and that he has now raised several thousand Dalecarlians with whom he hopes to check the enemy's advance on Stockholm."

"Alas!" said Hugh Elliot. "I fear that this last desperate effort must now be brought to nought. In a pitched battle fought on their own soil these hardy partisans might possibly have repulsed the enemy; but by selecting Gothenborg instead of Stockholm for their objective the Danes will outflank His Majesty. Their forces will pass a hundred miles to the southward of him, and long before he can bring his rude army that distance through the mountains his richest city will have fallen to the enemy. I trust that you can inform me of His Majesty's whereabouts, for I feel the urge more strongly than ever to place myself at his disposal without delay."

"When I last heard he was at Falum; and he will, I know, bless your Excellency's coming, as an omen that he has not been totally abandoned to his fate by those powers who have given him firm assur­ances of their friendship. The journey is all of one hundred and forty miles, but I will despatch a courier at once to ride on ahead of you and arrange relays of horses for your carriage."

As he finished speaking Nordin left the room. When he returned some moments later he asked them to follow him, and led them across the landing to a dining-room where cold food had hastily been set out on the table. They knew that inns were very few and far between on the Swedish roads, and that it might be many hours before they got another decent meal, so they ate as heartily as they were able, while Nordin toyed with some fruit in gloomy silence.

It was nearly two o'clock when they went downstairs. Outside, a closed carriage with six horses and an escort of four Hussars was waiting for them. They got in and drew the fur rugs about them; as they waved good-bye to the harassed Prebendary the carriage clattered away down the cobbled street.

The journey was a nightmare that seemed never-ending. The horses moved at a fast trot, and sometimes even at a canter, along all the flatfish portions of the road, falling into a walk only when they were breasting or descending a steep hill. As the first half of the way lay through Sweden's lowest lying province these easings of the pace were few and far between, so that all through the afternoon and even­ing the travellers had to support an almost constant rocking, as the stout springs of the carriage reacted to the bumps of the road taken in such swift succession.

The highway wound for the most part along the shores of a suc­cession of lakes and through farm lands in which the corn had already been harvested; but as dusk fell they entered more desolate country in which hills became more frequent and habitations lay farther apart. With the advance of night the gradients grew steeper, and there came longer intervals during which the carriage ceased its violent swaying, so its occupants were able to snatch quite considerable periods of fit­ful sleep.

When dawn came, they were winding their way down towards an­other plain, and having crossed it they reached a lake, on the north shore of which lay Falun. At seven o'clock they entered the little town with the satisfaction of knowing that they had accomplished then-long and wearisome journey in a bare seventeen hours. But, to their intense annoyance, they soon learned they had suffered to no purpose, as Gustavus had left the place three days before.