Page:A Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys.pdf/41

 judge of the charm of Marie Antoinette; portraits her figure and features seem from her too heavy, though her hair and colouring were beautiful; but she seems to have had a share of that inexplicable compelling power which certain women have possessed—Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, Mary of Scots, Elizabeth of Bohemia—which makes men willing to ride on their behalf over the edge of the world. Fersen, who had worshipped her at first sight when a boy in his teens, was to spend the nineteen remaining years of his life a slave of tragic and tender death he became a "fey" memories. man,, After her silent, abstracted, grave beyond other men, and utterly contemptuous of danger, one like Sir Palamede


 * Who, riding ever through a lonely world, Whene'er on adverse shield or helm he came Against the danger desperately hurled, Crying her name."

He rose to be a famous soldier and marshal of the Swedish armies, and at the age of fifty-five was confronted with a riot in Stockholm. Inside the church of Riddenholm were the nobles of Sweden, barricaded and safe; outside on the steps he stood alone, having been dragged from his carriage, his sword in his right