All announced an approaching conflict, and all seemed to promise success.  Will you not, said his enthusiastic correspondent, join in our enterprise, and share in our glory?  I have always known you faithful to your principles, and determined to defend them.  You will not suffer yourself to be led astray by a repose which is unworthy of you, and slumber in peasant life.  Shall I write to you some day as the valliant Beornere did, “go hang yourself, Crellon, for there was a battle at Arques, and you were away?”—­No, the color under which you first fought is about to be flung to the wind, and your friends will not expect you in vain.

When he heard this news, when he heard the trumpet call, Ireneus felt all his military ardor revived.  Often in the peaceable days he passed in his uncle’s house, he reproached himself with a happiness to which he did not think himself entitled.  Now he could not absent himself from the arena, in which his friends were about to enter; he could not desert them.  In the ardor of his monarchical sentiments he forgot that this enterprise was civil war, in which brothers would be arrayed against each other, and the soil of France steeped in the blood of its own children.  He only thought of his oath of allegiance and his banner.  His first idea was to go.  When, however, he reflected more calmly, he thought it his duty to inform his uncle of his plans, and, under the pretext of hunting, wandered over the fields with his gun on his shoulder, forming his schemes and dreaming of the glory that awaited him.

An accident delayed the execution of his plans, and at the same time gave him an additional excuse for leaving Sweden.  M. de Vermondans, who saw him come home every night with an empty game bag, said to him: 

“I must, dear Ireneus, recompense you for your useless wanderings; and I will procure you the pleasure of a bear-hunt.  There are two young men in the village, who will take you to a good place; and, in case of accident, will assist you with a sure aim.  Shall I send for them?”

Ireneus, who was anxious to be actively engaged during the few days he expected to pass in Sweden, accepted the proposition with eagerness.  The two huntsmen, having been sent for, said that they knew the lair of an old bear they had hunted during the last winter.  It was arranged, that on the next morning, they should come for Ireneus.

Ebba had heard this conversation with evident uneasiness; but had said nothing.  When the huntsmen left, she said, with an emotion which was evident in every glance, tone and gesture.