5®6 F0RTIA*S TRAVELS IN SWEDEN .

alone was mentioned to him, and Liliehorn* > the author of an anonymous letter which iscopied further on. This villain came to throw himfelf at the feet of his fovereign, andbegged for pardon, which was granted.

The piftol with which His Majefty was Ihot was loaded with two balls and feveralnails ; a fmall part of the charge only could be extracted from the wound. Art wasexhaufted in vain, and on the thirteenth day (in the forty-fixth year of his age) Guf-tavus III. died in inexpreffible agony, after receiving the facrament, preferving thsfirrnnefs and refignation of a great mind to the very lalt. He did not die without firltexacting a promile from his brother that the murderer alone Ihould undergo capitalpunifliment: thus by an adt of clemency, fufficient in itfelf to render him immortal,he terminated a glorious life by a ftill more glorious end.

All the accomplices, that is to fay, Ribbing, Horn, Liliehorn, and Ehrenfwerd, wroteto the young King, when the judgment of the parliament on their crime was publilhed,all entrenching themfelves behind the letter of the law, and feemingly taxing the tri-bunal, which as regicides had condemned them to death, with rigour and injuftice.We procured all thefe letters, as well as that of Horn to his father, and Ribbing tohis mother, in which they attempt to comfort them for the misfortune of having given,them birth : in fadl we know of no greater calamity than to have fuch children. It isfit we Ihould obferve that Ankerftroeum, Ribbing, and Horn threw with dice for whichof them Ihould kill the King, to the firft of whom the lot devolved : they were bound byoath to kill themfelves after deflroying His Majelty ; but whether from w r ant of refolu-tion, whether from hope of faving himfelf the afiaffin omitted this. And fuch wretchesdare to appeal for favor to the law!

General Pecklin oppofed the King in 1756; alternately in the pay of either France or Ruffia, he fided with the court in 1762 : he was made a Colonel in 1772, and wason the point of tampering with his regiment again!!; his maker when arreited and con-duced to Griplholm, where he was detained for fome weeks: there he was treated withdiftindtion and refpedt ■, at the end of that time the King releafed him, an adt of cle-mency difapproved by the world, Pecklin being known to be a very dangerous man.In 1786 he appeared at the diet but did not make himfelf confpicuous ; in 1789 he wasarreited with ieveral other gentlemen, but only in his own houfe ; and upon reprefen-tation to His Majefty that his eftates required his prefence, was fullered to proceed tothem. This man, who from 1772 had lived in the utmoft obfcurity, left it in 1792 toenter into a confpiracy againft the King’s perfon : but familiar with crime, and mailerof himfelf, he would confefs nothing ; by which means he eftablilhed his innoCency,the laws of Sweden exacting confefiion before fentence of death can be paffed.

Addrefs of General Major Baron Charles Frederic Pecklin to the King.

“ Sire,

<c Your parliament, by its decree of 24th May laft, relative to the horrible treafoncommitted on the perfon of his late Majefty, Guftavus III. of glorious memory, hasdeclared, on the fubjedl of the denunciation made againft me by the guilty, that as

* We were very well acquainted with this Liliehorn when at Stockholm . He is the fon of a womanin a very inferior ftution about the Queen : he was brought up at the King’s expence ; and has had a veryrapid advance, being a major in the guards at an age that would, without injuftice, have allowed him tovegetate for fome time to come in an inferior Italian . We frequently fpoke of him to His Majefty: wewere never plealed with the manner in which he Spoke of his benefa&orbut between a condudt of tin'sdcfcription and an affaffin there is fo wide a difference, that we ihould never have fufpefted him capable ofparticrpating in fuch a crime.