5X2 FORTIa’s TRAVELS IN SWEDEN.

of this decree would fatlsfy, at this moment, the rigour of juftice ; but we are withheldby the ftrongeit and molt efficacious reafons, which we (hall unveil for our own jufti-fication and the benefit of pofterity.

“ Being by the fide of the bed of His late Majefty a few days before his death, andfpeaking to him of the misfortune which had befallen him, and the dreadful coiife-quences that would follow; His Majefty, whole fenfible and generous heart was everprone to pardon, vouchfafed to exprefs to us, that the idea of the merited tormentswhich the guilty w'ould have to fuffer affeded him more by far than all his pains; headded, moreover, that this oppreflive fancy would never let him reft, unlefs we Ihouldpromife and fwear, upon the faith of a brother and a Prince, that in cafe he fliouldchance to die, his interceffion Ihould avail for the falvation of the lives of thofe wretchedmen who had been wanting to him in fidelity. Moved even to tears at fuch noble fen-timents, we yet dared to reprefent to him that law, whether human or divine, wouldnot allow fo horrible a crime to pafs without penalty of death, and that the honour ofthe Swedifli name and public fecurity exprefsly called for juftice. His Majefty, feniiblyaffeded by thefe heartfelt reprefentations, then faid with anguilh, that if the law of re-prifal neceffarily exa&ed blood for blood, that if his interceffion was infufficient as aparty to fave the life of the unfortunate man who lifted his hand againft his life ; he yetperfifted that his Ihould be the only one to pay for the death he had occafioned ; andthat none of thofe concerned in the plot, however great their number, or deep their in-tereft therein, (which at that time was not difcovered or perfectly known,) ihould fuft’erfor it in their lives.

“ His Majefty at the laft added, that this was not only his laft application as a bro-ther, but his laft will as a King, as the power of pardon could not be taken away fromhim as long as he lived; and again exacted from me the moft folernn promife; fuch Icould not, nor had the right to refufe him any longer. This affefting and remarkableconverfation, which will develope to pofterity the generofity and clemency of Gufta-vus III., and which, more than the victory at Svenld'und , will tend to eternize his name,Ihall be the bafis upon which our fentence and refolves ffiall be founded.

“ As a chriftian, a fivbject, a brother, as a man, we cannot, ought not to vary fromthe will of a dying King. He had the inconteftible right of pardoning in his own caufe.We ftiall follow loyally his orders, nor ffiall it be reproached his brother that he deceivedhim in the arms of death.

“ In confequence of the reafons before alledged, we declare and ordain, that thefentence of death awarded by the parliament, and confirmed by the high tribunal,againft the former Counts Claudius Fredericfon Horn, andwidolphus Lewis Ribbing,the former Lieutenant-Colonel and Chevalier Charles Pontus Liliehorn,and the formerLieutenant Baron Charles Frederic Ehrenfverd, ffiall be commuted into perpetual ba-niffiment; that they are degraded from their nobility, and declared unworthy of allright of citizenlhip ; that they fhall be immediately conducted to the frontiers of an of-fended country, without hope of ever being allowed to return, and with prohibition,under pain of fuffering the death pronounced againft them, ever to require the fame.The care of their puniffiment we leave to their confidence and remorfe, perfuaded thatthe bitter reflections to which we deliver them will be more intolerable than death itfelf *•

* The regent deceives himfelf ; men of this defcription are ftrangers to remorfe. Bam'ihment is no ptf-nifhment for fcoundrels who could no longer live in Sweden : two of thefe wretches, on their paflage evenfrom Copenhagen to Hamburgh, proved that fentiments of repentance, imputed to them by the regent/were far from their thoughts. Notvvithllanding the motive afcribed lower down, it is in a fortrefs that re-gicides, whofelife is not fhortened on the fcaffold, Ihould end their days.

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