Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - Chapter II. The Courier.
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struck the boy with the flat of his hand severely on his cheek,
soon following the blow with two cruel lashes with the whip.
Ivar’s veins became swollen with hitherto unknown passion,
which now violently burned within him. The strokes he had
received gave him far less pain, than the shame af being treated
in this manner wounded his pride, which had hitherto slumbered
concealed in his bosom, but which was now awakened into
powerful vitality. This feeling, however, was now a dark enigma to
him, and it was reserved for time to disclose it more fully.
"Has the gentleman a right go strike me?" replied Ivar, with
suppressed anger, "because my father’s ancestor, who served
under King Charles the Twelfth, and was as distinguished as
yourself; and because, in spite of his pride, was stricken with
poverty, so that one of his sons was glad to marry a peasant’s
daughter at Swarteborg, and became a peasant himseff? Is it
my fault, because my father’s ancestor was a noble? and dare
you therefore scold me, a nobleman?"
" Scold !" repeated the other, with a sneer; "dost thou not
comprehend what thou hast lost, slave?"
" I am neither a slave nor a nobleman," replied Ivar, with
increasing bitterness ; "my father is a free peasant, and I shall be
one also; and to judge by what I have just seen, it is better go
be an honest peasant than a noble persecutor of both man and
beast."
"Do not anger me more, rascal, that I may not give you more
plagues go faste than thou hast, until now, experienced," replied
the officer, flourishing his sword over Ivar. "None the less thou
art a blot of shame on the class from which thou hast
degene rated, because thy ancestors did not give up the nobility which
they had forfeited by their degradation."
" Well, if I am going to be a nobleman at last," replied Ivar,
whose courage increased in proportion as the anger of the other
arose, "then I will be your equal, and have the right of testing
my fist on you, as you did on me."
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