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506 FORTIA’S TRAVELS IN SWEDEN.
alone was mentioned to him, and Liliehorn*, the author of an anonymous letter which is
copied further on. This villain came to throw himfelf at the feet of his fovereign, and
begged for pardon, which was granted.
‘Vhe piftol with which His Majefly was fhot was loaded with two balls and feveral
nails; a {mall part of the charge only could be extracted from the wound. Art was
exhautted in vain, and on the thirteenth day (in the forty-fixth year of his age) Guf-
tavus III. died in inexpreflible agony, after receiving the facrament, preferving the
firmnefs and refignation of a great mind to the very laft. He did not die without firft
exacting a promife from his brother that the murderer alone fhould undergo capital
punifhment: thus by an a@, 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, wrote
to the young King, when the judgment of the parliament on their crime was publifhed,
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 injultice.
We procured all thefe letters, as well as that of Horn to his father, and Ribbing to
his mother, in which they attempt to comfort them for the misfortune of having given
them birth: in faét we know of no greater calamity than to have fuch children. It is
fit we fhould obferve that Ankerftrceum, Ribbing, and Horn threw with dice for which
of them fhould kill the King, to the firlt of whom the lot devolved : they were bound by
oath to kill themfelves after deftroying His Majefty ; but whether from want of refolu-
tion, whether from hope of faving himfelf the affaflin omitted this. And fuch wretches
dare to appeal for favor to the law!
General Pecklin oppofed the King in 1756; alternately in the pay of either France
or Ruflia, he fided with the court in 1762: he was made a Colonel in 1772, and was
on the point of tampering with his regiment againft his mafter when arrefted and con-
ducted to Gripfholm, where he was detained for fome weeks: there he was treated with
diftinGtion and refpect ; at the end of that time the King releafed him, an act 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 was
arrefted with feveral other gentlemen, but only in his own houfe ; and upon reprefen-
tation to His Majelty that his eftates required his prefence, was fuffered to proceed to
them. This man, who from 1772 had lived in the utmoft obfcurity, left it in 1792 to
enter into a con{piracy again{t the King’s perfon: -but familiar with crime, and matter
of himfelf, he would confefs nothing ; by which means he eftablifhed his innocency,
the laws of Sweden exacting confeffion before fentence of death can be pafled.
Addrefs of General Major Baron Charles Frederic Pecklin to the King.
sc SIRE,
<¢ Your parliament, by its decree of 24th May laft, relative to the horrible treafon
committed on the perfon of his late Majefty, Guftavus III. of glorious memory, has
declared, on the fubjeCt of the denunciation made again{ft me by the guilty, that as
* We were very-well acquainted with this Ziliehorn when at Stockholm. He is the fon of a woman
in a very inferior ftation about the Queen: he was brought up at the King’s expences and has had a very
rapid advance, being a major in the guards at an age that would, without injuftice, have allowed himi to
vegetate for fome time to come in an inferior flation. We frequently {poke of him to His Majefty: we
were never pleafed with the manner in which he fpoke of his benefactor; but between a conduc of this
defcription and an affaffin there 1s fo wide a difference, that we fhould never have fufpe&ted him capable of
partictpating in fuch a crime,
the
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