A FORGOTTEN ASSASSINATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 433, 29 July 1881, Page 17

A FORGOTTEN ASSASSINATION.

(From the Leeds Mercury.) To-day « the Czar Bleeps 1 " It has been said that since the day when Henry IV. fell under the knife of Ravailleac, no assassin has been successful in his attacks on royalty. This is not true. Gustavus AdolphusllL, King of Sweden, fell mortaly wounded by a masked assassin at a ball given in this Kings honour on March 18, 1792. Gustevus had made himself absolute, and overthrown the aristocracy . Ankarstrom, then a " fedrikar " in the Blue Guards, was the avenger, butthrSot was widespread. He escaped for a tune-a very short time Pistols found in the ball-room were declared by a gunsmith to have been ordered by Mm from England. Ankarstrom was arieep in ted when the lieutenant of the police took him. This man, Jujensparre, then proceeded to arrest others, who, since the ball at the opera house, had been going about talking loudly, that toe king's assassination was only the work of some tionist. One had the audacity to come to court; bat as the presumptuous lie passed his lips, « It is among the French we should^«*k <*« culDrit " a heavy hand was laid on his shoulder, and the Baron dfflelt repliedf "To the shame of my country, it « a Swedish nobkTwho has done the deed-one of the ; Blue Guards l » "Is he discovered ? " said the man, after a pause. " Yes," replied M. de JilSparrl/fixing his eye on'him, " I arrest you, Count Bibang, as h» accomplice." Other arrests followed. One man hanged himself as tte sTdiers surrounded his house ; Baron Bjelke was > f ound poisoned in his room. Gustavus was so deeply hurt at the treachery displayed by some whom he had known that he declared he wished * know no £eTfii^^^ were over. Three nobles weg banished, come were acquitted, others pronounced * wrtJPKJJJ guilty ;" but Ankarstrom, the strange assassin, heard his fearful sentence with the most astonishing sangfroid. " I wished to JaU the king, but not to torment him," he said, and turned to his •Jgto*™*, beUeving himself to be a martyr sure of an e , te^ he Tr?whSS the salvos of artillery announced the king's death, himsett on his knees—" Thank God, he suffers no more, and my task has been ■""rffSSSment of Ankarstrom lasted for four days ; three time, he endured fifteen blows at different places m the city on three.consecutive days ; the sufferings caused were described as great, yet je maintained his composure. On the fourth day, &T f™»^>£ 1 ™ his head was cut off, his remains were quartered and left expose* on four wheels. As he con 9 idered himself a martyr his partj rmade this his shrine, till at last the Government had the bones «~**kafig added by the biographer that the sound party of the once tfff™ nobility forgave Gustavns for the abolition of the Senate ' « "TOjf or the triple reason that bia administration had been £»£S firm at home, and that he had been chivalrous in moat of his dealings. A melancholy halo surrounded . h « e * d '*" a ft sufferer must always meet withthesympathie3 of his fellow-men It has been thought that this short account of the a e n s o£a^J spiracy might be of interest to the public now, as it aeems to have been entirely forgotten just at present.