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362 €OXE’S TRAVELS IN NORWAY,
no duty, unlefs opened for home confumption, and then are charged with the ufual ims
pofts.
Yhe town contains three thoufand inhabirants; the ftreets:are airy ; the houfes are
built of wood painted red, and a few white.
On the fummit of an almoft perpendicular rock, which overhangs the town, ftands
the {trong and hitherto impregnable fortrels of ¥redericsitein, rendered memorable by
the death of the northern lion, as Charles the Twelfth is fometimes emphatically ftyled.
The fpot where he was killed, which was once marked by a pillar erected by the King
of Denmark, but pulled down at the requeft of the King of Sweden, is at the extremity
of the Governor’s garden, at the bottom of the fteep rock, on which flands the fort of
Gullenlowe. It was to me particularly interefting ; for it convinced me that a fmalk
ball might have reached Charles, the diftance from the neareft baftion being not more
than five or fix hundred yards. Nor could I avoid remarking, that Motraye’s plan of
Frederics{tein and the adjacent batteries is in many parts extremely defective ; and from
the beft information that I have colleéted, both his and Voltaire’s accdunt of the King’s
death, and particularly of the wound which occafioned it, are very inaccurate.
But in order to obtain farther and more complete information concerning the pro-
bable caufe of the death of Charles, ! called on Benk Enkelfon of Tiltedal, a Norwegian,
aged ninety-five, who was in his twenty-eighth year when he ferved as a gunner of
the Danifh garrifon during the fiege of Frederics{tein. By means of a gentleman of
Fredericfhall, who politely accompanied me to this old man’s houfe, and condefcended -
to be my interpreter, I procured the following intelligence ; which I fhall give to the
reader, in queftion and anfwer, as I obtained it.
Do you think that the King was fhot from the ramparts, or aflaflinated by any of his
owntroops? From the ramparts undoubtedly —What kind of fhot was fired againft the
Swedith trenches?’ All forts, and particularly fmall fhot in cartouches from cannon.—
Could the King, inthe place where he was, be reached by a fmall fhot? Yes, very
eafily ; as a /mall foot could take effet at twice the diftance.—Were many foldiers killed
near him? Very many ; they fell about him like ftraw, in fuch numbers that they were bu=
ried on the fpot. The place was alfo fo much expofed to the fire from the ramparts, that the
Swedes could not venture to work in the trenches by day, but only by night.—¥rom what -
fortrefs do you think Charles received his death: from Oberberg, or from the citadel ?
Certainly from the batteries of the citadel, which bore upon the place, and not from Oberberg,
from which it was defended by an intervening hill. I then ferved in the fortre/s of Oberberg s
and we did not that night fire a _fingle fhot from thence *.
From this circumftantial evidence, given by a perfon who ferved in the garrifon of
Frederics{tein at the time of the fiege, and who had no prejudices or intereft to bias or
miflead him, joined to my own obfervations on the fpot, | am conyinced that Charles
might have been eafily reached by a fmall ball from the ramparts of the citadel; and
that the confident affertions of thofe perfons who pretend that he could not be touched
by a mufket-ball, are totally groundlefs.
The queftion, therefore, in regard to the death of Charles, is now reduced to a fhort
compafs; and ell the vague anecdotes and uncertain conjectures, which, without any
foundation, attribute his death to aflaflination, can weigh nothing againft pofitive fact T.
* This thews the falfity of Motraye’s account, which fays, that the King was fhot from the fortrefs of
Oberburgh. + See Book vii, Chap. 3.
Enkelfor
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