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FORTIA’S TRAVELS IN SWEDEN. 305
Firft audience of foreign minifters.—During our flay at Stockholm, a new envoy from
Pruflia had his firft audience of the King and royal family ; the following is a defcription
of the ceremony. Acarriage belonging to the court, in which was the mafter of the
ceremonies, went to bring the minifter from his hdiel at about half-paft feven at night ;
the minilter got in ; befide him fat the minifter from Holland, and in front the mafter
of the ceremonies. Ina following carriage was the Charge d’ Affaires of Pruflia. Upon
his introduction into the great dining-room, where there was a large company collected,
it was announced that the King was ready to receive the credentials of the new minil-_
ter; upon this the doors of the audience chamber, which adjoined, were opened. The
King had his hat on; he was feated on an arm chair of crimfon cloth, the back of
which was ornamented with the arms of Sweden, carved in wood and gilt ; he was ad-
dreffed in French, and anfwered in the fame language with inexpreflible grace and dig-
pity: he had five or fix of the principal officers of his court about him. Upon the mi-
nifter from Praffia leaving the prefence, he was afterwards conduéted fucceflively to the
Prince Royal and the other Princes and Princefles. We followed him to the young
Prince, who made his fpeech with all the noblenefs of manner and confidence that a
fovereign the moft accuftomed to thefe forms could poflibly thew ; we were the only
fpeftators upon the occafion. ‘The minifter was re-conducted to his hotelin the fame
manner, and in the fame carriage, which, by a pleafant chance, has preferved the
name of a Dutch minifter of whom it was purchafed, and is known by no other appel-
lation.
The coaches of ambafladors and fenators only enter the court of the caftle, which is
very inconvenient for others, the open piazzas under which you walk not fheltering you
from the wind,
The royal caftle is fituated within the city proper, on an eminence, fo that it is vifible,
from every quarter, and formsa ftriking obje&t. _It is not large, but its architeCture is
good, and it is altogether one of the prettieft modern palaces in exiftence. Le Voyageur
Hllandais aflerts, that it is larger than that of Copenhagen, but not fo handfome nor fo
elegantly furnifhed; precifely the reverfe is the truth. It is built of brick, cafed, the
root a /’Italienne, was begun by Charles XI., and entirely finifhed by the late King ; it
forms almoft a perfect {quare. The interior court is two hundred and fixty feet by two
hundred and twenty-four, and has feventeen windows by fifteen ; it is four ftories high,
three of which are lofty and one low. ‘The entrance court is femicircular; the front
has twenty-three windows in a row; ten Doric columns, joining the wall, fupport an
equal number of Ionic coryatides, and above them are ten {mall Corinthian pillars, which
reach the top of the building. The fouth fide, or that of the theatre, has fix large Co-
rinthian pillars half immerged, crowned with trophies, twenty-one windows, and as well
as the oppofite fide, is three hundred and twenty-eight feet long. The fourth fide,
which fronts the fea, has twenty-three windows, and is three hundred and fixty-four
feet long; is fix {tories high, three of which are lofty, and three {mall in the wings
alone. ‘he corps de logis, which is of nine windows, is but of four ftories, three of
which are lofty, one low, with three arcades in the midft. To the corps de J/ogis there
are Compofite pillars, and at each window of the firft ftory two {mall Ionian pillars.
Yo the principal corps de /ogis in the court are nine arcades, the pillars of the Corinthian
order, and two fmall columns to the windows, the fame as in front; the oppofite fide
isthe fame. he breadth of the building at the corps de logis of the principal entrance,
and at two others, is 52 feet; atthe two remaining, an arch ferves as a gateway. The
depth of the building on the fide of the declivity is but forty-two feet ; at the extremities
of this flope are two large lions in bronze. Before one of the fronts of the caftle is a
7 -
en 2 {mall
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