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38
SLESVIG.
Chap. III.
Brandenburg, departed from this world’s cares, Frederic,
in his new grief, caused her to be interred in the ancient
church of Bordesholm, near Kiel, where the bronze
monument of the royal pair may still be seen, lying side
by side; but Frederic was only Duke of Holstein
then. Later he married a second wife—a Princess of
Pomerania — and became King of Denmark by the
usurpation and dethronement of his unlucky nephew;
so his son caused this fine monument to be erected
to his memory ; and, instead of placing him between his
two wives, as was generally the custom, he lies in a
separate place. Frederic was not a popular sovereign, for
the feelings of the people sided with the deposed
monarch ; " he played with religion,” they said, “ and
was Papist or Lutheran as best suited his worldly
interests.” So, on account of this trifling with the word
of God, no one could place any confidence in him.
It is related that when the funeral procession of the
deceased monarch wended its way up the nave to the
vault prepared for his reception, the coffin burst, and
water mingled with blood trickled along the pavement;
the bystanders, who loved not his memory, shook their
heads, and, after the superstition of the day, remarked
to their gossips how this omen boded no good to the
future weal of the soul of departed majesty.
One of the great events of Frederic I.’s reign was the
ravage caused by the sweating sickness, of which 400
people died daily in Copenhagen alone. Ill-bred
historians of the time declare it to have been introduced from
England; much more likely the effect of their own bad
food and living during a long period of civil warfare.
And now let us turn from this monument of
Denmark’s first Lutheran ruler to gaze on the glory of
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