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Chap. III.
ST. ERIK’S CHEST.
39
Slesvig,—the celebrated altarpiece: the richest, the
most exquisite specimen of the carver’s art in all the
North of Europe; the work of Hans Briiggemann, of
Husum, the pupil of Albert Dürer. You will find a
book written on the subject, describing each
compartment,—scenes in the life of our Saviour.
From a cupboard behind, the sacristan now brings
forth a heavy, massive chain: a chain taken from the
body of poor, murdered Erik. He was first reported to
have died of apoplexy, until his floating corpse left no
doubt of his real fate. Many and wondrous were the
miracles worked at his tomb, and great the gains of the
lucky friars who possessed these holy relics. Later,
however, they were removed to Ringsted, encased in a
reliquary, and placed in a pillar of that royal
mausoleum ; and there, after his wanderings, he remained
in peace until the occupation of the abbey church by
the English.* The soldiers broke the reliquary to
pieces, scattered the bones, and what became of them
no one knows, for the church was turned into a
haybarn. When Erik was about to die, the executioner, by
order of Duke Abel, asked him where he had concealed
his treasure ? “ Tell my brother,” he replied, “ it lies
in an iron chest in the convent of the Gray Brothers of
Roeskilde;” and when Duke Abel broke open this
chest, he found therein a Gray Brother’s cowl, with
a cord, and a letter, in the Latin tongue, to the effect
that Erik wished to be buried in the habit of that
monastic Order. Duke—now King—Abel met with
the fate his brother prophesied, for he was later
mur
* In 1807.
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