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Chap. III.
MADAM ESSELBACH’S LOYALTY.
41
clergy, and all the priests’ wives were forcibly ejected from
the country—non sine clade gravi—not without a row. *
“ I should rather imagine not.” So says the monkish
chronicler in his Latin verse.
We are lodged at the hotel of old Madam Esselbach,
a lady of known reputation. The house is in character
with the town, rambling and large; huge, vast
ballrooms hung round with portraits of the Danish
sovereigns, and rich, gilded furniture, spoils of the ancient
palace of Gottorp.
In the war of ’49 Madam Esselbach managed to
keep well with both armies. When the Danes were
in occupation, her hotel shone pavilioned with the
whitecross flag; when the Holsteiners appeared, the banner
of the duchies floated from every window. Her loyalty
gained her the affection of both armies, till, one day, a
Danish officer discovered in a lumber-room the flags of
the rival party, and ordered them to be destroyed.
Clamorously the good widow protested. “Put me to
such a useless expense ?” she pleaded ; “ I must replace
them, and, if you are beaten out of the town, what can
I do ? ” So, as the argument proved logical, she was
left in possession of her banners.
Her son is now tutor to the Comte de Paris, and we
made acquaintance with him,—a gentlemanlike young
man, at present on a visit to his native city. To-morrow
we quit Slesvig, and embark on the railroad for the
rival city of Flensborg.
♦ M. C.—bis decem, Danorum Clerus abegit Uxores dulces — non
sine clade gravi. In the Canon, clergymen’s wives are spoken of as
“ Morbus pestiferus.”
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