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48
SØNDERBORG.
Chap. IV
ancient possessors of the lands. The palace is a spacious
building, built on the island coast, with gardens, woods,
and all that can make life pleasant. It is now for sale, the
Danish government having at last settled the claims of the
Ducal family by paying a sum down for the territories.
After dinner we again returned to Sønderborg, and,
before quitting the next morning, visited the parish
church, which contains some of the most extraordinary
specimens of carved and gilt epitaphia I have come
across, in one of which I counted as many as twelve or
fourteen different portraits, each held suspended from
the hands of a golden angel.
The castle of Sønderborg contains little of interest,
save the chapel, where stands erect the armour of Duke
John and his eldest son. It was a grand mistake on the
part of Christian III. to re-establish the duchy of Slesvig
in the person of his son ; but he took no counsel; and
when Mogens Mormand, governor of Aalholm Castle, a
nobleman renowned for his free speech, exclaimed to the
King, “ Now may Denmark say farewell to fair
Sønderborg and Ais,” the speech gave great offence; and
although the prophecy never came strictly true, the late
possessors did their best in the revolution of ’58 to
separate that island from the Danish crown.
In this same chapel hangs the. genealogy of King
Christian III. and his Queen Dorothea, with quaint old
portraits of their earlier ancestry. Then passing through
a doorway, under the arched monument—a fine white
marble bas-relief supported on black columns—of Duke
John and his Duchess, Elizabeth of Brunswick, devoutly
kneeling, with their fourteen children, you enter the
dormitorium of the family.
I have no great fancy for these visits, and when once
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