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Chap. X.
TOMB OF TORDENSKJOLD.
139
two celebrated Admirals—Juel and Tordenskiold.
Admiral Juel stands within a grille; on each side are
bas-reliefs of white marble representing the naval actions
in which he figured, with long complimentary verses
by Bishop Kingo.*
Smaller, and far less imposing, is the medallion, on
a painted wooden framework, erected by Frederic VI.
to the memory of Tordenskiold, the engravings of
whose admirable portrait by Denner you may see
exposed for sale in the printshops of Copenhagen. He
is the beau ideal of northern beauty, with long flowing
hair, unpowdered, carelessly gathered together by a
riband behind—a splendid specimen of the Scandinavian
race.f The history of Tordenskiold is too romantic
to be passed over, and just such a story as all
Englishmen delight in.
In the latter part of the seventeenth century there
lived at Tronyem a burgomaster, John Wessel by
name, with a flourishing family of eighteen children
and straitened means. Twelve were sons, of whom
Peter, the tenth in number, and hero of our story, was
born in 1691. Hard were the struggles of poor John
Wessel and his wife to maintain their numerous
olive-branches, and I am afraid young Peter proved himself
an ungrateful pickle. His parents apprenticed him to
a tailor, but at the end of a few weeks he was dismissed
* Juel was the favourite page of Frederic III. when Bishop of
Bremen. He entered the Dutch navy, and served under Ruyter and
Van Tromp. In 1656 he returned to Denmark with a high
reputation, became General Admiral, Knight of the Elephant, and died,
full of honours, 1697.
t The original is in the possession of M. de Lindholm, Chamberlain
of the Prince Hereditary.
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