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160
COPENHAGEN.
Chap. X.
on the highest embankment, and the wind, too,
sometimes. Should you wish to prolong your walk by
one-third, take in each bastion within the compass of your
promenade : you can measure your exercise by rule, and
all without absenting yourself from the neighbourhood
of the city. On each bastion stands a gigantic
windmill, ever hard at work; for wind is not to be classed
among the wants of Copenhagen: a broad ditch lies
below, affording admirable skating in frosty weather,
and drowning, too, when the ice is rotten. The country,
though flat, is not ugly ; the foreground is composed of
water and wood, with the tall houses of the newly built
suburbs in the distance, together with Nørrebro church:
all these objects combined remind you of an old Flemish
landscape; and more so in the winter season, when the
snow lies thick upon the ground and the ditch is frozen.
Concerning the construction of these ramparts there
is told a story so horrible I can hardly give credit to its
truth, but the Danes themselves relate it. It appears
that the earth crumbled down, giving way as fast as the
workmen built it up: the engineers themselves were at
fault, so they determined to consult a wise woman, who
declared the mounds would always continue sinking
unless a living child was buried underneath. So they
prepared a recess of brickwork under the ramparts, and
decorated it gaily with evergreens and flowers, and
placed therein a little table and chairs, with toys, and
dolls, and sweetmeats, and a tree lighted with many
little tapers; and having enticed a little girl of five
years old, they clothed her in new garments, and brought
her to the bower accompanied by a band of music; and
whilst the child in her delight played with the dolls and
toys, the masons quickly closed up the aperture with
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