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Chap. XVIII.
THE CASTLE.
279
he has frequently come to the assistance of fair maidens
in their trouble and distress, and fought their battles with
his enchanted sword, mounted on his good steed “
Papillon.” Morgana, the fay, has never deserted entirely
the country of her beloved : she still sports and exercises
her witcheries to favoured mortals, when least expected,
among the barren heaths and wide-spreading moors of
the ancient provinces of Jutland/’
I have no intention, however, of visiting his prison
down below: the wind is east, my limbs are rheumatic
—let younger people be more adventurous. But we
pass the drawbridge and enter the second gate of the
castle. Verses in the Danish tongue by the Scotchman,
Bishop Kingo, and the more illustrious pen of Tycho
Brahe, adorn the portals and celebrate the erection of
the buildings. There is one thing sure in this world—
monarchs never allowed their good works to be hid in
secret: on every side you see inscriptions, in letters of
gold, announcing how Christian V. restored this, and
Frederic IV. whitewashed that. But I must give you
some account of the history of the castle.
There is no doubt but, from the earliest period of
history, a castle of some kind, built for the protection of
the Sound, existed on the site or near where Kronborg
now stands. In the year 1238 the preceding fortress
of Flynderborg—situated at the other end of the town,
near the Strandvei, named after the flounders, of which
quantities are taken in front of the batteries—was in a
state of excellent repair. This fortress being found
unsuited to the exigencies of the times, King Frederic II.
determined to rebuild it on a scale of unprecedented
grandeur : the whole of the expenses were to be discharged
from his privy purse, and the building was to cost his
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