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290
KRONBORG.
Chap. XVIII.
Having finished with pompous pageants and royal
nuptials, we come to a sadder period of Kronborg
story. Scotland still mourns the fate, and proclaims
the innocence, of Mary Stuart, the murdered Queen;
and had she not been a Papist, England—yes,
intolerant England—would have long since done her justice.
France, who, in the last century, vented her venom,
her calumny, against the Autrichienne, now exalts
the memory of Marie Antoinette to that of a saint and
martyr. So, in Denmark, all voices proclaim together
the innocence, and deplore the fate, of the youthful queen
of Christian VII., our English princess Caroline Matilda.
Here in Kronborg was she confined a prisoner, torn from
her palace in Copenhagen, half-dressed, in the middle
of the night, expecting daily to suffer the fate of
Struensee and Brandt, until the arrival of a fleet from
England effected her liberation. Accompanied by the
Commandant one morning (General Bunding, the hero
of Fredericia—military men will tell you all about it),
I must say he looked into everything,—writes to the coppersmith to
make a brass brandy-kettle to contain twenty-four gallons, as well as
milk-tubs, but this time the handles are to be made of iron. Christian
was not more free, however, from superstition than his neighbours, for
in Laurits Jacobsen’s journal, 13th August, 1647, I find marked
down, “I was called to Kronborg Schloss this morning at six o’clock,
where the king had caused to be fetched an old woman from Malmø,
by name Karen Rege-holdis, who had nursed the lady Vibeke in her
illness. She was examined in Secretary Krag’s presence, before the
clergy of the castle, and asked if she could really tell if Vibeke were
bewitched or not ? She desired that they should give her one of ‘ Vibeke’s
shirts.’ So they gave her ‘ a very old one ; ’ she buried one-half in the
ground, but the other she took with her to Malmø and back again.
She then answered, ‘ that the witchcraft had been done in Skaane, and
money paid for it, and that it had been done by one who would
forswear the king and betray the land,’ which announcement made
everybody at court very ill at ease.”
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