Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XVIII - Kronborg
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
Chap. XVIII. PRISON OF CAROLINE MATILDA.
291
I visited the apartments in which she was confined on
her arrival—two small rooms on the ground-floor, one
overshadowed by the bastion, the other looking on the
courtyard of the castle. Later, I believe, the
commandant placed his own apartment at her disposal;
and in the small octagon closet of the lighthouse turret,
which terminates the apartments of Christian IV., it is
related how the captive queen passed hours and days
with anxious brow and straining eye, gazing at the waters
of the Sound, in momentary expectation of the
appearance of the fleet from England, she having received
some secret tidings of its coming. No relics of her
incarceration here remain: the ancient furniture of
the palace was unluckily removed, destroyed, and
neglected in Frederic VI.’s reign. He detested
Kronborg, and never visited Elsinore; these recollections
of his mother’s imprisonment were odious to him, and
the royal’apartments fell into decay. General Lunding,
with that true courtesy always to be met with by
strangers in Denmark, begged us not to quit without
first mounting one of the towers to admire the view:
we did so; and glorious it was. The castle, Sweden,
the Sound at our feet, with her myriads of shipping—
even the insignificant town of Elsinore from above
looked picturesque, with her quaint staircase-gables and
high-pitched roofs; the ascent was rather fatiguing up
the circular staircase.
The ramparts of Kronborg form our favourite walk of
an evening. You require a “ tegn ” or card to visit
them—your compliments to the General, and a dollar
to the soldier who brings it. This is one of the
few complaints I have to make against the Danish
Government; they are much too exclusive, and close to
u 2
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
