Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XIX - Gurre
<< 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. XIX.
DESTRUCTION OF STORKS.
303
The ruins of Gurre are, alas! nothing: four round
holes where the towers once stood, the plan of the castle
just discernible; and the well below—where the fair
Anna of Jutland, of whom we shall hear later, may
have quaffed her morning draught—now half stopped
up with rubble, teems with horse-leech and eft—most
unpalatable to look at, and worse, I should imagine, to
taste; so we quitted the ruins and invaded the forest
by the lake side—Valdemar’s Lund, as it is still called.
The sun was up and about, so we had no fear of ghosts;
and if King Valdemar had appeared, we should not have
dreaded him—his spirit could not have felt otherwise
than gentle in such a sylvan scene, among those gigantic
beeches, which may have seen his day.
The waters of the lake were somewhat low, and we
ran a chance of getting bogged by its banks; but
the landscape was exquisite—so soft, so mild, like a
picture by some pupil of Claude Lorraine who had
never visited Italy, and contented himself with such
beauties as the north of Europe afforded. A stork has
built his nest on the roof of an adjoining cottage. I
dare say his ancestors were there in the days of
Valdemar. Last season a sad event occurred: the storks,
when homeward bound, came to grief and destruction.
While crossing the Belt, a sudden storm arose; the
younger birds, foolhardy, would set forth; the more
prudent bided their time in Funen. The novices paid
for their rashness; upwards of a hundred corpses were
found floating on the sea, and later cast ashore: twelve
nests or upwards, in this neighbourhood alone, remain
still untenanted.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
