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334
HIRSCHHOLM.
Chap. XXII.
the new-built castle of Copenhagen, the other inflicts a
fine on those who absent themselves from Divine service.
Twice must they attend by law each Sabbath ; the
gabs-stocken (yawning-stocks) are placed at the church door,
in which the victim convicted of a second offence is
compelled to stand fixed with his mouth open. The gates
of the city are closed * until four o’clock, at which hour
the Lutheran Sunday terminates; the Christmas yule
log anathematised; while “ at ride sommer i by,”—the
Danish May-day festival of the farmers—put down as
an offence to Heaven. Smarting under the irritation
of this new Popish dominion, the world became more
wicked than ever—freethinkers or hypocrites. But
while Christian torments his people, Madalena builds
and dresses and runs in debt too; for in 1739 we find
a letter, dated Hirschholm, addressed to the minister
Schulin, in trouble and tribulation. Her debts amount
to 33,000 dollars, her pension a modest 18,000. What
can she do ? The king orders her income to be stopped
until the debt is discharged—15,000 annually, leaving
her a mere nothing. The money she must have;
how Schulin got her out of her difficulties chroniclers
inform us not. Old Horningsholm must now come
down—Horningsholm, where she spent her early
married life, with her four old frights the ladies of honour
—and a new Versailles erected, to be styled
“Hirschholm,” in honour of a stag shot by Madalena’s own fair
hands—you may see its antlers still preserved in the
castle of Rosenborg. “ But, your Majesty, it’s a
morass; you must drive in piles; the expense will be
* This custom of closing the gates during Divine service was prevalent
in Christian V.’s time.
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