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286
BRAHESBORG.
Chap. XLIX.
alike for the charms of her person as well as for the
fascination of her manners. Morals, as we all know, in
King Christian’s court were at a sadly low ebb; and in
the year 1590 the frail Rigborg gave birth to a son—
Frederic Rosenkrantz, of Rosenvold, the reputed father.
Furious at the disgrace of the family honour, the
enraged father of Rigborg demanded that the seducer be
(according to the laws of the day) ignominiously branded,
and undergo a fearful punishment as well as the loss
of two fingers, and that his daughter be immured for
life. Immuring consisted at that time of incarceration
within a room, bricked up like the fanatic recluses of
the Roman Church, a small aperture alone left open
for the introduction of the prisoner’s nourishment; no
light. (No wonder poor Elizabeth of Brandenburg
scampered off from old Joachim at the very idea of
such a fate; she had heard enough of it in her own
native Denmark.)
The barbarous sentence on Rosenkrantz was
commuted by the king, and he went to fight against the
Turks, where he met his death.
Poor Rigborg! Christian—a roi galant himself—
should have interfered in your behalf, but he did not.
She was safely immured in a small dark turret chamber,
on the second story of the tower of Egeskov, and here
she pined through five long weary years, until one fine
day her father was called to his last account, and she
released by her brothers from her fearful thraldom. As
she did not die during her incarceration, it is to be
hoped her ghost does not haunt the scene of her former
misery; in all probability she had enough of it during
her five years’ imprisonment never to return there
afterwards, even in “ spirit.”
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