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304
MARIBO.
Chap. L.
force, with a little better success, and then later the
convent was dissolved.
In this deserted church, under a plain stone bearing
an inscription and now railed round, sleep in peace the
remains of Eleanor Ulfeld. Twenty-three years of
imprisonment did she undergo in that fearful Blue Tower
to gratify the woman’s vengeance of the Hanoverian
Queen Sophia Amelia, her sister-in-law.
The story of her griefs tells ill in English history for
the reputation of our “ merry monarch ” Charles II.
Eleanor had proceeded to London to procure the
payment of 24,000 rix-dollars Corfitz Ulfeld lent in those
days of spléndour to the exiled heir of the house of
Stuart when in Holland. Charles had at first denied
the debt, and there exists a correspondence between the
Kings of England and Denmark on the subject, which
letters were forwarded by the latter to the Swedish
Queen Christina, in whose service Ulfeld entered. When
Christina read the papers presented to her by Baron
Juel, the Danish envoy, she replied, with a freedom
of speech worthy of our Queen Elizabeth, “Ulfeld is
an honourable man. He says he paid to the King of
England 24,000 dollars, and I believe it to be true ; and
if the King of England denies the debt, so has he lied.
Yes, even if twelve such kings as Charles II. had
declared it untrue, so dare I say they have all lied, and I
should still believe Ulfeld and she remained firm in
her belief of his honour, which was later confirmed by
the receipt for the money, signed by the Scotch General
the Duke of Montrose. King Charles then declares “ it
had quite escaped his memory,”—but he never paid;
for on Eleanor’s arrival in London, seduced by the
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