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Chap. LIV. VALDEMAR’S EPISTLE TO THE POPE.
3G1
the royal answer. On the morrow they come—not to be
taken in this time ; the day is cold, the snow falls, the
wind bitter—never mind, the King’s Grace keeps good
fires; so the worthy envoys appear clad in garments
of the lightest and thinnest textures, when, lo! to
their horror, they find a banquet spread for them in
the open air in the castle court. The king, well
wrapped himself, receives them smiling, and, after a
prolonged carouse under a falling snow, delivers to the
indignant ambassadors his answer in “platt” German,
a doggrel of his own composition—
Søven und søventig Hense. Seventy-seven Hanseatikers.
Søven und søventig Gense. Seventy-seven geese.
Bieten mich nicht die Gense If the geese don’t bite I don’t care
So frag ich nicht een Schit a fig for the Hanseatic towns.
na die Hense.
Very rude on the part of King Valdemar, but this
sovereign was a free speaker and stuck at nothing. His
religious opinions were undecided; at one time he
appears an atheist, at another he makes a pilgrimage
to the Holy Sepulchre; he pays a visit to the pope at
Avignon, and later, when his Holiness advises him
to reign mildly, as a father, and not like a tyrant, and
threatens him with excommunication, Valdemar writes
to him the following well-known epistle:—
“ King Valdemar to the Roman Pontiff greetinn.
We have our nature from God, our kingdom from the
inhabitants, our riches from our forefathers, and our
faith from your predecessors ; which faith, if you do not
favour us, wé return you by these presents. Farewell.”*
* Waldemar Rex Pontifici Romano Salutem. Naturam habcmus à
Deo, Regnum ab Incolis, Divitias à Parentibus, Fidem a tuis
Præde-cessoribus, quam, si nobis non fuves, per Mæsentes remittimus. Vule.
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