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396
DESTRUCTION OF
Chap. LVH.
I expressed to him my sympathy at the terrible
misfortune which had overwhelmed him, he kindly pressed
my hand. He could only utter the words “ Quel
mal-heur irréparable—quel malheur irreparable!” And it
was so indeed, for Frederiksborg can never be again
what it once was: it was his pride, his hobby, and he
had done, by judicious reparation, much to restore it to
its pristine condition.
Accompanied by my friend M. Gy Hick, the castellan,
I crept through an outer door into the church, the
further end of which had alone been injured. The
organ, that gem of art, and the royal closet,
enriched with its ceiling of ebony and ivory pendants,
its paintings by the Dutch masters, were all gone;
a heap of burning, smoking timbers still flamed at
the further end: and when I saw that ceiling, cracking
from the heat, come falling on the pavement below—
that fretwork ceiling, the toning down of whose brilliant
colours into one perfect harmony had so often excited
my admiration and wonder at the superiority of art in
days gone by—Heaven forgive me if in my sadness I
forgot that under those smoking ruins lay buried four
of my fellow creatures, called unprepared into eternity,
crushed by the falling roof whilst in the execution of
their duty.
Before leaving I again sought out my good friend
Gyllick—he who, during the last twenty years, had, as
castellan, done more towards the restoration of
Frederiksborg than any human being alive. “ I wish you
good bye for ever, Gyllick; I shall never return. I
have passed too many happy days in that dear old
gallery, studying the history of Denmark in the
por
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