Chapter VI (4)

[E49] The feast of St. Martin is supposed the proper time for killing pigs in Denmark. It is reported that when Corfitz Uldfeldt, in 1652, had published a defence of his conduct previously to his leaving Denmark the year before, he sent a copy to Peder Vibe, one of his principal adversaries, with this inscription:--

Chaque pourceau a son St. Martin;
Tu n'echapperas pas, mais auras le tien.

[130] In the margin is added: 'As I was to receive clothes, I asked for mourning clothes. Then the prison governor asked me for whom I wished to mourn, and this in a most ironical manner. I answered: "It is not for your aunt; it is not for me to mourn for her, although your aunt has been dead long. I think you have as good reason for wearing mourning as I." He said he would report it. I did not receive them at once.'

[131] In the margin is added: 'Chresten showed me once some bread, from which Walter had taken the crumb, and had filled it full of straw and dirt, in fact, of the very worst kind.'

When Chresten had to turn Walter in bed, the latter screamed so pitifully that I felt sympathy with him, and begged Chresten not to be so unmerciful to him. He laughed and said, 'He is a rogue.' I said, 'Then he is in his master's hands.' This pleased Chresten well. Walter suffered much pain; at length God released him. His body was left in the prison until his brother came, who ordered it to be buried in the German Church. When I heard that Karen could come to me again, and the time was over which I had promised the other to keep her, Cathrina went down and Karen returned to me. This was easily effected, for the prison governor was not well pleased with Cathrina; she gave him none of her money, as she had promised, but only empty words in its place, such as that he was not in earnest, and that he surely did not wish to have anything from her, &c.[132] The prison governor began immediately to pay me less respect, when he perceived that my liberation was not expected.

[132] In the margin is added; 'The prison governor also severely reprimanded the woman because she had told me that the King was dead; that it would not go as well with me as I thought. She gave him word for word.'

When the time came at which I was accustomed to receive the holy communion, I begged the prison governor that he should manage that I should have the court preacher, D. Hans Laet, as the former court preacher, D. Mathias Foss, had come to me on the first occasion in my prison. The prison governor stated my desire, and his Majesty assented. D. Hans Laet was already in the tower, down below, but he was called back because the Queen Dowager (who was still in the palace) would not allow it; and the prison governor sent me word, through Peder Jensen, that the King had said I was to be content with the clergyman to whom I was accustomed, so that the necessary preparation for the Lord's Supper was postponed till the following day, when Mag. Buck came to me and greeted me in an unusual manner, congratulating me in a long oration on my intention, saluting me 'your Grace.' When he was seated, he said, 'I should have been glad if D. Hans Laet had come in my place.' I replied, 'I had wished it also.' 'Yes,' he said, 'I know well why you wished it so. You wish to know things, and that is forbidden me. You have already caused one man to lose his employ.' I asked him whether I had ever desired to know anything from him? 'No,' he replied, 'you know well that you would learn nothing from me; for that reason you have asked me nothing.' 'Does the Herr Mag, then,' I said, 'mean that I desired D. Hans Laet in order to hear news of him?' He hesitated a little, and then said, 'You wanted to have D. Hans Laet in order that he might speak for you with the King.' I said, 'There may perhaps be something in that.' Upon this he began to swear all kinds of oaths (such as I have never heard before),[133] that he had spoken for me. (I thought: 'I have no doubt you have spoken of me, but not in my favour.') He had given me a book which I still have; it is 'St. Augustini Manuali;' the Statholder Gabel had bought it, as he said more than once, protesting by God that it had cost the Herr Statholder a rix-dollar. (I thought of the 5,000 rix-dollars which Gabel received, that we might be liberated from our confinement at Borringholm, but I said nothing; perhaps for this reason he repeated the statement so often.) I asked him whom I had caused to lose his employ. He answered, 'Hans Balcke.[134] He told you that Treasurer Gabel was Statholder, and he ought not to have done so.' I said, 'I do not believe that Balcke knew that he ought not to say it, for he did not tell it to me as a secret. One might say just as well that H. Magister had caused Balcke to lose his place.' He was very angry at this, and various disputes arose on the subject. He began again just as before, that I wanted to have D. Laet, he knew why. I said, 'I did not insist specially on having D. Laet; but if not him, the chaplain of the castle, or another.' He asked, 'Why another?' I replied, 'Because it is not always convenient to the Herr Magister. I have been obliged to wait for him ten, twelve, and even fourteen days, and the last time he administered his office in great haste, so that it is not convenient for him to come when I require him.' He sat turning over my words, not knowing what to answer, and at last he said; 'You think it will go better with you now because King Frederick is dead. No, you deceive yourself! It will go worse with you, it will go worse with you!' And as he was growing angry, I became more composed and I asked gently why so, and from what could he infer it? He answered, 'I infer it from the fact that you have not been able to get your will in desiring another clergyman and confessor; so I assure you things will not be better with you. If King Frederick is dead, King Christian is alive.' I said: 'That is a bad foundation; your words of threatening have no basis. If I have not this time been able to obtain another confessor, it does not follow that I shall not have another at another time. And what have I done, that things should go worse with me?' He was more and more angry, and exclaimed aloud several times, 'Worse, yes, it will be worse!' Then I also answered angrily, 'Well, then let it come.'

[133] In the margin is added: 'Among his terrible curses was one that his tongue might be paralysed if he had not spoken for me. The following year God struck him with paralysis of the tongue; he had a stroke from anger, and lived eight days afterwards; he was in his senses, but he was not able to speak, and he died; but he lived to see the day when another clergyman administered the holy communion to me.'

[134] In the margin is added: 'I saw now that this was the cause of Balcke's dismissal.'

Upon this he was quite silent, and I said: 'You have given me a good preparation; now, in God's name!' Then I made my confession, and he administered his office and went away without any other farewell than giving me his hand. I learned afterwards that before M. Buck came to me he went to the prison governor, who was in bed, and begged him to tell Knud, who was at that time page of the chamber,[E50] what a sacramental woman I was; how I had dug a hole in the floor in order to speak with the doctor (which was an impossibility), and how I had practised climbing up and looking out on the square. He begged him several times to tell this to the page of the chamber: 'That is a sacramental woman!'[135]

[E50] This Knud was the favourite of King Christian V., Adam Levin Knuth, one of the many Germans who then exercised a most unfavourable influence on the affairs of Denmark.

[135] In the margin is added: 'Chresten, who was ill satisfied both with Karen and with me, gave us a different title one day, when he was saying something to one of the house-servants, upon which the latter asked him who had said it? Chresten answered, 'She who is kept up there for her.' When I was told of this, I laughed and said, 'That is quite right, we are two "shes."'

In the end of April in the same year my door was opened one afternoon, and the prison governor came in with some ladies, who kept somewhat aside until he had said, 'Here are some of the maids of honour, who are permitted to speak to you.' There came in first a young lady whom I did not know. Next appeared the Lady Augusta of Gluecksburg, whom I recognised at once, as she was but little altered. Next followed the Electoral Princess of Saxony, whom I at once recognised from her likeness to her royal father, and last of all our gracious Queen, whom I chiefly looked at, and found the lineaments of her countenance just as Peder Jensen had described them. I saw also a large diamond on her bracelet, and one on her finger, where her glove was cut. Her Majesty supported herself against the folding table as soon as she had greeted me. Lady Augusta ran up and down into every corner, and the Electoral Princess remained at the door. Lady Augusta said: 'Fye, what a disgusting room this is! I could not live a day in it. I wonder that you have been able to endure it so long.' I answered, 'The room is such as pleases God and his Majesty, and so long as God will I shall be able to endure it.' She began a conversation with the prison governor, who was half tipsy, and spoke with him about Balcke's marriage, whose wedding with his third wife was taking place on that very day; she spoke against marrying so often, and the prison governor replied with various silly speeches. She asked me if I was plagued with fleas. I replied that I could furnish her with a regiment of fleas, if she would have them. She replied hastily with an oath, and swore that she did not want them.

Her question made me somewhat ironical, and I was annoyed at the delight she exhibited at my miserable condition; so when she asked me whether I had body or wall lice, I answered her with a question, and enquired whether my brother-in-law Hanibal Sehested was still alive? This question made her somewhat draw in, for she perceived that I knew her. She made no answer. The Electoral Princess, who probably had heard of my brother-in-law's intrigues with Lady Augusta,[E51] went quickly up to the table (the book lay on it, in which Karen used to read, and which she had brought in with her), took the book, opened it and asked whether it was mine. I replied that it belonged to the woman whom I had taught to read, and as I gave the Electoral Princess her fitting title of Serene Highness, Lady Augusta said: 'You err! You are mistaken; she is not the person whom you think.' I answered, 'I am not mistaken.' After this she said no more, but gave me her hand without a word. The gracious Queen looked sadly on, but said nothing. When her Majesty gave me her hand, I kissed it and held it fast, and begged her Majesty to intercede for me, at any rate for some alleviation of my captivity. Her Majesty replied not with words, but with a flood of tears. The virtuous Electoral Princess cried also; she wept very sorrowfully. And when they had reached the anteroom and my door was closed, both the Queen and the Electoral Princess said, 'It is a sin to treat her thus!' They shuddered; and each said, 'Would to God that it rested with me! she should not stay there.' Lady Augusta urged them to go away, and mentioned it afterwards to the Queen Dowager, who said that I had myself to thank for it; I had deserved to be worse treated than this.

[E51] Hannibal Sehested was dead already in 1666, as Leonora was no doubt well aware. The whole passage seems to indicate that he is supposed to have had some love-intrigue with the duchess. Nothing has transpired on this subject from other sources, but it is certain that her husband, Duke Ernst Gynther, for some time at least, was very unfriendly disposed to Hannibal Sehested.

When the King's funeral was over, and the Queen Dowager had left the castle, I requested the prison governor that he should execute my message and solicit another clergyman for me, either the chaplain of the castle or the arsenal chaplain, or the one who usually attended to the prisoners; for if I could get no other than M. Buck, they must take the sin on their own heads, for that I would not again confess to him. A short time elapsed, but at length the chaplain of the castle, at that time M. Rodolff Moth, was assigned me. God, who has ever stood by me in all my adversity, and who in my sorrow and distress has sent me unexpected consolation, gave me peculiar comfort in this man. He consoled me with the Word of God; he was a learned and conversable man, and he interceded for me with his Majesty. The first favour which he obtained for me was, that I was granted another apartment on July 16, 1671, and Bishop D. Jesper's postil.

He afterwards by degrees obtained still greater favours for me. I received 200 rix-dollars as a gift, to purchase such clothes for myself as I desired, and anything I might wish for to beguile the time.[136]

[136] In the margin is noted: 'Some of my money I expended on books, and it is remarkable that I obtained from M. Buck's books (which were sold by auction) among others the great Martilegium, in folio, which he would not lend me. I excerpted and translated various matters from Spanish, Italian, French, and German authors. I especially wrote out and translated into Danish the female personages of different rank and origin, who were mentioned with praise by the authors as valiant, true, chaste and sensible, patient, steadfast and scholarly.' [E52]

[E52] The Martilegium was probably a German history of Martyrs, entitled 'Martilogium (for martyrologium) der Heiligen' (Strasburg 1484, fol.). The extracts to which she refers were no doubt her earliest collections for her work on Heroines.

In this year her Majesty the Queen became pregnant, and her Majesty's mother, the Landgravine of Hesse, came to be with her in her confinement. On September 6 her Serene Highness visited me in my prison, at first wishing to remain incognito. She had with her a Princess of Curland, who was betrothed to the son of the Landgravine; her lady in waiting, a Wallenstein by birth; and the wife of her master of the household. The Landgravine greeted me with a kiss, and the others followed her example. I did not at that time recognise the wife of the master of the household, but she had known me formerly in my prosperity at the Hague, when she had been in the service of the Countess Leuenstein, and the tears stood in her eyes.

The Landgravine lamented my hard fate and my unhappy circumstances. I thanked her Serene Highness for the gracious sympathy she felt with me, and said that she might help much in alleviating my fetters, if not in liberating me from them entirely. The Landgravine smiled and said, 'I see well you take me for another than I am.' I said, 'Your Serene Highness's deportment and appearance will not allow you to conceal your rank, were you even in peasant's attire.' This pleased her; she laughed and jested, and said she had not thought of that. The lady in waiting agreed with me, and said that I had spoken very justly in saying that I had recognised her by her royal appearance. Upon this the Landgravine said, 'You do not know her?' pointing to the Princess of Curland. She then said who she was, and afterwards who her lady in waiting was, and also the wife of the master of the household, who was as I have before mentioned. She spoke of the pity which this lady felt for me, and added 'Et moy pas moins.' I thanked her 'Altesse tres-humblement et la prioit en cette occasion de faire voir sa genereuse conduite.' Her Serene Highness looked at the prison governor as though she would say that we might speak French too long; she took off her glove and gave me her hand, pressing mine and saying, 'Croyez-moy, je fairez mon possible.' I kissed her Serene Highness's hand, and she then took leave of me with a kiss.

The virtuous Landgravine kept her word, but could effect nothing. When her Majesty the Queen was in the perils of childbirth, she went to the King and obtained from him a solemn promise that if the Queen gave birth to a son I should receive my liberty. On October 11, in the night between one and two o'clock, God delivered her Majesty in safety of our Crown Prince. When all present were duly rejoicing at the Prince's birth, the Landgravine said, 'Oh! will not the captive rejoice!' The Queen Dowager enquired 'Why?' The Landgravine related the King's promise. The Queen Dowager was so angry that she was ill. She loosened her jacket, and said she would return home; that she would not wait till the child was baptised. Her coach appeared in the palace square. The King at length persuaded her to remain till the baptism was over, but he was obliged to promise with an oath that I should not be liberated. This vexed the virtuous Landgravine not a little, that the Queen should have induced her son to break his promise; and she persisted in saying that a king ought to keep his vow. The Queen Dowager answered, 'My son has before made a vow, and this he has broken by his promise to your Serene Highness.' The Landgravine said at last: 'If I cannot bring about the freedom of the prisoner, at least let her, at my request, be removed to a better place, with somewhat more liberty. It is not to the King's reputation that she is imprisoned there. She is, after all, a king's daughter, and I know that much injustice is done to her.' The Queen Dowager was annoyed at these words, and said, 'Now, she shall not come out; she shall remain where she is!' The Landgravine answered, 'If God will, she will assuredly come out, even though your Majesty may will it not;' so saying, she rose and went out.

On October 18 the lady in waiting, Wallenstein, sent for Peder Jensen Totzloff, and delivered to him by command a book entitled, D. Heinrich Mueller's 'Geistliche Erquickstunden,'[E53] which he gave me with a gracious message from the Landgravine. On the same day I sent her Serene Highness, through Totzloff, my dutiful thanks, and Totzloff took the book back to the lady in waiting, with the request that she would endeavour to prevail on her Highness to show me the great favour of placing her name and motto in the book, in remembrance of her Highness's generosity and kindness. I lamented my condition in this also, that from such a place I could not spread abroad her Serene Highness's praise and estimable benefits, and make the world acquainted with them; but that I would do what I could, and I would include her Serene Highness and all her family in my prayers for their welfare both of soul and body. (This I have done, and will do, so long as God spares my life.)

[E53] 'Hours of Spiritual Refreshment.' This very popular book of devotion was first published in 1664, and had an extraordinary run both in Germany and, through translations, in Denmark. The last Danish extract of it was published in 1846, and reached the third edition in 1856.

On October 23 I received the book back through Totzloff, and I found within it the following lines, written by the Landgravine's own hand:

1671.

Ce qui n'est pas en ta puissance
Ne doit point troubler ton repos;
Tu balances mal a propos
Entre la crainte et l'esperance.
Laisse faire ton Dieu et ton roy,
Et suporte avec passience ce qu'il resoud pour toy.

Je prie Dieu de vous faire cette grace, et que je vous puisse
tesmoigner combien je suis,

Madame, vostre tres-affectionee a vous servir,
{Monogram}

The book is still in my possession, and I sent word through Totzloff to the lady in waiting to request her to convey my most humble thanks to her Highness; and afterwards, when the Landgravine was about to start on her journey, to commend me to her Serene Highness's favour.

In the same year, 1671, Karen, Nils' daughter, left me on account of ill health. For one night a woman was with me named Margrete, who was a serf from Holstein. She had run away from her master. She was a very awkward peasant woman, so towards evening on the following day she was sent away, and in her place there came a woman named Inger, a person of loose character. This woman gave herself out as the widow of a non-commissioned officer, and that she had long been in service at Hamburg, and nursed lying-in women. It happened with her, as is often the case, that one seeks to obtain a thing, and that to one's own vexation. Chresten had spoken for this woman with the prison governor, and had praised her before me, but the prison governor took upon another recommendation the before-mentioned Margrete. So long as there was hope that the Landgravine might obtain my freedom, this woman was very amenable, but afterwards she began by degrees to show what was in her, and that it was not for nothing that she resembled Dina.

She caused me annoyance of various kinds, which I received with patience, thinking within myself that it was another trial imposed by God upon me, and Dina's intrigues often came into my mind, and I thought, 'Suppose she should devise some Dina plot?' (She is capable of it, if she had only an instigator, as Dina had.) Among other annoyances, which may not be reckoned among the least, was this: I was one day not very well, having slept but little or not at all during the night, and I had lain down to sleep on the bed in the day; and she would give me no rest, but came softly past me in her socks, and in order to wake me teased a dog which I had,[137] so that he growled. I asked her why she grudged my sleeping? She answered, 'I did not know that you were asleep.' 'Why, then,' I said, 'did you go by in your stockings?' She replied, 'If you saw that, then you were not asleep,' and she laughed heartily by herself. (She sat always in front of my table with her back turned to me; whether it was because she had lost one eye that she sat in that position to the light, I know not.)

[137] In the margin is added: 'This dog was of an Icelandic breed, not pretty, but very faithful and sagacious. He slept every afternoon on the stool, and when she had fallen asleep, she let her hands hang down. Then the dog would get up and run softly and bite her finger till the blood came. If she threw down her slippers, he would take one and sit upon it. She never got it back again without a bloody finger.'

I did not care for any conversation with her, so I lay still; and when she thought I was asleep, she got up again and teased the dog. I said, 'You tax my patience sorely; but if once my passion rises, you will certainly get something which will astonish you, you base accursed thing!' 'Base accursed thing,' she repeated to herself with a slight laugh. I prayed to God that he would restrain me, so that I might not lay violent hands on this base creature. And as I had the other apartment (as I have before mentioned),[138] I went out and walked up and down between four and five o'clock. She washed and splashed outside, and spilled the water exactly where I was walking. I told her several times to leave her splashing, as she spilled the water in all directions on the floor, so that I made my clothes dirty, and often there was not a drop of water for my dog to drink, and the tower-warder had to fetch her water from the kitchen spring. This was of no avail. One day it occurred to her, just as the bell had sounded four, to go out and pour all the water on the floor, and then come back again. When I went to the door, I perceived what she had done. Without saying a word, I struck her first on one cheek and then on the other, so that the blood ran from her nose and mouth, and she fell against her bench, and knocked the skin from her shin-bone. She began to be abusive, and said she had never in her life had such a box on her ears. I said immediately, 'Hold your tongue, or you will have another like it! I am now only a little angry, but if you make me really angry I shall strike you harder.' She was silent for the time, but she caused me all the small annoyance she could.

[138] In the margin is this note: 'In the year 1672, on the 4th May, one of the house-servants was arrested for stealing. Adam Knudt, at that time gentleman of the chamber, himself saw him take several ducats early one morning from the King's trousers, which were hanging against the walls. He was at first for some hours my neighbour in the Dark Church. He was then placed in the Witch Cell, and as he was to be tortured, he received secret warning of it (which was forbidden), so that when the executioner came he was found to have hung himself. That is to say, he was said to have hung himself, though to all appearance this was not possible; he was found with a cloth round his neck, which was a swaddling-cloth belonging to one of Chresten, the tower-warder's, children. Chresten became my neighbour, and was ostensibly brought to justice, but he was acquitted and reinstated in his office.

I received it all with gentleness, fearing that I might lay violent hands on her. She scarcely knew what to devise to cause me vexation; she had a silver thimble on which a strange name was engraved; she had found it, she said, in a dust-heap in the street. I once asked her where she had found some handkerchiefs which she had of fine Dutch linen, with lace on them, which likewise were marked with another name; they were embroidered with blue silk, and there was a different name on each. She had bought them, she said, at an auction at Hamburg.[139] I thought that the damage she had received on one of her eyes might very likely have arisen from her having 'found' something of that kind,[E54] and as I soon after asked her by what accident she had injured her eye, she undoubtedly understood my question well, for she was angry and rather quiet, and said, 'What injury? There is nothing the matter with my eye; I can, thank God, see with both.' I let the matter rest there. Soon after this conversation she came down one day from upstairs, feeling in her pocket, though she said nothing until the afternoon, when the doors were locked, and then she looked through all her rubbish, saying 'If I only knew where it could be?' I asked what she was looking for. 'My thimble,' she said. 'You will find it,' I said; 'only look thoroughly!' And as she had begun to look for it in her pockets before she had required it, I thought she might have drawn it out of her pocket with some paper which she used, and which she had bought. I said this, but it could not be so.

[139] In the margin is added: 'She was so proud of her knowledge of German that when she sang a morning hymn (which, however rarely happened) she interspersed it with German words. I once asked her if she knew what her mother's cat was called in Danish, and I said something at which she was angry.

[E54] It was a common superstition that persons who understood the art of showing by magic the whereabouts of stolen goods, had the power, by use of their formulas alone, to deprive the thief of an eye.

On the following day, towards noon, she again behaved as if she were looking for it upstairs; and when the door was closed she began to give loose to her tongue, and to make a long story about the thimble, where it could possibly be. 'There was no one here, and no one came in except us two;' and she gave me to understand that I had taken it; she took her large box which she had, and rummaged out everything that was in it, and said, 'Now you can see that I have not got it.' I said that I did not care about it, whether she had it or no, but that I saw that she accused me of stealing. She adhered to it, and said, 'Who else could have taken it? There is no one else here, and I have let you see all that is mine, and it is not there.' Then for the first time I saw that she wished that I should let her see in the same manner what I had in my cardbox, for she had never seen anything of the work which I had done before her time. I said, 'I do not care at all what you do with your thimble, and I respect myself too much to quarrel with you or to mind your coarse and shameless accusation. I have, thank God, enough in my imprisonment to buy what I require, &c. But as you perhaps have stolen it, you now imagine that it has been stolen again from you, if it be true that you have lost it.' To this she made no answer, so that I believe she had it herself, and only wanted by this invention to gain a sight of my things. As it was the Christmas month and very cold, and Chresten was lighting a fire in the stove before the evening meal, I said to him in her presence, 'Chresten, you are fortunate if you are not, like me, accused of stealing, for you might have found her thimble upstairs without having had it proclaimed from the pulpit; it was before found by Inger, and not announced publicly.'

This was like a spark to tinder, and she went to work like a frantic being, using her shameless language. She had not stolen it, but it had been stolen from her; and she cursed and swore. Chresten ordered her to be silent. He desired her to remember who I was, and that she was in my service. She answered, 'I will not be silent, not if I were standing before the King's bailiff!' The more gently I spoke, the more angry was she; at length I said, 'Will you agree with me in one wish?--that the person who last had the thimble in her possession may see no better with her left eye than she sees with her right.' She answered with an oath that she could see with both eyes. I said, 'Well, then, pray God with me that she may be blind in both eyes who last had it.' She growled a little to herself and ran into the inner room, and said no more of her thimble, nor did I. God knows that I was heartily weary of this intercourse.

I prayed God for patience, and thought 'This is only a trial of patience. God spares me from other sorrow which I might have in its stead.' I could not avail myself of the occasion of her accusing me of theft to get rid of her, but I saw another opportunity not far off. The prison governor came one day to me with some thread which was offered for sale, rather coarse, but fit for making stockings and night-waistcoats. I bought two pounds of it, and he retained a pound, saying, 'I suppose the woman can make me a pair of stockings with it?' I answered in the affirmative (for she could do nothing else but knit). When he was gone, she said, 'There will be a pair of stockings for me here also, for I shall get no other pay.' I said, 'That is surely enough.' The stockings for the prison governor were finished. She sat one day half asleep, and made a false row round the stocking below the foot. I wanted her to undo it. 'No,' said she, 'it can remain as it is; he won't know but that it is the fashion in Hamburg.'[140]

[140] In the margin is added: 'There was no similar row on the other stocking. The prison governor never mentioned it.'

When his stockings were finished, she began a pair for herself of the same thread, and sat and exulted that it was the prison governor's thread. This, it seemed to me, furnished me with an opportunity of getting rid of her. And as the prison governor rarely came up, and she sent him down the stockings by Totzloff, I begged Totzloff to contrive that the prison governor should come up to me, and that he should seat himself on the woman's bed and arrange her pillow as if he wanted to lean against it (underneath it lay her wool). This was done. The prison governor came up, took the knitting in his hand, and said to Inger, 'Is this another pair of stockings for me?' 'No, Mr. Prison governor,' she answered, 'they are for me. You have got yours. I have already sent you them.' 'But,' said he, 'this is of my thread; it looks like my thread.' She protested that it was not his thread. As he went down to fetch his stockings and the scales, she said to me, 'That is not his thread; it is mine now,' and laughed heartily. I thought, 'Something more may come of this.'

The prison governor came with the scales and his stockings, compared one thread with the other, and the stockings weighed scarcely half a pound. He asked her whether she had acted rightly? She continued to assert that it was her thread; that she had bought it in Hamburg, and had brought it here. The prison governor grew angry, and said that she lied, and called her a bitch. She swore on the other hand that it was not his thread; that she would swear it by the Sacrament. The prison governor went away; such an oath horrified him. I was perfectly silent during this quarrel. When the prison governor had gone, I said to the woman, 'God forbid! how could you say such words? Do you venture to swear a falsehood by the Sacrament, and to say it in my presence, when I know that it is the prison governor's thread? What a godless creature you are!' She answered, with a half ridiculous expression of face, 'I said I would take the Sacrament upon it, but I am not going to do so.' 'Oh Dina!' I thought, 'you are not like her for nothing; God guard me from you!' And I said, 'Do you think that such light words are not a sin, and that God will not punish you for them?' She assumed an air of authority, and said, 'Is the thread of any consequence? I can pay for it; I have not stolen it from him; he gave it to me himself. I have only done what the tailors do; they do not steal; it is given to them. He did not weigh out the thread for me.' I answered her no more than 'You have taken it from him; I shall trouble myself no more about it;' but I begged Totzloff to do all he could that I should be rid of her, and have another in her place of a good character.

Totzloff heard that Karen had a desire to return to me; he told me so. The prison governor was satisfied with the arrangement. It was kept concealed from Inger till all was so settled that Karen could come up one evening at supper-time. When the prison governor had unlocked the door, and had established himself in the inner room, and the woman had come out, he said: 'Now, Inger, pack your bundle! You are to go.' 'Yes, Mr. Prison governor,' she answered, and laughed, and brought the food to me, and told me what the prison governor had said, saying at the same time, 'That is his joke.' 'I heard well,' I answered, 'what he said; it is not his joke, it is his real earnestness.' She did not believe it; at any rate she acted as if she did not, and smiled, saying, 'He cannot be in earnest;' and she went out and asked the prison governor whether he was in earnest. He said, 'Go! go! there is no time for gossip!' She came into me again, and asked if I wished to be rid of her. I answered, 'Yes.' 'Why so?' she asked. I answered: 'It would take me too long to explain; the other woman who is to remain here is below.' 'At any rate,' said she, 'let me stay here over the night.' ('Ah, Dina!' I thought.) 'Not a quarter of an hour!' I answered; 'go and pack your things! That is soon done!' She did so, said no word of farewell, and went out of the door.

Thus Karen came to me for the third time, but she did not remain an entire year, on account of illness.[141]

[141] In the margin is noted: 'I must remember one thing about Karen, Nil's daughter. When anything gave her satisfaction, she would take up her book directly and read. I asked her whether she understood what she read. "Yes, of course," she answered, "as truly as God will bless you! When a word comes that I don't understand, I pass it over." I smiled a little in my own mind, but said nothing.'

In the year 1673 M. Moth became vice-bishop in Fyn. I lost much in him, and in his place came H. Emmeke Norbye, who became court preacher, and who had formerly been a comrade of Griffenfeldt; but Griffenfeldt did not acknowledge him subsequently, so that he could achieve nothing for me with Griffenfeldt.[E55] He one day brought me as answer (when I sent him word among other things that his Majesty would be gracious if only some one would speak for me), 'It would be as if a pistol had been placed at the King's heart, and he were to forgive it.'

[E55] Griffenfeldt, who was then at the height of his power, was the son of a wine-merchant, by name Schumacher, but had risen by his talents alone to the highest dignities. He was ennobled under the name of Griffenfeldt, and was undoubtedly the ablest statesman Denmark ever possessed. Eventually he was thrust from his high position by an intrigue set on foot by German courtiers and backed by foreign influence. He was accused of treason and kept in prison from 1676 to 1698, the year before he died, to the great, perhaps irreparable damage, of his native country. The principal witness against him was a German doctor, Mauritius, a professional spy, who had served the Danish Government in this capacity. The year after the fall of Griffenfeld, he was himself arrested on a charge of perjury, forgery, and high treason, and placed in the Blue Tower; he was convicted and conducted to Bornholm, where he died. But Griffenfeldt, who had been convicted on his false testimony, was not liberated. Griffenfeldt's ability and patriotism cannot be doubted, but his personal character was not without blemish; and it is a fact that in his prosperity he disclaimed all connection with his earlier friends, and even his near relations.

In the same year my sister Elisabeth Augusta sent me a message through Totzloff and enquired whether I had a fancy for any fruit, as she would send me some. I was surprised at the message, which came to me from my sister in the tenth year of my captivity, and I said, 'Better late than never!' I sent her no answer.

One funny thing I will yet mention, which occurred in the time of Karen, Nil's daughter. Chresten, who had to make a fire in the stove an hour before supper (since it had no flue), so that the smoke could pass out at the staircase door before I supped, did not come one evening before six o'clock, and was then quite tipsy. And as I was sitting at the time near the stove in the outer apartment on a log of wood, which had been hewed as a seat, I said it was late to make the fire, as he must now go into the kitchen. He paid no attention to my gentle remark, until I threatened him with hard words, and ordered him to take the wood out. He was angry, and would not use the tongs to take the wood out, nor would he permit Karen to take them out with the tongs; but he tore them out with his hands, and said, 'Nothing can burn me.' And as some little time elapsed before the wood was extinguished, he began to fear that it would give little satisfaction if he so long delayed fetching the meal. He seated himself flat on the ground and was rather dejected; presently he burst out and said, 'Oh God, you who have had house and lands, where are you now sitting?' I said, 'On a log of wood!' He answered, 'I do not mean your ladyship!' I asked, 'Whom does your worship mean, then?' He replied, 'I mean Karen.' I laughed, and said no more.

To enumerate all the contemptuous conduct I endured would be too lengthy, and not worth the trouble. One thing I will yet mention of the tower-warder Chresten, who caused me great annoyance at the end of this tenth year of my imprisonment. Among other annoyances he once struck my dog, so that it cried. I did not see it, but I heard it, and the woman told me it was he who had struck the dog. I was greatly displeased at it. He laughed at this, and said, 'It is only a dog.' I gave him to understand that he struck the dog because he did not venture to strike me. He laughed heartily at the idea, and I said, 'I do not care for your anger so long as the prison governor is my friend' (this conversation took place while I was at a meal, and the prison governor was sitting with me, and Chresten was standing at the door of my apartment, stretching out his arms.) I said, 'The prison governor and you will both get into heavy trouble, if I choose. Do you hear that, good people?' (I knew of too many things, which they wished to hide, in more than one respect.) The prison governor sat like one deaf and dumb, and remained seated, but Chresten turned away somewhat ashamed, without saying another word. He had afterwards some fear of me, when he was not too intoxicated; for at such times he cared not what he said, as regards high or low. He was afterwards insolent to the woman, and said he would strike the dog, and that I should see him do so. This, however, he did not do.

Chresten's fool-hardiness increased, so that Peder Totzloff informed the prison governor of his bad behaviour, and of my complaints of the wild doings of the prisoners, who made such a noise by night that I could not sleep for it, for Chresten spent the night at his home, and allowed the prisoners to do as they chose. Upon this information, the prison governor placed a padlock upon the tower door at night, so that Chresten could not get out until the door was unlocked in the morning. This annoyed him, and he demanded his discharge, which he received on April 24, 1674; and in his place there came a man named Gert, who had been in the service of the prison governor as a coachman.

In this year, the ---- May, I wrote a spiritual 'Song in Remembrance of God's Goodness,' after the melody 'Nun ruhen alle Waelder.'

I.

My heart! True courage find!
God's goodness bear in mind,
And how He, ever nigh,
Helps me my load to bear,
Nor utterly despair
Tho' in such heavy bonds I lie.

II.

Ne'er from my thoughts shall stray
How once I lingering lay
In the dark dungeon cell;
My cares and bitter fears,
And ridicule and tears,
And God the Lord upheld me well.

III.

Think on my misery
And sad captivity
Thro' many a dreary year!
Yet nought my heart distresses;
The Lord He proves and blesses,
And He protects me even here!

IV.

Come heart and soul elate!
And let me now relate
The wonders of God's skill!
He was my preservation
In danger and temptation,
And kept me from impending ill.

V.

The end seemed drawing near,
I wrung my hands with fear,
Yet has He helped me e'er;
My refuge and my guide,
On Him I have relied,
And He has ever known my care.