[E32] Dr. Otto Sperling, the elder, is often alluded to in the [Autobiography] of Leonora as ‘notre vieillard;’ he was a faithful friend of Ulfeldt, and in 1654 he settled in Hamburg, where he educated Corfitz’s youngest son Leo. He was implicated in Ulfeldt’s intrigues, and a compromising correspondence between them fell into the hands of the Spanish Government, which placed it at the disposal of Hannibal [Sehested] when he passed through the Netherlands on his way home from his mission to France in 1663. In order to obtain possession of Sperling’s person, the Danish authorities used the ruse of sending a Danish officer to his house in Hamburg, and request him to visit professionally a sick person just across the Danish frontier, paying in advance a considerable fee. Sperling, who did not suspect the transaction, was arrested immediately on crossing the boundary, and brought to Copenhagen. He was condemned to death July 28, 1664; but the sentence was commuted, and he died in the Blue Tower December 25, 1681. Otto Sperling, jun., to whom Leonora sent the MS. of her Autobiography, and who often visited her at Maribo, was his son.
[E33] The name of this judge was Villum Lange, and it is a curious coincidence that a letter from him of a somewhat later time (1670), has been found in one of the archives, in which he speaks of this very affair, and in which he expresses himself very much in the sense here indicated.
[E34] The words ‘under the bottom ... to ... Auguste,’ inclusive, have been struck out in the MS., and it has been impossible to read more than what here is rendered. In the Autobiography, where the same occurrence is related, Leonora says that she put on it the names both of the King and of the Queen; that on the bottom she wrote to the Queen, and that it was the Queen who discovered the inscription; from which it would appear that the Queen at all events was included in her ingeniously contrived supplique.
[E35] This book was doubtless the German translation of Conr. Lycosthenes’ work, ‘Prodigiorum ac Ostentorum Chronicon.’ It is an amusing illustrated volume, much read in its time. The translation in question appeared in Basle, 1557.
[E36] This custom of congratulating persons who intend to communicate, or just have done so, is still retained by many of the older generation in Denmark.
[E37]
[E37b] It was a Colonel Hagedorn that entrapped and arrested Dr. Sperling, and Jäger played only a subordinate part in that transaction. He is stated to have been a cousin of Gabel, and to have been formerly a commander in the navy. He was appointed prison governor on June 12, 1665, and Balcke therefore doubtless only held the appointment provisionally.
[E38] ‘Anno 1666, soon after Karen, [Nils’] daughter, came to me, we first discovered that there was a stone floor to my prison chamber, as she broke loose a piece of rubbish cemented together, and the stones were apparent. I had before thought it a loam floor. The former Karen, Ole’s daughter, was one of those who spread the dirt but do not take it away. This Karen tormented me unceasingly, almost daily, that we must remove it everywhere, and that at once—it would soon be done. I was of opinion that it would make us ill if it was done all at once, as we required water to soften it, and the stench in this oppressive hole would cause sickness, but that it would be easier and less uncomfortable to remove one piece after another. She adhered to her opinion and to her desire, and thought that she could persuade the prison governor and the tower-warder to let the door remain open till all had been made clean. But when the tower-warder had brought in a tub of water, he locked the door. I went to bed and covered my face closely, while she scraped and swept up the dirt. The quantity of filth was incredible. It had been collecting for years, for this had been a malefactors’ prison, and the floor had never been cleaned. She laid all the dirt in a heap in the corner, and there was as much as a cartload. It was left there until evening at supper-time, when the doors were opened. It was as I feared: we were both ill. The woman recovered first, for she could get out into the air, but I remained in the oppressive hole, where there was scarcely light. We gained this from it, that we were tormented day and night with numbers of fleas, and they came to her more than to me, so much so that she was often on the point of weeping. I laughed and made fun of it, saying that she would now have always something to do, and would have enough to beguile the time. We could not, however, work. The fleas were thick on our stockings, so that the colour of the stockings was not to be perceived, and we wiped them off into the water-basin. I then discovered that one flea produces another. For when I examined them, and how they could swim, I perceived that some small feet appeared behind the flea, and I thought it was a peculiar kind. At last I saw what it was, and I took the flea from which the small one was emerging on my finger, and it left behind evidences of birth: it hopped immediately, but the mother remained a little, until she recovered herself, and the first time she could not hop so far. This amusement I had more than once, till the fleas came to an end. Whether all fleas are born in this manner I cannot tell, but that they are produced from dirt and loam I have seen in my prison, and I have observed how they become gradually perfect and of the peculiar colour of the material from which they have been generated. I have seen them pair.’
It is scarcely necessary to say that, as far as natural history is concerned, Leonora has committed a mistake.
[E39] Leonora alludes to an anecdote told by ‘Cicero in Tuscul. Quæst. lib. i. c. 43.’ He recounts that the cynic Diogenes had ordered that his body should not be buried after his death but left uninterred. His friends asked, ‘As a prey to birds and wild beasts?’ ‘Not at all,’ answered Diogenes; place a stick by me, wherewith I may drive them away.’ ‘But how can you?’ rejoined these; ‘you won’t know!’ ‘But what then,’ was his reply, ‘concern the attacks of the wild beasts me, when I don’t feel them?’
[E40] This sister was Hedvig, who married Ebbe Ulfeldt, a relative of Corfitz Ulfeldt. He was obliged to leave Denmark in 1651, on account of irregularities in the conduct of his office, and went to Sweden, where he became a major-general in the army. He is the person alluded to in the Autobiography. Several of Leonora’s children lived in Sweden with their relatives after the death of Corfitz Ulfeldt; but in 1668 the Danish Government obtained that they were forbidden the country.