The idea never seemed to strike Birger, who, by-the-way, belonging to the Royal Guards, was himself exempt from such service. “It is rather popular,” said he, “with all classes; the men like it because they have a considerable increase of pay, and as for the officers, except one or two who are on duty for the day, they have but a short morning and evening parade, just to see that their men are all right, and then they may do what they please. They lose nothing, either, for all places are equally dull in the summer, when everybody is at work; there can be no festivities going on anywhere, and so they shoot, or fish, or lounge, or make love, at their leisure. But here we are at the parade-ground,” he continued, as they came upon a cleared space in the forest, surrounded by very neat and compactly-built huts, some of considerable pretensions, framed with trunks of pines, and walled and roofed with outsides from the saw-mills, arranged as weather-boards; others, more humble, were constructed of pine-branches and heather; but all alike compact, neat, firm, tidy-looking, and arranged in military order, in straight lines, with their officers’ huts in front.
The sun was not far from its setting, and the soldiers having put aside their tools, were throwing on their belts in a way that certainly would not have satisfied an English adjutant, and were hurrying, with their muskets in their hands, to their respective posts. There was a short private inspection by the non-commissioned officers, while the band, a pretty good one, were tuning their instruments; after which the companies formed into line, faced to the west, and as the lower limb of the sun touched the horizon, the officers saluted with their swords, the men presented arms, and accompanied by the band, sang in chorus, every man of them joining in and taking his part in it, the beginning of Grundtvig’s glorious hymn to the Trinity.
“O mighty God! we Thee adore,
From our hearts’ depths, for evermore;—
None is in glory like to Thee
Through time and through eternity.
Thy Name is blessed by Cherubim—
Thy Name is blessed by Seraphim—
And songs of praise from earth ascend,
With thine angelic choirs to blend.