CHAPTER III.
DEPARTURE FROM CHRISTIANSAND—THE PILOT'S PRAM—SKAW POINT—DELINQUENCIES OF JACKO—EXPENSIVE CANNONADING—ELSINEUR—HAMLET'S WALK—THE MINISTER, STRUENSEE—STORY OF QUEEN CAROLINE-MATILDA—LEGEND OF THE SERF.
Thursday broke without a cloud. The wind breathed softly over the mountains from the West. We had no object to detain us longer, for the present, in Norway, and so the cutter was got under weigh. The wind gradually increased, and, at eight o'clock, we passed the Oxoe Light, at the eastern extremity of the Fiord.
The pilot, unaccustomed to the speed of an English yacht, was much alarmed about the safety of his boat towing at the cutter's stern; for, now and then, the antiquated pram would dip its nose so deeply into the water, being drawn swiftly through it, as to threaten instant submersion; and his attention divided between the tiller of a vessel, which flew up in the wind's eye with the slightest negligence, and his anxiety for the well-being of his own boat,—the countenance of the Norse tar was a book on whose leaves the student might have seen how truly "the ridiculous and sublime" can be united.
"Now then, my man," said D——; "mind your helm, or you'll have her up in the wind in a minute."
"Ja; but luke at moin praam—moin Got!"
"Curse your pram,—she won't hurt; haul her on board," said D—— to some of the sailors.
"Nej, nej," exclaimed the Norwegian; "zare—luke zare! Moin Got! luke at moin praam!"