Crossing a drawbridge, we arrived at an arched door; and Mr. C——, taking hold of an antique iron chain, pulled it. The noisy tongue of a hollow-sounding bell roused not the bark of slumbering hound, but had all the desolation to itself, and echoed loudly and longly, then slowly, stroke by stroke, through the deserted corridors. In a few minutes a man, courtierly and well dressed, grasping a huge bunch of keys in his left hand, opened the door; and, judging from our countenances—for I know not by what else he could judge—the nature of our visit, requested, in Danish, that we would enter. Mr. C—— replied, and told him we were Englishmen. He bowed, and addressed us afterwards in our own language.
The hall in which we now stood was surrounded, near the roof, with the escutcheons of the old Kings of Denmark; and, in niches, three or four feet from the marble floor, were bright suits of armour belonging also to the ancient Danish Monarchs. From one anteroom to another, and from presence-chamber to throne-room, we passed, and found in each one some remnant of chivalry to admire, and heard of some deed to regret.
In the room where Christian IV. used to hold his councils is a Throne of state, exceeding, by a great deal, the dimensions of a large arm-chair, and composed of solid silver, and carved at the back in the most fantastic and beautiful fashion. Placed at intervals of a yard round this room, upwards of fifty feet long, are many other chairs, not so large as the first one, but also of pure silver. In these the king's privy councillors sate. Along the walls is hung the most curious tapestry, worked by the hand nearly three centuries ago, and representing battles with the Swedes, and the naval victories of Christian. Walking along, you leave this magnificent room on the left side; and, at the end of a long passage, a small door admits you, by touching a spring in the panel, to a boudoir, about twelve feet square, entirely walled, ceiled, and floored, with mirrors, so that, the face and back, the right and the left sides, the crown of the head and the sole of the foot, may be seen, simultaneously, at one glance. The ingenious and amorous Christian, being far advanced beyond the ideas of his time, conceived this room and its adaptation; for, in this Boudoir Christian's mistresses were wont to revel with their royal lord, after ablution in a bath close at hand.
Adjoining this apartment is another boudoir, filed with jewels of inestimable value, not to mention swords of gold, and spurs of gold, armour, and casques of gold. In a glass-case, which is kept locked, are the entire accoutrements of a horse; and the saddle, even to the stirrup-straps and girths, was studded with pearls, emeralds, rubies, and torquoises. On the pommel, inlaid, were four emeralds, having a ruby for their centre, each stone being little less than an inch square. Every day Christian must have dismounted his horse some hundred pounds poorer than when he mounted; and yet the eye could detect no flaw in this precious saddle by the absence of a single pearl. It struck me at the time as being very astonishing that, a small kingdom like Denmark, and not a rich one, could find a surplus revenue sufficient to collect such immensity of wealth, and the resources of the country not flag by its useless accumulation. Why, the sale of all the jewellery, and gold, and silver in the castle of Rosenberg would pay off half the national debt of Denmark.
The earthenware and china, manufactured many centuries ago, are also very curious and valuable. We visited a room literally crammed from top to bottom with vases, tumblers, and glasses of all sizes and denominations; and, while we were almost speechless in the admiration of a bowl sufficiently large to admit its being mistaken for a bath, and not less delicate in thickness than the rice paper made by natives of the East, the Dane drew our attention to a rent in the ceiling, and asked if we would not regret that any accident should destroy a collection so curious, and the manufacture of which was now lost to science. We replied altogether, with much indignation, that a man who attempted the deed would be no better than an assassin, and might, without reference to an impartial advocate, be hanged from one of the portcullis' spikes below.
"Do you think so, really, gentlemen?" inquired the Dane, with an odd kind of a smile.
"We do, we do," we all unanimously said; and Mr. C. wound up with monosyllabic emphasis,
"Yes!"
"Well, then," with measured tone, answered the Dane, "that rent you see there was done some forty years ago, and a shell from Nelson's ship did it."
He stopped to mark the effect this disclosure would have upon us; and, finding we regretted the policy of our country, but could not control the cannon-balls of our ships, he continued, smiling,