Ah! my heart could receive no more painful wound!... A young man
destitute of morals.... He dared gaze at her! His glance soiled her
purity. Claudia! The mere thought drives me mad.--LESSING.
“Andrew, go and order them to ring the curfew bell in half an hour. Let
Sorsyll relieve Duckness at the portcullis, and Malvidius keep watch on
the platform of the great tower. Let a careful lookout be kept in the
direction of the Lion of Schleswig donjon. Do not forget to fire the
cannon at seven o’clock, as a signal to lift the harbor chain. But no,
we must wait a little for Captain Dispolsen; better light the signals
instead, and see if the Walderhog beacon is lighted, as I ordered
to-day. Be sure to keep refreshments ready for the captain. And, I
forgot,--give Toric-Belfast, the second musketeer of the regiment, two
days’ arrest; he has been absent all day.”
So said the sergeant-at-arms beneath the black and smoky roof of the
Munkholm guard-house, in the low tower over the outer castle gate.
The soldiers addressed left their cards or bed to carry out his orders;
then silence was restored. At this moment the measured beat of oars was
heard outside.
“That must be Captain Dispolsen at last!” said the sergeant, opening the
tiny grated window which looked out upon the gulf.
A boat was just landing at the foot of the iron gate.
“Who goes there?” cried the sergeant in hoarse tones.
“Open!” was the answer; “peace and safety.”
“There is no admittance here. Have you a passport?”
“Yes.”
“I must make sure of that. If you lie, by the merits of my patron saint,
you shall taste the waters of the gulf!” Then, closing the lattice and
turning away, he added: “It is not the captain yet.”
A light shone behind the iron gate. The rusty bolts creaked, the grating
rose, the gate opened, and the sergeant examined a parchment handed him
by the new-comer.
“Pass in,” said he. “But stay,” he added hastily, “leave your hat-buckle
outside. No one is allowed to enter the prisons of the State wearing
jewels. The order declares that ‘the king and the members of the royal
family, the viceroy and members of the vice-regal family, the bishop,
and the officers of the garrison, are alone excepted.’ You come under
none of these heads, do you?”
The young man, without reply, removed the forbidden ornament, and flung
it to the fisherman who brought him thither, in payment of his services;
the latter, fearing lest he might repent his generosity, made haste to
put a broad expanse of sea between the benefactor and his benefit.
While the sergeant, grumbling at the chancellor’s imprudence in being so
prodigal with his passes, replaced the clumsy bars, and while the
lingering sound of his heavy boots still echoed on the stairs leading to
the guard-house, the young man, throwing his mantle over his shoulder,
hurriedly crossed the dark vault of the low tower, the long
parade-ground, and the ordnance-room, where lay a few old dismantled
culverins, still to be seen in the Copenhagen museum, all nearer
approach to which was forbidden by the warning cry of a sentinel. He
reached the great portcullis, which was raised on sight of his
parchment. Thence, followed by a soldier, he crossed diagonally, without
hesitation, and like one familiar with the place, one of the four square
courts which skirt the great circular yard, in whose midst rose the huge
round rock upon which stood the donjon, called the castle of the Lion of
Schleswig, from the forced sojourn there of Jotham the Lion, Duke of
Schleswig, held captive by his brother, Rolf the Dwarf.
It is not our purpose to give a description of Munkholm keep, the more
so that the reader, confined in a State prison, might fear that he could
not escape through the garden. He would be mistaken; for the castle of
the Lion of Schleswig, meant for prisoners of distinction only, among
other conveniences affords them the pleasure of a walk in a sort of wild
garden of considerable extent, where clumps of holly, a few ancient
yews, and some dark pines grow among the rocks around the lofty prison,
inside an enclosure of thick walls and huge towers.
Reaching the foot of the round rock, the young man climbed the rude
winding steps which lead to the foot of one of the towers of the
enclosure, having a postern below, which served as the entrance to the
keep. Here he blew a loud blast on a copper horn handed to him by the
warder of the great portcullis. “Come in, come in!” eagerly
[Illustration: “_He blew a loud blast on a horn._”