had passed away, or he had, perhaps, forgotten, as his memory began
to fail him. He said then many things which he ought not. He declined
perceptibly, and was very weak; he would remain afterwards sitting
outside, reading aloud, and praying God to spare his life. 'Yes,' he
would say, 'only a few years!' When he had some alleviation, he
talked unceasingly. Creeping along the wall to the door, he said, 'I
should like to know two things: one is, who will be prison governor
after me? The other is, who is to to have my Tyrelyre?' (That was
Tyre, his wife.) I replied: 'That is a knowledge which you cannot
obtain now, especially who will woo your wife. You might, perhaps,
have already seen both, but at your age you may yet have long to
live.' 'Oh!' said he, 'God grant it!' and looked up to the window.
'Do you think so, my dear lady?' 'Yes, I do,' I replied. A few days
afterwards, he begged me again to forgive him, if he had done me any
wrong since the last time, for he wished to make reconciliation with
God before he became weaker, and he wept and protested, saying, 'It
indeed grieves me still that I should have often annoyed you, and you
comfort me.' On Sunday at noon I congratulated him on his spiritual
feast.
Thus he dragged on with great difficulty for about fourteen days,
and as I heard that two men were obliged almost to carry him up the
stairs, I sent him word that he might remain below on the ground
floor of the tower, and that he might rest assured I would go
nowhere. He thanked me, crawled up for the last time to my door, and
said, 'If I did that and the Queen heard of it, my head would answer
for it.' I said: 'Then confess your weakness and remain in bed. It
may be better again; another could meanwhile attend for you.' He took
off his cap in recognition of my advice, and bade me farewell. I have
never seen him again since then. One day afterwards he crawled up in
the tower-chamber, but came no farther.
A man of the name of Hans Balcke was appointed in his place
to keep watch over the prisoners. He was very courteous. He
was a cabinet-maker by trade; his father, who had also been a
cabinet-maker, had worked a good deal for me in the days of my
prosperity. This man had travelled for his trade both in Italy and
Germany, and knew a little Italian. I found intercourse with him
agreeable, and as he dined in the anteroom outside, in the tower, I
begged him to dine with me, which he did for fourteen days. One day,
when he carved the joint outside, I sent him word requesting him to
come in. He excused himself, which appeared strange to me.
After he had dined, he said that Peder the coachman had jeered at
him, and that he had been forbidden to dine with me. When he
afterwards remained rather long with me talking, I begged him myself
to go, so that this also might not be forbidden. He had on one
occasion a large pin stuck in his sleeve, and I begged him for it. He
said, 'I may not give it you, but if you take it yourself, I can't
help it.' So I took it, and it has often been of use to me. He gave
me several books to read, and was in every way courteous and polite.
His courtesy was probably the reason why the prisons were not long
entrusted to him, for he was also very good to Doctor Sperling,
giving him slices of the meat which came up to me, and other good
food. In his childhood he had been a playfellow of the doctor's
children. He talked also occasionally a long time with the doctor,
both on unlocking and locking his door, which did not please the
servants.[90] The prison governor lay constantly in bed; he
endeavoured as often as he could to come up again, but there was
little prospect of it. So long as the keys were not taken from him,
he was satisfied.
[90] In the margin is added: 'While Balcke filled the place of
prison governor, he drank my wine at every meal, which had formerly
fallen to the tower warder, the coachman, or the prisoner
Christian, when the old prison governor had not wished for it, so
that this also contributed to Balcke's dismissal.'
My maid Maren, Lars' daughter, had risen so high in favour at court,
that she often sat in the women's apartment, and did various things.
One day the woman said to me, 'That is a very faithful maiden whom
you have! She speaks before them up there in a manner you would never
believe.' I replied: 'I have permitted her to say all she knows. I
have no fear of her calumniating me.' 'Have you not?' she said
ironically. 'Why does she throw herself, then, on her bare knees, and
curse herself if she should think of returning to you?' I said: 'She
wished to remain with me (according to your own statement), but she
was not allowed; so she need not curse herself.' 'Why then do you
think,' said she, 'that she is so much in favour at court?' 'Do you
mean,' I replied, 'that if anyone is in favour at court, it is
because their lips are full of lies? I am assured my maid has
calumniated no one, least of all me; I am not afraid.'
The woman was angry, and pouted in consequence for some time. Some
weeks afterwards Maren, Lars' daughter, was set at liberty, and
became waiting-maid to the Countess Friis: and Balcke brought me some
linen which she still had belonging to me. The woman was not a little
angry at this, especially as I said: 'So faithful I perceive is my
maid to me, that she will not keep the linen, which she might easily
have done, for I could not know whether it had not been taken from
her with the rest.'
All my guards were very ill satisfied with Balcke, especially the
woman, who was angry for several reasons. He slighted her, she said,
for he had supplied a basin for the night-stool which was heavier
than the former one (which leaked); but she was chiefly angry because
he told her that she lived like a heathen, since she never went to
the sacrament. For when I once received the holy communion, while
Balcke was attending to me, he asked her if she would not wish to
communicate also, to which she answered, 'I do not know German.'
Balcke said, 'I will arrange that the clergyman shall come to you
whose office it is to administer the Lord's Supper to the prisoners.'
She replied that in this place she could not go with the proper
devotion: if she came out, she would go gladly. Balcke admonished her
severely, as a clergyman might have done. When the door was closed,
she gave vent to puffing and blowing, and she always unfastened her
jacket when she was angry.
I said nothing, but I thought the evil humour must have vent, or she
will be choked; and this was the case, for she abused Balcke with the
strongest language that occurred to her. She used unheard-of curses,
which were terrible to listen to: among others, 'God damn him for
ever, and then I need not curse him every day.' Also, 'May God make
him evaporate like the dew before the sun!' I could not endure this
cursing, and I said, 'Are you cursing this man because he held before
you the word of God, and desires that you should be reconciled with
God and repent your sins?' 'I do not curse him for that,' she said,
'but on account of the heavy basin which the accursed fellow has
given me, and which I have to carry up the steep stairs;[91] the
devil must have moved him to choose it! Does he want to make a priest
of himself? Well, he is probably faultless, the saucy fellow!' and
she began again with her curses.
[91] In the margin: 'It is indeed a bad flight of stairs to the
place where the basin was emptied.'
I reproved her and said: 'If he now knew that you were cursing him in
this way, do you not think he would bring it about that you must do
penitence? It is now almost two years since you were at the Lord's
table, and you can have the clergyman and you will not.' This
softened her a little, and she said, 'How should he know it, unless
you tell him?' I said, 'What passes here and is said here concerns no
one but us two; it is not necessary that others should know.' With
this all was well; she lay down to sleep, and her anger passed away;
but the hate remained.
The prison governor continued to lie in great pain, and could neither
live nor die. One day at noon, when Balcke unlocked (it was just
twenty weeks since he had come to me), a man came in with him, very
badly dressed, in a grey, torn, greasy coat, with few buttons that
could be fastened, with an old hat to which was attached a drooping
feather that had once been white but was now not recognisable from
dirt. He wore linen stockings and a pair of worn-out shoes fastened
with packthread.[92] Balcke went to the table outside and carved the
joint; he then went to the door of the outer apartment, stood with
his hat in his hand, made a low reverence, and said, 'Herewith I take
my departure; this man is to be prison governor.' I enquired whether
he would not come again to me. He replied, 'No, not after this time.'
Upon this I thanked him for his courteous attendance, and wished him
prosperity.[93]
[92] In the margin is added: 'Gabel had said (I was afterwards
informed) that I was frightened at the appearance of the man, and
thought it was the executioner. I did not regard him as such, but
as a poor cavalier, and I imagined he was to undertake the duties
which Peder the coachman performed.'
[93] In the margin: 'Balcke has waited upon me for twenty weeks,
and he was accused of having told me what happened outside. In
proof of this it was alleged that he had told me that Gabel had
been made Statholder, to whom I afterwards gave this title in M.
Buck's hearing. Balcke one day could not restrain himself from
laughing, for while he was standing and talking with me, the woman
and the man were standing on the stairs outside, chuckling and
laughing; and he said, "Outside there is the chatter market. Why
does not Peder so arrange it that it is forbidden? You can get to
know all that goes on in the world without me."'
Peder the coachman locked the door, and the new prison governor,
whose name was Johan Jaeger,[E37] never appeared before me the whole
day, nor during the evening. I said to the woman in the morning, 'Ask
Peder who the man is;' which she did, and returned to me with the
answer that it was the man who had taken the Doctor prisoner; and
that now he was to be prison governor, but that he had not yet
received the keys. Not many days passed before he came with the Lord
Steward to the old prison governor, and the keys were taken from the
old man and given to him. The old man lived only to the day after
this occurred. In both respects his curiosity was satisfied; he saw
the man who was to be prison governor after him (to his grief), and
the doctor who attended him obtained his Tyrelyre before the year was
ended.
[E37] It was a Colonel Hagedorn that entrapped and arrested Dr.
Sperling, and Jaeger 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.
The new prison governor Jaeger[E37b] did not salute me for several
weeks, and never spoke to me. He rarely locked my doors, but he
generally opened them himself. At length one day, when he had got new
shoes on, he took his hat off when he had opened the door, and said
'Good morning.' I answered him, 'Many thanks.' The woman was very
pleased while this lasted. She had her free talk with Peder the
coachman (who still for a couple of months came to the tower as
before) and with the prisoner Christian, who had great freedom, and
obtained more and more freedom in this prison governor's time,
especially as Rasmus the tower-warder was made gatekeeper, and a man
of the name of Chresten was appointed in his place. Among other idle
talk which she repeated to me, she said that this prison governor was
forbidden to speak with me. I said, 'I am very glad, as he then can
tell no lies about me.' I am of opinion that he did not venture to
speak with me so long as Peder brought up the food to the tower, and
was in waiting there; for when he had procured Peder's dismissal on
account of stealing, he came in afterwards from time to time. The
very first time he was intoxicated. He knew what Peder had said of
Balcke, and he informed me of it.[94]
[E37b] It was a Colonel Hagedorn that entrapped and arrested Dr.
Sperling, and Jaeger 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.
[94] In the margin is added: 'While Balcke waited on me, a folding
table was brought in for the bread and glasses, and also for the
woman's food, which she did not take till the doors had been
locked. There was nothing there before but the night-stool to place
the dishes on: that was the woman's table.'
Before I mention anything of the prisoner Christian's designs
against me, I will in a few words state the crime for which he was in
prison. He had been a lacquey in the employ of Maans Armfelt. With
some other lacqueys he had got into a quarrel with a man who had been
a father to Christian, and who had brought him up from his youth and
had taken the utmost care of him. The man was fatally wounded, and
called out in the agonies of death: 'God punish thee, Christian! What
a son you have been! It was your hand that struck me!' The other
lacqueys ran away, but Christian was seized. His dagger was found
bloody. He denied, and said it was not he who had stabbed the man. He
was sentenced to death; but as the dead man's widow would not pay for
the execution, Christian remained for the time in prison, and his
master paid for his maintenance. He had been there three years
already when I came to the prison, and three times he was removed;
first from the Witch Cell to the Dark Church; and then here where I
am imprisoned.[95] When I was brought here, he was placed where the
Doctor is, and when the Doctor was brought in, Christian was allowed
to go freely about the tower. He wound the clock for the
tower-warder, locked and unlocked the cells below, and had often even
the keys of the tower.
[95] In the margin is added: 'At that time there was a large double
window with iron grating, which was walled up when I was brought
here; and Christian told me afterwards how the maids in the
store-room had supplied him with many a can of beer, which he had
drawn up by a cord.'
I remember once, when Rasmus the tower-warder was sitting at dinner
with the prison governor in my outermost cell, and the prison
governor wished to send Peder on a message, he said to Rasmus: 'Go
and open! I want Peder to order something. 'Father,' said Rasmus,
'Christian has the key.' 'Indeed!' said the prison governor; 'that is
pretty work!' And there it rested, for Rasmus said, 'I am perfectly
sure that Christian will not go away.' Thus by degrees Christian's
freedom and power increased after Peder the coachman left, and he
waited on the prison governor at meals in my outermost room.
One day, when the woman had come down from above, where she had been
emptying the utensils in my room, and the doors were locked, she said
to me: 'This Christian who is here has been just speaking with me
upstairs. He says he cannot describe the Doctor's miserable
condition, how severe is his imprisonment, and what bad food he gets,
since Balcke left. He has no longer any candle except during
meal-time, and no light reaches him but through the hole in his door
leading into the outer room. He begged me to tell you of it; his eyes
were full of tears, such great pity had he for him.' I said: 'That is
all that one can do, and it is the duty of a Christian to sympathise
with the misfortune of one's neighbour. The poor man must have
patience as well as I, and we must console ourselves with a good
conscience. The harder he suffers the sooner comes the end; he is an
old man.'
Two days afterwards she came again with some talk from Christian. The
Doctor sent me his compliments, and he asked constantly if I was
well; she said also, that Christian would give him anything I liked
to send him. I regarded this as a snare, but I said that Christian
could take a piece of roast meat when the prison governor was with
me, and that he should look about for something into which wine could
be poured, and then she could secretly give some from my glass, and
beg Christian to give my compliments to the Doctor. This was
accepted, and I had rest for a few days. Christian conformed entirely
to the woman, caused a dispute between her and the tower-warder, and
made it immediately right again; so that there was no lack of
chatter. At last she said one day: 'That is an honest fellow, this
Christian! He has told me how innocently he got into prison and was
sentenced. He is afraid that you may think he eats and drinks all
that you send to the Doctor. He swore with a solemn oath that he
would be true to you, if you would write a word to the Doctor.[96] I
hope you do not doubt my fidelity!' and she began to swear and to
curse herself if she would deceive me. She said, he had taken a no
less solemn oath, before she believed him. I said: 'I have nothing to
write to him. I do not know what I have to write.' 'Oh!' said she,
'write only two words, so that the old man may see that he can trust
him! If you wish for ink, Christian can give you some.' I replied: 'I
have something to write with, if I choose to do so, and I can write
without ink and paper.'
[96] In the margin is this note: 'Christian had at that time given
me some pieces of flint which are so sharp that I can cut fine
linen with them by the thread. The pieces are still in my
possession, and with this implement I executed various things.'
This she could not understand; so I took some pieces of sugared
almonds, and made some letters on them with the large pin, placing on
four almonds the words: _non ti fidar_! I divided the word _fidar_,
and placed half on each almond. I had in this way rest for a day, and
somewhat to beguile the time. Whether the Doctor could not see what
was written on the almonds, or whether he wished to test Christian's
fidelity, I know not, but Christian brought the woman a slip of paper
from the Doctor to me, full of lamentations at our condition, and
stating that my daughter Anna Cathrina, or else Cassetta, were the
cause of his misfortune.
I wished to know more of this, so I wrote to him desiring information
(we wrote to each other in Italian). He replied that one or the other
had left his letter lying somewhere on the table, where it was found
and despatched; for that a letter of his was the cause of his
misfortune. I wrote back to him that it was not credible, but that he
was suspected of having corresponded with my lord, and hence his
letters had been seized. The more I tried to impress this upon him
the more opinionated he became,[97] and he wrote afterwards saying
that it was a scheme of Cassetta's to get him into the net, in order
to bring me out of it. When he began to write in this way, I acquired
a strange opinion of him, and fancied he was trying to draw something
out of me which he could bring forward; and I reflected for some days
whether I should answer. At last I answered him in this strain, that
no one knew better than he that I was not aware of any treason; that
the knowledge as to how his correspondence with my lord had become
known was of no use to him; that I had no idea why he was sentenced,
and that no sentence had been passed on me. Some weeks elapsed before
the Doctor wrote. At last he communicated to me in a few words the
sentence passed upon him, and we corresponded from time to time with
each other.
[97] In the margin is added: 'Such is his character.'
The prison governor became gradually more accessible, came in at
every meal-time, and related all sorts of jokes and buffooneries,
which he had carried on in his youth: how he had been a drummer, and
had made a Merry Andrew of himself for my brother-in-law Count Pentz,
and how he had enacted a dog for the sake of favour and money, and
had crawled under the table, frightening the guests and biting a dog
for a ducat's reward. When he had been drinking (which was often the
case) he juggled and played Punch, sometimes a fortune-teller, and
the like.
When Chresten the tower-warder, and Christian the prisoner, heard the
prison governor carrying on his jokes, they did the same, and made
such a noise with the woman in the antechamber that we could not hear
ourselves speak. She sat on Christian's lap, and behaved herself in a
wanton manner. One day she was not very well, and made herself some
warm beer and bread, placing it outside on the stove. The prison
governor was sitting with me and talking, Chresten and Christian were
joking with her outside, and Christian was to stir the warm beer and
bread, and taste if it was hot enough. Chresten said to Christian,
'Drink it up if you are thirsty.' The words were no sooner said than
the deed was done, and almost at the same moment the prison governor
got up and went away. When the door was locked, the woman seemed to
be almost fainting. I thought she was ill, and I was fearful that she
might die suddenly, and that the guilt of her death might be laid on
me, and I asked quickly, 'Are you ill?' She answered, 'I am bad
enough,' confirming it with a terrible oath and beginning to unbutton
her jacket. Then I saw that she was angry, and I knew well that she
would give vent to a burst of execrations, which was the case.
She cursed and scolded those who had so treated her; a poor sick
thing as she was, and she had not had anything to eat or drink all
day. I said, 'Be quiet, and you shall have some warm beer.' She swore
with a solemn oath, asking how it was to be got here? it was summer
and there was no fire in the stove, and it was no use calling, as no
one could hear. I said, 'If you will be silent, I will cause the pot
to boil.' 'Yes,' and she swore with another fearful oath, 'I can
indeed be silent, and will never speak of it.' So I made her take
three pieces of brick, which were lying behind the night-stool, and
place on these her pot of beer and bread (everything that she was to
do was to be done in silence; she might not answer me with words but
only with signs, when I asked her anything). She sat down besides the
pot, stirring it with a spoon. I sat always on my bed during the day,
and then the table was placed before me. I had a piece of chalk, and
I wrote various things on the table, asking from time to time whether
the pot boiled. She kept peeping in and shaking her head. When I had
asked three times and she turned to me and saw that I was laughing,
she behaved herself like a mad woman, throwing the spoon from her
hand, turning over the stool, tearing open her jacket, and
exclaiming, 'The devil may be jeered at like this!' I said, 'You are
not worthy of anything better, as you believe that I can practise
magic.' 'Oh (and she repeated a solemn oath) had I not believed that
you could practise magic, I should never have consented to be locked
up with you; do you know that?' I reflected for a moment what answer
to give, but I said nothing, smiled, and let her rave on.
Afterwards she wept and bemoaned her condition. 'Now, now,' I said,
'be quiet! I will make the pot boil without witchcraft.' And as we
had a tinder-box, I ordered her to strike a light, and to kindle
three ends of candles, which she was to place under the pot. This
made the pot boil, and she kissed her hand to me and was very merry.
Once or twice afterwards I gave her leave to warm beer in this way:
it could not always be done, for if the wind blew against the window
(which was opened with a long pike) the smoke could not pass away. I
said, 'Remember your oath and do not talk of what takes place here,
or the lights will be taken from us; at any rate we shall lose some
of them.' She asserted that she would not. I heard nothing of it at
the time, but some years afterwards I found that she had said that I
had taken up two half-loose stones from the floor (this was
afterwards related in another manner by a clergyman, as will be
mentioned afterwards). She had also said that I had climbed up and
looked at the rope-dancers in the castle square, which was true. For
as Chresten one day told the woman that rope-dancers would be
exhibiting in the inner castle yard, and she informed me of it and
enquired what they were, and I explained to her, she lamented that
she could not get a sight of them. I said it could easily be done, if
she would not talk about it afterwards. She swore, as usual, with an
oath that she would not. So I took the bedclothes from the bed and
placed the boards on the floor and set the bed upright in front of
the window, and the night-stool on the top of it. In order to get
upon the bedstead, the table was placed at the side, and a stool by
the table in order to get upon the table, and a stool upon the table,
in order to get upon the night-stool, and a stool on the night-stool,
so that we could stand and look comfortably, though not both at once.
I let her climb up first, and I stood and took care that the bed did
not begin to give way; she was to keep watch when I was on the top. I
knew, moreover, well that the dancers did not put forth their utmost
skill at first.[98]