BOMBARDMENT OF KIEL.
On being joined by a regiment of Dutch, under Colonel Dübbelstiern,
brother of the burgomaster of Glückstadt, the expedition resolved
upon by the council of war was against Kiel, where Count
Kœningheim, lately Tilly's aide-de-camp, commanded. Knowing well
the reputed bravery of the count, and, moreover, that,
notwithstanding his Germanised name, he was our own countryman, we
expected to encounter unusual difficulties and dangers in the
performance of our duty.
Spring had passed and summer come again; the snows had melted; the
woods were putting forth their bright green leaves, and the migratory
storks had returned, from the unknown regions of the south, to their
former nests under the cottage eaves, or on the steep old burgh
gables and the older village spires.
At daybreak on the morning of the first of May, the whole of the
king's small force embarked on board his vessels; the colonels of
regiments, with their staffs and colours, were all on board the _Anna
Catharina_; with my company, I accompanied Ian Dhu. Though we were
at sea, and ploughing the waves of the Baltic, as we ran round
Danische-walde our men did not forget to welcome the rising sun on
that auspicious morning, by baking their Beltane bannocks in the old
Highland fashion, and breaking them crosswise, with as much ceremony
as if they were at home in the land of hills and valleys.
The sorrow and alarm of Ernestine were increased by the greater
distance which was now to be placed between her and her sister, whom,
from various reports that reached us, she firmly believed to be, as
Bandolo had said, in the power of Merodé at Fredricksort. The good
King Christian, to whom Ernestine was presented by Ian, did all in
his power to console her.
"Madame," said he, among many other remarks, "it is useless now to
regret that you so unwisely permitted your sister and yourself to be
wiled away from the castle of the queen, my mother, at Nyekiöbing, by
the cunning tale of a rascal. It is enough that you were so--that
much evil has come of it--evil that we must undo. Necessity has
seldom pity for women's tears--and war, never! Yet, though my
necessities are sore, and that, with scarcely three thousand men, I
am wandering like a pirate among my own Danish isles, while
Wallenstein and Tilly, with one hundred and thirty thousand men, have
marched along the Elbe, and through all Juteland, even to the Skagen
Cape, I will endeavour to free your sister from Fredricksort, though
I may lose all in the attempt. Rest assured of that, lady. A week
will not pass until I have done something in the matter. By force of
arms perhaps I cannot reach her; but in my desperate fortune, though
valour may fail, craft and guile may ultimately succeed."
"Within a week!" thought Ernestine, who could only weep and murmur
her thanks; for in a week rescue might come too late, and under such
terrible circumstances it seemed an age.
Considering the nature of the expedition we were bent on--the
bombardment of a town--I was somewhat inclined to have left Ernestine
behind us; but where could she have been left with safety to herself?
Besides, as the honest and soldier-like king (who enjoyed as a
capital joke the story of her throwing Bandolo's portmanteau into the
duck-pond) said, this aggrieved personage was slippery and subtle as
the great serpent, ferocious as a tiger, and now, being deprived of
his gold, would place no bounds to his revenge; "consequently," said
he, "the safest place for our pretty Imperialist is under the pennon
of Sir Nickelas Valdemar, and the hatches of the _Anna Catharina_."
The consciousness that Christian judged correctly, alarmed me so much
that I could scarcely trust her out of my sight; but he gallantly
relinquished to her use the great cabin, and dined among us in the
gun-room, on cold salted beef and Dantzig beer: for this brave
monarch loved better the jovial commeradrie of military society, than
the hollow pomp that surrounded him as a king. As we rounded the
point of the Danische-walde, and the yards were braced up, to run us
into the Kielerfiörd, the magazines were opened, the guns cast loose,
and the signal to stand to arms and to quarters was given from the
king's ship.
Ernestine was conveyed to a place of safety in the deep dark hold of
the _Anna Catharina_, where a little berth had been hastily fitted up
for her accommodation, and where she was attended by the wife of one
of our musketeers, a red-cheeked Holsteiner. There the din of the
approaching cannonade would be less heard, and there could be little
danger of shot striking the hull so far beneath the water-line.
As the wind blew hard, and veered almost a-head, we carried Austrian
colours to deceive the garrison while tacking frequently across that
narrow fiörd; but the breeze changed twice, and, about sunset, we
found ourselves abreast of the capital of Holstein, above the close
steep roofs of which rose the square brick tower of its church, and
the ramparts of that grim castle where the dukes of old resided, and
on which, as well as on the university, we saw the white flag with
the Imperial eagle unfurled; for, though our colours had misled
Kœningheim, our manœuvres (after we came abreast of the town,
and began to lie around it in the form of a half circle, as it
occupies a peninsula) no longer deceived him as to our intentions.
The old town of Kiel, which covers what had anciently been an island,
is yet completely separated from the land by the wet ditch of the
castle, the base of which is in some places washed by the sea. A
large suburb, called the New Town, interspersed by pleasant rows of
trees, was then rising on the mainland, and was connected with the
old by an ancient bridge, at the end of which was a drawbridge and
gate, constantly guarded by a company of soldiers.
The walls of the strong and spacious castle became rapidly manned by
musketeers in white buff-coats, and cannoniers in scarlet. Its
eastern ramparts rose sheer from the salt water, along the margin of
which, on the other side, lay the ducal garden, two hundred paces
broad, and consisting of terraced walks rising above each other,
beautifully arranged in the form of a labyrinth, and having in the
centre a stone Triton, whose brass conch shot up a silver current of
water high above the green shrubbery; but now, among those fair
parterres and terraced walks, the cannon baskets were placed at
intervals, and between the deep fascines the grim culverins peered
forth to sweep the harbour mouth.
The bells of the great church, of the university, and of the castle,
were tolling an alarm as we approached, for each of these edifices
was occupied by Austrian troops; and the seven ships of the king (we
had three large and four small frigates) had now taken up their
positions crescent-wise on three sides of the insulated city, hauled
down their false colours, and run up the Royal standard of Denmark to
the masthead. Then a simultaneous cannonade was opened upon us from
the castle and its terraced gardens.
Being strong and active, our Highlanders were of great service in
working the ship-artillery, by running back and urging forward the
carriages; while the more skilful Danes pointed the cannon with great
success, and thus the fascine batteries in the garden were soon
ruined, the guns dismounted, and their men driven for shelter into
the castle.
Sparing the tower of the church and the university, the three great
ships maintained an unsparing and indiscriminate cannonade on the
town; for though the capital of the duchy, the seat of its trade and
government, and containing the hotels of its principal nobles,
Christian IV. was resolved at all hazards to dislodge the enemy, and
more than once sent a redhot thirty-two pound ball at the Count of
Rantzau's mansion, which had a number of wooden galleries around it,
hoping by these to set the whole place on fire--but without effect.
The whole fleet and town were soon enveloped in smoke, and we could
only direct our fire by seeing the vane of the church and the towers
of the castle shining in the last flush of the sunset above this
murky cloud. A hundred pieces of cannon, ranging from carthouns
(48-pounders) to demi-culverins (9-pounders), were discharged by the
fleet upon the town, from whence the garrison, the strength of which
was very great, maintained a desperate cannonade, pouring in reply a
shower of balls and missiles of every sort and size, shot from
bombards and carthouns, fieldpieces, and iron slings. Their mortars
and bombards (100 lb pieces) were loaded with stones, tiles, old
jars, junks of iron and lead, nails and chains, which swept over our
decks, and tore through the sails and rigging like a volley from a
volcano. The whole conflict was maintained by great guns; hence the
din was terrible. I believe there were not less than two hundred and
forty pieces engaged on both sides. Strewed with killed and wounded
men, some of whom were minus legs, arms, or heads, others cut in two,
with their entrails shot away and twisted round the ragged and torn
rigging, or wallowing in blood among the ruin of booms and boats, or
splintered planks and shattered bulwarks, the main decks of the fleet
presented the most frightful scene of carnage, smoke, and fire,
united with the most infernal medley of appalling sounds--stern
orders, bellowed in hoarse Danish through tin speaking-trumpets,
shrieks, cries, and groans--the grating of the gun-carriages, the
trampling of many feet, the crash of falling spars, the rattle of
striking shot, and the hiss of those that swept over us into the
water.
An immense number of our Highlanders were killed and wounded; of the
foreigners I make no account. Torquil Gorm, our piper-major, who sat
upon the capstan blowing _Brattaich bhan clan Aoidh_, was knocked off
his perch by a twelve-pound shot, and only escaped death by a
miracle. Lieutenants Stuart and Lumsden (Invergellie) were severely
wounded, and Kildon and Culcraigie had each a brother--who was
sergeant of their pikes--killed beside them.
Finding that nothing was to be made of Kiel--that his ships were
becoming mere slaughter-houses and wrecks, which bled at every port
and pore--the king, as it was too dark to see flags, hoisted a
lantern at his foremast-head as a sign to cease firing. and drop
down the fiörd before the wind. I cannot say that the order was
obeyed with reluctance; and, favoured by a strong western breeze, the
fleet rapidly bore away beyond reach of cannon shot, and lay to
waiting for fresh orders.
Far out on the open fiörd, with the stillness of the midnight ocean
round us, and no sound to break it but the cries that came from the
wounded and the dying, there seemed something dull, monotonous, and
deathlike in our vessels now; they were but floating charnel-houses.
Some of the smaller were under masts, and the sides of all were
perforated by round shot-holes, like the top of a pepper-caster. In
others, the torn sails were flapping against the splintered masts,
and the rigging hung in disorder. It was a sad scene of desolation,
agony, and death, which in twenty minutes had succeeded the fury of
the bombardment. I hastened to Ernestine, whom I found in a little
nook of the hold, in a stupor of astonishment and terror, and unable
to weep. I had only time to assure her of my perfect safety, when I
heard a drum beating on the main deck, and Phadrig Mhor shouted down
the hatchway, that the king required the presence of all the officers
in the great cabin.
There I hastened, and found him with the Count de Montgomery, the
colonels of the Scots, Danes, and Dutch, Ian, the Baron Karl, and
other officers, many of whom had their heads and arms bandaged. The
cabin bore sufficient token of the number of heavy shot that had
passed through it; the ports were yet open, and the dead bodies of
several seamen were still lying by the larboard guns, just where they
had fallen.
"Cavaliers and comrades," said the king; "I wish to burn Kiel, that
no shelter may remain there for the Austrians. One among you must
undertake to do this for me, as I am less active than I was wont to
be; but, as the duty is desperate, I will not select any of my
allies. Let the Scots, French, Dutch, and Danish colonels cast lots
for who shall have the honour of performing this arduous service,
after which we shall all sail merrily, and land at Gottenburg."
It was at once assented to; we crowded round the table; lots were
cast in Karl's helmet, and the duty fell to the Dutch, as the prize
was drawn by old Dübbelstiern, whom the king desired to select a
party for the service, and accordingly he chose his entire battalion.
This was considered absurd; but whether it was that Herr Dübbelstiern
was of opinion that he had seen quite enough of fighting for one
night, or that it was the constitutional phlegm and slowness of the
Dutch character which operated, I know not; but the impetuous king
became enraged at their delay, and ordered lots to be cast again.
"Nay," said Ian nobly; "may it please your majesty to excuse me from
drawing lots again, for I cannot condescend to do so twice. Give me
but a hundred musketeers of my own regiment, and I will burn Kiel to
your majesty's entire satisfaction."
"My company and I are at your service, Ian," said I, acting on the
first impulse of the moment.
"It is gallantly offered," said the king; "a thousand thanks, my
valiant Scots. Away then to your boats, for before the Dutch are
under arms day will have broken."
In ten minutes my company were all in three large boats, sitting
closely packed with their muskets between their knees; and with
muffled oars we pulled softly towards the town. Our Highlanders
roughly jeered the Dutch, desiring them to beat the _Scots March_,
and keep up their courage thereby, as they were often glad to do in
Flanders, when they wished to deceive and scare the enemy.*
* Here Munro corroborates our cavalier. "We that were officers met
together in the Admirall Shipe, and agreed to command out the partie,
and having cast lots it fell on the Dutch. They, suspecting the
_danger_, delayed." Sergeant M'Leod of Captain Mackenzie's company
"was killed," continues the colonel, "and twenty-two souldiers out of
our regiment, that I commanded."--_Expedition with the worthy Scots
Regiment_. Fol. 1637.