Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked,
Preserve me from the violent man;
Who have purposed to thrust aside my step.
The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords;
They have spread a net by the wayside;
They have set gins for me.
_Psalms_ cxl. 4.
The fatal hour had come; the sun showed but half his disk above the
horizon. The guards were doubled throughout Munkholm castle; before each
door paced fierce, silent sentinels. The noises of the town seemed
louder and more confused than usual as they ascended to the dark towers
of the fortress, itself a prey to strange excitement. The mournful sound
of muffled drums was heard in every courtyard; now and again cannon
growled; the heavy bell in the donjon tolled slowly, with sullen,
measured strokes; and from every direction boats loaded with people
hastened toward the fearful rock.
A scaffold hung with black, around which an impatient mob swarmed in
ever-increasing numbers, rose from the castle parade-ground in the
centre of a hollow square of troops. Upon the scaffold a man clad in red
serge walked up and down, now leaning upon the axe in his hand, and now
fingering a billet and block upon the funeral platform. Close at hand a
stake was prepared, before which several pitch torches burned. Between
the scaffold and the stake was planted a post, from which hung the
inscription: “ORDENER GULDENLEW, TRAITOR.” A black flag floated from the
top of the Schleswig tower.
At this moment Ordener appeared before the judges, still assembled in
the court-room. The bishop alone was absent; his office as counsel for
the defence had ended.
The son of the viceroy was dressed in black, and wore upon his neck the
collar of the Dannebrog. His face was pale but proud. He was alone; for
he had been led forth to torture before Chaplain Athanasius Munder
returned to his cell.
Ordener’s sacrifice was already inwardly accomplished. And yet Ethel’s
husband still clung to life, and might perhaps have chosen another night
than that of the tomb for his wedding night. He had prayed and dreamed
many dreams in his dreary cell. Now he was beyond all prayers and all
dreams. He was strong in the strength imparted by religion and by love.
The crowd, more deeply moved than the prisoner, eagerly gazed at him.
His illustrious rank, his horrible fate, awakened universal envy and
pity. Every spectator watched his punishment, without comprehending his
crime. In every human heart lurks a strange feeling which urges its
owner to behold the tortures of others as well as their pleasures. Men
seek with awful avidity to read destruction upon the distorted features
of one who is about to die, as if some revelation from heaven or from
hell must appear at that awful moment in the poor wretch’s eyes; as if
they would learn what sort of shadow is cast by the death angel’s wing
as he hovers over a human head; as if they would search and know what is
left to a man when hope is gone. That being, full of health and
strength, moving, breathing, living, and which in another instant must
cease to move, breathe, and live, surrounded by beings like himself,
whom he never harmed, all of whom pity him, and none of whom can help
him; that wretched being, dying, though not dead, bending alike beneath
an earthly power and an invisible might; this life, which society could
not give, but which it takes with all the pomp and ceremony of legal
murder,--profoundly stir the popular imagination. Condemned, as all of
us are, to death, with an indefinite reprieve, the unfortunate man who
knows the exact hour when his reprieve expires is an object of strange
and painful curiosity.
The reader may remember that before he mounted the scaffold, Ordener was
to be taken before the court, there to be stripped of his titles and
honors. Hardly had the stir excited in the assembly by his arrival given
place to quiet, when the president ordered the book of heraldry of both
kingdoms, and the statutes of the order of the Dannebrog, to be brought.
Then directing the prisoner to kneel upon one knee, he commanded the
spectators to pay respectful heed, opened the book of the knights of the
Dannebrog, and began to read in a loud, stern voice: “We, Christian, by
the grace and mercy of Almighty God, king of Denmark and Norway, of
Goths and Vandals, Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormaria, and
Dytmarsen, Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhurst, do declare:--
“That having re-established, at the suggestion of the lord chancellor,
Count Griffenfeld [the president passed over this name so rapidly that
it was scarcely audible], the royal order of the Dannebrog, founded by
our illustrious ancestor, Saint Waldemar,
“Whereas we hold that inasmuch as the said venerable order was created
in memory of the flag Dannebrog sent down from heaven to our blessed
kingdom,
“It would belie the divine origin of the order should any knight forfeit
his honor, or break the holy laws of Church and State with impunity,
“We therefore decree, kneeling before God, that whosoever of the knights
of the order shall deliver his soul to the demon by any felony or
treason, after a public reprimand from the court, shall be forever
degraded from his rank as a knight of this our royal order of the
Dannebrog.”
The president closed the book. “Ordener Guldenlew, Baron Thorwick,
Knight of the Dannebrog, you have been found guilty of high treason, for
which crime your head shall be cut off, your body burned, and your ashes
flung to the winds. Ordener Guldenlew, traitor, you have shown yourself
unworthy to hold rank with the knights of the Dannebrog. I request you
to humble yourself, for I am about to degrade you publicly in the name
of the king.”