THE PILOT--TEMPESTUOUS WEATHER--DISTANT VIEW OF
COPENHAGEN--LORD NELSON--THE BATTLE OF THE BALTIC
--THE HARBOUR-MASTER--INTEREST EXCITED BY THE
YACHT'S ARRIVAL--THE ARTIST--THE ANGLER--WE GO
ASHORE.
At twelve o'clock the pilot stepped on board, and, in a few minutes,
with a freshening wind from the westward, we were on our way to the
Danish capital. To a warm, unclouded morning, a wet dark day succeeded;
and, except between the chasms of flying clouds, the sun wholly withheld
its light. The rain fell, at intervals, in torrents; and, concealing
myself under the lee of the gig, which was hoisted on the davits, I
endeavoured to enter into conversation with the pilot. The silvery hand
of time, or heavier one of toil, had tinged his hair; and though (to
judge from his sad and thoughtful mien,) life seemed protracted longer
than he wished, his career, I learned by hints, had not been without
excitement to himself, and could not be recited without interest and
instruction to others. The old man was short and stout, and little gray
eyes twinkled beneath an intellectual forehead, scarred by a sabre
wound. After I had watched him with attention for some time, his
firmly-compressed lips and sombre countenance showed the solidity of his
character, and no weak point at which I might attack him with an
observation. Sailor, who had been reclining in his hutch, disliking to
wet his hide, and who was still labouring from the ill effects of the
Danish brown bread, now came forth to stretch himself; and, seeing a
man, unknown, standing by the compass-box, approached, and, with all the
diffidence of his tribe, determined to form no friendship, without
previously ascertaining whence he came, and what his business was.
Sailor therefore walked with resolution up to the man, and smelt his
coat. The dog also applied his nose to a little bundle tied with a dark
silk handkerchief stowed unintrusively away between the pumps; and then,
turning round, he looked up at me, and wagged his tail. I could almost
see a smile upon his face. The old man laughed, and said, half nettled
by Sailor's contemptuous way of smelling his whole wardrobe, "Dat is von
vine dog."
Though the allusion to the dog's well-proportioned form, or extreme
sagacity, was one which answered itself, I replied,
"Yes; and that is the way he makes friends."
"I know, I know," he answered, "if von maan's schmell vosh as goot, ve
shoult schmell de tief vary shoon."
"True; but if we are fond of sweet scents, and had to judge virtue and
vice by smell, we should very soon leave off smelling, or leave the
world."
He did not seem to comprehend my meaning, for a vague expression of
neither assent nor dissent passed over his countenance. He now, however,
became talkative, and told me he commenced life by entering the Danish
navy, and had been present in many engagements. Travelling from one end
of the world to the other, though seated together under the gig's keel,
and wrapped in tarpaulin, we contrived to meet in the West Indies; and
the old sailor's heart opened towards me as I spoke of scenes and things
familiar to him in his youth. I told him how I had been going "up and
down on the earth," and "walking to and fro on it;" and he took my hand
in his and shook it, because I, like him, had been a wanderer. And so we
whiled away the time, and heard and felt neither wind nor rain.
P---- had gone below to arrange his flies; and I could occasionally hear
R----'s voice, above the whistling of the wind through the shrouds,
modulating "Buffalo Gals," "The Great Plenipotentiary," and other
favourite ballads. We were now half way between Elsineur and
Copenhagen, and rising above a cape of level land on our starboard bow,
the high buildings and steeples of Copenhagen could be distinguished. I
formed, from this view, a grand idea of the Northern Capital, and, had I
not done so, I might have been less disappointed, beautiful though the
city is, when I found myself the following day walking through its
streets. But the same event happens to man's works as to man himself.
The nearer I view a picture, the harsher become those lines which, at a
distance, seemed so soft; and had I seen Caesar, I should not now worship
the deity I have raised on the pedestal of Imagination. I desire to
foster the poetic feeling which, like a mountain mist, surrounds the
ordinary habits and character of great men, and so I stand aloof and
look on them. I exist on the Pagan creed,
"Omne ignotum pro magnifico."
The pilot, pointing with his finger, showed the spot where Nelson landed
some of his men the day before his action in 1801; and, as the Dane
reminded me of the crafty manner in which the officers of the English
fleet imposed on the credulity of the good folks at Elsineur, the sound
of distant thunder was heard. He ceased to speak, and listened to the
low, rumbling peals, as they swelled, now loudly on the tops of the far
mountains of Sweden, then sank faintly in the valleys. The old man went
on to say, he remembered the action well; and, with bitterness,
regretted that it ever occurred. This was the first time I had heard
England spoken of discreditably, and the arrow pierced deep, and deeper,
as familiar intercourse told, that the Danes, a brave and noble people
themselves, always remember this battle with a sorrowful resignation,
and grieving, feel, without vindictiveness, that, though Time may heal
the outward wound, the moral pain remains for ever.
The scenery all along this coast of Denmark is very beautiful, the royal
forests, extending nearly from Elsineur to Copenhagen, contributing with
their masses of trees, and their rich green tints, to relieve the
occasional gloomy aspect of the Swedish shore. These forests are
strictly preserved, and are full of game; and, reared above the loftiest
trees, the roof of one of the king's hunting-palaces may be seen. With
its usual bounty, the wind increased to a gale, and we entered
Copenhagen harbour at three o'clock, with a reef in the mainsail, and
ploughing up the water in furious fashion.
The Harbour-Master came on board as soon as we had anchored, and
requested, with much civility, that we would move from the berth we had
taken, since we obstructed the free passage between the docks and the
harbour; and the cutter, he hinted, might be injured by merchant-vessels
being warped from one to the other place. R---- made no demur; but
turned round, and rated in good English the old pilot for his stupidity;
while the old pilot, in unintelligible Danish, roared at his countryman
for not coming off before the anchor had gone. When the little stout
pilot was pacified, and unanimity restored, the Harbour-Master, a man of
immense stature, and great personal beauty, came up to me, and said,
with an excellent dialect, in the English language,
"I could perceive, Sir, your vessel was an English one, the moment she
weathered that point; for none but a British vessel could dash along in
such style as yours did."
I bowed, and thanked him for the compliment.
"I only hope, Sir," he continued, "that the Crown Prince will return
before you leave Copenhagen; for this yacht would soon disgust him with
his own."
"Is the Prince then away from Copenhagen?" I asked.
"Yes, Sir; he is gone for a cruise towards the Baltic, and that is the
reason you have not met him on the passage here. He is partial to the
English; and so are we. He would have chased you; but, Sir, his yacht is
no better than a fisherman's smack."
After a multitude of other aspirations, that we might encounter the
Crown Prince, now, by the way, king, to disgust him with his property,
the Dane took his leave; and, although his bland, Saxon face, with his
seemingly open disposition, drew me towards him, I was not sorry to be
alone.
The sun seemed at last to have gained its desire, by lulling the wind,
and, instead of bursting, fretfully, through squally clouds, now shone
forth with warmth and unblemished splendour. Many ladies and gentlemen
walked up and down on a promenade, evidently a favourite and fashionable
lounge, within the ramparts of a citadel, bristling with guns of
tremendous calibre, not a cable's length from the Iris; so, that, I
could see, without being much observed, the gaiety which was in vogue,
and could almost hear, did I understand the language, the anxiety
expressed to know what and whence we were. The ladies in their French
pink bonnets, and English dresses, pointed, gathering in knots, to the
white Ensign and red cross of St. George,--which drooping, dipped, like
a swallow, to the water's surface, then floated lazily in the air,--and
concluded at once in their sweet minds from what part of the sunny South
we came, and what the errand was which had brought us so far from home
to Denmark. I could almost tell, by the fervour of their manner, how the
men viewed with admiration the slight downward curve of the cutter's
bowsprit, her burnished copper, and low, raking hull. Boats of all sizes
and shapes, each containing a cargo, varying from four to thirteen
persons, put off from the shore, and each individual whispering one to
the other, that we were English, paddled round the cutter. Removed at a
short distance from the little fleet, like the leading drake of a flock
of ducks, a boat, rowed by a sailor and carrying two gentlemen, one with
spectacles, standing, and the other quietly seated, steering, described
continuously an elliptical circle round and round the vessel. Now and
then, the gentleman, who stood, would make an exclamation to his
companion, but whether of admiration or dislike, I had no other means of
conjecturing than from the frequency with which he arranged,
disarranged, and re-arranged his spectacles, first, fixing them tightly
to the bridge of his nose, then, unfixing them, with a pettish jerk, to
wipe them with his handkerchief, and, at last, refixing them with much
precision, by removing the hat from his head and clasping it between his
knees, till the yielding pasteboard crackled again. This
circumnavigation continued for some time, much to my amusement, but more
to the annoyance of Sailor, who leaped from stern to bow, following the
motion of the boat, and barked, till the echo of his voice struck
sharply against the bastions of Fredrikshavn, then flew, bounding, back
again.
At last, the boat was pulled boldly to the gangway, and the excitable
gentleman in spectacles, seizing hold of the after-braces, bowed and
handed me a card, and begged, in bad French, that he might be permitted
to come on board. Permission was soon obtained from R----, and, with hat
in hand, on board the Dane, as I fancied, jumped, accompanied, of
course, by the other gentleman. The whiteness of the deck attracted his
attention, and turning to me he made, smiling, an observation in a
language which I did not understand, but could not help desiring to hear
its silvery sounds again.
"Vous n'etes pas Francais?" he then asked.
"Non, je ne suis pas."
"Mais la langue, ne la comprenez-vous pas?"
"Pas beaucoup," I replied.
"Dat is pitty; for I have been for shome toime past in Ingerlaand, but I
not learn ze langwage. Ze Ingerleesh varry difficolt."
"You seemed," I replied, "to have overcome that difficulty, and you
speak it with a pretty good accent."
"No, Zare, you varry goot to say so; but I feel I can at all not--at all
not,--qu'est que veut dire, 'exprimer?'--ach! ach!" he exclaimed,
putting his finger in his mouth, and pressing it, meditatively, between
his front teeth, "I can at all not speak moin feeling in ze vay I shoult
vish."
"How long were you in England?" I said.
"En fjor--une annee," he replied.
"If then, Sir," I went on, "after being one year in Denmark, I can speak
the language so correctly as you do the English, I should think myself
no deficient scholar."
"Oh! Zare, you too goot. I am not Dane, zough; I am from
Sweden--ffr[=a]n Svenska landet; but I come to Kjobenhagen for ze
painting. Zare," he said, turning round, and looking from stem to stern,
and from the burgee at the top-mast head to the brass belaying pins,
"dish Engelskt skepp varry--ach! ach!" again he exclaimed, stamping his
foot and thrusting his finger in his mouth, "fy!--vat you call 'skoent'?"
"Fine, beautiful," I said, assistingly.
"Ja; jag tackar. Det aer skoent!" he exclaimed to his companion, who bowed
in assent, and observed in the Swedish tongue,
"Det ser ut som en fregatt;" which, being interpreted, meant that the
yacht was like a frigate.
"Ja," answered my friend; and, after allowing time that they might
admire everything, which they did, walking to and fro the deck, looking
down the pumps and up the rigging, I requested that they would follow
me, and I would show them below. The compactness of the cabin, the
comfort of the berths, the height between decks, the combination of ease
and elegance in the furniture, the copper-plate drawings, the swinging
table, the pantry with every drawer and cupboard exactly where they
ought to be, and nowhere else, the forecastle, and, wonder upon wonder!
the cooking apparatus with its moveable jack, and its particular copper
for hot water,--all these things, and a thousand others too minute to
tell, acted so impressively on their minds, that I could hear them
extolling, in barbarous grammar, to the cook the singular sagacity of an
English mechanic, and the collective greatness of the English nation.
They remained on board nearly three hours; and, after conversing with
R----, P----, and myself as well as they could, they presented each of
us with their cards, and, begging that we would honour them with a
visit, took their leave. I returned on deck with them; and the
gentleman, whom I have distinguished from his fellow visitor by his
spectacles, before he stepped into his boat, said to me,
"Zare, I can at all not say how mooch dish skepp delight me to look at.
I am von artiste, and I should like varry mooch to draw dish skepp."
"I am sure," I replied, "Lord R---- will make no objection, for you
compliment him in expressing such a wish."
"I tank you, Zare; I can at all not help eet, but I look at dish skepp
like von--like von--ach! ach!--" and again the top of the forefinger was
lodged in his mouth, "vat is 'skoent'?--bootifool?--jag tacker;--like von
bootifool flicka, gal, and ze odare skepps like old vomans."
So saying, he raised his hat and gravely wished me good day.
"Good dag," he exclaimed again, standing upright in the boat--"Farvael!"
"Good dag. Farvael!" repeated his companion. And still, in an erect
position, the gentleman in spectacles kept his eyes fixed on the vessel
until a projecting portion of the quay hid the Iris from his sight. I
then joined R---- and P---- in the cabin. We were endeavouring to settle
what could be done in the evening, and at what point we should commence
to see all the lions in Copenhagen, and regretting that we were
unacquainted with an Englishman resident in the capital, when the
steward gave a very small card, having a very large inscription on it,
to R----, and said that a gentleman wished to speak to us. R---- desired
that the stranger would walk below.
"Gentlemen," said a stout man about fifty-five years of age, who, with a
red face, was standing uncovered at the threshold of the cabin door, "I
hope you will forgive the liberty I have taken in boarding your yacht."
"Oh! yes, certainly," said R----, "I am happy to see a countryman."
"That is just my case," replied the stout man, advancing farther into
the cabin. "I have been driven from my own country by adversity, and
whenever I see an Englishman I cannot resist forming his acquaintance,
that I might speak to some one who has come from the land where I was
born. Have you seen my card? My name is A--l--r C."
"Won't you sit down?" said P----, offering him a chair.
"I thank you," answered Mr. C----, and sate down. "I suppose you are
come to fish."
"We are," P---- replied, "and should like to learn something about the
art, and the places where it may be applied."
"You can't fish so far to the south as Copenhagen," said Mr. C. "There
are no fish here. I suppose you know that?"
"Yes, we know that," interposed R----, "we are from Christiansand, and
there we heard of fish, but caught none."
"That's very likely; the rivers are yet too cold, and will continue so
for a month or more. I am an old fisherman," exclaimed Mr. C----
challengingly. "I have caught my sixty in a week;" and he slapped his
thigh.
P---- rubbed his hands with satisfaction, and R---- rose from the sofa
on which he was reclining, and looked at Mr. C---- with curiosity.
"Well, now," proceeded Mr. A--l--r C----, "I would suggest, that, you
three gentlemen, being in search of pleasure or sport, should remain a
few days where you are. After having worn out the enjoyments, and there
are many, of Copenhagen, coast it up to Gottenborg, Falkenborg, and so
on till you reach Christiania; and at Falkenborg, or Kongsbacka, you may
get a few fish. Have you brought any tackle, or flies?"
"Lots of both," said P----, rising at the same moment, and taking from
the bookcase behind him his whole fishing apparatus. The fly-book was
soon opened, and Mr. C---- scrutinized tackle and flies with the
attention of an angler.
"This is too yellow," he said of one fly, removing it from the book, and
placing it on the table for observation. "Here--here's too much red and
blue," of another; "there are no flies of that colour in Sweden, or
Norway; and all this green on the belly is rubbish,--no fish will take
_that_. What's this? Ha! The dragon-fly,--'t won't do." After rummaging
for a little while, he said, "By the Lord Harry! come out!" seizing by
the wings a fourth fly about the size of a humming bird. "This'll do for
the coast of Greenland where whales are caught. Shall I tell you what?"
asked Mr. C----, putting an end to his criticism, and looking round at
us all. "Make your own flies. It's impossible for a fellow in the Strand
to put a fly together which would suit fishermen like you. Observe the
flies and insects of the country as they flutter under your nose, and
imitate them the best way you can."
"That's not a bad idea," was the simultaneous answer of R---- and P----;
but they liked not their London-made goods rated so lowly.
"Now," exclaimed Mr. C----, glancing steadfastly all round the cabin at
each of us, "I hear this yacht belongs to an English nobleman, and the
name is familiar to me. Which one of you is Lord R----?"
P---- and I made no reply; and R----, quite _taken a-back_, resumed
instantly, with a comic air, his declining attitude sideways on the
sofa, with his face turned next to the bulk-head.
"_You_ are Lord R----," continued Mr. C----, pointing to me.
"As much as you have exalted me in the grade of society, so much has it
pleased Fate at last to depress me," I replied. "That is Lord R----," I
continued, pointing to R----, or, at least, towards the centre seam in
the back of his pilot-jacket.
"I hope your Lordship," said old C----, addressing R----'s back front
view, "will forgive the robbery of your due; but, had I observed your
face, I could not have mistaken you."
R---- rose laughing, and told him no apology was requisite.
"You are very like the pictures I have seen, when I was in England, of
the Admiral." Then, after a pause, "What can I do for you, gentlemen?"
said Mr. C----. "How can I serve you? To-day is Saturday. Nothing is
going on to-night; but if, after dinner, you will allow me to wait on
you, I will do my best to amuse in a stroll about the town."
"But won't you dine on board?" asked P----.
"I thank you; I have already ordered my own chop," Mr. C---- replied,
"and I would in that case beg you to permit my meeting you after I have
demolished it. Say half-past seven."
"As you like," said R----; "but I can give you a good bottle of claret."
"Thank you, my Lord; but not to-day." And Mr. C. commenced a retrograde
motion towards the companion.
"Have you a boat?" inquired R----; "because you can have one of mine, if
you like."
"If you will, I shall feel obliged," replied Mr. C----.
"Alfred!" shouted R----, at the top of his lungs.
"Yes, my Lord," echoed from the recesses of the pantry, and then the
cause of the echo became visible at the door of the pantry.
"Man the gig!" said R----.
"Yes, my Lord," and Alfred again disappeared as quickly as a falling
star. A few minutes more, and Mr. C---- was over the gangway, in the
gig, and ashore.