COPENHAGEN--THE CAFE--THE DILEMMA--THE GUARD--COMPLIMENT
TO ENGLAND--DESCRIPTION OF THE HARBOUR AND FORTIFICATIONS
--DELINQUENT SAILORS--THE CITY ON SUNDAY--NEGRO
COMMISSIONAIRE--A WALK THROUGH THE CITY--NOTICES OF THE
VARIOUS PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
Punctual to our engagement, we met Mr. C----, after dinner at half-past
seven. After wandering over the town for some time without any definite
object, I grumbled at the system of enjoyment we had adopted. The
streets not being paved so well as the worst streets in London are, the
stones, projecting with sharp points three or four inches above the
ground, wound and irritate the feet to a serious extent; and my ankles
were almost sprained several times in consequence of the high heels I
had to my boots. I recommend thick shoes without heels to the traveller
in _all_ the northern capitals.
"You are always rusty, Bill," said R----. "Come on."
"Let us stop," I replied, "and determine where we are going."
We therefore stopped in a large square, at the base of an equestrian
statue, the beauty or imperfection of which I could not see at the late
hour; and, with Mr. C---- in the centre, consulted what could be done.
Being in ignorance of the habits of the people, and the haunts where
amusements existed, we three could only look at each other and be mute.
"Come along," at last exclaimed Mr. C----, as if a great idea had dawned
on his mind; "let's turn into this cafe," directing our attention to a
spacious building brilliantly illuminated.
"Port your helm, Jack," said R----, in a jesting tone of voice, and
moved quickly away towards the cafe.
We entered, and to say that we saw anything at our first entrance beyond
an atmosphere of tobacco smoke, so thick as to be palpable to the touch,
would be out of the question. After opening and closing my eyes twice or
three times, and, wiping away the tears which the pungent tobacco smoke
excited, I began to take an observation.
The room in which I found myself was literally crammed with men of all
denominations and all ages, and each having a cigar in his mouth in full
play. Some, in this dense hot region, were reading books full of deep
thought, (for I looked over their shoulders); some meditating over a
game of chess, more chattering vehemently and loudly, and many playing
at billiards. Mr. C----, R----, and P---- had seated themselves in the
vicinity of a billiard-table, and, when I partially recovered my senses,
I followed their example. The table was about half the size of the
billiard-tables in England, and the pockets were twice as large. The
four balls, with which they played, were not much bigger than those
generally used at bagatelle. The queus were uncovered at the top with
leather; and the player had the satisfaction of hearing the sharp twang
of his bare-headed queu as each time it struck the little ivory ball. No
chalk was in the room. The Danes possess no word in their language
expressive of that convenient mineral. In Denmark, credit is never
given. You must pay, or go to prison. Thank God, I am an Englishman.
We remained an hour in this cafe; and after tasting, each of us, a glass
of maraschino, which Mr. C---- would insist on paying for, we left the
oven. We did not, I promise you, go into another during the week we
remained at Copenhagen; and I would urge those "troubled and disquieted
spirits," who desire health and good lungs to pursue their wanderings on
meadow or mountain, strenuously to avoid these gasometers and
receptacles of tobacco smoke.
As it was now nearly twelve o'clock, we took leave of Mr. C----, and
walked towards the harbour, when, on our arrival at the Custom House, we
found the gates, through which we had passed when landing, closed, and
thus cutting off all communication between the yacht and ourselves. What
was to be done? The Heaven, decked out in its deep blue mantle, shone
brightly over our heads; and the poppy-dew of Sleep, descending on the
Soul of Copenhagen, had lulled all into the profoundest silence. Lying
calmly at anchor on the smooth water which reflected a thousand stars,
our floating home, not a mile off, could be seen. The tramp of a
sentinel struck on the ear.
"Hi! ho!" exclaimed P----, distinguishing the soldier's accoutrements.
The Dane approached the iron gate, and, leering through the bars, seemed
to doubt our gentility. We could not speak Danish; he did not speak
English; and what was to be done with a common soldier at dead of night?
P---- went near to the gate.
"Hi! ho!" a second time he exclaimed, as the soldier commenced walking
the other way; "We English gentlemen want to get board jhat;" persevered
P----, endeavouring, by the adoption of a broken accent, to convey his
meaning.
The Dane shook his head.
"We are done," said P---- calmly, "I wish we could get him to call the
officer on guard;" and, turning to the gaping sentinel again, "Officer,"
he continued, "appelez officer," speaking half French, half English.
The man ducked his shakko, and departed. Almost immediately the officer
of the guard came out, wrapped in the huge folds of a military cloak,
and, gazing at us through the bars, uttered a sentence in Danish. Making
no reply to him, he then said, saluting us with much politeness,
"Que voulez vous, Messieurs?"
"Nous sommes des Messieurs Anglais qui desirent passer d'ici jusqu'a
notre jhat," replied P----.
"Certainement;" so saying, a second time the officer raised his cap,
and, turning to two serjeants who had followed him from the guard-room,
gave directions that the gates should be unlocked, and we passed
unmolested through.
This was an act of courtesy and kindness which, we learned the next day,
we were fortunate in receiving; for it was the stringent order of the
Governor of Copenhagen, the Prince of Hesse, that the gates of the city,
particularly this one, should be closed at ten o'clock, and no one
permitted, on any pretence, to go in or out after this hour. The
smuggling between the coast of Sweden and the town of Copenhagen being
carried on to a great extent, render these restrictions very necessary;
and we could only be indebted to our country for the exception which had
been made to us by the officer on guard.
I rose betimes the following day, and went on deck before breakfast, in
order to take a view of the harbour, its position and defences. The
mouth of Copenhagen Harbour opens to the eastward. In the centre of its
entrance is a small island, called Armager, well fortified; and to the
south of it is another battery separated from Armager by a narrow
channel, which is so shallow, that, a reef of rocks may be noted by the
foam of the waves as they curl and break over it; while to the North is
the tremendous citadel of Fredrikshavn, and the only passage into the
harbour is between this fortress and the Island of Armager.
Gambier may have effectually bombarded Copenhagen in 1807, but, I think,
such an achievement would be scarcely practicable now. However, I am no
judge of either naval or military tactics, but if the metal of guns, and
the strength as well as position of fortifications promise to a city
protection from an enemy, be he ever so mighty, Copenhagen has that
promise well guaranteed to her.
In the midst of my political meditations, the steward popped his head
above the companion, touched his hair, as he always did when he had no
hat on, and said,
"Breakfast ready, Sir."
My appetite soon clambered to the summit on which my mind had been
perched, and desired obedience to what I heard; and in justification of
my health, I ate a good breakfast. I returned on deck, an hour
afterwards, holding little Jacko in my arms, who was surfeited with
coffee, marmalade, fish, and egg, even to lethargy.
It was ten o'clock. R---- and I sitting on the taffrail aft, P----
having gone ashore, were basking in the bright sunshine of the Sunday
May morning, and comparing the temperature, scenes, and manners of
Copenhagen, with the variable winds, the Primrose Hill, and the
exuberant Sabbath spirits of London, when the sailing-master came, with
rather a longer face than usual, to the spot where we were lounging,
and, after his customary greeting of "Good morning, my Lord," and "Good
morning, Sir," said,
"I have a complaint to make, my Lord."
"Well, out with it" R---- replied.
"You know, my Lord," D---- continued, "old Tom, Dick, and George were
allowed to go ashore yesterday, and, instead of behaving like decent
fellows, as they ought to have done on arriving at a foreign port, they
must get drunk, and nearly drown themselves in trying to get off to the
vessel."
"The deuce they did; and when did this occur?" inquired R----.
"They got drunk last night; but they nearly got drowned this morning, my
Lord," D---- answered.
"Where are the men?" asked R----.
"On board, my Lord," D---- said.
"Send them aft."
Away went D---- in search of the delinquent tars; and, as soon as he had
got out of ear-shot, R---- observed to me,
"Is not this like these English blackguards? I dare say they have kicked
up the devil's own row ashore, and, by squabbling with the inhabitants,
brought my vessel into disrepute."
"Let us hear their story before we condemn them," I said; and in two
minutes more old Tom, Dick, and George, were arranged in a line before
R----, who still continued sitting, cross-legged, on the taffrail, abaft
the tiller. They all three looked sheepish enough, and, if one might
judge innocence and guilt from the countenance, they seemed criminal in
the extreme.
"Well, Tom," R---- commenced, "what is all this about?"
"The Cap'n, my Lord," said Tom, twitching up his duck trowsers on the
port side, "gave us leave to go ashore; and we had barely set foot on
dry land, than a sort of fellow, neither fish nor man, comes to us, and,
says he, in a rum kind of a lingo, 'My lads, I'll show you about the
town,' You know, my Lord, as well as I does,----"
"I don't want any of your palavering," interrupted R----; "but I want to
know why the devil you went and made beasts of yourselves?"
"Wery good, my Lord, I'm coming to the sarcumstances; but we warn't
drunk, my Lord--notottoll."
"D---- saw you drunk," said R----.
"No, my Lord, no;" calmly said Tom, "the Cap'n carn't substanshate that
air. We warn't drunk, my Lord,--notottoll."
"How can you stand there," interrupted D---- warmly, "and try to humbug
my Lord in that kind of a way?"
"Not a bit of it," said R----; "he can't humbug me; and don't fret
yourself about that."
"That's nothing more nor less than I would ax of your Lordship,"
interposed Tom; and, edging in a piece of opportune sentiment, he
continued, "I have sailed three seasons with your Lordship, and I have
always bore myself like a British sailor, as I be. We was joyful-like to
stretch our timbers; but we warn't drunk, my Lord, notottoll."
"If you were not at all drunk," replied R----, "you were very nearly
drowned; and you don't mean to tell me, that you could ever capsize that
dingy without being drunk?"
"Notottoll, my Lord," persisted Tom; "Dick, my Lord, took a broad sheer
to starboard, and capsized the boat. We warn't drunk, my Lord,
notottoll."
"Do you intend to say you three had no spirits to drink the whole time
you were ashore?" asked R----.
"Sperits, my Lord! they ain't got such gear in this air place."
"How do you know?" R---- said.
"Bekase, I enkquired, my Lord."
"Oh! did you inquire in the streets?" questioned R----.
"No, my Lord; I axes in a cabbarette, as they calls it," Tom answered.
"Then you went into a cabaret, and drank nothing. _Very_, like, a,
whale," said R---- slowly.
"Notottoll, my Lord, we had a bottle of ordonnor_y_."
"What's that?" asked R----, a little puzzled.
"_Rot-gut_, my Lord," ejaculated Tom, with emphasis; "and if, my Lord, a
man wants to get the jandiss, I recommends vang ordonnor_y_;" and down
went Tom's fist, with a loud report, into the palm of his left hand. I
burst into a shout of laughter at the comicality of Tom's melancholy
face, and the smacking of his lips, as he called to mind the acidity of
the wine; and R----, judge as he was, could not resist the farce.
"I tell you what," said R----, "and I tell you _all_ plainly, if you
fellows go ashore, and get into a row, and the police take you in
charge; instead of defending you, as you fancy I will, I will appear
_against_ you, and assist the law in punishing you; and, what is more,
if you are sent to prison, I will up stick, and leave you there."
"Thank you, my Lord," they murmured, and old Tom assisting in the
thankful murmurs of Dick and George, kept reiterating till the sounds
died away as he descended the fore-hatch.
"We warn't drunk, my Lord,--notottoll;" and Tom was the most notorious
drunkard on board.
The story was simply this:--He and his two companions, after trudging
over the town, sight-seeing, till past ten, found, to their dismay, on
arriving at the outer gates, that they were closed. In self-defence, all
three were compelled to take shelter for the night in some low cabaret,
where, meeting with a few jovial Danes, unreluctant to shun the bout,
they drank the night away. Feeling the weight of Danish grog aloft,
Dick, a stalwart young fellow of six feet, lost his balance in stepping
into the boat next morning, and, falling athwart the little dingy's
gunwale, capsized it. Poor old Tom, out of the three, went like a
24-pounder to the bottom; but the transparency of the water allowed some
bystanders to observe his carcass stretched out among the cockles as
composedly as in his hammock, and to raise him, after the lapse of a
short time, by applying a boat-hook to the hole of his breeches' pocket.
P---- returned at one, and told us, that he called at the guard-room,
and, making the harbour-master his marshal and interpreter, had hunted
up the officer so civil to us last night; and expressed our gratitude
for the favour which we had received. To every one who travels
inconveniences must occur, or else travelling loses half its excitement.
I would rather remain all my days at home, my mind compressed within its
narrow precincts, and never see the sunny South, or mingle, as I do,
with people whose warm hearts are softer than the genial air they
breathe, and feel, that extreme nobility of soul and sensitiveness of
wrong are entwined with the purest simplicity of thought and manners,
than lack the slight annoyances of a Scythian life. P---- gave us to
understand that he had inquired about _the gates_; and all the
information he could collect was, that no respect could be paid to our
condition; and, if we remained on shore after ten, we should run the
risk of being kept out of our beds all night. The plan suggested was to
write to the Prince of Hesse, and, stating our position, beg that his
Royal Highness would grant us permission to pass backward and forward
at any hour. Reconsidering, however, the matter, we determined not to do
so; but to call on our Consul, and, through him, represent the hardship
of our case to the British Minister. This determination was adopted, and
ordered to be carried into execution the following day, this one being
the Sabbath. Is it not strange how Englishmen long to break through all
restraint, and regard the laws of foreign countries as so many
impediments in their path of pleasure?
As in England, many well-dressed people were walking about under the
shade of the trees planted with great regularity along the ramparts of
Fredrikshavn. We could hear children calling aloud, as soon as they
caught sight of the yacht, decked out with all the elegance of her
whitest ensign, and best Burgee "Engelskt! Engelskt!" with shrill
tongues they cried; and, denoting with their little hands the object of
delight, disturbed the stillness of the holy day.
The French customs are generally followed, I fancy, in this country; for
to-day, being Sunday, more entertainment is to be met with in Copenhagen
than on any other day of the week. The theatres are all open, and the
casino, sacred by the royal presence of Christian, lures, with its sweet
tones of operatic music, the prudish Englishman from thoughts of
Paradise and the fourth commandment. Moses, Daniel, and the Chronicles
are quite forgotten; and, putting Ecclesiastes in our pocket, we are
going to the casino to-night.
"Do you know," suddenly said P----, as he closed a large chart of
Norway, up and down the rivers of which he had been floating for some
time on the tip of his pen-knife, "I met old C---- ashore, and he stuck
to me like birdlime. He is a bore; I wonder who he is!"
Like a black cloud, you sometimes see on sultry summer days, moving
sluggishly across the purely azure sky; so this remark of
P---- overshadowed my mind with a misgiving feeling; and Horace's Ninth
Satire, seizing my memory with prophetic tenacity, made me involuntarily
mutter,--
"Ibam forte via sacra, sicut meus est mos,
Nescio quid meditans nugarum, et totus in illis;
Accurrit quidam notus mihi nomine tantum,
Arrep----"
"A note, my Lord," and the steward placed a most diminutive note in
R----'s hand. It ran thus:--
"My Lord and Gentlemen,
"I will accompany you to the Casino this evening at 8.
I feel it my duty to show you all the attention I can.
"Yours faithfully,
"A--l--r C----."
"Deuce take him!" said R----; "let us go at six."
"From Mr. C----, I suppose," remarked P----, taking up and glancing at
the piece of paper. "I see how it is. We must give him a civil hint; and
if he won't take it, we must do the best we can. Poor old fellow! I
should not like to hurt his feelings."
When we had made an end of the treatment it was suggested Mr. C----
should receive, I put on my best coat, and went ashore. Scarcely had I,
for the second time, rested my foot on the soil of Denmark, than I
caught, riveted on me, two small pig-like eyes twinkling in the centre
of an ebony face.
"Me berry glad to see you, Sir," said the owner of this countenance,
and, accompanying the welcome voice, the removal of a high-crowned white
hat exposed to the African warmth of noon a head of true African wool.
"Thank you, Solomon."
"No, Sir; me Joe--Joe Washimtum," replied the black man, proudly; "but
me brudder name Dabid--him better dan Sarlaman."
Deeming this the beginning and result of our acquaintance, I walked on,
paying no attention to the sable Mr. C----; but I had anticipated
blacky's intentions wrongfully, for a few minutes were sufficient time
to place him on my left hand.
"Hab you, Sir, no cumsidumration to see um town?" he inquired.
"Not to-day, Joe," I answered. "I have formed my plans; but some other
day we will navigate the town together."
"Berry good, Sir." And, again elevating his steeple white hat, away
marched Joe, Commissionaire of l'Hotel d'Angleterre.
The day was very hot, and my feet, swollen by the heat, suffered more
than they did last night from the effects of the uneven stones. I limped
from one street to the other, and found the "Amalien-Gade," not much
inferior in breadth and length to Portland Place. Palaces of great
symmetry, though of immense size, rose before the eye at every corner;
and the residence of the Prince of Hesse is one of the most beautiful
structures I have ever seen. The white colour, as at Christiansand, with
which all these large buildings are painted, forces directly on the
stranger's mind their lightness and elegant proportions.
At the end of the "Amalien-Gade," which is about a mile in length, is a
large odiously-paved square intersected by four streets; and, between
each of these streets, are four small palaces in the style of Italian
architecture. They are inhabited by the royal family; and the old king,
Christian, may be seen sometimes, of an evening, walking across to play
a game of whist with the dowager-queen. Infantry and cavalry officers,
gossipping in groups, and flashing in the sun's rays, their light-blue
uniform embroidered elaborately with silver lace, remind you of the
Court's vicinity; and the eternal sound of a sentinel's challenge, as
files of men march and re-march by him, proclaims, that, deference to
kings is much the same in simple Denmark, as in pageant England.
In the centre of this square stands an equestrian bronze statue of
Frederick the Fifth; and, though the horse's head is considered a
perfect piece of statuary, I am obstinate enough to differ, from the
general opinion; and Monsieur Gorr, who executed it, will, with the
politeness and generosity of his country, permit me to think as I do,
and pardon me, if I be wrong. Since its foundation in 1168, three awful
fires in 1729, 1794, and 1795, nearly burned down the whole city of
Copenhagen; but Christiansborg, the colossal palace of the Danish kings,
was levelled with the ground; and Christian, deeming, perhaps, this
abode of his ancestors doomed to be destroyed a second time, avoids it
with superstitious care; and has selected for himself and family the
four mansions, for they are nothing more, to which I have alluded. Queen
Caroline-Matilda being taken from this palace to Cronenborg, her son,
Frederick the Sixth, would never reside in it afterwards; and, I think,
it is more from this mingled feeling of affection and painful regret,
and a desire to obliterate from their memories the recollection of her
fate, that his descendants have followed the filial example of
Frederick, than from any dread of sudden destruction by fire.
While walking through the streets, I could hardly dissuade myself I was
not in the tropics, for the capacious archways, and central court-yards
were quite oriental; and the large and numerous windows of the private
houses, with jalousies thrown open, at cool of day, against the wall,
reminded me also of the Antilles; and, had a black face but peeped out
at me, the fancy might have seemed reality.