Copenhagen

T H E SURROUND INGS OF COPENHAGEN.

turrets, and spires, and on its ram parts cannon — which fire sa­ lutes. It is as though D enm ark’s history stood there keep ing watch at the outerm ost point, on the outerm o st redoubt. T ra­ ditions from the earliest times cling to these old walls. Down in the deepest vault, behind walls which none can penetrate, sits H o lg e r Danske, the nation ’s hero. He has slept for a th o u ­ sand years. His w hite beard has g row n fast to the stone table, while he slept. But when the last die is to be cast to decide the fate of D enm ark — and they have played high and they have played long for the land of the Danes — then the h ero will awake, tear his white beard from the table and g rip his sword for the final struggle. Far dow n below H o lger Danske waits his day. H am let’s shade w anders on the ram parts above. H ere it was that the Danish prince saw his father’s ghost. H ere he kept watch at m idn igh t w ith Horatio and Marcellus. T he w hole place is H am let’s. Close by, on a slope in the park of M arienlyst Castle, now a prom enade for the summ er visitors, is his grave. Beeches cast their shadow s over it. All foreigners come to see it. H am let is still tradition. H istory too lives at K ronborg. At the tim e the castle was erected, both sides of the Sound belonged to Denmark. K ronbo rg stood sentry at the gates of the k ingdom and of the Baltic. It p rotected the town of Elsinore, and its soldiers took care that the ships paid the Sound duties. They w ere m erry days these in old Elsinore. All ships w ere ob liged to stop here, and all their captains w ere ob liged to go ashore. There w ere m ore ale-houses in the narrow streets than there are clergymen in a diocese, and th ro u g h these streets ro lled the carriages of consuls from every country in Europe. But an end was put to the Sound duties in 1857. E lsinore becam e still, — a summ er town, visited by strangers interested in its historical m em entoes o r on their way to Marienlyst. A m ore beautiful spot than M arienlyst the coun try does not possess. The hotel lies quite near the Sound in a park w ith ca-

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