COXe’s TRAVELS IN DENMARK,.
342
to the court of the Eledrefs, that Ihe might engage the Emperor to intercede with theKing of Denmark for fome alleviation of her father's fu fie rings. The dwarf accord-ingly feigned ficknefs, was transferred to the neighbouring town, eluded the vigilanceof his guards, and made his efcape; but was overtaken at Relburgh, fcarcely a day’sjourney from the Danilh confines.
Chriftian, fruftrated in this attempt, and deprived of his faithful affociate, lingeredforfome time in total folitude, until an old foldier, worn out with the fatigues of war,offered to fhare the King’s imprisonment. This veteran being immured in the dungeon,amufed the royal prifoner with various anecdotes on the different princes and generalsunder whom he had enlifted, and by defcribing the expeditions and battles in whichhe had been'prefent; and, as he had ferved from his earlieft youth, was a perfon ofmuch obfervation, and by nature loquacious, he aftifted in relieving the tmdium ofChriftian’s captivity. Nor did any event, fcarcely the lofs of his fon, more fenfiblyaffed the depofed fovereign, than the death of this foother of his mifery, who expiredin the dungeon.
After a confinement of eleven years in his original cell, Chriflian was at length re-moved, through theinterceffion of Charles V. to a commodious apartment in the famecaftle, provided with fuitable attendants, and indulged with the liberty of vifiting inthe town, attending divine fervice in the public church, and hunting in the neigh-bouring diftrid. Yet even this change of fituation, which had been fo long the foieobjed of his wifhes, could not make him forget that he was ftill a prifoner, the recol-Iedion of which affeded him occafionally to fuch a degree, that he would fuddenlyburfl into tears, throw himfelf on the ground, utter the mod bitter lamentations, andcontinue for fome time in a ftate approaching to infaniry. However defervedly odiousChriftian II. may have appeared in the former parts of his life ; yet his fubfequent fuf-ferings raife compaflion ; and it is a pleafing fatisfadion to every humane mind, thathe recovered from his defpondency, and acquiefced in his fate with perfect refiigna-tion.
In 1546, after a confinement of fixteen years and feven months in the caftle of Son-derborg, he was conveyed to the palace of Callenborg, in the ifle of Zealand, a placeto which he was particularly attached. Chriftian III. repaired in perfon to Aliens, re-ceived his fallen rival with great marks of attention, and promifed him every comfortwhich could tend to alleviate his fituation. Thefe unufual honours, joined to his re-moval from a place where he had experienced fo much mifery, and the profped ofagain inhabiting his favourite palace, excited tranfports of joy, and he compared him-felf to a perfon recalled from death *.
Being conducted to Callenborg, he had the fatisfadion of finding thefe promifes re-ligioufly fulfilled. He furvived this happy change ten years; and his mind was fofoftened by adverfity, that, old as he was, his death was haftened by affliction for thelofs of his benefador Chriftian III. He died on the 24th of January 5559, in thefeventy-eighth year of his age, and in the thirty-fixth from the period of his depo-fition f.
April 9th, we arrived at Allens, juft mentioned as the place of meeting between thetwo ibvereigns } it Hands on the Little Belt , a ftrait of the Baltic, which feparates the
* “ Qu'bus ille non fecus animo exhilaratur, ac Ji morte extract us, novam lucem intueretur.” CragiiAnnal. thrift. III. p. 524.
f Thefe particulars of Chriftian the Second’s life are chiefly taken from Holberg and Svaningii VitajChriftiani Secundi.
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