"His coal was coarse, its fashion old; He asked no dress of greater worthThan that which kept from storm and cold The Baptist when he preached on earth." C. J. BORE.
Not alone of Otto's affairs, but also of "the city yonder," as thepreacher called Copenhagen, would he speak. Only once a week camethe "Viborg Collector" to hint, and the Copenhagen papers were awhole month going their round. "One would willingly advance withthe time," said he. Yesterday, at the interment, he had not foundit seemly to gratify his desire of hearing dear Otto talk about thecity, but to-day he thought it might well be done, and therefore hewould not await Otto's visit but come over to pay one himself.
"Thou hast certainly seen our good king?" was his first question."Lord help the anointed one! he is then as vigorous and active asever--my good King Frederik!" And now he must relate a trait whichhad touched his heart, and which, in his opinion, deserved a placein the annals of history. This event occurred the last time thatthe king was in Jutland; he had visited the interior of the countryand the western coast also. When he was leaving a public-house theold hostess ran after him, and besought that the Father would, as aremembrance, write his name with chalk upon a beam. The grandgentlemen wished to deter her, but she pulled at the king's coat;and when he had learned her wish he nodded in a friendly manner,and said, "Very willingly!" and then turned back and wrote his nameon the beam. Tears came into the old man's eyes; he wept, andprayed for his king. He now inquired whether the old tree was stillstanding in the Regent's Court, and then spoke of Nyerup andAbrahamson, whom he had known in his student days.
In fact, after all, he was himself the narrator; each of hisquestions related to this or that event in his own life, and healways returned to this source--his student-days. There was thenanother life, another activity, he maintained. His royal idea ofbeauty had been Queen Matilda. [Translator's Note: The unhappy wifeof Christian VII. and daughter of our George III.] "I saw her oftenon horseback," said he. "It was not then the custom in our countryfor ladies to ride. In her country it was the fashion; here it gaverise to scandal. God gave her beauty, a king's crown, and a heartfull of love; the world gave her--what it can give--a grave near tothe bare heath!"
Whilst he so perpetually returned to his own recollections, hisshare of news was truly not new, but he was satisfied. Copenhagenappeared to him a whole world--a royal city; but Sodom and Gomorrahhad more than one street there.
Otto smiled at the earnestness with which he said this.
"Yes, that I know better than thou, my young friend!" continued theold preacher. "True, the devil does not go about like a roaringlion, but there he has his greatest works! He is well-dressed, andconceals his claws and his tail! Do not rely upon thy strength! Hegoes about, like the cat in the fable, 'pede suspenso,' sneakinglyand cautiously! It is, after all, with the devil as it is with aJutland peasant. This fellow comes to the city, has nothing, runsabout, and cleans shoes and boots for the young gentlemen, and bythis means he wins a small sum of money. He knows how to spare. Hecan now hire the cellar of the house in which thou livest, andthere commence some small trade. The trade is successful, verysuccessful. It goes on so well that he can hire the lower story;then he gains more profit, and before thou canst look about theehe buys the whole house. See, that is the way with the Jutlandpeasant, and just the same with the devil. At first he gets thecellar, then the lower story, and at last the whole house!"