A Yacht Voyage to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden Part 6

"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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sage 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 appet.i.te 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 ash.o.r.e, were basking in the bright suns.h.i.+ne 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, d.i.c.k, and George were allowed to go ash.o.r.e 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 ash.o.r.e, 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, d.i.c.k, 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 ash.o.r.e; 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 sarc.u.mstances; 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 Lords.h.i.+p,"

interposed Tom; and, edging in a piece of opportune sentiment, he continued, "I have sailed three seasons with your Lords.h.i.+p, 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; "d.i.c.k, 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 ash.o.r.e?" 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," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed 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 ash.o.r.e, 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 a.s.sist the law in punis.h.i.+ng 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 a.s.sisting in the thankful murmurs of d.i.c.k 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, d.i.c.k, 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 carca.s.s stretched out among the c.o.c.kles 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 grat.i.tude 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 n.o.bility 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 sh.o.r.e 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 pa.s.s 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 hards.h.i.+p 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---- ash.o.r.e, 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,--