FREDERICK the Fifth, the father of our present monarch (Christian the Seventh) was a wise, magnificent, liberal prince; the patron of men of genius, science, and learning, and the idol of a grateful people. Suddenly, a marked change took place in his habits and his manners: he lost all relish for those exalted pursuits to which he had been attached, and gave himself up to excessive and continual inebriety, whereby he impaired his faculties, physical and mental, and shortened his days. Whilst the memory of this solitary vice, that sullied his character, is generally known, the secret and powerful cause that led to this melancholy alteration, (except to a few, who, during the life-time of his second queen, dared not give it utterance; and most of whom have since descended to the grave), has remained buried in oblivion. This accomplished monarch had two consorts; the first, and deservedly the best beloved, was the English princess Louisa, daughter of George the Second, by whom he had the wretched and imbecile prince who yet bears the title of king of Denmark; and Sophia Magdalena, married to Gustavus the Third of Sweden, who fell by the hand of Ankarstrom: for his second wife, our favorite monarch, in an evil hour, took Juliana Maria, daughter of Ferdinand Albert, duke of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle; an unhappy choice that was the source of many and heavy domestic calamities.
Bad passions will obtrude into palaces as well as cottages, and when they chance to obtain full possession of a queen, they are likely to hurry her to acts more atrocious than a female of humble rank, because her power to commit wickedness is so much greater. The events of common life too often exhibit the most lamentable scenes arising from the jealousy and hatred of callous and unfeeling step-mothers who oppress the children of their predecessor. Such was the character of Maria Juliana. She hated the presence of the children of the deceased queen; and, if she had dared, would have quickly sent them to follow their mother to the grave: for the propensities of her nature were mostly of a selfish and ambitious kind., At an early age, in her father's petty court, she was a great dabbler in political intrigues: in her temper sullen, cruel, and vindictive; extremely penurious; forgetful of benefits, but seldom failing to avenge an injury tenfold; above all, a most profound dissembler, and able to wear a smile on her face, and shew all manner of civilities to the person most mortally hated, and whose destruction, at that very moment, she might be planning.
Such was the step-mother whom Frederick the Fifth, placed over the children of Queen Louisa! The king possessed great sensibility, and in spite of all the pretended fondness of his new consort, he soon ascertained that she did not love them. Frederick often indulged his feelings so far, as to have the children brought to him, whom he caressed with every mark of strong affection: on these occasions the crafty step-mother would participate in his affectionate regard of the innocent babes, whilst her black heart cherished the most deadly rancour. Finding herself pregnant, she flattered her ambition with the hope of presenting her lord with a new object of affection, that should not fail to wean his regards from the fair and white haired boy of Louisa, who was the king's darling. Instead, however, of a child calculated to prove a successful rival to the beautiful Christian, the cruel and envious queen brought forth a weakly, deformed, infant; whose appearance was calculated to excite commisseration mingled with disgust, rather than love. This deformed child, contrary to expectation, lived; and as its strength and size encreased, it shewed a disposition the exact reverse of Christian's; and, owing perhaps to organic defects, was cross, sullen, and unmanageable. This was a source of sorrow to the good and humane king, and of unutterable misery to the queen, whose aversion towards Christian increased as she saw the healthy, playful, volatile boy becoming more and more the pride and hope of his fond father, who, nevertheless, did not neglect the deformed Frederick, nor fail to bestow upon him proofs of a regard truly paternal.
At length, to such a pitch did that wicked woman suffer malice and envy to carry her, that, to secure the crown for her deformed son, she resolved to cut off the blooming young Christian by poison. Having determined to commit murder, she soon found, what she believed to be, a favorable opportunity. The young prince happened to be indisposed. The cruel stepmother, under the specious pretext of fondness, was frequent in her visits ere an opportunity of attempting the horrid deed presented itself. At length she found the prince's favorite nurse preparing some gruel for her young charge over a silver lamp, and there was no other attendant in the chamber. She ordered the nurse to go to her closet to fetch her something; and as soon as the door closed she approached the lamp, and instantly infused a mineral poison into the gruel, a small part of which, if it had been swallowed by her unconscious victim, would have occasioned his death.
The nurse in question was named -------, by birth a Norwegian; and had been many years a confidential servant of the royal family. She attended Queen Louisa, at the birth of Prince Christian; she strove to sooth the last moments of her existence, and she really felt towards her children, all the affection of a mother. Having long entertained suspicions of the queen's intentions, she was ever suspicious and watchful of Juliana Maria's proceedings that in any way affected the young prince. At the momententered the apartment, her heart fraught with murder and the poison in her hand, there might, in spite of all her circumspection and self-command, be some peculiar expression imprinted on her countenance, her eye, or tone of voice, that alarmed the worst fears of the faithful and vigilant matron, who, instead of going to the queen's apartments that were in the grand front, went only a few steps and returned softly to the door, and distinctly perceived the queen infusing something from a paper into the gruel, which she appeared to stir in the silver saucepan that contained it; which done, she then replaced it on the lamp-frame in the same position as the nurse had left it.
Horror curdled the blood in the veins of the nurse, as she beheld this scene. Had the queen offered the gruel to the prince, she would have rushed in and torn it from her; but, Juliana, paced the room with a quick and hurried step, her hands clenched together and a strong expression of suppressed misery playing on her stern features. Just then Madame -------- saw a domestic named Wolff, cross the gallery ;* him she beckoned to come near, and in a whisper told him to go to Count Molckte, and give him a ring that she handed to him, and request his excellency to make haste to the apartment of the Crown Prince. She knew that when the count saw that token, it would not fail to fix his attention and produce immediate acquiescence. This done, she re-entered the room, her looks and manner betraying the painful emotions that filled her heart. The queen, without noticing her coming in sooner than she could, if she had gone to the front of the palace, told her to take the gruel to the prince, as it was sufficiently boiled, and would no doubt do him good! Every limb shook with horror as the nurse took up the saucepan :
Why don't you go with it to the prince," said Juliana.. "Pardon me, gracious queen," said the honest-hearted woman, "it is my duty to disobey you." Darting a withering look at the nurse, she exclaimed "How dare you disobey my commands?” The nurse replied not, but, as the tears streamed from her eyes, she looked significantly at the gruel, and mournfully shook her head. Thrown off her guard by passion, the queen ordered the nurse out of the room; who stood immovable as a statue, holding the saucepan in her hand. Equally torn by rage and fear, on seeing her wicked plot thus frustrated, and infamy and ruin suspended over her head, like the sword of Damocles, by a single hair, the queen, ever fertile in resources, took the desperate resolution to accuse the nurse of having attempted to commit the crime she herself came to perpetrate! Sudden as lightning she acted on this diabolical impulse: and turning towards a bell, rang it furiously: a gentleman of the prince's suite entered, and beheld in silent amazement, the scene before him. Go," said Juliana, to M. Guldberg, and tell him to come instantly to me." The gentleman bowed and withdrew.
"Now wretch," said the furious queen, her eyes flashing fire, "thou shalt feel the full weight of my vengeance; thy limbs shall be broken on the wheel for having attempted to poison the crown prince: the proofs of thy guilt are now in thine hands."
"May God forgive you, queen,” said the astonished woman, "as I can pardon you for my death, if I am the humble means of saving the son of my beloved mistress." Just then Count Molckte entered the room. "Behold in that wicked woman," said the pale and passion-torn queen, "a wretch whom I have detected in the very act of administering poison to the crown prince! Call in the guards! when the king returns he will order her to be put to the severest torture, to force her to confess by whom she has been suborned to the commission of this horrible crime." The count heard the queen in respectful silence: In a grave and severe tone, he said, "I wish to speak with your majesty alone: shall I attend your majesty in your own apartment or order Madame to withdraw?" Little suspecting that this minister had long kept a watchful eye over her conduct; and was in possession of other evidence of a criminating tendency, besides that of the nurse, who stood calm and undaunted amidst this storm of guilty passion-Juliana exclaimed, "What! are you too, count, an enemy to the crown prince, and the accomplice of this trembling culprit?" "How can your majesty harbour such a thought he coolly replied-my son would not succeed to the throne if the crown prince were no more." Count Molckte was a man of keen penetration, and perfectly a courtier. His looks implied more than his words: the abashed and guilty queen, awed and confounded, said, "If your excellency pleases let the woman retire."
The count then took the saucepan from her hand, and the nurse went into the prince's bed-room. What passed between count Molckte and Juliana, can only be surmised: but in less than an hour he went to the prince's room, and after paying his compliments, told him that his favorite nurse must go immediately to Norway. He was so affected at the news, that clinging round her neck the fond boy said, "Then I'll go to Norway too: you shall not take away my mother." It was in vain the count strove to pacify him. "I'll apply to my father," said he in an angry tone, "I am sure he will not suffer this mother to be taken away from me." The count appeared embarrassed and retired: he soon came back again, when, calling the nurse into an anti-room, he artfully strove to convince her that she had been deceived, and that the queen had merely stirred the gruel to keep it from burning. The nurse shook her head, saying, "Will your excellency allow me to carry the gruel to the prince's apothecary?-Yes." said the subtle minister, "you may." She ran for the saucepan, but found it empty and perfectly clean! More alarmed than ever, and fearful that the count had entered into the queen's hostile views against the crown prince, she secretly determined to address the king on the danger which awaited his darling boy.
The insidious minister, reading in her ingenuous countenance what was passing in her mind; whilst he applauded her courage and fidelity, told her he meant to have sent her home to Norway merely to secure her from the queen's power: but he now wished her to remain, assuring her if she pledged herself by a solemn oath to secrecy, she should be safe from the effects, of the queen's dislike, and remain in attendance on the crown prince; at the same time pledging himself in the most solemn manner for the perfect safety of the prince. To these terms, for the sake of continuing her attendance, the faithful nurse assented. The wicked queen, humbled and defeated, abstained from visiting the prince's apartments. The same day she was reported to be indisposed, and went the next to Hirschholm palace.
But the affair did not end here: The king (Frederick the Fifth,) was then absent at a small hunting lodge called Jagersprest, situated near the palace of Charlottenborg. Thither the gentleman repaired, whom the queen had commanded to call Mr. Guldberg: he obtained an audience, and told the astonished king, not only what he had seen and heard in the antichamber of the prince-but many important circumstances besides. It is not in language to express the agonising feelings excited by this intelligence, for his own life was less dear to Frederic than that of his darling son: he applauded the conduct of his informer; and such was his haste to return to Christianborg Palace, that he fell down stairs and broke his leg. The agitation of his mind produced a fever that nearly proved fatal.
As soon as his fractured limb was set, he caused the Norwegian nurse and count Molckte to be summoned before him, taking precautions to prevent any previous intercourse. The result was that he had no cause to doubt the guilt of Juliana, or that the life of the crown prince had been preserved by the courage and fidelity of his nurse, whom he liberally rewarded. From this moment he never co-habited with his guilty queen: but the thoughts of her wickedness, and the danger of his son and heir, preyed continually on his feeling mind. As a resource, a sad resource it proved, this excellent king gave himself up to drinking: and count Molckte being at once master of the queen, and the favorite minister of the king, was de facto AUTOCRAT of Denmark, exercising the sovereign authority in the name of his master,, who rapidly became but the shadow of what he. had formerly been. Juliana secretly intended to make Mr. Guldberg minister, who was a man of great talent and cool judgment: but this detection foiled her plans, and forced her to bow to the man whom she hated and feared.
It was by this means count Molckte acquired that unlimited power, which, during the latter part of the reign. of Frederic the Fifth, he exercised in a way so despotic as to procure him the ironical appellation of "Koning Molckte." This is generally the case with AUTOCRACIES: Some favorite governs the AUTOCRAT, who thereby governs the state, frequently reducing the autocrat himself to a mere cipher. Few indeed have been the number of absolute monarchs, who were not themselves as far from being free as the meanest of their slaves. But, to quit this digression: though the mind of the mild and benevolent monarch, Frederic the Fifth, was thus clouded, he was never happy except the crown prince was in his presence. As he grew in years, Christian became more and more the favorite of the king and people. In the wildest sallies of his father, the prince had more command over him than any other person; and he often had influence enough to prevent him, when tipsy, from lavishing away his treasures on the companions of his cups; and even of inducing him to retract those improvident gifts when sober.
In one of these fits, the king made count Molckte a present of the magnificent palace of Hirschholm and all its costly furniture! The crown prince, hearing of this lavish act, went to his study, and taking in his hand a plan of the palace, carried it to count Molckte, saying, “Content yourself with this, I beseech your excellency, and believe me, unless you possess the crown, the palace of Hirschholm shall never be your's.”
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Mirror mirror on the wall: Who's the evilest of them all?
Date: 2023-03-01 06:54 pm (UTC)FREDERICK the Fifth, the father of our present monarch (Christian the Seventh) was a wise, magnificent, liberal prince; the patron of men of genius, science, and learning, and the idol of a grateful people. Suddenly, a marked change took place in his habits and his manners: he lost all relish for those exalted pursuits to which he had been attached, and gave himself up to excessive and continual inebriety, whereby he impaired his faculties, physical and mental, and shortened his days. Whilst the memory of this solitary vice, that sullied his character, is generally known, the secret and powerful cause that led to this melancholy alteration, (except to a few, who, during the life-time of his second queen, dared not give it utterance; and most of whom have since descended to the grave), has remained buried in oblivion. This accomplished monarch had two consorts; the first, and deservedly the best beloved, was the English princess Louisa, daughter of George the Second, by whom he had the wretched and imbecile prince who yet bears the title of king of Denmark; and Sophia Magdalena, married to Gustavus the Third of Sweden, who fell by the hand of Ankarstrom: for his second wife, our favorite monarch, in an evil hour, took Juliana Maria, daughter of Ferdinand Albert, duke of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle; an unhappy choice that was the source of many and heavy domestic calamities.
Bad passions will obtrude into palaces as well as cottages, and when they chance to obtain full possession of a queen, they are likely to hurry her to acts more atrocious than a female of humble rank, because her power to commit wickedness is so much greater. The events of common life too often exhibit the most lamentable scenes arising from the jealousy and hatred of callous and unfeeling step-mothers who oppress the children of their predecessor. Such was the character of Maria Juliana. She hated the presence of the children of the deceased queen; and, if she had dared, would have quickly sent them to follow their mother to the grave: for the propensities of her nature were mostly of a selfish and ambitious kind., At an early age, in her father's petty court, she was a great dabbler in political intrigues: in her temper sullen, cruel, and vindictive; extremely penurious; forgetful of benefits, but seldom failing to avenge an injury tenfold; above all, a most profound dissembler, and able to wear a smile on her face, and shew all manner of civilities to the person most mortally hated, and whose destruction, at that very moment, she might be planning.
Such was the step-mother whom Frederick the Fifth, placed over the children of Queen Louisa! The king possessed great sensibility, and in spite of all the pretended fondness of his new consort, he soon ascertained that she did not love them. Frederick often indulged his feelings so far, as to have the children brought to him, whom he caressed with every mark of strong affection: on these occasions the crafty step-mother would participate in his affectionate regard of the innocent babes, whilst her black heart cherished the most deadly rancour. Finding herself pregnant, she flattered her ambition with the hope of presenting her lord with a new object of affection, that should not fail to wean his regards from the fair and white haired boy of Louisa, who was the king's darling. Instead, however, of a child calculated to prove a successful rival to the beautiful Christian, the cruel and envious queen brought forth a weakly, deformed, infant; whose appearance was calculated to excite commisseration mingled with disgust, rather than love. This deformed child, contrary to expectation, lived; and as its strength and size encreased, it shewed a disposition the exact reverse of Christian's; and, owing perhaps to organic defects, was cross, sullen, and unmanageable. This was a source of sorrow to the good and humane king, and of unutterable misery to the queen, whose aversion towards Christian increased as she saw the healthy, playful, volatile boy becoming more and more the pride and hope of his fond father, who, nevertheless, did not neglect the deformed Frederick, nor fail to bestow upon him proofs of a regard truly paternal.
At length, to such a pitch did that wicked woman suffer malice and envy to carry her, that, to secure the crown for her deformed son, she resolved to cut off the blooming young Christian by poison. Having determined to commit murder, she soon found, what she believed to be, a favorable opportunity. The young prince happened to be indisposed. The cruel stepmother, under the specious pretext of fondness, was frequent in her visits ere an opportunity of attempting the horrid deed presented itself. At length she found the prince's favorite nurse preparing some gruel for her young charge over a silver lamp, and there was no other attendant in the chamber. She ordered the nurse to go to her closet to fetch her something; and as soon as the door closed she approached the lamp, and instantly infused a mineral poison into the gruel, a small part of which, if it had been swallowed by her unconscious victim, would have occasioned his death.
The nurse in question was named -------, by birth a Norwegian; and had been many years a confidential servant of the royal family. She attended Queen Louisa, at the birth of Prince Christian; she strove to sooth the last moments of her existence, and she really felt towards her children, all the affection of a mother. Having long entertained suspicions of the queen's intentions, she was ever suspicious and watchful of Juliana Maria's proceedings that in any way affected the young prince. At the momententered the apartment, her heart fraught with murder and the poison in her hand, there might, in spite of all her circumspection and self-command, be some peculiar expression imprinted on her countenance, her eye, or tone of voice, that alarmed the worst fears of the faithful and vigilant matron, who, instead of going to the queen's apartments that were in the grand front, went only a few steps and returned softly to the door, and distinctly perceived the queen infusing something from a paper into the gruel, which she appeared to stir in the silver saucepan that contained it; which done, she then replaced it on the lamp-frame in the same position as the nurse had left it.
Horror curdled the blood in the veins of the nurse, as she beheld this scene. Had the queen offered the gruel to the prince, she would have rushed in and torn it from her; but, Juliana, paced the room with a quick and hurried step, her hands clenched together and a strong expression of suppressed misery playing on her stern features. Just then Madame -------- saw a domestic named Wolff, cross the gallery ;* him she beckoned to come near, and in a whisper told him to go to Count Molckte, and give him a ring that she handed to him, and request his excellency to make haste to the apartment of the Crown Prince. She knew that when the count saw that token, it would not fail to fix his attention and produce immediate acquiescence. This done, she re-entered the room, her looks and manner betraying the painful emotions that filled her heart. The queen, without noticing her coming in sooner than she could, if she had gone to the front of the palace, told her to take the gruel to the prince, as it was sufficiently boiled, and would no doubt do him good! Every limb shook with horror as the nurse took up the saucepan :
Why don't you go with it to the prince," said Juliana.. "Pardon me, gracious queen," said the honest-hearted woman, "it is my duty to disobey you." Darting a withering look at the nurse, she exclaimed "How dare you disobey my commands?” The nurse replied not, but, as the tears streamed from her eyes, she looked significantly at the gruel, and mournfully shook her head. Thrown off her guard by passion, the queen ordered the nurse out of the room; who stood immovable as a statue, holding the saucepan in her hand. Equally torn by rage and fear, on seeing her wicked plot thus frustrated, and infamy and ruin suspended over her head, like the sword of Damocles, by a single hair, the queen, ever fertile in resources, took the desperate resolution to accuse the nurse of having attempted to commit the crime she herself came to perpetrate! Sudden as lightning she acted on this diabolical impulse: and turning towards a bell, rang it furiously: a gentleman of the prince's suite entered, and beheld in silent amazement, the scene before him. Go," said Juliana, to M. Guldberg, and tell him to come instantly to me." The gentleman bowed and withdrew.
"Now wretch," said the furious queen, her eyes flashing fire, "thou shalt feel the full weight of my vengeance; thy limbs shall be broken on the wheel for having attempted to poison the crown prince: the proofs of thy guilt are now in thine hands."
"May God forgive you, queen,” said the astonished woman, "as I can pardon you for my death, if I am the humble means of saving the son of my beloved mistress." Just then Count Molckte entered the room. "Behold in that wicked woman," said the pale and passion-torn queen, "a wretch whom I have detected in the very act of administering poison to the crown prince! Call in the guards! when the king returns he will order her to be put to the severest torture, to force her to confess by whom she has been suborned to the commission of this horrible crime." The count heard the queen in respectful silence: In a grave and severe tone, he said, "I wish to speak with your majesty alone: shall I attend your majesty in your own apartment or order Madame to withdraw?" Little suspecting that this minister had long kept a watchful eye over her conduct; and was in possession of other evidence of a criminating tendency, besides that of the nurse, who stood calm and undaunted amidst this storm of guilty passion-Juliana exclaimed, "What! are you too, count, an enemy to the crown prince, and the accomplice of this trembling culprit?" "How can your majesty harbour such a thought he coolly replied-my son would not succeed to the throne if the crown prince were no more." Count Molckte was a man of keen penetration, and perfectly a courtier. His looks implied more than his words: the abashed and guilty queen, awed and confounded, said, "If your excellency pleases let the woman retire."
The count then took the saucepan from her hand, and the nurse went into the prince's bed-room. What passed between count Molckte and Juliana, can only be surmised: but in less than an hour he went to the prince's room, and after paying his compliments, told him that his favorite nurse must go immediately to Norway. He was so affected at the news, that clinging round her neck the fond boy said, "Then I'll go to Norway too: you shall not take away my mother." It was in vain the count strove to pacify him. "I'll apply to my father," said he in an angry tone, "I am sure he will not suffer this mother to be taken away from me." The count appeared embarrassed and retired: he soon came back again, when, calling the nurse into an anti-room, he artfully strove to convince her that she had been deceived, and that the queen had merely stirred the gruel to keep it from burning. The nurse shook her head, saying, "Will your excellency allow me to carry the gruel to the prince's apothecary?-Yes." said the subtle minister, "you may." She ran for the saucepan, but found it empty and perfectly clean! More alarmed than ever, and fearful that the count had entered into the queen's hostile views against the crown prince, she secretly determined to address the king on the danger which awaited his darling boy.
The insidious minister, reading in her ingenuous countenance what was passing in her mind; whilst he applauded her courage and fidelity, told her he meant to have sent her home to Norway merely to secure her from the queen's power: but he now wished her to remain, assuring her if she pledged herself by a solemn oath to secrecy, she should be safe from the effects, of the queen's dislike, and remain in attendance on the crown prince; at the same time pledging himself in the most solemn manner for the perfect safety of the prince. To these terms, for the sake of continuing her attendance, the faithful nurse assented. The wicked queen, humbled and defeated, abstained from visiting the prince's apartments. The same day she was reported to be indisposed, and went the next to Hirschholm palace.
But the affair did not end here: The king (Frederick the Fifth,) was then absent at a small hunting lodge called Jagersprest, situated near the palace of Charlottenborg. Thither the gentleman repaired, whom the queen had commanded to call Mr. Guldberg: he obtained an audience, and told the astonished king, not only what he had seen and heard in the antichamber of the prince-but many important circumstances besides. It is not in language to express the agonising feelings excited by this intelligence, for his own life was less dear to Frederic than that of his darling son: he applauded the conduct of his informer; and such was his haste to return to Christianborg Palace, that he fell down stairs and broke his leg. The agitation of his mind produced a fever that nearly proved fatal.
As soon as his fractured limb was set, he caused the Norwegian nurse and count Molckte to be summoned before him, taking precautions to prevent any previous intercourse. The result was that he had no cause to doubt the guilt of Juliana, or that the life of the crown prince had been preserved by the courage and fidelity of his nurse, whom he liberally rewarded. From this moment he never co-habited with his guilty queen: but the thoughts of her wickedness, and the danger of his son and heir, preyed continually on his feeling mind. As a resource, a sad resource it proved, this excellent king gave himself up to drinking: and count Molckte being at once master of the queen, and the favorite minister of the king, was de facto AUTOCRAT of Denmark, exercising the sovereign authority in the name of his master,, who rapidly became but the shadow of what he. had formerly been. Juliana secretly intended to make Mr. Guldberg minister, who was a man of great talent and cool judgment: but this detection foiled her plans, and forced her to bow to the man whom she hated and feared.
It was by this means count Molckte acquired that unlimited power, which, during the latter part of the reign. of Frederic the Fifth, he exercised in a way so despotic as to procure him the ironical appellation of "Koning Molckte." This is generally the case with AUTOCRACIES: Some favorite governs the AUTOCRAT, who thereby governs the state, frequently reducing the autocrat himself to a mere cipher. Few indeed have been the number of absolute monarchs, who were not themselves as far from being free as the meanest of their slaves. But, to quit this digression: though the mind of the mild and benevolent monarch, Frederic the Fifth, was thus clouded, he was never happy except the crown prince was in his presence. As he grew in years, Christian became more and more the favorite of the king and people. In the wildest sallies of his father, the prince had more command over him than any other person; and he often had influence enough to prevent him, when tipsy, from lavishing away his treasures on the companions of his cups; and even of inducing him to retract those improvident gifts when sober.
In one of these fits, the king made count Molckte a present of the magnificent palace of Hirschholm and all its costly furniture! The crown prince, hearing of this lavish act, went to his study, and taking in his hand a plan of the palace, carried it to count Molckte, saying, “Content yourself with this, I beseech your excellency, and believe me, unless you possess the crown, the palace of Hirschholm shall never be your's.”