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GODFATHER'S PICTURE-BOOK 959
showed it. ' You see him there, but what he saw I shall tell you.
1 From Steileborg's wall there is open water right out to Koge Bay, and broad is the channel over to Zealand's coast. In front of Serritslev and Salberg commons, where the large villages lie, grows up more and more the new town with gabled timber houses. There are whole streets for shoemakers and tailors, for grocers and ale-sellers ; there is a market-place, there is a guild-hall, and close by the shore, where once there was an island, stands the splendid Church of St. Nicholas. It has a tower and a spire, immensely high ; how it reflects itself in the clear water ! Not far from this stands the Church of Our Lady, where masses are said and sung, incense gives out its odour, and wax-tapers burn. The merchants' haven is now the Bishop's town ; the Bishop of Roskilde rules and reigns there.
1 Bishop Erlandsen sits in Axel's house. There is cooking in the kitchen, there is serving of ale and claret, there is the sound of fiddles and kettledrums. Candles and lamps burn, the castle shines, as if it were a lantern for the whole country and kingdom. The north-east wind blows round the tower and walls, but they stand firm enough. The north-east wind blows round the western fortifications of the town—only an old wooden barricade, but it holds out well. Outside of it stands Christopher the First, the King of Denmark. The rebels have beaten him at Skelskor ; he seeks shelter in the Bishop's town.
' The wind whistles, and says like the Bishop, " Keep outside ! keep outside ! The gate is shut for thee ! '
' It is a time of trouble ; these are dismal days ; every man will have his own way. The Holstein banner waves from the castle tower. There is want and woe ; it is the night of anguish. Strife is in the land, and the Black Death; pitch-dark night—but then came Waldemar. The Bishop's town is now the King's town ; it has gabled houses and narrow streets ; it has watchmen, and a town-hall; it has a fixed gallows by the west-port. None but townsmen can be hanged on it: one must be a citizen to be able to dangle there, to come up so high as to see Koge and the hens of Koge. |
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