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Article ELEANORA ULFELD. ← Page 9 of 13 →
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Eleanora Ulfeld.
lingered on with hope delayed until , on the demand of the Danish minister , sheAvas arrested on the free soil of Britain , arrested by the connivance of the king under whose supremacy she thought herself in safety , and thus a stranger , an exile , a lady , a kinsAVoman , a friend and a benefactress , Avas betrayedbasely betrayed . Words are wasted on such a thing as Charles
—non ragionam di lui—he is almost beneath the scorn of an English gentleman . Eleanora had not learnt all she had to learn of the villany and meanness of human beings . She was hrought to Copenhagen , where she had once shone a star , and where scores of her kinsfolk and former friends Avere dressing , visiting , and paying their court to the queenand never
think-, ing of the poor captive . If Charles was the ne plus ultra of baseness and treachery in man , Sophia Amelia was unequalled in the depth of her female spite and vengeance . At her special order Eleanora was divested of the clothes she wore , and meaner apparel given to her , her pearls and jewels taken from her , and she ivas subjected to a rigorous cross-examination as to the
designs of her husband , of which she knew nothing . When ocular proof was given her in his OAVU handwriting of his criminal intentions , the shock produced a long and dangerous illness , during which she was thrown into the Blue ToAver , one of the
worst dungeons of the city . There in a cell with no window but a very small one in the roof , a stove with no pipe to it , so that she was suffocated with smoke , ancl so bare of even the most common necessaries that she was obliged to use a sharp bone for a knife , did she languish for two-and-twenty tedious years . And yet she did not languish , she did not pine away . She was
separated from her husband , but perhaps that Avas not so great an affliction as it seems . I cannot think Corfitz was worthy of her . His very concealment of all treasonable designs from her knoAvledge showed he was conscious that she was a higher and better nature than himself . I am half sorry she did not take the Duke of Saxony , but then she AVOUH have been
a Duchess of Saxony , and nothing more . NOAV , as Eleanora Ulfeld , I will show you what she was . She was separated from her children , she was deprived of her ranis ; ( no slight deprivation even to the wise and good ) , she was treated as the meanest criminal . She was in her forty-second year when first imprisonedand it was well for her that the fiery heart of youth
, was somewhat tamed before her captivity began . Three men of modern clays have shown us the life , nay more , the heart of the prisoner—Silvio Pellico , Maroncelli , and Andryane . All came out saddened and sobered , but the passionate Italian was far less changed than the impetuous lively Frenchman . France is
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Eleanora Ulfeld.
lingered on with hope delayed until , on the demand of the Danish minister , sheAvas arrested on the free soil of Britain , arrested by the connivance of the king under whose supremacy she thought herself in safety , and thus a stranger , an exile , a lady , a kinsAVoman , a friend and a benefactress , Avas betrayedbasely betrayed . Words are wasted on such a thing as Charles
—non ragionam di lui—he is almost beneath the scorn of an English gentleman . Eleanora had not learnt all she had to learn of the villany and meanness of human beings . She was hrought to Copenhagen , where she had once shone a star , and where scores of her kinsfolk and former friends Avere dressing , visiting , and paying their court to the queenand never
think-, ing of the poor captive . If Charles was the ne plus ultra of baseness and treachery in man , Sophia Amelia was unequalled in the depth of her female spite and vengeance . At her special order Eleanora was divested of the clothes she wore , and meaner apparel given to her , her pearls and jewels taken from her , and she ivas subjected to a rigorous cross-examination as to the
designs of her husband , of which she knew nothing . When ocular proof was given her in his OAVU handwriting of his criminal intentions , the shock produced a long and dangerous illness , during which she was thrown into the Blue ToAver , one of the
worst dungeons of the city . There in a cell with no window but a very small one in the roof , a stove with no pipe to it , so that she was suffocated with smoke , ancl so bare of even the most common necessaries that she was obliged to use a sharp bone for a knife , did she languish for two-and-twenty tedious years . And yet she did not languish , she did not pine away . She was
separated from her husband , but perhaps that Avas not so great an affliction as it seems . I cannot think Corfitz was worthy of her . His very concealment of all treasonable designs from her knoAvledge showed he was conscious that she was a higher and better nature than himself . I am half sorry she did not take the Duke of Saxony , but then she AVOUH have been
a Duchess of Saxony , and nothing more . NOAV , as Eleanora Ulfeld , I will show you what she was . She was separated from her children , she was deprived of her ranis ; ( no slight deprivation even to the wise and good ) , she was treated as the meanest criminal . She was in her forty-second year when first imprisonedand it was well for her that the fiery heart of youth
, was somewhat tamed before her captivity began . Three men of modern clays have shown us the life , nay more , the heart of the prisoner—Silvio Pellico , Maroncelli , and Andryane . All came out saddened and sobered , but the passionate Italian was far less changed than the impetuous lively Frenchman . France is