The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1864-04-21
'H'he AggeP FEOPd.
A DANISH STORY.


The general thrift, plenty and industry
which reigned in Denmark twenty years
ago seemed to make it difficult for wealth
to be amassed by agriculture. There was
the soil and there were the hands to till it,
but markets were few and prices were low.
To get living out Of the land was easy
To make money in land where beef ranged
from two-pencea pound, and where fine two
year-old colts, like those that galloped mer-
rily about the pastures of Rothesgaard, cod
be bought for less than five pounds, was the
reverse of easy. Expectation was difficult
and full of risks and expenses. The corn
laws and the lack of steam ships all but
closed the English market, against Danish
grain and Danish buIlocks. Sweden took
a little Danish wheat, and5 North Germany
and Holland purchased to some extent in the
marts of Denmark but the trade was in
the hands Of middlemen, who kept the prof
its to themselves. And here was the key to
what had puzzled me in Baron Dyrings
character. He was proud, if not of being a
noble, at least of being Danish Freedman
of the old race, and Of family often men
toned in Danish annals and never but with
honor. His foretathers had been personages
Of much greater relative Importance in the
realm than he The Dyrings had been the
| counsellors and companions of kings and
had filled high posts in their countrys SER
vice. And it vexed the baron that he and
his two boys should be compelled by narrow
circumstances to remain at home, keeping
close watch over barn and bayfield,. while a
new aristocracy, Of German blood for the
most part, absorbed the patronage Of the
Kingdom.
1t was when my long visit at the castle
drew, perforce, to a close, my sprain being
cured, and my leave Of absence from the en-
gineering works expired, that a singular in
cdent occurred, trivial in itself but which led
to important results. Against the wall of
my room, over the mantle-piece, there stood
a large picture, the portrait of defunct Dy-
ring III trunk hose and cuirass; poor daub
and SO dingy and smokyas to be hardly per-
ceptible. For this work of art | cared but
little, but above it were fixed noble pair
of antlers-of the elk, long extinct in Den
MARYLAND | one day endeavored, with the
aid of a chair, to reach down these huge
horns for close inspection. In doing this, l
| happened to give smart jerk to the corner
of the picture. The rotten wood and rusty
nails parted company, and down tumbled
| the portrait in the midst of a cloud of dust
and lime POWDER leaving visible small re-,
cess in the wall, in which lay a little cy lin
der of lead, whose dull glimmer caught my
eye
Curiosity to know what this might inn
port caused Inc to unroI the thin folds of
the paint metal, and to draw forth a neatly
folded parchment of velIum. This was about
! twelve inches by six. was emblazoned with
the Dyring arms beautifully executed in
vermiIlion, the deer's head looking as fresh
as if it were but yesterday that the brush
had touched them, and beneath the arms
was written, in grabbed but very distinct
hand, distitch in Danish, which translate
| thus:
| ''When Dyring shall drain the Agger
fords lands,
| Red gold shall not lack in a Dyring's hands. -
This was sad doggerel, and unintelligible
to me, though knew the Agger ford that
singular arm of the sea which divided the
| Dyring property into two unequal portions,
perfectly well, 1t was one of those creeks,
or salt lakes, common on the coast of Deu-
mark, and its only remarkable feature was
the peculiar narrowness of the channel by
which it communicated with fine North Sea.
was unprepared, however, for the agitation
which the baron evinced when put the
parchment into his hands, and l told him
how and where | found it.
''Yes," he cried, that couplet must have
been written by my forafather, Adnlira
Hans Dyring, son Of the Lay Pryor of Vo
kenstrue, whose portrait, most unecclesias
teal in costume, hangs in your chamber
1t was in his time that the Agger ford wa
formed by the Eruption of the sea through
a neglected dyke, which some say was pierre
ed, out of spite, by malicious boor who hat
been scourged for theft. At any rate, tn,
man was hanged. But the change was SAT
one for US Dyrings, we lost fair mano
house, nine farms and village. They sa,
you can still see thechurch- tower, on a still
day III summer, and we have been decayet
family ever since. There was talk of los
treasure in money too-ide talk, perhaps
5 And here the baron broke off, and becaln
: moody and silent. Very soon after this
went back to Copenhagen.
/ 1t was autumn; the moors were brown
the fields swept bare Of corn, and the gale
beginning, as | sat in my lonely room a
d the Hotel de PEurope, trying hard to fix M
II attention on a column of figures in my &C
count book. Dowhat | could, my thought
y wandered off to Rothsgaard and Christin
:. Dyring, Now that was absent from Chris
. tina, knew for the first time how dearly
! loved her. And that she did not dislike III
e was certain enough. remembered what
l. sad, sad look | had noticed in her dear, blu
eyes when | announced one morning aftt
post-time, that my employers were imp;
tent for my return to duty. l remembered
too, how cold and trembling the little han
. had been as it lay in mine when the tin