Bothwell, which, considering he had been himself a party to the murder of Darnley, is strong language: and with this epistle terminates the correspondence ; for on the 24th November following, Dantzay, after first announcing "Au Roy-Sr Peter Oxe mourut le 24 jour d'Octobre," continues, "le Comte de Baudouel, Ecossais, est aussi décedé;" and this report of the earl's death was believed by Mary herself, and generally credited throughout the whole of Europe, at the very time he was languishing in a damp unwholesome prison of the castle of Draxholm.

It may be inferred that Frederik had been persuaded by his new minister, Walkendorf, a man not over-scrupulous as to truth, to announce the death of his illustrious prisoner as the best answer to all the reiterated demands for his person, and thus putting an end to the vexed affair for ever.

From this date we hear no more of the earl until the record of his death, on the 14th April, 1578, and his subsequent interment in the church of Faarveile, where we visited his coffin in the month of June last

summer.

And now comes the tug of war. What was the cause of this sudden change in the treatment of the Scottish earl, so "well entertained by the King of Denmark for the space of five years"? The Protestants, and those who are hostile to Queen Mary's cause, will tell you that from the year 1572, after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, the feelings of the Lutheran ruler of the realm underwent a change towards his Roman Catholic kinswoman, and that Bothwell to him was nought save the husband of Mary.

The Roman Catholics, on their side, assert, and that

strenuously, the story of his confession to be true, in which he, "malade à l'extremité au château de Malmay," declared "la Royne innocente de la ditte mort,-lui seul, ses parens, et quelque noblesse autours d'icelle."

The confession of Bothwell, printed by Drummond of Hawthornden, 1625, has disappeared, as well as the other copies known to have existed formerly. The Danish archives lend no aid to the solution of the mystery. Frederik may have forwarded the original to Queen Elizabeth, the paper she "kept quiet," but up to the present time the proofs are wanting, and all is doubt and obscurity.

How Malcolm Laing can assert "These names are apparently fictitious," is surprising. In olden times Malmö, before orthography was settled, was written Malmöye, Malmöge, as well as Malmay, all these terminations being different dialects of the word Ø or ey, island; Malm, sand (Moeso-Gothic)-ay, island, being the real signification of the name. The Skåne nobles were men of note and position, possessors of the lands and castles alluded to, länsmen and governors of fortresses and districts: the spelling of their names in Queen Mary's letter differs from that of the document preserved in the Scotch College at Paris; but this is not to be wondered at. I myself, in the 19th century, after two years' familiarity with the Danish language, should be sadly at a loss to write them down. correctly from dictation.

Though old Otto Brahe,* father of the illustrious Tycho, was at that time gathered to his ancestors, yet

Otto Brahe, of Knutsdorp, Governor of Helsingborg Castle from 1566 to 1568, died 1571.

the province of Skåne was peopled by his descendants.

But, argue as you may-well or ill-until the missing document be forthcoming all will be vexation of spirit; so let the matter rest, and each man hold to his own opinion.

There is nothing more to relate, so let us bid adieu to the vaulted chamber in the degraded fortress of old Malmöhus,* once a prison far too good and spacious for the most restless adventurer of his age, the husband of Queen Mary-"James Erle Boithuille."†

*In the year 1660 Corfitz and Eleanor Ulfeld escaped from the Castle of Malmöhus, where they were confined by the King of Sweden, he disguised as a priest, she as a peasant-woman, with a basket on her arm containing two hens and some eggs. They crossed to Copenhagen, but were there betrayed, again arrested, and sent to Hammershuus in the island of Bornholm, as already told in 'Jutland.'

For an account of Bothwell's death and burial see Jutland,' vol. i., chap. xxvii.

CHAPTER II

Skanör and Falsterbo - Jättekasts, or the missiles of the giants Destruction of the cities by sand - Prince Magnus's hög Skeff the Englishman- Linnæus at Falsterbo - Castle of Torup — Ghost of the lady Gjörwell - The condemned lake.

SKANÖR AND FALSTERBO.

SKANÖR and Falsterbo-two long-since forgotten cities. Who has e'er heard of their whereabouts? They are, however, marked on the map, should your eye chance to light upon them.

We set off from Malmö early one morning by the high road, which runs along the coast. Skåne is what the French term a "beau pays"—that is, flat and fertile. There are few "herregårdår" in the neighbourhood of Malmö; the land is in the hands of the peasantry, a well-to-do and thriving population. On every side, as far as the eye can reach, may be seen picturesque old churches, well-built farmhouses embosomed in trees, and neat but more humble tenements displaying much taste in red paint. The soil, when fresh sown and harrowed, rich and dark as that of a market-garden, seems to my horticultural eyes far too good to grow corn in ;-fine teams of oxen and horses, white and sleek enough to rejoice the heart

of Wouvermanns; sows and their piglings, not of the greyhound breed, but of that peculiar wild-boarish race seen in old Bible pictures of the herd of swine rushing down into the sea of Gennesareth; turkeys, geese, and ducks, with their newly-hatched broods, help to form a dramatis personae worthy of North Holland. The gardens and orchards, thickly planted with fruit-trees, are protected by a hornbeam hedge on the north side alone. Leaving this fertile garden, we cross a wild sandy moor, where the lapwing alone builds its nest, for the sheep are too wise to browse where they would get nothing.

Each peasant-woman wears a gag across her mouth, a protection against the flying sand (such as Queen Dorothea wore in her portrait, now reduced to ashes, in the ever to be regretted Palace of Frederiksborg). The roads in Skåne are proverbially bad; the ground is soft, and stones are scarce, save the boulders which lie scattered o'er the face of the land; whence they came geologists know not, but tradition will answer the question-she terms them "Jättekasts," or missiles of the giants; for when churches were first erected, the giant race, sadly tormented by the ringing of the bells, pelted the church-steeples with huge stones, but never hit the mark; the prints of their fingers may still be seen indented on the granite. In early Christian centuries the peasants, urged by the priesthood, constructed roads and built bridges at their own expense, thereby "working out their own salvation;" and old Runic stones still exist in the land, on which you may read, as a record of filial

* At Enköping-on the stone are shown five finger-marks.