BOOK. The harbour is very fafe and commodious; but the large
- ’ quantity of faw-duil brought down the river from the different
faw-mills choaks it up in many parts, and occafions an annual
expence for clearing it away.
The port poifeifes a few particular immunities. Goods imported
for exportation pay no duty, unlefs touched for home
eonfumption, and. then are charged with the ufual impoils.
The town contains about 3,000 inhabitants; the ftreets are:
airy; the houfes, are huilt of wood painted red, and a few.
white.
On the fummit of an almofl perpendicular rock, which overhangs
the town, ftands the ftrong and hitherto impregnable for—
trefs o f Fredericsftein, much celebrated in the hiftory of the
north; as in befieging it Charles the Twelfth received his:
death.. I did not omit vifiting the fpot rendered memorable by
the death of the northern lion, as he is fometimes emphatically
ftiled.. This fpot, which was once marked by a pillar eredted
by the king of Denmark, but pulled down at the requeft of the
king of Sweden, is at the extremity of the prefent governor’s,
garden, at the bottom of the fteep rock, on which Hands the fort
of Gullenlowe. It was to me particularly interefting, for it convinced
me that a fmall ball might have reached Charles, as the
diftance from the neareft baftion could not be more than between
five and fix hundred yards. Nor could I avoid remarking,
that Motraye’s plan of Fredericftein and the adjacent batteries
is in many parts extremely deficient; and from the befl
5, information.
C H A R L E S T H E T W E L F T H . 147
information that I have colleded, that both his and Voltaire’s CRAP.
VI.
account of the king’s death, and particularly of the wound which , _ 1
occafioned it, are Very inaccurate.
But in order to obtain farther and more complete information
concerning the probable caufe of the king’s death, I called upon
Benk Enkelfon of Tifte dal, an old Norwegian, now in the nine-
ty-fixth year of his age, and who was in his twenty-eighth
year when he ferved as a gunner of the Danifh garrifon when
Fredericsftein was befieged by Charles the Twelfth. By means
of a gentleman of Fredericihall, who politely accompanied me to
this old man’s houfe, and obligingly condefcended to be my interpreter,
I procured the following intelligence; which I ihall
give to the reader in queftion and anfwer in the fame manner
in which I obtained it.
Do you think, that the king was Ihot from the ramparts, or
affaffinated by any of his own troops ? From the ramparts Undoubtedly.—
What kind of ihot was fired againft the Swediih
trenches ? A ll forts, and particularly fmall Jhot in cartouches from
cannon.— Could the king, in the place where he was, be reached
by a finall iho t ? Tes; very eafly; as a fmall Jhot could take effect
at twice the diftance.— Were many foldiers killed near him ?
Vtry many; they fe ll about him like Jlraw in fuch numbers that they
were buried on the fpot. The place was alfofo much expofed to the
fire from the ramparts, that the Swedes could not venture to work
at the trenches by day, but only in the night.—'From what fortrefs
do you think Charles received his death; from Oberberg, or
U 2 from