“And children were there; three fine girls-Idé, Johanné, and Anna
Dorthea. I remember their names well even now.
“They were rich people, they were people of distinction-born in grandeur,
and brought up in it. Wheugh-wheugh!” whistled the wind; then it
continued the tale.
“I never saw there, as in other old mansions, the high-born lady sitting in
her boudoir with her maidens and spinning-wheels. She played on the lute,
and sang to it, though never the old Danish ballads, but songs in foreign
languages. Here were banqueting and mirth, titled guests came from far and
near, music's tones were heard, goblets rang. I could not drown the noise,”
said the wind. “Here were arrogance, ostentation, and display; here was
power, but not our Lord.”
“It was one May-day evening,” said the wind. “I came from the
westward. I had seen ships crushed into wrecks on the west coast of Jutland.
I had hurried over the dreary heaths and green woody coast, had crossed the
island of Funen, and swept over the Great Belt, and I was hoarse with
blowing. Then I laid myself down to rest on the coast of Zealand, near
Borreby, where there stood the forest and the charming meadows. The
young men from the neighbourhood assembled there, and collected
brushwood and branches of trees, the largest and driest they could find.
They carried them to the village, laid them in a heap, and set fire to it; then
they and the village girls sang and danced round it.
“I lay still,” said the wind; “but I softly stirred one branch-one which had
been placed on the bonfire by the handsomest youth. His piece of wood
blazed up, blazed highest. He was chosen the leader of the rustic game,
became 'the wild boar,' and had the first choice among the girls for his 'pet
lamb.' There were more happiness and merriment amongst them than up at
the grand house at Borreby.
“And then from the great house at Borreby came, driving in a gilded
coach with six horses, the noble lady and her three daughters, so fine, so
young-three lovely blossoms-rose, lily, and the pale hyacinth. The mother
