Vision of Charles XI.

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Vision of Charles XI. (French Vision de Charles XI ) is a short novel by the French writer Prosper Mérimée , which appeared on July 26, 1829 in the literary magazine "Revue de Paris".

action

Towards the end of the 17th century on the Old Castle in Stockholm - located on the headland of Ritterholm with a view of Lake Mälaren : King Karl XI. recently lost his wife Ulrike Eleonore . At night the monarch sits in his study with a view of the great hall in which the imperial estates occasionally gather. When a light flickers in the hall, the king follows the apparition. The castellan with the key as well as Count Brahe and the personal doctor follow. The castellan warns the ruler not to enter the hall. It is said that the Blessed Queen has been in it since she passed away.

Nevertheless, Charles XI. the hall in slippers. Strange, the tapestries are draped in black. On the wall for the nocturnal visitor, a torch-lit, approximately ten-minute drama takes place: In the presence of the imperial estates, a young man is beheaded - apparently a regicide. The insignia of the deceased on the throne speak for this. The head of the judged rolls against the foot of the royal spectator. A child with a crown and scepter and an old man stand next to the throne.

Charles XI. returns to his study and looks at the blood stain on his slipper.

The narrator says that the king managed to glimpse the future of the Swedish royal family: in 1792 Gustav III. be murdered by the nobleman Ankarström . That child - the king's son - will become King Gustav Adolf IV . The old man next to the child would then be his uncle, the Duke of Södermanland .

expenditure

French

  • Vision de Charles XI (1845)

German

Used edition