During the time he was master of his limbs and liberty, he
struck such terror into the hearts of his countrymen, that he was
imagined an immortal fiend. No prisons could hold him; and the
magistrates were compelled to trust to his forbearance, and not to bolts
and chains; but his depredations, at length, became so glaring, and
increased, year after year, to such magnitude, even to the sacking of
the bank, that, come what might, Ole was arrested. Fearful of his
supernatural strength and devilish craft, his captors deemed no common
dungeon sufficiently secure; and this miserable abode, a pandemonium
above ground, bomb-proof, and proof against every thing else, was
erected for the sole reception of Ole; and, lest he should burst asunder
the stone walls, he is surrounded by alert sentinels and loaded guns,
and here doomed to drag out the rest of his existence.

To the east of the town there is a road, which may be seen girdling a
mountain's barren side, and, following its track a mile, or so, I took
then a narrow foot-path, and, wandering through a forest of firs,
reached a circular green sward where, in the middle, the remnant of some
natural convulsion, a gigantic black stone lay. Seated there, I beheld
the whole city of Christiania crouched at my feet; and, far as the eye
could travel, the mountains rose one over the other, till my vision
ached, and mistook their aspiring peaks for the azure heaven. On the
left hand, serenely sleeping, wound, amid a thousand green islands, the
leaden-hued Fiord, bearing on its quiet surface a fleet of lazy ships,
whose white sails made them look, at distance so remote, like snowy
swans, or froth from neighbouring rapid.

The sun had just sunk behind the mountains when I reached the spot; and,
throwing myself on the grass, I watched its light, like a gold cap,
blazing around the lofty summit of a mountain, rearing itself above the
rest, and not less than forty miles distant to the north of the hill on
which I reclined. The evening was calm as it was clear. The cathedral
bells below had thrice told the approaching third hour before midnight,
when I heard the voice of some one singing, in the monotonous, drawling,
but melodious tone of prayer; and, at last, as the fitful evening zephyr
stirred uneasily, I could distinctly catch the soft intonation of a
female voice; and, whatever woman she was, she sang a sweet and touching
melody.

There was no hut, or building of any kind at hand, so th