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THE LAST YEARS AT HVEEN.
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to the Chancellor, from whom he at once obtained the desired permission, as Kaas was only too glad to see the future king interested in Tycho and his work. Unluckily the plague had made its appearance on the island, and Tycho, who on the 29th of April had been informed of the intended visit, thought it his duty the next day to send one of his pupils over to Seeland to announce this.[1] The messenger found the Prince at the shore, just about to embark, and the youth could only console himself in his disappointment by composing a new exercise the next day, in which he expressed the hope that there might be nothing to hinder the visit in the coming month of June. The prince was evidently determined that nothing should prevent him from seeing Tycho's observatory as soon as possible, and it is much to be regretted that he did not, five years later, show an equally strong desire to keep the great astronomer in his own country, notwithstanding all the complaints brought against Tycho by his detractors. On the present occasion he got his own way. In June the Prince's governor was obliged to take his charge to the manor of Hörsholm (about fourteen miles north of Copenhagen, and only a mile and a half from the sea), and this temporary residence, which the spreading of the plague had rendered necessary, was most convenient for the visit to Hveen. When Tycho therefore arrived on the 30th of June to announce that the plague had vanished from Hveen, the Prince's governor could not find any excuse for preventing the future king from visiting the astronomer, and on the 3rd July the Prince started, attended by two of the protectors, Admiral Munk and Jörgen Rosenkrands, and his governor, Hak Ulfstand. The weather was most favourable, and the trip was no doubt thoroughly enjoyed by the Prince, whose excellent education enabled him to view with

  1. Cort Axelsen from Bergen; see the Meteorol. Diary.