Now, it was just at this stirring time that I was driving through Norway, or cruising in her fjords, and talking with graduates of her university, with sea-captains, hotel proprietors, traveling men, porters, drivers, serving-maids—­all, in short, who spoke English enough to make themselves clear.  It was as if all Norway spoke with one voice.  From Hamerfest to Stavanger there was the same complaint of the same wrongs, the same quiet insistence upon the same remedy.  Nor was it only the subjects of King Oscar who spoke; Norwegians settled in France, in England, or in America either hurried home to vote or sent their vigorous endorsement of the revolutionary proceedings.  A window in Christiania was completely filled by the mingled flags of Norway and the United States, crossed by a banner bearing the words, “For Disunion.”  It was the voice of Norway and America.  It was a modest desire they expressed.  In the words of Olaf Sprachehaug, our humble-minded skydsgut, the whole country was saying, “And now I t’ink we get a king of our own.”  They have their own king now, and all the world wishes them joy in him.[j]

CHAPTER XI

THE ROYAL FAMILY OF SWEDEN

The present reigning family of Sweden is too young to be very numerous, and in this brief survey it is well to begin with a bit of information about that grand democratic monarch, Oscar II, passed away less than two years ago.  How the Bernadotte dynasty was formed has already been shown in a previous chapter, and something of the kings, who succeeded the former Field Marshal of France has also been related, so that we have in these few pages simply to deal with Oscar II, the late king, and his four sons and their families.

Oscar’s grandfather, the originator of the Bernadotte dynasty, was still on the throne when he was born, in 1829, as the third son of Crown Prince Oscar and the beautiful Josephine of Leuchtenberg.  He seemed far removed from the throne then, and thus he found freedom to develop himself more in keeping with his individual tastes and inclinations.  Another factor to be borne in mind is the character of his governor and principal instructor, the historian, F.F.  Carlson, who gave to his pupil a fondness for scientific exactness as well as an insight into the true causes of civilizatory development found none too frequently in professional thinkers, and hardly ever in princes.  The things that drew him most strongly in those days were the sea, and music.

One of the foremost of Swedish composers, A.F.  Lindblad, taught him the latter, while his fondness for the former was richly satisfied during the years when he worked his way through the ranks of the Swedish navy.  And his position on board the various man-of-war’s-men in which he traveled on many seas was never merely ornamental or even exceptional.  He took not only the title but also the work of the offices he held, from midshipman to admiral.