Smakprov från INTRO nummer 6

Words: Noel Cornér

Carlstens fästning

Tordenskjöld took the town but now faced a castle that was much more substantial than in Gyllenlöwe’s day. And the Swedish soldiers inside the thick walls far outnumbered the Danes and Norwegians on the outside. It was time for Danish dirty tricks.

“To break the stalemate, the cunning Tordenskjöld invited the commandant to dinner down in the town. The commandant declined the invitation in person and sent a captain in his place. At the dining table, the captain was forced to sit facing the window. In this position he was plied with food and drink for 4-5 hours. During the entire time, a seemingly unending line of Danish soldiers marched past the window. What the captain did not know was that it was the same group of soldiers continuously circling the building and passing the window time and time again. At the end of the meal, the captain was made to walk back to the castle between two double rows of Danish soldiers. Here too, they were the same soldiers who kept running round the block and lining up again just before the captain reached them. To this day, perpetual motion machines are known as Tordenskjöld soldiers in Danish.