ent a place Stockholm is, having been fortified
and made his capital by Birger Jarl, between seven and eight hundred
years ago. Though Sweden unlike Norway has no heroic age, so to
speak, connecting her earliest exploits with the fate of other
countries, still no secondary European power has enacted so brilliant
a part in modern history as have those famous Swedish monarchs
Gustavus Vasa, Gustavus Adolphus, and Charles XII. The latter fought
all Europe,--Danes, Russians, Poles, Germans,--and gave away a
kingdom before he was twenty years of age. It was he who at his
coronation snatched the crown from the hand of the archbishop and set
it proudly on his head with his own hands.

Some of the local attractions of the city are the National Museum,
built of granite and marble in the Venetian Renaissance style, the
Academy of Sciences, the Art Museum, the Town Hall, and the Royal
Palace; but we will not weary the reader with detailed accounts of
them. The Royal Palace, like that at Christiania, is an exceedingly
plain building, with a granite basement and stuccoed bricks above,
forming an immense quadrangular edifice. Though it is very simple
externally, it is yet finely proportioned, and stands upon the
highest point of the central island. Its present master, King Oscar
II., is an accomplished artist, poet, musician, and an admirable
linguist, nobly fulfilling the requirements of his responsible
position. He has been justly called the ideal sovereign of the age,
and the more the world knows of him the more fully this estimate will
be confirmed. His court, while it is one of the most unpretentious,
is yet one of the most refined in Europe. It is not surprising
therefore that the King enjoys a popularity among his subjects
characterized by universal confidence, respect, and love. The State
departments of the palace are very elegant, and are freely shown to
strangers at all suitable times. In the grand State Hall is the
throne of silver originally occupied by Queen Christina, while the
Hall of Mirrors appears as though it might have come out of Aladdin's
Palace. Amid all the varied attractions of art and historic
associations, the splendid Banqueting Hall, the galleries of painting
and statuary, the Concert Room, audience chambers, saloons hung with
Gobelin tapestry, and gilded boudoirs, one simple chamber impressed
us most. It was the bed-room of Charles XIV. (Marshal Bernadotte),
which has remained unchanged and unused since