[41] The apology of Uhlfeldt contains an account of this whole transaction. He states that when he asked his wife through the window whether they ought to sign and live rather than die in prison, which would otherwise be their lot, Leonora answered with the following Latin verse:
Rebus in adversis facile est contemnere mortem, Fortius ille facit, qui miser esse potest. Accidit in puncto, quod non speratur in anno.
[42] Ellensborg was the ancient seat of the Ulfeldt family, which had been sold to Ellen Marsvin, Leonora's grandmother, and Leonora inherited it from her mother. It is now called Holckenhavn, and the seat of Count Holck.
Her husband having permission to go to France to take the waters for eighteen months, left Ell... with his family in the month of June 1662, and landed at Amsterdam. Our lady went from thence to Bruges to hire a house, and returned to Amsterdam. Her daughter Helena fell ill of the small-pox; she remained with her, and her husband and the other children went to Bruges. When her daughter had recovered, she went to rejoin her husband and children. She accompanied her husband, who went to France. Having arrived at Paris, the doctors did not find it advisable that he should take the waters, and he returned to Bruges. Her husband begged our lady to make a journey to England, and to take her eldest son with her. She raised obstacles, and showed him plainly that she should obtain nothing; that she should only be at great expense. She had examples before her which showed her that the King of England would never pay her husband. He would not have been turned from his purpose at this time but for their son's rencontre with Fos, which prevented the journey that winter, and postponed the misfortunes of our lady, though it did not ultimately prevent them.
But towards the spring the same design was again brought forward; our lady was assisted by the nobleman who followed her afterwards[43] in dissuading her husband; but no reasoning could avail; he believed the King could not forget the benefits received, and refuse to pay his cousin. Our lady prepared for her departure, since her husband wished it. The day that she bade him her last farewell--a fatal day, indeed--her husband's heart did not tell him that these would be the last embraces he would give her, for he was so satisfied and so full of joy that she and all were astonished. She, on the contrary, was sad. The last day of their intercourse was May 24, 1663. She had many contretemps at first, and some time elapsed before she had the honour of speaking to the King.