Worse was to follow, for Abel was only "Abel in name, but Cain
in deed." But happily the old King's eyes were closed then, and he
was spared the sight of one brother murdering the other for the
kingdom.
[Footnote 4: That was the beginning of the Slesvig-Holstein question
that troubled Europe to our day; for the fashion set by Abel other
rulers of his dukedom followed, and by degrees Slesvig came to be
reckoned with the German duchies, whereas up till then it had always
been South-Jutland, a part of Denmark proper.]
Some foreboding of this seems to have troubled him in his last
years. It is related that once when he was mounting his horse to go
hunting he fell into a deep reverie, and remained standing with his
foot in the stirrup a long time, while his men wondered, not daring
to disturb him. At last one of them went to remind him that the sun
was low in the west. The King awoke from his dream, and bade him go
at once to a wise old hermit who lived in a distant part of the
country. "Ask him," he said, "what King Valdemar was thinking of
just now, and bring me his answer." The knight went away on his
strange errand, and found the hermit. And this was the message he
brought back: "Your lord and master pondered as he stood by his
horse, how his sons would fare when he was dead.
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