Note 104 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
The well-known story of the portrait of Christina, painted by Michael Dahl, may be given. One day, while the Queen was sitting to him, she asked him what he intended to put in her hand. ‘A fan, please your Majesty.’ ‘A fan!’ exclaimed Christina, starting up with a tremendous oath. ‘A fan!—A lion, man, is fitter for the Queen of Sweden.’
The Order of the Fan was instituted later by Louisa Ulrica, in 1744, for the ladies of the Swedish court, in which the sterner sex was afterwards included.