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Chap. XIV.
CORONATION ANECDOTE.
219
vantage—kneeling without his wig before the block,
in presence of his executioner, Lutheran priest, and
coffin: a look of pleasure is depicted on the face of the
bystanders. Above the vignette stands a medallion
portrait of the criminal, with the doggrel,—
“ With him has Fortune played as with a ball,
She first has tossed him up, and now she lets him fall.”
The king missed his talented minister, and one day
said at a cabinet council, “ Griffenfeld alone knew better
what served to the wants of the state than my whole
cabinet.”
The objects of the time of Frederic IV., though
beautiful, are chiefly of local interest: compliments
from sovereign to elector, from emperor to monarch;
pistols from Louis XIV., swords from Charles XII. of
Sweden; added to which is the celebrated collection of
Murano glass presented to Frederic by the republic of
Venice, and brought by him from Italy. There are
also fine specimens of the engraved German glass, and
the golden mounted ruby beakers are of exquisite
beauty. In a small picture commemorative of the
coronation of this monarch is represented a negro boy
holding by a chain a huge mastiff, the king’s favourite
dog. It is related that the page had orders to hold
the animal during the ceremony; but, dazzled by the
splendour of the scene, he stared around forgetful of his
charge: suddenly, at the moment when the primate was
about to place the crown upon the brow of the king,
the dog, fancying some mischief was intended to his
master, sprang from his keeper, and to the
consternation of those present rushed to the throne, and, placing
his fore paws on the knees of the sovereign, growled
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