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Chap. XXIV. PUNISHMENT OF A MINT-MASTER.
365
an improvised block of stone (which the custode will
point out) chopped off his head with his own royal
hands. A royal executioner! few malefactors are so
honoured. The skull of the unlucky mint-master was
shown us in the treasure-room below, which we visited
—walls of Cyclopean thickness, and iron-banded doors—
divided in two pieces. Whether the king “ en amateur”
gave the head an extra chop, splitting it in twain, as a
cook does a lobster’s body, tradition does not relate;
he composed, however, a doggrel on the subject, which
being translated signifies—“ Our mint-master would
have cheated us; but we have cheated him, for we have
cut his head off.”
Passing along the moat-side, we arrived at another
gateway into the outer court, built of red brick, stone
mullions and copings, much in the style of Hampton
Court Palace. To the right, in face of the castle,
stands the lofty clock-tower, and then, turning to
the bridge, you arrive at the splendid Renaissance
gateway, richly ornamented and decorated with the
shields and armorial bearings of Christian himself, and
those of his Queen Anne of Brandenburg; the latter
with unicorn supporters. On the sides of this arch
are engraved numberless child’s shoes—a jeu d’esprit
of the monarch-founder as heavy as the stones
themselves. His advisers called his palace “ Child’s-play,’-’
and declared he could never put so expensive a plan in
execution; when the building was completed, to show
that he was no longer an infant, and had put away his
playthings, he caused the gateway to be so ornamented
—or something of the kind. Christian’s “ rebus” was
too deep for me. A screen-work of brick, enriched with
twelve niches, each containing a stone statue, separates
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