The advocates addressed the screen, on the
other side of which sat Fate, in the persons of the municipal fathers,
enthroned in oak seats of unsurpassed gravity and dignity, amid all
the sombre insignia of their office. The chimney-piece is an imposing
monument of abstract Justice--no more elaborate one can exist. Solomon
is there, directing the distribution of the baby; Faith and Truth, Law,
Religion and Charity are there also. Never can a tribunal have had a
more appropriate setting than at Kampen. The Rennes judiciaries should
have sat there, to lend further ironical point to their decision.
The stadhuis has other possessions interesting to anti-quaries:
valuable documents, gold and silver work, the metal and leather squirts
through which boiling oil was projected at the enemies of the town;
while an iron cage for criminals, similar, I imagine, to that in
which Jan of Leyden was exhibited, hangs outside.
Travellers visit Kampen pre-eminently to see the stadhuis chimney-piece
and oak, but the whole town is a museum. I wish now that I had arranged
to be longer there; but unaware of Kampen's charms I allowed but a
short time both for Zwolle and itself. On my next visit to Holland
Kampen shall be my headquarters for some days.
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