ABSTRACT
And when I had been three nights confined in the Arsenal, A there came thither a tower-builder’s chief apprentice, called Zacharias, somewhat deranged in the head, and all the guards of the Arsenal were ordered to keep careful watch over him. This man was exceedingly well-endowed with spiritual and temporal wisdom and understanding. His master lived at Elsinore. It had so happened a short time previously that the King had sent him a message, and had drawn out upon a sheet of paper a very remarkable tower, so constructed that when 1000 men ascended it, it should look as if only one were mounting up it 1 . And the King had withal fixed a time when the tower should be built and finished. This invention of the King’s and the commission to build it bore hard on the builder and he became so glum that all remarked it. One day in a secret place he comes to see this said Zacharias, his chief apprentice, and begs him for help and good counsel, so that he might not be disgraced by his incapacity, which might well happen (as he could clearly foresee) if Zacharias did not contribute help and good counsel. But he asked him to keep the matter secret and promised him a good reward above his daily wage, if the work was accomplished. Zacharias set himself to speculate and consider the said design, so that the work went well and was brought to a good conclusion, and the King was well pleased, the which his master attributed entirely to himself and his own skill. But some time later it was bruited abroad in the town that Zacharias his servant had been cleverer than his master in the said work, and thereat the master took a dislike to Zacharias, and maintained that he had been the cause of the said rumour, which however was not proven. A short time later Zacharias found himself ailing and he thought that the master had brought it upon him by magic, but because men thought his talk showed a derangement of mind, and it was not brought to the ears of the authorities, he said no more about it. It was for half a year that he suffered this weakness but recovered wholly again later. He was a worthy fellow and a God-fearing, according to my poor opinion, and as one might see between his attacks and times of sore trial. He was allotted a resting-place in the vaulted chamber or hall where I slept, and which was by the harbour and the entrance thereto, in which harbour lay eleven of the smallest ships of war, and on these watch was kept day and night every winter while they lay there.
