Both the condemned men were marched out to the large hall of the citadel, where they were again fettered by a chain attached to their left hand and right foot. As the morning was cold, they were allowed to wear their fur pelisses. In this attire they entered the coaches drawn up in the courtyard of the citadel. Brandt occupied the first coach, Struensee the second. On one side of each of the prisoners sat an officer with a drawn sword, on the other the clergyman; opposite them were placed two sergeants. The two coaches were guarded by two hundred infantry soldiers with fixed bayonets, and an equal number of dragoons with drawn sabres. In a third coach were seated the Fiscal-General, Wivet, and the King’s bailiff, and facing them was the deputy-bailiff, holding the two tin shields on which the arms of the Counts were painted, which were to be broken in the sight of the people.
At half-past eight the bell began to toll from the tower of the citadel. The gates were thrown open, and the melancholy procession emerged, and began its slow progress to the place of execution. Though the streets were thronged, and every window, balcony and housetop was filled with spectators, the condemned men passed along their last journey in silence—a silence only broken by the tramp of the soldiers’ and horses’ feet. The morning was dull and cold, and a slight mist hung over the Sound. When the procession reached its destination, the Fiscal-General and the King’s bailiff and his deputy-bailiff mounted the scaffold, where the executioner, masked, and two stalwart assistants, also masked, awaited their victims, surrounded by the dread emblems of their hideous office. The large scaffold, which was twenty-seven feet in height, rose far above the heads of the soldiers who guarded it and the vast crowd beyond. All could see what took place there, even from a far distance, for this platform and the figures upon it were clearly silhouetted against the morning sky.
Brandt was the first of the condemned men to mount the flight of wooden stairs to the scaffold—a task made more difficult from the fact that he was chained hand and foot. He was closely followed by Dean Hee, who exhorted him to firmness the whole time. Arrived on the scaffold, Brandt turned to the clergyman, and assured him that he had no fear, and his mind was quite composed. The worthy divine, however, continued to encourage him with these words: “Son, be of good cheer, for thy sins are forgiven thee.” Brandt throughout behaved with heroism. When his fetters were struck off the King’s bailiff stepped forward to read his sentence; he listened quietly to the end, and then protested his innocence. The deputy-bailiff held up to Brandt the tin shield, and formally asked him if it were his coat of arms painted thereon. Brandt merely nodded in answer, and the bailiff swung the shield into the air and broke it, with the words:
“This is not done in vain, but as a just punishment.” Hee then began to recite in a loud voice the prayer for the dying, and when it was over he put to the condemned man the usual questions, to which Brandt answered again that he was sorry for what he had done wrong, but he left all to God, and was not afraid to die. Hee then gave him his blessing, and, taking him by the hand, delivered him over to the executioner.
When the headsman approached to assist the prisoner in undressing, Brandt exclaimed firmly: “Stand back, and do not dare to touch me!” He undressed alone; he let his fur pelisse fall, took off his hat, removed his coat and waistcoat, bared his neck, and rolled up the shirt sleeve of his right arm. In this he suffered the executioner to help him, for he was afraid he might not roll it up sufficiently. Brandt then knelt down, laid his head on one block, and stretched out his right hand on another, and smaller one, hard by. While he was in this position, Hee whispered some last words of comfort, and then stood back. As the clergyman was reciting: “O Christ, in Thee I live, in Thee I die! O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy!” the executioner stepped forward, and with two well-directed blows completed his dread task.
Immediately the execution was over the assistants advanced to perform the most horrible part of the sentence, and wreak the last indignities. They stripped the body, laid it on a block, disembowelled it, and split it into four quarters with an axe. Each part was then let down by a rope into a cart standing below, with the other remains; the head was held up on a pole, and shown to the multitude; then that, too, was let down into the cart, and lastly the right hand. After this the scaffold was strewn with fresh sand, the axes were roughly cleaned, and everything made ready for the next victim.
Brandt’s execution had taken nearly half an hour. During the whole of this horrible scene Struensee sat in his coach, which was drawn up near the scaffold, with Pastor Münter by his side. Münter, who showed much more emotion than his penitent, had ordered the coach to be turned round in such a way that they should not see Brandt’s execution. But Struensee’s eyes had wandered to the block, and he said to Münter: “I have already seen it,” and then added: “We will look up again to heaven.” In this position he and his comforter remained while the last indignities were being wrought upon Brandt’s poor body, and together they prayed until Struensee was informed that his turn had come.
Struensee became deadly pale, but otherwise retained his composure, and, getting out of the coach, he saluted the guard on either side. Some favoured personages had been allowed inside the square made by the soldiers. Many of these Struensee had known in the days of his triumph, and as he passed, led by Münter, he bowed to them also. But, as he approached the scaffold, his fortitude began to give way, and it was with difficulty that he mounted the fifteen steps which led to the top. When he reached the summit, Münter repeated in a low voice the comforting words: “He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” Then came the same formalities as in the case of Brandt: Struensee’s fetters were knocked off, the King’s confirmation of the sentence was read, and his coat of arms was broken. Then Münter, having prayed according to the melancholy ritual, solemnly asked Struensee if he repented of his sins and died in the true faith of a Christian.
Struensee having answered these questions in the affirmative, Münter laid his hand upon his head, and said with deep emotion: “Go in peace whither God calls you. His grace be with you.” He then handed him over to the executioner.