Chapter XIII: The Cabinet Minister (1)

BIRTH OF A PRINCESS--THE CABINET MINISTER--THE LEX REGIA--GENERAL
DISSATISFACTION--THE NEW COUNTS--STRUENSEE'S COAT OF ARMS--FOREIGN
AFFAIRS--A FAVOURITE HAS NO FRIENDS--THE GERMAN GRIEVANCE--A
DANGEROUS FOE--INGRATITUDE OF BRANDT--RETURN OF REVERDIL--ARRIVAL
AT COURT--HOMICIDAL MANIA--THE KING OF PRUSSIA--HABITS OF THE
COURT--THE PRINCE ROYAL.

The court remained till June 6 at the palace of Christiansborg. The festivities that took place here were all arranged by Brandt, who felt quite in his element while doing so, and never displayed any inclination to interfere in affairs of state. But Struensee demanded resolution, even in court matters, and acted on the principle that, if a man wanted to reform an intriguing court, it could not be effected with paternal indulgence. Still he was frequently obliged to give way. At the small court balls, natural merriment at first prevailed, until a dancing-master, favoured by the Countess Holstein, introduced pomp and art. That she was able to effect this, although the king and queen did not care fix formal dances, was ascribed to the power which she possessed over Brandt.

As regards the theatre, both the king and queen preferred comedies to tragedies, and Struensee demanded that their Majesties' wishes should be carried out; more especially, as there were no good tragic actors. He was also of opinion that the cheapest troupe of comedians was the best, and that the music required at the performances could be entrusted to the regimental bands. Brandt, on the contrary, entertained different views: he wished to introduce another and purer taste at court, and did not like to run the risk of being laughed at by foreign guests at court festivities. This was allowed him, on condition that he undertook the most responsible duty of being with the king day and night. He dressed him, which formerly the valet and Von Warnstedt had done; and had to introduce all those persons who were allowed admission to the king, but report to Struensee everything that occurred during the interview.

The connexion between the king and his chamberlain, however, was not that of a master with his servant, but exactly like that between two men of equal rank; for King Christian would not have any ceremony, and desired perfect freedom of action on the part of his immediate _entourage_. Thus his most gracious Majesty had behaved to Holck and Warnstedt, and he expected the same from Brandt. It was the king's expressed wish, that any one who was continually about him should forget that he was the king. Whenever Brandt attempted to show his Majesty the reverence which became a subject, the king at once ridiculed him, by bowing to him with a sarcastic "your most obedient servant." But Brandt found no pleasure in this free and easy style, and was generally dissatisfied with his position, which forced him to be constantly with the king, and deprived him of every opportunity to enjoy the society of his beloved Frau von Holstein. This amour even rendered him indifferent to Struensee, with whom he was angry besides, because he did not consider himself honoured in proportion to his fancied merits; for it had been he who recommended Struensee to Holck as travelling doctor, and had satisfied Bernstorff as regarded him. Lastly, Brandt was annoyed at his and his lady-love's repeated heavy losses at cards, although he himself had insisted on high stakes, and the king and queen liked the fascinating game of loo. And even though Brandt's losses amounted to nearly 2,000 dollars in a single month, still, what he lost in this way was amply made up by royal presents. He received, in the first instance, a gratification of 10,000, and afterwards 50,000, dollars from the king's privy purse.

When the winter amusements were at an end, the summer days were employed for excursions to the palace of Frederiksborg. On June 6, their Majesties removed to Hirschholm, after being present on the previous day at the last races of the year. This palace and the park now became the scene of incessant festivities, concerts, balls, French plays, and hunting parties, succeeding each other rapidly; but the queen's interesting situation did not allow her to take an active part in them. The king drove at times to town to attend the French plays, but he was in such a weak state of health, that, by the advice of Berger, his physician, he began taking cold baths again in June, and continued to do so till the following September. The physician paid the greatest attention to the king, and sent in a daily report to Struensee about his patient's condition and the progress of his cure. That stimulants were given the king to enable him to carry on his amorous excesses, is untrue, even though Landgrave Charles, his brother-in-law, states the fact.[149]

Queen Juliana Maria and her son Frederick had retired on May 24 to Fredensborg, where they lived in great seclusion, and left the palace as rarely as they received visitors. Princess Charlotte Amelia, the benefactress of the poor, was staying at the palace of Frederiksborg.

The royal couple had been residing a month at Hirschholm, when Queen Caroline Matilda was delivered of a daughter, at eleven on the morning of July 7. A military and a naval officer at once conveyed the glad tidings to Copenhagen, where the birth of a princess was announced to the people from the balcony of the Christiansborg, and commemorated by salvos of artillery from the ramparts and the arsenal, and by the playing of trumpets from the Town Hall and the church towers.

Unfortunately, Struensee assisted in the accouchement with Berger,[150] and no other physicians were afterwards called in. This gave fresh animation to the impertinent speeches and remarks which had long been made, and they became the more serious because it was said that they were frequently heard at Fredensborg. Here they could no longer retain the quality of a harmless satire, which people easily forget: they were repeated and dipped in gall by persons of rank, who only too willingly listened to them, and in whose hands they might turn into dangerous weapons. Here, too, they were no longer the frivolous gossip of an impotent mob, but might give rise to serious measures.[151]

The royal patient progressed so favourably that she was able to suckle her child; and on July 22, the twenty-first birthday of the young queen, the newborn princess was christened at Hirschholm, with the names of Louisa Augusta,[152] after the late queen of Denmark and H.R.H. the Princess Dowager of Wales. The sponsors present were his Majesty the King of Denmark, with his brother, Prince Frederick, and the Dowager Queen, Juliana Maria.[153]

While these events were taking place at court, a change occurred in the government, which was followed by the most weighty consequences, and was an unique instance in Danish history.

Up to the present time, Struensee had been _maître des requêtes_, with the title of Councillor of Conference, and had occupied, as we have seen, the Mezzanine, in Christiansborg Palace. But we have also seen that, in this capacity, he governed the state and the court. The king gave his assent to everything that Struensee proposed; and the latter had hitherto employed this influence in carrying out useful reforms in the government and legislature. At the same time, however, he obtained large sums for himself and his friends out of the resources of the state. Although he had no expenses of his own, not even for the banquets he gave, he received, a couple of months after his appointment as _maître des requêtes_, a present of 10,000 dollars from the king, and obtained the same sum for Brandt. But not satisfied with this, he proposed, in April, that what was called the "treasure," or a sum of money set apart for unforeseen expenses, should be paid into the public exchequer, and then obtained an order to pay 250,000 dollars of this amount into the privy purse, which was under his sole control. But this large sum had been reduced, by the end of May, to 118,000 dollars, the deficit having been expended in presents,--Struensee and Brandt receiving 100,000 dollars to divide between them; and they did so at a time when so many salaries and pensions were reduced.

But it was now shown that Struensee would not be satisfied with being the favourite of the king and queen, and having decided influence in all affairs of state. Hence he induced the king to appoint him, on July 14, 1771, Privy Cabinet Minister, with an authority which no subject had ever before held in Denmark. The document is so remarkable, that I quote it _in extenso_:--

_To the ---- College._

Having appointed Master of Requests Struensee my Privy Cabinet Minister, I have prescribed to him, by an order under my own hand, the following points, which he must observe in drawing up cabinet orders:

1. All orders which I may give him orally shall be drawn up by him in accordance with my meaning; and he shall lay them before me for signature, or issue them in my name, under the cabinet seal.

2. All orders addressed to a college, on the representation of another college, shall be drawn up by him, and no longer be effected through an order in the college, or through the "communication."

3. An extract from the cabinet orders issued shall be laid before me weekly for approval.

4. The cabinet orders issued in this way shall have the same validity as those drawn up by my hand. They shall be immediately obeyed, both by the colleges and subaltern officials, in case there is no royal order or resolution to the contrary; in which case it will be at once reported to the cabinet. In all other cases, the colleges and departments must send to me the contents of the order and a report of its execution.

* * * * *

In consequence, this is made known to the ---- College; and it is ordered punctually to obey the points affecting the college herein contained, and make them known, for the same purpose, to its subordinate officials.

CHRISTIAN.

---------------

STRUENSEE.

HIRSCHHOLM, _July 15, 1771_.

* * * * *

We may notice here the favourite's ignorance of forms. When his patent as Count was granted him, he would have countersigned it himself, had not Hoier, who was present, warned him. But the royal order appointing him prime minister was communicated to the departments and the ministers of the foreign courts by copies countersigned by himself alone.

As Reverdil very justly remarks, the king, after declaring to all Europe that he intended himself to govern, suddenly delegated his whole power to one man; and it was conferred with less pomp and formality than would have been used in former times with an order of the Treasury. No one attested to having been present at so important a deliberation except the man who was the subject of it. Struensee suddenly found himself transformed from an officer of the palace into a grand vizier, and invested with greater power than had ever been granted to the chancellors, or even the lieutenant-generals of the kingdom,--known in the time of the aristocracy by the name of grand masters. Thus was accomplished what Struensee had announced at the outset of his career. He had told Reverdil's faithful friend, Hoier, and probably many other persons, that everything was vicious in the government of the state, and that he would not leave one stone of it upon the other.

The nation, revolted by so rapid a fortune, by this unlimited power entrusted to a stranger and a parvenu, considered it a crime on his part to accept it; and even a crime foreseen by the regulations of the _Lex Regia_,[154] the only unchangeable law in the kingdom. Article twenty-six of this law enjoins the future kings to defend their hereditary rights, and never allow them to be encroached on; declares null and void any powers granted to the prejudice of the royal authority; and proclaims those who had obtained them guilty of high treason. It was asserted that the man whose orders were to be obeyed without any external proof that they emanated from the king, had arrogated a portion of the sovereign authority; and this interpretation, forced though it was, was seriously alleged hereafter.

It is plain that the rescripts and orders of the government were, as before, drawn up in accordance with article seven of the _Lex Regia_ in the king's name and under his seal; and Struensee could not be responsible because the king did not always think proper to sign with his own hand, as the article demands. But even the signature in the king's name could not be regarded as an encroachment on the king's autocracy; for, by article twenty-six the king is left at liberty either to sign orders himself, or to let them be signed in his name by other persons, whenever he thinks proper. That the _Lex Regia_ also does not regard the autograph signature of the king as a material component of autocracy is clearly seen from article nine, in which it is prescribed that in cases when the king is not of age, the regent shall sign in his name, but the royal authority remain undiminished. Lastly, it is proved that the letter of the law had not hitherto been so explained as to render the royal signature of such consequence as the drawing up of the deed in his name, by the fact that not only the colleges, but also officials up to very recent times, made known the king's will in his name but without his signature. Yet it is a very difficult question to solve, whether Struensee did not misapply the king's confidence by issuing orders that differed from those which the monarch had given him.

Struensee's best friends were shocked by the sudden display of his favour revealed in this new appointment. Thus, Von Berger, the physician in ordinary, and other respected men at court, expressed their dissatisfaction at Struensee's unreflecting step. Even Lieutenant-General von Gähler, though usually devoted to the favourite, felt aggrieved, though it is but fair to allow that he had sunk in the daring reformer's favour by opposing the disbandment of the _gardes du corps_.

It was not stated in the royal proclamation what rank was to be connected with the new post of a cabinet minister, but people at court already began addressing Struensee by the title of Excellency. Scarce a week after this elevation, another took place, by which Brandt also profited. Both men were raised to the rank of Danish Counts on July 30, 1771, but the Latin diplomas, in which they were justified to call their ancestors up to the third generation Counts and Countesses, were not drawn up till September 30.

The coat of arms selected by Struensee, and engraved on the cabinet seal, was a remarkable allusion to his regency and system of government. The escutcheon (symbolical of the state) was divided into five fields, the centre one of which represented a sailing vessel (the symbol of commerce) with a crown over it, typical of the monarch and the persons representing him. The first and fourth quarters displayed four rivers (exports and imports idealized) on a field _or_, which was the symbol of Denmark, rich in corn, and Norway, abounding in metal, wood, and fish. In the third and second quarters was a crown surrounded with palm leaves (the symbol of peace and victory) and two crossed keys (the image of authority and might) on a field _azure_, which allegorically typified fidelity and constancy. Below the coat of arms was the royal crown with the badge of the Matilda order, surrounded by a laurel wreath (the symbol of fortune, joy, and honour), from which flowed two rivers running round the chief escutcheon (the state), supported by two beavers (the representatives of industry and architecture), and guarded by bourgeois helmets (emblems of national armament), counts' crowns (the symbol of the servant of the state), and an owl holding a key in its mouth (as allegories of thought and reflection). Above the whole was displayed between two eagle wings (the symbols of power, strength, and victory) a man-of-war in full sail (typical of the navy), and above this, again, a suspended crown, surrounded by palm branches (the type of peace).[155] Brandt, on the other hand, took the seal of his ancestor, Councillor of the Exchequer Peter Brandt, as his coat of arms.

No estates were connected with the dignity of the new counts. It was certainly reported that the large domains of Wemmetofte and Wallô, in Seeland, were intended for Struensee, and other estates for Brandt. But that Struensee was of a different opinion was proved by the answer he gave to a letter which Brandt wrote him on this subject. He said that if the king really intended so exaggerated a mark of kindness for him, he should in no way promote it, but, on the contrary, oppose it.

Within two short years, Struensee had made really gigantic strides on the slippery path of court favour. By his elevation to the rank of a privy cabinet minister and of count, fourteen months after his appointment as reader to the king and cabinet secretary to the queen, he had attained the highest post in the kingdom. Possessing the unbounded confidence of the most absolute monarch in Europe, he stood immediately next to the throne, and the world gazed in amazement upon his fortune and his reforms.

In the new period commencing with Struensee's cabinet ministry, so many changes and improvements no longer took place. The necessity for them, indeed, was not so great, as reforms had been undertaken in nearly every branch of the administration. In the highest government colleges better management and simplification, and a more rapid settlement of business, had been introduced. The finances were managed on a fixed plan; all the various in-comings and out-goings of the state were entrusted to a single direction, and retrenchments introduced to pay off the state debts. The administration of justice had been partially improved, and the privileges of the nobles restricted. Men of birth and of no birth were henceforth equally obliged to work their way up to the highest offices from the lowest round of the ladder. Catholics and reformers were allowed to worship as they pleased, and religious liberty existed _de facto_, if not by law. We may assume that the clergy of the strictly Lutheran country were not particularly edified by this, but no one dared to oppose it openly, and hence the only measure taken was drawing up a private list of the supposed attacks on the state religion. The liberty of the press knew no bounds, but was shamefully employed in disgraceful attacks upon its founders. For people not only ventured openly to abuse many of Struensee's useful reforms, but made the most impudent attacks both on the minister and their reigning Majesties. Struensee, however, considered it beneath his dignity to punish these attacks, and did not even take the slightest trouble to discover the authors.

Justiz-rath Struensee, the favourite's brother, had by this time attained an influential position. He was at the head of the German Chancery of Finances, but in spite of his valuable qualities, had a high opinion of himself, and was evidently striving for more extended influence, both on his own account and that of the college to which he belonged. He wrote in July to a friend, that he was really, if not nominally, the sole manager of the finances of the monarchy. He also strove to obtain the post of a Controller-General of the Finances; but though his brother placed great confidence in him, he opposed the establishment of such a high office. The Mint and the Bank were, as a compensation, placed entirely under the management of Justiz-rath Struensee, and he conducted these important institutions skilfully and honestly. As director of the Mint, he coined very handsome _christians d'or_ and species ducats, but also meditated the erroneous plan of publicly letting the salt and tobacco trades as monopolies. Fortunately for the country, the catastrophe that ensued soon after prevented the execution of this scheme.

One of the most humane ameliorations during Struensee's ministry was the abolition of what was called "the sharp examination," by which a confession was extorted from any prisoner against whom there was strong evidence by employing the dagg, or knout. In the order issued to this effect it was stated that the king would sooner let a criminal escape than see one possibly innocent man ill-treated.[156]

Foreign affairs toward the close of 1771 stood much on the same footing as in the past. The greatest cordiality subsisted with Sweden. Chamberlain Baron von Gyldencrone was appointed envoy at Stockholm, and instructed not to interfere in Swedish home affairs, and not to act like his predecessor upon an understanding with England and Russia, but to join the policy of Sweden and France. Moreover, Count Joachim Göttsche von Moltke was sent as envoy extraordinary to the Swedish court, to congratulate Gustavus III. on his accession. As a present for the new king, Moltke took with him a fine apple-grey saddle-horse from the royal stud, with which Gustavus was so pleased, that he resolved to ride it at his approaching coronation.

A present was also made the King of France, consisting of nineteen Icelandic hawks, for Struensee displayed a predominant attachment for the courts of France and Sweden. As a return for these sentiments, the ministers of these two courts were on very friendly relations with him, and alone of all the foreign envoys attended his levees. Struensee behaved with great coldness and reserve to the newly appointed English minister, Colonel Keith, as he had done to his predecessor, Gunning, and did not even offer him the ordinary courtesy. But he behaved in a precisely similar manner to the Russian _chargé d'affaires_, Filosofow's successor.

We can easily understand that Struensee had raised himself an ample crop of foes by the numerous reforms he had undertaken in the government. The nobility, owing to their traditional belief that they had a right to the most profitable offices, were excessively annoyed that the privy council was abolished, that presidential posts were not filled up, that orders and rank no longer possessed their former value, and that people of _bourgeois_ origin exercised an influence in the government. The officials dismissed with no pension, or a very small one, were indignant at the humiliation and the loss of income. The abolition of the numerous Church holidays, and the alleged desecration of the Sabbath; the order that the church of the Frederick's Hospital, and the chapel of the Convalescents' Home at Sölleröd, near Copenhagen, should be converted into wards for venereal patients; the rare appearance of the court at church; and lastly, the changes made in the law, by which the mothers of illegitimate children were no longer punished; marriages within the hitherto prohibited degrees were allowed;[157] and a charge of adultery could only be brought by the offended party,--all this had aroused the whole of the clergy and many laymen against Struensee. The pietists even went so far as to declare the hard winter of 1770, and the bad harvest of 1771, a punishment from Heaven for these offences against the Christian religion. The income of the industrial classes was lessened, because many families who lived expensively had quitted the capital; poor persons complained about the use of stamps and augmented taxes, and the sailors and dockyard-men were offended at having been excluded from all the grand doings on the king's birthday, and the loss of their perquisites in the shape of chips, &c., which they carried home for firewood.

Many persons even believed that Struensee entertained far higher plans, and saw in him a nascent Cromwell. All patriots disapproved of the contradictory conduct of the government, which was constantly talking of retrenchment, and yet, at the same time, threw away large sums in the prosecution of the useless war against the Dey of Algiers. In addition, many persons were grieved that ladies who had a bad reputation still possessed great influence in the highest circles, although, by a public promise, offices of state were no longer to be filled up by favour and recommendation, but solely through ability and merit. All Danish patriots felt most insulted, because the cabinet minister still thought it not worth his trouble to acquire the Danish language, and that all the government decrees were issued in German, though everybody knew that the king both spoke and wrote Danish. Not only were the cabinet orders drawn up in Danish, but the colleges, which had formerly reported in Danish, were now forced to have their reports to the cabinet translated into German, so that the minister might understand them. The Danish Chancery and the Admiralty, it is true, still continued to draw up their reports in Danish; but it was also said that the minister took no trouble to discover their contents, but merely read a short German _précis_ which was laid before him, and then issued a resolution in German, which had to be translated into Danish in the colleges, if found necessary to be brought to the public knowledge. Petitioners who wished to apply to the cabinet generally had their letters translated into German, because they thought that a Danish petition would not be heeded; but these translations were often so unsuccessful, that their meaning could hardly be understood. In excuse for Struensee's offences against the national pride of the Danes, it may be alleged, however, that several of the ministers before him did not understand Danish. The same was the case with Schulin, the recently-dismissed Bernstorff, Berkentin, Ahlefeldt, and many high officials, both military and civil, but never in the Admiralty.[158]

Many men of position, who had either caused Struensee's summons to court, or had been devoted to him, became gradually indisposed, and, at last, even hostile to him. At the head of the latter stood Count Rantzau-Ascheberg. If there was any man in the kingdom from whom Struensee might justly think he had nothing to fear, it was Rantzau: but he was detested by him. This hatred sprung up on the day when Struensee, recognising the falsity of all the views he had heard in his conversations with the count at Altona, and how much the count mingled passion with a few flashes of genius, entirely neglected his advice. Rantzau, far from sharing the power of a minister whom he regarded as his creature, was given the third post in the Council of the Generalty. Thus, after so many successful intrigues, after succeeding in routing his principal enemies, and commanding for a short period, he saw himself the client of a doctor, and neglected by the man whom he had trained: he was reduced, like him, to be the mark of public hatred, without enjoying the credit, and gathering the favours of every description, which he had expected from this ungrateful man.

Rantzau was probably most indignant because Struensee refused to pay his heavy debts, and even intimated that he had no influence over the cabinet. Rantzau was, in truth, in great difficulties, and yet retained his taste for extravagance. He fancied that he had at least found a right to live at peace, while his creditors did not leave him alone, even amid the faction to which he belonged. The revenue of his patrimonial estate of Ascheberg scarcely sufficed to pay the interest of his own debts and those of his father. In the hope that, at the worst, court presents would enable him to liquidate them, he suggested a new law, which would afford the nobles a sure protection against their creditors. His duns becoming importunate, he wished to employ his right as a gentleman of Holstein, and send them to do their best and worst on his estates. The creditors asked the advice of the Chancery, which answered, with the knowledge of the cabinet, that his person was no more inviolate than his property. Rantzau compared himself to a hare whom the hunters had pursued to its form.

Disappointed in all his expectations, Rantzau began to speculate on Struensee's downfall, and for this purpose made common cause with the two colonels, Von Köller and Von Sames, who were also greatly in debt. He even sent his tool, Beringskjold, to negotiate with Count von Bernstorff, who was the idol of the patriots, and whom his disgrace had rendered very popular. Bernstorff at first listened very attentively, as long as the conversation turned on the bad government of the state, and the hope of an accommodation with Russia, but at the name of the Count von Rantzau he at once broke off the interview. "The count is well aware," he replied, "that I cannot trust to him, or enter into any affair in which he mixes himself up."[159]

Rantzau next turned his attention to the watchful Queen Juliana Maria, whom, though at first turned against him, and suspicious of his designs, he soon won over by his cajolery. Still he did not quite trust the royal lady, because he had himself helped to transfer the power at Petersburg to other hands, and had been poorly rewarded for doing so.

Struensee's next important enemy was Lieutenant-General von Gähler, with whom he had formerly stood on intimate terms, and who had greatly assisted in overthrowing the old form of government, but had been indisposed toward the cabinet minister since his appointment. Yet there was no open breach between the two men, for the general and his wife, who had both received the Order of Matilda, belonged to the queen's immediate _entourage_.

Von Berger, the physician in ordinary, and Councillor of Legation Sturtz, also formerly adherents of Struensee, were now becoming more and more estranged from him. Sturtz's dissatisfaction dated from the downfall of Bernstorff, with whom he maintained a regular correspondence; but though he was displeased with the favourite, he equally detested Rantzau, in whom he saw a personal foe.

But even the man who owed everything to Struensee, whom the latter had made what he now was at court--Count Brandt--was not at all a trustworthy friend. Having long been tired of his position at court, he wrote to Struensee, and proposed to him to appoint Colonel von Falckenskjold in his place as permanent attendant on the king. At the same time, he applied personally to Von Falckenskjold, and offered him his post and a sum of 20,000 dollars. But the colonel again declined, even though Struensee urged his acceptance, alleging his invincible repugnance for court offices. They therefore resolved to recall Reverdil, whom the king liked, and who was a mutual friend of Brandt and Struensee, and appoint him reader and librarian to the king.

During the king's journey in 1768, Reverdil heard from several quarters that his ex-master spoke of him without bitterness, and with esteem. Schumacher, Reverdil's successor in the post of cabinet secretary, an honest man and no courtier, solicited his predecessor to pay his court at Paris or Strasburg. Reverdil heard from all quarters that the king, since his return, was entirely changed, that he had corrected his causticity, and dismissed those who had an audience quite satisfied. All this induced Reverdil to write the king a letter of congratulation on his return to his states, and he learned that this letter was favourably received, and that the king would have answered it had he not been dissuaded from doing so by Holck. When this favourite was dismissed, Reverdil received an autograph letter from his Majesty, in which he stated that he had not forgotten Reverdil's good services, and begged him to transmit any reflections which his retirement had suggested to him.

Not receiving any further orders, Reverdil remained quiet till he was surprised by a letter from Struensee, to the effect that the king desired his return; that he wished to resume with him the operation of enfranchising the serfs, and to employ him in drawing up other laws he projected, and that Reverdil had only to propose his conditions. Reverdil raised some objections, which gave him time to consult a friend in Copenhagen, in whom he placed the most perfect confidence, and who had been promoted by Struensee, and to ask the advice of Count von Bernstorff, who had such cause to complain of the favourite. The answers were precisely the contrary of what might have been expected. The man promoted by Struensee sent a long list of persons removed, transferred, and dismissed, in less than a year, and gave Reverdil to understand that he need not calculate on greater stability. Bernstorff, on the other hand, urged him to return. The letter is in every respect worthy of quotation:--

"Of everything I have hitherto seen of Struensee nothing has so much surprised and struck me, sir, as the letter written to you, for it is the only one of his actions and measures that has caused me pleasure. I confess that I did not at all expect it. You are aware of the reasons which persuaded me that, far from recalling you, you were one of the men whose absence would be most desired. I see that I was mistaken, but I do not see the causes of my error, and though I have reflected during the two or three days that have elapsed since the receipt of your letter, I cannot discover them. If I could flatter myself that they had changed their plans, that their intentions had become pure, that they were seeking in good faith to revive the mind and the heart; that they consented to share merit and confidence; that they had determined to reopen a door, hitherto triply bolted against those who have not taken an oath of fidelity in their favour, and adopted their deplorable principles; if, I say, I could conceive any shadow of a hope of this nature, I could understand the invitation that has been made you as the most natural, most just, and best conceived thing in the world; but I do not see in the other measures that are daily taken, anything authorising me to form such an opinion, or anything announcing an alteration in the maxims hitherto established and followed. Favour, credit, politics, and administration, are still founded on principles diametrically opposed to yours and to your way of thinking. What, then, can be the object that determines them to recall you who are free, virtuous, and humane; you, who, thinking as you do, cannot and will not play the part of a silent witness of the scenes which may take place in your presence, and to bring you nearer the person of a king who, in his heart, esteems you more than all those who surround him, and from whom, moreover, they keep every thinking and feeling being aloof with an exaggerated affectation? It is true, and I do this justice to the favourite, and those who share his confidence, that their intentions are sincere in favour of the liberty of the serfs, for this liberty does not cross any of their views. Hence, this is a good thing they have resolved to do, the more securely because, having resolved mortally to afflict the other orders of the state, they are seeking a support in the affection of the people and the troops. It is very possible that in this respect they sincerely desire the aid of your zeal and information; but can they imagine that you will be satisfied with sharing with the members of the commission already established the painful labour of the infinite arrangements and details of this operation, and applaud the rest of their manœuvres? I repeat, that I do not at all understand it, unless Divine Providence, which has possibly destined you to recall the claims of virtue and humanity at a spot where they are only remembered to be jeered at, and which gains its ends even by the ministration of its most avowed enemies, has ordered their prevailing passions to fall asleep, and prepare the way for your return. This idea is the sole one which I like, and which I believe I ought to cling to. Please Heaven that the event may justify it.

"You see, sir, from what I have just told you, that my information will be of but slight use to you, and that my heart, filled with esteem, tenderness, and confidence for you, could not venture to advise your return to the unfortunate country to which I am alluding: but that it passionately desires that, without its advice, you may form the resolution of doing so. If there is, in these deplorable conjunctures, a man who is capable of being useful to the king, and through him to the state, it is yourself. But God alone knows, as yet, whether He has granted this succour to a prince, so long the object of our affection, and now of our tears. On this point, I am unable to form any opinion. Still, without fear of committing myself, I can applaud what you have hitherto done, and the measures you have taken. Your friend and mine, the elder Carsten, who has remained pure amid the corruption, will tell you more. He sees things closely, and being, perhaps, a little less affected and touched than myself, he will represent to you more fully that of which I can only afford you a glimpse, and which my mental emotion prevents me from expressing more clearly. He will, above all, counsel you to preserve your liberty in a country where the philosophic tone is to preach licence in morals and despotism, in every case where it is important for men not to depend on the will of another: and it is in this sole hint that I sum up all the advice you have requested me to give you. Go to Copenhagen, appear at court, but do not enter into engagements, till you have reconnoitred the ground for yourself. If you can do good, do not refuse to do it to a country that needs it, and may Heaven deign to grant you the merit and glory of it. But, if you see that the means are refused you, do no allow yourself to be drawn into any subaltern, doubtful, and odious employment, directed by harsh and evil-doing natures. Do not suffer your name to be associated with those of men, about whom the nation is already weeping, and posterity will weep for a long time.

"You see, my dear sir, that I brave the risks of the post, in order, faithfully, to respond to the confidence with which you honour me, and to carry out the duties of the friendship I have vowed to you. This motive obliges me to add one word to my long letter. Among the number of unfortunate men who believe themselves so happy now, because they have the power and pleasure of rendering others wretched every day, you will find two, who call themselves your friends: if they were ever worthy of being so, it is not for me to decide; but what I can not and must not conceal from you, is, that they are no longer so, and do not deserve to bear the name:[160] you will recognise the truth of my remarks when you see them.

"May my fears be unfounded, and be proved false by the result! But I am afraid lest the answer you are expecting from the favourite may not be such as you have the right to have; and that, falling back into his usual character, he may impede rather than facilitate your return; I impatiently long to hear that I am deceived.

"It will be pleasanter to me to see you again than I am able to express. Grant me and mine this pleasure, and be assured that you have no warmer friend or more faithful servant than myself, &c.

"At Grabow, near Borstel, June 9, 1771."

* * * * *

Reverdil thought it advisable to accept all Bernstorff's prejudices against the favourite. Some of the arrangements Struensee had made and dictated, seemed to him useful and as announcing good intentions, but the advice of the ex-minister was no less wise, and he resolved to follow it. Hence, the sole conditions he made were, permission to return home whenever he thought proper, and that the king should pay his travelling expenses both ways.

Reverdil had finished about half his journey when he learned that Struensee and Brandt had been created counts, and that the former had been appointed cabinet minister, with unlimited power. Had he not gone so far, he would have turned back. He was well acquainted with the king's character: every favour the latter granted was a title to his hatred, and he never failed to be jealous of the credit, dignities, and presents which his favourites extorted from him. Moreover, as he advanced, Reverdil met _en route_ better informed persons, who told him details of the worst possible augury.

In the duchies, Reverdil heard a number of reports, some of which proved to be true, but the thing that struck him most, was the horror which the names of Struensee and Brandt inspired. Public hatred could not be more excited or more universal. "They had transformed the court into a poisonous cavern, and filled the provinces with disgraced and unhappy men: nothing was safe from their sacrilegious hands, and, ere long, the throne and the altar would succumb in their turn. They had overthrown a negotiation from which the country expected its safety for future ages; while under the pretext of reform they reduced thousands of families to want, they squandered the fruit of these savings in profusion and scandalous excesses. Not satisfied with displaying the most depraved habits, they turned morality into derision, and sought to corrupt it. Such horrible conduct brought down on the nation the chastisements of Heaven. And by what means had they seized the power and ensured impunity? By shamelessly dishonouring the king's bed, and introducing their vile posterity in the place of the pure blood of Oldenburg. After dishonouring the king, they held him besieged, and allowed no one to approach him, save their minions, in order to degrade him, and keep honest men from his familiarity. He was generally left alone with two boys, one a negro, and the other picked up in the streets."

Some persons went further, and declared that their prince was ill-treated, and that he was governed by terror; others, that his reason was affected by drugs; the majority stated, however, that the absurd report of his imbecility was spread with sinister views against his person and the state.

At Schleswig, Reverdil had a private interview with the Princess Dowager of Culmbach, sister of the Prince of Brunswick-Bevern, whose husband was Christian's great-uncle. She spoke with grief of the king's wretched state, which she stated to have grown much worse since the tour of 1767. His remarks, she said, having no sense or coherence, produced the worst idea of his usual society. This lady and the Prince of Hesse and his court talked infinitely to Reverdil about the scandal produced in the province by the bevy that followed the king. The queen travelling in a man's dress, the impertinences of the favourites, their familiarity with the king and queen, the ignoble air of the court, had caused them an astonishment from which they had not yet recovered.

When Reverdil arrived at Hirschholm, the first person he saw was Brandt. He told the new comer of the king's wretched mental condition; the necessity he had, more than ever, of a constant companion, and the honour he destined for Reverdil by giving him this office. He had had some debates on this subject, he added, with Struensee, who had destined Reverdil for office, but the latter must promise to drive out every day with the king. Reverdil agreed to do so; but did not thank Brandt for the post which he designed for him. The king and Brandt had long grown weary of each other, and were continually quarrelling. Struensee felt the necessity of separating them, and had given the king the choice of two or three names: Reverdil was preferred, and that was the secret of his recall.

Reverdil was presented to their Majesties in the circle, and invited to dinner at their table. His reception was most flattering; the queen spoke to him kindly, and the king addressed the ordinary remarks to him, nothing revealing his malady. After dinner, the gentlemen on duty introduced the new comer to a private audience with the king. The latter referred to Reverdil's dismissal, and threw the blame on Holck, but added, that the tutor had wearied him by urging him to gain the love of his subjects; that, at that period, he did not wish to be beloved, &c. With this exception, nothing in the conversation displayed his lunacy; and it did not appear that he had been taught beforehand what to say. This fact proves that public rumour was unjust to the favourites, for it was generally believed that the king was guarded, and that no one reached him without having been prepared, and making a promise what he would talk about.

On the next day after Reverdil's arrival, the king and he took the promised drive with Brandt. Our authority gives a most sarcastic account of Brandt's behaviour during the drive: how he occupied the entire back of the carriage, with one of his elbows out of the window to announce his presence to passers-by. The poor king was crouched up in a corner, with a sad and constrained air, and appeared relieved when they returned home. Reverdil felt the greatest pity for him, and, on the spot, accepted Brandt's offer to leave him to drive out alone in future with the king.

Reverdil remained by himself in the royal apartments with the monarch. His mania, which he concealed from some persons, and which even the physicians in daily attendance on him had not yet noticed, began at once to manifest itself. "You are Brandt," he said to his visitor; then, breaking into a rapid and incoherent babble, he repeated some verses from _Zaire_, in which tragedy he had acted with Reverdil four years before. Then he said, "You are Denize; you are Latour;" two French actors who had been in his service; and eventually addressed Reverdil by his right name. These extravagances, or a profound silence, or questions about the signs of a change which was incessantly about to take place in his person, occupied nearly three-fourths of the tête-à-tête, during the four months that Reverdil was almost solely with the king, either in his apartments, or driving out, with no other suite but the postilion and a mounted lackey.

At times pride exalted the king; he had been greeted like a god by the English nation; other kings were eclipsed; it was too much wit that had turned his head. At other times the king was oppressed and melancholy: after all that he had done; after braving everything: he would never be more than a "little man;" that is to say, a weak and dependent man. He often talked about killing, and asked Reverdil whether he might not do so only once with impunity and without scandal, or whether, if he did so, he would be hopelessly wretched. On other occasions he pretended to attack his own life. "Shall I drown myself?" he would say; "shall I throw myself out of window, or dash out my brains against the wall?" His object was to alarm Reverdil, and by leaving him the choice, he soon forgot this folly. Still it is true that he often desired death, but feared it at the same time. One of the amusements was pulling in a two-oared boat on the small lake round the palace, and the poor king often said to Reverdil, with the most unhappy face in the world, "I should like to throw myself into the lake and be pulled out again directly." His imagination only found a refuge in a state of apathy, which was the object of his hopes and desires. There were three marked shades in his madness, which he indicated by three German expressions.[161] According to the stage of his trouble, he often wound up his remarks by saying, with a groan, "I am confused" (Ich bin confus); or else, "There is a noise in my head" (Es rappelt bei mir); or, lastly, "I am quite beside myself" (Er ist ganz übergeschnappt). At times, his muttered and confused remarks ended with the words, "I can stand it no longer."

The king was evidently very unhappy; and honest Reverdil was equally so. The latter usually passed an hour with Christian after the dinner; and as he had been his reader, the king, at times, put a book in his hand, not to listen to what he read, but that he might indulge in his own melancholy reveries, and talk to himself in a low voice. The first book Reverdil took up was a dictionary of celebrated men, marked at the history of Rizzio, the lover of Mary Stuart, assassinated by Darnley, her husband. If this was the trick of a valet, it failed in its effect, for the king never listened. Besides, the king had not the slightest tendency to jealousy, for he spoke twice to Reverdil about a thing which would have aroused that feeling in any other husband. Once he said that Struensee was the queen's Cicisbeo; on another occasion, he asked his visitor whether he believed that the King of Prussia slept with Queen Matilda. "Why, who is the King of Prussia?" Reverdil asked. "Oh! Struensee." This way of designating the favourite proved, at any rate, what power the latter possessed over the weak-minded monarch.

The details which Reverdil gives us about the habits of the court are very curious. When they did not go hunting, they assembled to breakfast between eleven and twelve o'clock. The king, the queen, Counts Struensee and Brandt, with some of their male and female favourites, were always present; and when the state of the weather allowed it, breakfast was followed by a walk, in which Struensee gave his arm to the queen; the king, to the only maid-of-honour who was admitted to this familiarity; each of the other gentlemen to a lady; and chance did not decide the selection. From time to time, the same party dined at some summer-house, a distance away. Etiquette was banished from these parties; and the newly-appointed pages waited at table. They only entered when a bell was rung, and left the room when they had done what was wanted. On these excursions, the queen drove out in the same carriage with the king and Struensee. She placed herself between them at table; and if the king misbehaved himself, Reverdil led him out of the room. The queen even returned at night alone with the favourite. This princess, who, on her arrival from England, had been extremely affable and ingenious in finding occasions to say agreeable things to everybody, now only spoke with eagerness to the favourite; and if before and after dinner she addressed any one, whether male or female, Struensee was listening.

With this exception, the indecent tone supposed by the public did not prevail in this company; they resembled the servants of a large house who had sat down to table in their master's absence. A new comer must have been struck by the familiar tone, and at seeing a court where there were no great noblemen, and hardly any gentlemen.

Reverdil was astonished at not hearing a word about the queen dowager and her son, who lived at Fredensborg, about nine miles from Hirschholm. There seemed a settled determination to keep Prince Frederick apart from his brother; no appanage was granted him, though it was full time to think about it, nor was he initiated into affairs of state. Reverdil resolved to do what he could to satisfy the queen dowager by inducing the king to drive over and see her; but the latter would not consent. Hence the estrangement came from Christian, and not from the queen dowager.

We have seen how Prince Frederick was kept out of the king's box at the play; and Brandt was blamed for it, although it was done by the monarch's express order. Equal anger was felt because Brandt did not invite the prince to the private theatricals and dancing which filled up a portion of the evenings at Hirschholm. For this, so Reverdil says, Struensee was mainly to blame. He had seen at London and Berlin the princes paying their court to the king, and mixing themselves up with the grandees in the ante-chamber. On his return, he was shocked by the old Danish fashion, by which the courtiers did not come to the king's ante-room till they had paid their respects to the royal princes and princesses, who were thus placed on a level with the sovereign. He therefore resolved to make Prince Frederick undergo these humiliations until he had learned his duty.