These marriages being satisfactorily arranged, Christian VII. bethought himself of his own wife, for whom he did not feel so great a yearning as he had done a year previously, ere he had become his own master, and tasted the nocturnal delights of the capital in the far from cleanly company of his friend Von Sperling. The marriage had been originally arranged for 1767, but Christian's ministers and friends, seeing his tendency to libertinism, had wisely, as they thought, hurried it on. The sober Danes were beginning to mutter about the scandals which took place at night in the quiet streets of the Residenz. They had probably never heard of our Prince Hal, and hence could find no excuse for the wild sallies of their young monarch, in which he broke glasses and furniture, attacked watchmen, and more than once was taken into custody. Being such a roué as regards women, it appears surprising that Christian VII. consented to marry at so early an age; but it is probable that some latent suspicions about the designs of Juliana Maria urged him to listen to the advice of his friends. Hence, when the news reached him that Caroline Matilda was arriving, he hastened with a very good affectation of lover-like eagerness to meet her.
CHAPTER IV.
THE HAPPY COUPLE.
THE MEETING AT ROESKILDE—ENTRANCE INTO COPENHAGEN—THE QUEEN'S HOUSEHOLD—THE ROYAL FAMILY—COURT AMUSEMENTS—TRAVELLING IMPRESSIONS—THE CORONATION—THE FIRST QUARREL—THE KING GOES TO HOLSTEIN—DEATH OF THE DUKE OF YORK—MILADY—REVERDIL LEAVES THE COURT—THE NEW FAVOURITE—STRANGE CONDUCT OF THE KING.
The royal couple saw each other for the first time at Roeskilde, four (German) miles from the Danish capital, where Christian VII., accompanied by the hereditary Prince Frederick and his own brother-in-law, Prince Charles of Hesse, welcomed Caroline Matilda. We can easily forgive the young king, if, at the sight of such beauty as hers, he forgot court proprieties, and embraced and kissed his bride at Roeskilde in the presence of the company. My readers will remember a precisely similar instance at the meeting of a princess of Denmark and a Prince of Wales, not so very long ago.
Judging from the mere exterior, Christian VII. ought to have produced an equally favourable impression on the heart of Caroline Matilda. The person of the young king, though considerably under the middle height, was finely proportioned: light and compact, but yet possessing a considerable degree of agility and strength. His complexion was remarkably fair; his features, if not handsome, were regular; his eyes blue, lively, and expressive; his hair very light; he had a good forehead and aquiline nose; a handsome mouth and fine set of teeth. He was elegant rather than magnificent in his dress; courteous in his manners; of a very amorous constitution; warm and irritable in his temper; but his anger, if soon excited, was easily appeased; and he was generous to profusion.[40]
From Roeskilde, the young queen was conducted to the palace of Frederiksberg, close to Copenhagen, where she stopped till Nov. 8, on which day she made her solemn entrance into the capital, seated by the side of her sister-in-law, the Landgravine Louise, and under the escort of all the grand dignitaries of the crown. The marriage ceremony was then performed in the palace chapel.