All those persons who took an interest in the king and gained his confidence and attachment, were systematically removed from him, and only those whom he disliked retained their posts. The highest offices were given through favour and intrigues to courtiers, whose sole merit consisted in the fact that they had been pages, while appointments of less value were bestowed on the lackeys and domestics of those in authority.[116]
The whole condition of the kingdom was becoming an anarchy; for no one dared to exert his authority through the fear of injuring himself. Every official strove to gain influence beyond his own sphere, and subordination hardly existed. The state finances were ruined, mostly through want of order in the administration and improper use of the revenues of the state. For many years past, the influence which foreign powers had exerted over the government through their envoys, had been excessively great and oppressively felt, although a counter pressure had been attempted by costly Danish embassies. Lastly, public affairs and the general welfare suffered from the great number of large and small officials, and a regular trade was carried on in titles of honour and distinctions. It was, consequently, very natural that Struensee should try to effect improvements, so soon as he felt his own position sufficiently secure to enable him to attempt the necessary reforms.
It is equally certain that similar ideas were entertained in another quarter; for, during the king's journey, general plans for reforming the administration, and the necessary steps for overthrowing the present council of state, were discussed by General von Gähler, who had a seat in the College of War, and Count Rantzau. The private correspondence carried on between them contained some thirty feigned titles for persons mentioned in it; for instance, le silencieux, la bête, and so on. Holck was probably meant by the last honourable title. General St. Germain, who was living in retirement at Worms, was also let into the secret, as the common friend of Rantzau and Gähler, and informed of the state of the secret negotiations. Struensee, it is true, did not consider any one of the ministers as specially to blame for the bad administration; but Bernstorff was universally regarded as the most powerful man in the state, and was personally detested by Rantzau. That Bernstorff, after the return of the royal pair from Ascheberg to Traventhal, was not invited to dinner, was doubtless done with the object of irritating him, and urging him to send in his resignation. This hope, however, was not fulfilled.
The overthrow of Holck and his party was a terrible warning for the premier, and he discovered too late how incautiously he had acted, and how dangerous his position had become. The support of Russia appeared to him the only chance of salvation; he therefore informed Filosofow of all that occurred, and the latter hastened to him at once. But the time of his prestige was gone, and he only arrived to be an humiliated witness of the triumph of his worst enemy. Past was the time of the Russian authority over the Danish court: when the mere threat of stopping the territorial exchange set the king and his ministers in the greatest alarm: when an omnipotent Saldern raised and overthrew the servants of the Danish court in accordance with the interests of his own, enjoyed honours which had never been granted to a foreign envoy, and carried through the king's tour against the wishes of all his ministers. Past, too, was the day when a haughty Filosofow wrote directly to this weak monarch, when the latter wished to give an important command in his army to Count von Görtz, a friend of Count St. Germain: "I have orders from my court to quit yours, and break off all intercourse, sooner than allow this dangerous and intriguing man to enter your service." Struensee, whose influence was beginning to spread over all the affairs of court and state, had inoculated the king with very different ideas.[117]
During the residence at Traventhal, Caroline Matilda presented a pair of colours to her regiment quartered in the fortress of Glückstadt, whose commander was Rantzau. The presentation of these colours occasioned a military festival; and, in remembrance of it, the king ordered his painter, Als, to paint an historical picture, representing the queen in life-size in the uniform of a colonel of her regiment. On the 16th June, 1771, this picture was given by the queen to Count Rantzau, and is probably preserved by the family as an historical souvenir.
CHAPTER X.
THE QUEEN'S FRIEND.
THE PRINCESS OF WALES—MOTHER AND DAUGHTER—GEORGE III.—THE CABAL—THE WAR WITH ALGIERS—THE PALACE OF HIRSCHHOLM—FALL OF THE PREMIER—PROPOSED REFORMS—STRUENSEE'S MAXIMS—THE COUNCIL OF STATE—THE ROYAL HUNT—A LOVELY WOMAN—BRANDT'S FOLLY.