[9] The uncle of Dieveke, the mistress of Christian II., who induced the king to commit the massacre of Stockholm, under circumstances of the greatest treachery and barbarity.
[10] The letters contained in the following chapter, the originals of which are in the Copenhagen secret archives, have not been published before. Only some passages of them were quoted by Fiscal General Wiwet in his prosecution of Brandt. Hence it is probable that Struensee returned them as requested, and that the letters were found among Brandt's sealed-up papers.
[11] Moranti, a negro boy from the Danish colony existing at that day on the Gold Coast, who, with another lad and Chamberlain Brandt, had to dress and undress the king, and a negro girl of ten years of age, formed the daily society of the autocrat Christian VII., who, according to the anonymous correspondent just quoted, was so inexpressibly beloved by the whole nation. He and his two playmates led so wild a life, that there was not a bust or statue in the palace or the gardens, which they had not converted into a target, or was safe from being destroyed, or, at least, mutilated by them.
[12] Or about £5,000 a year. It must be confessed that the count wished to live "decently," especially when we take the value of money at that day into consideration.
[13] Brandt's stepfather.
[14] Struensee was thrown from his horse in September, and confined to his room for some time.
[15] Reverdil tells us, in confirmation of this, that Brandt had thought of giving Struensee a successor in the queen's favour, as he believed that the minister's power and place depended on her, and he had turned his attention to those courtiers whom he considered most seductive, through their face or other advantages; but, in the end, his imagination growing more exalted, he conceived the plan of pleasing the queen himself.
[16] Reverdil, p. 295.
[17] "Mémoires de Falckenskjold," p. 156.
[18] The original decrees will be found in Höst, vol. iii.