[38] "Mémoires de mon Temps," p. 60.
[39] Reverdil, p. 336.
[40] In giving the above account, I have principally followed the reports of the party favourable to the queen dowager, except in those cases where a bias was evident. The fullest account will be found in the "Memoiren von Köller Banner;" but I have also inserted numerous bits from pamphlets, though I did not deem it necessary to quote my authority in each case.
[41] These curious details are derived from a scarce pamphlet, "Leben, Begebenheiten und unglückliches Ende der beiden Grafen Struensee und Brandt, 1772" (no imprint).
[42] "Mémoires de Falckenskjold," p. 238.
[43] There are as many variations in the account of Caroline Matilda's arrest as there are writers on it, but I have mainly followed that of Prince Charles of Hesse, even passing over the "Private Journal" in its favour, for the following reasons:—First, Prince Charles was a friend of the queen dowager, and continued in the Danish service: hence he had every opportunity of hearing the correct details from some of the principal actors. On the other hand, Mr. Wraxall's informants were friends of the queen, and both already under arrest, so they could only repeat the affair at second-hand: and even though Mr. Wraxall was in Copenhagen so shortly after the occurrence, all Englishmen were regarded as spies, and I do not think he found any opportunity of hearing the exact facts from the chief conspirators. The two narratives, however, differ very slightly, and this is a confirmation of the correctness of the Landgrave's story, because Mr. Wraxall was informed by the queen herself of the whole details. Unfortunately, he delivered to George III. all the confidential papers and letters connected with the affair, and from this cause I am unable to say with certainty whether the "Private Journal" is based on the story of Caroline Matilda herself. Still, my grandfather was not the man to give up important papers and keep a copy of them, and I therefore believe that the narrative I have before me is drawn up from the statements of Bülow and Le Texier.
[44] A descendant of this officer accompanied the Princess Alexandra in her triumphal entrance into London. But this is only a further proof of the well-established fact that the whirligigs of time bring strange revenges.
[45] The latest traveller in Denmark, De Flaux, gives us the following account of Caroline Matilda's apartments at Kronborg:—"In a tower is a small oval room, the windows of which are still lined with iron bars. It was here that the queen was confined. I was shown the prie-dieu used by this unfortunate princess. It was on the faded velvet that covered it that she rested her beautiful head. Who knows whether the spots on it were not produced by the tears of despair she shed. Was it not while kneeling on this chair that she heard the terrible sentence that sent her two friends to the scaffold, and herself dishonoured to the Castle of Aalborg?" Mr. N. W. Wraxall, describing his visit to Kronborg, says that the rooms which the commandant had the mercy to give his prisoner were vast, unfurnished, hideous, bare walls; never warm in July.
[46] Reverdil adds to this fearful picture: "There was another house let to the Italian actresses, and doubtless more impure than the others; but the people behaved more civilly here, and, wishing to treat it like the rest, ordered the girls to leave it first, respecting in their persons the amusements of the king."
[47] Reverdil, p. 343.