[83] This circumstance, in itself, is a sufficient proof that the trial of Caroline Matilda was solely intended to throw dust in the eyes of Europe. That her place of banishment should have been selected before her trial, is of a piece with the miserable evidence produced against her.
[84] In Höst's "Struensee og hans Ministerium" this document is quoted, but with an omission of everything that proved the crime of high treason, and must entail the penalty of death. As this work, however, was published in 1824, or during the reign of the son of Caroline Matilda, everything had to be omitted which might appear offensive to the memory of the king's mother. But Höst did not inform his readers of this fact. The notorious indictment is now published for the first time, without any mutilations or suppressions, from the Danish secret archives. All honour to Frederick VII., who allowed it to be made known, although it casts such a slur on Danish justice.
[85] Well may Reverdil say about this indictment that it is impossible to read anything more flat, more clumsy, or more disgusting. It is the style of a lackey amusing himself in a tavern at the expense of a man who is about to be hung. He adds: "Ought not an unhappy man who is pining in fetters to be spared insults useless to the cause? Ought not Wiwet to have reflected that he could not insult the prisoner without failing in respect to the king, who so long honoured him with his confidence, and who signed most of the orders alleged as a crime against Struensee?"
[86] Winslöw, a celebrated anatomist, was born at Odense, in Fühnen, appointed professor at the Jardin des Plantes, in Paris, in 1742, and wrote a work that run through four editions: "Exposition Anatomique du Structure du Corps Humain." He died in 1760.
[87] I confess this sentence is quite beyond me, but it is a literal translation.
[88] An allusion to what is called the "Grafenfehde" of 1533-36.
[89] As regards this argument, Falckenskjold remarks very sensibly: "Even supposing, which I am far from admitting, that there was an illicit liaison between the queen and Struensee, the supposition that he was the seducer is absurd. Any princess who would deign thus to degrade herself with one of her subjects, is under the necessity of taking the first steps: this is one of the inconveniences of superior rank."
[90] The falsehood of this charge is best proved by Falckenskjold's own examination: "I certainly made no profit out of the 3,000 crowns given me for my journeys, made by order of the king." When he was summoned from the Turkish frontier to enter the Danish service he received 1,000 dollars, and when he was sent to Petersburg on diplomatic business he was paid 2,000 crowns for his travelling and other expenses. Little enough, when we remember that on two occasions he was obliged to stay six weeks in Petersburg.
[91] "Mémoires de Falckenskjold," p. 196.
[92] An allusion to Bernstorff as Minister of Foreign Affairs.