The minister was not pleased with Colonel von Sames, the commandant, for he knew that he was an intimate friend of Rantzau-Ascheberg; interfered in many things that did not concern him; and, in addition, annoyed the favourite with all sorts of plans for improving the city, in which he proposed to pull down entire quarters. Struensee, also, did not consider it in accordance with military rules that a cavalry colonel should command a garrison consisting of seven infantry regiments, while the king had to pay seventy general officers. He therefore consulted Falckenskjold, who proposed to him the Prince of Bevern, governor of Rendsberg at the time, as commandant of the capital. But Struensee did not want so influential a man for the post, and was of opinion that a major-general of infantry should be selected. There was, consequently, only a choice between the two generals Schuell and Gude; and as the former commanded in Norway, the latter was chosen.[22]
At last Struensee saw that it was necessary to protect himself against the people, in the event of their daring to get up a tumult. He therefore gave the new commandant orders to hold everything in readiness, so as to maintain peace by force if necessary. The heaviest guns in the arsenal were planted on the walls in front of the guard-house and the town gates. The guns on the walls were pointed at the city every evening after tattoo. The soldiers had thirty-six cartridges apiece served out to them, and there was an extraordinary quantity of patrolling. Even loaded cannon were drawn up in front of the palace; and any one who had business to transact there was led in and out by two soldiers.
The king was surprised at this, and asked Count Struensee what was the meaning of these terrible preparations? He replied to the king that all this was done for the protection of his beloved person, as his subjects were aroused against his Majesty; hence it was feared lest the king might meet with the same fate as the unhappy Peter III. The king was terribly alarmed on hearing this; he clasped his hands, and exclaimed, "My God! what harm have I done that my dear and faithful subjects should hate me so?"[23]
Unfortunately, these very precautions served as weapons for the favourite's enemies; and they did not fail to employ them. A report was already spread that it was his intention to dethrone the king, or get rid of him; that he would marry the queen, and be declared protector of the kingdom. The display of loaded guns was regarded as a threatening arrangement, intended to intimidate the people at the moment when the minister's projected revolution was about to break out. A report was spread that Struensee had proposed to disarm the bürger guard, and that the colonel commanding it had replied, that if his men were deprived of their muskets they would defend the king with paving stones. Lastly, the disposition to envenom everything was so great, that Struensee, having set up his own carriage at this time, this novelty was also misinterpreted. It was declared to be the state coach, in which he would figure on the day of the revolution.[24]
In this earnest season, which afforded abundant scope for discouraging reflections, Struensee was, in some incomprehensible way, so busied with court festivities, that he began to neglect those duties connected with the government. Business of importance was left unsettled, and so rapidly accumulated, that the minister decided everything without consideration. It was evident that the blindness of this man, who trusted to his luck, was increasing. We have a confirmation of this in the enterprise which he finally ventured, and which deprived him of the last ray of his favour among the populace, as well as the good opinion of the better classes, and hence was precisely of a nature to hasten his downfall.
A good deal of ill-blood had already been produced by the disbandment of the Horse Guards, and all the officers of the Guards being placed on a level with those of the army and navy. But now Struensee resolved to disband the battalion of Foot Guards, under the pretext that its existence had a deleterious effect on the rest of the army. Falckenskjold, at first, opposed this design, but at length gave way.
On December 21, Struensee issued a cabinet order to the College of the Generalty, by which the five companies of the battalion of Foot Guards were to be changed into so many grenadier companies, and attached to five of the regiments composing the garrison of Copenhagen. The cabinet order was forwarded to the college on the following day; and, though it was Sunday, the members at once assembled in council, but considered the affair of such consequence that they requested to be supplied with the king's written authority. Struensee then requested Falckenskjold to talk the matter over with General von Gähler; he told the latter that the minister would be offended if they refused to carry out the order, and urged the immediate despatch of the necessary commands to the commandant, General Gude, and to the colonel of the Guards, Count von Haxthausen.
Gähler, however, refused to give way, but, instead, joined his colleagues in drawing up a most submissive answer, in which they requested an order signed by the king in person, without which they must decline to execute the cabinet decree, which they considered extremely dangerous. Instead of being induced to reflect over this indirect good advice from experienced men as to the danger of his meditated enterprise, and wisely giving way before this first instance of a refusal to obey a cabinet decree signed by himself alone, the favourite at once obtained the required authority from the king, and forwarded it to the War Department, who immediately yielded.
On the next morning, December 24,—from which the ensuing quarrel was called the Christmas Eve fight,—the palace guard was relieved by the king's regiment, of which Falckenskjold was commander, and the whole battalion of Guards drawn up in line on the the Great King's Market: its effective strength only amounted to three hundred men. The king's order for their disbandment and incorporation with other regiments was read to them, and the officers were present who would take them over. But when the Guards saw that their colours were being taken from them, they rushed forward in a body, and seized them again by force, shouting:
"Those are our colours: we swore obedience upon them! We will risk our lives for them!"