They also said that the agreement with them must be kept, and that it was contrary to that agreement to make them serve in other regiments. Hence, they demanded their discharge, and formation into a fresh corps. The Guards had always regarded themselves as a corps quite distinct from the line: for they ranked with non-commissioned officers of the army, and such punishments as flogging and running the gauntlet could not be inflicted on them.
All the representations of the officers were of no effect. The majority of the mutineers proceeded with the colours in front of the palace: a non-commissioned officer assumed the command, as the officers had withdrawn. Just as the insurgents were about to march off, a courageous staff officer, Chamberlain Lersker, drew his sword, in order to force them to go to their barracks: but the mutineers fell on him and threw him into the gutter. When the commandant also tried to oppose them, they plucked off his peruke, and on hearing him say to the officers of the Guards: "Such fellows certainly deserve flogging," they squeezed him against a wall. They seized Colonel von Sames by the breast, when he also tried to draw his sabre and assist the commandant. On arriving in front of the locked palace gate, they burst it open, drove the company of the king's regiment out of the corps de garde, occupied their posts, and closed the entrance gate of the palace.
In the meanwhile, the line troops attempted to arrest the Guardsmen who remained on the market-place, but the latter offered resistance: the picket stationed at the main guard, which was situated on the market-place, advanced, and there was a free fight. The majority of the Guards, however, cut their way through, and the pickets only succeeded in seizing a few loiterers, and carrying them to the main guard. But the escaped men no sooner saw this than they turned back and dashed at the main guard, in order to liberate their arrested comrades. Being received, however, by the pickets with levelled bayonets, they desisted, and fighting with the other soldiers, forced their way through the streets to the palace, in order to join their confederates. In the course of this disturbance, a Guardsman was killed, and several soldiers wounded.
During this period, Falckenskjold hastened with the news of the mutiny to Frederiksberg Palace, and alarmed the whole court. Count Brandt and Baron von Bülow hurried into the city and to the palace, and made every possible effort to appease the rebellious Guards, but with as little success as the two colonels. The Guards gave the categorical reply, "Remain Guards or our discharge."
After this, the Guards resolved that a party of them should proceed to Frederiksberg, and request an interview with the king. The party set out, found the western gate closed and held; but at the northern gate, the officer of the guard, who was a boy, allowed them to pass. As they were going along the fortifications they met Falckenskjold, to whom the disbandment of the corps was publicly imputed. They consulted together about killing him, but not being quite certain that it was he, they allowed him to pass. A moment after they met the king in his small English calèche, a postilion and an equerry forming his entire escort as usual, and Reverdil being alone with him in the carriage. The soldiers formed a line to let him pass: one of their officers, who had followed them so far, persuaded them to do so, and not to disturb the king, who might be frightened at their sudden appearance, and impute violent designs to them. Neither his Majesty nor Reverdil had received any news about what was going on, and the submissive air of this small company was far from occasioning any idea of a mutiny.[25]
When the Guards reached Frederiksberg, the alarm felt at the small body of mutineers was as great as that produced at Hirschholm by the Norwegian sailors, so that hurried preparations were made for flight. A detachment of dragoons had in the meanwhile arrived to reinforce the palace guard. The latter surrounded the mutineers, but in no way terrified them, but were told by the latter that they wished to speak with the king. One of their own officers, Major von Ahrenfeld, who was a favourite of the Guards, and had hurried to the palace, was sent out to the mutineers, to ask them in the king's name what they wanted. They repeated their former answer, "Remain Guards, or our discharge;" and added, that in the latter case they wished to go wherever they thought proper. The major assured them that he would report their demand to the king, and soon after returned from the palace with a reply that, as the king did not wish to keep any men in his service by force, they were at liberty to go where they pleased.
Satisfied with this answer, the Guards returned to the capital for the purpose of reporting it to their comrades, who were holding the royal palace. But the latter refused to place any confidence in a merely verbal promise, and insisted on a regular discharge for each man before they surrendered the palace. It produced no effect on them that this palace was surrounded by three regiments of infantry and three squadrons of dragoons; on the contrary, they only allowed their own officers to go in and out. At length General von Gähler, fearing lest the scene might have a sanguinary issue, went to Frederiksberg, and brought back a discharge duly signed and sealed for the whole body. But the soldiers, imagining that there was some deception, raised exceptions to the form of the order given them. On hearing this, Struensee said to the Council of the Generalty, "You are soldiers, and must know the means of obtaining obedience; the king insists on the mutineers being removed from the corps de garde before midnight."[26]
How greatly the mutineers had public opinion with them, was seen by the fact that the citizens supplied them with provisions, wine, and spirits, of which a large stock had been laid in for the Christmas festivities. These provisions were lavished on the insurgents, whose cause appeared to the lower classes, and even to three-fourths of the higher classes, that of the nation. The sailors, another turbulent band, but who generally quarrelled with the soldiers, offered their help to the mutineers; and it was publicly reported that the gunners had let them know privately that they would receive them into the arsenal, and join them.
The reason for all this manifestation lay in the reports which had been maliciously spread. It was alleged that the battalion was composed of Norwegians, whose well-known and invincible fidelity to the king would have been an obstacle to the minister's designs. He was going to entrust the defence of the king and the palace to German mercenaries, and so on. Even Reverdil is ready to acknowledge the absurdity of such rumours. Not more than one-half of these men were Norwegians; their service and duty had no connection with the king's personal safety; none of them had been on guard at Hirschholm during the summer, and the king was quite accessible to ill-disposed persons, if such existed. He was peculiarly at the mercy of those to whom evil designs were attributed. At Copenhagen the porters alone had orders to keep away suspicious persons; and if the pretended conspirators had been the ordinary inhabitants of the palace, the porters' guard was as useless as that of the soldiers. There were avenues which were not guarded, and the keys of which were held by the chief personages. The palace could be entered through the stables and the playhouse; lastly, any odious suspicion is destroyed by the fact, that the asserted disbandment of the Foot Guards never took place. They were to have been attached to the different regiments as light companies, but retain their officers and their high pay.[27] In that case they would have mounted guard in their turn.