"Thanks, Heaven, thanks!" she fervently exclaimed; "that consolation comes from Thee, and it is the only one of which my enemies cannot rob me."
She heard her daughter's voice and flew to her.
"You, too, here! dear, innocent creature! Oh, in that case your poor mother is not utterly wretched."
And the queen clasped the child to her breast, and then seated it in her lap. Two days elapsed ere the unfortunate queen could be induced to take any food, and lie down on a bed; then, she gradually regained her calmness, and accepted her fate more patiently.
It seemed as if the victorious queen dowager studied every occasion by which she could humiliate her victim. Caroline Matilda was not even allowed to have the necessary clothes to appear with decency, and to prepare herself against the severity of the weather; she was conveyed to Kronborg not like a state prisoner, but with all the marks of contempt shown to the worst offenders. A queen, whose personal charms would have melted the heart of a ruffian, was scarcely allowed in this inhospitable fortress what is requisite to support nature, and not indulged with more conveniences in her apartments than those granted to the lowest criminals. She was treated, during the earlier part of her captivity, with great indignity by her unfeeling keepers and an insolent soldiery, and confined in rooms which would have hardly been allotted to her favourite dogs in the days of her prosperity.[45]
After the queen dowager had been informed by Von der Osten of the successful removal of Caroline Matilda, the conspirators at once set to work completing the affair they had begun. In the first place, it was considered necessary to make the king go through a scene, which would convince him that everything that had been as yet effected, met with the approval of the multitude.
The constant driving, and the galloping of dragoons through the streets at an early hour, aroused attention and apprehension among the townspeople: for the conspirators had taken care that in the last days the most dangerous rumours of attempts on the king's life should be propagated. At length, the terrible events of the last hours oozed out. The town captain, Treld, appeared in the streets, and when he was asked what was to be done, he answered: "What else, but shout huzzah that everything has succeeded!" The mob now burst into an universal shout of "Long live King Christian VII.;" and several voices were heard applauding the queen dowager and Prince Frederick. After this, the masses flocked to the palace, and at 10 A.M. the king, followed by his brother, stepped out on the balcony, while the old queen showed herself at the window in négligée. The king waved his pocket-handkerchief, and when the populace responded to this salute by a deafening shout, he joined in, and hurrahed to his dear people, who were offering him such enthusiastic thanks for the heroic deed he had just carried out.
A few hours later, the king, splendidly dressed, and accompanied by his brother, entered a state-coach drawn by eight white horses, and drove through the city, to show himself to his people. The throng was so great, that the carriage could hardly pass, and many, in their delight, proposed to take out the horses and drag the king themselves. They drove slowly through all the principal streets: Prince Frederick had let down the window on his side, seemed greatly delighted, and bowed incessantly to the surging crowd, and the windows crowded with ladies and gentlemen. The king, however, as usual, kept his window up, and stared indifferently at the crowd: loud shouts of joy were raised in all the houses which the royal procession passed. The ladies expressed their delight by waving their handkerchiefs; some of them even pulled off their caps and shook them in the air, in order to testify their enthusiasm at the incomparable felicity of seeing their beloved sovereign, who had escaped from the mighty peril with which he had been menaced by Struensee and Queen Caroline Matilda.
When the drive was over, and the king and prince returned to the Christiansborg, the whole victorious party had assembled at court, to offer their congratulations to the three royal personages on the successful overthrow of the "Cabal," as they deigned to christen the defeated party. But the king only made his appearance in company for a moment.
After dinner the king, the old queen and the prince, went to the French play, where they all sat in the royal box, and were received with universal rejoicings when they entered. The whole city was illuminated, the townspeople nearly all turned out in their Sunday clothes, salvoes were fired from the ramparts, rockets were discharged, and the whole population seemed drunk with joy.