Grieved for her Majesty's beloved name and reputation, and terrified by the awful consequences of this daring deed, in which they feared they might be innocently entangled, they resolved, after due reflection and with masculine resolution, to lay their sorrows and most devoted submission at her Majesty's feet.[73] Hence the two maids, Bruhn and Horn, one day with quaking hearts and tear-laden eyes approached her Majesty, who ever then as now had a heart full of kindness, and asked them, with emotion, what was the matter with them, and if she, the queen, had done anything to grieve them? This gracious reception still more aroused in these faithful servants all the feelings of reverence and devotion, with which they were filled at that time. Maid Horn, who was so affected that she was unable to speak, left the execution of their mutual design to maid Bruhn, upon which the queen leaped from her seat, threw her arms round maid Bruhn's neck, and said, "Tell me, dear Bruhn, what is the matter with you?" This command of her Majesty loosened maid Bruhn's tongue. "There is a report," she said, "that Struensee spends the night with your Majesty. We feel so grieved at it, because it is stated that the two queens dowager and the council are aware of it, and purpose interfering." The maids then hinted that they were acquainted with the story of the door leading to the Mezzanine, and wished that the whole rumour might be unfounded. The queen asked them whether they believed it; requested to speak with Struensee at once, who, as she said, would soon find a remedy; and, in conclusion, asked, "Do you think that the rumour will die out, if I do not let him come so often? I cannot entirely abandon him, as that would arouse too much attention."
Her Majesty's confessions dispense me from making any reflections on this head.
After the queen had consulted with Struensee on the same day, she said to her waiting-women, "Do you know that any one who speaks in such a way about her queen can be punished by the loss of her tongue?"
After this incident, the intercourse between the queen and Struensee ceased for about a fortnight; but then became worse than before. Still from this time the witnesses noticed no nocturnal passage through the corridor to the Mezzanine, while the familiar and gracious intercourse of the queen with these her maids ceased from this day; so that she only addressed them in the tone of a mistress.
That which her Majesty wished to deny to her maids she confessed, however, to her lady-in-waiting, Von Eyben; for when the latter found the queen one day weeping and in grief, she asked what was the matter with her Majesty; and the queen told her of the conversation with the maids, but confessed that the affair was unfortunately true, and said that Struensee had advised her to bribe her women, which she refused to do; nor would her Majesty follow the advice of her women, and "displace" Struensee.
Among the things which are inseparable from such actions is rumour, which follows them as their shadow. And who is unacquainted with these rumours?
As regards the queen's intercourse with Count Struensee, Professor Berger, now under arrest, declares, that it had appeared to him most suspicious, and Struensee's lodgings highly improper. Struensee had always behaved to her with impropriety, and ventured on excessive familiarity. This improper conduct began first in the city in 1770, was continued in the same year on the Holstein tour, and afterwards on the return of the royal family to Denmark.
Count Brandt declares that in the summer of 1770, while the royal party were in Holstein, the queen was alone one morning early with Count Struensee, and that the latter drove out with her alone in a carriole. The intercourse between them proved in every way that they loved each other; they sought one another, were delighted to meet; in a word, love was revealed in that manner which can be perceived but not described. If at times they quarrelled, Struensee said that the queen was jealous of him, and accused him of not being so amiable as usual, and hence Struensee was always obliged to dance with the oldest ladies at balls. Brandt also declares that Struensee made him a "confidence" of this amourette, and said that he could make love to the queen best at the masquerade.
Fräulein von Eyben, and the sixth, fourth, and twenty-ninth witnesses about Struensee's suspicious intimacy with the queen, assert: "While the court was residing in Holstein in 1770, the queen drove out alone with Struensee, remained away a couple of hours, and did not return till seven o'clock." Furthermore, the two first witnesses declare that once, when they were about to enter the queen's cabinet, they found Struensee seated by her side on the sofa, and that the queen ran toward them and sent them away. Afterwards, the queen told them that the king was so frightened when they, the witnesses, came to the door, that he tried to run out of the room, and that was the reason why she hurried toward them.