How great the joy of the people was when the change took place, and how great its dissatisfaction at the preceding state of things had been, was seen on January 17, whence the count might have learned quam caduca sit ista felicitas. And how excessively great the joy at this change was in other circles also, was seen at the court held on the birthday of his royal Majesty, where sincere anxiety for the country and affection for the king met, and where the oppressed man greeted the liberated man with a loving kiss, and forgot his own wretched position in his love for the royal family.
For the sake of future ages, when my present indictment may perhaps be seen by many, I must remark, that it is only a short narrative of all that has happened, but, as I think, it will suffice to give a perfect explanation of the misdeeds of this count, and show that the sentence I demand is in conformity with the law, and adapted to his crimes. I must not, therefore, be reproached with having attempted to render him ridiculous, especially in an action which demands the utmost earnestness, for a distinction must be drawn between a minister who may have committed an error, and a mountebank who wishes to be a minister, and, as such, was an enemy of the country, and must therefore be treated with the same harshness as he displayed to others. But, in order that Count Struensee and every one may thoroughly learn that nothing is brought forward which might be regarded as a charge without proof, I will now, in accordance with the most gracious command given me, proceed to bring my charges against him, together with the evidence.
To reckon up all the crimes committed by him would be a most useless task, the more so when we reflect that the count has only one head, and that when that is lost by a crime, the other offences would be superfluous. I will hence close my deduction with the words—
"——Longa est injuria, longæ
Ambages, sed summa sequar fastigia rerum."
First.
"Count Struensee crept into the familiarity of the highest lady in the land, to such a degree that it went beyond the limits that are drawn between persons of different sexes, who cannot and must not be connected."
As I am commanded to indict Count Struensee—and I regard the above as one of the greatest crimes committed by him, and as the first which hurled him into the others—I bring it forward first: for it is certainly the most foolhardy one, which no one forgives him, and for which he cannot be excused.
I here produce the testimony on oath of Fräulein von Eyben, not in order to prove what is sufficiently explained, but only to request it may be remarked how Struensee strove to be present at places when there was an opportunity for him to acquire what he desired, and how the indifference with which he was at first regarded by the person whose confidence he afterwards gained, proves that it was not he who was tempted, but that his "inhuman" impudence, his bold, crafty, and villanous conduct, were powerful enough to attain that which virtue and education never grant, and that he is the more criminal, because he brought others into despair, in order to acquire honours himself.[89]
As proofs of this most audacious deed committed by Count Struensee, I produce—(1) The examination of Counts Struensee and Brandt and Professor Berger, made on February 20. The first two hundred and eighteen questions, and the twenty asked him on the 21st, contain Count Struensee's explanations of his intercourse with the exalted lady, and her intimacy with him, but all of which he reckons among the things she would have so. That he could be excused as a doctor, and she also, as there is in this no confession of the crime, I need not stay to disprove, as there is better evidence. (Here follow five passages from the report of the examination.) In these passages, Count Struensee, voluntarily and with great emotion, publicly confessed the most audacious crime committed by him. The commissioners possess his signature, as well as this most important document. (2) The said Count Struensee's confession signed with his own hand. (3) Her royal Majesty Caroline Matilda's declaration of the truth of Struensee's confession, dated Kronborg, March 9, 1772. (4) Fräulein von Eyben's deposition. (5) Count Brandt's statement of February 22. These statements are confirmed by Professor Berger's deposition. From all these documents we perceive Count Struensee's atrocious conduct; how, without shame he advanced with the greatest security in his crimes, and especially in the one which can only be thought of with horror, when we look at the person hurled into shame by him, and notice how he behaved, as if he wished the whole world to learn his deeds.