"To make Struensee perish in order to seize on his office, was not this purchasing it very dearly? and especially to add the punishment of the unfortunate Brandt to that of Struensee, and to assail the liberties and fortunes of so many persons who were innocent of the ambition of these two men. And, in order to give a legal appearance to these proscriptions, they do not hesitate to abuse whatever is most sacred in human laws; they convert private intrigues into judicial proceedings; they employ calumnious libels as authentic documents and sentences; they raise the veil and expose to the public the domestic secrets of the king's house! They do not fear violently to break the happy union of the king with his consort; to render doubtful the rights of the issue of that union, by compromising the future tranquillity of the state; and, lastly, to cast on a young queen the affront of a mortal stain, and to condemn her to expire in a lengthened agony!
"Was the post of a principal minister of the King of Denmark so important, or desirable at such a price?"
CHAPTER IV.
THE HIGH COMMISSION.
THE TEN PRISONERS—THE REPORT—LIEUT.-COLONEL VON HESSELBERG—ETATS-RATH WILLEBRANDT—PROFESSOR BERGER—UNJUST SENTENCES—VON GAHLER—FALCKENSKJOLD AND STRUENSEE—SERIOUS CRIMES—THE SENTENCE—THE ROYAL APPROVAL—THE FORTRESS OF MUNKHOLM—THE COMMANDANT—RESIGNATION—THE ORDER OF RELEASE—CURIOUS CONDITIONS—DEATH OF FALCKENSKJOLD.
After the execution of the two counts, the turn came for the other ten prisoners of state to be disposed of. In order to justify in the sight of Europe the sanguinary treatment of the two principal victims, these prisoners must also appear in the light of state criminals, although no actual offence could be proved against a single one of them. Although the grounds for their sentences are of the most paltry description, it is easy to discover in them that, after the removal of their real enemies, the dominant faction wished to affect a display of mercy, probably through fear of public opinion, which was beginning to be loudly expressed both at home and abroad, about the cruel fate of the two counts.
The court believed it necessary to lay before the nation in print the sentences of Counts Struensee and Brandt, and with them a list of the crimes for which they were tried. This measure, however, had the contrary effect to what was expected. Nothing was seen in this sentence but a desire to prove the counts guilty, and a long series of absurd conclusions, by which it was sought to attain this object: the sentence on Count Brandt, more especially, revolted every one, and the general dissatisfaction was unmistakable.[25] Hence, although it was proposed in the council to lop off one or two more heads, one of the judges, Kofod Ancher, thought it was time to say to the king, as was said to Augustus, siste carnifex. It was therefore decided that the only victim of judicial vengeance should be Falckenskjold, who had dared to be an honest admirer of Struensee, and was really at the same time an enlightened statesman and politician.
On April 21 a royal command was sent to the commissioners to hand in an accurate representation of the offences of all the other persons arrested on January 17, and more especially those who had been guilty of minor crimes. This order was executed in a "most humble" report, dated May 5. The poor wretches had been allowed to pass all this time in prison, suffering from the most painful uncertainty.