"Il suffit qu'il soit homme et qu'il soit malheureux."[35]
On one occasion, Caroline Matilda, conversing on the early commencement of her misfortunes, observed that, since she was born to suffer, she found some consolation in being marked out so soon by the hand of adversity. "I may possibly live," said her Majesty, "to see Denmark disabused with respect to my conduct: whereas my poor mother, one of the best women that ever existed, died while the load of obloquy lay heavy upon her, and went to the grave without the pleasure of a vindicated character."[36]
Early in March, the charges against Caroline Matilda had been forwarded to London, and were there submitted to the opinions of the first lawyers, who, though consulted separately, all declared that the evidence brought forward was so far from being legal conviction, that it scarce amounted to a bare presumption of guilt: and they affirmed that they did not give credit to any of the facts as lawyers, but even found themselves obliged to disbelieve them as men. Upon this the court of St. James insisted that no sentence should be passed on her Danish Majesty, as the evidence against her was only presumptive, and very inconclusive.
A strong fleet was now fitted out, and universally supposed to be destined for the Baltic; still the most prudent thought, or at least hoped, that the fleet was only intended to intimidate the Danes, but would not sail, as the king of Prussia would certainly march an army immediately to Hanover, and then a new war would be kindled in the north. On the 22nd, counter orders, for suspending the preparations, were sent to Portsmouth. Horace Walpole, the omniscient, shall tell us what was the generally accepted version of the affair:—
"The king, as Lord Hertford told me, had certainly ordered the fleet to sail; and a near relation of Lord North told me that the latter had not been acquainted with that intention. Lord Mansfield, therefore, who had now got the king's ear, or Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty, must have been consulted. The latter, though I should think he would not approve it, was capable of flattering the king's wishes: Lord Mansfield assuredly would. The destination was changed on the arrival of a courier from Denmark, who brought word that the queen was repudiated, and, I suppose, a promise that her life should be spared: for, though the Danes had thirty ships and the best seamen, next to ours, and though we were sending but ten against them, the governing party were alarmed, probably from not being sure their nation was with them. The queen had confessed her intrigue with Struensee, and signed that confession. When the counsellor, who was to defend her, went to receive her orders, she laughed, and told him the story was true."
In this we have a favourable specimen of Walpole's talent as an embroiderer of history. It is very evident that he had heard the facts floating about society; but his additions to them were evidently pure inventions. He shall give us one bit more of gossip, which may or may not have been true, although there appears to be evidence in its favour in the strange conduct of George III. toward his sister:—
"They gave her (Caroline Matilda) the title of Countess of Aalborg, and condemned her to be shut up in the castle of that name. The King of England had certainly known her story two years before. A clerk in the secretary's office having opened a letter that came with the account, told me that he had seen it before the secretaries gave it to the king. It was now believed that this intelligence had occasioned the Princess of Wales to make her extraordinary journey to Germany, where she saw her daughter, though to no purpose. Princess Amelia told Lord Hertford, on the 26th, that when the King of Denmark was in England, observing how coldly he spoke of his wife, she asked him why he did not like her. He answered, 'Mais elle est si blonde!' The princess added, that Queen Matilda had a very high spirit, and that she believed the Danes would consent to let her go to Hanover. 'But she will not be let go thither,' added the princess, meaning that the queen's brother, Prince Charles of Mecklenburg, commanded there, 'or to Zell, but she will not go thither (another of the queen's brothers was there); perhaps she may go to Lüneburg."[37]
It is very probable, too, that the temper of the British nation, which had undergone a complete revulsion on the announcement of the fleet sailing, had something to do with its suspension. At any rate, we read in the General Evening Post for April 30, the following painful account:—
"Nothing, surely, is a greater impeachment of our laws, and more, of our lawgivers and magistrates, than the unrestrained licentiousness daily exhibited by the common people in this metropolis. Yesterday, in some parts of the city, men were crying about printed papers containing the most scandalous, ruinous, and impudent reflections on the Queen of Denmark. The worst prostitute that ever Covent Garden produced could not have had more gross abuse bestowed on her."