"I examined her through my glass. She is doubtless pretty, though not in my opinion so divinely fair as fame says. Her history at Hirschholm is well known. There was no gallantry, I thought, marked in her features, though 'tis said she certainly has that quality in her constitution. I thought of the unhappy Brandt as I looked at her."
At this time the city of Altona, only half a mile from Hamburg, was crowded with the adherents and partisans of the queen, many of them being of the first families in Denmark. Hamburg offered more amusements than Altona, and they were therefore constantly to be found in the houses of the opulent citizens. Baron von Bülow, master of the horse to the Queen of Denmark, who was arrested at the time of the palace revolution, and eventually exiled to Altona, was among the number. They had already conceived the plan of effecting a counter revolution, and of restoring Queen Matilda, an enterprise to which they were urged by many motives.
The new ministry in Denmark was already growing unpopular from its weakness, languor, and incapacity. It was understood that the king ardently desired the return of his consort. The engaging qualities, fortitude, and talents of that princess, rendered more interesting by adversity, had awakened the attachment of the Danes. A numerous and powerful party in the capital and throughout the nation anxiously desired her restoration.
It was indispensable, in the first instance, previous to any attempt on the part of the exiled nobility, to ascertain with precision the sentiments of the queen herself. It was important for them to know whether she was willing to return to Copenhagen to resume the sovereign authority, which the king was incapable of exercising, and to co-operate with her friends toward her re-establishment. But the attempt to open any communication with the queen was equally dangerous and difficult. Though Celle was only eighty English miles distant from Hamburg and Altona, still, as the northern bank of the Elbe was in, or close to the Danish territory, the journey to and from Celle was extremely perilous. The latter court, as well as Altona, was full of spies and emissaries, maintained by the party possessing the authority at Copenhagen. Such were their suspicions, and so great was their vigilance, that no person could have passed and re-passed between those places without being watched. These impediments had hitherto prevented the queen's adherents from venturing to send any of their own body to lay their projects before her Majesty; nor did they appear to have found any other person to whom they could confide the execution of so momentous a commission. They were still under this embarrassment when chance threw Mr. Wraxall in their way.
Having supped at the house of Mr. Jerome Matthiesen, where several of the Danish nobility were invited, Mr. Wraxall was led to talk about Denmark, from which country he had so recently returned. He expressed, with the warmth natural to a young man and an Englishman, his respect for Queen Caroline Matilda, his concern for her sufferings, and his detestation of the proceedings of her enemies. These sentiments, delivered without reserve or disguise, impressed the persons present that he might be induced to undertake the commission of repairing to Celle, negotiating with the queen, and taking an active part in their intended enterprise for her restoration.
Two or three of the principal persons concerned having met on the following day, agreed to sound Mr. Wraxall's dispositions, and if they found them such as they had reason to suppose, they determined to confide their project to him. Mr. le Texier, brother-in-law of Mr. Matthiesen, was selected to execute this task. From the nature of his employment at the Danish court, this gentleman necessarily had an intimate knowledge of all the political intrigues as well as the secret history of the Danish court. At the revolution, he had been sent to Altona. This gentleman cultivated Mr. Wraxall's friendship with marked assiduity, visited him frequently, and turned the conversation on the affairs of Denmark. In order to gain Mr. Wraxall's confidence, he unfolded to him the concealed causes and springs alluded to. He inveighed against the mal-administration of the Dowager Queen Juliana and her son Prince Frederick; lamented the misfortunes of Queen Matilda, and expressed his wishes for her restoration.
On October 3, 1774, Le Texier called again on Mr. Wraxall, and being together alone, he asked him, after some rather mysterious and preparatory conversation, "if he would be ready, and if he were disposed, to serve the Queen of Denmark?"[49]
Mr. Wraxall immediately answered in the affirmative; and though he was on the point of returning to England, assured his visitor that he was ready to devote his labour, and risk his life, if necessary, in such a cause. Le Texier expressed his strong satisfaction at the reply; conjured Mr. Wraxall to be silent on everything that had passed, and undertook, without delay, to take measures for introducing Mr. Wraxall to the persons at whose request he had sounded him. Mr. le Texier then left his new ally, in order, as he said, to make his report to his friends, which they were expecting with anxiety and impatience.
On October 5, Mr. le Texier brought to Mr. Wraxall's lodgings the eldest son of Baron von Schimmelmann, and left them together. The baron, after exacting a solemn promise of secrecy, disclosed, not without marks of great agitation and apprehension, a project which had been formed for restoring the Queen of Denmark. He reminded his hearer that his life, his fortune (one of the greatest in reversion of any in Denmark), were entrusted to a stranger, as well as those of all the persons engaged in the undertaking. They then entered upon business; and the baron divulged the plans and the means by which it might be effected. At a second interview on October 7, Baron von Schimmelmann informed Mr. Wraxall that, as he was on the point of setting out for Copenhagen, in order to arrange many circumstances preparatory to, and indispensable for, carrying out this plan, the latter would receive his further instructions from Baron von Bülow.