[88] Mémoires de Reverdil, pp. 122-23.
All the same it was some months before Saldern could screw up the King’s courage to the point of dismissing Madame de Plessen, but at last he succeeded. As soon as the Queen was convalescent the King ran away with Saldern to Frederiksborg, and from the safe shelter of that retreat he despatched a signed order to Madame de Plessen commanding her to quit the palace immediately on its receipt, without taking leave of the Queen. As the King was all-powerful, there was nothing for Madame de Plessen to do but obey; indeed she feared for her life if she remained in Copenhagen. So she fled with all speed, the same day she received the order, to her estate of Kokkedal, on the Sound.
QUEEN MATILDA RECEIVING THE CONGRATULATIONS OF THE COURT ON THE BIRTH OF THE CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK.
From a Contemporary Print.
Bernstorff was ordered to acquaint the Queen with the King’s resolution and declare it to be irrevocable. When the Queen was told that her first lady had gone, there was a most painful scene—she burst into tears and refused to be comforted. Her anger and resentment against the King knew no bounds, and she declared she would never forgive him. The whole of the Queen’s household was now changed; all her friends were sent away, and nominees of Holck and Saldern put in their places. The King wished to appoint as chief lady, Madame von Berkentin, who had intrigued against Madame de Plessen, but the Queen absolutely refused to admit her to her presence, and so, after much angry recrimination the vacant post was bestowed upon Madame von der Lühe, who was not any more pleasing to the Queen from the fact that she was the sister of Count Holck. But Madame von der Lühe proved more satisfactory than the Queen expected, and gradually won her confidence; the worst appointment was that of Fräulein von Eyben as maid-of-honour. This woman, who had by no means an unsullied reputation, was false and untruthful—a spy who sought opportunity to betray her mistress.
Madame de Plessen was pursued with relentless severity, and two days after her dismissal from the Danish court she was ordered to quit the kingdom. She withdrew to Hanoverian territory, and finally settled at Celle. She was forbidden to hold any communication with her former mistress, but it is probable that she managed to evade this order. The separation was a bitter grief both to the Queen and her chief lady. Despite her domineering disposition and want of tact, Madame de Plessen dearly loved her young mistress, and would have died, had it been necessary, for her sake. She was by nature hard and undemonstrative, but the helpless little Queen had found a tender spot in her heart, and the maternal love she felt for her mistress was all the more fierce because of its concentration; in shielding her from the contamination of the court she was like a tigress guarding her young. Perhaps it was the very fierceness of her devotion which led her into errors of judgment, but great though these were, if she had avoided political intrigue, she might have retained her place.
To Matilda the loss of this good woman, for she was a good woman despite her unamiable qualities, was irreparable. Surrounded as she was by spies and enemies, beset by perils and temptations, she knew that she had in her chief lady a disinterested friend, and she clung to her all the more because she had not strength of herself to stand alone. Had Madame de Plessen remained with the Queen, the errors and follies of after years would never have been committed. In the dangerous path Matilda had to tread, beset by pitfalls on every side, she needed some one who would guide her stumbling feet, and lead her in the way she should go.
Queen Matilda was not allowed much time to indulge in her grief, for within ten days of Madame de Plessen’s dismissal she had to hold a court, at which she received the congratulations of the foreign ministers and Danish nobility on the birth of her son. The day was observed as a general holiday, and in the evening there was a banquet and ball at the Christiansborg Palace. If she wrote to England to complain of the hard treatment she had suffered in thus being deprived of one in whom she placed confidence, she probably received little comfort from her brother. We find Lord Weymouth writing to Gunning before Madame de Plessen’s dismissal: “The King would not be sorry to hear of her removal,”[89] and after it: “I assure you that the King is thoroughly sensible of the zealous and dutiful motives which engaged you to see with so much concern the dangerous tendency of that lady’s influence”.[90]
[89] Lord Weymouth’s despatch to Gunning, March 18, 1768.
[90] Ibid., May 4, 1768.