When they rose from their knees, all the conspirators, guided by Jessen and headed by the Queen-Dowager, went silently along the dark passages to the apartments of the King. In the ante-chamber they found the King’s valet fast asleep. They roused him, and told him they wished to see his Majesty immediately. Seeing the Queen-Dowager and Prince Frederick, the valet was willing to obey without demur; but the main door of the King’s bed-chamber was locked from within, and they were therefore obliged to go round by the secret staircase. The valet went in front to guide them, and immediately behind him came Guldberg, carrying a candle. The others followed in single line, and soon found themselves in Christian’s bedroom.
The King awoke with a start, and, seeing in the dim light the room full of men, cried out in terror. The Queen-Dowager approached the bed, and said in reassuring accents: “Your Majesty, my dear son, be not afraid. We are not come hither as enemies, but as your true friends. We have come——” Here Juliana Maria broke down, and her voice was stifled by her sobs. Rantzau, who had agreed to explain the plan to the King, hung back. But Köller thrust him forward, and then he told the King that his Majesty’s brother and stepmother had come to deliver him and the country from the hated yoke of Struensee. By this time the Queen-Dowager had recovered her nerve, and, embracing her stepson, she repeated what Rantzau had said with ample detail. The King, who was almost fainting with excitement and terror, demanded a glass of water, and, when he had drunk it, asked if the commandant of the palace guard were present. Eickstedt stepped forward, and confirmed what the Queen-Dowager and Rantzau had said, and added that the people were in a state of revolt, for a plot was being carried out to depose the King, in which Struensee and the Queen were concerned. When the King heard the Queen’s name, he refused to believe that she had anything to do with it, and said the story must be a mistake. But the Queen-Dowager assured him that Matilda was privy to it, and told him the whole of the supposed plot against his royal authority and person. Guldberg confirmed the Queen-Dowager’s statement in every particular, and declared there was no time to be lost.
The bewildered King, at last half-convinced, asked what was to be done. Rantzau then pulled out of his pocket two written orders, and asked him to sign them. By the first, Eickstedt was made commander-in-chief, and by the second, Eickstedt and Köller were vested with full powers to take all measures necessary for the safety of the King and the country. Thus the obedience of the army would be assured. When Christian read these orders, he feared a conflict between the people and the military, for he exclaimed: “My God! this will mean rivers of blood.” But Rantzau, who by this time had regained his assurance, replied: “Be of good cheer, your Majesty. With God’s help, I take everything upon myself, and will as far as possible prevent bloodshed.” The King sat up in bed and signed the two orders; Prince Frederick counter-signed them.
Eickstedt took the first and immediately left the room; he placed himself at the head of the picket of dragoons waiting below, and rode to the garrison to inform the officers on duty of his new appointment as commander-in-chief. He promptly strengthened the palace guard, had all the gates of the city closed, and bade the garrison hold itself in readiness for any event.
Köller also took his order, and with the others retired to an ante-chamber, as the King had expressed a wish to get up. By the time Christian was dressed, he was quite convinced that Struensee had plotted against his life, and he was as eager to sign orders as he had at first been reluctant. First of all Juliana Maria impressed upon him that it was necessary to convey the Queen to some place where she could not work any further mischief, and the King, after some hesitation, wrote and signed an almost incoherent message to his consort:—
J’ai trouvé à propos de vous envoïer à Cronbourg, comme vôtre conduite m’y oblige. J’en suis très faché, je n’en suis pas la cause, et je vous souhaite un repentir sincére.[20]
[20] In his agitation the King dated it 17th Jan., 1771.
The King then signed orders, drawn up by Guldberg, for the arrest of Struensee, Brandt and fifteen other persons. He did this with alacrity, and seemed delighted at asserting his authority, and the prospect of being freed from the dominion of Struensee and Brandt. The orders which concerned Queen Matilda he copied out himself in full from Guldberg’s drafts; the others he merely signed. The orders concerning the Queen included the order to Rantzau to arrest her, the order to the head of the royal stables to make ready the coaches to convey her to Kronborg, and an order to the commandant of Kronborg to keep her in close confinement. These important matters settled, Juliana Maria persuaded Christian to remove to Prince Frederick’s apartments in another part of the palace. She had much more for him to do, and she was fearful of interruption. For hours the King remained in his brother’s apartments, signing orders, which were to give him, as he thought, freedom and authority, but which were really only forging the links of new chains, and transferring him from the comparatively mild rule of Struensee and Matilda to the strict keeping of the Queen-Dowager.
Meanwhile, in different parts of the palace the King’s orders were being carried out without delay. On quitting the King’s apartments, Köller went to perform his task of arresting Struensee, accompanied by two or three officers of the palace guard and several soldiers. That Köller feared resistance may be gathered from the fact that he made the senior officer promise him, in the event of his being killed, to shoot Struensee dead. Köller had a bitter hatred of Struensee, dating, it was said, a long while back, when the doctor had seduced the object of Köller’s affections. He had solicited the task of arresting Struensee, and now went to fulfil it with an eagerness born of revenge.