CHAPTER XI.
THE RELEASE OF THE QUEEN.
1772.
During the weeks occupied by the trials of Struensee and Brandt, Keith had been untiring in his efforts on behalf of Queen Matilda, and wrung from her enemies one concession after another. As the result of his insistence, the Queen was no longer confined in one small room, but was permitted to use the large dining-hall outside it and the other apartments adjoining. She was also allowed to go out and take the air on the ramparts and the leads of the castle. Her food was better served, and she was waited on with some ceremony by her household. The preachers in the fortress chapel were no longer instructed to hurl insults at the Queen, and when she attended divine service there was nothing to remind her of her misfortunes, beyond the omission of her name from the liturgy. The little Princess was still allowed to remain with her. This indulgence was probably due to the fact that the child was ill of the measles, and it might have cost the infant her life to take her away at this time from the Queen, who most devotedly nursed her day and night, and found in the child her only consolation. Keith wrote of this incident: “A more tender mother than this Queen never was born in the world.”
Queen Matilda had now been imprisoned at Kronborg several months, and by the gentleness and dignity with which she bore her sorrows she won the respect and devotion of her jailors. Her natural kindness of heart showed itself even under these distressing circumstances; she made inquiries concerning the other prisoners who were detained in the fortress, and, as soon as greater freedom was allowed her, did what she could to alleviate their lot. From the little money she possessed, she gave sums from time to time to buy them comforts, and, when her dinner was served to her properly, she put aside two dishes from her table every day, with orders that they should be given to certain prisoners whom she had singled out for compassion. One of these was a Danish officer, who had been confined for many years in a small cell on suspicion of having entered into a treasonable correspondence with Sweden. The commandant of Kronborg remonstrated with the Queen, and asked her to bestow her little bounty on some other, lest her kindness should be construed into a condonation of the prisoner’s heinous offence. The Queen declined, and quoted the following line of Voltaire’s: “Il suffit qu’il soit homme, et qu’il soit malheureux.”
The Queen in her prison heard of the tragic death of Struensee and Brandt. According to one account she swooned with grief and horror, and when she rallied spoke no word. According to another she received the news with emotion, and exclaimed to Fräulein Mösting, her maid-of-honour: “Unhappy men; they have paid dearly for their devotion to the King and their zeal in my service.” These words, it must be admitted, do not show overwhelming grief for the death of the man who but a short time before had been dearer to her than all the world. Perhaps his shameful confession, and the way he had received her message of forgiveness, influenced her in spite of herself. She forgave him the wrong he had done her; she uttered no word of reproach; she showed the deepest pity for his sufferings and horror at his fate; but it was impossible that she could feel quite the same towards him as she had done. Perhaps, too, long months of solitary confinement had brought reflection, and the death of her mother, and the thought of her children, whom she dearly loved, had aroused her to a higher sense of her duties; and her eyes, no longer blinded by passion, saw clearly in what she had failed. Certain it is that Matilda’s character was purified and ennobled by suffering.
After the sentence of divorce was pronounced, Keith had insisted upon seeing the Queen. For some time this request was refused, or rather he was always put off on one pretext or another. But Keith clamoured in season and out of season at the doors of the Christiansborg, and became so threatening that at last the crafty Osten and the vindictive Juliana Maria had to give way, and most unwillingly gave leave to the English envoy to visit his Sovereign’s sister. But this permission does not seem to have been granted until after the execution of Struensee and Brandt.