Sir Lascelles Wraxall

“ Oh, that it might please the Almighty to convince the world after my death, that I did not deserve any of the frightful accusations, by which the calumnies of my enemies stained my character, wounded my heart, traduced my honour, and trampled on my dignity!
Sire! believe your dying sister, a queen, and even more, a Christian, who would gaze with terror on the other world, if her last confession were a falsehood. I die willingly: for the unhappy bless the tomb. ”

“ If Juliana Maria had formed any ambitious plans, the birth of the crown prince must have foiled them, temporarily at least. The king's weak constitution, the debauchery he indulged in in his youth, the perceptible injury he had done his health, his dislike of any employment, the slight respect his people displayed toward him,—might have fostered, in the heart of this far-sighted woman, a hope that either the throne or the royal authority would pass to her son sooner or later. ”

“ The king's pages and domestics tremble at the slightest occurrence; all are seized with terror; they talk, they eat, they drink, but tremble as they do so. Fear has seized upon all who surround the minister, even on the queen, who no longer has a will of her own, not even in the choice of her dresses, and their colour. Could you but see yourself in this position, my God, how startled you would be at yourself! Neither in my head nor in my heart has a wish been aroused to conduct the affairs of state, but it suited me to regulate the court and society. ”

“ Fortune is as much the touchstone of minds as misfortune is. It subjected this man to a trial, and he came out of it badly. Arrogant and unbridled in fortune, he proved himself in misfortune despondent, cowardly, and even worthless. The fortune which he at first did not turn to a bad use, brought a [97] king's sceptre into his hand, and he allowed it to be shamefully torn from him by people far inferior to him in intellect. A queen, young and beautiful as a May morning, supported him, and he betrayed her. ”

“ At times pride exalted the king; he had been greeted like a god by the English nation; other kings were eclipsed; it was too much wit that had turned his head. At other times the king was oppressed and melancholy: after all that he had done; after braving everything: he would never be more than a "little man;" that is to say, a weak and dependent man. He often talked about killing, and asked Reverdil whether he might not do so only once with impunity and without scandal, or whether, if he did so, he would be hopelessly wretched. On other occasions he pretended to attack his own life. ”

“ She who gave the king her hand and heart, is accused by the man who, at that time, promised to be her lord and protector. She, who by the unanimous verdict of the nation, received the name of mother of the country, is tried by those men who at that day would have joyfully shed their blood for her. So unhappy is Queen Caroline Matilda, and she alone among all the Queens of Denmark! At an age, and gifted with all the qualities, which seemed to determine her felicity, she finds herself on the verge of an abyss, in which her honour, her dignity, and her peace may be lost. ”

“ Such is everything that can be learned of the death of Caroline Matilda. Sacrificed in the first bloom of youth, and decked with the fillets of misery, she was sent, an inexperienced victim, to become the bride of a man who was a compound of insanity and brutality. In less than seven years she experienced all the honours, but also all the wretchedness, which a royal throne can offer. Then she died in the flower of life in exile, the victim of the most scandalous conspiracy. ”

“ The king drove his spurs into his horse. Did he feel a burning within him like the flames of Hades? I doubt it. He had only a cynical laugh for everything, even for the monkey-tricks performed by his mistress at the council of state. Was it surprising that the most awful things should be believed about such a king?—that a rumour spread among the populace that it was one of the mysteries of the Parc aux Cerfs that the king tried to stimulate his senses by baths of children's blood? ”

“ If he turned his attention to affairs of state when he was a doctor of medicine, he was an indolent doctor, for a skilful minister of state does not spring up like a mushroom, and in that case how dared he take on himself to become physician in ordinary? But if he devoted himself to medicine, how could he desire to become the highest and sole authority in the affairs of the country? Can a man be treated mildly whose principle it is that goodness injures a country? through goodness mutual love is acquired. ”

“ How could life possess any charms for me, who am separated from all those I love—my husband, my children, and my relatives? I, who am myself a queen and of royal blood, have lived the most wretched life, and stand before the world an example that neither crown nor sceptre affords any protection against misfortune! ”

“ If the king expressed an idea that varied from theirs, they looked serious, and offered a protest, upon which the timid Christian at once held his tongue, and sanctioned the measure. Of course this conduct on the part of the gentlemen displeased the king, the more so because he had no very high opinion of them. That he did not love Reventlow, whose rough mode of education he had not yet forgotten, is only natural; Moltke he knew to be a man who only regarded his own interests, while Bernstorff's vanity and cringing subserviency were repulsive to him. ”

“ If we now ask what the facts are, by which an improper intimacy carried to extremes between the queen and Count Struensee can be proved from the evidence of the witnesses, the answer is—None. That the queen showed the count favour and confidence, cannot be denied. But who ever saw or heard that they went beyond the limits of honour? Where is the man who is able to say that the queen has broken the fidelity which she owed to her consort, or can mention a single fact which would prove the certainty of such a crime? ”

“ They do not fear violently to break the happy union of the king with his consort; to render doubtful the rights of the issue of that union, by compromising the future tranquillity of the state; and, lastly, to cast on a young queen the affront of a mortal stain, and to condemn her to expire in a lengthened agony!
"Was the post of a principal minister of the King of Denmark so important, or desirable at such a price?" ”

“ Within two short years, Struensee had made really gigantic strides on the slippery path of court favour. By his elevation to the rank of a privy cabinet minister and of count, fourteen months after his appointment as reader to the king and cabinet secretary to the queen, he had attained the highest post in the kingdom. Possessing the unbounded confidence of the most absolute monarch in Europe, he stood immediately next to the throne, and the world gazed in amazement upon his fortune and his reforms. ”