form to some of these regulations; and
the artillerymen, being desirous of profiting by the apparent
negligence, knowing well the cause, open an unremitting cannonade on the
passive Hollanders, and, in the course of a few minutes, will run up a
tolerably long bill.

The night was most beautiful, and the sea calm as death. The fine old
Castle of Cronenborg, casting a dark shadow over the water even to the
vessel's side, made me dream of days and legends gone by as I remained
silently gazing on its elegant tower. My mind, filled with melancholy
fancies, flew to centuries long past, when the philosophic Hamlet mused,
perhaps, on calm evenings like this, pacing to and fro the very
ramparts I was looking on, or sought, on that night of "a nipping and an
eager air," the coming of him whose

"Form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones,
Would make them capable."

Those old walls, too, are full of poor, Struensee's fate,--he, whose
great soul, sundering aristocratic power, first gave liberty to Denmark,
and added to her natural blessings the moral beauty of our own dear
England. And how does history speak?

On the 16th of June, 1772, a masked ball was given at the Court of
Denmark, surpassing the imaginary brilliancy of an Oriental tale. A
thousand tapers threw their splendour over a scene already glittering
with the beauty, youth, and power of Copenhagen. The mean and daily
feelings which give impulse to the actions of political men, seemed
absorbed in the joyousness of the moment; and the gravest senators might
have been seen on this night, unravelling the mazes of the dance, with
the speed and light-heartedness of the youngest girl. The king himself,
throwing aside the apathetic reserve of his state, danced a
country-dance with the queen; and, at its conclusion, he having retired
to play at quadrille with General Gahler and Counsellor Struensee, the
youthful queen gave her hand to Count Struensee during the remainder of
the evening. At one end of the room, apart from all, and apparently
lost in their own thoughts, stood the Dowager-queen, and her son,
Prince Frederick. While his royal mother shone with the dazzling
brightness of numberless precious stones attired in all the outward pomp
of her high position, the Prince was habited in the splendid uniform of
a Danish regiment of horse; and the most honourable Order of the
Elephant, surmounted with a castle, set in diamonds, and suspended to a
sky-blue watered ribbon,