crafty. Soon after his marriage he visited England,
France, and Germany, where he might, if he had possessed intellect,
have obtained such knowledge as would have made him a better man. He
returned, however, to his dominions the same character as when he left
it--vicious in his private life, and despotic in his rule. During his
travels he had been accompanied by a physician named Struensee, and
this man had acquired such an absolute ascendency over his mind, that
he obtained the supreme direction of affairs, with a title of nobility.
Struensee was endowed with considerable abilities, and was possessed of
a handsome person and engaging manners. He appears to have ingratiated
himself as much in the favour of the queen, as of the king, being
allowed to converse with her in very familiar terms. Apart from this,
however, there appears to have been no connection between the queen
and the favourite. But Matilda was watched by unfriendly eyes. Juliana
Maria, the queen-dowager, had from her first arrival taken a dislike
to her, and this aversion was increased when she saw that Matilda,
Struensee, and Brandt, a young nobleman, exercised complete authority
over the imbecile monarch, and directed the affairs of government at
their pleasure. The queen-dowager had numerous and powerful friends,
and these were likewise incensed at seeing Struensee at the head of the
government, and a strong party was formed against him; Juliana Maria
being at the head of the faction. The queen, also, was an object
of their malice from her supposed influence over the king, and her
encouragement of a man who thus lorded it over the old nobility. By
their intrigues they soon obtained an order from the king for her
removal from Copenhagen, and for the apprehension of Struensee and
Brandt: it being represented that they had plotted together and were
about to depose him. It was on the night of the 16th of January that the
faction put their conspiracy into execution. Struensee and Brandt were
suddenly seized, cast into prison, and after undergoing the greatest
indignities, were beheaded. At an early hour, also, the queen, who had
just retired to rest from a masked ball, received a written order to
remove instantly from Copenhagen. It was in vain that Matilda sought to
see her husband: she was dragged half naked into a carriage, and driven
to Cronborg castle, where she was immured with an English lady of her
suite, and her infant daughter, the princess Louisa,