Amongst the charges preferred against the Count Brandt was the following ridiculous one:

"While the King was playing in his usual manner "with Count Brandt, the Count bit his Majesty's finger." Four.commissioners proceeded to examine the Queen, who, with the wretched Constance, might have exclaimed Here I and Sorrow sit,

แ

ensee.

Here is my throne, let kings come bow to it.

Her answers were pointed, luminous and dignified: she denied most solemnly any criminal intercourse with StruS, a counsellor of state, abruptly informed the Queen, that Struensee had already signed a confession in the highest degree disgraceful to the honor and dignity of her Majesty. "Impossible !" exclaimed the astonished Queen, "Struensee never could make such a confession and if he did, I here call heaven to wit66 ness, that what he said was false.". The artful S played off a master-piece of subtilty, which would have done honor to a demon: "Well then," said he, " as your "Majesty has protested against the truth of his confes"sion, he deserves to die for having so traitorously defi"led the sacred character of the Queen of Denmark." This remark struck the wretched Princess senseless in her chair after a terrible conflict between honor and humanity, pale and trembling, in a faultering voice she said, "And if I confess what Struensee has said to be

true, may he hope for mercy?" which words she pronounced with the most affecting voice, and with all the captivations of youth, beauty, and majesty, in distress: S nodded, as if to assure her of Struensee's safety upon those terms, and immediately drew up her confession to that effect, and presented it to her to sign; upon this her frame became agitated with the most violent emotions; she took up the pen and began to write her name, and proceeded as far as Carol, when observing the malicious joy which sparkled in the eyes of S―, she became convinced that the whole was a base stratagem, and, throwing away the pen, exclaimed, "I am de"ceived, Struensee never accused me, I know him too "well; he never could have been guilty of so great a

"crime." She endeavored to rise, but her strength failed her, she sunk down, fainted, and fell back into her chair. In this state, the barbarous and audacious S― put the pen between her fingers, which he held and guided, and before the unfortunate Princess could recover, the letters --ina Matilda, were added. The commissioners immediately departed, and left her alone: upon her recovering and finding them gone, she conjectured the full horror of her situation.

To afford some coloring to the mock trial which followed, the advocate Uhldal was appointed her defender: his speech on behalf of the Queen, was in the highest degree able, pathetic, and convincing. Uhldal discharged such duties, as in a few years afterwards devolved upon the eloquent Malsherbes, and with equal effect: the illustrious clients of both were pre-judged: it was the show of justice, not to investigate, but to give a spurious eclat to their fate. How opposite was this tribunal to that which Sheridan, in a blaze of eloquence, apostrophized upon the trial of Warren Hastings, Esq.! "From such a base caricature of justice," exclaimed the orator, "I turn my eyes with horror. I turn them "here to this dignified and high tribunal, where the Ma"jesty of real Justice sits enthroned. Here I perceive "her in her proper robes of truth and mercy, chasta " and simple, accessible and patient, awful without se❝verity, inquisitive without meanness, her loveliest at"tribute appears in stooping to raise the oppressed, and "to bind up the wounds of the afflicted."

The grand tribunal divorced the Queen, and separated her for ever from the King, and proposed to blemish the birth of the Princess Louisa, by their decree, and reduce the little innocent to that orphanage "which springs not " from the grave, that falls not from the hand of Provi"dence, or the stroke of death;" but the cruel, design was never executed. Uhldal also exerted all the powers of his eloquence for the two unfortunate Counts. Humanity revolts at their sentence, which the unhappy King, it is said, signed with thoughtless gaiety: they had been confined from the seventeenth of January, and on the twenty-eighth of March, at eleven o'clock, were

drawn out to execution in two separate carriages, in a field near the east gate of the town: Brandt ascended the scaffold first, and displayed the most undaunted intrepidity. After his sentence was read, and his coat of arms torn, he calmly prayed a few minutes, and then spoke with great mildness to the people. Upon the exccutioner endeavoring to assist him in taking off his pelisse, he said, "Stand off, do not presume to touch “me:" he then stretched out his hand, which, without shrinking from the blow, was struck off, and almost at the same moment his head was severed from his body. Struensee, during this bloody scene, stood at the bottom of the scaffold in trembling agony, and became so faint when his friend's blood gushed through the boards, and trickled down the steps, that he was obliged to be supported as he ascended them: here his courage wholly forsook him; he several times drew back his hand, which was dreadfully maimed before it was cut off, and at length: he was obliged to be held down before the executioner could nerform his last office. Copenhagen was uppeopled on the day of this savage sacrifice; but although the feelings of the vast crowd which surrounded the scaffold, had been artfully wrought upon by Juliana and her partizans, they beheld the scene of butchcry with horror, and retired to their homes in sullen silence. Nothing but the spirited conduct of our then ámbassador, Sir Robert Keith, prevented the Queen from being immolated at the same time.

On the 27th of May, a squadron of two British frig ates and a cutter, under the command of the gallant Captain Macbride, cast anchor off Helsingfors, and on the 30th every thing was finally arranged for the removal of the Queen: upon the barge being announced, she clasped her infant daughter to her breast, and shed upon her a shower of tears. The Queen then sunk into an apparent stupor; upon recovering, she prepared to tear her self away, but the voice, the smiles, and endearing motions of the babe chained her to the spot; at last, summoning up all her resolution, she once more took it to her arms, and in all the ardor and agony of distracted bye, imprinted upon its lips the farewell kiss, and re

turning it to the attendant, exclaimed, "Away! away! I now possess nothing here," and was supported to the barge in a state of agony which baffles description.Upon the Queen approaching the frigate, the squadron saluted her as the sister of his Britannic Majesty, and when she came on board, Captain Macbride hoisted the Danish colors, and insisted upon the fortress of Cronberg saluting her as Queen of Denmark, which salute was returned with two guns less. The squadron then set sail for Stade, in the Hanoverian dominions, but, owing to contrary winds, was detained within sight of the castle the whole day, and in the early part of the following morning its spires were still faintly visible, and until they completely faded in the mist of distance, the Queen sat upon the deck, her eyes rivetted upon them, and her hands clasped in silent agony. Shall we follow the wretched Matilda a little farther? The path is solitary, very short, and at the end of it is her tomb. Upon her landing at Stade she proceeded to a little remote hunting seat upon the borders of the Elbe, where she remained a few months, until the castle of Zell, destined for her future residence, was prepared for her: she removed to it in the autumn; here her little court was remarked for its elegance and accomplishments, for its bounty to the peasantry, and the cheerful serenity which reigned throughout. The Queen spent much of her time alone, and having obtained the portraits of her children from Denmark, she placed them in a retired apartment, and frequently addressed them in the most affecting manner as if present.

So passed away the time of this beautiful and accomplished exile, until the eleventh of May 1775, when a rapid inflammatory fever put a period to her afflictions in the twenty-fourth year of her age. Her coffin is next to that of the dukes of Zell. Farewell poor Queen!

"Ah! while we sigh we sink, and are what we deplore."

G 2

CHAPTER VI.

Cross the sound-Sweden-Cinderella's mice—Rapid travelling-Strange question--Roof-grazing--Misled by the light discovery-A caution-A French hotel.

HE traveller will do right to obtain letters of intro

of

they will be the means of making him acquainted with an amiable and highly respectable family, whose manners, information, and hospitality, must afford gratification. In the evening we procured a boat, embarked ourselves and baggage, and, by the assistance of a gentle breeze that just curled the water, we crossed the Sound, about four English miles in breadth, and in three quarters of an hour found ourselves in Sweden. We passed close by Cronberg Castle, which stands upon a peninsular point the nearest to Sweden. I was again forcibly struck with the abbey-like appearance of this building it now forms the residence of the Governor of Elsineur. It mounts three hundred and sixty-five pieces of cannon, and its subterranean apartments will hold more than a regiment of men. Fame, at one period, assigned to it the character of the impregnable and impassable fortress. On the celebrated second of April, Admirals Parker and Nelson passed it with perfect security, and disdained to return a shot. Two British seventy-fours judiciously moored, and well served, would, in a short time, blow all its boasted bastions and intrenchments at the moon. No visitor, without special permission from the governor (seldom granted), is allowed to put his foot upon the draw-bridge why all this caution is used, I know not; perhaps to keep up the mystery of invincibility. For my part, I am so well assured that the policy of power is unostentatiously to show itself, that could I have discharged a paper bullet from my little boat into this redoubted castle, I would have enclosed in it this sentence: "Where there is concealment there is apprehension." This place was open to every one, until the wand of Fatima was broken on the second of April.