The next morning at eleven o'clock she sent for her daughter again, and this time succeeded in having a talk with her alone. What passed between them cannot certainly be known, but its import was generally guessed. The Princess-Dowager was said to have told her daughter that the dismissal of Bernstorff would be much regretted by George III., as he had always been a friend of England and its royal family, and it would, moreover, be disastrous to Denmark. Whereupon the Queen haughtily rejoined: "Pray, madam, allow me to govern my kingdom as I please". The Princess, annoyed by this want of respect, unmasked her batteries forthwith, and roundly scolded her daughter for the extraordinary favours she gave to Struensee. Matilda at first would not listen, but when her mother persisted, and declared that her conduct would end in disgrace and ruin, she retorted with an allusion to the supposed _liaison_ between her mother and Lord Bute, which wounded the Princess past forgiveness. The interview only widened the breach. As a matter of form the King had invited his mother-in-law to Copenhagen, but the invitation was now curtly refused. The Princess saw that she could do no good, and she did not care to countenance by her presence a state of affairs of which she did not approve. The King and Queen of Denmark left Lüneburg in the afternoon, the Princess a few hours later; mother and daughter parted in anger, and they never met again. Struensee must have felt a great sense of relief when the King of Denmark's coach rolled out of Lüneburg on the way back to Altona. He had dreaded the meeting between the Queen and her mother, and had striven to prevent it by every means in his power. But when that was no longer possible, he had long and anxious consultations with the Queen, and prompted her how she was to act and what she was to say. Even so he could not be quite sure of the line the Princess-Dowager might take. If she had spoken to her daughter gently, reasoned with her, pleaded with her in love, and appealed to her with tears, she might have had some effect, for Matilda was very warm-hearted and impressionable. But these were not the stern Princess's methods; she had been accustomed to command her children, and her haughty, overbearing tone and contemptuous reproaches stung the spirited young Queen to the quick, and made her resent what she called her mother's unjust suspicions and unwarrantable interference. So the result was all that Struensee wished. Woodford, who had been commanded by George III. to attend the Princess-Dowager during her stay in Lüneburg, writes in a despatch of "the agitation that was visible in Mr. Struensee upon his arrival first at Lüneburg, and the joy that could be seen in his countenance as the moment of departure approached".[134] [134] Woodford's despatch to Lord Rochford, marked "private," Hamburg, August 21, 1770.