[144] Gunning's despatch, Copenhagen, October 6, 1770. It is unlikely that George III., who was still smarting under the affront Queen Matilda offered to his last communication, acted on his envoy's suggestion. Neither his brotherly remonstrances nor "the different and harsher methods" of the court of St. Petersburg would have had any effect on the Queen of Denmark. She was entirely under Struensee's influence, and did whatever he wished, and in this case their wishes were identical. Nothing would have induced her to recall Bernstorff, against whom she had a grievance, and she had suffered so much from the meddlesome interference of the Russian envoys that she was determined to stop it at all hazards. [Illustration: GEORGE III., BROTHER OF QUEEN MATILDA. _From a Painting by Allan Ramsay (1767) in the National Portrait Gallery._] CHAPTER XVI. QUEEN AND EMPRESS. 1770-1771. The keynote of Struensee's foreign policy was to free Denmark from outside interference, and the greatest offender in this respect was Russia. The inauguration of the new regime, therefore, was the occasion of a violent quarrel with the Russian court, to which a personal element gave additional bitterness. Russia at this time meant Catherine the Great, for the imperious Empress gathered all the reins of government, both foreign and domestic, in her hands. She had come to regard the King of Denmark as almost her vassal, and her first instinct was to crush any signs of revolt against her influence. The Empress was minutely informed of the changes at the Danish court and the causes which had led to them. She knew all about the intrigue between Matilda and Struensee. But she had no sympathy with the young Queen of Denmark, whose career, in some respects, offered a curious parallel to her own. Like Matilda, Catherine had been brought from a foreign country, when little more than a child, and married to a weak and vicious prince, in whose character there was a strain of madness; like Matilda, she had been left alone in a strange and dissolute court, outraged and neglected by her husband, ignored and set aside, and exposed to every temptation. Catherine had found consolation in a lover, and plotted with him and others. The outcome of her intrigues was the deposition and subsequent murder of her husband, and the Empress's elevation to the sovereign power. Rumour said that she was privy to the assassination, but that must always remain a mystery. Of course, before this point had been reached the parallel between the two women ended, for Matilda, though she had undoubtedly intrigued with Struensee to get the power into her own hands, was not of the same calibre as Catherine. She was incapable of either her crimes or her vices; she had neither her soaring ambitions nor her consummate powers of statecraft. Though a woman of more than average ability, she had none of the genius of the Russian Empress; and her heart would always hinder her from playing a