The English Government was soon disappointed of its hope of using the Danish Queen as a pawn in the political game. Gunning, in bitter disappointment, enlightened Conway as to the true state of affairs a few weeks after the marriage. "All access to either the King or Queen of Denmark," he wrote, "is rendered so difficult that without being furnished with some pretext I can never expect to approach either of their Majesties but in public. The preference given me there has already occasioned some of the most unheard of and preposterous complaints." [Here he refers to the protest of the Spanish minister already mentioned.] "Monsieur Reventlow[76] has lately made me some overtures to a better understanding; he speaks in raptures of the Queen whenever I see him, and I believe will constitute as much as depends upon him to promote her Majesty's happiness. This is of itself a sufficient reason for my wishing to cultivate his good opinion, and if possible to bring him over to our interests. [The French Minister] encourages the carrying on intrigues against us; they (I need not tell you, sir) increase every day, and particularly since the arrival of her Majesty,--the principal people about her being our most inveterate enemies."[77] [76] Reventlow had been appointed the Queen's Chief Chamberlain. [77] Gunning's despatch to Conway, Copenhagen, November 18, 1766. One of the "inveterate enemies" was the austere and haughty Madame de Plessen, who hedged the Queen round with iron etiquette, and permitted none to enter her presence without her permission. Especially did she throw difficulties in the way of the English envoy having frequent access of her Majesty, on the ground that his visits would be sure to cause jealousy and ill-will. The Queen, she urged, must overcome her natural preferences, she must forget that she was a Princess of Great Britain, and remember only that she was Queen of Denmark and Norway. This was perhaps sound advice so far as it went, but Madame de Plessen's object in giving it was not altogether disinterested. She, like her former mistress, Queen Sophia Magdalena, was a sworn friend of France, and probably in its pay. Madame de Plessen had a genius for political intrigue, and her apartments in the palace formed a _rendez-vous_ for the friends of France.