Gunning proved right in his conjecture, for a few weeks later Madame de Plessen was suddenly dismissed. The King would hardly have dared to take this step if others had not come to his assistance. Madame de Plessen had made many enemies by her tactless conduct, but her political intrigues were the direct cause of her fall. So long as the French party was in the ascendant all went well with her, but during the last year Russia had grown in power and influence at the Danish court. Russia, through her two envoys, Saldern, the envoy in Holstein, and Filosofow, the envoy in Copenhagen, had gained the ear of the Prime Minister, Bernstorff, and other persons holding high office, notably of Baron Schimmelmann,[87] Grand Treasurer. Moreover, Saldern was a personal friend of the King, and joined him in many of his wildest dissipations; and it is probable that he won Christian over to Russia by giving him money to defray his extravagancies. Saldern was a terrible man, a semi-barbarian, with rough brutal strength and domineering will that bore down all opposition. He knew that Reventlow, the Queen's chamberlain, and Madame de Plessen were on the side of France; he determined to get rid of them, and to this end used all his influence with the King. Reventlow was dismissed with ignominy, and Sperling, his nephew, soon followed; but Madame de Plessen remained, and until she was gone Saldern could not feel safe against French intrigues. He regarded the Queen's household as the centre of the French party, and he hated Matilda because she supported Madame de Plessen. A letter of Saldern's, written about the end of January, 1768, gives an insight into the character of the man. "My great torment," he wrote, "comes from the Queen. She has lost her right arm in Reventlow, but she still has the left in Plessen, a mischievous woman, but I will deprive her of this arm also.... When the King goes to see the Queen she tells him he ought to be ashamed of himself, and that the whole city says he lets himself be governed by me. She only says this out of revenge, because I sent away her flea-catcher (_sa preneuse de puces_). The King tells me all this, and I show him _mon égide_, and we laugh together."[88] [87] Schimmelmann was a German-Jew by birth, and a type of the rogue now called a "financier". After a career as a money-lender, during which he amassed a fortune, he arrived in Denmark. He possessed great financial ability, and made himself so useful to the Danish Government that he was given first the title of Baron, then the Order of the Elephant, and lastly appointed Grand Treasurer. [88] _Mémoires de Reverdil_, pp. 122-23.