Although I do not believe entirely in the accounts of the orgies at Hirschholm, as described by the author of the MS. in "Northern Courts," I cannot help allowing that much happened there which offered cause for regret. The old court had been austere and devoted, the new one became futile and impious, as the preachers called it. Sunday had been in former times given to the Lord, and the Saturday employed in preparation for it; but now these days were purposely selected for pleasure. As if this were not enough, Brandt was guilty of the inconceivable folly of ascending the pulpit of the palace chapel and delivering an absurd sermon to the assembled court. As a fresh amusement, Equerry von Warnstedt got up horse-races, at which the king offered a prize of 600 dollars. All this folly naturally strengthened the game of the queen dowager, who, though she kept quiet, was incessantly on the watch for her opportunity. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 118: Reverdil, p. 159.] [Footnote 119: In the same way Frederick the Great writes: "L'accès que le médecin eut à la cour lui fit gagner imperceptiblement plus d'ascendant sur l'esprit de la reine qu'il n'étoit convenable _à un homme de cette extraction_."] [Footnote 120: De Flaux: "Du Danemark."] [Footnote 121: De Flaux: "Du Danemark."] [Footnote 122: On this subject, the "Mémoires de Falckenskjold" and De Flaux's "Du Danemark" may be consulted with advantage.] [Footnote 123: This and the subsequent royal decrees will be found in full in Höst's "Struensee's Ministerium," vol. iii.] [Footnote 124: Colonel Keith writes home: "An abominable riding-habit, with a black slouched hat, has been almost universally introduced here, which gives every woman the air of an awkward postilion. In all the time I have been in Denmark I never saw the queen out in any other garb."] [Footnote 125: De Flaux: "Du Danemark."] [Footnote 126: "Memoirs of Sir R. M. Keith," vol. i. p. 199.] [Footnote 127: "Coxe's Travels," vol. v. Not a trace of Hirschholm now exists. It was pulled down by order of Frederick VI., and not a stone was left on the other.] [Footnote 128: Reverdil.] [Footnote 129: "Authentische Aufklärungen," p. 59.] [Footnote 130: A branch of the Danneskjold family, so called from a large iron foundry belonging to it, the only county in Norway. In Denmark the family had also large estates in the island of Langeland.] [Footnote 131: Struensee hit upon a most ingenious plan for driving the nobles from the capital. He obtained a decree from the king by which any creditor could arrest his debtor if unable to pay. In a very short time the first gentlemen in the land were seen flying to their country seats; among them was Count von Laurvig, a man whose presence caused the favourite some alarm, and against whom the new law had been specially directed.]