The condition of Christian had by this time become hopeless, and arrangements had to be made to keep the people as much as possible from a sight of a king of this sort. Adam Oehlenschläger, in his "Life Recollections," has given us the following characteristic traits of the king's malady:--At times it was found difficult to induce him to perform the royal duty of signing; but when the word "deposition" was menacingly whispered in his ears, the poor simpleton became terrified, and signed anything and everything. Precautions were taken to prevent any violent outbreaks of his mania. Thus the pages were instructed to hold his chair at table, where he at times tried to rise and prevent others from eating. It was forbidden at court to speak to or answer him, in order to prevent any unpleasant expressions of that absolutism which still nominally existed. At times, though, remarkable claims were made upon him; thus an impudent page once drove the king into a corner, and said to him there, "Mad Rex, make me a groom of the chamber." Another time the king really created a chamberlain. He had been compelled to sign an appointment as chamberlain for a man he could not bear. A moment after one of the stove-heaters came into the room, dressed in his yellow jacket, and with a bundle of wood on his back. "Listen, you fellow," said the king; "will you be a chamberlain?" "H'm! that wouldn't be so bad; but how am I to manage to become one?" "Oh, nothing is easier; come with me." And the king took the man, just as he stood, by the hand, and led him from his cabinet into the hall, where the whole court was assembled. He walked with his client into the middle of the assembly, and shouted in a loud voice, "I appoint this man a chamberlain." As the fiction that Christian VII. was absolute ruler must be kept up, they had to acknowledge this appointment, in which the humour of insanity was expressed; but the title was bought back of the lucky fellow at the price of a small freehold farm. The king was generally left to the company of a black boy, introduced by Brandt, who became Christian's inseparable companion. Children and fools, it is notorious, have an equal propensity for mischief. Christian consequently found great delight in smashing the windows and china, with the black boy's assistance, and beheading the statues in the garden. As a change, he rolled on the floor with the lad, biting and scratching him. From time to time, however, there was something that resembled a lucid interval. Thus the king one evening suddenly appeared at a court party, waved his hand to the company, and imperiously ordered "silence." The whole of the guests stopped and stared, and then the poor gentleman delivered, with great earnestness and deep pathos, Klopstock's warning ode "to the princes." This finished, he clapped his hands, burst into a loud laugh, turned on his heel, and went away.