After reading such an account of the husband to whom Caroline Matilda was unhappily bound, we can hardly feel surprised that she sought refuge in dissipation, and for this Struensee amply provided. The Royal Theatre was enlarged and embellished, and Sarti, the Capellmeister, was ordered to get up operas under the superintendence of Brandt. Further on in the season performances were also given on Sunday, which caused great annoyance among the clergy, and justly so; for though Struensee, as a German, was accustomed to such a desecration of the Sabbath, Caroline Matilda had been brought up in the Anglican faith, and ought not to have sanctioned such proceedings by her presence. The only way in which this sudden change in the queen, which was so utterly at variance with her previous blameless life, can be accounted for, is, that she was intoxicated by the homage that now surrounded her, and formed such a contrast with the early part of her reign. A regulation about the boxes at the Royal Theatre produced a fresh grievance among the already disunited family. A separate box was given to the hereditary Prince Frederick, who had hitherto been accustomed to sit with the king; because, so the excuse was, the king did not care to have the prince's suite about him. On this affair a correspondence took place between the prince's chamberlain and Brandt, but the regulation was not rescinded. On the other hand, Struensee and Brandt appeared in the royal box, sometimes seating themselves behind the king and queen. Masquerades were now also given in the king's theatre, and on the 18th December the king gave one, to which everybody was admitted. Probably with the object of extending public liberty, persons in carriages and on foot, without distinction, were allowed to use torches at night. Mobs, doubtless hired for the purpose, once took advantage of this permission to make a riot, but did so only once, as the police interfered very sharply. From this time only few employed the permission granted them. During the last year the country had suffered from a bad harvest, in consequence of which the price of bread and flour reached an unheard-of height. In order to prevent the threatening results of this evil as far as possible, Struensee issued, early in November, an edict against exporting corn, while the importation from the duchies, and from one inland province to another, was encouraged. Many thousand loads of grain of every description were brought from the provincial granaries to the capital, and, when a severe winter followed, Struensee sold flour at half the ordinary price to the inhabitants, caused bread to be sold at the same rate to the poor, and prohibited the distillation of spirits from corn.