It has been urged in apology for Holck, that he did not really lead the king into these excesses, but could not refrain from sharing in them, through fear of incurring the king's displeasure. Moreover, he considered his presence at these extravagances necessary, partly because he at times succeeded in moderating the intended outrages, partly because he was able to give the people offended by the damage sustained a secret hint that the doer of the mischief was his most sacred Majesty the King. Only in that way was it possible to save the king from abuse, or even from personal violence. Holck, it is further said, did the reckless young king a real service, because, in the end, he induced him to give up his connexion with the notorious Milady, who had not only led the king into illicit amours, but had also persuaded him to make nocturnal sallies in the streets, to fight with the watchmen, and force his way into low houses whose keepers had given her cause of offence, to break glasses, bottles, and windows, and commit similar acts of folly. In truth, it may have appeared evident to Holck that such almost incredible behaviour would eventually rob the king of all respect, and expose him to the ridicule of the nation. It is not my intention to bring before the reader the lengthened _chronique scandaleuse_ which I have been compelled to wade through. In giving what I have, it was rather my purpose to offer a sketch of court life a hundred years ago, as an introduction to an historical drama which may seek its counterpart in vain in the world's annals. Before concluding this chapter, space may be granted to a small paragraph from the "Annual Register," which offers a further sign of the times:-- "Within the last few years a set of people have been discovered in Denmark seized with a disorder of mind which is extremely dangerous to society. This is an imagination that by committing murder, and being afterwards condemned to die for it, they are the better able, by public marks of repentance and conversion as they go to the scaffold, to prepare themselves for death, and work out their own salvation. A little while ago one of these wretches murdered a child out of the same principle. In order, however, to take from these wretches all hope of obtaining their end, and to extirpate the evil, the king has issued an ordinance, by which his Majesty forbids the punishing them with death; and enacts, that they shall be branded in the forehead with a hot iron and whipped; that they shall afterwards be confined, for the rest of their days, in a house of correction, in order to be kept there to hard labour; and, lastly, that every year, on the day of their crime, they shall be whipped anew in public." In order to remove the bitter taste which the perusal of the above paragraph has doubtless left in the mouth of the reader, let me add another of a pleasanter nature:--