As page of the bed-chamber, Brandt took part in all the court festivities. He was one of the performers in _Zaire_, and was a good deal about the king's person; but, like all the courtiers, he was eclipsed in the autocrat's favour by Count Holck. Either through envy, or because he really considered the count's conduct worthy of blame, Brandt ventured to write, on May 2, a letter of accusation to the king, in which he very evidently displayed the intention of overthrowing the favourite. In it, he first accused the favourite of ingratitude; "for Count Holck leaves your Majesty at all moments, in order to amuse himself on his own account." Not long before, his Majesty had given up a beloved object with forced resignation, and felt deep sorrow at doing so.[57] He (Brandt) had hurried to Schimmelmann and Holck, for the purpose of describing to them his Majesty's great grief; which, however, had not made the slightest impression on Holck, although his Majesty frequently sacrificed his own amusements for Holck's sake. Hardly three months before, Holck had said to him (Brandt) that he was terribly tired of the king, who constantly repeated the same ideas; in short, his Majesty was unsupportable. If Danneskjold came, the king yielded to his will, and revoked what he had just sanctioned, and was so weak as to allow the person who last spoke to him to be in the right. Thus Holck had expressed himself to him (Brandt), of whom he was in his heart afraid. This was nothing, however, in comparison with the contemptuous terms the count employed to others about his Majesty. So long as the king remained in his own country, a single moment would suffice to reveal everything to his most gracious master, who would say to himself: "This man was never devoted to me: he only pursues his own pleasure, and wishes me to sacrifice my name and money. Though I have been so attached to this my favourite, yet he, whose friendship and devotion I purchase with money, whose relations I overwhelm with honours and lustre, and whom I have raised to a position which no other man ever reached at his age; yet this man, who pretends to be faithfully attached to me, who assumes a character which is beyond his abilities, has only served me with feigned love and falsehood. He has employed me to distinguish all his friends, and I have thus given a public testimony of the power which he exercises over me."