"No man has more influence with him than I have; of that be assured." "Then of course you make a handsome profit out of these transactions?" "Upon my word and honour, I never made a profit on any pecuniary transaction in my life." The merchant's face lengthened, as he turned his small eyes obliquely towards the king. After a pause, he began on another tack. "How does the king dispose of these sums?" "Gives them away, sometimes in coin or bank-notes; oftener in presents of jewellery or other precious articles." "Hark'ee, sir," said the merchant, delighted by these confessions, "would you not wish to make the best of your influence with the king?" "Certainly I would." "Then, if you will suffer me to instruct you, I will teach you how to make fifty per cent. on the capital. Let me buy the jewels and presents." Just at that instant one of the king's pages arrived, and desired the clerk to call his master, who was never less disposed to be interrupted. "Pray, sir," the messenger asked, "is not the King of Denmark in your house?" "The King of Denmark? No, sir, only a Mr. Frederikson." "That is the king, the son of Frederick V. The gentleman with him is Count Holck, master of his Majesty's wardrobe, and I am sent by the Princess Dowager of Wales with orders to deliver this letter into his Majesty's own hands." The confusion of the merchant and his wife at the _dénouement_ may safely be left to the imagination. The former disappeared, but the good-natured king, forcing a ring on the fat finger of the latter, and desiring her to tell her husband that Christian would never feel offended at what he had said confidentially to Mr. Frederikson, skipped down stairs, laughing heartily at the adventure, and regretting that it had been so suddenly terminated. Such is the story as it is told, and I can only add, that si non è vero, è ben trovato. Walpole, who was prejudiced against Christian, probably because, at the king's request, he sent him a collection of the Strawberry Hill books, and received no answer,[72] gives a very bitter account of him in his reign of George III., although there is a certain amount of truth in it. He says that the Danish king was in reality an insipid boy; and there appeared no cause for his expensive ramble, though to support it he had laid a tax on all his placemen and pensionaries. He took notice of nothing, took pleasure in nothing, and hurried post through most parts of England without attention, dining and supping at seats on the road, without giving himself time enough to remark so much of their beauties as would flatter the great lords who treated him. This indifference was excused in a whisper by Bernstorff, his prime minister, who attributed it to his Majesty's extreme short sight, which Bernstorff confessed was the great secret of the state; yet Walpole allows that the king's manner was very civil, and though his person was diminutive and delicate, he did not want graceful dignity.