The natural good nature of the English made them give the most favourable construction to the motives of the king's travels, which were, in fact, the natural consequence of his giddiness and levity. Whatever he seemed desirous of seeing, and all the inquiries worthy of a monarch who seeks for instruction and improvement in the arts, civilisation, and government, were suggested by Count Bernstorff, the only man of merit and genius in his retinue. His own inclination led him to plays, operas, balls, and excursions of pleasure into the country, in which amusements a sovereign may indulge occasionally, when they are intended as a relaxation from the grand objects of useful study and information. According to a well-informed author,[73] Christian, while in London, was gracious and accessible, but without discernment and without dignity. The very citizens of both sexes, who resorted daily to his apartments to see him dine in public with his favourites, mistook him more than once for a young girl dressed in men's clothes, whose conversation and deportment commanded neither respect nor attention. Really the unhappy Danes had some cause for grumbling that their hard-earned money was squandered in so very useless a fashion. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 62: "Memoirs of an Unfortunate Queen."] [Footnote 63: Brown's "Northern Courts," vol. i.] [Footnote 64: There is not the least truth in this scandal, I am bound to add, on the principle of giving even Clootie his due.] [Footnote 65: "H. Walpole's Letters," vol. v. pp. 121-123.] [Footnote 66: Now-a-days it is exactly _vice versâ_: first ball, and then supper.] [Footnote 67: "Letters of H. Walpole," vol. v. pp. 128, 129.] [Footnote 68: Brown's "Northern Courts," vol. i. p. 62.] [Footnote 69: I have said that these lines were the worst ever written, but I retract. The very worst will be found in a poem called _The Masquerade_, inscribed to the King of Denmark. Here is a specimen:-- "Reflection lent the traveller her staff, And hospitality began to laugh." ] [Footnote 70: "Northern Courts," vol. i.] [Footnote 71: "Memoirs of Sir R. Murray Keith," vol. i.] [Footnote 72: "Walpoleana," vol. ii. p. 24.] [Footnote 73: "Memoirs of an Unfortunate Queen."] CHAPTER VII. CHRISTIAN IN PARIS. CAROLINE MATILDA AT HOME--COURT INTRIGUES--FRANCE UNDER MADAME DE POMPADOUR--MANNERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY--THE DUBARRY--FRENCH LADIES--CASANOVA--LOUIS XV. AND CHRISTIAN--FESTIVITIES--POETICAL FLUMMERY--CHRISTIAN'S PRIVATE AMUSEMENTS--THE HOMEWARD JOURNEY--RETURN TO COPENHAGEN.