Ere I conclude this chapter, I may be permitted to supply one example of the way in which the judges tried to scrape up evidence against the unfortunate ex-minister. On the same day when the Russian minister, Filosofow, insulted Struensee so grossly, as has been already recorded, a report was spread that the latter had quarrelled with one of the first gentlemen in the land, and treacherously assailed him, sword in hand; but this rumour died out as rapidly as it had been propagated. After the arrest of Struensee, and the difficulty felt of proving the already resolved death-sentence by credible testimony, the president of the court, Justiciary Baron von Juel-Wind, went to this gentleman, and asked him if he were disposed to bring a charge against Struensee before the commission? The gentleman nobly rejected such a proposal, and answered, that he was accustomed to pity the unfortunate, and not increase their misery; besides, there was not the slightest truth in the rumour. This proves that even Wiwet's diatribes were not considered sufficient evidence of Struensee's guilt, and that every opportunity was sought to bolster up the case. It is very possible, however, that the judges were more successful with other witnesses whom they tried to suborn, and therefore the evidence, such as it is, ought to be regarded with extra suspicion. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 84: In Höst's "Struensee og hans Ministerium" this document is quoted, but with an omission of everything that proved the crime of high treason, and must entail the penalty of death. As this work, however, was published in 1824, or during the reign of the son of Caroline Matilda, everything had to be omitted which might appear offensive to the memory of the king's mother. But Höst did not inform his readers of this fact. The notorious indictment is now published for the first time, without any mutilations or suppressions, from the Danish secret archives. All honour to Frederick VII., who allowed it to be made known, although it casts such a slur on Danish justice.] [Footnote 85: Well may Reverdil say about this indictment that it is impossible to read anything more flat, more clumsy, or more disgusting. It is the style of a lackey amusing himself in a tavern at the expense of a man who is about to be hung. He adds: "Ought not an unhappy man who is pining in fetters to be spared insults useless to the cause? Ought not Wiwet to have reflected that he could not insult the prisoner without failing in respect to the king, who so long honoured him with his confidence, and who signed most of the orders alleged as a crime against Struensee?"] [Footnote 86: Winslöw, a celebrated anatomist, was born at Odense, in Fühnen, appointed professor at the _Jardin des Plantes_, in Paris, in 1742, and wrote a work that run through four editions: "Exposition Anatomique du Structure du Corps Humain." He died in 1760.] [Footnote 87: I confess this sentence is quite beyond me, but it is a literal translation.]