As early as June 10 many ship-carpenters had struck work, after in vain asking double wages for working on Sunday, which was considered necessary to get the fleet off. Two days after this event, a squadron of dragoons was posted in front of Hirschholm Palace; but, as no further excesses occurred, this picket was removed toward the end of July. On September 10, however, a band of from two hundred to three hundred sailors set out for Hirschholm; they had been waiting eight weeks for their pay, were almost starving, and had sent in repeated petitions, to which no answer was returned. As they now saw that no relief was to be obtained in this way, they formed the bold resolution of laying their request before the king personally. When they arrived in the vicinity of the palace, a naval officer went to ask them what they wanted? "We wish to speak to our father," was the reply; "he shall hear us, and help us." The aide-de-camp hastened with this message back to the palace, but the whole court had already fled by a back-door to the estate of Sophienberg, about two miles distant. Here the question was discussed between the queen, Struensee, Brandt, Falckenskjold, and Bülow, whether the flight should be continued to Elsinore. At this moment the sailors arrived here, and demanded speech with the king. They were answered that the king was out hunting, but the intruders did not believe it, and were preparing to force their way into the palace, when Colonel Numsen came up with a troop of dragoons and tried to drive them back. The sailors laid their hands on their knives, and declared they would defend themselves if the soldiers attacked them. Fortunately, some firmer and wiser gentlemen represented that the men did not look like insurrectionists, and that by signifying to them from the king through a naval aide-de-camp that they must return and justice would be dealt them, an odious and sanguinary scene, perhaps a real sedition, would be avoided. On the pledge of the aide-de-camp the sailors went back to Copenhagen as peacefully as they had come, and the court returned to the summer residence. Still, the alarm the sailors had caused lasted all night, because everybody felt persuaded that they would return furious and better armed. The queen ordered that her horses should be kept in readiness; she went to bed bare-headed and in disorder, had her riding-habit laid in readiness by her side, and a moment after rose hurriedly to have her jewellery packed up. She also requested a colonel, in whom she placed confidence, to sleep at the palace. The dragoons, however, who patrolled all night, discovered nothing, and so the court became calm, and did their best to hide the fright they had suffered.