Count Brandt persistently denies having beaten the king, or audaciously raised his hand against his Majesty; he only proved himself to be strong and brave, without seriousness or passion, by his Majesty's commands. His Majesty's own most gracious conduct to Count Brandt also proves that everything passed off without anger and annoyance, as his Majesty showed the count the signal favour of kissing him on the spot, and requesting him to remain and kill the time with conversation, which Count Brandt did by the king's orders, and all of which points to the disposition of their minds, and proves that they were not excited, as is also confirmed by Count Struensee's statement in the examination of March 21, that Count Brandt, when he went in to the king, was not at all irritated, but perfectly calm. After this time his Majesty also promoted him to be _grand maître de la garderobe_, and carried on his confidential intercourse with him for several months as before, all of which speaks for the nature of this affair. In Count Brandt's heart reigned no bitterness against the king, and no contempt: trembling from veneration, he performed the action which he would have regarded as audacious, had it not been for the king's command. It is true that Count Brandt, a few days previously, laid a riding whip upon a pianoforte standing in the king's ante-chamber, but only did so thoughtlessly, which he afterwards regretted, and as ill-deeds consist in actions carried out but not in inconsiderate designs, this occurrence cannot be reckoned as a crime on the part of Count Brandt. If Count Brandt employed some expressions against the king which, according to the strict letter, would be highly criminal, he only employed them in the tone of all the rest, and consequently only in jest. I pass over the statements of the witnesses examined, as these people neither heard nor saw the occurrence, but only testify what they heard said about it. On the other hand, the declaration which his Majesty laid before the commission, through his page of the chamber Schack, is of the extremest importance. I read it to Count Brandt, and he has requested me to make the following explanation about it:-- "He did not remember this 'passage' in the way that it flowed from the page's lips: he considers himself too insignificant to contradict a declaration which emanated from the king his master, and only emboldens himself in dust and fetters to mention, that if his Majesty were most graciously disposed to take this affair seriously, as the declaration made by page of the chamber Schack appears to intimate, he regards himself as lost, and will not from this moment attempt any further justification, but will at once throw himself at his Majesty's feet, and seek his salvation in the king's clemency; but in the most submissive confidence in his Majesty's mercy, he would venture most humbly to remind him of the circumstances already mentioned."