[Footnote 1: To form an idea of the pretended denunciation made by the king to the commission, it is only necessary to observe that page Schack, who was the intermediary, received for this gratifications and an employment whose appointments amounted to 4,000 crowns a-year.--_Mémoires de Falckenskjold_, p. 214.] [Footnote 2: An allusion to King Frederick III., who was fond of the bowl, and in his orgies permitted a general fraternity. In reference to this remark of the advocate, Mr. Wraxall says (in his "Northern Tour"): "This seems more like the speech of an Englishman than a Dane, and breathes a manly and unfettered spirit."] [Footnote 3: This letter no longer exists, and was, in all probability, suppressed by the commission.] [Footnote 4: On this point Reverdil writes: "The bailiwick of Bramstedt, bordering that held by M. Brandt the elder, was situated in the southernmost province of the kingdom, and near Hamburg. This remote province, consequently, suited him better than any other, and what he solicited as an exile, and to some extent as the equivalent of a capital punishment, would have been to any other person a very considerable recompense, and the end desired by some old servant of the state for a life usefully devoted to the advantage of the country."] CHAPTER II. THE TWO COUNTS. STRUENSEE'S SENTENCE--HIS GENERAL CONDUCT--THE MAITRE DES REQUETES--THE GERMAN LANGUAGE--STRUENSEE'S DESPOTISM--THE COUNCIL OF THE THIRTY-TWO--THE CABINET MINISTER--THE KING'S PRESENTS--STRUENSEE'S PRECAUTIONS--HIS DOWNFALL--THE SENTENCE APPROVED--COUNT BRANDT--HIS ASSAULT ON THE KING--HIS BEHAVIOUR--THE ROYAL ASSENT. STRUENSEE'S SENTENCE.[5] Apart from the fact that Count John Frederick Struensee has already been convicted, and has himself confessed that he has committed a terrible crime, which involves in an eminent degree an assault on the king's supremacy, or the crime of high treason, and according to the law (especially art. 1 of cap. iv. of book vi.) deserves the severe penalty of death; it is sufficiently notorious and proven that his whole conduct and management during the time when he had a share in the administration of the affairs was a chain, which, on one side, was composed of vain and audacious impetuosity; on the other, of tricks and intrigues, all of which operated to secure him the whole power and authority to the exclusion of others. At the same time he boldly employed all the measures which appeared to be useful in attaining his ends, without in the slightest degree reflecting whether they were permitted or not, and how far they accorded with the form of government and the constitution, the genius of the nation and the regulations and laws, both civil and fundamental, or were in strict opposition to them.