His emissaries, and the adherents whom he still possessed, tried, even though they did not dare to justify or excuse his undertakings, at least to boast of his asserted disinterestedness, and to spread far and wide that he was satisfied with his moderate salary, without asking either money or honours for himself or his friends. How far this met with belief may be left an open question. But it is certain that Count Struensee took very carefully-devised measures to conceal his selfishness at that time, and so long as it lasted. But it was afterwards seen only too plainly that he was an extremely interested and selfish man, of whom it may be justly said that he pillaged his Majesty's treasury. He had a very respectable and considerable salary, which ought to have been sufficient, as he had everything free at court down to the very banquets he gave. He knew, and often enough proclaimed, in what a bad state the public treasury and his Majesty's were from former times. For all that, after the council was dissolved, and he had become _maître des requêtes_, he allowed hardly three months to pass ere he, by an abuse of his Majesty's good heart, demanded and received from his most gracious lord a present of 10,000 dollars for himself, and a similar sum for his friend Count Brandt. It might be supposed that so considerable a present for these two persons, of whom one was _maître des requêtes_, and the other _directeur des spectacles_, and who both had only held these offices for a short time, would have satisfied their greediness for a while. But, instead of this, we find that it grew and increased, for Count Struensee, after receiving the above mentioned present in February or March, again received in May, or at the end of two or three months, from his Majesty 50,000 or 60,000 dollars, and Count Brandt the same sum, so that these two persons, in the short time of three or four months, cost his Majesty, in addition to their regular salary, 140,000 dollars, or at least 120,000--for which of these two sums is the correct one cannot as yet be stated with certainty, owing to the confusion prevailing in Count Struensee's accounts--and this in addition to the presents which before and after this date they procured for their good friends: such as Justiz-rath Struensee 4,000 dollars, Countess Holstein 3,000, Chamberlain Falckenskjold 3,500 or more, and so on. That Count Struensee's irresponsible selfishness was duly considered and intended, is seen from the artificial machinery which he formed, solely that he might be able to take these sums without any one detecting it.