I make use of the first moments which permit me to write to you. Business, duties, and my late connexions have perhaps lessened in me the remembrance of my former friends, but they have been not able to obliterate their memory entirely. My present leisure has revived it. If my silence has aroused suspicion as to my former sentiments, I beg pardon of all those who are entitled to my gratitude, and of you, gracious lady, in particular. This however, is not the only advantage which the change of my fate has produced. I owe my knowledge of truth to it; it has procured me a happiness of which I had no further expectation, as I had already lost sight of it. I entreat you to consider my misfortunes in no other light but that of religion. I gain more by them than I can ever lose; and I feel and assure you of this with conviction, ease, and joy of heart. I beg you to repeat what I now write in the house of Count Ahlefeldt and at Rantzau. I am under great obligations to these two families, and it has grieved me far more to have drawn with me into misfortune persons who are related to them. On the following day, April 27, Struensee also referred to his administration, and assured Münter again, most sacredly, that he had not falsified the accounts about the presents made by the king to him and Brandt. Münter's remarks on this subject are worthy quotation:-- "It is difficult to dismiss every suspicion on this head against Struensee; and if he were guilty, of how little value would be his conversion! It has made me uneasy, frequently, and even now, still, after his death. All manner of appearances, his own confession that he could not free himself from all suspicion, and many other evidences, are against him. However, on the other side, it makes me easy that he confessed greater and more punishable crimes without constraint, but denied this with a firmness, calmness of mind and confidence, which, inexplicable as the matter remains, makes it difficult to believe him guilty." Struensee then handed to Münter the following letter to Chamberlain Christian Brandt, which he desired him to get delivered:--