[Footnote 46: I have, perhaps, dwelt more fully on this subject than it deserves; but I have also suffered from this iniquitous system. My agent in Germany wrote me some months ago that he had made an invaluable _trouvaille_--no less than an apology for Caroline Matilda, written by herself. Of course, I at once secured it; but was rather disappointed to find that it was translated from the English. On reading, I found many discrepancies, but did not give up all hope of being able to make use of the pamphlet. I had the British Museum searched for the original, but in vain; and I began to think that the alleged translation was only intended to add value to a document which might have been drawn up by a German from expressions which had fallen from the queen. Imagine my disgust when, as the reward of all my trouble, I found in the list of pamphlets in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1772, the following:-- "The Queen of Denmark's own Account of the late Revolution in Denmark: Written while her Majesty was a Prisoner in the Castle of Cronenburgh, and now first published from the Original Manuscript sent to a noble Earl." 8vo., 1s. 6d. Wheble. The publisher and the title were quite sufficient to convince me that the pamphlet issued from the great _officina_ of Grub Street.] CHAPTER VI. THE SECRET AGENT. THE COURT AT CELLE--MR. WRAXALL--PRESENTATION TO THE QUEEN--HAMBURG--THE DANISH NOBILITY--THE PROPOSITION--THE CREDENTIALS--RETURN TO CELLE--BARON VON SECKENDORF--THE QUEEN'S ACCEPTANCE--ANOTHER VISIT TO CELLE--THE INTERVIEW IN THE JARDIN FRANCOIS--CAROLINE MATILDA'S AGREEMENT--THE INN IN THE WOOD--BARON VON BULOW--A STRANGE ADVENTURE--ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND. There is but little information to be derived about the life of Caroline Matilda during the year 1773. All we know is, that she continued to devote her life to charity and literary pursuits. Being endowed with a rare desire for learning and a splendid memory, she soon became versed in the beauties of German literature. Every evening before supper she had either German works read to her or read them herself. "The Death of Abel" moved her to tears, and Gellert was another of her favourite poets. She knew many of his hymns by heart, and was fondest of the one beginning "I ne'er will seek to injure him, who seeks to injure me." She arranged a small hand library in a turret room hung with green damask, where she liked most to sit, and amused herself in turn with music and reading. Although she was a first-rate musician, she continued to take lessons in the art; but only cared for serious and tragical compositions, and might frequently be heard confiding to the instrument the grief that agitated her sorrowing heart.