did it with reluctance and hesitation. At length, their intreaties prevailed, and he fixed his sign manual to the paper. Colonel Koller Banner instantly repaired to Struensee's apartment, which, as well as Brandt's, was in the palace; they were both seized nearly at the same instant, and, as all defence was vain, hurried away immediately to the citadel. When count Struensee stepped out of the coach, ke said with a smile to the commandant, "I believe you are not a little surprised at seeing me brought here a prisoner." "No, an't please your excellency," replied the old officer bluntly; "I am not at all surprised; but, on the contrary, have long expected you.' It was five o'clock in the morning when the count Rantzau came to the door of her majesty's antechamber, and knocked for admittance. One of the women about the queen's person was ordered to wake her, and give her information that she was arrested. They then put her into one of the king's coaches, drove her down to Elsinore, and shut her up in the castle of Cronsberg.

Meanwhile, as they dreaded an insurrection in Copenhagen, every military precaution was taken to prevent it. The most infamous and silly reports were circulated among the populace, to render the state prisoners odious: that they had put poison in the king's coffee to destroy him; that they intended to declare him incapable of governing; to send the dowager queen Juliana out of the kingdom, as well as her son prince Frederic, and proclaim Matilda regent. To confirm these extraordinary and contradictory reports, the king himself and his brother appeared in a state-coach, and paraded through the streets of the city, to show himself unhurt, and as if escaped from the most horrid conspiracy.

During these transactions, Struensee and Brandt were detained in the most rigorous imprisonment. They loaded the former with very heavy chains about his arms and legs, and he was at the same time fixed to the wall by an iron bar. I have seen the

room, which is not above ten or twelve feet square, with a little bed in it, and a miserable iron stove. Yet here, in this abode of misery, did he, though chained, complete with a pencil an account of his life and conduct as a minister, which is penned, as I have been assured, with uncommon genius. A tri bunal was appointed for the trial of the queen and the two counts, and a council assigned for each, to preserve an appearance of justice and equity. All the world know the result, and the winding up of the whole on the 28th of April, 1772. I shall, however, mention some particulars relative to count Brandt, as they are very remarkable and equally true; nor do I apprehend that many in England have ever heard them.

This unfortunate man rose chiefly under Struensee's auspices, though he was originally of an honourable descent. During a residence which the court made at one of the royal palaces, that of Heresholm, it happened that his majesty quarrelled with Brandt, and, which was singular enough, challenged him. This the count declined. When they met soon after, the king repeated his defiance; called him coward; and Brandt still behaving with temper, as beeame a subject, he thrust his hand into his mouth, seized his tongue, and had very nearly choaked him. In this situation can it be wondered at, that he should bite the king's finger, or strike him, or both? Selfpreservation must necessarily supersede every other feeling at such a moment, and plead his pardon. By Struensee's mediation the quarrel was immediately made up, and the king promised never more to remember or resent the circumstance of his striking him. Yet was this blow, given to preserve himself from imminent destruction, and from the fury of an enraged man, made the pretence for his condemnation. They said, he had lifted his hand against the king's sacred person, which was death by the laws of Denmark. His lawyer, I am told, made an excellent defence for him, and very forcible remarked the esK

VOL. I.

sential difference between assaulting the sovereign, and defending himself from a private attack. "Oue of our former monarchs, said he, (Christian V.) was used frequently to unbend himself among his nobles. On these occasions it was his custom to say, "The king is not at home." All the courtiers then behaved with the utmost freedom and familiarity, unrestrained by the royal presence. When he chose to re

sume his kingly dignity, he said, "The king is again at home.' But what, added he, must we do now, when the king is never at home ?" This seems more like the speech of an Englishman than a Dane, and breathes a manly and unfettered spirit.

The skulls and bones of these unhappy men are yet exposed on wheels about a mile and a half out of town. I have viewed them with mingled commiseration and horror. They hold up an awful and affecting lesson for future statesmen.

I have been assured, that Struensee resigned himself to his own sentence without murmuring, or attempting to depricate the blow; but that he expressed the utmost pity and abhorrence at the flagrant injustice committed in sentencing count Brandt to the same death. They have portraits of Struensee in all the shops, with this motto round him: Mala multa Struens-se ipsum perdidit." You see it is a miserable sort of pun upon his name. Yet, in defiance of all the calumnies of a triumphant party, the terrors of a despotic government, and the natural reserve among the people, there are, even here, who dare to speak, though ambiguously, their genuine sentiments. "Sir," said a man of sense and honour to me, a few days since, "between ourselves, all is not as it should be; we have at present neither king nor minister. An imbecillity mingled with disorder, characterizes our government. The effects are too visible. The blue and white ribbons are prostituted and contemptible. The finances are in a sate than when Struensee found them. The army devour us. In Norway, affairs are yet worse. The

worse

king is unpopular there, and so little is his authority respected, that the Norwegians have refused, and still refuse, to pay the capitation tax; nor can it be levied among them." I have not amplified or exaggerated in this picture, which I really believe is too just in most of the particulars. The king has certainly suffered much in his intellectual eapacity, and they make very little seruple in general to own it. He can play indeed at cards; he can dance, or go to an opera; but he is doubtless in a state of debility, which disqualifies him for the conducting or superintending affairs of national import and public consequence. These are left to the min isters, who tread very cautiously, and will not presently prosecute Struensee's patriotic measures. His fall is too recent, nor have his bones yet returned to their parent earth. There is a vacuity in the king's aspect, which is strongly marked; and he is much paler and thinner than when he was on his tour in England. The queen dowager and prince Frederic live in the palace with him, and accompany him, like his shadow, wherever he moves. The prince has received no other mark of bounty from nature or fortune, than royal birth. He is very much deformed; and this personal imperfection has gained him the appellation of Richard III. among those who do not love the court, though it doubtless originated among the English. WRAXALL.

As I approached to this eapital, the country ap peared more rocky, barren, and desert; and at the distance of a single mile from it, one is tempted to suppose one's-self in the most unfrequented and desolate wild. Nothing marks the vicinity of a great metroplis. Agriculture cannot exert her powers, nor labour produce harvests, where nature has denied the means. The eye discerns nothing on every side except firs and rugged rocks; and it would seem as if famine had here fixed her eternal residence.

I entered Stockholm over a floating bridge of a very considerable length across the river. I was, indeed, stopt at the gates; but policy, and not religion, was the cause.

I am loged at present close to the palace; and, as my landlord informs me, in the very apartment where his grace the archbishop of Upsal resided, during six months, previous to the coronation of his present majesty, which office he performed. You will perhaps suppose from this, that they are very elegant; that the hangings are of tapestry, and the chairs covered with velvet. Nothing less so, I assure you! A monk of La Trappe might almost occupy them without any infringement of his vow of mortification; and though I pay a ducat and a half, or fourteen shillings, a week, I was scarce ever so indifferently lodged in any city of Europe. The quality which induced the arehbishop to take them, was, no doubt, their neighborhood to the palace. It would be difficult to discover any other to recommend them.

I cannot say that I have found many charms as yet in this city. The court are all in the country, at their respective palaces, and there is only one public diversion during the week, which is a Swedish opera. What kind of an entertainment this is, and how far the language is capable of musical beauty, I am not yet a judge, as there was no representation last Thursday, which is the night when they usuaHy perform. For want, therefore, of other avocation, I have wandered over every part of the metropolis, and taken different views of it from the numerous eminences which surround it. Perhaps I may be accased of presumption when I assert, that in almost every point of view, the situation of Stockholm is injudicious and improper for the capital of the kingdom. Policy, plenty, and commerce, seem all to dictate another part of Sweden as much more eligible. Ι shall endeavor to justify my opinion by a few remarks.

The inhabitants themselves assure me, that the