THE RESTORATION PLOT.

1774-1775.

Altona, then a town in Danish territory, was only half a mile from the free city of Hamburg, and at the time of Wraxall’s visit was thronged with partisans of the deposed Queen. Many of them had been exiled from Copenhagen after the palace revolution of 1772; several belonged to the Danish nobility, and chief among these was Baron BÜlow, who had formerly held the post of Master of the Horse to Queen Matilda. Owing to the unpopularity of the Queen-Dowager’s rule at Copenhagen, their numbers were increasing daily, and already a plan was under consideration to effect another palace revolution, abolish Juliana Maria and her adherents, and restore Matilda. But so far the plan existed on paper only; no steps had been taken to carry it into effect.

Things had not gone well with the Danish Government at Copenhagen since Matilda had sailed from Kronborg more than two years before. The Queen-Dowager quickly found that it was one thing to seize power and another to maintain it; her spell of popularity was brief, and before long she became the most hated woman in Denmark, not always very justly, for according to her lights she seems honestly to have tried to do her duty. Before long the conspirators who, under her, had effected the palace revolution fell out among themselves, and the Government was split into two factions, with Rantzau and KÖller-Banner on one side, Eickstedt and Guldberg on the other, and Osten trimming between the two. It was not long before the Guldberg faction triumphed. Rantzau was compelled to resign all his offices, and dismissed with a pension to his estates in Holstein, but, as he showed a desire to return to Copenhagen, he was eventually exiled.[95] Osten was banished to Jutland, where he was living in retirement.[96] KÖller-Banner was in disgrace, and dismissed from his posts on a suspicion of treasonable correspondence with the French and Swedish envoys. The Queen-Dowager tried to recall him, for he was a favourite with her, and succeeded for a time; but he was eventually overthrown.[97] Thus retribution had fallen on some of Matilda’s chief enemies, and though others, like Eickstedt and Beringskjold, remained, their authority was shaken, and the whole power had insensibly passed into the hands of Guldberg, who acquired the unbounded confidence of the Queen-Dowager. Guldberg was very clever, and a far more cautious man than Struensee, though he did not possess either his genius or his aspirations. The first step of the new Government had been to establish the old rÉgime, and to abolish all the reforms brought in by Struensee,[98] and place the power once more in the hands of the privileged classes. But the people, having once tasted the sweets of liberty, did not take kindly to the re-imposition of their former yoke, and the Government grew daily more unpopular. Much though they had disliked Struensee, they had approved of many of his reforms: it was not so much what he did, as the way he did it, to which they objected.

The King, who was theoretically the source of all power, was tightly held in the grasp of the Queen-Dowager, whom he had now come to hate quite as much as he used to hate Struensee and Brandt. But he was powerless to free himself from this thraldom, though at times he showed flashes of insubordination. For instance, in one of his comparatively lucid intervals he signed a state paper as follows: “Christian VII. by the grace of God King of Denmark, etc., in company with Juliana Maria by the grace of the devil.” He often lamented the loss of Matilda, whom he said he had been forced to divorce against his will, and wished her back again. He had probably discovered that this annoyed the Queen-Dowager more than anything else, and so he spoke of his wife in the most affectionate terms. Of his divorce he said it was the only one on record effected when neither of the parties wished it. In the popular mind, too, a strong reaction had set in in favour of the exiled Queen. She had always been kind and affable to the people, and she was credited with whatever was beneficial to them in Struensee’s legislation. The picture of her torn from her children and forced to live in exile powerfully appealed to the public imagination, and now that Struensee was out of the way her popularity returned with threefold force. Her sufferings and sorrows were attributed to the vindictiveness of the Queen-Dowager; all Matilda’s shortcomings were forgiven on the score of her youth and inexperience; it was declared that she was the innocent victim of a cruel plot, and she gradually became vested in the eyes of the people with the attributes of a saint and a martyr. The Queen-Dowager was aware of this and sought to win over the malcontents. “The suspected partisans and friends of the unfortunate [Queen] have many of them been caressed this winter,” writes Woodford, “and some have received places.”[99] But her efforts did not meet with great success. Those of the Danish nobility who favoured Matilda’s cause were aware of the popular feeling, and did their utmost to encourage it, for they counted on the young Queen’s personality as their most powerful weapon to overthrow the Guldberg ministry and the domination of Juliana Maria.

Such, then, was the state of affairs in Denmark when Wraxall arrived at Hamburg after his visit to Matilda at Celle. The opera, the theatre and all public amusements were at Hamburg; it consequently offered great attractions to the Danish families at Altona, and many of them were constantly to be found in the places of amusement at Hamburg, and in the houses of its wealthy citizens. Wraxall dined with Hanbury, the English consul, on September 28, and among the company present were several Danes, including Baroness BÜlow, Baron and Baroness Schimmelmann and M. le Texier, who had been treasurer to Christian VII. during his tour in England. He also saw at the opera the next night the beautiful Countess Holstein, who had taken refuge in Altona. He says: “I examined her through my glass. She is doubtless pretty, though not in my opinion so divinely fair as fame says. Her history at Hirschholm is well known. There was no gallantry, I thought, marked in her features, though it is said she certainly has that quality in her constitution. I thought of the unhappy Brandt as I looked at her.” Wraxall was well received by several of the first families at Hamburg, and one night, when he was supping at the house of a brother-in-law of Le Texier, where several of the Danish nobility were present, he spoke of his recent visit to Celle, and expressed himself strongly in favour of Queen Matilda, and spoke of his eagerness to avenge her wrongs. He was a young man of mercurial temperament, and had probably supped too freely, but his words made an impression on the Danes who were present.

A few days later Le Texier called upon Wraxall, and with an air of secrecy asked him if he really meant what he said the other evening, and whether he would be willing to serve the Queen of Denmark, because, in that case, he could put him in the way of doing so. Wraxall was momentarily overcome with astonishment at being taken at his word, but he soon recovered himself, and declared with all the enthusiasm of youth that he was willing to risk his life, if need be, for the sake of the young Queen. Le Texier within the next few days introduced him to the eldest son of Baron Schimmelmann, and then to Baron BÜlow. These two were the leaders of a project to restore the Queen. So far they had not been able to communicate with Matilda, for though Celle was only eighty miles distant from Hamburg and Altona, they were surrounded by spies from the court of Copenhagen, who reported every movement they made. At Celle, too, there were spies, who would assuredly have reported the arrival of any Dane there. Wraxall, therefore, a young Englishman travelling apparently for his pleasure, was the very agent they wanted to open up communications with the Queen. Baron BÜlow having sworn Wraxall to secrecy, unfolded at some length the plan which had been formed, and bade him acquaint the Queen with it verbally, since they were afraid to put anything on paper. He gave Wraxall his seal as his credentials to prove to the Queen that he came from BÜlow. Wraxall was instructed to go to Celle and tell the Queen that a numerous and powerful party were anxious to restore her to the throne, and were willing to incur the dangers of such an enterprise if she on her part would agree to the following conditions:—

First: She must assure them of her willingness to return to Denmark and take up the reins of government, which the King was incapacitated from holding in his own hands.

Secondly: She must co-operate with, and assist, her adherents in every way in her power.

Thirdly: She must endeavour to induce her brother, the King of England, to extend his powerful protection and assistance to the enterprise.

This last condition was adjudged the most important, for according to Woodford, who followed Keith at Copenhagen, the idea which discouraged the partisans and well-wishers of the unfortunate Queen was that: “His Majesty is too offended ever to permit his royal sister to return again to this country.”[100]

Thus authorised and instructed, Wraxall set out from Hamburg on the evening of October 8, and by travelling all night reached Celle the evening of the following day. He learned to his regret that the Princess of Brunswick was still at the castle, for BÜlow and his friends had warned him that she was not to be trusted in this matter, as she was the niece by marriage of Juliana Maria; also they feared that Matilda might confide in her sister too freely. Wraxall, therefore, determined to say that he had come back from Hamburg to Celle as the bearer of a letter from Mr. Matthews, the British minister there, to the Queen. The letter, it need scarcely be said, was not from Matthews, but from Wraxall, in which he informed the Queen, without mentioning names, of the proposed plan for her restoration. On the first page of the letter he wrote a warning, in which he entreated the Queen to consider what followed as secret, and to be especially careful not to arouse the suspicions of the Princess of Brunswick. The following morning Wraxall waited upon the Queen’s chamberlain, Baron Seckendorf, and told him he had a letter for her Majesty from the English minister at Hamburg, relative to a company of travelling comedians whom he understood the Queen wished to act at Celle, and he would like to deliver it into her own hands. Seckendorf shortly returned with a message from the Queen, saying that she would be pleased to see Mr. Wraxall at dinner at two o’clock the same day. At that hour he presented himself at the castle, and awaited the Queen with her household in the long gallery. Presently the Queen and the Princess of Brunswick came together out of the Queen’s apartments, and the Queen, advancing towards Wraxall, said: “I am glad to see you here again. I understand that you have a letter for me from Mr. Matthews.” Wraxall presented it, and the Queen withdrew to the window to break the seals. The Princess of Brunswick also welcomed Wraxall cordially, and he tried to keep her in conversation while the Queen was glancing over her letter. He noticed the Queen start when she read the first lines, and she hastily put the paper into her pocket, her face showing considerable agitation, but as dinner was announced at that moment her confusion did not attract attention. What followed had better be told in Wraxall’s own words:—

“At table Caroline Matilda recovered herself, and conversed with her usual freedom and gaiety. The Queen and Princess were seated in two state chairs, separated nearly five feet from each other. When the dessert was brought the Queen, unable any longer to restrain her curiosity and impatience, took the letter from her pocket, and, placing it in her lap, perused it from the beginning to the end; from time to time she raised her eyes, and took part in the conversation. The distance at which she was from the Princess of Brunswick rendered it impossible for the letter to be overlooked.” After taking coffee the Queen and the Princess withdrew, and Wraxall returned to the little inn where he lodged.

A few hours later Wraxall received a visit from Seckendorf, who told him that the Queen had informed him of the whole business, and had sent him as her confidential agent. She was fully alive to the necessity of caution, and she therefore feared she would not be able to receive Wraxall in private audience while her sister was there, as the Princess scarcely quitted her for a moment, but if he would send his credentials through Seckendorf she would communicate with him further. Wraxall then gave to Seckendorf BÜlow’s signet-ring, and acquainted him with the names of those from whom he came. The following day Seckendorf came back with the Queen’s answer, which he delivered verbally. It was to the following effect: That the Queen, as she was living under the protection of her brother, the King of England, could not commit herself to any plan without first obtaining his consent and approbation. That, if she consulted only her own happiness and peace of mind, she would never return to Copenhagen, but her duties as a mother and a queen compelled her to overlook the wrongs she had suffered, and resume her station in Denmark if a proper opportunity offered. That, as far as she herself was concerned, she agreed to the propositions made by the Danish nobility if it could be proved to her that they were sufficiently numerous and powerful to carry out their plans with any hope of success; on this point she desired they would give her more information. She would then write as strongly as possible to the King of England, and ask him to lend his assistance towards her restoration. She returned BÜlow’s seal, which she had enclosed in an envelope addressed in her own handwriting to Baron BÜlow, and sealed with one of her own seals; she had also written her initials “C. M.” on the envelope, but beyond this she wrote nothing.

Armed with this Wraxall left Celle the following day, and returned to Hamburg where he reported his progress to Baron BÜlow (who met him at a retired spot on the ramparts) and gave him back his seal. BÜlow immediately recognised the Queen’s handwriting on the envelope, which was Wraxall’s credential, and, when he had learned all that had passed, he said he would communicate with his associates, and inform Wraxall again.

Wraxall remained at Hamburg a week, and then received instructions to return to Celle. His message to Queen Matilda, as before, was only verbal, though he was authorised to put it on paper when he reached Celle. It was to the following effect: The Danish nobility thanked the Queen for her gracious reply to their communication, and were quite satisfied with it. With regard to her request for further information, Baron BÜlow, in addition to himself and Baron Schimmelmann the younger, was empowered to answer for the Viceroy of Norway, who would secure that kingdom and its capital, Christiania, for the Queen; for Baron Schimmelmann the elder, who, though he refused to take any active part in the enterprise, or to risk by any overt act his safety and vast fortune, was sincerely attached to the cause; for the Governor of GlÜckstadt, one of the most important fortresses in Holstein, who was disposed to aid the Queen; for certain officers in Rendsburg, the key of Schleswig, which would open its gates (as the party had secret adherents in the garrison, who would declare themselves on the Queen’s side) when the moment arrived; and for numerous friends who, he declared, were powerful in the army, the navy, the guards, in the metropolis, and even about the person of the King himself. For the rest, the Queen’s friends entreated her to be content with the assurances of the Baron BÜlow, their spokesman, and not ask for a list of all the names, which would be dangerous. They also urged her to write to the King of England as soon as possible, and ask him not only whether he would approve of the plan to restore his sister, but if he would grant some pecuniary assistance towards it. During the forthcoming winter they would prepare everything to carry out their plans, and strike the blow in the spring, as soon as the two Belts should be free of ice.

Fortified with this message, Wraxall again went to Celle, entering the town this time incognito, and lodging under an assumed name in a little inn in the suburbs. He communicated immediately with Seckendorf, who came to him the following morning, informed him the Princess of Brunswick was no longer at Celle, and took his letters and messages to deliver to the Queen. A few hours later Seckendorf came back, and told Wraxall to go immediately to the French garden outside the town, where the Queen would meet him. Wraxall repaired thither without delay, and a few minutes later the Queen drove up in a coach. She sent away her carriage and all her attendants except one lady, who discreetly retired to a pavilion. The Queen gave Wraxall an hour’s interview. During the greater part of the time they paced up and down between the avenue of limes in a secluded part of the garden. The Queen spoke quite unreservedly. She said that she was satisfied with the names mentioned, and, for the rest, she would trust the good faith of Baron BÜlow. That she would write to the King of England with great earnestness, and ask him to send a minister to Copenhagen, friendly to her restoration, and also to help the cause with money; for herself, she regretted that she could not contribute, owing to her limited income, which only sufficed for her needs, and she had no jewels, as everything had been robbed from her when she left Denmark. That she was quite willing for her part to visit her friends in disguise, but she was convinced that the King her brother would never permit her to do so. “Still,” she added, “could I come, or did I come disguised, nobody would know me, as I am much altered since I was in Denmark.” This was true, as the Queen since her residence at Celle had become very stout. She determined that Wraxall should go to London to endeavour to obtain an audience of the King, and the Queen gave him very minute instructions as to how he was to behave. “You must,” she said, “go very quietly to work with my brother. If you manage with address, he will favour the attempt, but it will be tacitly, not openly.” When the conversation was ended the Queen took Wraxall to the summer-house, where her lady was waiting, and a dessert of fruit was laid; here he took his leave. The Queen mentioned during the audience that no less than three emissaries from Copenhagen had reached her since she came to Celle, but as they were all either suspicious or worthless she refused to have anything to say to them.

Acting on the Queen’s commands and the instructions of BÜlow, Wraxall started the following day for England, via OsnabrÜck; he arrived in London on November 15. The Queen had told him to go first either to Lord Suffolk or to the Baron von Lichtenstein, grand marshal of the court of Hanover, then in London, who was highly esteemed by the King, and who had shown her much kindness: she had written to them both. Wraxall first called on Lord Suffolk in Downing Street, but that nobleman either would not, or could not, see him, urging in excuse that he was ill with the gout. So Wraxall repaired to Lichtenstein’s lodgings in Pall Mall, where he was more fortunate. He gave Lichtenstein the Queen’s letter, and the Hanoverian promised that he would try to find an opportunity to put the matter before the King; but he advised Wraxall not to call again on Lord Suffolk until he had seen the King. He then asked Wraxall several questions, which the latter answered to the best of his ability, and gave him the fullest account possible of the project, and of everybody connected with it.

Three days later Lichtenstein saw Wraxall again, and told him that he had talked to the King at “Queen’s House” on the subject, and that the King had given him positive injunctions that Wraxall was not to see Lord Suffolk, but to consider Lichtenstein the sole medium through which all communications were to pass to the King. The King was at present considering the Queen’s letter, and until he had considered it he did not think fit to grant Wraxall an audience; but he commanded him to put on paper a full and complete account of the project, including the names of every one connected with it directly or indirectly. Wraxall thereupon drew up another long document, which was duly transmitted to the King through Lichtenstein, and on December 5 he received the King’s answer through the same medium. George III. was very cautious: he gave a general approval of the plan to effect the Queen’s restoration, but he refused to lend any direct assistance; he therefore declined to advance any money at present, and finally he would not be induced by any entreaties of the Queen, or by any supplications of the Danish nobility, to affix his signature to any paper promising aid, or expressing general approbation. This unsatisfactory reply Wraxall transmitted to BÜlow by cipher at Hamburg, and he also wrote to the Queen through Baron Seckendorf. From Seckendorf he received an answer on January 3, 1775, expressing the Queen’s satisfaction with the King’s approval, though regretting the qualifications which accompanied it. On January 20 he received an answer from BÜlow, in which he adjured Wraxall to return to Hamburg as soon as possible, with the King’s approbation authenticated in whatever way might be practicable. He added that his friends were busily preparing everything to strike the decisive blow, and they were sanguine of success. These letters Wraxall at once communicated to Lichtenstein, who submitted them to the King. On February 2 Wraxall received through Lichtenstein a letter from the King to his sister, and a paper containing four articles, which the Baron drew up in Wraxall’s presence, and affixed his seal and signature to them—so empowered by the King. These articles ran as follows:—

“First: His Britannic Majesty gives his consent and approval to the plan concerted by the adherents of his sister, the Queen of Denmark, for restoring her to the throne.

“Secondly: His Majesty insists that in the execution of it no blood be spilled, nor any measures of severity exercised towards the personal administration in Denmark, except such as are indispensable to maintain the counter-revolution.

“Thirdly: His Britannic Majesty guarantees the repayment of all the money advanced or expended in a necessary prosecution of the Queen of Denmark’s revolution.

“Fourthly: His Britannic Majesty will authorise and empower his resident at the court of Copenhagen to declare in the most public manner, as soon as the revolution in favour of the Queen is accomplished, that the King of Great Britain approves of it, and will maintain it against all opposition.”

Lichtenstein told Wraxall that it was the King’s pleasure that he should first go to Celle to deliver the letter to the Queen, and show her the articles signed by Lichtenstein; then, after he had seen the Queen, he was to proceed to her Danish adherents at Hamburg. Accordingly, Wraxall left London on February 3, 1775, and after a long and troublesome journey arrived at Celle a fortnight later, on February 17.[101] He entered the town as before under an assumed name, and went to an obscure inn. The next morning he received a visit from Seckendorf, who received him with pleasure, and told him that the Queen was most impatient to see him, and would give him an audience that afternoon. “When you hear the palace clock strike four,” Seckendorf said, “set out from the inn on foot for the castle. Mantel, the Queen’s valet, will wait to receive you, and conduct you to her.” Accordingly, Wraxall gave Seckendorf his despatches, and went to the castle at the hour named. Mantel was waiting for him, and admitted him through a side door, probably in the western wing. He was led through a great number of rooms to a small apartment, and there left alone; at the end of it were stairs leading to the Queen’s chamber.[102] A minute later the Queen came into the room, and welcomed Wraxall most graciously. Their interview is best told in his own words:—

“We conversed till about ten minutes past six entirely alone, and in the most unreservedly undisguised manner. Her Majesty made me the recital of her reign—of the revolution—of her own conduct on that fatal night when she lost her crown. I listened in silence and astonishment. What a recapitulation did she not make me! Her words are for ever engraven on my heart; I could repeat her story almost verbatim. I know what scarce any other man on earth can know. I must own her unreserve, her goodness, her minute detail of circumstances the most concealed in their nature, my situation quite alone with her, superadded to some consciousness still more affecting, made me more than once forget I was talking to a queen. She was dressed in a brown silk polonaise, trimmed with green silk, her hair powdered, a locket on her bosom. Her under-lip is too large, but her teeth are fine, and that family violence in speaking becomes her; her nose is finely shaped, and her eyes are eloquent; she is thinner in the face than she was last October. She showed me his Majesty’s letters to her, and permitted me to carry an extract from one away with me. She was obliged to leave me soon after six, which otherwise she seemed in no way inclined to do. Her talents are very good, and in mimicry she excels; her specimen of Prince Frederick of Denmark was excellent.”

After another interview with Seckendorf Wraxall was conducted out of the castle as secretly as he came. The next day he went to Hamburg, where, after an inclement journey, he arrived on February 21. At Hamburg he remained three weeks, and saw a good deal of Baron BÜlow, to whom he communicated the result of his visit to England and many messages from Queen Matilda. The articles drawn up and signed by Lichtenstein on behalf of George III., which Wraxall had first submitted to Matilda, he now handed to BÜlow, who received them with mingled feelings. The first two articles he wholly approved, but he regretted that George III. would not advance any pecuniary assistance and still more he lamented the fourth article, which promised that the English envoy at Copenhagen would only support and avow the revolution after it had been effected, instead of avowing it while it was actually in progress.

BÜlow forwarded the articles to his confederates in Copenhagen, and also had many consultations with his friends at Altona. It was not until March 14 that he received an answer from Copenhagen, which was much as BÜlow had anticipated: all the conspirators objected to the fourth article, and all agreed that it would be well to get the King of England to reconsider his decision on that point. What they asked was that the British envoy should come forward at the time they were effecting the counter-revolution, and publicly avow it on behalf of the King, his master. BÜlow therefore resolved that a letter to the King of England should be drawn up to this effect, and Wraxall should convey it to London.

On March 20 BÜlow gave Wraxall the letter to the King. His instructions were that he should take this document first to Celle, submit it to the Queen, and ask her to enclose it in a letter written by herself to the King of England, in which she would urge their plea by every means in her power. Wraxall was also to acquaint the Queen with the plan of the revolution, which was now settled, and was as follows: On the day fixed certain of the conspirators would repair to the palace, obtain access to the King (Christian VII.), and induce, or compel, him to affix his name to documents already drawn up. These documents would include an order to the Queen-Dowager to retire to her own apartment until the King’s further pleasure were known, and to Prince Frederick to remove to one of the country palaces—probably that of Frederiksborg. At the same time, by virtue of a similar order, the ministers would be dismissed, or arrested, and a messenger sent off to Celle to invite the Queen to return to Denmark to resume her proper rank and authority. That their measures would be so well concerted and so rapidly executed as to produce the counter-revolution in a space of a few hours. That they trusted, therefore, Queen Matilda on her part would repair with all possible expedition to Copenhagen. A proper escort, becoming her dignity, would be formed to accompany her from Altona through the Danish territories, and her adherents calculated that she might, with despatch, reach Copenhagen in four days from the time of her quitting Celle, if no extraordinary impediment arose in her crossing the two Belts. Her presence in the capital of Denmark would animate the courage of her friends, cover her enemies with consternation, and complete the counter-revolution.

Wraxall arrived at Celle on March 22 with the same secrecy as on former occasions. As the Princess of Brunswick was at the castle he was unable to see the Queen for two days, and then he was taken to the Queen secretly on the night of Friday, March 24, and had an audience with her after the Princess of Brunswick had retired to rest. It was a dark and stormy night when Wraxall set out from his lodgings, and he waited for some little time at the entrance of the drawbridge over the moat, sheltering himself as well as he could from the wind and rain. At last Mantel came, and led him in silence over the drawbridge, under the portico, and into the courtyard of the castle, and thence by a side door up a private staircase and along a corridor into the Queen’s library or boudoir. “Two candles were burning,” says Wraxall, “and the book-cases were thrown open, as it was uncertain at what hour the Queen would come to me.” He waited some time alone, and then Mantel brought him a note from Seckendorf, saying that the Queen was in the Princess of Brunswick’s apartments, and would come directly she had retired. As this was his last interview, it had better be told in his own words:—

“I had scarcely perused the note when I heard the Queen’s footstep on the staircase; a moment afterwards she entered the room. She was charmingly dressed, though without diamonds; she had on a crimson satin sacque and her hair dressed. I drew a chair, and entreated her to allow me to stand and receive her commands while she was seated, but she declined it, and we both stood the whole time. Our interview lasted about two hours. It was a quarter past eleven when I asked her Majesty if I should retire, and she signified her pleasure that I should. She approved of the letter drawn up by the Danish nobility to the King of Great Britain, as well as the request contained in it, which she confessed to be natural and just, though she doubted his Britannic Majesty’s consent to it. ‘I will, however,’ she added, ‘write to my brother the letter requested before I go to bed to-night, enforcing as far as I am able the petition of the nobility. You shall receive it from Baron Seckendorf to-morrow morning, and at the same time that of the Danish nobility shall be returned to you.’

“Her Majesty ordered me to assure Baron von BÜlow by letter that she was satisfied with all I communicated to her on his part, and that she should be ready on the shortest notice to mount on horseback in men’s clothes, in order more expeditiously to reach Copenhagen, there to encounter every difficulty with her friends.”

The Queen thanked Wraxall very warmly for his zeal in her service, and said she would commend him to the King her brother, who, she doubted not, would recompense him properly. She told him to write to her freely from England, and then bade him adieu. “When the Queen was about to withdraw,” says Wraxall, “she opened the door, but held it a few minutes in her hand as if she had something to say; she then retired.” He was conducted from the castle as secretly as he had entered it, and the next morning left Celle on his way to England.

Wraxall arrived in London on April 5, and at once went to Lichtenstein’s lodgings, but to his dismay found that the Baron had gone to Hanover ten days previously. He had, however, left him a letter, directing him to wait upon Herr von Hinuber, the Hanoverian ChargÉ d’Affaires. Accordingly Wraxall went to Hinuber, who told him he had “the King’s directions to take from Mr. Wraxall any letters he might have, and send them immediately to the King at the ‘Queen’s House’”. Wraxall therefore gave him two packets addressed to the King, one from Queen Matilda, and the other from her Danish adherents. He also added a letter from himself, in which he again prayed the King to give him a private audience.

To these letters George III. returned no reply, and Wraxall, after waiting a fortnight in London, wrote to Baron BÜlow telling him how matters stood, and asking for instructions; he also wrote to the Queen at Celle. Then followed another interval of silence. It was not until May 10 that Wraxall received a letter from BÜlow, in which he informed him that the state of affairs at Copenhagen was extremely critical, and he could not give him further directions until the return of Baron Schimmelmann the younger, who had gone to Copenhagen. In the meantime he besought him not to leave London, either for Celle or Hamburg, unless he received instructions from George III.

But no word came from the King, and, while Wraxall was waiting, the London journals announced the death of the Queen of Denmark, which had taken place on May 11 at Celle.

This was the first intimation Wraxall received of the melancholy event, and he was quite overcome, for it meant not only the loss of the Queen, for whom he felt a chivalrous devotion, but the death-blow to all his hopes of reward and promotion. On May 25 Wraxall received a letter from Seckendorf, in which he lamented the loss of a kind and gracious mistress at a moment when they had hoped her troubles were nearing an end. The letter also informed him of an important fact, namely, that George III. had written to Queen Matilda an answer to the letter in which she urged the request of the Danish nobility that the English envoy at Copenhagen should avow the revolution while it was in progress. Whether the King refused her prayer, or granted it, will never be known, for the letter arrived at Celle when Matilda was either dying or dead, and it was returned to the King unopened. The probability is that he refused, and preferred to send his refusal to her direct rather than through the agency of Wraxall. The fact that he declined to see Wraxall, or recognise him in any way, goes to show that he regarded the plot with very dubious approval. Of the existence of the plot there is no doubt, but Wraxall’s version of it, and especially of the part he played, needs some corroborative evidence. This is afforded by a confidential letter which George III. wrote some years later to Lord North, in answer to Wraxall’s repeated demands that some reward should be given him for the services he had rendered to the King’s sister. The letter (dated February 9, 1781) ran as follows:—

“You may settle with Mr. Wraxall, member for Hinton, in any just demands he may have. Undoubtedly he was sent over by the discontented nobility of Denmark previous to the death of the late Queen, my sister, with a plan for getting her back to Copenhagen, which was introduced to me with a letter from her. Her death and my delicate situation, having consented to her retiring to my German dominions, prevented me from entering eagerly into this proposal.”[103]

Wraxall considered himself very shabbily treated by George III., who turned a deaf ear to his demands for years. It was not until 1781, when Wraxall had won a seat in the House of Commons, and with it a useful vote to the Government, that the Prime Minister, Lord North, gave him, on behalf of the King, a thousand guineas for his services to the Queen of Denmark, together with the promise of a seat at the Board of Green Cloth. Wraxall’s support was purchased for a time, but two years later, when he gave a vote against the Government, he forfeited all chance of further favours from the King, and the promised appointment vanished for ever. But a thousand guineas was surely a sufficient reward for a young and unknown man, admittedly in quest of adventure, who did little but carry a few letters between Hamburg, Celle and London, and it was rather for Baron BÜlow and the Queen’s adherents, whose agent he was, to reward him than for George III.

Shortly after the Queen’s death Wraxall states that he received a letter from BÜlow, who said that the revolution was on the point of fruition when the ill news from Celle came to scatter consternation among Matilda’s adherents. It would seem, therefore, that BÜlow and his friends would have proceeded with their plan whether George III. had granted their request or not. It is idle to speculate whether they would have succeeded in their undertaking. All things were possible in Denmark at that time to those who could seize the person of the King. But it must be remembered that Christian VII. was closely guarded. Moreover, there is no evidence to show that the conspirators had the army on their side, and, without the help of the army, though they might have effected a revolution, they would have been unable to maintain it.