II.

Count Brandt has broken the fidelity which he owed to the king his master by virtue of the oath he took to his Majesty, by being an accomplice in the improper intercourse and intimacy which Count Struensee had acquired with the person to whom he certainly owed reverence and affection, but no tenderness. Count Brandt confesses this, and that Count Struensee confided it to him is proved by his, Brandt's, own confession, lit. a, pp. 40 and 41. It is true that Count Struensee, in his declaration, lit. a, p. 50, will not quite admit Count Brandt's statement; but no doubt can be possible when we remember that Count Brandt was placed about his Majesty to prevent other persons having access to the king, in order that Count Struensee might have the better opportunity to play his part. What could induce Count Struensee to share the booty with him, and to allow him to rise in honour equally with himself, unless it were done to render him, Brandt, faithful, silent, and attentive?

That Count Brandt was cognizant of this illicit familiarity is furthermore shown by Count Struensee's reply to Count Brandt's letter, in which we read: "Je n'ai partagé avec personne la confiance que je vous ai donné: vous êtes le seul qui possède mes secrets, et à qui je m'explique sur tous les objets sans reserve." Count Brandt, generally as a subject, and specially as a royal official, Danish count and chamberlain, was commanded by the law to promote the king's welfare and prevent his detriment by his utmost efforts. Hence two duties were offered him: either to reveal the affair to the king, or to observe to the guilty party that such things must not be allowed; to oppose such a disgusting life, and threaten to reveal it to the king. I fancy I can hear a sincere friend of the king and of the honour of the royal family speaking thus to Count Struensee: "Audacious traitor and most impudent of the human race! you who ought to recognise and honour the supremacy and majesty, turn back from your impudence, and know that I, even through my birth, am bound to avert everything that entails the dishonour of the house of the king and his family." I believe that such language would have had more effect than all the memoirs. But, unhappily, money flowed, which Count Brandt needed; and hence he did not dare say, "May you be damned with your money!" I certainly see that I may be answered: "Why did not others do so? Why did the Fiscal General himself neglect it?" But to this it may be answered: "No one knew so much about it as Count Brandt. No one was so near the king as he; he kept every one away from the king, for the purpose that his royal Majesty might learn nothing about it from one or the other." But it was his duty, as he was always about the king, and was accurately acquainted with everything. If he were, on the contrary, to object that such matters did not concern him, although he is forced to confess having warned Count Struensee of what happened to them both on January 17, still he could have learned from Councillor of Chancery Blechinberg and his wife, and Mesdames Schiötte and Buch, what his duty was, and what he ought to have done. But as he not only omitted to do this, but did everything that lay in his power to prevent the affair reaching the king, and as Count Struensee has been found guilty in this matter of an assault on the king's supremacy, Count Brandt must be regarded as an accomplice, and punished in accordance with the paragraph of the law 6--4--14.