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The New Hampshire Gazette And Historical Chronicle Foreign News August 14, 1772
Portsmouth, Rockingham, New Hampshire
What is this article about?
Intercepted letter from Queen of Denmark (Matilda) to Sir Robert Keith, written shortly before her trial, expressing despair over her captivity, fear for her reputation and children, and pleading for his help.
Quality green show the numbers
Measured from the scan
— how cleanly the OCR engine read the characters
- Mean ink quality
- 98.0% The length-weighted average confidence across the OCR lines — the mean of exactly the per-line scores whose tails the two figures below report. Typical is 99%.
- Illegible ink
- 0.0% Text sitting in OCR-detected lines that scored below 80% confidence — very shaky reads. Weighted by line length, so one long bad line counts for more than a short one.
- Uncertain ink
- 3.1% Text in lines that scored 80–90% — somewhat shaky reads.
- Matches source
- 96.64% How closely the served text matches the raw OCR of the same boxes, letter by letter, after collapsing spacing and case. This measures agreement, not correctness: the OCR is often wrong and the extractor corrects it, so 100% does not mean perfect, and a low figure usually means poor scan text was rewritten rather than that text was lost (length vs source shows loss).
- Length vs source
- 99.42% Below 100% means text was dropped from the OCR; above means text was added to make it read.
Assembled by the extraction model
— whether the stitched-together text holds up; catches layout and segmentation errors, which the scores above cannot see
- Transcription confidence
- 96.0% (typical 96%) How cleanly the extractor could assemble what it was given. Low here with clean ink scores points at layout analysis — the characters were read correctly but grouped or ordered wrongly.
- Comprehension
- 95.0% Whether the piece reads coherently start to finish. Can stay high while transcription confidence drops, when only part of the component is affected.
Clipping
Full Text
The following is given us as a faithful translation of a letter sent by the Queen of Denmark to Sir Robert Keith, a few days before her trial, which was intercepted by the officer of the guard.
"Sir Robert Keith, Envoy from Great-Britain.
"From the first day of my captivity I foresaw that the rage of my enemies would insist upon the loss of my liberty or my life. I am perfectly resigned to my fate either way. But the thought of my reputation being tarnished, and my dear children being abandoned to the mercy of a people unjustly prejudiced against a legitimacy of their birth, overwhelms me with the most pungent grief. Has the ----- my brother, then, abandoned me? Great God, will not one, then, avenge my innocence and my memory? I doubt whether my merciless Arguses will suffer this letter to reach you : In case you receive it, continue to do me all the good offices in your power. I shall never forget the zeal which you have testified in the cause of innocence, and if ever heaven should restore me to the rank and preeminence from which I have been so unjustly degraded, you shall have, more certain proofs of my gratitude. Oh ! were I in England, my dear country, where the meanest criminal has the privilege of being tried by his Peers ! Am I forgot by the whole universe! I am greatly fallen away, and my health is much impaired, since I have been immured within these walls. There is not any single person about me whom I do not suspect, and I despair of ever recovering my liberty. For the love of God endeavour to visit me: the time approaches when my trial will take place, but my sentence is already determined.
"I pray God to take you under his holy protection.
MATILDA.
Cronenburgh, April 11, 1772.
"Sir Robert Keith, Envoy from Great-Britain.
"From the first day of my captivity I foresaw that the rage of my enemies would insist upon the loss of my liberty or my life. I am perfectly resigned to my fate either way. But the thought of my reputation being tarnished, and my dear children being abandoned to the mercy of a people unjustly prejudiced against a legitimacy of their birth, overwhelms me with the most pungent grief. Has the ----- my brother, then, abandoned me? Great God, will not one, then, avenge my innocence and my memory? I doubt whether my merciless Arguses will suffer this letter to reach you : In case you receive it, continue to do me all the good offices in your power. I shall never forget the zeal which you have testified in the cause of innocence, and if ever heaven should restore me to the rank and preeminence from which I have been so unjustly degraded, you shall have, more certain proofs of my gratitude. Oh ! were I in England, my dear country, where the meanest criminal has the privilege of being tried by his Peers ! Am I forgot by the whole universe! I am greatly fallen away, and my health is much impaired, since I have been immured within these walls. There is not any single person about me whom I do not suspect, and I despair of ever recovering my liberty. For the love of God endeavour to visit me: the time approaches when my trial will take place, but my sentence is already determined.
"I pray God to take you under his holy protection.
MATILDA.
Cronenburgh, April 11, 1772.
What sub-type of article is it?
Court News
Political
What keywords are associated?
Queen Of Denmark Matilda
Sir Robert Keith
Intercepted Letter
Captivity
Trial
What entities or persons were involved?
Queen Of Denmark (Matilda)
Sir Robert Keith
Where did it happen?
Cronenburgh, Denmark
Foreign News Details
Primary Location
Cronenburgh, Denmark
Event Date
April 11, 1772
Key Persons
Queen Of Denmark (Matilda)
Sir Robert Keith