Title: Queen Victoria, her girlhood and womanhood
Author: Grace Greenwood


A DEDICATORY LETTER

TO CAMILLA TOULMIN (MRS. NEWTON CROSLAND), LINTON LODGE, BLACKHEATH PARK:


Permit me, my dear friend, to inscribe to you this very imperfect Life of
your beloved Queen, in remembrance of that dear old time when the world
was brighter and more beautiful than it is now (or so it seemeth to me)
and things in general were pleasanter;--when better books were written,
especially biographies, and there were fewer of them;--when the "gentle
reader" and the "indulgent critic" were extant;--when Realism had not
shouldered his way into Art;--when there were great actors and actresses
of the fine old school, like Macready and the elder Booth--Helen Faucit
and Charlotte Cushman; and real orators, like Daniel O'Connell and Daniel
Webster;--when there was more poetry and more romance in life than now;--
when it took less silk to make a gown, but when a bonnet was a bonnet;--
when there was less east-wind and fog, more moonlight to the month, and
more sunlight to the acre;--when the scent of the blossoming hawthorn was
sweeter in the morning, and the song of the nightingale more melodious in
the twilight;--when, in short, you and I, and the glorious Victorian era,
were young.

GRACE GREENWOOD.




PREFACE.


I send this book out to the world with many misgivings, feeling that it
is not what I would like it to be--not what I could have made it with
more time. I have found it especially difficult to procure facts and
incidents of the early life of the Queen--just that period which I felt
was of most interest to my younger readers. So much was I delayed that
for the actual arrangement and culling of my material, and the writing of
the volume, I have had less than three months, and during that time many
interruptions in my work--the most discouraging caused by a serious
trouble of the eyes.

I am aware that the book is written in a free and easy style, partly
natural, and partly formed by many years of journalistic work--a style
new for the grave business of biographical writing, and which may be
startling in a royal biography,--to my English readers, at least. I aimed
to make a pleasant, simple fireside story of the life and reign of Queen
Victoria--and I hope I have not altogether failed. Unluckily, I had no
friend near the throne to furnish me with reliable, unpublished personal
anecdotes of Her Majesty.

I have made use of the labor of several English authors; first, of that
of the Queen herself, in the books entitled, "Leaves from the Journal of
Our Life in the Highlands," and "The Early Years of His Royal Highness
the Prince-Consort"; next, of that of Sir Theodore Martin, K.C.B., in his
"Life of the Prince-Consort." For this last appropriation I have Sir
Theodore Martin's gracious permission. I am much indebted to Hon. Justin
McCarthy, in his "History of Our Own Times." I have also been aided by
various compilations, and by Lord Ronald Gower's "Reminiscences."

I have long felt that the wonderful story of the life of the Queen of
England--of her example as a daughter, wife and mother, and as the
honored head of English society could but have, if told simply, yet
sympathetically, a happy and ennobling influence on the hearts and minds
of my young countrywomen. I have done my work, if lightly, with entire
respect, though always as an American and a republican. I could not do
otherwise; for, though it has made me in love with a few royal people, it
has not made me in love with royalty. I cannot but think that, so far
from its being a condition of itself ennobling to human character, those
born into it have often to fight to maintain a native nobility,--as Queen
Victoria has fought, as Prince Albert fought,--for I find the "blameless
Prince" saying: "To my mind the exaltation of royalty is only possible
through the personal character of the sovereign."

It suits England, however, "excellent well," in its restricted
constitutional form; she has all the venerable, splendid accessories--and
I hope "Albert the Good" may have founded a long race of good kings; but
it would not do for us;--a race cradled in revolution, and nurtured on
irreverence and unbelief, as regards the divine right of kings and the
law of primogeniture. To us it seems, though a primitive, an unnatural
institution. We find no analogies for it, even in the wildest venture of
the New World. It is true the buffalo herd has its kingly commander, who
goes plunging along ahead, like a flesh-and-blood locomotive; the drove
of wild horses has its chieftain, tossing his long mane, like a banner,
in advance of his fellows; even the migratory multitudes of wild-fowl,
darkening the autumn heavens, have their general and engineer,--but none
of these leaders was born, or hatched into his proud position. They are
undoubtedly chosen, elected, or elect themselves by superior will or
wisdom. Entomology does, indeed, furnish some analogies. The sagacious
bees, the valiant wasps, are monarchists,--but then, they have only
queens.

G. G.

LONDON, _October 20th_, 1883.




CONTENTS.

PART I.
CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD

PART II.
WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD

PART III.
WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD

PART IV.
WIDOWHOOD




ILLUSTRATIONS

1. THE PRINCESS VICTORIA.
2. QUEEN VICTORIA AT THE AGE OF 18.
3. THE DUCHESS OF KENT, MOTHER OF THE QUEEN.
4. THE QUEEN AT THE AGE OF 64.
5. PRINCE ALBERT, HUSBAND OF THE QUEEN.




PART I.

CHILDHOOD AND GIRLHOOD.




CHAPTER I.

Sketch of the Princess Charlotte--Her Love for her Mother--Anecdotes--Her
Happy Girlhood--Her Marriage with Prince Leopold--Her Beautiful Life at
Claremont--Baron Stockmar, the Coburg Mentor--Death of the Princess
Charlotte.


It seems to me that the life of Queen Victoria cannot well be told
without a prefacing sketch of her cousin, the Princess Charlotte, who,
had she lived, would have been her Queen, and who was in many respects
her prototype. It is certain, I think, that Charlotte Augusta of Wales,
that lovely miracle-flower of a loveless marriage, blooming into a noble
and gracious womanhood, amid the petty strifes and disgraceful intrigues
of a corrupt Court, by her virtues and graces, by her high spirit and
frank and fearless character, prepared the way in the loyal hearts of the
British people, for the fair young kinswoman, who, twenty-one years after
her own sad death, reigned in her stead.

Through all the bright life of the Princess Charlotte--from her beautiful
childhood to her no less beautiful maturity--the English people had
regarded her proudly and lovingly as their sovereign, who was to be; they
had patience with the melancholy madness of the poor old King, her
grandfather, and with the scandalous irregularities of the Prince Regent,
her father, in looking forward to happier and better things under a good
woman's reign; and after all those fair hopes had been coffined with her,
and buried in darkness and silence, their hearts naturally turned to the
royal little girl, who might possibly fill the place left so drearily
vacant. England had always been happy and prosperous under Queens, and a
Queen, please God, they would yet have.

The Princess Charlotte was the only child of the marriage of the Prince
Regent, afterwards George IV., with the Princess Caroline of Brunswick,
Her childhood was overshadowed by the hopeless estrangement of her
parents. She seems to have especially loved her mother, and by the
courage and independence she displayed in her championship of that good-
hearted but most eccentric and imprudent woman, endeared herself to the
English people, who equally admired her pluck and her filial piety--on
the maternal side. They took a fond delight in relating stories of
rebellion against her august papa, and even against her awful grandmamma,
Queen Charlotte. They told how once, when a mere slip of a girl, being
forbidden to pay her usual visit to her poor mother, she insisted on
going, and on the Queen undertaking to detain her by force, resisted,
struggling right valiantly, and after damaging and setting comically awry
the royal mob-cap, broke away, ran out of the palace, sprang into a
hackney-coach, and promising the driver a guinea, was soon at her
mother's house and in her mother's arms. There is another--a Court
version of this hackney-coach story--which states that it was not the
Queen, but the Prince Regent that the Princess ran away from--so that
there could have been no assault on a mob-cap. But the common people of
that day preferred the version I have given, as more piquant, especially
as old Queen Charlotte was known to be the most solemnly grand of
grandmammas, and a personage of such prodigious dignity that it was
popularly supposed that only Kings and Queens, with their crowns actually
on their heads, were permitted to sit in her presence.

As a young girl, the Princess Charlotte was by no means without faults of
temper and manner. She was at times self-willed, passionate, capricious,
and imperious, though ordinarily good-humored, kindly, and sympathetic. A
Court lady of the time, speaking of her, says: "She is very clever, but
at present has the manners of a hoyden school-girl. She talked all sorts
of nonsense to me, but can put on dignity when she chooses." This writer
also relates that the royal little lady loved to shock her attendants by
running to fetch for herself articles she required--her hat, a book, or a
chair--and that one summer, when she stayed at a country-house, she would
even run to open the gate to visitors, curtsying to them like a country
lassie. The Earl of Albemarle, who was her playmate in childhood, his
grandmother being her governess, relates that one time when they had the
Prince Regent to lunch, the chop came up spoiled, and it was found that
Her Royal Highness had descended into the kitchen, and, to the dismay of
the cook, insisted on broiling it. Albemarle adds that he, boy-like,
taunted her with her culinary failure, saying: "_You_ would make a
pretty Queen, wouldn't you?" At another time, some years later, she came
in her carriage to make a morning-call at his grandmother's, and seeing a
crowd gathered before the door, attracted by the royal liveries, she ran
out a back-way, came round, and mingled with the curious throng
unrecognized, and as eager to see the Princess as any of them.

Not being allowed the society of her mother, and that of her father not
being considered wholesome for her, the Princess was early advised and
urged to take a companion and counsellor in the shape of a husband. The
Prince of Orange, afterwards King of the Netherlands, was fixed upon as a
good _parti_ by her royal relatives, and he came courting to the English
Court. But the Princess did hot altogether fancy this aspirant, so, after
her independent fashion, she declined the alliance, and "the young man
went away sorrowing."

One of the ladies of the Princess used to tell how for a few minutes
after the Prince had called to make his sad _adieux_, she hoped that
Her Royal Highness had relented because she walked thoughtfully to the
window to see the last of him as he descended the palace steps and sprang
into his carriage, looking very grand in his red uniform, with a tuft of
green feathers in his hat. But when the Princess turned away with a gay
laugh, saying, "How like a radish he looks," she knew that all was over.
It is an odd little coincidence, that a later Prince of Orange,
afterwards King of the Netherlands, had the same bad luck as a suitor to
the Princess or Queen Victoria.

Charlotte's next lover, Leopold, of Saxe-Coburg, an amiable and able
Prince, was more fortunate. He won the light but constant heart of the
Princess, inspiring her not only with tender love, but with profound
respect. Her high spirit and imperious will were soon tamed to his firm
but gentle hand; she herself became more gentle and reasonable, content
to rule the kingdom of his heart at least, by her womanly charms, rather
than by the power of her regal name and lofty position. This royal love-
marriage took place in May, 1816, and soon after the Prince and Princess,
who had little taste for Court gaieties, went to live at Claremont, the
beautiful country residence now occupied by the young Duke of Albany, a
namesake of Prince Leopold. Here the young couple lived a life of much
domestic privacy and simplicity, practicing themselves in habits of
study, methodical application to business, and wise economy. They were
always together, spending happy hours in work and recreation, passing
from law and politics to music and sketching, from the study of the
British Constitution to horticulture. The Princess especially delighted
in gardening, in watering with her own hands her favorite plants.

This happy pair had an invaluable aid and ally in the learned Baron
Stockmar, early attached to Prince Leopold as private physician, a rare,
good man on whom they both leaned much, as afterwards did Victoria and
Albert and their children. Indeed the Baron seems to have been a
permanent pillar for princes to lean upon. From youth to old age he was
to two or three royal households the chief "guide, philosopher, and
friend"--a Coburg mentor, a Guelphic oracle.

So these royal lovers of Claremont lived tranquilly on, winning the love
and respect of all about them, and growing dearer and dearer to each
other till the end came, the sudden death of the young wife and mother,--
an event which, on a sad day in November, 1817, plunged the whole realm
into mourning. The grief of the people, even those farthest removed from
the Court, was real, intense, almost personal and passionate. It was a
double tragedy, for the child too was dead. The accounts of the last
moments of the Princess are exceedingly touching. When told that her baby
boy was not living, she said: "I am grieved, for myself, for the English
people, but O, above all, I feel it for my dear husband!" Taking an
opportunity when the Prince was away from her bedside, she asked if she
too must die. The physician did not directly reply, but said, "Pray be
calm."

"I know what _that_ means," she replied, then added, "Tell it to my
husband,--tell it with caution and tenderness, and be sure to say to him,
from me, that I am still the happiest wife in England."

It seems, according to the Queen, that it was Stockmar that took this
last message to the Prince, who lacked the fortitude to remain by the
bedside of his dying wife--that it was Stockmar who held her hand till it
grew pulseless and cold, till the light faded from her sweet blue eyes as
her great life and her great love passed forever from the earth. Yet it
seems that through a mystery of transmigration, that light and life and
love were destined soon to be reincarnated in a baby cousin, born in May,
1819, called at first "the little May-flower," and through her earliest
years watched and tended as a frail and delicate blossom of hope.




CHAPTER II.

Birth of the Princess Victoria--Character of her Father--Question of the
Succession to the Throne--Death of the Duke of Kent--Baptism of Victoria
--Removal to Woolbrook Glen--Her first Escape from Sudden Death--Picture
of Domestic Life--Anecdotes.


After the loss of his wife, Prince Leopold left for a time his sad home
of Claremont, and returned to the Continent, but came back some time in
1819, to visit a beloved sister, married since his own bereavement, and
become the mother of a little English girl, and for the second time a
widow. Lovingly, though with a pang at his heart, the Prince bent over
the cradle of this eight-months-old baby, who in her unconscious
orphanage smiled into his kindly face, and though he thought sorrowfully
of the little one whose eyes had never smiled into his, had never even
opened upon life, he vowed then and there to the child of his bereaved
sister, the devoted love, the help, sympathy, and guidance which never
failed her while he lived.

This baby girl was the daughter of the Duke of Kent and of the Princess
Victoire Marie Louise of Saxe-Coburg Saalfield, widow of Prince Charles
of Leiningen. Edward, Duke of Kent, was the fourth and altogether the
best son of George III. Making all allowance for the exaggeration of
loyal biographers, I should say he was an amiable, able, and upright man,
generous and charitable to a remarkable degree, for a royal Prince of
that time--perhaps too much so, for he kept himself poor and died poor.
He was not a favorite with his royal parents, who seem to have denied him
reasonable assistance, while lavishing large sums on his spendthrift
brother, the Prince of Wales. George was like the prodigal son of
Scripture, except that he never repented--Edward like the virtuous son,
except that he never complained.

On the death of the Princess Charlotte the Duke of York had become heir-
presumptive to the throne. He had no children, and the Duke of Clarence,
third son of George III., was therefore next in succession. He married in
the same year as his brother of Kent, and to him also a little daughter
was born, who, had she lived, would have finally succeeded to the throne
instead of Victoria. But the poor little Princess stayed but a little
while to flatter or disappoint royal hopes. She looked timidly out upon
life, with all its regal possibilities, and went away untempted. Still
the Duchess of Clarence (afterwards Queen Adelaide) might yet be the
happy mother of a Prince, or Princess Royal, and there were so many
probabilities against the accession of the Duke of Kent's baby to the
throne that people smiled when, holding her in his arms, the proud father
would say, in a spirit of prophecy, "Look at her well!--she will yet be
Queen of England."

One rainy afternoon the Duke stayed out late, walking in the grounds, and
came in with wet feet. He was urged to change his boots and stockings,
but his pretty baby, laughing and crowing on her mother's knee, was too
much for him; he took her in his arms and played with her till the fatal
chill struck him. He soon took to his bed, which he never left. He had
inflammation of the lungs, and a country doctor, which last took from him
one hundred and twenty ounces of blood. Then, as he grew no better, a
great London physician was called in, but he said it was too late to save
the illustrious patient; that if he had had charge of the case at first,
he would have "bled more freely." Such was the medical system of sixty
years ago.

The Duke of Kent's death brought his unconscious baby's feet a step--just
his grave's width--nearer the throne; but it was not till many years
later--till after the death of her kindly uncle of York, and her "fine
gentleman" uncle, George IV., and the accession of her rough sailor-
uncle, the Duke of Clarence, William IV., an old man, and legally
considered childless--that the Princess Victoria was confidently regarded
as the coming sovereign, and that the momentous truth was revealed to
her. She was twelve years old before any clear intimation had been
allowed to reach her of the exceptional grandeur of her destiny. Till
then she did not know that she was especially an object of national love
and hope, or especially great or fortunate. She knew that she was a
"Royal Highness," but she knew also, the wise child!--that since the
Guelphs came over to rule the English, Royal Highnesses had been more
plentiful than popular; she knew that she was obliged to wear, most of
the time, very plain cotton gowns and straw hats, and to learn a lot of
tiresome things, and that she was kept on short allowance of pin-money
and ponies.

The wise Duchess of Kent certainly guarded her with the most jealous care
from all premature realization of the splendid part she might have to
play in the world's history, as a hope too intoxicating, or a
responsibility too heavy, for the heart and mind of a sensitive child.

I wonder if her Serene Highness kept fond motherly records of the
babyhood and childhood of the Queen? If so, what a rich mine it would be
for a poor bewildered biographer like me, required to make my foundation
bricks with only a few golden bits of straw. I have searched the
chronicles of the writers of that time; I have questioned loyal old
people, but have found or gained little that is novel, or peculiarly
interesting.

Victoria was born in the sombre but picturesque old palace of Kensington,
on May 24, 1819, and on the 24th of the following June was baptized with
great pomp out of the splendid gold font, brought from the Tower, by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishop of London. Her sponsors
were the Prince Regent and the Emperor of Russia (the last represented by
the Duke of York), the Queen Dowager of Würtemburg (represented by the
Princess Augusta) and the Duchess Dowager of Coburg (represented by the
Duchess Dowager of Gloucester), and her names were _Alexandrina
Victoria_, the first in honor of the Emperor Alexander of Russia. She
came awfully near being Alexandrina Georgiana, but the Prince Regent, at
the last moment, declared that the name of Georgiana should be second to
no other; then added, "Give her her mother's name--after that of the
Emperor." The Queen afterwards decided that her mother's name should be
second to no other. Yet as a child she was often called "little Drina."

The baby's first move from her stately birthplace was to a lovely country
residence called Woolbrook Glen, near Sidmouth. Here Victoria had the
first of those remarkable narrow escapes from sudden and violent death
which have almost seemed to prove that she bears a "charmed life." A boy
was shooting sparrows in vicinity of the house, and a charge from his
carelessly-handled gun pierced the window by which the nurse was sitting,
with the little Princess in her arms. It is stated that the shot passed
frightfully near the head of the child. But she was as happily
unconscious of the deadly peril she had been in as, a few months later,
she was of the sad loss she sustained in the death of her father, who was
laid away with the other Guelphs in the Windsor Royal Vault, never again
to throne his little "Queen" in his loyal, loving arms.

The Princess Victoria seems to have been always ready for play, dearly
loving a romp. One of the earliest mentions I find of her is in the
correspondence of Bishop Wilberforce. After stating that he had been
summoned to the presence of the Duchess of Kent, he says: "She received
me with her fine, animated child on the floor by her side busy with its
playthings, of which I soon became one."

This little domestic picture gives a glimpse of the tender intimacy, the
constant companionship of this noble mother with her child. It is stated
that, unlike most mothers in high life, the Duchess nursed this
illustrious child at her own breast, and so mingled her life with its
life that nothing thenceforth could divide them. The wee Princess passed
happily through the perils of infantile ailments. She cut her teeth as
easily as most children, with the help of her gold-mounted coral--and
very nice teeth they were, though a little too prominent according to the
early pictures. If the infant Prince Albert reminded his grandmamma of a
"weasel," his "pretty cousin" might have suggested to her a squirrel by
"a little something about the mouth."

An old newspaper writer gave a rather rapturous and pompous account of
the Princess Victoria when she was about three years old. He says:
"Passing through Kensington Gardens a few days since, I observed at some
distance a party consisting of several ladies, a young child, and two
men-servants, having in charge a donkey, gayly caparisoned with blue
ribbons, and accoutred for the use of the infant." He soon ascertained
that the party was the Duchess of Kent and her daughter, the Princess
Feodore of Leiningen, and the Princess Alexandrina Victoria. On his
approaching them the little one replied to his "respectful recognition"
with a pleasant "good-morning," and he noted that she was equally polite
to all who politely greeted her--truly one "to the manner born." This
writer adds: "Her Royal Highness is remarkably beautiful, and her gay and
animated countenance bespeaks perfect health and good temper. Her
complexion is excessively fair, her eyes large and expressive, and her
cheeks blooming. She bears a striking resemblance to her royal father."

A glimpse which Leigh Hunt gives of his little liege lady, as she
appeared to him for the first time in Kensington Gardens, is interesting,
as revealing the child's affectionate disposition. "She was coming up a
cross-path from the Bayswater Gate, with a little girl of her own age by
her side, whose hand she was holding as though she loved her." And why
not, Mr. Poet? Princesses, especially Princesses of the bread-and-butter
age, are as susceptible to joys of sympathy and companionship as any of
us--untitled poets and title-contemning Republicans.

Lord Albemarle, in his autobiography, speaks of watching, in an idle
hour, from the windows of the old palace, "the movements of a bright,
pretty little girl, seven years of age, engaged in watering the plants
immediately under the window. It was amusing to see how impartially she
divided the contents of the watering-pot between the flowers and her own
little feet. Her simple but becoming dress--a large straw hat and a white
cotton gown--contrasted favorably with the gorgeous apparel now worn by
the little damsels of the rising generation. A colored fichu round the
neck was the only ornament she wore. The young lady I am describing was
the Princess Victoria, now our Gracious Sovereign."

Queen Victoria dressed her own children in the same simple style, voted
quaint and old-fashioned by a later generation. I heard long ago a story
of a fashionable lady from some provincial town taking a morning walk in
Windsor Park, in the wild hope of a glimpse of royalty, and meeting a
lady and gentleman, accompanied only by two or three children, and all so
plainly dressed that she merely glanced at them as they passed. Some
distance further she walked in her eager quest, when she met an old
Scotch gardener, of whom she asked if there was any chance of her
encountering the Queen anywhere on the domain. "Weel, ye maun, turn back
and rin a good bit, for you've passed her _Mawjesty_, the Prince, and the
Royal bairns."

Ah, wasn't she spited as she looked back and saw the joyous family party
in the dim distance, and realized what she had lost in not indulging
herself in a good long British stare, and what a sin she had committed in
not making a loyal British obeisance.




CHAPTER III.

Victoria's early Education--Anecdote--Routine of Life at Kensington
Palace--Character and Circumstances of the Duchess of Kent--Anecdote--
Simple Mode of Life--Visits.


Queen Victoria tells little of her childhood, but speaks of it as rather
"dull." It seems, however, to have never been empty or idle. All her
moments were golden--for study, or for work, or healthful exercise and
play. She was taught, and perhaps was inclined, to waste no time, and to
be careful not to cause others to waste it. A dear English friend
contributes the following anecdote, slight, but very significant,
obtained long ago from a lady whose young daughters, then at school at
Hammersmith, had the same writing-master as the Princess Victoria: "Of
course," says my friend, "every incident connected with the little
Princess was interesting to the school-girls, and all that this master (I
think his name was Steward) had to tell went to prove her a kind-hearted
and considerate child.

"She always mentioned to him in advance the days on which she would not
require a lesson, saying: 'I thought, perhaps, you would like to know.'
Sometimes she would say, 'We are going to Windsor to see Uncle King,' or
she would name some other important engagement. By 'Uncle King' she meant
George IV. Mr. Steward, of course, availed himself of the liberty
suggested by the little Princess, then about eight years old, by whose
thoughtful kindness he was saved much time and trouble."

Lord Campbell, speaking of the Princess as a little girl, says: "She
seems in good health, and appears lively and good-humored." It may be
that the good-humor was, in great part, the result of the good health.

The Princess was brought up after the wisest, because most simple, system
of healthful living: perfect regularity in the hours of eating, sleeping,
and exercise; much life in the open air, and the least possible
excitement.

She was taught to respect her own constitution as well as that of the
British Government, and to reverence the laws of health as the laws of
God.

An account which I judge to be authoritative of the daily routine of the
family life in Kensington, runs thus: "Breakfast at 8 o'clock in summer,
the Princess Victoria having her bread and milk and fruit put on a little
table by her mother's side. After breakfast the Princess Feodore studied
with her governess, and the Princess Victoria went out for an hour's walk
or drive. From 10 to 12 her mother instructed her, after which she could
amuse herself by running through the suite of rooms which extended round
two sides of the palace, and in which were many of her toys. At 2 a plain
dinner, while her mother took her luncheon. Lessons again till 4; then
would come a visit or drive, and after that a walk or donkey ride in the
gardens. At the time of her mother's dinner the Princess had her supper,
still at the side of the Duchess; then, after playing with her nurse
(Mrs. Brock, whom she called 'dear, dear Boppy'), she would join the
party at dessert, and at 9 she would retire to her bed, which was placed
at the side of her mother's."

We see regular study, regular exercise, simple food, plenty of outdoor
air, plenty of play, plenty of sleep. It seems that when this admirable
mother laid her child away from her own breast, it was only to lay it on
that of Nature, and very close has Victoria, with all her state and
grandeur, kept to the heart of the great all-mother ever since.

The Duchess of Kent was left not only with very limited means for a lady
of her station, but also burdened by her husband's debts, which, being a
woman with a fine sense of honor, she felt herself obliged to discharge,
or at least to reduce as far and fast as possible. Had it not been for
help from her generous brother, Leopold, she could hardly have afforded
for her daughter the full and fitting education she received. So, had not
her taste and her sense of duty towards her child inclined her to a life
of quiet and retirement, the lack of fortune would have constrained her
to live simply and modestly. As it was, privacy was the rule in the life
of the accomplished Duchess, still young and beautiful, and in that of
her little shadow; very seldom did they appear at Court, or in any gay
Court circle; so, at the time of her accession to the throne, Victoria
might almost have been a fairy-princess, emerging from some enchanted
dell in Windsor forest, or a water-nymph evoked from the Serpentine in
Kensington Gardens by some modern Merlin, for all the world at large--the
world beyond her kingdom at least--knew of her young years, of her
character and disposition. Now few witnesses are left anywhere of her
fair happy childhood, or even of her girlhood, which was like a silvery
crescent, holding the dim promise of full-orbed womanhood and Queenhood.

As the Princess grew older, she found loving and helpful companionship in
her half-brother and sister, Prince Charles and the Princess Feodore of
Leiningen, the three children and their mother forming a close family
union, which years and separations and changes of fortune never
destroyed. They are all gone from her now; the Queen, as daughter and
sister, stands alone.

A kind friend and a well-known English writer, F. Aiken Kortright, for
many years a resident of Kensington, tells some pleasant little local
stories of the Princess Victoria. She says: "In her childhood the
Princess Victoria was frequently seen in a little carriage, drawn over
the gravel-walks of the then rural Kensington Gardens, accompanied by her
elder and half-sister, the Princess Feodore, and attended by a single
servant. Many elderly people still remember the extreme simplicity of the
child's attire, and the quiet and unpretentious appearance and manners of
her sister, who was one day seen to stop the tiny carriage to indulge the
fancy of an unknown little girl by allowing her to kiss her future
Queen."

That "unknown little girl" was an elder sister of Miss Kortright. My
friend also says that the Duchess of Kent and her daughters frequently on
summer afternoons took tea on the lawn, "in sight of admiring
promenaders, with a degree of publicity which now sounds fabulous."

It was then safe and agreeable for that quiet, refined family, only
because the London "Rough"--that ugly, unwholesome, fungous growth on the
fine old oak of English character--had not made his unwelcome appearance
in all the public parks of the metropolis. Our friend also states that so
simple and little-girlish was the Princess in her ways that, later on,
she was known to go with her mother or sister to a Kensington milliner's
to buy a hat, stay to have it trimmed, and then carry it (or more likely
the old one) home in her hand. I should like to see a little Miss
Vanderbilt do a thing of that kind!

The Kents and Leiningens--if I may speak so familiarly of Royal and
Serene Highnesses--when away from the quiet home in Kensington, spent
much time at lovely Claremont as guests of the dear brother and Uncle
Leopold. They seem also to have travelled a good deal in England,
visiting watering-places and in houses of the nobility, but never to have
gone over to the Continent. The Duchess probably felt that the precious
life which she held in trust for the people of England might possibly be
endangered by too long journeys, or by changes of climate; but what it
cost to the true German woman to so long exile herself from her old home
and her kindred none ever knew--at least none among her husband's
unsympathetic family--for she was, as a Princess, too proud to complain;
as a mother, cheerful in her devotion and self-abnegation.




CHAPTER IV.

Queen-making not a Light Task--Admirable Discipline of the Duchess of
Kent--Foundation of the Character and Habits of the future Queen--Curious
Extract from a Letter by her Grandmamma--A Children's Ball given by
George IV. to the little Queen of Portugal--A Funny Mishap--Death of
George IV.--Character of his Successor--Victoria's first appearance at a
Drawing-room--Her absence from the Coronation of William IV.


Queen-making is not a light task. It is no fancywork for idle hours. It
is the first difficult draft of a chapter, perhaps a whole volume, of
national history.

No woman ever undertook a more important labor than did the widowed
Duchess of Kent, or carried it out with more faithfulness, if we may
judge by results.

The lack of fortune in the family was not an unmixed evil; perhaps it was
even one of those disagreeable "blessings in disguise," which nobody
welcomes, but which the wise profit by, as it caused the Duchess to
impress upon her children, especially the child Victoria, the necessity
of economy, and the safety and dignity which one always finds in living
within one's income. Frugality, exactitude in business, faithfulness to
all engagements, great or small, punctuality, that economy of time, are
usually set down among the minor moralities of life, more humdrum than
heroic; but under how many circumstances and conditions do they reveal
themselves as cardinal virtues, as things on which depend the comfort and
dignity of life! It seems that these things were so impressed on the mind
and heart of the young Victoria by her careful, methodical German mother,
that they became a part of her conscience, entered so deeply into the
rule of her life that no after-condition of wealth, or luxury, or
sovereign independence; no natural desire for ease or pleasure; no
passion of love or grief; no possible exigencies of imperial state have
been able to overcome or set them aside. The danger is that such rigid
principles, such systematic habits, adopted in youth, may in age become,
from being the ministers of one's will, the tyrants of one's life.

It seems to be somewhat so in the case of the Queen, for I hear it said
that the sun, the moon, and the tides are scarcely more punctual and
regular in their rounds and mighty offices, in their coming and going,
than she in the daily routine of her domestic and state duties and
frequent journeyings; and that the laws of the Medes and Persians are as
naught in inexorableness and inflexibility to the rules and regulations
of Windsor and Balmoral.

But the English people, even those directly inconvenienced at times by
those unbending habits and irrevocable rules, have no right to find
fault, for these be the right royal results of the admirable but somewhat
unyouthful qualities they adored in the young Queen. They have no right
to sneer because a place of honor is given in Her Majesty's household to
that meddlesome, old-fashioned German country cousin, Economy; for did
not they all rejoice in the early years of the reign to hear of this same
dame being introduced by those clever managers, Prince Albert and Baron
Stockmar, into the royal palaces, wherein she had not been seen for many
a year?

But to return to the little Princess. The Duchess, her mother, seems to
have given her all needful change of air and scene, though always
maintaining; habits of study, and an admirable system of mental and moral
training; for the child's constitution seems to have strengthened year by
year, and in spite of one or two serious attacks of illness, the
foundation was laid of the robust health which, accompanied by rare
courage and nerve, has since so marked and blessed her life. A writer of
the time speaks of a visit paid by her and her mother to Windsor in 1829,
when the child was about seven years old, and states that George IV., her
"Uncle King," was delighted with her "charming manners."

It was about this visit that her maternal grandmamma at Coburg wrote to
her mamma: "I see by the English papers that Her Royal Highness the
Duchess of Kent went on Virginia water with His Majesty. The little
monkey must have pleased and amused him, she is such a pretty, clever
child."

To think of the great Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, and
Empress of India, being called "a little monkey"! Grandmammas will take
such liberties. Three or four years later, according to that spicy and
irreverent chronicler, Charles Greville, the little Princess was not
pretty. But she was just entering on that ungracious period in which few
little girls are comely to look upon, or comfortable to themselves.
Greville saw her at a children's ball, given by the King in honor of his
little guest, the child-Queen of Portugal, Donna Maria II., da Gloria,
whom the King seated at his right hand, and was very attentive to.
Greville says she was fine-looking and very finely dressed, "with a
ribbon and order over her shoulder," and she must have seemed very grand
to the other children while she sat by the King, but when she came to
dance she "fell down and hurt her face, was frightened and bruised, and
went away." Then he adds: "Our little Princess is a short, plain child,
not so good-looking as the Portuguese. However, if Nature has not done so
much, Fortune is likely to do a great deal more for her."

Victoria did not know that, but like any other little girl she may,
perhaps, have comforted herself by thinking, "Well, if I'm not so
handsome and grand and smartly dressed as that Maria, I'm less awkward. I
was able to keep my head and not lose my feet."

As for her small Majesty of Portugal, she was at that time a Queen
without a crown and without a kingdom. She had come all the way from
Brazil to take her grandfather's throne, a little present from her
father, Dom Pedro I., the rightful heir, but only to find the place
filled by a wicked uncle, Don Miguel. She had a long fight with the
usurper, her father coming over to help her, and finally ousted Miguel
and got into that big, uneasy arm-chair, called a throne, where she
continued to sit, though much shaken and heaved up and about by political
convulsions, for some dozen years, when she found it best to step down
and out.

It is said she did not gain, but lost in beauty as she grew to womanhood;
so finally the English Princess had the advantage of her in the matter of
good looks even.

King George IV., though he was fond of his amusing little niece, did not
like to think of her as destined to rule in his place. He is said to have
been much offended when, as he was proposing to give that ball, his chief
favorite, a gay, Court lady, exclaimed: "Oh, do! it will be so nice to
see the _two little Queens_ dancing together." Yet he disliked the
Duchess of Kent for keeping the child as much as possible away from his
disreputable Court, and educating her after her own ideas, and often
threatened to use his power as King to deprive her of the little girl.
The country would not have stood this, yet the Duchess must have suffered
cruelly from fear of having her darling child taken from her by this
crowned ogre, and shut up in the gloomy keep of his Castle at Windsor.
But it was the Ogre-King who was taken, a little more than a year after
the children's ball--and not a day too soon for his country's good--and
his brother, the Duke of Clarence, reigned in his stead.

William IV. had some heart, some frankness and honesty, but he was a
bluff, rough sailor, and when excited, oaths of the hottest sort flew
from his lips, like sparks from an anvil. Because of his roughness and
profanity, and because, perhaps, of the fact of his surrounding himself
with a lot of natural children, the Duchess was determined to persevere
in her retirement from the Court circle, and in keeping her innocent
little daughter out of its unwholesome atmosphere, as much as possible.
She was, however, most friendly with Queen Adelaide, who, when her last
child died, had written to her: "My children are dead, but yours lives,
and she is mine too." The good woman meant this, and her fondness was
returned by Victoria, who manifested for her to the last, filial
affection and consideration.

The first Drawing-room which the Princess attended was one given in honor
of Her Majesty's birthday. She went with her mother and a suite of ladies
and gentlemen in State carriages, escorted by a party of Life Guards. The
Princess was on that occasion dressed entirely in materials of British
manufacture, her frock being of English blonde, very simple and becoming.
She stood at the left of her aunt, the Queen, and watched the splendid
ceremony with great interest, while everybody watched her with greater
interest. But if the presence of the "heir-presumptive to the throne"
created a sensation at the Queen's Drawing-room, her absence from the
King's coronation created more. Some said it was because a proper place
in the procession--one next to the King and Queen--had not been assigned
to her; others, that the Duchess had kept her away on account of her
delicate health, and nobody knew exactly the truth of the matter. Perhaps
the great state secret will be revealed some day with the identity of
"Junius" and the "Man in the Iron Mask."




CHAPTER V.

King William jealous of Public Honors to Victoria--Anecdote--The unusual
Studies of the Princess--Her Visits to the Isle of Wight--Laughable
Incident at Wentworth House--Anecdote related by her Music-teacher--
Unwholesome adulation of the Princess--Reflections upon the curious
isolation of her Social Position--Extract from one of her later Letters.


The indifference of the Duchess of Kent to the heavy pomps and heavier
gayeties of his Court so offended his unmajestic Majesty, that he finally
became decidedly inimical to the Duchess. Though he insisted on seeing
the little Princess often, he did not like the English people to see too
much of her, or to pay her and her mother too much honor. He objected to
their little journeys, calling them "royal progresses," and by a special
order put a stop to the "poppings," in the way of salutes, to the vessel
which bore them to and from the Isle of Wight--a small piece of state-
business for a King and his Council to be engaged in. The King's
unpopular brother, the Duke of Cumberland, was also supposed to be
unfriendly to the widow of a brother whom he had not loved, and to the
child whom, according to that brother, he regarded from the first as an
"intruder," and who certainly at the last, stood between His Royal
Grossness and the throne--the throne which would have gone down under
him. Yet, in spite of enmity and opposition from high quarters, and
jealousy and harsh criticism from Court ministers and minions, the
Duchess of Kent, who seems to have been a woman of immense firmness and
resolution, kept on her way, rearing her daughter as she thought best,
coming and going as she felt inclined.

Victoria's governess was for many years the accomplished Baroness Lehzen,
who had also been the chief instructress of her sister, Feodore. Until
she was twelve years old, her masters were also German, and she is said
to have spoken English with a German accent. After that time her
teachers, in nearly all branches, were English. Miss Kortright tells me a
little anecdote of the Princess when about twelve years old, related by
one of these teachers. She had been reading in her classical history the
story of Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi--how she proudly presented
her sons to the ostentatious and much-bediamonded Roman dame, with the
words, "These are _my_ jewels." "She should have said my _Cornelians_,"
said the quick-witted little girl.

Victoria was instructed in some things not in those days thought proper
for young ladies to learn, but deemed necessary for a poor girl who was
expected to do a man's work. She was well grounded in history, instructed
in Latin--though she did not fancy it, and later, in the British
Constitution, and in law and politics. Nor were light accomplishments
neglected: in modern languages, in painting and music, she finally became
singularly proficient. Gifted with a remarkably sweet voice and a correct
ear, she could not well help being a charming singer, under her great
master, Lablache. She danced well, rode well, and excelled in archery.

As I said, the brave Duchess, as conscientious as independent, kept up
the life of retirement from Court pomps and gayeties, and of alternate
hard study and social recreation, which she thought best for her child.

She quietly persevered in the "progresses" which annoyed the irascible
and unreasonable old King, even visiting the Isle of Wight, though the
royal big guns were forbidden to "pop" at sight of the royal standard,
which waved over her, and the young hope of England. Perhaps
recollections of those pleasant visits with her mother at Norris Castle
have helped to render so dear the Queen's own beautiful sea-side home,
Osborne House. I remember a pretty little story, told by a tourist, who
happened to be stopping at the village of Brading during one of those
visits to the lovely island. One afternoon he strolled into the old
church-yard to search out the grave of Elizabeth Wallbridge, the sweet
heroine of Leigh Richmond's beautiful religious story, "The Dairyman's
Daughter." He found seated beside the mound a lady and a young girl, the
latter reading aloud, in a full, melodious voice, the touching tale of
the Christian maiden. The tourist turned away, and soon after was told by
the sexton that those pilgrims to that humble grave were the Duchess of
Kent and the Princess Victoria.

I am told by a Yorkshire lady another story of the Princess, of not quite
so serious a character. She was visiting with her mother, of course, at
Wentworth House, the seat of Earl Fitzwilliam in Yorkshire, and while at
that pleasant place delighted in running about by herself in the gardens
and shrubberies. One wet morning, soon after her arrival, she was thus
disporting herself, flitting from point to point, light-hearted and
light-footed, when the old gardener, who did not then know her, seeing
her about to descend a treacherous bit of ground from the terrace, called
out, "Be careful, Miss; it's slape!"--a Yorkshire word for slippery. The
incautious, but ever-curious Princess, turning her head, asked, "What's
slape?" and the same instant her feet flew from under her, and she came
down. The old gardener ran to lift her, saying, as he did so,
"_That's_ slape, Miss."

There is nothing remarkable, much less incredible, in these stories of
the young Victoria, nor in the one related by her music-teacher, of how
she once rebelled against so much practice, and how, on his telling her
that there was no "royal road" in art, and that only by much practice
could she become "mistress of the piano," she closed and locked the
obnoxious instrument and put the key in her pocket, saying playfully,
"Now you see there _is_ a royal way of becoming `mistress of the
piano.'" But not so simple and natural and girlish are all the things
told of the Queen's young days. Loyal English people have said to me,
"You will find few stories of Her Majesty's childhood, but those few will
all be good."

Yes, too good. The chroniclers of forty and fifty years ago--the same in
whose loyal eyes the fifteen children of George III. were all "children
of light"--could find no words in which to paint their worship for this
rising star of sovereignty. According to them, she was not only the pearl
of Princesses for piety and propriety, for goodness and graciousness, but
a marvel of unchildlike wisdom, a prodigy of cleverness and learning; in
short, a purely perfect creature, loved of the angels to a degree
perilous to the succession. The simplest little events of her daily life
were twisted into something unnaturally significant, or unhealthily
virtuous. If she was taken through a cotton-mill at Manchester, and asked
a score or two of questions about the machinery and the strange processes
of spinning and weaving, it was not childish curiosity--it was a love of
knowledge, and a patriotic desire to encourage British manufactures.

If she gave a few pennies to a blind beggar at Margate, the amiable act
was heralded as one, of almost divine beneficence, and the beggar pitied,
as never before, for his blindness. The poor man had not beheld the face
of the "little angel" who dropped the coin into his greasy hat! If, full
of "high spirits," she took long rides on a donkey at Ramsgate, and ran
races with other children on the sands, it was a proof of the sweetest
human condescension--the donkey's opinion not being taken.

Of course all this is false, unwholesome sentiment, quite
incomprehensible to nineteenth century Americans, though our great-
grandfathers understood this sort of personal loyalty very well, and
gloried in it, till George the Third drove them to the wall; and our
great-grandmothers cherished it as a sacred religious principle till
their tea was taxed. I dare say that if the truth could be got at, we
should find that little Victoria was at times trying enough to mother,
masters, and attendants; that she was occasionally passionate, perverse,
and "pestering," like all children who have any great and positive
elements in them. I dare say she was disposed, like any other "only
child," to be self-willed and selfish, and that she required a fair
amount of wholesome discipline, and that she got it. Had she been the
prim and pious little precocity which some biographers have painted her,
she would have died young, like the "Dairyman's Daughter"; we might have
had an edifying tract, and England a revolution.

One of her biographers speaks with a sort of ecstatic surprise of the
fact that the Princess was "affable--even gay," and that she "laughed and
chatted like other little girls." And yet she must early have perceived
that she was not quite like other little girls, but set up and apart.
Though reared with all the simplicity practicable for a Princess Royal,
she must have been conscious of a magic circle drawn round her, of a
barrier impalpable, but most real, which other children could not
voluntarily overpass. She must have seen that they could not call out to
her to "come and play!" that however shy she might feel, she must propose
the game, or the romp, as later she had to propose marriage. She even was
obliged to quarrel, if quarrel she did, all alone by herself. Any
resistance on the part of her playmates would have been a small variety
of high treason. She must sometimes, with her admirable good sense, have
been wearied and disgusted by so much concession, conciliation, and
consideration, and may have envied less fortunate or unfortunate mortals
who can give and take hard knocks, for whom less is demanded, and of whom
less is expected.

She may have tired of her very name, with its grand prefixes and no
affix, and longed to be Victoria Kent, or _Something_--Jones, Brown,
or Robinson.

She seems to have been a child of simple, homely tastes, for in 1842,
when Queen, she writes to her Uncle Leopold from Claremont, where she is
visiting, with her husband and little daughter: "This place brings back
recollections of the happiest days of my otherwise dull childhood--days
when I experienced such kindness from you, dearest uncle; Victoria plays
with my old bricks, and I see her running and jumping in the flower-
garden, as old (though I feel still _little_) Victoria of former days
used to do."




CHAPTER VI.

The Princess opens the Victoria Park at Bath--Becoming used to Public
Curiosity--Secret of her Destiny revealed to her--Royal Ball on her
Thirteenth Birthday--At the Ascot Races--Picture by N. P. Willis--
Anecdotes--Painful Scene at the King's last Birthday Dinner.


When she was eleven years old, the Princess opened the Victoria Park at
Bath. She began the opening business thus early, and has kept it up
pretty diligently for fifty years--parks, expositions, colleges,
exchanges, law courts, bridges, docks, art schools, and hospitals. Her
sons and daughters are also kept busy at the same sort of work. Indeed
these are almost the only openings for young men of the royal family for
active service, now that crusades and invasions of France have gone out
of fashion. It seems to me that the English people get up all sorts of
opening and unveiling occasions in order to supply employment to their
Princes and Princesses, who, I must say, never shirk such monotonous
duties, however much they may be bothered and bored by them.

Occasionally the Duchess of Kent and her daughter visited Brighton, and
stopped in that grotesque palace of George IV., called the Pavilion. I
have seen a picture of the demure little Princess, walking on the
esplanade, with her mother, governesses, and gentlemen attendants, the
whole elegant party and the great crowd of Brightonians following and
staring at them, wearing the absurd costumes of half a century ago--the
ladies, big bonnets, big mutton-leg sleeves, big collars, heelless
slippers, laced over the instep; the gentlemen, short-waisted coats,
enormous collars, preposterous neckties, and indescribably clumsy hats.

By this time the Princess had learned to bear quietly and serenely, if
not unconsciously, the gaze of hundreds of eyes, admiring or criticising.
She knew that the time was probably coming when the hundreds would
increase to thousands, and even millions--when the world would for her
seem to be made up of eyes, like a peacock's tail. Small wonder that in
her later years, especially since she has missed from her side the
splendid figure which divided and justified the mighty multitudinous
stare, this eternal observation, this insatiable curiosity has become
infinitely wearisome to her.

Several accounts have been given of the manner in which the great secret
of her destiny was revealed to the Princess Victoria, and the manner in
which it was received, but only one has the Queen's indorsement. This was
contained in a letter, written long afterwards to Her Majesty by her dear
old governess, the Baroness Lehzen, who states that when the Regency Bill
(an act naming the Duchess of Kent as Regent, in case of the King dying
before his niece obtained her majority) was before Parliament, it was
thought that the time had come to make known to the Princess her true
position. So after consulting with the Duchess, the Baroness placed a
genealogical table in a historical book, which her pupil was reading.
When the Princess came upon this paper, she said: "Why, I never saw that
before." "It was not thought necessary you should see it," the Baroness
replied. Then the young girl, examining the paper, said thoughtfully: "I
see I am nearer the throne than I supposed." After some moments she
resumed, with a sort of quaint solemnity: "Now many a child would boast,
not knowing the difficulty. There is much splendor, but there is also
much responsibility." "The Princess," says the Baroness, "having lifted
up the forefinger of her right hand while she spoke, now gave me that
little hand, saying: 'I will be good. I understand now why you urged me
so much to learn, even Latin. My aunts, Augusta and Mary, never did, but
you told me Latin was the foundation of English grammar, and all the
elegant expressions, and I learned it, as you wished it; but I understand
all better now,' and the Princess again gave me her hand, repeating, 'I
will be good.'"

God heard the promise of the child of twelve years and held her to it,
and has given her strength "as her day" to redeem it, all through the
dazzling brightness and the depressing shadows, through the glory and the
sorrow of her life, as a Queen and a woman.

The Queen says that she "cried much" over the magnificent but difficult
problem of her destiny, but the tears must have been April showers, for
in those days she was accounted a bright, care-free little damsel, and
was ever welcome as a sunbeam in the noblest houses of England--such as
Eaton Hall, the seat of the Duke of Westminster; Wentworth House,
belonging to Earl Fitzwilliam; Alton Towers, the country house of the
Earl of Shrewsbury; and Chatsworth, the palace of the Duke of Devonshire,
where such royal loyal honors were paid to her that she had a foretaste
of the "splendor," without the "responsibility," of Queenhood.

The King and Queen gave a brilliant ball in honor of "the thirteenth
birthday of their beloved niece, the Princess Victoria," and somewhat
later, the little royal lady appeared at a Drawing-room, when she is said
to have charmed everybody by her sweet, childish dignity--a sort of
quaint queenliness of manner and expression. She was likewise most
satisfactory to the most religiously inclined of her subjects who were to
be, in her mien and behavior when in the Royal Chapel of St. James, on
the interesting occasion of her confirmation. She is said to have gone
through the ceremony with "profound thoughtfulness and devout solemnity."

The next glimpse I have of her is at a very different scene--the Ascot
races. A brilliant American author, N. P. Willis, who then saw her for
the first time, wrote: "In one of the intervals, I walked under the
King's stand, and saw Her Majesty the Queen, and the young Princess
Victoria, very distinctly. They were leaning over the railing listening
to a ballad-singer, and seeming as much interested and amused as any
simple country-folk could be. The Queen is undoubtedly the plainest woman
in her dominions, but the Princess is much better-looking than any
picture of her in the shops, and for the heir to such a crown as that of
England, quite unnecessarily, pretty and interesting. She will be sold,
poor thing! bartered away by those great-dealers in royal hearts, whose
grand calculations will not be much consolation to her if she happens to
have a taste of her own."

Little did the wise American poet guess that, away in a little fairy
principality of Deutschland, there was a beautiful young fairy prince,
being reared by benevolent fairy godmother-grandmothers, especially to
disprove all such doleful prophecies, and reverse the usual fate of
pretty young Princesses in the case of the "little English mayflower."

Greville relates a little incident which shows that the Princess, when
between sixteen and seventeen, and almost in sight of the throne, was
still amenable to discipline. He describes a reception of much pomp and
ceremony, given to the Duchess and the Princess by the Mayor and other
officers of the town of Burghley, followed by a great dinner, which "went
off well," except that an awkward waiter, in a spasm of loyal excitement,
emptied the contents of a pail of ice in the lap of the Duchess, which,
though she took it coolly, "made a great bustle." I am afraid the
Princess laughed. Then followed a magnificent ball, which was opened by
the Princess, with Lord Exeter for a partner. After that one dance she
"went to bed." Doubtless her good mother thought she had had fatigue and
excitement enough for one day; but it must have been hard for such a
dance-loving girl to take her quivering feet out of the ball-room so
early, and for such a grand personage as she already was, just referred
to in the Mayor's speech, as "destined to mount the throne of these
realms," to be sent away like a child, to mount a solemn, beplumed four-
poster, and to try to sleep, with that delicious dance-music still
ringing in her ears.

Greville also relates a sad Court story connected with the young
Princess, and describes a scene which would be too painful for me to
reproduce, except that it reveals, in a striking manner, Victoria's
tender love for and close sympathy with her mother. It seems that the
King's jealous hostility to the Duchess of Kent had grown with his decay,
and strengthened with his senility, till at last it culminated in a sort
of declaration of war at his own table. The account is given by Greville
_second-hand_, and so, very likely, over-colored, though doubtless true
in the main. The King invited the Duchess and Princess to Windsor to
join in the celebration of his birthday, which proved to be his last.
There was a dinner-party, called "private," but a hundred guests sat down
to the table. The Duchess of Kent was given a place of honor on one side
of the King, and opposite her sat the Princess Victoria. After dinner
Queen Adelaide proposed "His Majesty's health and long life to him," to
which that amiable monarch replied by a very remarkable speech. He began
by saying that he hoped in God he might live nine months longer, when the
Princess would be of age, and he could leave the royal authority in her
hands and not in those of a Regent, in the person of a lady sitting near
him, etc. Afterwards he said: "I have particularly to complain of the
manner in which that young lady (the Princess Victoria) has been kept
from my Court. She has been repeatedly kept from my Drawing-rooms, at
which she ought always to have been present, but I am resolved that this
shall not happen again. I would have _her_ know that I am _King_, and am
determined to make my authority respected, and for the future I shall
insist and command that the Princess do, upon all occasions, appear at my
Court, as it is her duty to do."

This pleasant and hospitable harangue, uttered in a loud voice and an
excited manner, "produced a decided sensation." The whole company "were
aghast." Queen Adelaide, who was amiable and well-bred, "looked in deep
distress"; the young Princess burst into tears at the insult offered to
her mother; but that mother sat calm and silent, very pale, but proud and
erect--Duchess of Duchesses!




CHAPTER VII.

Victoria's first meeting with Prince Albert--She comes of Age--Ball in
honor thereof--Illness of King William--His Death--His Habits and
Character--The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chancellor inform
Victoria that she is Queen--Her beautiful bearing under the ordeal.


In May, 1836, the Princess saw, for the first time, her cousins, Ernest
and Albert, of Saxe-Coburg. These brothers, one eighteen and the other
seventeen, are described as charming young fellows, well-bred and
carefully educated, with high aims, good, true hearts, and frank, natural
manners.

In personal appearance they were very prepossessing. Ernest was handsome,
and Albert more than handsome. They were much beloved by their Uncle
Leopold, then King of Belgium, and soon endeared themselves to their Aunt
Kent and their Cousin Victoria. They spent three weeks at Kensington in
daily intercourse with their relatives, and with their father, the Duke
of Coburg, were much _fêted_ by the royal family. They keenly enjoyed
English society and sights, and learned something of English life and
character, which to one of them, at least, proved afterwards useful.
Indeed this admirable young Prince, Albert, seemed always learning and
assimilating new facts and ideas. He had a soul athirst for knowledge.

On May 24, 1837, the Princess Victoria came of age. She was awakened
early by a matutinal serenade--a band of musicians piping and harping
merrily under her bedroom windows. She received many presents and
congratulatory visits, and had the pleasure of knowing that the day was
observed as a grand holiday in London and throughout England. Boys were
let out of school, and M.P.'s out of Parliament. At night the metropolis
was "brilliantly illuminated"--at least so thought those poor, benighted,
ante-electrical-light Londoners--and a grand state ball was given in St.
James' Palace. Here, for the first time, the Princess took precedence of
her mother, and we may believe she felt shy and awkward at such a
reversal of the laws of nature and the habits of years. But doubtless the
stately Duchess fell back without a sigh, except it were one of joy and
gratitude that she had brought her darling on so far safely.

This could hardly have been a very gay state ball, for their Majesties
were both absent. The King had that very day been attacked with hayfever,
and the Queen had dutifully stayed at home to nurse him. He rallied from
this attack somewhat, but never was well again, and in the small hours of
June 2d the sailor King died at Royal Windsor, royally enough, I believe,
though he had never been a very royal figure or spirit. Of course after
he was gone from his earthly kingdom, the most glowing eulogies were
pronounced upon him in Parliament, in the newspapers, and in hundreds of
pulpits. Even a year later, the Bishop of London, in his sermon at the
Queen's coronation, lauded the late King for his "unfeigned religion,"
and exhorted his "youthful successor" to "follow in his footsteps." Ah,
if she had done so, I should not now be writing Her Majesty's Life!

It must be that in a King a little religion goes a long way. The good
Bishop and other loyal prelates must have known all about the Fitz-
Clarences--those wild "olive branches about the table" of His Majesty;
and they were doubtless aware of that little unfortunate habit of
profanity, acquired on the high-seas, and scarcely becoming to the Head
of the Church; but they, perhaps, considered that His Majesty swore as
the sailor, not as the sovereign. He certainly made a good end, hearing
many prayers, and joining in them as long as he was able, and devoutly
receiving the communion; and what is better, manifesting some tender
anxiety lest his faithful wife and patient nurse should do too much and
grieve too much for him. When he saw her like to break down, he would
say: "Bear up; bear up, Adelaide!" just like any other good husband.
William was not a bad King, as Kings went in those days; he was,
doubtless, an orthodox churchman, and we may believe he was a good
Christian, from his charge to the new Bishop of Ely when he came to "kiss
hands" on his preferment: "My lord, I do not wish to interfere in any way
with your vote in Parliament, except on one subject--the Jews. I trust I
may depend on your always voting against them!"

When the solemn word went through the old Castle of Windsor, "The King is
dead!" his most loyal ministers, civil and religious, added under their
breath: "Long live the Queen!" and almost immediately the Archbishop of
Canterbury and the Lord Chamberlain left Windsor and travelled as fast as
post-horses could carry them, to Kensington Palace, which they reached in
the gray of the early dawn. Everybody was asleep, and they knocked and
rang a long time before they could rouse the porter at the gate, who at
last grumblingly admitted them. Then they had another siege in the court-
yard; but at length the palace door yielded, and they were let into one
of the lower rooms, "where," says Miss Wynn's account, "they seemed
forgotten by everybody." They rang the bell, called a sleepy servant, and
requested that the special attendant of the Princess Victoria should
inform her Royal Highness that they desired an audience on "very
important business." More delay, more ringing, more inquiries and
directions. At last the attendant of the Princess came, and coolly stated
that her Royal Mistress was "in such a sweet sleep she could not venture
to disturb her." Then solemnly spoke up the Archbishop: "We are come on
business of State, to _the Queen_, and even her sleep must give way." Lo
it was out! The startled maid flew on her errand, and so effectually
performed it, that Victoria, not daring to keep her visitors waiting
longer, hurried into the room with only a shawl thrown over her night-
gown, and her feet in slippers. She had flung off her night-cap (young
ladies wore night-caps in those queer old times), and her long, light-
brown hair was tumbling over her shoulders. So she came to receive
the first homage of the Church and the State, and to be hailed "Queen!"
and she was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, of India and the mighty
Colonies! It seems to me that the young girl must have believed herself
at that moment only half awake, and still dreaming. The grand, new title,
"Your Majesty," must have had a new sound, as addressed to her,--
something strange and startling, though very likely she may have often
said it over to herself, silently, to get used to it. The first kiss of
absolute fealty on her little hand must have thrilled through her whole
frame. Some accounts say that as full realization was forced upon her,
she burst into tears; others dwell on her marvellous calm and self-
possession. I prefer to believe in the tears, not only because the
assumption of the "dangerous grandeur of sovereignty" was a solemn and
tremendous matter for one so young, but because something of awe and
sorrow on hearing of the eternal abdication of that sovereignty, by her
rough but not to her unloving old uncle, was natural and womanly, and
fitting. I believe that it has not been questioned that the first words
of the QUEEN were addressed to the Primate, and that they were simply, "I
beg your Grace to pray for me," which the Archbishop did, then and there.
Doubtless, also, as related, the first act of her queenly life was the
writing of a letter of condolence to Queen Adelaide, in which, after
expressing her tender sympathy, she begged her "dear aunt" to remain at
Windsor just as long as she might feel inclined. This letter she
addressed to "Her Majesty, the Queen." Some one at hand reminded her that
the King's widow was now only Queen Dowager. "I am quite aware of that,"
replied Victoria, "but I will not be the first person to remind her of
it." I cannot say how much I like that. Wonderful is the story told by
many witnesses of the calmness and gentle dignity of Her Majesty, when a
few hours later she met the high officers of the Church and State,
Princes and Peers, received their oaths of allegiance and read her first
speech from an improvised throne. The Royal Princes, the Dukes of
Cumberland and Sussex, Her Majesty's uncles, were the first to be sworn,
and Greville says: "As they knelt before her, swearing allegiance and
kissing her hand, I saw her blush up to the eyes, as if she felt the
contrast between their civil and their natural relations; and this was
the only sign of emotion which she evinced."

When she first entered the room she had kissed these old uncles
affectionately, walking toward the Duke of Sussex, who was very feeble.

Greville says that she seemed rather bewildered at the multitude of men
who came to kiss her hand and kneel to her, among them the conqueror of
Napoleon--soldier of soldiers--_the_ Duke!--but that she did not make any
difference in her manner, or show any especial respect, or condescension
in her countenance to any individual, not even to the Premier, Lord
Melbourne, for whom she was known to have a great liking, and who was
long her trusted friend and favorite Minister.

The Queen was also called upon to take an oath, which was for "the
security of the Church of Scotland." This she has most faithfully kept;
indeed, she has now and then been reproached by jealous champions of the
English Establishment for undue graciousness towards the Kirk and its
ministers.

For this grand but solemn ceremony at Kensington--rendered the more
solemn by the fact that while it was going on the great bell of St.
Paul's was tolling for the dead King,--the young Queen was dressed very
simply, in mourning.

She seems to have thought of everything, for she sent for Lord Albemarle,
and after reminding him that according to law and precedent she must be
proclaimed the next morning at 10 o'clock, from a certain window of St.
James' Palace, requested him to provide for her a suitable conveyance and
escort. She then bowed gravely and graciously to the Princes, Archbishops
and Cabinet Ministers, and left the room, as she had entered it--alone.




CHAPTER VIII.

The last day of Victoria's real girlhood--Proclaimed Queen from St.
James' Palace--She holds her first Privy Council--Comments upon her
deportment by eye-witnesses--Fruits of her mother's care and training.


It seems to me that the momentous day just described was the last of
Victoria's real girlhood; that premature womanhood was thrust upon her
with all the power, grandeur, and state of a Queen Regnant. I wonder if,
weary and nervously exhausted as she must have been, she slept much, when
at last she went to bed, probably no longer in her mother's room. I
wonder if she did not think, with a sort of fearsome thrill that when the
summer sun faded from her sight, it was only to travel all night,
lighting her vast dominions and her uncounted millions of subjects; and
that, like the splendor of that sun, had become her life--hers, the
little maiden's, but just emerging from the shadow of seclusion, and from
her mother's protecting care and wise authority, and stepping out into
the world by herself!

The next day she went in state to St. James Palace, accompanied by great
lords and ladies, and escorted by squadrons of the Life Guards and Blues,
and was formally proclaimed from the window of the Presence Chamber,
looking out on the court-yard. A Court chronicle states that Her Majesty
wore a black silk dress and a little black chip bonnet, and that she
looked paler than usual. Miss Martineau, speaking of the scene, says:
"There stood the young creature, in simplest mourning, her sleek bands of
brown hair as plain as her dress. The tears ran down her cheeks, as Lord
Melbourne, standing by her side, presented her to the people as their
Sovereign. ... In the upper part of the face she is really pretty, and
with an ingenuous, sincere air which seems full of promise."

After the ceremony of proclamation was over, the "little Queen" remained
for a few moments at the window, bowing and smiling through her tears at
that friendly and enthusiastic crowd of her subjects, and listening to
the National Anthem played for the first time for her, then retired, with
her mother, who had not been "prominent" during the scene, but who had
been observed "to watch her daughter with great anxiety."

At noon the Queen held a Privy Council, at which it was said, "She
presided with as much ease as though she had been doing nothing else all
her life." At 1 P.M. she returned to Kensington Palace, there to remain
in retirement till after the funeral of King William.

It is certain that the behavior of this girl-queen on these first two
days of her reign "confounded the doctors" of the Church and State.
Greville, who never praises except when praise is wrung out of him, can
hardly say enough of her grace and graciousness, calmness and self-
possession. He says, also, that her "agreeable expression, with her
youth, inspire an excessive interest in all who approach her, and which,"
he is condescending enough to add, "I can't help feeling myself." He
quotes Peel as saying he was "amazed at her manner and behavior; at her
apparent deep sense of her situation, her modesty, and at the same time
her firmness. She appeared to be awed, but not daunted."

The Duke of Wellington paid a similar tribute to her courage.

Now, if these great men did not greatly idealize her, under the double
glamour of gallantry and loyalty, Victoria was a most extraordinary young
woman. A few days before the death of the King, Greville wrote: "What
renders speculation so easy and events so uncertain is the absolute
ignorance of everybody of the character, disposition, and capacity of the
Princess. She has been kept in such jealous seclusion by her mother
(never having slept out of her bedroom, nor been alone with anybody but
herself and, the Baroness Lehzen), that not one of her acquaintance, none
of the attendants at Kensington, not even the Duchess of Northumberland,
her governess, can have any idea what she is, or what she promises to
be." The first day of Victoria's accession he writes: "She appears to act
with every sort of good taste and good feeling, as well as good sense,
and nothing can be more favorable than the impression she has made, and
nothing can promise better than her manner and conduct do... William IV.
coming to the throne at the mature age of sixty-five, was so excited by
the exaltation that he nearly went mad... The young Queen, who might well
be either dazzled or confounded with the grandeur and novelty of her
situation, seems neither the one nor the other, and behaves with a
propriety and decorum beyond her years."

Doubtless nature was kind to Victoria in the elements of character, but
she must have owed very much of this courage, calmness, modesty,
simplicity, candor, and sterling good sense to the peculiar, systematic
training, the precept and example of her mother, the much-criticised
Duchess of Kent, so unpopular at the Court of the late King, and whom Mr.
Greville had by no means delighted to honor. Ah, the good, brave Duchess
had her reward for all her years of patient exile, all her loving labor
and watchful care, and rich compensation for all criticisms,
misrepresentations, and fault-finding, that June afternoon, the day of
the Proclamation, when she rode from the Palace of St. James to
Kensington with her daughter, who had behaved so well--her daughter and
her _Queen!_




PART II.

WOMANHOOD AND QUEENHOOD.




CHAPTER IX.

The sovereignty of England and Hanover severed forever--Funeral of King
William IV. at Windsor--The Queen and her household remove to Buckingham
Palace--She dissolves Parliament--Glowing account of the scene by a
contemporary Journal--Charles Sumner a spectator--His eulogy of the
Queen's reading.


Ever since the accession to the throne of Great Britain of the House of
Brunswick, the Kings of England had also been Kings of Hanover. To carry
on the two branches of the royal business simultaneously must have been a
little difficult, at least perplexing. It was like riding a "two-horse
act," with a wide space between the horses, and a wide difference in
their size. But the Salic law prevailed in that little kingdom over
there; so its Crown now gently devolved on the head of the male heir-
apparent, the Duke of Cumberland, and the quaint old principality parted
company with England forever. That is what Her Majesty, Victoria, got, or
rather lost, by being a woman. A day or two after her accession, King
Ernest called at Kensington Palace to take leave of the Queen, and she
dutifully kissed her uncle and brother-sovereign, and wished him God-
speed and the Hanoverians joy.

There is no King and no kingdom of Hanover now. When Kaiser William was
consolidating so many German principalities into his grand empire, gaily
singing the refrain of the song of the old sexton, "_I gather them in!
I gather them in!_" he took Hanover, and it has remained under the
wing of the great Prussian eagle ever since. It is said that the last
King made a gallant resistance, riding into battle at the head of his
troops, although he was blind--too blind, perhaps, to see his own
weakness. When his throne was taken out from under him, he still clung to
the royal title, but his son is known only as the Duke of Cumberland.
This Prince, like other small German Princes, made a great outcry against
the Kaiser's confiscations, but the inexorable old man still went on
piecing an imperial table-cover out of pocket-handkerchiefs.

The young Queen's new Household was considered a very magnificent and
unexceptionable one--principally for the rank and character and personal
attractions of the ladies in attendance, chief among whom, for beauty and
stateliness, was the famous Duchess of Sutherland--certainly one of the
most superb women in England, or anywhere else, even at an age when most
women are "falling off," and when she herself was a grandmother.

The funeral of King William took place at Windsor in due time, and with
all due pomp and ceremony. After lying in state in the splendid Waterloo
chamber, under a gorgeous purple pall, several crowns, and other royal
insignia, he was borne to St. George's Chapel, followed by Prelates,
Peers, and all the Ministers of State, and a solemn funeral service was
performed. But what spoke better for him than all these things was the
quiet weeping of a good woman up in the Royal Closet, half hidden by the
sombre curtains, who looked and listened to the last, and saw her husband
let down into the Royal Vault, where, in the darkness, his--their baby-
girl awaited him, that Princess with the short life and the long name--
poor little Elizabeth Georgina Adelando, whom the childless Queen once
hoped to hear hailed "Elizabeth Second of England."

In midsummer the Queen, the Duchess of Kent, and their grand Household
moved from Kensington to Buckingham Palace, then new, and an elegant and
luxurious royal residence internally, but externally neither beautiful
nor imposing. But with the exception of Windsor Castle, none of the
English Royal Palaces can be pointed to as models of architectural
beauty, or even sumptuous appointments. The palaces of some of our
Railway Kings more than rival them in some respects, while those of many
of the English nobility are richer in art-treasures and grander in
appearance. Kensington Palace was not beautiful, but it was picturesque
and historic, which was more than could be said of any of the Georgian
structures; there was about it an odor of old royalty, of poetry and
romance. The literature and the beauty of Queen Anne's reign were
especially associated with it. Queen Victoria was, when she left it, at
an age when memories count for little, and doubtless the flitting "_out
of the old house into the new_" was effected merrily enough; but long
afterwards her orphaned and widowed heart must often have gone back
tenderly and yearningly to the scene of many tranquilly happy years with
her mother, and of that first little season of companionship with her
cousin Albert.

Hardly had she got unpacked and settled in her new home when she had to
go through a great parade and ceremony. She went in state to dissolve
Parliament. The weather was fine and the whole route from Buckingham
Palace to the Parliament House was lined with people, shouting and
cheering as the magnificent procession and that brilliant young figure
passed slowly along. A London journal of the time gave the following
glowing account of her as she appeared in the House of Lords: "At 20
minutes to 3 precisely, Her Majesty, preceded by the heralds and attended
by the great officers of state, entered the House--all the Peers and
Peeresses, who had risen at the flourish of the trumpets, remaining
standing. Her Majesty was attired in a splendid white satin robe, with
the ribbon of the Garter crossing her shoulder and a magnificent tiara of
diamonds on her head, and wore a necklace and a stomacher of large and
costly brilliants. Having ascended the throne, the royal mantle of
crimson velvet was placed on Her Majesty's shoulders by the Lords in
waiting." And this was the same little girl who, six years before, had
bought her own straw hat and carried it home in her hand! I wonder if her
own mother did not at that moment have difficulty in believing that
radiant and royal creature was indeed her little Victoria!

The account continues: "Her Majesty, on taking her seat, appeared to be
deeply moved at the novel and important position in which she was placed,
the eyes of the assembled nobility, both male and female, being riveted
on her person." I would have wagered a good deal that it was the 'female'
eyes that she felt most piercingly. Then it goes on: "Her emotion was
plainly discernible in the heavings of her bosom, and the brilliancy of
her diamond stomacher, which sparkled out like the sun on the swell of
the ocean as the billows rise and fall." So disconcerted was she, it
seems, by all this silent, intense observation, that she forgot, nicely
seated as she was, that all those Peers and Peeresses were standing, till
she was reminded of it by Lord Melbourne, who stood close at her side.
Then she graciously inclined her head, and said in rather a low tone, 'My
Lords, be seated!' and they sat, and eke their wives and daughters.

"She had regained her self-possession when she came to read her speech,
and her voice also, for it was heard all over the great chamber." And it
is added: "Her demeanor was characterized by much grace and modest self-
possession."

Among the spectators of this rare royal pageant was an American, and a
stiff republican, a young man from Boston, called Charles Sumner. He was
a scholar, and scholar-like, undazzled by diamonds, admired most Her
Majesty's reading. In a letter to a friend he wrote: "I was astonished
and delighted. Her voice is sweet and finely modulated, and she
pronounced every word distinctly, and with a just regard to its meaning.
I think I never heard anything better read in my life than her speech,
and I could but respond to Lord Fitz-William's remark to me when the
ceremony was over, 'How beautifully she performs!'" How strange it now
seems to think of that slight girl of eighteen coming in upon that great
assembly of legislators, many of them gray and bald, and pompous and
portly, and gravely telling them that they might go home!




CHAPTER X.

Comments upon the young Queen by a contemporaneous writer in
_Blackwood_--A new Throne erected for her in Buckingham Palace--A
touching Anecdote related by the Duke of Wellington--The Queen insists on
paying her Father's Debts--The romantic and passionate interest she
evoked--Her mad lover--Attempts upon her life--She takes possession of
Windsor Castle.


A writer in _Blackwood_, speaking of the Queen about this time,
said: "She is 'winning golden opinions from all sorts of people' by her
affability, the grace of her manners, and her prettiness. She is
excessively like the Brunswicks and not like the Coburgs. So much the
more in her favor. The memory of George III. is not yet passed away, and
the people are glad to see his calm, honest, and English physiognomy
renewed in his granddaughter."

Her Majesty's likeness to the obstinate but conscientious old king, whose
honest face is fast fading quite away from old English half-crowns and
golden guineas, has grown with her years.

The same writer, speaking of her personal appearance, says: "She is low
of stature, but well formed; her hair the darkest shade of flaxen, and
her eyes large and light-blue." A friend who saw her frequently at the
time of her accession, said to me the other day: "It is a great mistake
to suppose that the Queen owed all the charming portraits which were
drawn of her at this time, to the fortunate accident of her birth and
destiny. She was really a very lovely girl, with a fine, delicate, rose-
bloom complexion, large blue eyes, a fair, broad brow, and an expression
of peculiar candor and innocence."

A few days later there was a sensation in Buckingham Palace, at the
setting up in the Throne-room of a very magnificent new piece of
furniture--a throne of the latest English fashion, but gorgeous enough to
have served for the Queen of Sheba, Zenobia, Cleopatra, or Semiramis. It
was all crimson velvet and silk, with any amount of gold embroideries,
gold lace, gold fringe, ropes, and tassels. The gay young Queen tried it,
and said it would do; that she had never sat on a more comfortable throne
in all her life.

Two stories of the young Queen have touched me especially--one was
related by the Duke of Wellington. A court-martial death sentence was
presented by him to her, to be signed. She shrank from the dreadful task,
and with tears in her eyes, asked: "Have you nothing to say in behalf of
this man?"

"Nothing; he has deserted three times," replied the Iron Duke.

"O, your Grace, think again!"

"Well, your Majesty, he certainly is a bad soldier, but there was
somebody who spoke as to his good character. He may be a good fellow in
civil life."

"O, thank you!" exclaimed the Queen, as she dashed off the word,
"Pardoned," on the awful parchment, and wrote beneath it her beautiful
signature.

This was not her last act of the kind, and at length Parliament so
arranged matters that this fatal signing business could be done by royal
commission, ostensibly to "relieve Her Majesty of a painful duty," but
really because they could not trust her soft heart. She might have sudden
caprices of commiseration which would interfere with stern military
discipline, and the honest trade of Mr. Marwood.

The other incident was told by Lord Melbourne. Soon after her accession,
in all the dizzy whirl of the new life of splendor and excitement, the
young Queen, in an interview with her Prime Minister, said: "I want to
pay all that remain of my father's debts. I _must_ do it. I consider
it a sacred duty." This was, of course, done--the Queen also sending
valuable pieces of plate to the largest creditors, as a token of her
gratitude. Lord Melbourne said that the childlike directness and
earnestness of that good daughter's manner when she thus expressed her
royal will and pleasure, brought the tears to his eyes. It seems to me it
was almost mission enough for any young woman, to move the hearts of hard
old soldiers like Wellington, and _blasé_ statesmen like Melbourne--
mighty dealers in death and diplomacy, and to bring something like a
second youth of romance and chivalrous feeling into worn and worldly
hearts everywhere.

I suppose it is impossible for young people of this day, especially
Americans, to realize the intense, enthusiastic interest felt forty-six
years ago by all classes, and in nearly all countries, in the young
English Queen. The old wondered and shook their heads over the mighty
responsibility imposed upon her--the young dreamed of her. She almost
made real to young girls the wildest romances of fairy lore. She called
out such chivalrous feelings in young men that they longed to champion
her on some field of battle, or in some perilous knightly adventure. She
stirred the hearts and inspired the imaginations of orators and poets.--
The great O'Connell, when there was some wild talk of deposing "the all
but infant Queen," and putting the Duke of Cumberland in her place, said
in his trumpet-like tones, which gave dignity to brogue: "If necessary, I
can get 500,000 brave Irishmen to defend the life, the honor, and the
person of the beloved young lady by whom England's throne is now filled."
Ah, the difference between then and now. "Brave Irishmen" of this day,
men who know not O'Connell, are more disposed to blow up the English
Queen's palaces, throne and all.

Charles Dickens, who was then full of romance and fancy, was, it is said,
possessed by such unresting, wondering thoughts of the fair maiden
sovereign, and her magnificent destiny, that for a time his more prosaic
friends regarded his enthusiasm as a sort of monomania. Other imaginative
young men with heads less "level" (to use an American expression) than
that of the great novelist, actually went mad--"clean daft"--the noble
passion of loving loyalty ending in an infatuation as absurd as it was
unhappy. Before the Queen left Kensington Palace she was much annoyed by
the persistent attentions of a provincial admirer, a respectable
gentleman, who labored under the hallucination that it was his destiny
and his duty to espouse the Queen. He may have felt a preference for
private life and rural pleasures, but as a loyal patriot he was ready to
make the sacrifice. He drove in a stylish phaeton every morning to the
Palace to inquire after Her Majesty's health; and on several days he
bribed the men who had charge of the gardens to allow him to assist them
in weeding about the piece of water opposite her apartments, in the fond
hope of seeing her at the windows, and of her seeing him. Every evening,
however, he put on the gentleman of fortune and phaetons, and followed
the Queen and the Duchess in their airings. Drove they fast or drove they
slow, he was just behind them. On their last drive before removing from
Kensington, they alighted in the Harrow Road for a little walk, and were
dismayed at seeing this Mr. ---- spring from his phaeton, and come
eagerly forward. The Duchess sent a page to meet him and beg of him not
to annoy Her Majesty by accosting her; but the page was "no let" to him--
a whole volume of remonstrance would not have availed. He pressed on, and
the august ladies were obliged to re-enter their carriage, and return to
Kensington. When on the next morning they removed from the old home, Mr.
---- was at the gate in his phaeton, and drove before them to Buckingham
Palace, and was there to give them a gracious welcome. He haunted Pimlico
for a time, but his friends finally got possession of him and suppressed
him, and so ended his "love's young dream."

It is likely that the merry young Queen laughed at the absurd
demonstrations and amatory effusions of her demented admirers; but when,
after her marriage, and her appearing always in public with the
handsomest Prince in Christendom at her side, such monomaniacs grew
desperate and took to shooting, the matter became serious. Then no more
gentlemen in phaetons menaced her peace; her demented followers were poor
wretches--so poor that sometimes, after investing in pistols, they had
not a six-pence left for ammunition. One, a distraught Fenian, pointed at
her a broken, harmless weapon, charged with a scrap of red rag. Another,
a humpbacked lad, named Bean, loaded his with paper and a few bits of an
old clay pipe. Bean escaped for a time, and it is said that for several
days there were "hard lines" for all the poor humpbacks of London. Scores
of them were arrested. No unfortunate thus deformed, could appear in the
streets without danger of a policeman smiting him on the shoulders, right
in the tender spot, with a rough, "You are my prisoner." Life became a
double burden to the poor fellows till Bean was caught. But to return to
the young Queen, in her happy, untroubled days.

In August she took possession of Windsor Castle, amid great rejoicing.
The Duchess, her mother, came also; this time not to be reproached or
insulted. They soon had company--a lot of Kings and Queens, among them
"Uncle Leopold" and his second wife, a daughter of Louis Philippe of
France.

The royal young house-keeper seems keenly to have enjoyed showing to her
visitors her new home, her little country place up the Thames. She
conducted them everywhere,

"Up-stairs, down-stairs, and in my lady's chamber,"

peeping into china and silver closets, spicy store-rooms, and huge linen
chests smelling of lavender.

Soon after came a triumphal progress to Brighton, during which the royal
carriage passed under an endless succession of triumphal arches, and
between ranks on ranks of schoolchildren, strewing roses and singing
pæans. At Brighton there was an immense sacrifice of the then fashionable
and costly flower, the dahlia, no fewer than twenty thousand being used
for decorative purposes. But a sadder because a vain sacrifice on this
occasion, was of flowers of rhetoric. An address, the result of much
classical research and throes of poetic labor, and marked by the most
effusive loyalty, was to have been presented to Her Majesty at the gates
of the Pavilion, but by some mistake she passed in without waiting for
it.

About this time the Lunatic Asylums began to fill up. Within one week two
mad men were arrested, proved insane, and shut up for threatening the
life of the Queen and the Duchess of Kent. So Victoria's life was not all
arched over with dahlia-garlands, and strewn with roses, nor were her
subjects all Sunday-school scholars.




CHAPTER XI.

Banquet in Guildhall--Victoria's first Christmas at Windsor Castle as
Queen--Mrs. Newton Crosland's reminiscences--Coolness of Actors and
Quakers amid the general enthusiasm--Issue of the first gold Sovereigns
bearing Victoria's head.


On Lord Mayor's Day, the Queen went in state to dine with her brother-
monarch, the King of "Great London Town." It was a memorable, magnificent
occasion. The Queen was attended by all the great ladies and gentlemen of
her Court, and followed by an immense train of members of the royal
family, ambassadors, cabinet ministers and nobility generally--in all,
two hundred carriages of them. The day was a general holiday, and the
streets all along the line of the splendid procession were lined with
people half wild with loyal excitement, shouting and waving hats and
handkerchiefs. It may have been on this day that Lord Albemarle got off
his famous pun. On the Queen saying to him, "I wonder if my good people
of London are as glad to see me as I am to see them?" he replied by
pointing to the letters "V. R." "Your Majesty can see their loyal cockney
answer-'_Ve are_.'"

One account states that, "the young sovereign was quite overcome by the
enthusiastic outbursts of loyalty which greeted her all along the route,"
but a description of the scene sent me by a friend, Mrs. Newton Crosland,
the charming English novelist and poet, paints her as perfectly composed.
My friend says: "I well remember seeing the young Queen on her way to
dine with the Lord Mayor, on the 9th of November, 1837, the year of her
accession. The crowd was so great that there were constant stoppages,
and, luckily for me, one of them occurred just under the window of a
house in the Strand, where I was a spectator. I shall never forget the
appearance of the maiden-sovereign. Youthful as she was, she looked every
inch a Queen. Seated with their backs to the horses were a lady and
gentleman, in full Court-dress--(the Duchess of Sutherland, Mistress of
the Robes--and the Earl of Albemarle, Master of the Horse), and in the
centre of the opposite seat, a little raised, was the Queen. All I saw of
her dress was a mass of pink satin and swan's-down. I think she wore a
large cape or wrap of these materials. The swan's-down encircled her
throat, from which rose the fair young face--the blue eyes beaming with
goodness and intelligence--the rose-bloom of girlhood on her cheeks, and
her soft, light brown hair, on which gleamed a circlet of diamonds,
braided as it is seen in the early portraits. Her small, white-gloved
hands were reposing easily in her lap.

"On this occasion not only were the streets thronged, but every window in
the long line of the procession was literally filled, while men and boys
were seen in perilous positions on roofs and lamp-posts, trees and
railings. Loud and hearty cheers, so unanimous they were like one immense
multitudinous shout, heralded the royal carriage.

"A little before this date, a story was told of the lamentations of the
Queen's coachman. He declared that he had driven Her Majesty for six
weeks, without once being able to see her. Of course he could not turn
his head or his eyes from his horses."

At Temple Bar--poor, old Temple Bar, now a thing of the past!--the Queen
was met by the Lord Mayor, who handed her the city keys and sword, which
she returned to his keeping--a little further on, the scholars of
Christ's Hospital--the "Blue-Coat Boys," offered her an address of
congratulation, saying how glad they were to have a woman to rule over
them, which was a good deal for boys to say, and also sung the National
Anthem with a will.

The drawing-room of Guildhall was fitted up most gorgeously. Here the
address of the city magnates was read and replied to,--and here in the
midst of Princes and nobles, Her Majesty performed a brave and memorable
act. She knighted Sheriff Montefiore, the first man of his race to
receive such an honor from a British sovereign, and Sir Moses Montefiore,
now nearly a centenarian, has ever since, by a noble life and good works,
reflected only honor on his Queen. But ah, what would her uncle, the late
King, have said, had he seen her profaning a Christian sword by laying it
on the shoulders of a Jew! He would rather have used it on the
unbeliever's ears, after Peter's fashion.

After this ceremony, they all passed into the Great Hall, which had been
marvellously metamorphosed, by hangings and gildings, and all sorts of
magnificent decorations, by mirrors and lusters, and the display of vast
quantities of gold and silver plate--much of it lent for the occasion by
noblemen and private gentlemen, but rivalled in splendor and value by the
plate of the Corporation and the City Companies. From the roof hung two
immense chandeliers of stained glass and prisms, which with the flashing
of innumerable gas-jets, lighting up gorgeous Court-dresses, and the most
superb old diamonds of the realm, made up a scene of dazzling splendor,
of enchantment, which people who were there go wild over to this day.
Poets say it was like a vision of fairyland, among the highest circles of
that most poetic kingdom--and they know. I think a poet must have managed
the musical portion of the entertainment, for when Victoria appeared
sweet voices sang--

  "At Oriana's presence all things smile!"

and presently--

         "Oh happy fair!
  Your eyes are lode-stars and your tongue's sweet air,
  More tunable than lark to shepherd's ear,
  When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear."

There was a raised platform at the east end of the hall, and on it the
throne, a beautiful state-chair, of dainty proportions, made expressly
for that fairy Princess, who took her seat thereon amid the most joyous
acclamations. On the platform before her, was placed the royal table,
decorated with exquisite flowers, and covered with a costly, gold-fringed
damask cloth, on which were served the most delicate viands and delicious
fruits, in season and out of season. Ah, as the young Queen, seated up
there, received the homage of the richly-robed Aldermen, and the
resplendent Sheriffs, and that effulgent Lord Mayor, she must have
fancied herself something more than a fairy Princess,--say, an Oriental
goddess being adored and sacrificed to by gorgeous Oriental Princes,
Sultans and Satraps, Pashas, Padishas, and the Grand-Panjandrum himself.

After the dinner, an imposing personage, called the Common Crier, strode
into the middle of the hall, and solemnly cried out: "The Right Honorable
the Lord Mayor gives the health of our Most Gracious Sovereign, Queen
Victoria!" This, of course, was drunk with all the honors, and extra
shouts that made the old hall ring. The Queen rose and bowed her thanks,
and then the Common Crier announced--Her Majesty's toast: "The Lord
Mayor, and prosperity to the City of London." The Queen, it is stated,
honored this toast in sherry one hundred and twenty years old--liquid
gold! Very gracious of her if she furnished the sherry. I hope, at all
events, she drank it with reverence. Why, when that old wine was bottled,
Her Majesty's grandfather lacked some twenty years of being born, and the
American Colonies were as loyal as London;--then the trunk of the royal
old Bourbon tree, whose last branch death lopped away but yesterday at
Frohsdorf, seemed solid enough, though rotten at the core; and, the great
French Revolution was undreamed of, except in the seething brain of some
wild political theorist, or in some poor peasant's nightmare of
starvation. When that old wine was bottled, Temple Bar, under the
garlanded arch of which Her Majesty had just passed so smilingly, was
often adorned with gory heads of traitors, and long after that old wine
was bottled, men and women could be seen of a Friday, dangling from the
front of Newgate prison, and swinging in the morning air, like so many
ghastly pendulums.

This year 1837, Victoria spent her first Christmas as a Queen at Windsor,
right royally I doubt not, and I think it probable she received a few
presents. A few days before, she had gone in state to Parliament, to give
her assent to the New Civil List Act-not a hard duty for her to perform,
it would seem, as that act settled on her for life an annual income of
£385,000. Let Americans who begrudge our President his $50,000, and wail
over our taxation, just put that sum into dollars. The English people did
not grumble at this grant, as they had grumbled over the large sums
demanded by Her Majesty's immediate predecessors. They knew it would not
be recklessly and wickedly squandered, and they liked to have their
bonnie young Queen make a handsome appearance among crowned heads. She
had not then revealed those strong and admirable traits of character
which later won their respect and affection,--but they were fond of her,
and took a sort of amused delight in her, as though they, were all
children, and she a wonderful new doll, with new-fashioned talking and
walking arrangements. The friend from whom I have quoted--Mrs. Crosland--
writes me: "I consider that it would be impossible to exaggerate the
enthusiasm of the English people on the accession of Queen Victoria to
the throne. To be able at all to understand it, we must recollect the
sovereigns she succeeded--the Sailor-King, a most commonplace old man,
with 'a head like a pine-apple'; George IV., a most unkingly king,
extremely unpopular, except with a small party, of High Tories; and poor
George III., who by the generation Victoria followed, could only be
remembered as a frail, afflicted, blind old man--for a long period shut
up at Kew, and never seen by his people. It was not only that Victoria
was a really lovely girl, but that she had the _prestige_ of having
been brought up as a Liberal, and then she kept the hated Duke of
Cumberland from the throne. Possibly he was not guilty of half the
atrocious sins attributed to him, but I do not remember any royal
personage so universally hated."

It was fear of this bogie of a Cumberland that made the English people
anxious for the early marriage of the Queen, and yet caused them to dread
it, for the fate of poor Princess Charlotte had not been forgotten. But I
do not think that political or dynastic questions had much to do with the
popularity of the young Queen. It was the resurrection of the dead
dignity of the Royal House of Brunswick, in her fair person--the
resuscitation of the half-dead principle of loyalty in the hearts of her
people. Of her Majesty's subjects of the better class, actors and quakers
alone seem to have taken her accession with all its splendid accessions,
coolly,--the former, perhaps, because much mock royalty had somehow
cheapened the real thing, and the latter because trained from infancy to
disregard the pomps and show of this world. Macready jots down among the
little matters in his "Diary," the fact of Her Majesty coming to his
theatre, and waiting awhile after the play to see him and congratulate
him. He speaks of her as "a pretty little girl," and does not seem
particularly "set up" by her compliments. Joseph Sturge, the eminent and
most lovable philanthropist of Birmingham,--a "Friend indeed" to all "in
need,"--waited on Her Majesty, soon after her accession, as one of a
delegation of the Society of Friends. Some years after, he related the
circumstance to me, and simply described her to me as "a nice, pleasant,
modest young woman,--graceful, though a little shy, and on the whole,
comely."

"Did you kiss her hand?" I asked. "O yes, and found that act of homage no
hardship, I assure thee. It was a fair, soft, delicate little hand."

I afterwards regretted that I had not asked him what he did with his
broad-brimmed hat when he was about to be presented, knowing that the
principles of Fox and Penn forbade his removing that article in homage to
any human creature; but I have just discovered in a volume of Court
Records, that "the deputation from the Society of Friends, commonly
called Quakers, were uncovered, according to custom, by the Yeoman of the
Guard." As they were all non-resistants, they doubtless bore the
indignity passively and placidly. Moreover, they all bowed, if they did
not kneel, before the throne on which their Queen was seated, and as I
said kissed her hand, in token of their friendly fealty.

In June, 1838, were issued the first gold sovereigns, bearing the head of
the Queen--the same spirited young head that we see now on all the modern
gold and silver pieces of the realm. That on the copper is a little
different, but all are pretty--so pretty that Her Majesty's loyal
subjects prefer them to all other likenesses, even poor men feeling that
they cannot have too many of them.




CHAPTER XII.

The Coronation.


The coronation was fixed for June 28, 1838 a little more than a year from
the accession.

The, Queen had been slightly troubled at the thought of some of the
antiquated forms of that grand and complicated ceremony--for instance,
the homage of the Peers, spiritual and temporal. As the rule stood, they
were all required after kneeling to her, and pledging their allegiance,
to rise and kiss her on the left cheek. She might be able to bear up
under the salutes of those holy old gentlemen, the archbishops and
bishops--but the anticipation of the kisses of all the temporal Peers,
old and young, was enough to appall her--there were six hundred of them.
So she issued a proclamation excusing the noble gentlemen from that
onerous duty, and at the coronation only the Royal Dukes, Sussex and
Cambridge, kissed the Queen's rosy cheek, by special kinship privilege.
The others had to be content with her hand. The other omitted ceremony
was one which formerly took place in Westminster Hall--consisting chiefly
of the appearance of a knight armed, mailed and mounted, who as Royal
Champion proceeded to challenge the enemies of the new Sovereign to
mortal combat. This, which had appeared ridiculous in the case of the
burly George IV., would have been something pretty and poetic in that of
the young maiden-Queen, but she doubtless felt that as every Englishman
was disposed to be her champion, the old form would be the idlest,
melodramatic bravado.

The crown which had fitted George and William was too big and heavy for
their niece--so it was taken to pieces, and the jewels re-set in a way to
greatly reduce the size and weight. A description now before me, of the
new crown is too dazzling for me to transcribe. I must keep my eyes for
plainer work; but I can give the value of the bauble--£112,760!--and this
was before the acquisition of the koh-i-noor.

Of the coronation I will try to give a clear, if not a full account.

It was a wonderful time in London when that day of days was ushered in,
by the roar of cannon from the grim old Tower, answered by a battery in
St. James' Park. Such a world of people everywhere! All Great Britain and
much of the Continent seemed to have emptied themselves into this
metropolis, which overflowed with a surging, murmuring tide of humanity.
Ah me, how much of that eager, noisy life is silent and forgotten now!

There may have before been coronations surpassing that of Victoria in
scenic splendor, if not in solid magnificence-that of the first Napoleon
and his Empress, perhaps-but there has been nothing so grand as a royal
pageant seen since, until the crowning of the present Russian Emperor at
Moscow, where the almost intolerable splendor was seen against a dark
background of tragic possibilities. This English coronation was less
brilliant, perhaps, but also less barbaric than that august, overpowering
ceremony over which it seemed there might hover "perturbed spirits" of
men slain in mad revolts against tyranny--of youths and women done to
death on the red scaffold, in dungeons, in midnight mines, and Siberian
snows; and about which there surely lurked the fiends of dynamite. But
this pure young girl, trusting implicitly in the loving loyalty of her
subjects--relying on Heaven for help and guidance, lifted to the throne
by the Constitution and the will of a free people, as conquerors have
been upborne on shields, what had she to fear? A very different and un-
nihilistic "cloud of witnesses" was hers, we may believe. If ever there
was a mortal state-occasion for the immortals to be abroad, it was this.

The great procession started from Buckingham Palace at about 10 o'clock.
The first two state carriages, each drawn by six horses, held the Duchess
of Kent and her attendants. The Queen's mother, regally attired, was
enthusiastically cheered all along the way. The Queen was, of course, in
the grand state coach, which is mostly gilding and glass--a prodigiously
imposing affair. It was drawn by eight cream-colored horses--great
stately creatures--with white flowing manes, and tails like mountain
cascades. Many battalions and military bands were stationed along the
line, presenting arms and playing the National Anthem, "And the People, O
the People!" Every window, balcony, and door-step was swarming, every
foot of standing room occupied--even on roofs and chimneys. Ladies and
children waved handkerchiefs and dropped flowers from balconies, and the
shouts from below and the shouts from above seemed to meet and break into
joyous storm-bursts in the air. Accounts state that Her Majesty "looked
exceedingly well, and that she seemed in excellent spirits, and highly
delighted with the imposing scene and the enthusiasm of her subjects."
One would think she might have been.

She had a great deal to go through with that day. She must have rehearsed
well, or she would have been confused by the multiform ceremonials of
that grand spectacular performance. The scene, as she entered Westminster
Abbey, might well have startled her out of her serene calm, but it
didn't. On each side of the nave, reaching from the western door to the
organ screen, were the galleries, erected for the spectators. These were
all covered with crimson cloth fringed with gold. Underneath them were
lines of foot-guards, very martial-looking, fellows. The old stone floor,
worn with the tread of Kings' coronations and funeral processions, was
covered with matting, and purple and crimson cloth. Immediately under the
central tower of the Abbey, inside the choir, five steps from the floor,
on a carpet of purple and gold, was a platform covered with cloth of
gold, and on it was the golden "Chair of Homage." Within the chancel,
near the altar, stood the stiff, quaint old chair in I which all the
sovereigns of England since Edward the Confessor have been crowned. Cloth
of gold quite concealed the "chunk of old red sandstone," called the
"stone of Scone," on which the ancient Scottish Kings were crowned, and
which the English seem to keep and use for luck. There were galleries on
galleries upholstered in crimson cloth, and splendid tapestries, wherein
sat members of Parliament and foreign Princes and Embassadors. In the
organ loft were singers in white, and instrumental performers in scarlet
--all looking very fine and festive; and up very high was a band of
trumpeters, whose music, pealing over the heads of the people, produced,
at times, a wonderful effect.

Fashionable people had got up early for once. Many were at the Abbey
doors long before 5 o'clock, and when the Queen arrived at 11:30,
hundreds of delicate ladies in full evening-dress, had been waiting for
her for seven long hours. The foreign Princes and Embassadors were in
gorgeous costumes; and there was the Lord Mayor in all his glory,
blinding to behold. His most formidable rival was Prince Esterhazy, who
sparkled with costly jewels from his head down to his boots-looking as
though he had been snowed upon with pearls, and had also been caught out
in a rain of diamonds, and had come in dripping. All these grand
personages and the Peers and Peeresses were so placed as to have a
perfect view of the part of the minster in which the coronation took
place-called, in the programme, "the Theatre."

The Queen came in about the middle of the splendid procession. In her
royal robe of crimson velvet, furred with ermine, and trimmed with gold
lace, wearing the collars of her orders, and on her head a circlet of
gold-her immense train borne by eight very noble young ladies, she is
said to have looked "truly royal," though so young, and only four feet
eight inches in height. As she entered the Abbey, the orchestra and choir
broke out into the National Anthem. They performed bravely, but were
scarcely heard for the mighty cheers which went up from the great
assembly, making the old minster resound in all its aisles and arches and
ancient chapels. Then, as she advanced slowly towards the choir, the
anthem, "_I was glad_" was sung, and after that, the sweet-voiced
choir-boys of Westminster chanted like so many white-gowned, sleek-headed
angels, "_Vivat Victoria Regina!_" Ah, then she felt very solemnly
that she was Queen; and moving softly to a chair placed between the Chair
of Homage and the altar, she knelt down on the "faldstool" before it, and
meekly said her prayers.

When the boys had finished their glad anthem, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, with several high officers of state, moved to the east side
of the theatre, when the Primate, in a loud voice, said: "I here present
unto you Queen Victoria, the undoubted Queen of this realm, wherefore all
you who are come this day to your homage, are you willing to do the
same?"

It seems a little confused, but the people understood it, and shouted,
"God save Queen Victoria!" This "recognition," as it was called, was
repeated at the south, west, and north sides of the "theatre," and every
time was answered by that joyous shout, and by the pealing of trumpets
and the beating of drums. The Queen stood throughout this ceremony, each
time turning her head towards the point from which the recognition came.

One may almost wonder if all those loyal shouts and triumphant
trumpetings and drum-beatings did not trouble somewhat the long quiet of
death in the dusky old chapels in which sleep the fair Queen Eleanor, and
the gracious Philippa, and valiant Elizabeth, and hapless Mary Stuart.

Then followed a great many curious rites and ceremonies of receiving and
presenting offerings; and many prayers and the reading of the Litany, and
the preaching of the sermon, in which the poor Queen was exhorted to
"follow in the footsteps of her predecessor"--which would have been to
walk "sailor-fashion" morally. Then came the administration of the oath.
After having been catechised by the Archbishop in regard to the
Established Church, Her Majesty was conducted to the altar, where
kneeling, and laying her hand on the Gospels in the great Bible, she
said, in clear tones, silvery yet solemn: "The things which I have here
before promised, I will perform and keep. So help me God!"

She then kissed the book, and after that the hymn, "_Come, Holy Ghost,
our souls inspire_" was sung by the choir, the Queen still kneeling.

I read the other day that the Duke of Connaught (Prince Arthur), on
visiting Norwich Cathedral, was shown the very Bible on which his mother
took her well-kept coronation oath, forty-five years ago. It was a most
solemn pledge, and yet it was all comprehended in the little girl
Victoria's promise to her governess, "I will be good."

Her Majesty next seated herself in St. Edward's chair; a rich cloth of
gold was held over her head, and the Archbishop anointed her with holy
oil, in the form of a cross. Then followed more prayers, more forms and
ceremonies, the presentation of swords and spurs, and such like little
feminine adornments, the investing with the Imperial robe, the sceptre
and the ring, the consecration and blessing of the new crown, and at last
the crowning. In this august ceremony three Archbishops, two Bishops, a
Dean, and several other clergymen were somehow employed. The task was
most religiously performed. It was the Primate of all England who
reverently placed the crown on that reverent young head. The moment this
was done all the Peers and Peeresses, who, with their coronets in their
hands, or borne by pages at their sides, had been intently watching the
proceedings, crowned themselves, shouting, "God save the Queen!" while
again trumpets pealed forth, and drums sounded, and the far-off Tower and
Park guns, fired by signal, boomed over the glad Capital.

It is stated that the most magically beautiful effect of all was produced
by the Peeresses, in suddenly and simultaneously donning their coronets.
It was as though the stars had somehow kept back their radiance till the
young moon revealed herself in all her silver splendor.

Then came the exhortation, an anthem, and a benediction, and after a few
more forms and pomps, the Queen was conducted to the Chair of Homage.
Before the next long ceremony began, the Queen handed her two sceptres to
two of the lords in attendance, to keep for her, as quietly as any other
girl might hand over to a couple of dangling young gentlemen her fan and
bouquet to hold for her, while she drew on her gloves.

The Lords Spiritual, headed by the Primate, began the homage by kneeling,
and kissing the Queen's hand. Then came the Dukes of Sussex and
Cambridge, who, removing their coronets, and touching them to the Crown,
solemnly pledged their allegiance, and kissed their niece on the left
cheek. Her manner to them was observed to be very affectionate. Then the
other Dukes, and Peers on Peers did homage by kneeling, touching coronet
to crown, and kissing that little white hand. When the turn of the Duke
of Wellington came, the entire assembly broke into applause; and yet he
was not the hero of the day, but an older and far more infirm Peer, Lord
Rolle, who mounted the steps with difficulty, and stumbling at the top,
fell, and rolled all the way back to the floor, where "he lay at the
bottom of the steps, coiled up in his robes." At sight of the accident
the Queen rose from her throne, and held out her hands as though to help
him. It was a pretty incident, not for the poor Peer, but as showing Her
Majesty's impulsive kindness of heart. The old nobleman was not hurt, but
quickly unwound himself, rose, mounted the steps, and tried again and
again to touch the crown with the coronet in his weak, uncertain hand,
every plucky effort being hailed with cheers. At length the Queen,
smiling, gave him her hand to kiss, dispensing with the form of touching
her crown. Miss Martineau, who witnessed the scene, states that a
foreigner who was present was made to believe by a wag that this
ludicrous tumble was a part of the regular programme, and that the Lords
Rolle held their title on condition of performing that feat at every
coronation, Rolle meaning roll.

This most tedious ceremony over, finishing up with more anthems,
trumpets, drums, and shouts, the Sacrament was administered to the Queen
--she discrowning herself, and kneeling while she partook of the holy
elements. Then a re-crowning, a re-enthronement, more anthems, and the
blessed release of the final benediction. Passing into King Edward's
chapel, the Queen changed the Imperial for the Royal robe of purple
velvet, and passed out of the Abbey, wearing her crown, bearing the
sceptre in her right hand, and the orb in her left, and so got into her
carriage, and drove home through the shouting multitude. It is stated
that Her Majesty did not seem exhausted, though she was observed to put
her hand to her head frequently, as though the crown was not, after all,
a very comfortable fit.

After reigning more than a year, she had been obliged to spend nearly
five fatiguing hours in being finished as a Queen. How strange it all
seems to us American Republicans, who make and unmake our rulers with
such expedition and scant ceremony.




CHAPTER XIII.

Pictures and descriptions of the Queen--Her love of pets--Her passion for
horseback exercise--Her spirited behavior in the first change of her
Ministers.


In the Hall of the St. George's Society of Philadelphia there is a very
interesting picture by the late Mr. Sully of Queen Victoria in her
coronation robes. It is life-size, and represents her as mounting the
steps of the throne, her head slightly turned, and looking back over the
left shoulder. It seems to me that Her Majesty should own this picture,
for it is an exquisite specimen of Mr. Sully's peculiar coloring, and a
very lovely portrait. Here is no rigidity, no constraint, no irksome
state. There is a springy, exultant vitality in the bearing of the
graceful figure, and the light poise of the head, while in the complexion
there is a tender softness and a freshness of tints belonging only to the
dewy morning of life. The princeliness of youth, the glow of joy and hope
overtop and outshine the crown which she wears as lightly as though it
were a May-queen's Coronal of roses; and the dignity of simple girlish
purity envelops her more royally than velvet and ermine. The eyes have
the softness of morning skies and spring violets, and the smile hovering
about the red lips, a little parted, is that of an unworn heart and an
eager, confident spirit. This was the first portrait of the young Queen I
ever saw, and still seems to me the loveliest.

Another American artist, Mr. Leslie, painted a large picture of the
coronation, which Her Majesty purchased. As he was to paint the scene, he
was provided with a very good seat near the throne--so near that he said
he could plainly see, when she came to sign her coronation oath, that she
wrote a large, bold hand, doing credit to her old writing master, Mr.
Steward.

In his recollections he says: "I don't know why, but the first sight of
her in her robes of state brought tears into my eyes, and it had this
effect upon many people; she looked almost like a child." Campbell, the
poet, is related to have said to a friend: "I was at Her Majesty's
coronation in Westminster Abbey, and she conducted herself so well during
the long and fatiguing ceremony that I shed tears many times."

Carlyle said at the time, with a shake of his craggy, shaggy head: "Poor
little Queen! she is at an age at which a girl can hardly be trusted to
choose a bonnet for herself, yet a task is laid upon her from which an
archangel might shrink.":

And yet, according to Earl Russell, this "poor little Queen," over whom
the painters and poets wept, and the great critic "roared gently" his
lofty commiseration, informed her anxious mother that she "ascended the
throne without alarm." Victoria, if reminded of this in later years,
might have said, "They who know nothing, fear nothing"; and yet the very
vagueness, as well as vastness, of the untried life would have appalled
many spirits.

The Queen was certainly a very valiant little woman, but there would have
been something unnatural, almost uncanny, about her had the regal calm
and religious seriousness which marked her mien during those imposing
rites, continued indefinitely, and it is right pleasant to read in the
reminiscences of Leslie, how the child in her broke out when all the
magnificent but tiresome parade, all the grand stage-business with those
heavy actors, was over. The painter says: "She is very fond of dogs, and
has one favorite little spaniel, who is always on the lookout for her
return when she is from home. She had, of course, been separated from him
on that day longer than usual, and when the state-coach drove up to the
Palace steps she heard him barking joyously in the hall, and exclaimed,
'There's Dash,' and was in a hurry to doff her crown and royal robe, and
lay down the sceptre and the orb, which she carried in her hands, and go
and give Dash his bath."

I hope this story is literally true, for I have a strong impression that
it was this peculiar love of pets, this sense of companionship with
intelligent, affectionate animals, especially dogs and horses, that with
an ever-fresh delight in riding and dancing, healthful sports and merry
games, was the salvation of the young Queen. Without such vents, the
mighty responsibility of her dizzy position, the grandeur, the dignity,
the decorum, the awful etiquette would have killed her--or at least,
puffed her up with pride, or petrified her with formality. Sir John
Campbell wrote of her at this time: "She is as merry and playful as a
kitten."--I hope she loved kittens! Again he says: "The Queen was in
great spirits, and danced with more than usual gaiety, a romping,
country-dance, called the Tempest."

In addition to this girlish gaiety, Victoria seems always to have had a
vein of un-Guelph-like humor, a keen sense of the ludicrous, a delicious
enjoyment of fun, which are among Heaven's choicest blessings to poor
mortals, royal or republican. Prince Albert's sympathy with her love of
innocent amusement, and her delight in the absurdities and drolleries of
animal as well as of human life and character, was one and perhaps not
the weakest of the ties which bound her to him.

With the young Queen equestrian exercise was more than a pastime, it was
almost a passion. She rode remarkably well, and in her gratitude for this
beautiful accomplishment,--rarer even in England than people think--she
wished as soon as she came to the throne, to give her riding-master,
Fozard, a suitable position near her person, something higher than that
of a groom. She was told that there was no situation vacant that he could
fill. "Then I will create one," she said, and dubbed him "Her Majesty's
Stirrup holder." I would have done more for him--made him Master of the
Horse, in place of Lord Albemarle, who always rolled along in the royal
carriage, or created for him the office of Lord High Equerry of the
Realm.

N. P. Willis, in his delightful "Pencilings By the Way," gives a bright
glimpse of the Queen on horseback. It was in Hyde Park, and he saye the
party from the Palace came on so fast that the scarlet-coated outriders
had difficulty in clearing the track of the other equestrians. Her
Majesty has always liked to go fast by horse or steam-power, as though
determined not to let Time get ahead of her, for all his wings.

The poet then adds: "Her Majesty rides quite fearlessly and securely. I
met her party full gallop near the centre of Rotten Row. On came the
Queen, on a dun-colored, highly-groomed horse, with her Prime Minister on
one side of her, and Lord Byron on the other; her _cortège_ of Maids
of Honor, and Lords and Ladies of the Court checking their spirited
horses, and preserving always a slight distance between themselves and
Her Majesty. ... Victoria's round, plump figure looks exceedingly well in
her dark green riding-dress. ... She rode with her mouth open, and seemed
exhilarated with pleasure."

This was in 1839. Some years later, a young American writer, who shall be
nameless, but who was as passionate a lover of horses as the Queen
herself, wrote a sort of pæan to horseback-riding. She began by telling
her friends, all whom it might concern, that when she was observed to be
low in her mind--when she seemed "weary of life," and to "shrink from its
strife"--when, in short, things didn't go well with her generally, they
were not to come to her with the soft tones or the tears of sympathy;
then she went on thus, rather pluckily, I think:

  "No counsel I ask, and no pity I need,
  But bring me, O bring me, my gallant young steed,
  With his high-arched neck and his nostril spread wide;
  His eye full of fire, and his step full of pride.
  As I spring to his back, as I seize the strong rein,
  The strength to my spirit returneth again,
  The bonds are all broken that fettered my mind,
  And my cares borne away on the wings of the wind,--
  My pride lifts its head, for a season, bowed down,
  And the queen in my nature now puts on her crown."

Now if the simple American girl prepared for a lonely gallop through the
woods, could so have thrilled with the fulness, joy, and strength of
young life; could have felt so royal, mounted on a half-broken, roughly-
groomed western colt (for that's what the "steed" really was), with few
fine points and no pedigree to speak of--what must the glorious exercise
have been to that great little Queen, re-enthroned on thoroughbred,
"highly-groomed," magnificent English horse-flesh?

Her Majesty has always been constant in her equine loves. Six of her
saddle-horses, splendidly caparisoned, walked proudly, as so many
Archbishops, in the coronation procession; and in the royal stables of
London and Windsor, her old favorites have been most tenderly cared for.
When she could no longer use them, she still petted them, and never
reproached them for having "outlived their usefulness."

Another writer from America, James Gordon Bennett, sent home, this
coronation year, some very pleasant descriptions of the Queen. At the
opera he had his first sight of her. "About ten o'clock, when the opera
was half through, the royal party entered. 'There! there! there!'
exclaimed a young girl behind me--'there's the Queen!' looking eagerly up
to the royal box. I looked too, and saw a fair, light-haired little girl,
dressed with great simplicity, in white muslin, with hair plain, a blue
ribbon at the back, enter the box and take her seat, half hid in the red
drapery at the corner remote from the stage. The Queen is certainly very
simple in her appearance; but I am not sure that this very simplicity
does not set off to advantage her fair, pretty, pleasant, little round
Dutch face. Her bust is extremely well-proportioned, and her complexion
very fair. There is a slight parting of the rosy lips, between which you
can see little nicks of something like very white teeth. The expression
of her face is amiable and good-tempered. I could see nothing like that
awful majesty, that mysterious something which doth hedge a Queen. ...
During the performance, the Queen would now and then draw aside the
curtain and gaze back at the audience, with that earnestness and
curiosity which any young girl might show."

Mr. Bennett gave other descriptions of the Queen as he saw her driving in
the Park. He wrote: "I had been taking a walk over the interior of the
Park, gazing listlessly at the crowd of carriages as they rolled by. Just
as I was entering the arched gateway to depart, a sensation spread
through the crowd which filled that part of the promenade. 'The Queen!
the Queen!' flew from lip to lip. In an instant two outriders shot
through the gate; near Apsley House, followed by a barouche and four,
carrying the Queen and three of her suite. She sat on the right hand of
the back seat, leaning a good deal back. She was, as usual, dressed very
simply, in white, with a plain straw, or Leghorn bonnet, and her veil was
thrown aside. She carried a green parasol."

Ah, why _green_, O Queen? Later that afternoon he saw her again, going at
a slower rate, holding up that green parasol, bowing right and left and
smiling, as the crowd saluted and cheered. The Queen does not bow and
smile so much nowadays, but then she no longer carries a green parasol.

N. P. Willis also saw the young sovereign at the opera, and dashes off a
poet's vivid sketch of her:

"In her box to the left of me sat the Queen, keeping time with her fan to
the singing of Pauline Garcia, her favorite Minister, Lord Melbourne,
standing behind her chair, and her maids of honor grouped around her--
herself the youthful, smiling, admired sovereign of the most powerful
nation on earth. The Queen's face has thinned and grown more oval since I
saw her four years ago as the Princess Victoria. She has been compelled
to think since then, and such exigencies in all stations in life work out
the expression of the face. She has now what I should pronounce a
decidedly intellectual countenance, a little petulant withal when she
turns to speak, but on the whole quite beautiful enough for a virgin
Queen. She was dressed less gaily than many others around her."

I have given much space to these personal descriptions of Queen Victoria
as she appeared in those first two years of her Queenhood, because they
are still to the world--the world of young people, at least--the most
interesting years of all her glorious reign. There was great poetry about
that time, and, it must be confessed, some peril.

Mrs. Oliphant, in her excellent little life of the Queen, says: "The
immediate circle of friends around the young sovereign fed her with no
flatteries."

It is difficult to believe such a statement of any mortal Court-circle.
But if gross adulation was not offered--a sort of moral pabulum, which
the Queen's admirable good sense would have rejected, there was profound
homage in the very attitude of courtiers and in the etiquette of Court
life. The incense of praise and admiration, "unuttered or exprest," was
perpetually and inevitably rising up about her young footsteps wherever
they strayed; it formed the very air she breathed--about as healthful an
atmosphere to live and sleep in as would be that of a conservatory
abounding in tuberoses, white lilies, and jessamine.

Still, that she did not grow either arrogant or artificial, seems proved
by the pleasant accounts given of her simple and gracious ways by the
painters of whom I have spoken--Thomas Sully and Charles Leslie. I
remember particularly, hearing from a friend of Mr. Sully, of the
generous interest she took in his portrait of her, which, I think, was
painted at Windsor. She gave him all the sittings, or rather standings,
her busy life would allow; giving him free use of all the splendid
paraphernalia necessary for his work. Between whiles the painter's young
daughter stood for the picture, being, of course, obliged to don the
royal robes and even the tiara. One day, while thus engaged and arrayed,
the Queen came suddenly into the room. Miss Sully much confused was about
to descend from the steps of the throne, when the Queen exclaimed,
laughing: "Pray stay as you are; I like to see how I look!"

Leslie, whose picture of the Coronation was painted at Windsor, gave a
pleasant account of the Queen's kindly and easy ways. "She is now," he
says, "so far satisfied with the likeness that she does not wish me to
touch it again. She sat five times--not only for the face, but for as
much as is seen of the figure, and for the hands, with the coronation-
ring on the finger. Her hands, by the by, are very pretty--the backs
dimpled and the fingers delicately shaped. She was particular to have her
hair dressed exactly as she wore it at the ceremony every time she sat."

The Queen in her writings says very little of this portion of her
"strange, eventful history,"--a time so filled with incident, so gilded
with romance, so bathed in poetry, so altogether splendid in the eyes of
all the world; for to her, life--or all which was most "happy and
glorious" in life--began and ended with Prince Albert. She even speaks
with regret of that period of single queenliness, and says: "A worse
school for a young girl--one more detrimental to all natural feelings and
affections--cannot well be imagined than the position of a Queen at
eighteen without experience and without a husband to guide and support
her. This the Queen can state from painful experience, and she thanks God
that none of her own dear daughters are exposed to such danger."

Human nature is rash and young-woman-nature ambitious and ill-disposed to
profit by the costly experience of eld, and I doubt not the clever
Princess Royal or the proud and fair Princess Louise would have mounted
any throne in Christendom "without alarm." Most of Her Majesty's loyal
subjects deny that any harm came to her from her unsupported position as
Queen Regnant, or that she was capable of being thus harmed--but the
Queen knows best.

The Princess Victoria was a proud, high-spirited girl, and it were no
treason to suppose that at the first she had a sense of relief when the
leading-strings, in which she had been so long held, were cut, though by
the scissors of Atropos, and she was free to stand and go alone. Her good
mother, becoming at once an object of political jealousy, removed herself
from the old close companionship, though retaining in her heart the old
tender solicitude--perhaps feeling herself more than ever necessary to
her daughter. Mothers are so conceited. It is small wonder if after her
life of studious and modest seclusion and filial subordination, the
gaiety, the splendor, and the supremacy of the new existence intoxicated
the young sovereign somewhat. The pleasures of her capital and the homage
of the world captivated her imagination, while the consciousness of power
and wealth and personal loveliness inclined her to be self-indulgent and
self-willed. In spite of the good counsel of the family Mentor, Baron
Stockmar, and of her sagacious uncle, Leopold, she must have committed
some errors of judgment--fallen into some follies; she was so young and
impulsive--so very human. Her first independent political act seems to
have been a mistake, founded on a misunderstanding. It was at all events
an act more Georgian than Victorian. The Whig party, to which she was
attached, had by a series of blunders and by weak vacillation lost
strength and popularity, and Lord Melbourne's Ministry found itself so
hard-pressed that it struck colors and resigned. Then the Queen was
advised by the Duke of Wellington  to invite the Conservative leader, Sir
Robert Peel, to form a new Ministry. She did so, but frankly told that
gentleman that she was very sorry to lose Lord Melbourne and his
colleagues, whom she liked and approved--which must have been pleasant
talk to Sir Robert. However, he went to work, but soon found that
objections were made by his colleagues to certain Whig ladies in personal
attendance on the Queen, and likely to influence her. So it was proposed
to Her Majesty to make an important change in her household. I believe
that the Duchess of Sutherland and Lady Normandy--the first the sister
and the second the wife of a prominent Liberal--were especially meant;
but the Queen took it that she was called on to dismiss all her ladies,
and flatly refused, saying that to do so would be "repugnant to her
feelings"--forgetting that feeling was no constitutional argument. She
had got used to those Ladies of the Bed-Chamber, and they to her. They
knew just where everything was, what colors became her, and what gossip
and games amused her. Doubtless she loved them, and doubtless also she
loved her own way. Surely the right of her constitutional advisers to
dictate to her must have a limit somewhere, and she drew the line at her
bed-chamber door. Then, as Sir Robert would not yield the point, she
recalled Melbourne and went on as before. The affair created immense
excitement. Non-political people were amused at the little Queen's spirit
of independence. Liberals applauded her patriotism and pluck in defeating
the "wicked Bed-Chamber Plot," and for her loyalty to her friends; but
the defeated Tories were very naturally incensed, and, manlike, paid Her
Majesty back, when measures which she had much at heart came before
Parliament a year or so later--as we shall see.

Many years later the Queen appears to have thought that she was beginning
to drift on to rocks of serious political mistakes and misfortunes as
well as into rapids of frivolity, when the good, wise Pilot came to take
the helm of her life-craft.

This pilot was, of course, the "Prince Charming," selected and reared for
her away in Saxe-Coburg--that handsome Cousin Albert, once in a letter to
the good uncle Leopold tacitly accepted by her in girlish
thoughtlessness, as she would have accepted a partner in a joyous
country-dance, and afterwards nearly as thoughtlessly thrown over and
himself sent adrift.




CHAPTER XIV.

Prince Albert.


If the Princess Charlotte was the prototype of her cousin Victoria,
Prince Leopold was in some respects the prototype of his beloved nephew
Albert, who was born in August, 1819, at Rosenau, a charming summer
residence of his father, the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield. The
little Prince's grandmother, the Dowager-Duchess of Saxe-Coburg, in
writing to her daughter, the Duchess of Kent, to announce the happy
event, says: "The little boy is to be christened to-morrow, and to have
the name of Albert."

When the christening came off it appeared that "Albert" was only one and
the simplest of several names, but he was always known and always will be
known by that name. It has been immortalized by his upright character,
his rare intellectual gifts, his goodness and grace; by the affection of
his countrymen and his noble life-work in England; by the genius of
England's greatest living poet, and by the love and sorrow of England's
Queen.

While the Prince was yet a baby, his mother wrote of him: "Albert is
superb,--remarkably beautiful, with large blue eyes, a delicate mouth, a
fine nose, and dimpled cheeks. He is lively and always gay."

Albert was the second son of the Duke and Duchess. Ernest, a year or two
older, is thus described by his mother: "Ernest is very strong and
robust, but not half so pretty as his brother. He is handsome, though;
with black eyes."

Prince Leopold spent some time with his brother at Coburg when Albert was
about two years old, and then began the tender, life-long mutual
affection which led to such happy and important results. The young mother
wrote: "Albert adores his uncle Leopold; never quits him for a moment;
looks sweetly at him; is constantly embracing him; and is never happy
except when near him."

The grandmother also wrote: "Leopold is very kind to the little boys.
Bold _Albertinchen_ drags him constantly about by the hand. The little
fellow is the pendant to the pretty cousin (Princess Victoria); very
handsome, but too slight for a boy; lively, very funny, all good nature,
and full of mischief. The other day he did not know how to make enough of
me, because I took him with me in the carriage. He kept saying, 'Albert
is going with grandmamma!' and gave me his little hand to kiss. 'There,
grandmamma, kiss!'"

The little Princes were not long to enjoy the care and society of their
loving and lovely mother. An unhappy estrangement between their parents,
followed by a separation and a divorce, left them at seven and five years
old half-orphaned; for they never saw their mother again. She died at St.
Wendel, in Switzerland, while still young and beautiful; but doubtless
weary enough of life, which had brought her such happiness, only to take
it away. Two words as holy as her prayers, were on her dying lips--
"Ernest!" "Albert!"

But the boys were rich in grandmothers--having two of the very tenderest
and dearest of Dowager-Duchesses to watch over them (watching each other,
perhaps, the while) and to minister to them for many a year. According to
these venerable ladies, Albert, who was certainly a delicate, nervous
child, was one of those "little angels" who are destined not to survive
the dimpled, golden-curled, lisping, and croupy period; being too good
and sweet and exquisite for this wicked and rough world. But, according
to certain entries in the Prince's own diary--his first, begun in his
sixth year--he at that age happily revealed some hopeful signs of saving
naughtiness and healthful "original sin."

"11th _February_, 1825.
"I was told to recite something, but did not wish to do so. That was not
right--naughty!"

"20th _February_.
"I had left all my lesson books lying about in the room, and I had to put
them away; then I cried."

"28th _February_.
"I cried at my lesson to-day because I could not find a verb, and the
Rath (tutor) pinched me, to show me what a verb was. I cried about it."

"9th _April_.
"I got up well and happy; afterward I had a fight with my brother."

"10th _April_.
"I had another fight with my brother; that was not right."

This almost baby-prince seems to have been a valorous little fellow. When
his blood was up he seems to have given little thought to the superior
age or strength of his opponents, but to have been always ready to "pitch
in"; or, to use the more refined and courtly language of his tutor, M.
Florschütz, "he was not, at times, indisposed to resort to force, if his
wishes were not at once complied with."

For several years the young Princes, devoted to each other, passed
studious, yet active and merry lives at the Coburg Palace, and in the
dear country home of Rosenau. They seem to have corresponded with their
cousin Victoria, whom, it seems, the lad Albert was led by his grandmamma
Coburg to regard with an especially romantic and tender interest. That
grandmamma, the mother of Prince Leopold and the Duchess of Kent, and who
seems to have been a very able and noble woman, died when her darling
Albert was about twelve years old; but the hope of her heart did not die
with her, and without doubt Prince Albert was educated with special and
constant reference to a far more important and brilliant destiny than
often falls to the lot of the young sons of even Grand Ducal houses. He
was well instructed in many branches of science, in languages, in music
and literature, in politics, and what seems a contradiction, in ethics,--
his moral development being most carefully watched over, while his
physical training was a pendant to that which made his cousin Victoria
one of the healthiest and hardiest of modern Englishwomen. With a
delicate constitution and a sensitive, nervous temperament, Prince Albert
would scarcely have lived to manhood, except for that admirable physical
training. As a child, he was braced up by much life in the open air,
simple diet, a good deal of rough play--while as to sleep, he was allowed
to help himself, which he did plentifully, being much given to
somnolency. As a lad and youth, he hardened himself by all healthful
manly sports and exercises; in short, made a boy of mamma's "angel," a
man of grandmamma's golden-haired darling. Nor was that great element of
a liberal education, travel, wanting. The brothers paid visits to their
uncle Leopold, now King of Belgium, and after tours in Germany, Austria,
and Holland, visited England, and their aunt Kent and their cousin
Victoria, to whom they were most warmly commended by their uncle.

According to the Queen's books, with this visit of three weeks began the
personal acquaintance of the cousins; yet old Kensingtonians have a
legend which they obstinately cling to, that Prince Albert, when much
younger, spent three years in the old brick palace with his aunt and
cousin, in pursuance of the matrimonial plans of the Duchess of Kent and
Prince Leopold; and I have seen in a quaint old juvenile book a wood-cut
representing the little Victoria in a big hat, riding on a pony in the
park, and little Albert in a visored cap and short jacket running along
at her side. But, of course, it was all a mistake; there was no such
period of childish courtship, and the boy in the queer Dutch cap was an
optical illusion, or a "double," in German a _doppel-gänger_. During
the real visit, occurred the seventeenth birthday of the Princess, and
there were public rejoicings and Court-festivities, preceded and followed
for the cousins by days of pleasant companionship, in walking and riding,
and evenings of music and dancing. But if the lad Albert, remembering the
promise of his garrulous nurse, and the prophecy of his fond grandmamma,
and the wish of his father and uncle Leopold, sought to read his destiny
in the baffling blue eyes of the gay young girl, he seems to have failed,
for he could only write home: "Our cousin is most amiable." Perhaps
Victoria's own wonderful destiny, now drawing near, left little room in
her heart or thought for lesser romances; perhaps the crown of England
suspended over her head as by a single hair, the frail life of an old
man, outdazzled even the graces and merits of her handsome but rather
immature kinsman. Besides, "Prince Charming" at that time was short and
stout, and he spoke our language too imperfectly to make love (which he
would have pronounced _luf_) in the future Queen's English; and so
he went away without any exchange of vows, or rings, or locks of fair
hair or miniatures, and returned to his studies, principally at the
University of Bonn. It is true that the Princess wrote to her "dearest
uncle Leopold" soon after this visit, begging him to take special care of
one now so dear to her, adding: "I hope and trust that all will go on
prosperously and well on this subject now of so much importance to me."
Yet King Leopold was a wise man, and did not build too securely on the
fancy of a girl of seventeen, though he kept to work, he and the Baron,
on their Prince-Consort making, in spite of the opposition of old King
William, and all his brothers, and the candidates favored by them.

It was from quaint, quiet old Bonn that Prince Albert wrote, on his
cousin's accession to the throne, his famous letter of congratulation, in
which there appeared not one word of courtier-like adulation--not a
thought calculated to stir the heart of the young girl suddenly raised to
that giddy height overlooking the world, with a thrill of exultation or
vain-gloriousness. Thus wrote this boy-man of eighteen: "Now you are
Queen of the mightiest land of Europe; in your hand lies the happiness of
millions. May Heaven assist you, and strengthen you with its strength in
the high, but difficult task."

After leaving the University Prince Albert traveled in Switzerland and
Italy with Baron Stockmar--everywhere winning the admiration and respect
of the best sort of people by the rare princeliness of his appearance,
his refined taste, his thoughtful and singularly receptive mind. And so
three years went by. They were three years of uncertainty in regard to
the great projects formed for him, of happiness, and a noble and useful,
if subordinate career. King Leopold, the good genius of the two families,
had not suffered his cousin to forget him, but though she declared she
cared for no one else, she was not disposed to enter into any positive
engagement, even with Albert. She enjoyed intensely her proud,
independent position as Queen Regnant. She was having such a glorious
swing at life, and very naturally feared the possible restraints, and the
inevitable subordination of marriage. She was "too young to marry," and
Albert was still younger--full three months. She would remain as she was,
the gay, untrammeled maiden-Queen of England, for at least three or four
years longer, and then think about it. The Prince was made, aware by his
uncle Leopold of his royal cousin's state of feeling, or unfeeling, and
was in a very doubtful and despondent state of mind when, polished by
study and travel, grown tall and graceful, and "ideally beautiful," a
veritable "Prince Charming," he came over the sea, out of fairyland, via
Rotterdam, to seek his fortune--to attempt, at least, to wake the
grandeur-enchanted Princess from her passionless dream of lonely,
loveless sovereignty. He came, was seen, and conquered! But not at once;
ah, no; for this charming royal idyll had its changing strophes, marking
deepening degrees of sentiment--admiration, interest, hope, assurance,
joyous certainty.

The Queen had resolved to receive both the Princes with cousinly
affection and royal honors, but as though they had come on an ordinary
visit. As for Albert, she meant probably to reason with him frankly, till
he should be convinced that they were "ower young to marry yet"--till he
should realize his own exceeding youthfulness. Then, as he must go away,
and "wait a little longer," she would see as much of him as possible--he
was such a good, constant fellow. But she must give due attention to her
other guests; and then the State had some claim on her time. But when the
Coburg Princes arrived at Windsor, and the Queen, with her mother, met
them at the head of the grand staircase, somehow she had only eyes for
the younger brother; he had grown so manly, so tall, quite out of the old
objectionable stoutness; he had so improved in his English; he was so
handsome--so every way presentable! So, in spite of the gaieties and
forms, and the comings and goings of Windsor, so very much did the royal
maiden, hitherto so gay and "fancy-free" see of her cousin Albert
preparatory to bidding him an indefinite adieu, that on the second day
even, cause for jealousy was given to aspiring courtiers by smiles and
words, especially sweet and gracious, bestowed on the fair Saxon Knight.
On that second day the Queen wrote to her uncle Leopold: "Albert's beauty
is most striking, and he is most amiable and unaffected; in short, very
fascinating." She then added, with an exquisite touch of maiden coyness:
"The young men are _both_ amiable, delightful companions, and I am
glad to have them here."

When a few more days had passed in familiar intercourse, in singing and
walking, in dancing and driving, and best of all, in riding together
(for there is no cradle to rock young Love in like the saddle), the poor
little Queen forsworn, found she had no longer the courage to propose to
that proud young Prince to wait indefinitely on her will--to tarry at
Coburg for more wisdom and beard. At the thought of it she seemed to see
something of noble scorn about his lips, and such grave remonstrance in
his gentle, pensive, forget-me-not eyes, that--the words of parting were
never spoken, or not till after many happy years.

Alas for this fairy-Prince in an unfairylike kingdom! He could only
declare his love, and sound the heart of his beloved, with his eyes.
Etiquette put a leaden seal on his lips till from hers should come the
sweet avowal and the momentous proffer to rule the ruler--to assume
love's sovereignty over the Sovereign. After five days of troubled yet
joyous waiting, it came--the happy "climax," as the Prince called it in a
letter to Baron Stockmar--and then that perfectest flower of human life,
whether in palace or cottage, a pure and noble love, burst into full and
glorious bloom in each young heart. One cannot, even now, read without a
genuine heart-thrill, and a mistiness about the eyes, the simple touching
story of that royal romance of royal old Windsor. More than two-score
years have passed, and yet how fresh it seems! It has the dew and the
bloom of Paradise upon it.

What in all this story seems to me most beautiful and touching, because
so exquisitely womanly, is the meekness of the young Queen. Though as
Queen she offered the Prince her coveted hand--that hand that had held
the sceptre of sceptres, and which Princes and Peers and the
representatives of the highest powers on earth, had kissed in homage, it
was only as a poor little woman's weak hand, which needed to be upheld
and guided in good works, by a stronger, firmer hand; and her head, when
she laid it on her chosen husband's shoulder, had not the feel of the
crown on it. Indeed, she seems to have felt that his love was her real
coronation, his faith her consecration.

To the beloved Stockmar, to whom but a little while before she had
communicated her unalterable determination not to marry any one for ever
so long the newly betrothed wrote: "I do feel so guilty I know not how to
begin my letter; but I think the news it will contain will be sufficient
to ensure your forgiveness. Albert has completely won my heart, and all
was settled between us this morning. I feel certain he will make me
happy. I wish I could feel as certain of my making him happy, but I will
do my best."

Among the entries in the Queen's journal are many like this: "How I will
strive to make Albert feel as little as possible the great sacrifice he
has made. I told him it _was_ a great sacrifice on his part, but he
would not allow it."

Of course the Prince had too much manly feeling and practical good sense
to "allow it." He knew he was the most envied, not only of all poor
German Princes about that time, but of all young scions of royalty the
world over; and besides, he loved his cousin. There is no record or
legend or hint of his having ever loved any other woman, except his good
grandmothers. To her of Gotha he wrote: "The Queen sent for me alone to
her room the other day, and declared to me in a genuine outburst of
affection that I had gained her whole heart, and would make her intensely
happy if I would make her the sacrifice of sharing her life with her, for
she said she looked on it as a sacrifice; the only thing which troubled
her was that she did not think she was worthy of me. The joyous openness
with which she told me this enchanted me, and I was quite carried away by
it."

Still, and always the thought of "sacrifice!" This sentiment of tender
humility, of deference and reverence the Queen never lost. Indeed, it
seems to have grown with years, and as the character of the Prince-
Consort unfolded more and more in beauty, strength, dignity, and
uprightness.

A month was passed by the lovers, in such happiness as comes but once in
life to the most fortunate human beings--to some, alas! never. Then the
Prince returned to Coburg, to settle his affairs and to take leave of his
old home and his kindred. Those partings seem to have pulled hard on his
heart-strings, and are distressing to read about. One would think he was
bound for the "under-world," to wed the Queen of Madagascar. These
Germans are such passionate lovers of the fatherland, that one wonders
how they can ever bring themselves to leave it, to make grand marriages
in England, or fortunes in America, to start a royal house, or a
kindergarten--to become a Field Marshal or a United States Senator.

But all that grief at Coburg and Gotha showed how dearly Prince Albert
was loved, and how he loved.

It seems that the fair cousin at Windsor was scarcely gay, for the
Prince, writing to her mother, says: "What you say of my poor little
bride, sitting all alone in her room, silent and sad, has touched my
heart. Oh, that I might fly to her side to cheer her!"

But she could not have much indulged in this solitary, idle brooding, for
she had work to do, and must be up and doing. First, she had to summon a
Privy Council, which met at Buckingham Palace;--more than eighty Peers,
mostly solemn old fellows, who had outlived their days of romantic
sentiment, if they ever had any, yet to whom the Queen had to declare her
love for her cousin Albert, and her intention to marry him, being
convinced, she said, that this union would "secure her domestic felicity,
and serve the interests of her country." It was a little hard, yet a
certain bracelet, containing a certain miniature, which she wore on her
arm, gave her "courage," she said. Then came a yet more trying ordeal,
for a modest young lady--the announcement of her intended marriage, in a
speech from the throne, in the House of Lords. With the utmost dignity
and calmness, and with a happiness which sparkled in her eyes and glowed
in her blushes, and made strangely beautiful her young face, she read the
announcement in the clear, musical tones so peculiar to her, and with an,
almost religious solemnity. The glory of pure maidenly trust and devotion
resting on her head, outshone the jewels of her tiara; Love was enthroned
at her side.

All was not sunshine, rose-bloom and soft airs before the young German
husband of the Queen. Much doubt and jealousy and some unfriendliness
were waiting for him in high places. The disappointed Tory party, and
some Radicals, opposed hotly the proposed grant for the Prince of
£50,000, and at last cut it down to £30,000.

Then came a discussion over a clause in the Bill for the Naturalization
of the Prince, empowering the husband of the Queen to take precedence
over even the Royal Princes, and to be ever at her side, where he
belonged, which, though finally assented to by these most interested in
England--the Dukes of Sussex and Cambridge--was stoutly opposed by their
elder brother, the Duke of Cumberland, for Heaven and Hanover had not
relieved the English Government of "the bogie." In support of his rights,
Wellington and Brougham stood out, and the clause was dropped. But the
Queen, by the exercise of her prerogative, gave the Prince the title of
Royal Highness, and made him a Field Marshal in the British army; and
about a month later, she settled the precedence question, as far as
concerned England, by proclaiming that by her royal will and pleasure her
husband should "enjoy place, pre-eminence and precedence, next to Her
Majesty."

The amiable Prince is said never to have cherished resentment towards Sir
Robert Peel and others who had voted to cut down his allowance, or the
Duke of Wellington, and Lord Brougham, who had argued that those tiresome
old gentlemen, the Royal Dukes, should have the right to walk and sit
next to _his_ wife on State occasions; but Victoria confesses that
she long felt "most indignant." She was hurt not only in her wifely love,
but in her queenly pride.

Greville says of Kings: "The contrast between their apparent authority
and the contradictions which they practically meet with, must be
peculiarly galling--more especially to men whose minds are seldom
regulated by the beneficial discipline of education, and early collision
with their equals." It must be yet more "galling" for Queens, because
they always have been more flattered, and are imaginative enough to fancy
that in grasping the symbols they hold the power.

But I do not believe that the royal lovers took deeply to heart these
disagreeable matters at this time. I hope they didn't mourn much over the
£20,000 they didn't get. I hope that Love lifted them far above the murky
air of party strife and petty jealousy into a clear, serene atmosphere of
its own. They knew--and it was a great thing to know--that they had the
sympathy of all the true hearts of the realm, whether beating under the
"purple and fine linen" of the rich and noble, or the rough and simple
garments of the poor and humble.

On the 10th of February, 1840, Prince Albert, always tenderly thoughtful
of the dear old Dowager of Saxe-Gotha, his "_liebe grosmama_" who,
when he had parted from her last, had stood at her window, weeping,
stretching out her arms and so desolately calling after him, "Albert!
Albert!" sat down and wrote as no beautifulest Prince of poetry or
romance ever wrote to a feeble, old female relative on his wedding-day:

"DEAR GRANDMAMMA: In less than three hours, I shall stand at the altar,
with my dear bride. In these solemn moments, I must once more ask your
blessing, which I am well assured I shall receive, and which will be my
safeguard and future joy. I must end. God be my stay!

"Your faithful

"ALBERT."

This letter may seem a little too solemn and ill-assured, but it shows in
what a serious and devout spirit this young Prince, not yet of age,
entered on that auspicious and splendid union, whose wedding-bells rang
round the world. Moreover, the young man's position was a rather trying
one. As yet, he was little known in England, while it was well known that
the Royal Family had been from the first opposed to his marriage with
Victoria. Though the land of the Teutons had so long been the nursery of
English Kings and Queens, the English common people were jealous of
Teutonic Princes--regarding them for the most part as needy adventurers,
for whom England was only the great milch-cow of Germany. Prince Albert
had a host of prejudices to live down; and he did live down most of them,
but some have died hard over his grave.

The Queen's wedding was second only to the coronation, as a grand and
beautiful pageant for the privileged few who could witness it, for of
course the old Royal Chapel of St. James was a much narrower stage for
the great scene than the Abbey. Still, royalty and nobility turned out in
force, and all the greatest of the great were there. The sombre chapel
was made to look very gay and gorgeous with hangings and decorations;
even before the ladies in rich dresses and with all their costliest
jewels on, and the gentlemen in brilliant uniforms and Court-costumes
arrived. The bridegroom, when he walked up the aisle, between his father
and his brother, bowing affably right and left, drew forth murmurs of
admiration by his rare beauty and grace--princeliest of Princes.

The Queen is described as looking unusually pale, but very lovely, in a
magnificent robe of lace over white satin trimmed with orange blossoms,
and with a most exquisite Honiton veil. In the midst of her twelve
bridesmaids, her face radiant with happiness, she seemed like the whitest
of diamonds set in pearls--or so they say.

Her Majesty is also described as bearing herself with great dignity and
composure, and to have gone through the service very solemnly. And yet I
have heard a little story that runs thus: When Prince Albert, in this
last act of "_Le Jeune Homme Pauvre_" came to repeat, as he placed
the ring on her finger, the words, "With all my worldly goods I thee
endow," the merry girl-Queen was unable to suppress an arch smile.

The Duchess of Kent is described as looking "tearful and distressed." Ah,
why will mothers always cry at their daughters' weddings, even when they
have hoped and schemed for that very match; and why will brides, though
ever so much in love, weep, first or last, on the wedding morning? Lady
Lyttleton, in her correspondence, said of the Queen--"Her eyes were
swollen with tears; but," she adds, "there was great happiness in her
countenance, and her look of confidence and comfort at the Prince, when
they walked away, as man and wife, was very pleasant to see."

Ah, "when they walked away as man and wife"--now simply and for always to
each other, "Albert" and "Victoria," the separate life of our "Prince
Charming" closed. Thenceforth, the two bright life-streams seemed to flow
on together, completely merged, indistinguishable, indivisible, but only
_seemed_--for, alas, one has reached the great ocean before the
other.




PART III.

WIFEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.




CHAPTER XV.

The first months of Marriage--Incidents and anecdotes--The adoption of
Penny postage--The Inauguration of Steam Railway travel--The Duchess of
Kent takes a separate residence--Prince Albert presides at a meeting
favoring the abolition of the Slave Trade.


In this mere sketch of the great life of the Queen of England, I can give
little space to the political questions and events of her reign,
important and momentous as some of them were, even for other lands and
other people than the English. For a clear and concise account of those
questions and events, I refer my readers to "A History of Our Own Times,"
by Justin McCarthy, M.P. I know nothing so admirable of its kind. But
mine must be something less ambitious--a personal and domestic history--
light, gossipy, superficial, as regards the profound mysteries of
politics; in short, "pure womanly."

I shall not even treat of the great wars which stormed over the
Continent, and upset and set up thrones, except as they affected the life
of my illustrious subject. At first they seemed to form a lurid
background to the bright pictures of peace and love presented by her
happy marriage and maternity, and afterwards in the desolation and
mourning they brought, seemed in keeping with the sorrow of her
widowhood.

Happily all was quiet and peace in the United Kingdom, and in the world
at large, when the honeymoon began for that august but simple-hearted
pair of lovers, Victoria and Albert; or, as she would have preferred to
write it, Albert and Victoria. The fiery little spurt of revolt in
Canada, called rather ambitiously, "The Canadian Rebellion," had ended in
smoke, and the outburst of Chartism, from the spontaneous combustion of
sullen and long-smothered discontent among the working classes, had been
extinguished, partly by a fog of misapprehension and misdirection, partly
by a process of energetic stamping out. The shameful Chinese opium war,
the Cabul disasters, and the fearful Sepoy rebellion were, as yet, only
slow, simmering horrors in the black caldron of the Fates. Irish
starvation had not set in, in its acute form, and Irish sedition was, as
yet, taking only the form of words--the bold, eloquent, magnificent, but
not malignant and scarcely menacing words of Daniel O'Connell In the
Infernal Council Chamber below, the clock whose hours are epochs of
crime, had not yet struck for the era of political assassination. France
was resting and cooling from the throes and fires of revolution, and
growing the vine over its old lava courses. The citizen-King and his
family were setting an example of domestic affection and union, of
morality, thrift, and forehandedness--diligently making hay while the
fickle sun of French loyalty was shining. Italy was lying deathly quiet
under the mailed foot of Austria, and under the paternal foot of the old
Pope, shod with a velvet slipper, cross-embroidered, but leaden-soled;
Garibaldi was fighting for liberty in "the golden South Americas";
Mazzini was yet dreaming of liberty--so was Kossuth. Russia was quietly
gathering herself up for new leaps of conquest tinder her most imperial,
inflexible autocrat--the inscrutable, unsmiling Nicholas.

In England and America it was, though a peaceful, a stirring and an
eventful time. English manufacturers, not content with leveling mountains
of American cotton bales, converting them into textile fabrics and
clothing the world therewith, were reaching deep and deeper into the
bowels of the earth, and pulling up sterner stuff to spin into gigantic
threads with which to lace together all the provinces and cities of the
realm. That captive monster, Steam, though in the early days of its
servitude, was working well in harness, while in America Morse was after
the lightning, lassoing it with his galvanic wires. In England the steam-
dragon had begun by killing one of his keepers, and was distrusted by
most English people, who still preferred post-horses and stage-coaches--
all the good old ways beloved by hostel-keepers, Tony Welters, postilions
and pot-boys. There was something fearful, supernatural, almost profane
and Providence-defying in this new, swift, wild, and whizzing mode of
conveyance. Churchmen and Tories were especially set against it; yet I
have been told that later, that Prince of conservatives, F. M., the Duke
of Wellington, did, on the occasion of one of Her Majesty's
_accouchements_ travel from London to Windsor, at the rate of
seventy-five miles an hour, in order to be in at the birth! What were the
perils of Waterloo to this daring, dizzying journey?

Just a month before the Queen's marriage there occurred in London a union
yet more auspicious, not alone for England, but for all Christendom. It
was the wedding, by act of Parliament, of Knowledge and Humanity in the
cheap postage reform--carried through with wonderful ability, energy,
persistence, and pluck by Rowland Hill; blessed be his memory. The Queen
afterwards knighted him, but he did not need the honor, though I doubt
not it was pleasant, coming from her hands. The simple name of the dear
old man was full of dignity, and long before had been stamped--penny-
stamped, on the heart of the world.

So it seemed that life smiled on and around the royal wedded pair on that
winter afternoon, so unwintry to them, when they took leave of relations
and wedding guests at Buckingham Palace, and set out for Windsor Castle.
Even the heavens which had wept in the morning with those who wept,
changed its mood, and smiled on bride and bridegroom, as they drove forth
in an open carriage and four, followed by other open carriages containing
a picked suite of friends and attendants--all with favor-decked
postilions and footmen in the royal red liveries, and everything grand
and gay. The Queen was dressed in a white satin _pelisse_, profusely
trimmed with swan's-down. She seems, in those days, to have been very
fond of nestling down under that soft, warm, dainty sort of a wrap. How
like a white dove she must have looked that day, for her bonnet was
white, trimmed with white, plumes. Prince Albert wore a fur-trimmed coat,
with a high collar, and had a very high hat, which for the most part was
in his hand, so much saluting was he obliged to do to the saluting
multitude.

All the world was abroad that day--great was the flow of good feeling,
and mighty was the flow of good ale, while the whole air of the Kingdom
was vibrating with the peal of merry marriage-bells. All through the land
free dinners were provided for the poor--good roast beef, plum-pudding--
'alf and 'alf fare--and I am afraid the Queen's pauper-subjects would
have been unwilling to have the occasion indefinitely repeated, with such
observances,--would not have objected to Her Majesty proving a female
Henry VIII.

Victoria and Albert drove that afternoon more than twenty miles between
ranks of frantically loyal, rejoicing people,--past countless festive
decorations, and a world of "_V_"s and "_A_"s--under arches so
gay that one wondered where and how at that season all the flowers and
foliage were produced,--if nature had not hurried up her spring work, so
as to be able to come to the wedding. The Queen turned now and then her
happy face on her shouting subjects, in graceful acknowledgment of their
sympathy with her happiness; but much of the time she was observed to be
regarding her husband, intently or furtively. So she had betrayed her
heart during She marriage ceremony, when, as an eye-witness records, she
"was observed to look frequently at Prince Albert,--in fact, she scarcely
ever took her eyes off him." I suppose she found him "goodly to look
upon." It is certain that she worshiped him with her eyes, as well as
with her heart and soul,--then and ever after. For the world, even for
the Court, he grew, as the pitiless, pilfering years went by, a little
too stout, and somewhat bald, while his complexion lost something of its
fine coloring and smoothness, and his eyes their fulness,--but for her,
he seems to have always kept the grace and glory of his youth. Even when
he was dying-when the gray twilight of the fast-coming night was creeping
over his face, clouding the light of his eyes, chilling the glow of his
smile--his beauty was still undimmed for her. She says in her pathetic
account of those sad moments--"his beautiful face, more beautiful than
ever, is grown so thin."

But on this their wedding-day, death and death-bed partings were far
enough from the thoughts of the royal lovers. Life was theirs,--young
life, in all its fulness and richness of health, and hope, and joy, and
that "perfect, love, which casteth out fear."

So essentially young and so light-hearted were they, that they laughingly
welcomed the crowd of shouting, leaping, hat-waving, mad Eton boys, who
as they neared Windsor, turned out to receive them. The Queen jotted down
this jolly incident in her journal thus: "The boys in a body accompanied
the carriage to the castle, cheering and shouting as only schoolboys can.
They swarmed up the mound, as the carriage entered the quadrangle, and,
as the Queen and the Prince descended at the grand entrance, they made
the old castle ring again with their acclamations."

What would Queen Charlotte, or any of the stiff, formal Dutch Queens of
any of the Georges have thought of such a boisterous wedding escort,--of
such a noisy welcome to stately Windsor? They would very likely have
said, "Go away, naughty _pays_! How dare you!"

Alas, this royal pair, natural, joyous, girl-like and boy-like as they
were still were slaves to, their station. They could not long hide
themselves from the million-eyed world. In a few days the Court came down
upon them from London. "Mamma" came with them--and I hope that she, at
least, was welcome. Then followed show and ceremony, and amusements of
the common, unpoetic, unparadisiacal, Courtly order. There were "fiddling
and dancing every night," and feasting, and full-dressing, and all that.
Still nothing seems to have interfered much with the Queen's happiness
and content, for Lady Lyttleton wrote of her about this time,--"I
understand she is in extremely high spirits. Such a new thing for her to
dare to be unguarded in conversing with anybody, and with her frank and
fearless nature, the restraints she has hitherto been under, from one
reason or another, with everybody, must have been most painful."

Only the day after her marriage, the Queen wrote to Baron Stockmar:
"There cannot exist a purer, dearer, nobler being in the world than the
Prince."

She never took those words back--she never had cause to take them back,
to lie heavy on her heart. But such utter adoration persisted in year
after year, with cheerful obstinacy, even against the modest protests of
the object, would have spoiled any man who was spoilable.

Her Majesty was soon obliged to return to London, in order to hold
Courts, to receive addresses of congratulation on her marriage. It seemed
that half the men of the Kingdom of any standing, had formed themselves
into delegations. So numerous were they, that Prince Albert was obliged
to "come up to the help of the QUEEN against the mighty"--bore, for she
records that he in one day received and personally answered no less than
twenty-seven addresses! In fact, he was nearly addressed to death.

The Queen after receiving many members of both Houses of Parliament,
bearing addresses--received large delegations from the State Church--the
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland--the English Non-Conformists,
and the Society of Friends--all walking peacefully enough together to the
throne of Victoria, but having widely different ways to the "throne of
grace;"--all uniting in loyal prayers for the divine blessing on the fair
head of their Sovereign, and in the hope that the comely young man of her
choice might do virtuously, and walk humbly, and gingerly by her side--
but a little in the rear, as became him; not, of course, as a husband,
Scripturally regarded, but as the German Consort of an English Queen
_regnant_.

This subordinate view of her husband's place the Queen did not fully
accept from anybody, at any time. At that period, it is probable she
would have gladly taken off the crown, to place it on his dear head, and
doffed the ermine mantle to put it on his manly shoulders, and would have
been the first to swear allegiance to "King Albert."

She thought that he might, at least, have the title of "King-Consort,"
and perhaps because of this hope, she deferred for years--till 1857--
conferring on him, by Royal Letters Patent, the title of Prince-Consort.

Doubtless the English people, if they had been on the lookout for a King,
might have gone farther and fared worse,--but the four Georges had
somehow got them out of conceit with the word "King," and William, the
Sailor, had not quite reconciled them to it;--then they were jealous of
foreigners, and last, but not least, there were apprehensions that the
larger title would necessitate a larger grant. But the Prince did not
need the empty honor, which in his position would have been "a
distinction without a difference." I do not believe he cared much for it,
though titles are usually dear to the Teutonic soul, determined, as he
always so wisely was, to "sink his individuality in that of the Queen,"
and when at last, the second best title of Prince-Consort, that by which
the people already named him, was made his legal right, by his fond wife,
grieved to have kept

  --"the best man under the sun,
  So many years from his due,"

he was well content, because it pleased her.

The Queen certainly did all she constitutionally could to confer honors
on her husband, who after all outdid her, and best honored himself.

Before their marriage, she had invested him with the noble order of the
Garter, and given him the Star, and the Badge, and the Garter itself set
in diamonds. She now invested him with the insignia of a Knight Grand
Cross of the Order of the Bath. It amused her, this investing--she would
have liked to invent a few orders, for royal Albert's sake--he became the
insignia so well! She also made him Colonel of the 11th Regiment of Light
Dragoons--he rode so well!--and she had the name changed to "Prince
Albert's Own Hussars."

Everywhere the Queen and Prince appeared together--at reviews and art
exhibitions, at church and at the theatre (for the Queen was very fond of
the drama in those days), at drawing-rooms and at races--and everywhere
the people delighted in their beauty and their happiness.

Early in April, the Duchess of Kent, in pursuance of what she deemed her
duty, and best for the young people, parted from her darling daughter,
and took up her residence in a separate home in London--Ingestrie House.
She afterwards occupied Clarence House, the present residence of the Duke
of Edinburgh. When the Court was at Windsor, the Duchess resided at
Frogmore, a very lovely place, belonging to the royal estate, and so near
the Castle that she was able to dine and lunch with Victoria almost
daily. Still the partial separation was a trial for a mother and daughter
so closely and tenderly attached, and they both took it hard,--as did,
about that time, Prince Albert his separation from his brother Ernest,
whose long visit was over. The Queen's account of the exceeding
sorrowfulness of that parting must now bring to the lips of the most
sentimental reader, though "a man and a brother," an unsympathetic smile--
unless he happens to remember that those were the earliest days of steam
on sea and land, and that journeys from England to any part of the
Continent were no light undertakings. So the brothers sung together a
mournful college song, and embraced, kissing one another on both cheeks,
doubtless, after the German fashion,--"poor Albert being pale as a sheet,
and his eyes full of tears." Ah, what would he have said could his
"prophetic soul" have beheld his son, Albert Edward, skipping from London
to Paris in eight hours--dashing about the Continent, from Copenhagen to
Cannes, from Brussels to Berlin--from Homburg to St. Petersburg--taking
it all as lightly and gaily as a school-boy takes a "jolly lark" of a
holiday trip to Brighton or Margate! That was not the day of
peregrinating Princes. Now they are as plenty as commercial travelers.

Early in June the Queen and Prince and their Court left busy, smoky
London for a few days of quiet and pure air at lovely Claremont. They
spent part of that restful time in going to the Derby, in four carriages
and four with outriders and postilions--a brave sight to see.

On the first of June, Prince Albert was invited to preside at a great
public meeting in Exeter Hall, for the abolition of the Slave Trade--and
he did preside, and made a good speech, which he had practiced over to
the Queen in the morning. That was an ordeal, for he spoke in English for
the first time, and before a very large and distinguished audience. It
was a very young "Daniel come to judgment" on an ancient wrong--for the
Prince was not yet of age.

That sweet Quakeress, Caroline Fox, thus speaks of the Prince on this
interesting occasion, in her delightful "Memories":--"Prince Albert was
received with tremendous applause, but bore his honors with calm and
modest dignity. He is certainly a very beautiful man,--a thorough German,
and a fine poetical specimen of the race."

Ah, what would that doughty champion of the Slave Trade, William IV.,
have said, could he have seen his niece's husband giving royal
countenance to such a fanatical, radical gathering! It was enough to make
him stir irefully in his coffin at Windsor.

But for that matter, could our ancestors generally, men and women who
devoutly believed in the past, and died in the odor of antiquity, know of
our modern goings-on, in political and humanitarian reforms--know of our
"Science so called," and social ethics, there would be "a rattling among
the dry bones," not only in royal vaults, but in country churchyards,
where "_The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep._"




CHAPTER XVI.

Death passes by--Life comes.


On the 10th of June, 1840, occurred the first mad attempt to assassinate
Queen Victoria--made as she and Prince Albert were driving up
Constitution Hill, near Buckingham Palace, in a small open phaeton.
Prince Albert, in a letter to his grandmamma, gives the clearest account
of it. He says: "We had hardly proceeded a hundred yards from the Palace,
when I noticed, on the foot-path on my side, a little, mean-looking man,
holding something toward us, and, before I could distinguish what it was,
a shot was fired, which almost stunned us both, it was so loud--barely
six paces from us. ... The horses started, and the carriage stopped. I
seized Victoria's hands and asked if the fright, had not shaken her, but
she laughed."

Almost immediately the fellow fired a second shot, from which the Queen
was saved probably by the presence of mind of the Prince, who drew her
down beside him. He states that the ball must have passed just over her
head. The wretch was at once arrested and taken away, and soon after
committed for trial, on the charge of high treason. The Queen was seen to
be very pale, but calm. She rose in the carriage to show the excited
people that she was not hurt, and then ordered the postilions to drive at
once to Ingestrie House, that the Duchess of Kent might hear of the
startling incident first from her and not be frightened by wild rumors.
It was a thoughtful and filial act, and brave, moreover, for there were
those about her who suspected that there might be a revolutionary
conspiracy, and that Oxford was only one of many banded assassins. These
alarmists advised her and her husband to show themselves abroad as little
as possible. How they heeded this advice is shown in another passage of
Prince Albert's letter: "We arrived safely at Aunt Kent's. From thence we
took a drive through the Park, to give Victoria a little air,--also to
show the people that we had not, on account of what had happened, lost
confidence in them."

The Prince does not mention a very pretty incident which I find recorded
elsewhere. As the Queen's carriage reached the Park, it was received with
enthusiastic cheers, smiles, and tears by crowds of people, equestrians
and pedestrians, and the gay world on wheels; and as they neared the
Marble Arch, the gentlemen and ladies on horseback followed them as with
one impulse--all Rotton Row turned out, and escorted them to Buckingham
Palace. It is said, too, that for several days this was repeated--that
whenever the Queen and Prince drove out they were escorted by this
singular volunteer body-guard.

Of course, the whole country was excited, and the Queen, whose life had
been menaced, was more popular than ever. They say that her first visit
to the opera after this shocking attempt was a most memorable occasion.
Her reception was something almost overwhelming. The audience were all on
their feet, cheering and shouting, and waving handkerchiefs and hats, and
there was no quieting them till the National Anthem was sung--and even
then, they broke in with wild cheers at the close of every verse. Her
Majesty stood throughout these demonstrations, bowing and smiling, her
heart melted within her, I doubt not.

Of course there was no conspiracy, and Oxford the pot-boy, "a pot-boy
was, and, nothing more." He was acquitted on the ground of insanity, but
ordered to be confined "during Her Majesty's pleasure," which he was in
Bedlam for some years. Then he was sent to Australia as cured, and where
he went into better business than shooting Queens, and earned an honest
living, they say. He always declared that he was not insane, except from
a mad passion for notoriety--which he got.

The five or six successors of Oxford who have shot at Her Majesty, and
that wretched retired officer, Robert Pate, who waylaid her in 1850, and
struck her a cruel blow across the face with a walking-stick, were
pronounced insane, and confined in mad-houses merely. The English are too
proud and politic to admit that a sane man can lift his hand against the
Constitutional Sovereign of England. When there arrived in London the
news of the shooting of President Garfield, a distinguished English
gentleman said to me, "I think we will not be annexed to the United
States while you shoot your Presidents."

I replied by reminding him of the many attempts on the life of his
beloved Queen, adding, "I believe the homicidal mania is a Monarchical as
well as a Republican affliction,--the difference only is that, unhappily
for us, our madmen are the better shots."

It must be that for monarchists born and bred, an anointed head, whether
covered by a silk hat or a straw bonnet, is circled by a
_simulacrum_ of a crown, which dazzles the aim of the would-be regicide,
they are so almost certain to miss, at long or short range. Alas there is
no halo of sovereignty or "hedge of divinity" about our poor Presidents!
It is, perhaps, because of this unsteadiness of nerve and aim, that
Continental regicides are taking to sterner and surer means--believing
that no thrice blessed crown can dazzle off dynamite, and that no most
imperial "divinity" is bomb-proof.

In July an act which was the shadow of a coming event, was passed by
Parliament, and received the Royal assent. It provided that Prince Albert
should be Regent in case that the Queen should die before her next lineal
descendant should attain the age of eighteen years.

In August the Queen prorogued Parliament for the first time since her
marriage, and she brought her handsome husband to show to all the Lords
and gentlemen--bravely attired in his Field-Marshal's uniform, with his
Collars of the Garter and the Bath, and diamond Stars--and she had him
seated only a little lower than herself and very near, in a splendid
chair, gilded, carved, and velvet-cushioned. The Prince wrote to his
father as a piece of good news, "The prorogation of Parliament passed off
very quietly." He had had reason to fear that his right to sit in that
lofty seat would be disputed--that the old Duke of Sussex might come
hobbling up to the throne, calling out, "I object! I object!"

But nothing of the kind happened. The Queen, by her wit and her courage,
had circumvented all the royal old sticklers for precedence--who put
etiquette before nature. The Queen's mother, and her uncle and aunt, the
King and Queen of Belgium, were present,--so it was quite a family-party.
The good Uncle Leopold was observed to smile benignly on both Victoria
and Albert, as though well pleased with his work. The Queen was most
magnificently attired with all her glories on, in the shape of diamonds
and orders, and looked very proud and happy,--and yet there was a dreamy,
half-troubled expression in her eyes at times, which was not usual, but
which her mother understood.

On this day, Prince Albert's _status_ was fixed. He had taken a ride
with his wife, in the State-carriage, with the twelve cream-colored,
long-tailed State horses, and the gorgeous footmen, and he had sat
higher, and nearer the throne than any other man in the House of Lords,
Prince or Peer. The next thing the Queen did for him was to make him a
member of the Privy Council. But a little later, he had a higher
promotion than that; for, on the 21st of November, the Princess Royal was
born in Buckingham Palace, in the early afternoon.

During the morning the Duchess of Kent had been sent for--and came
hurrying over. They also sent for the Duke of Sussex, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, the Bishop of London, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Melbourne,
Lord Palmerston, Lord Errol, Lord Albemarle--Lord John Russell, and other
Privy Councillors, whose constitutional duty it is to be present at the
birth of an heir to the throne of England,--and they came bustling in, as
old ladies come together on a like occasion in country places in New
England. It is probable they all looked for a boy. The girl was an
extraordinary baby, however, for when she was barely two days old, her
papa wrote to her grandpapa at Coburg, "The little one is very well and
very merry." The Prince welcomed her in a fatherly way, though, as he
confesses, sorry that she was the same sort of a human creature as her
mother,--that is, a daughter instead of a son. He wrote to his father
very frankly, "I should certainly have liked it better if she had been a
son, as would Victoria also," and so, strangely enough, would the English
people--unfortunate as they had often been with their Kings, and
fortunate as they had always been with their Queens. The great officers
of the Church and State went away probably saying, "Only a girl!" Dear
"little Pussie," as she was often called, wouldn't have been so "merry"
if she had known how it was. She was looked upon as a temporary stop-gap-
-something to keep out Cumberland, and naturally she did not have so many
silver cups and gold spoons as she would have had if she had been a boy--
nor so many guns, poor thing! When the firing ceased at the feminine
limit, people all over the city said, "Only a girl!"

Some years later, when, at the birth of one of her brothers, the guns
were booming away, Douglas Jerrold exclaimed to a friend at dinner: "How
they do powder these royal babies!"

The Queen in her journal gives a beautiful account of her husband's
devotion to her during her illness. She says, always speaking of herself
in the third person: "During the time the Queen was laid up, his care and
devotion were quite beyond expression. He refused to go to the play, or
anywhere else; generally dining alone with the Duchess of Kent, till the
Queen was able to join them, and was always on hand to do anything in his
power for her comfort. He was content to sit by her in a darkened room,
to read to her or write for her. No one but himself ever lifted her from
her bed to her sofa, and he always helped to wheel her on her sofa into
the next room. For this purpose he would come instantly when sent for
from any part of the house. As years went on, and he became overwhelmed
with work, this was often done at much inconvenience to himself (for his
attentions were the same in all the Queen's subsequent confinements), but
he always came with a sweet smile on his face. In short," the Queen adds,
"his care of her was like that of a mother, nor could there be a kinder,
wiser, or more judicious nurse."

The Prince also during the Queen's illness, conferred with her ministers,
and transacted all necessary business for her. There were nine of these
natural illnesses. I commend the example of the Prince-Consort to the
husbands of America, to husbands all over the world.

It was a glad and grateful Christmas which they spent in Windsor that
year--the first after their marriage,--the first since their union, so
pompously and piously blessed by priests and people, had been visibly
blessed by Heaven.

The next month the Queen opened Parliament in person, and gave the Lords
and gentlemen another elocutionary treat in her admirable reading of her
speech,--that "most excellent thing in woman," a sweet voice, telling
even on the Tories. Prince Albert was with her, of course, and she looked
even prouder and happier than usual. She had found yet new honors for
herself and for him,--the most noble and ancient orders of Maternity and
Paternity,--exceeding old, and yet always new.

That day the young Prince may have felt glowing in his heart a sweet
prescience of the peculiar comfort and joy he afterwards found in the
loving devotion and noble character of his firstborn, that little
blessing that _would_ come, though "only a girl."

That day the Queen wore in her diadem a new jewel, a "pearl of great
price,"--a pure little human soul.

That faithful stand-by, King Leopold, came over to stand as chief sponsor
at the christening of the Princess Royal,--which took place at Buckingham
Palace, on the anniversary of her mother's marriage. The little girl, who
received the names of Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa, is said by her
father to have behaved "with great propriety and like a Christian."

So ended the first year of Queen Victoria's married life. To say it had
been a happy year would seem, after the records we have, to put a very
inadequate estimate on its degree of harmony and content--and yet it were
much to say of any marriage, during the trying period in which many of
the tastes and habits of two separate lives must be harmonized, and some
heroically abandoned. It is a period of readjustment and sacrifice.
Redundant and interfering growths of character must be pruned away, and
yet if the lopping process is carried too far, character itself must
suffer, the juices of its life and power, individuality and will, are
wasted.

The Queen always contended that it was the Prince who made all the
sacrifices--unselfishly adjusting his life and character to suit hers,
and her position--yet not long after her marriage she records the fact
that she was beginning to sympathize with him in his peculiar tastes,
particularly in his love for a quiet country life. She says: "I told
Albert that formerly I was too happy to go to London, and wretched to
leave it; and now since the blessed hour of my marriage, and still more
since the summer, I dislike and am unhappy to leave the country, and
could be content and happy never to go to town. This pleased him."

I am afraid that there are those of Her Majesty's subjects who bless not
the memory of "Albert the Good," for this metamorphose of their once gay
and thoughtless, ball-giving, riding, driving, play-going Queen. These
malcontents are Londoners proper, mostly tradesmen, newspaper men,
milliners, and Hyde Park idlers. I think American visitors and Cook's
tourists are among those who hold that the Queen's proper place is in her
capital--at least during the season while _they_ are here.

Upon the whole, I should say of that first year of Queen Victoria's
married life, that the honeymoon lasted throughout those twelve bright
and busy (perhaps bright because busy) months. Or, it would seem that
some fairy Godmother had come to that wedding, in homely guise, bringing
as her humble gift, a jar of honey--but a miraculous jar, the honey
gathered from Arcadian flowers, and which perpetually renewed itself,
like the poor widow's blessed cruse of oil.




CHAPTER XVII.

The Boy "Jones" and his singular pranks--A change in the Ministry--Sir
Robert Peel becomes Premier--Prince Albert made Chairman of the Fine Arts
Commission--Birth of the Prince of Wales--The Queen commemorates the
event by a beautiful act.


The next sensation in connection with the Court was the discovery of the
famous "boy Jones" in Buckingham Palace. This singular young personage
was by no means a stranger in the Palace. He had made himself very
familiar with, and at home in that august mansion, about two years
before. He was then arrested, and had lived an exceedingly retired life
ever since. On that first occasion he was discovered by one of the
porters, very early one morning, leisurely surveying one of the
apartments. He was caught and searched; nothing of any consequence was
found on him, but in a hall was a bundle, evidently made up by him,
containing such incongruous articles as old letters, a sword, and a pot
of bear's grease. He had he appearance of a sweep, being very sooty, but
disclaimed the chimney-cleaning profession. He had occupied, for a while,
the vacant room of one of the Equerries, leaving in the bed the impress
of his sooty figure. He declared that he had not entered the Palace for
the purpose of theft, but only to gratify his curiosity, as to how royal
people and "great swells" like royal footmen, lived. The young rascal's
examination before the Magistrate caused much amusement. In answer to
questions, he admitted, or boasted that he had been in the Palace
previously, and for days at a time--in fact, had "put up" there--adding,
"And a very comfortable place I found it. I used to hide behind the
furniture and up the chimneys, in the day-time; when night came, I walked
about, went into the kitchen, and got my food, I have seen the Queen and
her ministers in Council, and heard all they had to say."

Magistrate: "Do you mean to say you have worn but one shirt all the
time?"

Prisoner: "Yes; when it was dirty, I washed it out in the kitchen. The
apartment I like best is the drawing-room."

Magistrate: "You are a sweep, are you?"

Prisoner: "Oh, no; it's only my face and hands that are dirty; that's
from sleeping in the chimneys.... I know my way all over the Palace, and
have been all over it, the Queen's apartments and all. The Queen is very
fond of politics."

He was such an amusing vagabond, with his jolly ways and boundless
impudence, and so young, that no very serious punishment was then meted
out to him, nor even on his second "intrusion," as it was mildly
denominated, when he was found crouched in a recess, dragged forth, and
taken to the police-station. This time he said he had hidden under a sofa
in one of the Queen's private apartments, and had listened to a long
conversation between her and Prince Albert. He was sent to the House of
Correction for a few months, in the hope of curing him of his "Palace-
breaking mania"; but immediately on his liberation, he was found prowling
about the Palace, drawing nearer and nearer, as though it had been built
of loadstone. But finally he was induced to go to Australia, where, it is
said, he grew up to be a well-to-do colonist. Perhaps he met the house-
painter Oxford there, and they used to talk over their exploits and
explorations together, after the manner of heroes and adventurers, from
the time of Ulysses and Æneas. We can imagine the _man_ Jones being
a particularly entertaining boon companion, with his reminiscences of
high life, not only below, but above stairs, in Buckingham Palace. That
he ever made an entrance into those august precincts, and was so long
undiscovered, certainly speaks not well for the police and domestic
arrangements of the household; and it is little wonder that Baron
Stockmar was finally sent for to suggest some plan for the better
regulation of matters in both the great royal residences. And he did work
wonders,--though mostly by inspiring others, the proper officers, to
work. This extraordinary man seemed to have a genius for order,
discipline, economy, and dispatch. He found the palaces grand
"circumlocution offices,"--with, in all the departments, an entangling
network of red-tape, which needed to be swept away like cobwebs. He
himself entered the Royal Nursery finally with the besom of reform. It is
said in his "Memoirs"--"The organization and superintendence of the
children's department occupied a considerable portion of Stockmar's
time"; and he wrote, "The Nursery gives me more trouble than the
government of a King would do." Very likely the English nurses and maids
questioned among themselves the right of an old German doctor to meddle
with their affairs, and dictate what an English Princess Royal should
eat, drink, and wear; but they lived to see the Baron's care and skill
make of a delicate child--"a pretty, pale, erect little creature," as she
is described, a ruddy and robust little girl, of whom the Baron wrote:
"She is as round as a little barrel"; of whom the mother wrote: "Pussy's
cheeks are on the point of bursting, they have grown so red and plump."

After the domestic reforms in the Palace, no such adventure could have
happened to a guest as that recorded by M. Guizot, who having been unable
to summon a servant to conduct him to his room at night, wandered about
the halls like poor Mr. Pickwick at the inn, and actually blundered into
Her Majesty's own dressing-room. The boy Jones, too, had had his day.

At the very time of the "intrusions" into Buckingham Palace, there was in
London another young man, with a "mania for Palace-breaking," of a
somewhat different sort. He, too, was "without visible means of support,"
but nobody called him a vagabond, or a burglar, but only an adventurer,
or a "pretender." He had his eye particularly on Royal Windsor, and once
a cruel hoax was played off upon him, in the shape of a forged invitation
to one of the Queen's grand entertainments at the Castle. He got himself
up in Court costume, with the aid of a friend, and went, to be told by
the royal porter that his name was not down on the list, and afterwards
by a higher officer of the household that really there must be some
mistake, for Her Majesty had not the honor of knowing him, so could not
receive him. We shall see how it was when he came again, nine or ten
years later.

But after all, the French royal palaces were more to this young man's
taste, for he was French. He longed to break into the Tuileries--not to
hide behind, or under any furniture, but to sit on the grandest piece of
furniture there. He had a strange longing for St. Cloud, and
Fontainebleau, and even stately Versailles. Said of him one English
statesman to another, "Did you ever know such a fool as that fellow is?
Why, he really believes he will yet be Emperor of France."

That "fellow" was Louis Napoleon Bonaparte.

In August of this year, the Whig Ministry finding themselves a minority
in the new Parliament, resigned, and a Conservative one was formed, with
Sir Robert Peel as Premier. It came hard for the Queen to part with her
favorite Minister and faithful friend, Lord Melbourne, but she soon
became reconciled to his Tory successor, and things went on very
harmoniously. The benign influence and prudent counsels of Prince Albert,
with some lessons of experience, and much study of her constitutional
restrictions, as well as obligations, had greatly modified Her Majesty's
strong partisan prejudices, and any proclivities she may have had toward
personal and irresponsible government.

One great thing in favor of the new Minister, was that he thoroughly
appreciated Prince Albert. One of his early acts was to propose a Fine
Arts Commission--having for its chief, immediate object, the
superintendence of the artistic work on the new Houses of Parliament.
This was formed--composed of some of the most eminent artists and
_connaisseurs_ in the kingdom, and Prince Albert was the chairman.
He used to speak of this as his "initiation into public life." The Queen
rejoiced in it, as in every stage of her husband's advance--which it is
only just to say was the advance of the liberal arts in England, as well
as of social and political reforms. I believe it is not generally known
that to the humane influence of the Prince-Consort with the Duke of
Wellington, was owing the new military regulation which finally put an
end to duelling in the English army. Lord, keep his memory green!

The second year of the Queen's marriage wore on to November, and again
the Archbishops and Bishops, the statesmen and "Medicine men," the good
mother-in-law, and the nurses were summoned by the anxious Prince to
Buckingham Palace. This time it was a boy, and the holy men and wise men
felt that they had not come out so early in the morning and waited four
hours in an ante-room for nothing. Prince Albert was overjoyed. Everybody
at the Palace was wild with delight, so wild that there was great
confusion. Messengers were dispatched right and left to royal relatives.
It is said that no less than three arrived within as many minutes, at
Marlborough House, to acquaint the Queen Dowager of the happy event. As
they came in breathless, one after another, Her Majesty might have
supposed that Victoria and Albert had been blessed with triplets. The
biggest guns boomed the glad tidings over London,--the Privy Council
assembled to consider a form of prayer and thanksgiving, to relieve the
overcharged hearts of the people; the bells in all the churches rang
joyous peals. So was little Albert Edward ushered into the kingdom he is
to rule in God's own time.

No such ado was made over the seven brothers and sisters who came after;
but they were made welcome and comfortable, as, alas! few children can be
made, even by loving hearts and willing hands. The Queen may have thought
of this, and of what a sorry chance some poor little human creatures
have, from the beginning, for she did a beautiful thing on this occasion.
She notified the Home Secretary that all those convicts who had behaved
well, should have their punishment commuted, and that those deserving
clemency, on the horrible prison-hulks, should have their liberty at
once. She had a right to be happy, and that she was happy, a beautiful
picture in her journal shows:

"Albert brought in dearest little Pussy, in such a smart, white morino
dress, trimmed with blue, which mama had given her, and a pretty cap, and
placed her on my bed, seating himself next to her, and she was very dear
and good, and as my precious invaluable Albert sat there, and our little
love between us, I felt quite moved with happiness and gratitude to
God.".

The next month she wrote from Windsor Castle to her Uncle Leopold: "I
wonder very much whom our little boy will be like. You will understand
how fervent are my prayers, and I am sure everybody's must be, to see him
resemble his father, in every respect, both in mind and body." Later
still she writes: "We all have our trials and vexations--but if _one's
home is happy_, then the rest is comparatively nothing."

They had an unusually merry Christmas-time at Windsor, and they danced
into the new year, in the old English style--only varying it by a very
poetic and impressive German custom. As the clock struck twelve, a
flourish of trumpets was blown.

The Prince of Wales was christened in the Royal Chapel, at Windsor, with
the greatest state and splendor, King Frederick William of Prussia, who
had come over for the purpose, standing as chief sponsor. Then followed
all sorts of grand festivities and parades--both at Windsor and in
London. The Queen did honor to her "brother of Prussia" in every possible
way--in banquets and balls, in proroguing Parliament, in holding a
Chapter of the Garter, and investing him with the splendid insignia of
the Order, and in having a grand inspection for him, of "Prince Albert's
Own Hussars," he being a little in the military line himself.

Among the suite of the Prussian King was Baron Alexander Von Humboldt.
The great _savant_ was treated by the Queen and the Prince with
distinguished consideration, then and ever after. The Prince, on hearing
of his death in 1859, wrote to the Crown Princess: "What a loss is the
excellent Humboldt! You and Berlin will miss him greatly. People of this
kind do not grow on every bush, and they are the glory and the grace of a
country and a century." When the Baron's private correspondence was
published, and found to contain certain slurs and sarcasms regarding him,
and, as he affirmed, misrepresentations--probably based on
misunderstandings of his political opinions--the Prince showed no
resentment, though he must have been wounded. I know nothing more
sensible and charitable in all his admirable private writings, than his
few words on this unpleasant incident. He says: "The matter is really of
no consequence, for what does not one write or say to his intimate
friends, under the impulse of the moment. But the publication is a great
indiscretion. How many deadly enemies may be made if publicity be given
to what one man has said of another, or perhaps has _not_ said!"

But what does it matter to the dead, how many "deadly enemies" are made?
They have us at unfair advantage. We may deny, we may cry out, but we
cannot make them apologize, or retract, or modify the cruel sarcasm, or
more cruel ridicule. They seem to stealthily open the door of the tomb,
to shoot Parthian arrows at the very mourners who have just piled wreaths
before it. Carlyle fired a perfect _mitrailleuse_ from his grave.
The Prince's English biographer calls the Humboldt publication
"scandalous." Yet the English, who sternly condemn the most kindly
personalities of living authors (especially American authors), seem to
have rather a relish for these peppery posthumous revelations of genius,
--often saddening post-mortem exhibitions of its own moral weaknesses and
disease. No great English author dies nowadays, without his most
attached, faithful and familiar friends being in mortal terror lest they
be found spitted on the sharp shafts of his, or worse, _her_ satire.

During those Windsor festivities, the little Prince of Wales was shown to
the people at an upper window and pronounced satisfactory. A Court lady
described him at the time, as "the most magnificent baby in the Kingdom."
And perhaps he was. He was fair and plump, with pleasant blue eyes. It
seems to me that after all the years, he must look to-day, with his
fresh, open face, a good deal as he did on the day when his nurse dandled
him at the Castle window. He still has the fairness, the plumpness, the
pleasant blue eyes. It is true he has not very abundant hair now, but he
had not much then.

Tytler, the historian, gives a charming picture of him. as he appeared
some two years later. He was waiting one morning in the corridor at
Windsor with others to see the Queen, who came in bowing most graciously,
and having by the hand the Prince of Wales, "trotting on, looking happy
and merry." When she came to where Mr. Tytler stood, and saw him "bowing
and looking delightedly" at the little Prince and her, she bowed and said
to the little boy, "Make a bow, sir!" "When the Queen said this, the Duke
of Cambridge and the rest stood still, and the little Prince, walking
straight up to me, made a bow, smiling all the while, and holding out his
hand, which I immediately took, and bowing low, kissed it." The Queen, he
added, "smiled affectionately on the little Prince, for the gracious way
in which he deported himself."




CHAPTER XVIII.

Miscreants and Monarchs--A visit from Mendelssohn--The Queen's first
visit to Scotland--Anecdote--A trip to France and Belgium--Death of the
Duke of Sussex and of Prince Albert's father--The Dwarf and the Giant.


This year of 1842 was not all joy and festivity. It was the year of the
massacres of the British forces in Cabul; there was financial distress in
England, which a charitable masked ball at Buckingham Palace did not
wholly relieve; and in May occurred the second attempt on the life of the
Queen--that of John Francis.

The Queen behaved with her own wonderful courage on this occasion--which
was expected by her and Prince Albert, from their having a strong
impression that the same wretch had the day before pointed at them, from
the midst of a crowd, a pistol which had missed fire. They drove out
alone together, keeping a pretty sharp lookout for the assassin--and at
last, they saw him just as he fired. The ball passed under the carriage,
and Francis was at once arrested. Lady Bloomfield, who was then Maid of
Honor, gives an account of the excitement at the Palace that evening, and
quotes some words of the Queen, very beautiful because revealing her rare
consideration for others. She says that Sir Robert Peel was there, and
showed intense feeling about the risk Her Majesty had run, and that the
Queen, turning to her, said: "I dare say, Georgy, you were surprised at
not driving with me to-day--but the fact was, that as we were returning
from church yesterday, a man presented a pistol at the carriage window.
It flashed in the pan, and we were so taken by surprise that he had time
to escape. I knew what was hanging over me to-day, and was determined not
to expose any life but my own."

Francis was tried and sentenced to death, but through the Queen's
clemency the sentence was commuted to transportation for life, and the
very day after, Bean, the hunchback, essayed to shoot Her Majesty with a
charge of paper and bits of clay-pipe. He was such a miserable, feeble-
minded creature, that they only gave him eighteen months' imprisonment.

Soon after, the Queen was called to mourn with her aunt of Belgium, and
the rest of the family of Louis Philippe of France, for the death of the
Duke of Orleans, who was killed by being thrown from his carriage. If he
had lived, Louis Napoleon would hardly have been Emperor of France.

So it was hardly a gay summer for the Queen, though she had some
pleasure, especially in receiving Prince Albert's brother, Ernest, Duke
of Saxe-Coburg, and his bride, who came to England for their honeymoon.
They had also a pleasant visit from the great composer, Mendelssohn, who
thus wrote from Windsor to his mother, "Add to this the pretty and most
charming Queen Victoria, who looks so youthful, and is so gently
courteous and gracious, who speaks such good German, and knows all my
music so well,"--great praise from a Teutonic and Mendelssohnian point of
view. In the autumn, the Queen and Prince made their first visit to
Scotland--were received with immense enthusiasm everywhere, and had a
charming and health-bracing tour. They took Edinburgh by surprise--
entering the city from the sea, so early in the morning, that the
authorities, who had made great preparations to receive them, and rain
flowers and speeches upon them, were still in bed. Still the Queen made
up for it, by afterwards making a grand State-procession through the
grand old town. All the country for many miles about, poured into the
city on that day, and among some amusing anecdotes of the occasion, I
find this: "A gentleman living near Edinburgh, said to his farm-servant,
'Well, John, did you see the Queen?' 'Troth did I that, sir.' 'Well,
what did you think of her?' 'In truth, sir, I was terrible 'feared afore
she came forrit--my heart was maist in my mouth, but whan she did come
forrit, I was na feared at a'; I just lookit at her, and she lookit at
me, an' she bowed her heid at me, an' I bowed my heid at her.'"

The Queen traveled then with a much larger Court than she takes with her
nowadays, and to this were added the escorts of honor which the great
Scottish nobles and Highland chiefs furnished her, till it grew to be a
monster of a caravan. Among the items, I find that in conveying Her
Majesty and suite from Dalkeith to Taymouth, and from Taymouth back to
Dalkeith, 656 horses were employed. Yet this was nothing to the number of
animals engaged on the royal progresses of former times. It is stated
that 20,000 horses were in all employed in conveying Marie Antoinette,
her enormous suite and cumbrous belongings, from Vienna to Paris. Poor
woman!--it took all those horses to bring her into her kingdom, but only
one to carry her out of her kingdom, _via_ the Place de la
Revolution.

In the spring of the year following this tour, another Princess was born
in Buckingham Palace, and christened Alice Maud Mary. The summer went by
as usual, or even more pleasantly, for every new baby seemed to make this
family happier and gayer.

Lady Bloomfield gives some charming pictures of the happy home-life at
Windsor--of the children, pretty, merry, healthy, and well-bred; tells
very pleasant things of the Queen, and of the sweet and noble Duchess of
Kent--but gives only now and then, a glimpse of that gracious and
graceful presence, Prince Albert. Her Majesty made the life of her maids
of honor almost too easy. No long, tiresome waiting on their poor, tired
feet--no long hours of reading aloud, such as poor Miss Burney had to
endure, in the time of old Queen Charlotte. Lady Bloomfield--then
Georgiana Ravensworth--had little to do but to hand the Queen her bouquet
at dinner--to ride out with her and sing with her.

In the summer of 1843, the Queen and Prince made their first visit to the
King and Queen of France, at the Chateau d'Eu, near Treport, on the
coast. The King and several of his sons came off in the royal barge to
meet their yacht, which they boarded. One account says that Louis
Philippe, most unceremonious of monarchs, caught up the little Queen,
kissed her on both cheeks, and carried her bodily on to his barge.

Two Queens--Marie Amélie of France and her daughter, Louise of Belgium,
and two of her daughters-in-law--were at the landing to receive the first
Sovereign of England who had ever come to their shores on a friendly,
neighborly visit. It was a visit "of unmixed pleasure," says the Queen,
and the account of it is very pleasant reading now; but I have not space
to reproduce it. One little passage, in reference to the widowed Duchesse
d'Orleans, strikes my eye at this moment: "At ten, dear Hélène came to me
with little Paris, and stayed till the King and Queen came to fetch us to
breakfast."

"Little Paris" is the present Bourbon-Orleanist bugbear of the French
Republic--a very tame and well-behaved _bête noir_, but distrusted
and dreaded all the same.

After this French visit, the Queen and Prince went over to see their
uncle and aunt, at Brussels, and had a very interesting tour through
Belgium. Prince Albert, writing to the Baron soon after, said: "We found
uncle and aunt well. ... The children are blooming. Little Charlotte is
quite the prettiest child you ever saw." This "little Charlotte"
afterwards married Maximilian of Austria, the imperial puppet of Louis
Napoleon in Mexico. So Charlotte was for a brief, stormy time an Empress
--then came misfortune and madness. She is living yet, in that world of
shadows so much sadder than "the valley of the shadow of death."

In the spring of this year, the Duke of Sussex died, and at the next
prorogation of Parliament I read that the Queen, no longer fearing to
wound the susceptibilities of her proud old uncle, said to her husband,
"Come up higher!"--and had a chair for him, precisely like her own, on a
level with her own. It was on her left. The smaller chair, on her right,
belonged to "little Bertie," who was not yet quite ready to occupy it.

In the autumn, came a visit to the University of Cambridge, where the
Queen had the delight of seeing the degree of LL.D. conferred on her
husband. So he mounted, step by step, into the honorable position which
belonged to him. In this year also, he won laurels which he cared little
for, but which counted much for him among a class of Englishmen who
lightly esteemed his literary, artistic, and scientific taste and
knowledge. In a great hunting-party he carried off the honors by his
fearless and admirable riding. Sporting men said: "Why, there really is
something in the man beside good looks and German music and metaphysics.
He can take hedges and ditches as well as degrees."

I do not think Prince Albert did justice to the English people, when,
after his father's death, in the following year, he wrote in the first
gush of his grief, to the Baron: "Here we sit together, poor Mama,
Victoria and I, and weep, with a great, cold public around us, insensible
as stone."

I cannot believe that the British public is ever insensible to royal
sorrow.

The Prince-Consort went over to Coburg on a visit of condolence. Some
passages in his letters to the Queen, who took this first separation from
him hard, are nice reading for their homely and husbandly spirit. From
the yacht, before sailing, he wrote: "I have been here an hour, and
regret the lost time which I might have spent with you. Poor child! you
will, while I write, be getting ready for luncheon, and you will find a
place vacant where I sat yesterday. In your heart, however, I hope my
place will not be vacant. I at least, have you on board with me in
spirit. I reiterate my entreaty, 'Bear up! and don't give way to low
spirits, but try to occupy yourself as much as possible.'" ... "I have
got toys for the children, and porcelain views for you." ... "Oh! how
lovely and friendly is this dear old country. How glad I should be to
have my little wife beside me, to share my pleasure."

Miss Mitford, speaking of a desire expressed by the Queen, to see that
quaint old place, Strawberry Hill and all its curiosities, says: "Nothing
can tend more to ensure popularity than that Her Majesty should partake
of the national amusements and the natural curiosity of the more
cultivated portion of her subjects."

In such directions, certainly, the Queen was never found wanting in those
days. In "natural curiosity" she was a veritable daughter of Eve, and
granddaughter of George the Third. She was interested not only in the
scientific discoveries, new mechanical inventions, and agricultural
improvements which so interested her husband, but in odd varieties of
animals and human creatures. She accepted with pleasure the gift of a
Liliputian horse, supposed to be the smallest in the world--over five
years old, and only twenty-seven and a half inches high--brought from
Java, by a sea-captain, who used to take the gallant steed under his arm,
and run down-stairs with him; and she very graciously received and was
immensely entertained with the distinguished young American, who should
have been the Alexander of that Bucephalus--General Tom Thumb. This
little _lusus naturæ_, under the masterly management of Mr. Barnum,
had made a great sensation in London--which, after the Queen had summoned
him two or three times to Windsor, grew into a fashionable furor. Mr.
Barnum's description of those visits to the royal palaces is very
amusing. They were first received in the grand picture-gallery by the
Queen, the Duchess of Kent, Prince Albert, and the usual Court ladies and
gentlemen. Mr. Barnum writes: "They were standing at the farther end of
the room when the doors were thrown open, and the General walked in,
looking like a wax-doll gifted with the powers of locomotion. Surprise
and pleasure were depicted on the faces of the royal circle, at beholding
this remarkable specimen of humanity, so much smaller than they had
evidently expected to see him. The General advanced with a firm step, and
as he came within hailing distance, made a graceful bow, and said, 'Good-
evening, ladies and gentlemen!'

"A burst of laughter followed this salutation. The Queen then took him by
the hand, and led him about the gallery, and asked him many questions,
the answers to which kept the party in continual merriment. The General
informed the Queen, that her picture-gallery was 'first-rate,' and said
he should like to see the Prince of Wales. The Queen replied that the
Prince had gone to bed, but that he should see him on a future occasion."
The General then gave his songs, dances, and imitations; and after an
hour's talk with Prince Albert and the rest, departed as coolly as he had
come, but not as leisurely, as the long backing-out process being too
tedious, he varied it with little runs, which drew from the Queen,
Prince, and Court peels of laughter, and roused the ire of the Queen's
poodle, who attacked the small Yankee stranger. The General defended
himself with his little cane, as valiantly as the original Tom Thumb with
his mother's darning-needle. On the next visit, he was introduced to the
Prince of Wales, whom he addressed with a startling, "How are you,
Prince?" He then received a costly souvenir from the Queen, and, each
time he performed, generous pay in gold. The Queen Dowager was also much
taken with him, and presented him with a beautiful little watch. She
called him "dear little General," and took him on her lap. The time came
(when this "full-grown" dwarf was fuller-grown) that the most powerful
Queen Dowager would have found it difficult to dandle him, Charles
Stratton, Esq., a husband and father, on her knee: The fact is the
General was a bit of a humbug, being considerably younger than he was
given out to be. But he was an exceedingly pretty, amusing little humbug,
so it was no matter then. But when the truth came out, the Queen's faith
in Yankee showmen must have suffered a shock, as must that of the honest
old Duke of Wellington, who used to drop in at Egyptian Hall so often to
see the tiny creature assume the dress and the pensive pose of Napoleon
"thinking of the loss of the battle of Waterloo," and looking so like his
old enemy, seen through a reversed field-glass. Very likely the Queen's
"full-grown" Java horse turned out to be a young colt.

After the dwarf, came the giant--the tallest and grandest of the
sovereigns of Europe, Nicholas, the Emperor of all the Russias. He came
on one of his war-ships, but with the friendliest feelings, and "just
dropped in" on the Queen, with only a few hours' notice. It was a
pleasant little way he had of surprising his friends. However, he was
made welcome, and everything possible was done to entertain and do him
honor during his stay. He had visited England before, when he was much
younger and handsomer. Baron Stockmar met him at Claremont, in the time
of the Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold, and quotes a compliment
paid him by a Court lady, in the refined language of the Regency: "What
an amiable creature! He is devilish handsome! He will be the handsomest
man in Europe." And so he might have been, had he possessed a heart and
soul. But his expression was always, if not actually bad, severe and
repellant. The look his large, keen eyes, which had very pale lashes, and
every now and then showed the white all round the iris, is said to have
been quite awful. He was a soldier above all things, and told the Queen
he felt very awkward in evening-dress, as though in leaving off his
uniform he had "taken off his skin." He must have been rather a
discommoding guest, from a little whim he had of sleeping only on straw.
He always had with him a leathern case, which at every place he stopped,
was filled with fresh straw from the stables.

He was an excessively polite man--this towering Czar; but for all that, a
very cruel man--a colossal embodiment of the autocratic principle--
selfish and cold and hard--though he did win upon the Queen's heart by
praise of her husband. He said: "Nowhere will you find a handsomer young
man; he has such an air of nobility and goodness." It was a mystery how
he could so well appreciate that pure and lovable character, for the
Prince Consort must always have been a mystery to men like the Czar
Nicholas.




CHAPTER XIX.

Old homes and new--A visit from the King of France--The Queen and Prince
Albert make their first visit to Germany--Incidents of the trip--A new
seaside home on the Isle of Wight--Repeal of the Corn Laws--Prince Albert
elected Chancellor of Cambridge University--Benjamin Disraeli.


This year--1844--there was a death in the household at Windsor, and a
birth. The death was that of Eos, the favorite greyhound of Prince
Albert. "Dear Eos," as the Queen called her, was found dead one morning.
The Prince wrote the next day to his grandmother, "You will share my
sorrow at this loss. She was a singularly clever creature and had been
for eleven years faithfully devoted to me. How many recollections are
linked with her."

This beautiful and graceful animal, almost human in her love, and in
something very like intellect and soul, appears in several of Landseer's
pictures. I will not apologize for keeping a Royal Prince waiting while I
give this space to her. This Prince, born at Windsor, in August, was the
present Duke of Edinburgh. He was christened Alfred Ernest Albert. The
Queen in her journal wrote: "The scene in the chapel was very solemn. ...
To see those two children there too" (the Princess Royal and the Prince
of Wales), "seemed such a dream to me. May God bless them all, poor
little things!" Her Majesty adds that all through the service she
fervently prayed that this boy might be "as good as his beloved father."
How is it, your Royal Highness?

This year they went again to the Highlands for a few weeks. The Queen's
journal says: "Mama came to take leave of us. Alice and the baby were
brought in, poor little things! to bid us good-bye. Then good Bertie came
down to see us, and Vicky appeared as _voyageuse_, and was all
impatience to go."

"Bertie" is the family name for the Prince of Wales. I believe that at
heart he is still "good Bertie." "Vicky" was the Princess Royal. The
Queen further on remarks: "I said to Albert I could hardly believe that
our child was traveling with us; it put me so in mind of myself when I
was the little Princess.'"

This year Louis Philippe came over to return the visit of the Queen and
the Prince, and there were great festivities and investings at Windsor
with all possible kindness and courtesy, and I hope the wily old King
went home with gratitude in his heart, as well as the garter on his leg.
This year too the Queen and Prince made their first visit to Germany
together. The picture the Queen paints of the morning of leaving and the
parting from the children is very domestic, sweet, and motherly: "Both
Vicky and darling Alice were with me while I dressed. Poor dear Puss
wished much to go with us and often said, 'Why am I not going to
Germany?' Most willingly would I have taken her. I wished much to take
one of dearest Albert's children with us to Coburg; but the journey is a
serious undertaking and she is very young still." ... "It was a painful
moment to drive away with the three poor little things standing at the
door. God bless them and protect them--which He will."

The English Queen and the Prince-Consort were received with all possible
royal honors and popular respect at Aix-la-Chapelle and Cologne, and at
the Royal Palace at Brühl. It was past midnight when they reached that
welcome resting-place, and yet, as an account before me states, they were
regaled by a military serenade "in which seven hundred performers were
engaged!" A German friend of ours from that region supplements this story
by stating that five hundred of those military performers were drummers;
that they were accompanied by torch-bearers; that they came under the
Queen's windows, wakened her out of her first sleep, and almost drove her
wild with fright. With those tremendous trumpetings and drum-beatings,
"making night hideous" with their storm of menacing, barbaric sound, and
with the fierce glare of the torchlight, it might have seemed to her that
Doomsday had burst on the world, and that the savage old Huns of Attila
were up first, ready for war.

The next day they all went up the Rhine to the King's Palace of
Stolzenfels. Never perhaps was even a Rhine steamer so heavily freighted
with royalty--a cargo of Kings and Queens, Princes and Archdukes. It was
all very fine, as were the royal feasts and festivals, but the Queen and
Prince were happiest when they had left all this grandeur and parade
behind them and were at Coburg amid their own kin--for there, impatiently
awaiting them, were the mother of Victoria and the brother of Albert, and
"a staircase full of cousins," as the Queen says. They stopped at lovely
Rosenau, and the Queen, with one of her beautiful poetic impulses, chose
for their chamber the room in which her husband was born. She wrote in
her journal, "How happy, how joyful we were, on awaking, to find
ourselves here, at the dear Rosenau, my Albert's birth-place, the place
he most loves. ... He was so happy to be here with me. It was like a
beautiful dream."

The account of the rejoicings of the simple Coburg people, and especially
of the children, over their beloved Prince, and over the visit of his
august wife, is really very touching. Their offerings and tributes were
mostly flowers, poems and music--wonderfully sweet chorales and gay
_réveils_ and inspiriting marches. There was a great _fête_ of
the peasants on Prince Albert's birthday, with much waltzing, and
shouting, and beer-quaffing, and toast-giving. The whole visit was an
Arcadian episode, simple and charming, in the grand royal progress of
Victoria's life. But the royal progress had to be resumed--the State
called back its bond-servants; and so, after a visit to the dear old
grandmother at Gotha--the parting with whom seemed especially hard to
Prince Albert, as though he had a presentiment it was to be the last--
they set out for home. They took their yacht at Antwerp, and after a
flying visit to the King and Queen of France at Eu, were soon at Osborne,
where their family were awaiting them. The Queen wrote: "The dearest of
welcomes greeted us as we drove up straight to the house, for there,
looking like roses, so well and so fat, stood the four children, much
pleased to see us!"

Ah, often the best part of going away is coming home.

During this year the Royal Family were very happy in taking possession of
their new seaside palace on the Isle of Wight, and I believe paid no more
visits to Brighton, which was so much crowded in the season as to make
anything like the privacy they desired impossible. During her last stay
at the Pavilion the Queen was so much displeased at the rudeness of the
people who pressed about her and Prince Albert, when they were trying to
have a quiet little walk on the breezy pier, that I read she appealed to
the magistrates for protection. There was such a large and ever-growing
crowd of excited, hurrying, murmuring, staring Brightonians and strangers
about them that it seemed a rallying cry had gone through the town, from
lip to lip: "The Queen and Prince are out! To the pier! To the pier!"

The Pavilion was never a desirable Marine Palace, as it commanded no good
views of the sea; so Her Majesty's new home in the Isle of Wight had for
her, the Prince and the children every advantage over the one in Brighton
except in bracing sea-air. Osborne has a broad sea view, a charming
beach, to which the woods run down--the lovely woods in which are found
the first violets of the spring and to which the nightingales first come.
The grounds were fine and extensive, to the great delight of the Prince
Consort, who had not only a peculiar passion, but a peculiar talent for
gardening. Indeed, when this many-sided German was born a Prince, a
masterly landscape-gardener was lost to the world--that is, the world
outside the grounds of Windsor, Osborne and Balmoral, which indeed "keep
his memory green." The Queen writing from Osborne says: "Albert is so
happy here--out all day planting, directing, etc., and it is so good for
him. It is a relief to get away from the bitterness which people create
for themselves in London."--But I am not writing the Life of Prince
Albert;--I often forget that.

The year of 1846 was gloriously marked by the repeal of the Corn Laws; a
measure of justice and mercy, the withholding of which from the people
had for several years produced much distress and commotion. Some
destructive work had been done by mobs on the houses of the supporters of
the old laws; they had even stoned the town residence of the Duke of
Wellington, Apsley House. The stern old fighter would have been glad at
the moment to have swept the streets clear with cannon, but he contented
himself with putting shutters over his broken windows, to hide the shame.
I believe they were never opened again while he lived. The great leaders
in this Corn Laws agitation were Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright. These great-
hearted men could not rest for the cries which came up to them from the
suffering people. There were sore privations and "short commons" in
England, and in Ireland, starvation, real, honest, earnest starvation.
The poverty of the land had struck down into the great Irish stand-by,
the potato, a deadly blight. A year or two later the evil took gigantic
proportions; the news came to us in America, and an alarm was sounded
which roused the land. We sent a divine Armada against the grim enemy
which was wasting the Green Isle; ships, which poured into him broadsides
of big bread-balls, and grape-shot of corn, beans and potatoes. It is
recorded that "in one Irish seaport town the bells were kept ringing all
day in honor of the arrival of one of these grain-laden vessels." I am
afraid these bells had a sweeter sound to the poor people than even those
rung on royal birthdays.

Strangely enough, after the passage of measures which immortalized his
ministerial term, Sir Robert Peel was ejected from power. The Queen
parted from him with great regret, but quietly accepted his successor,
Lord John Russell.

Six years had now gone by since the marriage of Victoria and Albert, and
the family had grown to be six, and soon it was seven, for in May the
Princess Helena Augusta Victoria was born. Her godmother was Hélène, the
widowed Duchess of Orleans, the mother of the gallant young men, the
Count de Paris and the Duke de Chartres, who during our great war came
over to America to see service under General McClellan.

About this time the Prince-Consort was called to Liverpool to open a
magnificent dock named after him, which duty he performed in the most
graceful manner. The next day he laid the foundation-stone for a Sailors'
Home. The Queen, who was not able to be with him on these occasions,
wrote to the Baron: "I feel very lonely without my dear master, and
though I know other people are often separated, I feel that I could never
get accustomed to it. ... Without him everything loses its interest. It
will always cause a terrible pang for me to be separated from him even
for two days, and I pray God not to let me survive him. I glory in his
being seen and loved."

In September they went into the new Marine Palace at Osborne. On the
first evening, amid the gaieties of the splendid house-warming festival,
the Prince very solemnly repeated a hymn of Luther's, sung in Germany on
these occasions. Translated it is:

  "God bless our going out, nor less
  Our coming in, and make them sure;
  God bless our daily bread, and bless
  Whate'er we do--whate'er endure;
  In death unto His peace awake us,
  And heirs of His salvation make us."

They were very happy amid all the political trouble and perplexity--
almost too happy, considering how life was going on, or going off in poor
Ireland. Doubtless the cries of starving children and the moans of fever-
stricken mothers must often have pierced the tender hearts of the Queen
and Prince; but the calamity was so vast, so apparently irremediable,
that they turned their thoughts away from it as much as possible, as we
turn ours from the awful tragic work of volcanoes in the far East and
tornadoes in the West. It was a sort of charmed life they lived, with its
pastoral peace and simple pleasures. Lady Bloomfield wrote: "It always
entertains me to see the little things which amuse Her Majesty and the
Prince, instead of their looking bored, as people so often do in English
society." One thing, however, did "bore" him, and that, unfortunately,
was riding--"for its own sake." So it was not surprising that after a
time the Queen indulged less in her favourite pastime. She still loved a
romping dance now and then, but she was hardly as gay as when Guizot
first saw and described her. Writing from Windsor to his son he gives a
picture of a royal dinner party: "On my left sat the young Queen whom
they tried to assassinate the other day, in gay spirits, talking a great
deal, laughing very often and longing to laugh still more; and filling
with her gaiety, which contrasted with the already tragical elements of
her history, this ancient castle which has witnessed the career of all
her predecessors."

The political affairs which tried and troubled the Queen and the Prince
were not merely English. They were much disturbed and shocked by the
unworthy intrigues and the unkingly bad faith shown by Louis Philippe in
the affair of the "Spanish Marriages"--a complicated and rather delicate
matter, which I have neither space nor desire to dwell upon here. It had
a disastrous effect on the Orleans family, and perhaps on the history of
France. It has been mostly interesting to me now for the manner in which
the subject was, handled by the Queen, whose letters revealed a royal
high spirit and a keen sense of royal honor. She regretted the heartless
State marriage of the young Queen of Spain, not only from a political but
a domestic point of view. She saw poor Isabella forced or tricked into a
distasteful union, from which unhappiness must, and something far worse
than unhappiness might, come. Many and great misfortunes did come of it
and to the actors in it.

In the spring of 1847 the Prince-Consort was elected Chancellor of the
University of Cambridge--a great honor for so young a man. The Queen was
present at the installation, and there was a splendid time. Wordsworth
wrote an ode on the occasion. It was not quite equal to his "Ode on the
Intimations of Immortality." In truth, Mr. Wordsworth did not shine as
Poet Laureate. Mr. Tennyson better earns his butt of Malmsey.

Seated on the throne in the great Hall of Trinity, the Queen received the
new Chancellor, who was beautifully dressed in robes of black and gold,
with a long train borne by two of his officers. He read to her a speech,
to which she read a reply, saying that on the whole she approved of the
choice of the University. "I cannot say," writes the Queen, "how it
agitated and embarrassed me to have, to receive this address, and hear it
read by my beloved Albert, who walked in at the head of the University,
and who looked dear and beautiful in his robes."

Happy woman! When ordinary husbands make long, grave speeches to their
wives, they do not often look "dear and beautiful!"

This year a new prima-donna took London by storm and gave the Queen and
Prince "exquisite enjoyment." Her Majesty wrote: "Her acting alone is
worth going to see, and the _piano_ way she has of singing, Lablache
says, is unlike anything he ever heard. He is quite enchanted. There is a
purity in her singing and acting which is quite indescribable."

That singer was Jenny Lind.

About this time lovers of impassioned oratory felt the joy which the
astronomer knows "_when a new comet swims into his ken_" in the
appearance of a brilliant political orator, of masterly talent and more
masterly will. This still young man of Hebraic origin, rather dashing and
flashing in manner and dress, had not been thought to have any very
serious purpose in life, and does not seem to have much impressed the
Queen or Prince Albert at first; but the time came when he, as a Minister
and friend, occupied a place in Her Majesty's respect and regard scarcely
second to the one once occupied by Lord Melbourne. This orator was
Benjamin Disraeli.




CHAPTER XX.

A Troublous Time--Louis Philippe an Exile--The Purchase of Balmoral--A
Letter of Prince Albert's--Another attempt on the Queen's Life--The
Queen's instructions to the Governess of her Daughters--A visit to
Ireland--Death of Dowager Queen Adelaide.


At last came 1848--a year packed with political convulsions and
overthrows. The spirit of revolution was rampant, bowling away at all the
thrones of Europe. England heard the storm thundering nearly all round
the horizon, for in the sister isle the intermittent rebellion broke out,
chiefly among the "Young Ireland" party, led by Mitchel, Meagher and
O'Brien. This plucky little uprising was soon put down. The leaders were
brave, eloquent, ardent young men, but their followers were not disposed
to fight long and well--perhaps their stomachs were too empty. The
Chartists stirred again, and renewed their not unreasonable or
treasonable demands; but all in vain. There is really something awful
about the strength and solidity and impassivity of England. When the
French monarchy went down in the earthquake shock of that wild winter,
and a republic came up in its place, it surely would have been no wonder
if a vast tidal-wave of revolution caused by so much subsidence and
upheaving had broken disastrously on the English shores. But it did not.
The old sea-wall of loyalty and constitutional liberty was too strong.
There were only floated up a few waifs, and among them a "_forlorn and
shipwrecked brother_," calling himself "John Smith," and a poor, gray-
haired, heart-broken woman, "Mrs. Smith," for the nonce. When these came
to land they were recognized as Louis Philippe and Marie Amélie of
France. Afterwards most of their family, who had been scattered by the
tempest, came also, and joined them in a long exile. The English asylum
of the King and Queen was Claremont, that sanctuary of love and sorrow,
which the Queen, though loving it well, had at once given over to her
unfortunate old friends, whom she received with the most sympathetic
kindness, trying to forget all causes of ill-feeling given her a year or
two before by the scheming King and his ambitious sons.

In the midst of the excitement and anxiety of that time, a gentle,
loving, world-wearied soul passed out of our little mortal day at Gotha,
and a fresh, bright young soul came into it in London. The dear old
grandmother of the Prince died, in her palace of Friedrichsthal, and his
daughter, Louise Caroline Alberta, now Marchioness of Lorne, was born in
Buckingham Palace.

Among those ruined by the convulsions in Germany were the Queen's
brother, Prince Leiningen, and her brother-in-law, Prince Hohenlohe. So
the thunderbolt had struck near. At one time it threatened to strike
still nearer, for that spring the Chartists made their great
demonstration, or rather announced one. It was expected that they would
assemble at a given point and march, several hundred thousand strong, on
Parliament, bearing a monster petition. What such a mighty body of men
might do, what excesses they might commit in the capital, nobody could
tell. The Queen was packed off to Osborne with baby Louise, to be out of
harm's way, and 170,000 men enrolled themselves as special constables.
Among these was Louis Napoleon, longing for a fight of some sort in
alliance with England. He did net get it till some years after. There was
no collision, in fact no large compact procession; the Chartists, mostly
very good citizens, quietly dispersed and went home after presenting
their petition. The great scare was over, but the special constables were
as proud as Wellington's army after Waterloo.

When the Chartist leaders had been tried for sedition and sentenced to
terms of imprisonment, and the Irish leaders had been transported, things
looked so flat in England that the young French Prince turned again to
France to try his fortune. It was his third trial. The first two efforts
under Louis Philippe to stir up a revolt and topple the citizen king from
the throne had ended in imprisonment and ridicule; but now he would not
seem to play a Napoleonic game. He would fall in with republican ideas
and run for the Presidency, which he did, and won. But as the countryman
at the circus, after creating much merriment by his awkward riding in his
rural costume, sometimes throws it off and appears as a spangled hero and
the very prince of equestrians; so this "nephew of his uncle," suddenly
emerging from the disguise of a republican President, blazed forth a
full-panoplied warrior-Emperor. But this was not yet.

In September of this year the Queen and Prince first visited a new
property they had purchased in the heart of the Highlands. The Prince
wrote of it: "We have withdrawn for a short time into a complete mountain
solitude, where one rarely sees a human face, where the snow already
covers the mountain-tops and the wild deer come creeping stealthily round
the house. I, naughty man, have also been creeping stealthily after the
harmless stags, and today I shot two red deer." ... "The castle is of
granite, with numerous small turrets, and is situated on a rising-ground,
surrounded by birchwood, and close to the river Dee. The air is glorious
and dear, but icy cold."

What a relief it must have been to them to feel themselves out of the
reach of runaway royalties, and "surprise parties" of Emperors and Grand
Dukes.

In March, 1849, the Prince laid the foundation-stone for the Great
Grimsby Docks, and made a noble speech on the occasion. From that I will
not quote, but I am tempted to give entire a charming note which he wrote
from Brocklesby, Lord Yarborough's place, to the Queen.

It runs thus:

"Your faithful husband, agreeably to your wishes, reports: 1. That he is
still alive. 2. That he has discovered the North Pole from Lincoln
Cathedral, but without finding either Captain Ross or Sir John Franklin.
3. That he arrived at Brocklesby and received the address. 4. That he
subsequently rode out and got home quite covered with snow and with
icicles on his nose. 5. That the messenger is waiting to carry off this
letter, which you will have in Windsor by the morning. 6. Last, but not
least, that he loves his wife and remains her devoted husband."

We may believe the good, fun-loving wife was delighted with this little
letter, and read it to a few of her choicest friends.

A few months later, while the Queen was driving with her children in an
open carriage over that assassin-haunted Constitution Hill, she was fired
at by a mad Irishman--William Hamilton. She did not lose for a moment her
wonderful self-possession, but ordered the carriage to move on, and
quieted with a few calm words the terror of the children.

We have seen that at the time of Oxford's attempt she "laughed at the
thing"; but now there had been so many shootings that "the thing" was
getting tiresome and monotonous, and she did not interfere with the
carrying out of the sentence of seven years' transportation. This was not
the last. In 1872 a Fenian tried his hand against his widowed sovereign,
and we all know of the shocking attempt of two years ago at Windsor. In
truth, Her Majesty has been the greatest royal target in Europe.
_Messieurs les assassins_ are not very gallant.

All this time the Prince-Consort was up to his elbows in work of many
kinds. That which he loved best, planning and planting the grounds of
Osborne and Balmoral and superintending building, he cheerfully
sacrificed for works of public utility. He inaugurated and urged forward
many benevolent and scientific enterprises, and schools of art and music.
This extraordinary man seemed to have a prophetic sense of the value and
ultimate success of inchoate public improvements, and when he once
adopted a scheme allowed nothing to discourage him. He engineered the
Holborn Viaduct enterprise, and I notice that at a late meeting of the
brave Channel Tunnel Company, Sir E. W. Watkin claimed that "the cause
had once the advocacy of the great Prince-Consort, the most sagacious man
of the century."

With all these things he found time to carefully overlook the education
of his children. The Prince of Wales was now thought old enough to be
placed under a tutor, and one was selected--a Mr. Birch (let us hope the
name was not significant), "a young, good-looking, amiable man," who had
himself taken "the highest honors at Cambridge";--doubtless a great point
those highest Cambridge honors, for the instructor of an eight-years-old
boy. For all the ability and learning of his tutor, it is said that the
Prince of Wales never took to the classics with desperate avidity. He was
never inclined to waste his strength or dim his pleasant blue eyes over
the midnight oil.

Prince Albert never gave the training of his boys up wholly to the most
accomplished instructors. His was still, while he lived, the guiding,
guarding spirit. The Queen was equally faithful in the discharge of her
duties to her children--especially to her daughters. In her memoranda I
find many admirable passages which reveal her peculiarly simple,
domestic, affectionate system of home government. The religious training
of her little ones she kept as much as possible in her own hands, still
the cares of State and the duties of royal hospitality would interfere,
and, writing of the Princess Royal, in 1844, she says: "It is a hard case
for me that my occupations prevent me from being with her when she says
her prayers."

Some instructions which she gave to this child's governess should be
printed in letters of gold:

"I am quite clear that she should be taught to have great reverence for
God and for religion, but that she should have the feeling of devotion
and love which our heavenly Father encourages His earthly children to
have for Him, and not one of fear and trembling; and that thoughts of
death and an after life should not be represented in an alarming and
forbidding view; and that she should be made to know as yet no difference
of creeds, and not think that she can only pray on her knees, or that
those who do not kneel are less fervent or devout in their prayers."

In August of this year the Queen and Prince sailed in their favorite
yacht, the _Victoria and Albert_, for Ireland, taking with them
their three eldest children, the better to show the Irish people that
their sovereign had not lost confidence in them for their recent bit of a
rebellion, which she believed was one-half Popery and the other half
potato-rot. The Irish people justified that faith. At the Cove of Cork,
where the Royal party first landed, and which has been Queenstown ever
since, their reception was most enthusiastic, as it was also in Dublin,
so lately disaffected. The common people were especially delighted with
the children, and one "stout old woman" shouted out, "Oh, Queen, dear,
make one o' thim darlints Patrick, and all Ireland will die for ye!" They
afterwards got their "Patrick" in the little Duke of Connaught, but I
fear were none the more disposed to die for the English Queen. Perhaps he
came a little too late.

The Queen on this trip expressed the intention of creating the Prince of
Wales Earl of Dublin, by way of compliment and conciliation, and perhaps
she did, but still Fenianism grew and flourished In Ireland.

The passage from Belfast to Loch Ryan was very rough--a regular rebellion
against, "the Queen of the Seas," as the Emperor of France afterwards
called Victoria. She records that, "Poor little Affie was knocked down
and sent rolling over the deck, and was completely drenched." The poor
little fellow, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the bold mariner of the
family, probably cried out then that he would "never, never be a sailor."

In a letter from Balmoral, written on his thirtieth birthday, the Prince-
Consort says: "Victoria is happy and cheerful--the children are well and
grow apace; the Highlands are glorious."

I do not know that the fact has anything to do with Her Majesty's
peculiar love for Scotland, but she came very near being born in that
part of her dominions--the Duke of Kent having proposed a little while
before her birth to take a place in Lanarkshire, belonging to a friend.
Had he done so his little daughter would have been a Highland lassie. I
don't think the Queen would have objected. She said to Sir Archibald
Alison, "I am more proud of my Scotch descent than of any other. When I
first came into Scotland I felt as if I were coming home."

With the occupation of Balmoral this home feeling increased: The Queen
was ever impatient to seek that mountain retreat and regretful to leave
it. She loved above all the outdoor life there--the rough mountaineering,
the deer hunts, the climbing, the following up and fording streams, the
picnics on breezy hill-sides; she loved to get out from under the dark
purple shadow of royalty and nestle down among the brighter purple of the
heather; she loved to go off on wild incognito expeditions and be
addressed by the simple peasants without her awesome titles; even loved
to be at times like the peasants in simplicity and naturalness, to feel
with her "guid mon," like a younger Mistress Anderson with her "jo John."
She seemed to enjoy all weathers at Balmoral. I am told that she used to
delight in walking in the rain and wind and going out protected only by a
thick water-proof, the hood drawn over her head; and that she liked
nothing better than driving in a heavy snow-storm. After the return from
Scotland, the Queen was to have opened the new Coal Exchange in London,
but was prevented by an odd and much-belated ailment, an attack of
chicken-pox. Prince Albert went in her place and took the Princess Royal
and the Prince of Wales, who, Lady Lyttelton writes: "behaved very
civilly and nicely." There was an immense crowd, all shouting and
cheering, and smiling kindly on the children. Some official of immense
size, with a big cloak and wig, and a big voice, is described as making a
pompous speech to little Albert Edward, looking down on him and
addressing him as "Your Royal Highness, the pledge, and promise of a long
race of Kings." Lady Lyttelton adds: "Poor Princey did not seem to guess
at all what he meant."

Soon after this grand affair, a very _grand personage_ came not
unwillingly to the end of all earthly affairs. Adelaide, Dowager Queen of
England, died after a long and painful illness. She had lived a good
life; she was a sweet, charitable, patient, lovable woman. The Queen and
Prince-Consort were deeply grieved. The Queen wrote: "She was truly
motherly in her kindness to us and our children. ... Poor mama is very
much cut up by this sad event. To her the Queen is a great and serious
loss."

Queen Adelaide left directions that her funeral should be as private as
possible, and that her coffin should be carried by sailors--a tribute to
the memory of the Sailor-King.

From an English gentleman, who has exceptional opportunities of knowing
much of the private history of Royalty, I have received an anecdote of
this good woman and wife, when Duchess of Clarence--something which our
friend thinks does her more honor than afterwards did her title of Queen.
When she was married she knew, for everybody knew, of the left-hand
marriage of the Duke with the beautiful actress, Mrs. Jordan, from whom
he was then separated. The Duke took his bride to Bushey Park, his
residence, for the honeymoon, and himself politely conducted her to her
chamber. She looked about the elegant room well pleased, but was soon
struck by the picture of a very lovely woman, over the mantel. "Who is
that?" she asked. The poor Duke was aghast, but he had at least the
kingly quality of truth-telling, and stammered out: "That, my dear
Adelaide, is a portrait of Mrs. Jordan. I humbly beg your pardon for its
being here. I gave orders to have it removed, but those stupid servants
have neglected to do it. I will have it done at once--only forgive me."

The Duchess took her husband's hand and said: "No, my dear William, you
must not do it! I know what Mrs. Jordan has been to you in the past--that
you have loved her--that she is the mother of your children, and I wish
her portrait to remain where it is." And it did remain. This was very
noble and generous, certainly; but I cannot help thinking that the
Duchess was not very much in love.




CHAPTER XXI

The Great Exhibition--Birth of the Duke of Connaught--Death of Sir Robert
Peel and Louis Philippe--Prince Albert's speech before the Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.


Early in this year of 1850, Prince Albert, though not in his usual
health, began in deadly earnest on his colossal labors in behalf of the
great "World's Exhibition." England owed that magnificent manifestation
of her resources and her enterprise far more to him than to any other
man. He met with much opposition from that conservative class who, from
the start, denounce all new ideas and innovations, shrinking like owls
from the advancing day; and that timid class who, while admitting the
grandeur of the idea, feared it was premature. "The time has not come,"
they said; "wait a century or two." Some opposed it on the ground that it
would bring to London a host of foreigners, with foreign ideas and
perilous to English morals and religion.

In the garden of a certain grand English country-place there is a certain
summer-house with a closed door, which, if a curious visitor opens, lets
off some water-works, which give him a spray-douche. So the Prince
received, at door after door, a dash of cold water for his "foreign
enterprise." But he persevered, letting nothing dishearten him--toiling
terribly, and inspiring others to toil, till at last the site he desired
for the building was granted him, and the first Crystal Palace--the first
palace for the people in England--went slowly up, amid the sun-dropped
shades of Hyde Park. Temporary as was that marvelous structure, destined
so soon to pass away, like "the baseless fabric of a vision," I can but
think it the grandest of the monuments to the memory of the Prince-
Consort, though little did he so regard it. To his poetic yet practical
mind it was the universal temple of industry and art, the valhalla of the
heroes of commerce, the fane of the gods of science--the caravansery of
the world. That Exhibition brought together the ends of the earth,--long-
estranged human brethren sat down together in pleasant communion. It was
a modern Babel, finished and furnished, and where there was almost a
fusion, instead of, a confusion, of tongues. The "barbarous Turk" was
there, the warlike Russ, the mercenary Swiss, the passionate Italian, the
voluptuous Spaniard, the gallant Frenchman,--and yet foreboding English
citizens did not find themselves compelled to go armed, or to lock up
their plate, or their wives and daughters. In fact, this beautiful
realized dream, this accomplished fact, quickened the pulses of commerce,
the genius of invention, the soul and the arm of industry, the popular
zeal for knowledge, as nothing had ever done before.

To go back a little to family events:--On May 1st, 1850, Prince Albert,
in writing to his step-mother at Coburg, told a bit of news very
charmingly: "This morning, after rather a restless night (being Walpurgis
night, that was very appropriate), and while the witches were careering
on the Blocksberg, under Ernst Augustus' mild sceptre, a little boy
glided into the light of day and has been received by the sisters with
_jubilates_. 'Now we are just as many as the days of the week!' was
the cry, and a bit of a struggle arose as to who was to be Sunday. of
well-bred courtesy the honor was conceded to the new-comer. Victoria is
well, and so is the child."

This Prince was called Arthur William Patrick Albert. The first name was
in honor of the Duke of Wellington, on whose eighty-first birthday the
boy was born; William was for the Prince of Prussia, now Emperor of
Germany; Patrick was for Ireland in general, and the "stout old woman" of
Dublin in particular.

This year both the Queen and the country lost a great and valued friend
in Sir Robert Peel, who was killed by being thrown from his horse. There
was much mourning in England among all sorts of people for this rarely
noble, unennobled man. The title of Baronet he had. inherited; it is said
he declined a grander title, and he certainly recorded in his will a wish
that no one of his sons should accept a title on account of _his_
services to the country--which was a great thing for a man to do in
England; and after his death, his wife was so proud of bearing his name
that she declined a peerage offered to her--which was a greater thing for
a woman to do in England.

Not long after, occurred the death of the ex-King of France, at
Claremont. McCarthy sums up his character very tersely, thus: "The
clever, unwise, grand, mean old man." Louis Philippe's meanness was in
his mercenary and plotting spirit, when a rich man and a king--his grand
qualities were his courage and cheerfulness, when in poverty and exile.

The Royal Family again visited Edinburgh, and stopped for a while at
Holyrood--that quaint old Palace of poor Mary Stuart, whose sad, sweet
memory so pervades it, like a personal atmosphere, that it seems she has
only gone but for a little walk, or ride, with her four Maries, and will
soon come in, laughing and talking French, and looking passing beautiful.
Queen Victoria had then a romantic interest in the hapless Queen of
Scots. She said to Sir Archibald Alison, "I am glad I am descended from
Mary; I have nothing to do with Elizabeth."

From Edinburgh to dear Balmoral, from whence the Prince writes: "We try
to strengthen our hearts amid the stillness and solemnity of the
mountains."

The Queen's heart especially needed strengthening, for she was dreading a
blow which soon fell upon her in the death of her dearest friend, her
aunt, the Queen of the Belgians. She mourned deeply and long for this
lovely and gifted woman, this "angelic soul," as Baron Stockmar called
her.

On April 29, 1851, the Queen paid a private visit to the Exhibition, and
wrote: "We remained two hours and a half, and I came back quite beaten,
and my head bewildered from the myriads of beautiful and wonderful things
which now quite dazzle one's eyes. Such efforts have been made, and our
people have shown such taste in their manufactures. All owing to this
great Exhibition, and to Albert--all to _him_!"

May 1st, which was the first anniversary of little Arthur's birth, was
the great opening-day, when Princes and people took possession of that
mighty crystal temple, and the "Festival of Peace" began.

The Queen's description in her diary is an eloquent outpouring of pride
and joy, and gratitude. One paragraph ends with these words: "God bless
my dearest Albert. God bless my dearest country, which has shown itself
so great to-day! One felt so grateful to the great God, who seemed to
pervade and bless all."

Her Majesty wrote that the scene in the Park as they drove through--the
countless carriages, the vast crowd, the soldiers, the music, the
tumultuous, yet happy excitement everywhere, reminded her of her
coronation day; but when she entered that great glass house, over which
floated in the sunny air the flags of all nations, within which were the
representatives of all nations, and when she walked up to her place in
the centre, conducted by the wizard who had conjured up for the world
that magic structure, and when the two stood there, with a child on
either hand, before the motley multitude, cheering in all languages--
then, Victoria _felt her name_, and knew she had come to her real
coronation, as sovereign, wife, and mother.

Shortly after this great day, Prince Albert distinguished himself by a
remarkably fine speech at an immense meeting of the "Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." Such shoals of foreigners
being then in London, the Society felt that they must be casting in their
nets. Lord John Russell wrote to congratulate the Queen, who, next to the
heathen, was most interested in the success of this speech. Her reply was
very characteristic. After saying that she had been quite "sure that the
Prince would say the right thing, from her entire confidence in his tact
and judgment," she added, "The Queen at the risk of not appearing
sufficiently modest (and yet why should a Woman ever be modest about her
husband's merits?) must say that she thinks Lord John will admit now that
the Prince is possessed of very extraordinary powers of mind and heart.
She feels so proud of being his wife, that she cannot refrain from paying
herself a tribute to his noble character."

Ah, English husbands should be loyal beyond measure to the illustrious
lady, who has set such a matchless example of wifely faith, pride and
devotion. But it will be a pity if in preaching up to their wives her
example, they forget the no less admirable example of the Prince-Consort.




CHAPTER XXII

Close of the Great Exhibition-Anecdote--Louis Kossuth--Napoleon III.--The
writer's first visit to England--Description of a Prorogation of
Parliament.


The great Exhibition was closed about the middle of October, on a dark
and rainy day. The last ceremonies were very solemn and impressive. It
had not remained long enough for people to be wearied of it. The Queen,
the Prince and their children seemed never to tire of visiting it, and
the prospect of a sight of them was one of the greatest attractions of
the place to other visitors, especially to simple country-folk--though
these were sometimes disappointed at not beholding the whole party
wearing crowns and trailing royal robes.

I remember a little anecdote of one of Her Majesty's visits to the
Crystal Palace. Among the American manufactures were some fine soaps, and
among these a small head, done in white Castile, and so exactly like
marble that the Queen doubted the soap story, and in her impulsive,
investigating way was about to test it with a scratch of her shawl-pin,
when the Yankee exhibitor stayed her hand, and drew forth a courteous
apology by the loyal remonstrance--"Pardon, your Majesty,--_it is the
head of Washington_!"

Soon after the Princes and Kings went home, there arrived in London a man
whose heroism and eloquence had thrilled the hearts and filled the
thoughts of the world as those of no monarch living had ever done. He was
not received with royal honors, though with some generous enthusiasm, by
the people. He was looked upon, in high places as that most forlorn
being, an unsuccessful adventurer;--so he turned his face, his sad eyes
wistful with one last hope, towards the setting sun. Alas, his own
political sun had already set!

This man was Louis Kossuth. About the same time another man, without
heroism, without eloquence, but with almost superhuman audacity, struck a
famous political blow, in Paris, called a _coup d'état_. He exploded
a secret mine, which shattered the republic and heaved him up on to an
imperial throne. Of course this successful adventurer was Louis Napoleon.

I cannot find that, as the Prince-President of that poor, poetic,
impracticable thing, the French Republic, much notice had been taken of
him by the English Government;--but "Emperor" was a more respectable
title, even worn in this way, snatched in the twinkling of an eye by a
political _prestidigitateur_, and it was of greater worth--it had
cost blood. So Napoleon III. was recognized by England, and at last by
all great powers--royal and republican. Still, for a while, they showed a
wary coldness towards the new Emperor; and he was unhappy because all the
great European sovereigns hesitated to concede his equality to the extent
of addressing him as "_mon frère_" (my brother). He seemed to take
this so to heart that, after this solemn declaration that his empire
meant peace and not war, the Queen of England put out her friendly little
hand and said frankly, "mon frère"; and the King of Prussia and the
Emperor of Austria followed her example; but the Czar of Russia, put his
iron-gloved hand behind his back and frowned. Louis Napoleon did not
forget that ever--but remembered it "excellent well" a few years later,
when he was sending off his noble army to the Crimea.

I find two charming domestic bits, in letters of the Queen and Prince,
written in May, 1852, from Osborne. After saying that her birthday had
passed very happily and peacefully, Her Majesty adds: "I only feel that I
never can be half grateful enough for so much love, devotion and
happiness. My beloved Albert was, if possible, more than usually kind and
good in showering gifts on me. Mama was most kind, too; and the children
did everything they could to please me."

It is pleasant to see that the dear mother and grandmother never forgot
those family anniversaries, and never was forgotten.

Prince Albert writes, in a letter to the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg:
"The children are well. They grow apace and develop new virtues daily,
and also new naughtinesses. The virtues we try to retain, and the
naughtinesses we throw away."

This year was a memorable one for the writer of this little book, for it
was that of her first visit to England,--of her first sight of London and
Charles Dickens, of Westminster Abbey and the Duke of Wellington, Windsor
Castle and Queen Victoria.

I had brought a letter, from one of his most esteemed American friends,
to the Earl of Carlisle, and from that accomplished and amiable nobleman
I received many courtesies,--chief among them a ticket, which he obtained
from Her Majesty direct, to one of her reserved seats in the Peeresses'
Gallery of the House of Lords, to witness the prorogation of Parliament.
I trust I may be pardoned if I quote a portion of my description of that
wonderful sight,--written, ah me! so long ago:

... "I found that my seat was one most desirable both for seeing the
brilliant assembly and the august ceremony; it was near the throne, yet
commanded a view of every part of the splendid chamber.

"The gallery was soon filled with ladies, all in full-dress, jewels,
flowers and plumes. Many of the seats of the Peers were also filled by
their noble wives and fair daughters, most superbly and sweetly
arrayed... Among those conspicuous for elegance and loveliness were the
young Duchess of Northumberland and Lady Clementina Villiers, the famous
Court beauty.

"Toward one o'clock the Peers began to come in, clad in their robes of
State. Taken as a whole they are a noble and refined-looking set of men.
But few eyes dwelt on any of these, when there slowly entered, at the
left of the throne, a white-haired old man, pale and spare, bowed with
years and honors, the hero of many battles in many lands, the conqueror
of conquerors,--the Duke! Leaning on the arm of the fair Marchioness of
Douro, he stood, or rather tottered, before us, the grandest ruin in
England. He presently retired to don his ducal robes and join the royal
party at the entrance by the Victoria tower. ... The pious bishops, in
their sacerdotal robes, made a goodly show before an ungodly world. The
judges came in their black gowns and in all the venerable absurdity of
their enormous wigs. Mr. Justice Talfourd the poet, a small, modest-
looking man, was quite extinguished by his. The foreign Ministers
assembled, nation after nation, making, when standing or seated together,
a most peculiar and picturesque group. They shone in all colors and
dazzled with stars, orders and jewel-bitted swords. ...

"Next to me sat the eleven-year-old Princess Gouromma, daughter of the
Rajah of Coorg. The day before she had received Christian baptism, the
Queen standing as godmother. She is a pretty, bright-looking child, and
was literally loaded with jewels. Opposite her sat an Indian Prince--her
father, I was told. He was magnificently attired--girded about with a
superb India shawl, and above his dusky brow gleamed star-like diamonds,
for the least of which many a hard-run Christian would sell his soul. ...

"At last, the guns announced the royal procession, and in a few moments
the entire house rose silently to receive Her Majesty. The Queen was
conducted by Prince Albert, and accompanied by all the great officers of
State. The long train, borne by ladies, gentlemen and pages, gave a
certain stateliness to the short, plump little person of the fair
sovereign, and she bore herself with much dignity and grace. Prince
Albert, it is evident, has been eminently handsome, but he is growing a
little stout and slightly bald. Yet he is a man of right noble presence.
Her Majesty is in fine preservation, and really a pretty and lovable-
looking woman. I think I never saw anything sweeter than her smile of
recognition, given to some of her friends in the gallery--to the little
Indian Princess in especial. There is much in her face of pure
womanliness and simple goodness; yet it is by no means wanting in
animated intelligence. In short, after seeing her, I can well understand
the loving loyalty of her people, and can heartily join in their prayer
of 'God Save the Queen!'

"Her Majesty wore a splendid tiara of brilliants, matched by bracelets,
necklace and stomacher. Her soft brown hair was dressed very plainly. Her
under-dress was of white satin, striped with gold; her robe was, of
course, of purple velvet, trimmed with gold and ermine."

"The Queen desired the lords to be seated, and commanded that her
'faithful Commons' should be summoned. When the members of. the lower
House had come in, the speaker read a speech, to which, I have recorded,
Her Majesty listened, in a cold, quiet manner, sitting perfectly
motionless, even to her fingers and eyelids. The Iron Duke standing at
her left, bent, and trembled slightly--supporting with evident difficulty
the ponderous sword of State. Prince Albert, sitting tall and soldier-
like, in his handsome Field-Marshal's uniform, looked nonchalant and
serene, but with a certain far-away expression in his eyes. The Earl of
Derby held the crown on its gorgeous-cushion gracefully, like an
accomplished waiter presenting a tray of ices. On a like occasion, some
time ago, I hear the Duke of Argyle had the ill-luck to drop this crown
from the cushion, when some of the costly jewels, jarred from their
setting, flew about like so many bits of broken glass. But there was no
need to cry, 'Pick up the pieces!'

"After the reading of this speech, certain bills were read to Her
Majesty, for her assent, which she gave each time with a gracious
inclination of the head, shaking sparkles from her diamond tiara in dew-
drops of light. At every token of acquiescence a personage whom I took
for a herald, bowed low towards the Queen, then performed a similar
obeisance towards the Commons--crying '_La Reine le veut!_'"

"Why he should say it in French--why he did not say "The Queen wills it,"
in her own English, I don't yet know."

I went on: "This ceremony gone through with, the Lord Chancellor,
kneeling at the foot of the throne, presented a copy of the Royal speech
to the Queen (I had supposed she would bring it in her pocket), which she
proceeded to read, in a manner perfectly simple, yet impressive, and in a
voice singularly melodious and distinct. Finer reading I never heard
anywhere; every syllable was clearly enunciated, and the emphasis fell
with unerring precision, though gently, on the right word.

"The Lord Chancellor having formally announced that Parliament stood
prorogued until the 20th of August, Her Majesty rose as majestically as
could be expected from one more remarkable for rosy plumptitude than
regal altitude; Prince Albert took his place at her side; the crown and
sword bearers took theirs in front, the train-bearers theirs in the rear,
and the royal procession swept slowly forth, the brilliant house broke up
and followed, and so the splendid pageant passed away--faded like a piece
of fairy enchantment."  That's the way they do it,--except that nowadays
the Queen does not read her own speech.




CHAPTER XXIII.

Death of the Duke of Wellington--Birth of the Duke of Albany--The Crimean
War--Slanders upon Prince Albert--The Prince of Wales takes a place for
the first time upon the Throne--Incidents of Domestic Life--Prince Albert
visits the Emperor of France--Incidents of the War.


At Balmoral the following autumn, the Queen heard of the death of her
most illustrious subject--the Duke of Wellington, and green are those
"Leaves" in the journal of her "life in the Highlands," devoted to his
memory. She wrote of him as a sovereign seldom writes of a subject,--
glowingly, gratefully, tenderly. "One cannot think of this country,
without 'the Duke,' our immortal hero"--she said.

There was a glorious state and popular funeral for the grand old man, who
was laid away with many honors and many tears in the crypt of St. Paul's
Cathedral, where his brother hero, Nelson, was waiting to receive him.

When early in 1853, the news came to Windsor Castle that the French
Emperor had selected a bride, not for her wealth, or high birth, or royal
connections, but for her beauty, and grace, and because he loved her,
Victoria and Albert, as truly lovers as when they entered the old castle
gates, as bride and bridegroom, felt more than ever friendly to him, and
desirous that he should have a fair field, if no favor, to show what he
could do for France. I am afraid they half forgot the _coup d'état_,
and the widows, orphans and exiles it had made.

In April, the Queen's fourth son, who was destined to "carry weight" in
the shape of names,--Leopold George Duncan Albert--now Duke of Albany,
was born in Buckingham Palace.

During this year "the red planet Mars" was in the ascendant. The ugly
Eastern Trouble, which finally culminated in the Crimean War, began to
loom in the horizon, and England to stir herself ominously with military
preparations. Drilling and mustering and mock combats were the order of
the day, and the sound of the big drum was heard in the land. They had a
grand battle-rehearsal at Chobham, and the Queen and Prince went there on
horseback; she wearing a military riding-habit, and accompanied by the
Duke of Coburg and her cousin George, King of Hanover.

The weather was genuine "Queen's weather," bright and warm; but Prince
Albert, who returned a few days later, to rough it, in a season of
regular camp-life, was almost drowned out of his tent by storms. In fact,
the warrior bold went home with a bad cold, which ended in an attack of
measles. There was enough of this disease to go through the family, Queen
and all. Even the guests took it, the Crown Prince of Hanover and the
Duke and Duchess of Coburg, who on going home gave it to the Duke of
Brabant and the Count of Flanders. I suppose there never was known such a
royal run of measles.

This year the Queen and Prince went again to Ireland, to attend the
Dublin Industrial Exhibition, and were received with undiminished
enthusiasm. It is remarkable that in Ireland the Queen was not once shot
at, or struck in the face, or insulted in any way, as in her own capital.
All the most chivalric feeling of that mercurial, but generous people,
was called out by the sight of her frank and smiling face. She trusted
them, and they proved worthy of the trust.

After their return to Balmoral, the Prince wrote: "We should be happy
here were it not for that horrible Eastern complication. A European war
would be a terrible calamity. It will not do to give up all hope; still,
what we have is small."

It daily grew smaller, as the war-clouds thickened and darkened in the
political sky. During those troublous times, when some men's hearts were
failing them for fear, and some men's were madly panting for the fray,
asking nothing better than to see the Lion of England pitted against the
Bear of Russia, the Prince was in some quarters most violently and
viciously assailed, as a designing, dangerous "influence behind the
throne"--treacherous to England, and so to England's Queen. So
industriously was this monstrous slander spread abroad, that the story
went, and by some simple souls was believed, that "the blameless Prince"
had been arrested for high treason, and lodged in the Tower! Some had it
that he had gone in through the old Traitors' Grate, and that they were
furbishing up the old axe and block for his handsome head! Then the rumor
ran that the Queen had also been arrested, and was to be consigned to the
grim old fortress, or that she insisted on going with her husband and
sharing his dungeon. Thousands of English. people actually assembled
about the Tower to see them brought in,--and yet this was not on All-
Fools' Day.

Poor Baron Stockmar was also suspected of dark political intrigues and
practices detrimental to the peace and honor of England. He was, in fact,
accused of being a spy and a conspirator--which was absurdity itself. He
was, it seems to me, a high-minded, kindly old man, a political
philosopher and moralist--rather opinionated always, and at times a
little patronizing towards his royal pupils; but if they did not object
to this, it was no concern of other people. He certainly had a shrewd, as
well as a philosophic mind--was a sagacious "clerk of the weather" in
European politics,--and I suppose a better friend man or woman never had
than the Prince and the Queen found in this much distrusted old German
Baron.

Though Prince Albert wrote at this time about having "a world of
torment," he really took matters very patiently and philosophically. In
the devotion of his wife, in the affection of his children, in his
beloved organ, "the only instrument," he said, "for expressing one's
feelings," he found consolation and peace. He wrote,--"Victoria has taken
the whole affair greatly to heart, and is excessively indignant at the
attacks." But a triumphant refutation, in both Houses of Parliament, of
all these slanders, consoled her much; and on the anniversary of her
marriage she was able to write--"This blessed day is full of joyful and
tender emotions. Fourteen happy years have passed, and I confidently
trust many more will pass, and find us in old age, as we are now, happily
and devotedly united! Trials we must have; but what are they if we are
together?"

In March, 1854, the Queen and Prince went to Osborne to visit the
magnificent fleet of vessels which had been assembled at Spithead. Her
Majesty wrote to Lord Aberdeen--"We are just starting to see the fleet,
which is to sail at once for its important destination. It will be a
solemn moment! Many a heart will be very heavy, and many a prayer,
including our own, will be offered up for its safety and glory!"

Ah! when those beautiful ships went sailing away, with their white sails
spread, and the royal colors flying, death sat "up aloft," instead of the
"sweet little cherub" popularly supposed to be perched there, and winds
from the long burial-trenches of the battle-field played among the
shrouds.

King Frederick William of Prussia seemed to think that he could put an
end to this little unpleasantness, and wrote a long letter to the Queen
of England, paternally advising her to make some concessions to the
Emperor of Russia, which concessions she thought would be weak and
unworthy. Her reply reveals her characteristic high courage. One
quotation, which she makes from Shakspeare, is admirable:

        "Beware
  Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
  Bear't, that the opposed may beware,
  of thee."

Still, as we look back, it does seem as though with the wit of the Queen,
the wisdom of Prince Albert, the philosophy of Baron Stockmar,--the
philanthropy of Exeter Hall, and the piety of the Bench of Bishops, some
sort of peaceful arrangement might have been effected, and the Crimean
war left out of history. But then we should not have had the touching
picture of the lion and the unicorn charging on the enemy together, not
for England or France, but all for poor Turkey; and Mr. Tennyson could
not have written his "Charge of the Light Brigade," which would have been
a great loss to elocutionists. There were in Parliament a few poor-
spirited economists and soft-hearted humanitarians who would fain have
prevented that mighty drain of treasure and of the best blood of England-
holding, with John Bright, that this war was "neither just nor
necessary"; but they were "whistling against the wind." There was one
rich English quaker, with a heart like a tender woman's and a face like a
cherub's, who actually went over to Russia to labor with "friend
Nicholas" against this war. All in vain! the Czar was deeply moved, of
course, but would not give in, or give up.

On the 3d of March the Queen went to Parliament to receive the address of
both Houses in answer to her message which announced the opening of the
war. On this important occasion the young Prince of Wales took a place
for the first time with his mother and father on the throne. He looked
taller and graver than usual. His heart glowed with martial fire. His
voice, too, if he had been allowed to speak, would have been all for war.
A few days before this, the Queen, after seeing off the first division of
troops for the Baltic, had so felt the soldier-blood of her father
tingling in her veins, that she wrote: "I am very enthusiastic about my
dear army and navy, and I wish I had two sons in both now." But in later
years the widowed Queen is said to have been not eager to have any of her
sons, _his_ sons, peril their lives in battle.

Though the Prince of Wales now had assigned to him a more honorable place
on the British throne than the British Constitution permitted his father,
to occupy, he was still perfectly amenable to that father's authority.

An English gentleman lately told me of an instance of the wise exercise
of that authority. The Prince-Consort and his son were riding across a
London toll-bridge, the keeper of which, on receiving his toll,
respectfully saluted them. Prince Albert courteously inclined his head,
touching his hat, but Prince Albert Edward dashed carelessly on, yet only
to return a minute after, laughing and blushing, to obey his father's
command--"My son, go back and return that man's salute."

The Queen was so enthusiastic that she with pleasure saw launched--
indeed, christened herself--a war-vessel bearing the name and likeness of
her "dearest Albert"--that humane, amiable, peace-loving man! There was
something incongruous in it, as there is in all associations between war
and good peace-lovers and Christ-lovers.

Amid these wars and rumors of wars, it is comforting to read in that
admirable and most comprehensive work, "The Life of His Royal Highness,
the Prince-Consort, by Sir Theodore Martin, K.C.B.," of pleasant little
domestic events, like a children's May-day ball at Buckingham Palace,
given on Prince Arthur's birthday, when two hundred children were made
happy and made others happier. Then there were great times at Osborne for
the Royal children on their mother's birthday, when a charming house--the
Swiss cottage--and its grounds, were made over to them, to have and to
hold, as their very own. It was not wholly for a play-house and play-
ground, but partly as a means of instruction in many things. In the
perfectly-appointed kitchen of the cottage the little Princesses learned
to perform many domestic tasks, and to cook different kinds of plain
dishes as well as cakes and tarts--in short, to perform the ordinary
duties of housekeepers; while in the grounds and gardens the young
Princes used to work two or three hours a day under the direction of a
gardener, getting regular certificates of labor performed, which they
presented to their father, who always paid them as he would have paid any
laborer for the same amount and quality of work--never more, never less.
Each boy had his own hoe and spade, which not a Princeling among them all
considered it _infra-dig._ to use. The two eldest boys, Albert
Edward and Alfred, also constructed under their father's directions a
small fortress perfect in all its details. All the work on this military
structure, even to the making of the bricks, was done by the Princes. The
little Princesses also worked in the gardens, each having her own plot,
marked with her own name, from Victoria to Beatrice. There was a museum
of natural history attached to the cottage, and we can easily imagine the
wonderful specimens of entomology and ornithology there to be found. Ah!
have any of the grown-up Royal Highnesses ever known the comfort and fun
in their grand palaces that they had in the merry old Swiss cottage days?

In the autumn of 1854 Prince Albert went over to Boulogne for a little
friendly visit to England's chief ally, taking with him little Arthur. He
seems to have found the French Emperor a little stiff and cold at first,
as he wrote to the Queen, "The Emperor thaws more and more." In the
sunshine of that genial presence he had to thaw. The Prince adds: "He
told me one of the deepest impressions ever made upon him was when he
arrived in London shortly after King William's death and saw you at the
age of eighteen going to open Parliament for the first time."

The Prince made a deep impression on the Emperor. Two men could not be
more unlike. The character of the one was crystal clear, and deeper than
it appeared--the character of the other was murky and mysterious, and
shallower than it seemed.

This must have been a season of great anxiety and sadness for the Queen.
The guns of Alma and Sebastopol echoed solemnly among her beloved
mountains. In her journal there is this year only one Balmoral entry--not
the account of any Highland expedition or festivity, but the mention of
an eloquent sermon by the Rev. Norman McLeod, and of his prayer, which
she says was "very touching," and added, "His allusions to us were so
simple, saying after his mention of us, 'Bless their children.' It gave
me a lump in my throat, as also when he prayed for the dying, the
wounded, the widow, and the orphan."

There came a few months later a ghastly ally of the Russians into the
fight--cholera--which, joined to the two terrible winter months,
"Generals January and February," as the Czar called them, made sad havoc
in the English and French forces, but did not redeem the fortunes of the
Russians. Much mal-administration in regard to army supplies brought
terrible hardships upon the English troops, and accomplished the
impossible in revealing in them new qualities of bravery and heroic
endurance.

It was an awful war, and it lasted as long as, and a little longer than,
the Czar, who died in March, 1855. "of pulmonary apoplexy," it was
announced, though the rumor ran, that, resolved not to survive
Sebastopol, he had taken his own unhappy life. With his death the war was
virtually ended, and his son Alexander made peace as soon as he decently
could with the triumphant enemies of his father.

Through all this distressful time the Queen and the Prince-Consort
manifested the deepest sympathy for, as well as pride in, the English
soldiers. They had an intense pity for the poor men in the trenches,
badly clad and half starved, grand, patient, ill-used, uncomplaining
fellows!

"My heart bleeds to think of it," wrote the Prince, of the army
administration. He corresponded with Florence Nightingale, and encouraged
her in her brave and saintly mission. When the sick and wounded began to
arrive, in England both he and the Queen were faithful in visiting them
in the hospitals, and Her Majesty had a peculiar sad joy in rewarding the
bravest of the brave with the gift of the Crimean medal. In a private
letter she gives a description of the touching scene. She says:

"From the highest Prince of the blood to the lowest private, all received
the same distinction for the bravest conduct in the severest actions....
Noble fellows! I own I feel for them as though they were my own
children.... They were so touched, so pleased! Many, I hear, cried, and
they won't hear of giving up their medals to have their names engraved
upon them for fear that they may not receive the identical ones put into
their hands by me. Several came by in a sadly mutilated state."

One of these heroes, young Sir Thomas Trowbridge, who had had one leg and
the foot of the other carried away by a round shot at Inkermann, was
dragged in a Bath-chair to the Queen, who, when she gave him his medal,
offered to make him one of her _Aides-de-Camp_, to which the gallant
and loyal soldier replied, "I am amply repaid for everything." Poor
fellow! I wonder if he continued to say that all his mutilated life?

Whenever during this war there was a hitch, or halt, in the victorious
march of English arms, any disaster or disgrace in the Crimea, the
attacks upon the Prince-Consort were renewed,--there were even threats of
impeachment;--but when the "cruel war was over," the calumnies were over
also. They were always as absurd as unfounded. Aside from his manly sense
of honor the Prince had by that time, at least, ten good reasons for
being loyal to England--an English wife and nine English children.




CHAPTER XXIV.

The Emperor and Empress of France visit Windsor--They are entertained by
the City of London--Scene at the Opera--The Queen returns the Emperor's
call--Splendor of the Imperial Hospitality.


The Queen's kind heart was really pained by the sudden death of the Czar,
her sometime friend and "brother"--whose visit to Windsor was brought by
the startling event vividly to her mind--yet she turned from his august
shade to welcome one of his living conquerors, the Emperor Napoleon, who,
with his beautiful wife, came this spring to visit her and the Prince.
She had had prepared for the visitors the most splendid suite of
apartments--among them the very bedroom once occupied by the Emperor
Nicholas. It was the best "spare room" of the Castle, and the one
generally allotted to first-class monarchs--Louis Philippe had occupied
it. What stuff for ghosts for the bedside of Louis Napoleon did he and
the Czar supply! A few days before the Emperor and Empress arrived, the
Queen had a visit from the poor ex-Queen, Marie Amélie. There is a
touching entry in Her Majesty's diary, regarding this visit. By the way,
I would state that whenever I quote from Her Majesty's diary, it is
through the medium of Sir Theodore Martin's book, and by his kind
permission.

The Queen wrote: "It made us both so sad to see her drive away in a plain
coach, with miserable post-horses, and to think that this was the Queen
of the French, and that six years ago her husband was surrounded by the
same pomp and grandeur which three days hence would surround his
successor."

There is something exquisitely tender and pitiful in this. Most people,
royal or republican, would "consider it not so deeply." The world has
grown so familiar with the see-saw of French royalty, that a fall or a
flight, exile or abdication moves it but little. In the old
_guillotine_ times, there _were_ sensations.

England's great ally, and his lovely wife, Eugénie,--every inch an
Empress,--were received with tremendous enthusiasm. Their passage through
London was one long ovation. The Times of that date gives allowing
account of the crowds and the excitement. It states also, that as they
were passing King Street, the Emperor "was observed to draw the attention
of the Empress to the house which he had occupied in former days,"--
respectable lodgings, doubtless, but how different from the Tuileries!

The Queen gives an interesting account of what seemed a long, and was an
impatient waiting for her guests, whom the Prince-Consort had gone to
meet. At length, they saw "the advanced guard of the escort--then the
cheers of the crowd broke forth. The outriders appeared--the doors
opened, I stepped out, the children close behind me; the band struck up
'_Partant pour la Syrie_,' the trumpets sounded, and the open carriage,
with the Emperor and Empress, Albert sitting opposite them, drove up and
they got out... I advanced and embraced the Emperor, who received two
salutes on either cheek from me--having first kissed my hand." The
English Queen did not do things by halves, any more than the English
people. She then embraced the Empress, whom she describes as "very gentle
and graceful, but evidently very nervous." The children were then
presented, "Vicky, with alarmed eyes, making very low curtsies," and
Bertie having the honor of an embrace from the Emperor. Then they all
went up-stairs, Prince. Albert conducting the Empress, who at first
modestly declined to precede the Queen. Her Majesty followed on the arm
of the Emperor, who proudly informed her that he had once been in her
service as special constable against those unstable enemies, the
Chartists.

The Queen and Prince soon came to greatly like the Emperor and admire the
Empress. The Queen wrote of the former: "He is very quiet and amiable,
and easy to get on with... Nothing can be more civil and well-bred than
the Emperor's manner--so full of tact."

Of Eugenie she wrote: "She is full of courage and spirit, and yet so
gentle, with such innocence; ... with all her great liveliness, she has
the prettiest and most modest manner." Later, Her Majesty, with a rare
generosity, showing that there was not room in her large heart even, for
any petty feeling, wrote in her private diary, of that beautiful and
brilliant woman: "I am delighted to see how much Albert likes and admires
her."

There was a State-ball at Windsor, at which Eugénie shone resplendent.
The Queen danced with the Emperor--and with her imaginative mind, found
cause for wondering reflection in the little circumstance, for she says:
"How strange to think that I, the granddaughter of George III., should
dance with the Emperor Napoleon III.--nephew of England's greatest enemy,
now my dearest and most intimate ally--in the _Waterloo Room_, and
this ally only six years ago, living in this country an exile, poor and
unthought of!"

The Queen, of course, invested the Emperor with the Order of the Garter.
It has been in its time bestowed on monarchs less worthy the honor. It is
true, he did not come very heroically by his imperial crown--but when
crowns are lying about loose, who can blame a man for helping himself?

The city gave the Emperor and Empress a great reception and banquet at
Guildhall, and in the evening there was a memorable visit to the opera.
The imperial and royal party drove from Buckingham Palace through a dense
crowd and illuminated streets. Arrived at the royal box, the Queen took
the Emperor by the hand, and smiling her sweetest--which is saying a good
deal--presented him to the audience. Immense enthusiasm! Then Prince
Albert led forward the lovely Empress, and the enthusiasm was unbounded.
It must be that this still beautiful, though sorrowful woman, on whose
head a fierce tempest of misfortune has beaten--the most piteous,
discrowned, blanched head since Marie Antoinette--sometimes remembers
those happy and glorious days, and that the two august widows talk over
them together.

At last came the hour of farewells, and the Emperor departed with his
pretty, tearful wife--the band playing his mother's air, _Partant pour
la Syrie_, and his heart full of pride and gratitude. In a letter
which he addressed to the Queen, soon after reaching home, is revealed
one cause of his gratitude. After saying many pleasant things about the
kind and gracious reception which had been accorded him, and the
impression which the sight of the happy home-life of Windsor had made
upon him, he says: "Your Majesty has also touched me to the heart by the
delicacy of the consideration shown to the Empress; for nothing pleases
more than to see the person one loves become the object of such
flattering attention."

That summer there appeared among the royal children at Osborne a sudden
illness, which soon put on royal livery, and was recognized as scarlet
fever. There was, of course, great alarm--but nothing very serious came
of it. The two elder children escaped the infection, and were allowed to
go to Paris with their parents, who in July returned the visit of the
Emperor and Empress. They went in their yacht to Boulogne, where the
Emperor met them and escorted them to the railway on horseback. He looked
best, almost handsome, on horseback. Arrived at Paris, they found the
whole city decorated, as only the French know how to decorate, and gay,
enthusiastic crowds cheering, as only the French know how to cheer. They
drove through splendid boulevards, through the Bois de Boulogne, over the
bridge, to the Palace of St. Cloud--and everywhere there were the
imperial troops, artillery, cavalry and zouaves, their bands playing "God
Save the Queen." Those only who knew Paris under the Empire, can realize
what that reception was, and how magnificent were the _fêtes_ and how
grand the reviews of the next ten days. Of the arrival at St. Cloud
the Queen writes: "In all the blaze of light from lamps and torches,
amidst the roar of cannon and bands and drums and cheers, we reached the
palace. The Empress, with the Princess Mathilde and the ladies, received
us at the door, and took us up a beautiful staircase, lined with the
splendid _Cent-Guardes,_ who are magnificent men, very like our Life
Guards... We went through the rooms at once to our own, which are
charming... I felt quite bewildered, but enchanted, everything is so
beautiful."

This palace we know was burned during the siege. The last time I visited
the ruins, I stood for some minutes gazing through a rusty grating into
the noble vestibule, through which so many royal visitors had passed. Its
blackened walls and broken and prostrate marbles are overspread by a wild
natural growth--a green shroud wrapping the ghastly ruin;--or rather, it
was like an incursion of a mob of rough vegetation, for there were
neither delicate ferns, nor poetic ivy, but democratic grass and
republican groundsel and communistic thistles and nettles. In place of
the splendid _Cent-Guardes_ stood tall, impudent weeds; in place of
courtiers, the supple and bending briar; while up the steps, which the
Queen and Empress and their ladies ascended that night, pert little
_grisettes_ of _marguerites_ were climbing.

So perfect was the hospitality of the Emperor that they had things as
English as possible at the Palace-even providing an English chaplain for
Sunday morning. In the afternoon, however, he backslid into French
irreligion and natural depravity, and they all went to enjoy the fresh
air, the sight of the trees, the flowers and the children in the Bois de
Boulogne. The next day they went into the city to the _Exposition des
Beaux Arts,_ and to the _Elysée_ for lunch and a reception--then they all
drove to the lovely _Sainte Chapelle_ and the _Palais de Justice_. There
the Emperor pointed out the old _Conciergerie_, and said--"There is where
I was imprisoned." Doubtless he thought that was a more interesting
historical fact than the imprisonment of poor Marie Antoinette, in the
same grim building. There was also a visit to the Italian opera, where a
very pretty surprise awaited the guests. At the close of the ballet, the
scene suddenly changed to a view of Windsor--including the arrival of the
Emperor and Empress. "_God Save the Queen_" was sung superbly, and
rapturously applauded. One day the Queen, Prince, and Princess Royal,
dressed very plainly, took a hired carriage and had a long _incognito_
drive through Paris. They enjoyed this "lark" immensely. Then there was a
grand ball at the _Hotel de Ville_, and a grand review on the _Champ de
Mars_, and a visit by torchlight to the tomb of _the_ Napoleon, under the
dome of the _Invalides_, with the accompaniment of solemn organ-
playing within the church, and a grand midsummer storm outside, with
thunder and lightning. The French do so well understand how to manage
these things!

The grandest thing of all was a State ball in Versailles;--that
magnificent but mournful, almost monumental pile, being gaily decorated
and illuminated--almost transformed out of its tragic traditions. What a
charming picture of her hostess the Queen gives us:

"The Empress met us at the top of the staircase, looking like a fairy
queen, or nymph, in a white dress, trimmed with grass and diamonds,--a
beautiful _tour de corsage_ of diamonds round the top of her dress;--the
same round her waist, and a corresponding _coiffure_, with her Spanish
and Portuguese orders."

She must have been a lovely vision. The Emperor thought so, for
(according to the Queen) forgetting that it is not "good form" for a man
to admire or compliment his own wife, he exclaimed, as she appeared:
"_Comme tu es belle! _" ("How beautiful you are!")

I am afraid he was not always so polite. During her first season at the
Tuileries, which she called "a beautiful prison," and which is now as
much a thing of the past as the Bastile, she often in her gay, impulsive
way offended against the stern laws of Court etiquette, and was reproved
for a lack of dignity. Once at a reception she suddenly perceived a
little way down the line an old school-friend, and, hurrying forward,
kissed her affectionately. It was nice for the young lady, but the
Emperor frowned and said, in that cold marital tone which cuts like an
east wind: "Madame, you forget that you are the Empress!"

In a letter from the Prince to his uncle Leopold I find this suggestive
sentence in reference to the ball at Versailles: "Victoria made her
toilette in Marie Antoinette's boudoir." It would almost seem the English
Queen might have feared to see in her dressing-glass a vision of the
French Queen's proud young head wearing a diadem as brilliant as her own,
or perhaps that cruel crown of silver--her terror-whitened hair.

The parting was sad. The Empress "could not bring herself to face it"; so
the Queen went to her room with the Emperor, who said: "Eugénie, here is
the Queen." "Then," adds Her Majesty, "she came and gave me a beautiful
fan and a rose and heliotrope from the garden, and Vicky a bracelet set
with rubies and diamonds containing her hair, with which Vicky was
delighted."

The Emperor went with them all the way to Boulogne and saw them on board
their yacht; then came embracings and _adieux_, and all was over.

The next morning early they reached Osborne and were received at the
beach by Prince Alfred and his little brothers, to whom Albert Edward,
big with the wonders of Paris, was like a hero out of a fairy book. Near
the house waited the sisters, Helena and Louise, and in the house the
invalid--"poor, dear Alice!"--for whom the joy of that return was almost
too much.




CHAPTER XXV.

Betrothal of the Princess Royal--Birth of the Prince Imperial of France--
More visitors and visitings--The Emperor And Empress of Mexico--Marriage
of the Princess Royal--The attendant festivities.


At Balmoral, where they took possession of the new Castle, the Queen and
Prince received the news of the approaching fall of Sebastopol, for it
was not down yet. It finally fell amid a scene of awful conflagration and
explosions--the work of the desperate Russians themselves.

The peace-rejoicings did not come till later, but in the new house at
Balmoral there was a new joy, though one not quite unmixed with sadness,
in the love and happy betrothal of the Princess Victoria. In her journal
the Queen tells the old, old story very quietly: "Our dear Victoria was
this day engaged to Prince Frederick William of Prussia. He had already
spoken to us of his wishes, but were uncertain, on account of her extreme
youth, whether he should speak to her or wait till he should come back
again. However, we felt it was better he should do so, and, during our
ride up Craig-na-Ban this afternoon; he picked a piece of white heather
(the emblem of good luck), which he gave to her." This it seems broke the
ice, and so the poetic Prince (all German Princes, except perhaps
Bismarck, are poetic and romantic) told his love and offered his hand,
which was not rejected. Then came a few weeks of courtship, doubtless as
bright and sweet to the royal pair of lovers as was a similar season to
Robert  Burns and "Highland Mary"--for love levels up and levels down--
and then young Fritz returned to Germany, leaving behind him a fond heart
and a tearful little face round and fair.

From this time till the marriage of the Princess Royal, which was not
till after her seventeenth birthday in 1858, the Prince-Consort devoted
himself more and more to the education of this beloved daughter--in
history, art, literature, and religion. He conversed much and most
seriously with her in preparation for her confirmation. He found that
this work of mental and moral development was "its own exceeding great
reward."

The character of the Princess Royal seems to have been in some respects
like that of the Princess Charlotte of Wales. She was as high-spirited,
strong-willed, gay, free, and fearless; but with infinitely better and
purer domestic and social influences, she grew up into a nobler and more
gracious young womanhood. Intellectually and morally, she was her
father's creation; intellectually and morally, poor Princess Charlotte
was worse than fatherless.

But I must hurry on with the hurrying years. The Prince, writing to Baron
Stockmar in March, 1856, says: "The telegraph has just brought the news
of the Empress having been safely delivered of a son. Great will be the
rejoicing in the Tuileries."

This baby born in the purple was the Prince Imperial, whose fate beggars
tragedy; who went to gather laurels on an African desert and fell a
victim to a savage ambuscade--his beautiful body stuck almost as full of
cruel darts as that of the martyred young St. Sebastian.

On March 21st the long-delayed treaty of peace was signed. After all the
waste, the agony, the bloodshed, the Prince wrote: "It is not such as we
could have wished." But he had learned to bear these little
disappointments.

Prince Alfred began his studies for the navy. Fritz of Prussia came over
on a visit to his betrothed, and his father and mother soon followed--
coming to get better acquainted with their daughter-in-law to be. Then
into the royal circle there came another royal guest, all unbidden--the
king whose name is Death. The Prince of Leiningen--the Queen's half-
brother in blood, but whole brother in heart--died, to her great grief;
and soon after there passed away her beloved aunt, the Duchess of
Gloucester, a good and amiable woman, and the last of the fifteen
children of George the Third and Queen Charlotte. But here life balanced
death, for on April 14th another daughter was born in Buckingham Palace.
The Prince in a letter to his step-mother speaks of the baby as "thriving
famously, and prettier than babies usually are." He adds, "Mama--Aunt,
Vicky and her bridegroom are to be the little one's sponsors, and she is
to receive the historical, romantic, euphonious, and melodious names of
Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodora."

That summer there came two very interesting royal visitors to Windsor--
the young Princess Charlotte of Belgium and her betrothed husband, the
Archduke Maximilian of Austria. Prince Albert wrote of the young girl:
"Charlotte's whole being seems to me to have been warmed and unfolded by
the love which is kindled in her heart." To his uncle Leopold he wrote:"
I wish you joy at having got such a husband for dear Charlotte, as I am
sure he is quite worthy of her and will make her happy."

Just ten years from that time the Emperor Maximilian, standing before a
file of Mexican soldiers at Queretaro, took out his watch, which he would
never more need, and, pressing a spring, revealed in its case a miniature
of the lovely Empress Charlotte, which he kissed tenderly. Then, handing
the watch to the priest at his side, he said: "Carry this souvenir to my
dear wife in Europe, and if she ever be able to understand you, say that
my eyes closed with the impression of her image, which I shall carry with
me above."

She never did understand. She lives in a phantom Court, believing herself
still Empress of Mexico, and that the Emperor will soon come home from
the wars to her and the throne.

There was this summer a memorable show in Hyde Park, when Queen Victoria
on horseback, in her becoming military dress, pinned with her own hands
on to the coats of a large number of heroes of the great war the coveted
Victoria Cross. Ah! they were proud and she was prouder. She is a true
soldier's daughter; her heart always thrills at deeds of valor and warms
at sight of a hero, however humble.

The Prince went over to his cousin Charlotte's wedding, and the Queen,
compelled to stay behind, wrote to King Leopold that her letting her
husband, go without her was a great proof of her love for her uncle. "You
cannot think," she said, "how completely forlorn I feel when he is away,
or how I count the hours till he returns. All the children are as nothing
when he is away. It seems as if the whole life of the house and home were
gone."

Again, how like a loving Scotch peasant wife:

  "There's na luck about the house,
  There's na luck at a'--

  There's little pleasure in the house,
  When my guid mon's awa'."

In August the Emperor and Empress made a flying visit in their yacht to
Osborne and talked over the latest political events, the new phases of
affairs, and, doubtless, the new babies; and, a little later, the Queen
and Prince ran over to Cherbourg in their yacht, taking six of the
children. There was a perfect nursery of the little ones, "rocked in the
cradle of the deep." This was such a complete "surprise party," that the
Emperor and Empress away in Paris, knew nothing about it. They all took a
pleasant little excursion into the lovely country of Normandy in
_chars-à-bancs_, with bells on the post-horses, doubtless, and everything
gay and delightful and novel to the children,--especially French
sunshine.

This year the Balmoral stay was greatly saddened by the news of the Sepoy
rebellion, of the tragedies of Cawnpore, and the unspeakable atrocities
of Nana Sahib. Young people nowadays know little about that ghastly war,
except as connected with the pretty poetical story of the relief of
Lucknow, and Jessie Brown; but, at the time, it was an awfully real
thing, and not in the least poetical or romantic.

The marriage of the Princess Royal was fixed for January 25, 1858. Her
father wrote from Balmoral hi the autumn; "Vicky suffers under the
feeling that every spot she visits she has to greet for the last time as
home... The departure from here will, be a great trial to us all,
especially to Vicky, who leaves it for good and all; and the good, simple
Highlanders, who are very fond of us, are constantly saying to her, and
often with tears, 'I suppose we shall never see you again?' which
naturally makes her feel more keenly."

At last the wedding day approached and the royal guests began to arrive
at Buckingham Palace, and they poured in till on fair days a King or
Queen, a Prince or Princess looked out of nearly every window; and when
there was a fog, collisions of crowned heads occurred in the corridors.
On the day the Court left Windsor the Queen wrote: "Went to look at the
rooms prepared for Vicky's honeymoon; very pretty... We took a short walk
with Vicky, who was dreadfully upset at this real break in her life; the
real separation from her childhood."

These be little things perhaps, but beautiful little human things,
showing the warm love and tender sympathy which united this family,
supposed to be lifted high and dry above ordinary humanity, among the
arid and icy grandeurs of royalty.

There was a gay little ball one evening with Highnesses and Serenities
dancing and whirling and chasséing, and a "_grande chaine_" of half
of the sovereigns of Europe--all looking very much like other people. The
Queen wrote: "Ernest (Duke of Coburg) said it seemed like a dream to see
Vicky dance as a bride, just as I did eighteen years ago, and I still (so
he said) looking very young. In 1840, poor dear papa (late Duke of
Coburg) danced with me as Ernest danced with Vicky."

Afterwards there was a grand ball, attended by over a thousand of the
elect, and for the multitude there were dramatic and musical
entertainments. At Her Majesty's Theatre one night the famous tragedian,
Mr. Phelps, and the great actress, Miss Helen Faucit, in the tragedy of
_Macbeth_, froze the blue blood of a whole tier of royal personages
and made them realize what crowns were worth, and how little they had
earned theirs, by showing what men and women will go through with to
secure one. The Emperor and Empress of France were not among the guests.
They had been a little upset by an event more tragic than are most
marriages--the attempt of Orsini to blow up their carriage, by the
explosion of hand-grenades near the entrance of the Italian Opera. They
had been only slightly hurt, but some eighty innocent people in the crowd
had been either killed or wounded. The white dress of the Empress was
sprinkled with blood, yet she went to her box and sat out the
performance. What nerve these imperial people have!

The Queen's account of this glad, sad time of the marriage is very
natural, moving and maternal. First, there was the domestic and Court
sensation of the arrival of the bridegroom, Prince "Fritz," whom the
Prince-Consort had gone to meet, and all the Court awaited. "I met him,"
says the Queen, "at the bottom of the staircase, very warmly; he was pale
and nervous. At the top of the staircase Vicky received him, with Alice."
That afternoon all the royal people witnessed a grand dramatic
performance of "Taming the Horse," with Mr. Rarey as "leading man." In
the evening they went to the opera. The next day, Sunday, the presents
were shown--a marvelous collection of jewels, plate, lace and India
shawls, and they had service and listened to a sermon. It is wonderful
what these great people can get through with! Coming in from a walk they
found a lot of new presents added to the great pile. The Queen writes:
"Dear Vicky gave me a brooch, a very pretty one, containing her hair, and
clasping me in her arms, said,' I hope to be worthy to be your child.'"

From all I hear I should say that fond hope has been realized in a noble
and beneficent life. The Crown Princess of Germany is a woman greatly
loved and honored.

On the wedding day the Queen wrote: "The second most eventful day of my
life, as regards feelings; I felt as if I were being married over again
myself... While dressing, dearest Vicky came in to see me, looking well
and composed."

The Princess Royal, like her mother, was married in the Chapel of St.
James' Palace, and things went on very much as on that memorable wedding
day--always spoken of by the Queen as "blessed." She now could describe
more as a spectator the shouting, the bell-ringing, the cheering and
trumpetings, and the brave sight of the procession. Prince Albert and
King Leopold and "the two eldest boys went first. Then the three girls
(Alice, Helena and Louise), in pink satin, lace and flowers." There were
eight bridesmaids in "white tulle, with wreaths and bouquets of roses and
white heather." That was a pretty idea, using the simple betrothal flower
of the Prince and Princess-for "luck."

The Queen speaks of "Mama looking so handsome in violet velvet; trimmed
with ermine." Ah, the young Victoria was the only daughter of _her_
Victoria, who as a bride was to receive on her brow that grandmother's
kiss--dearer and holier than any priestly benediction. I like to read
that immediately after the ceremony the bride "kissed her grandmama."

After the wedding breakfast at the Palace the bridal pair, Victoria and
Frederick William, drove away just as eighteen years before Victoria and
Albert had driven away--the same state, the same popular excitement, in
kind if not in degree, and, let us trust, a like amount of love and joy.
But this happy pair did not drive all the way to Windsor. The waiting
train, the iron horse snorting with impatience, showed how the world had
moved on since that other wedding; but the perennial Eton boys were on
hand for these lovers also, wearing the same tall hats and short jackets,
cheering in the same mad way, so that the Queen herself would hardly have
suspected them to be the other boys' sons, or younger brothers. They
"scored one" above their honored predecessors by dragging the carriage
from the Windsor station to the Castle.

The Court soon followed to Windsor with thirty-five of the royal guests,
and there were banquets and more investings, till it would seem that the
Queen's stock of jeweled garters must be running low. Then back to town
for more presents and operas and plays, and addresses of congratulation,
and at last came the dismal morning of separation. The day before, the
Queen had written: "The last day of our dear child being with us, which
is incredible, and makes me feel at times quite sick at heart." She
records that that poor child exclaimed, "I think it will kill me to take
leave of dear papa!"

The next morning, she writes," Vicky came with a very sad face to my
room. Here we embraced each other tenderly, and our tears flowed fast."

Then there were leave-takings from the loving grandmama and the younger
brothers and sisters ("Bertie" and Alfred going with their father to
Gravesend, to see the bridal party embarked), and hardest of all, the
parting of the child from the mother.

To quote again: "A dreadful moment and a dreadful day! Such sickness came
over me--real heart-ache,--when I thought of our dearest child being
gone, and for so long... It began to snow before Vicky went, and
continued to do so without intermission all day."

In spite of the dreary weather, I am told that thousands of London people
were assembled in the streets to catch a last glimpse of the popular
Princess Royal. They could hardly recognize her pleasant, rosy, child-
like face--it was so sad, so swollen with weeping. They did not then look
with much favor on the handsome Prussian Prince at her side--and one
loyal Briton shouted out, "If he doesn't treat you well, come back to
us!" That made her laugh. I believe he did treat her well, and that she
has been always happy as a wife, though for a time she is said to have
fretted against the restraints of German Court etiquette, which bristled
all round her. She found that the straight and narrow ways of that
princely paradise were not hedged with roses, as at home, but with
briars. Some she respected, and some she bravely broke through.

The little bride was most warmly received in her new home, and about the
anniversary of her own marriage-day, the Queen had the happiness of
receiving from her new son this laconic telegram: "The whole royal family
is enchanted with my wife. F. W."

Afterwards, in writing to her uncle, of her daughter's success at the
Prussian Court, and of her happiness, the Queen says: "But her heart
often yearns for home and those she loves dearly--above all, her dear
papa, for whom she has _un culte_ (a worship) which is touching and
delightful to see."

Her father returned this "worship" by tenderness and devotion unfailing
and unwearying. His letters to the Crown Princess are perhaps the
sweetest and noblest, most thoughtful and finished of his writings. They
show that he respected as well as loved his correspondent, of whom,
indeed, he had spoken to her husband as one having "a man's head and a
child's heart." His letters to his uncle and the Baron are full of his
joy, intellectual and affectional, in this his first-born daughter; but
the last-born was not forgotten. In one letter he writes: "Little
Beatrice is an extremely attractive, pretty, intelligent child; indeed,
the most amusing baby we have had." Again--"Beatrice on her first
birthday looks charming, with a new light-blue cap. Her table of birthday
gifts has given her the greatest pleasure; especially a lamb."

I know these are little, common domestic bits--that is just why I cull
them out of grave letters, full of great affairs of State.




CHAPTER XXVI.

Visiting and counter-visiting--Charming domestic gossip--The Queen's
first grandchild--The Prince of Wales' trip to America--Another love-
affair--Death of the Duchess of Kent.


In May, Prince Albert ran over to Germany to visit his old home, and his
new son, and his darling daughter, whom he found well and happy. In one
of his letters to the Queen from Gotha, he says: "I enclose a forget-me-
not from grandmama's grave."

There is in that simple sentence an exquisite indication of his
affectionate and constant nature. This was a hurried visit, with many
interests and excitements, and yet the grave of that infirm, deaf, old
Dowager Duchess, who had, as practical people say, "outlived her
usefulness," was not found "out of the way." There was little need of the
dear grandmama calling softly through that tender blue flower--
"_Vergiss mein nicht, mein Engel Albert!_" He never forgot.

In July, the Queen and Prince took to their yacht again, for a visit to
the Emperor and Empress, at Cherbourg, and had a grand reception, and
there was a great _fête_, and fireworks and bombs and rockets; but the
account is not half so interesting to me as the one given by Her Majesty,
of their return to Osborne; an exquisite picture that, which I feel I
must reproduce almost entire: ... "At twenty minutes to five, we landed
at our peaceful Osborne. ... The evening was very warm and calm. Dear
Affie was on the pier, and we found all the other children, including
Baby, standing at the door. Deckel (a favorite dog), and our new charming
kennel-bred Dachs 'Boy,' also received us with joy." I like that bringing
in of the dogs to complete the-picture.

The Queen continues: "We went to see Affie's (Alfred's) table of birthday
presents--entirely nautical. ... We went with the children, Alice and I
driving, to the Swiss Cottage, which was all decked out with flags in
honor of Affie's birthday. ... I sat (at dinner) between Albert and
Affie. The two little boys (Princes Arthur and Leopold) appeared. A band
played, and after dinner we danced, with the three boys and three girls,
a merry country dance on the terrace."

A little later, the Queen and Prince made a visit to their daughter in
Germany. Her Majesty's description of the happy meeting is very sweet.
"There on the platform stood our darling child, with a nosegay in her
hand. She stepped in, and long and warm, was the embrace. ... So much to
say and to tell and ask, yet so unaltered--looking well--quite the old
Vicky still."

From beautiful Babelsberg, she wrote: "Vicky came and sat with me. I felt
as if she were my own again."

This was not a long, but a very happy visit; the Queen and Prince had
received many courteous attentions from the Prussian Court, and had found
their beloved daughter proud and content. From Osborne, in a letter to
his daughter, the Prince-Consort writes: "Alfred looks very nice and
handsome in his new naval cadet's uniform--the round-jacket and the long-
tailed coat, with the broad knife by his side." The next month the Prince
went to Spithead, to see this son off on a two-years' cruise--and felt
that his family had indeed begun to break up. The next exciting public
matter was the news of Louis Napoleon's alliance with King Victor
Emmanuel in the war against Austria. And this was the Emperor who, had
given out that his empire was "peace"--that the only clang of arms
henceforth to be heard therein would be a mighty beating of swords and
spears into plow-shares and pruning-hooks. The next domestic excitement
was caused by a telegram from Berlin, announcing the birth of a son to
the Crown Prince and Princess, and that mother and child were doing well.
Queen Victoria was a grandmother, and prouder, I doubt not, than when
afterwards she was made Empress of India.

For her mother's birthday, in May, 1859, the Crown Princess came over and
made a delightful little visit. The Queen wrote of her: "Dear Vicky is a
charming companion." Of the Princess Alice she had before written: "She
is very good, sensible and amiable, and a real comfort to me." Mothers
know how much there is in those words--"a real comfort to me." The Crown
Princess found most change in baby--Beatrice--and after her return home,
her father often wrote to her of this little sister: "The little aunt,"
he says, "makes daily progress, and is really too comical. When she
tumbles, she calls out, in bewilderment, 'She don't like it! She don't
like it!'--and she-came into breakfast a short time ago, with her eyes
full of tears, moaning, 'Baby has been so naughty,--poor baby so
naughty!' as one might complain of being ill, or of having slept badly."
Later in the year the Prince writes: "Alice comes out admirably, and is a
great support to her mother. Lenchen (the Princess Helena) is very
distinguished, and little Arthur amiable and full of promise as ever."

In November, Prince Frederick William and his Princess came over on a
visit--and the fond father wrote: "Vicky has developed greatly of late--
and yet remains quite a child; of such, indeed, 'is the kingdom of
heaven.'" Of the Prince he said: "He has quite delighted us." So all was
right then. About this time he said of his daughter, Alice, that she had
become "a handsome young woman, of graceful form and presence, and is a
help and stay to us all in the house." What a rich inheritance such
praise!

In the Queen's diary there was, on July 24, 1860, an interesting entry:
"Soon after we sat down to breakfast came a telegram from Fritz--Vicky
had got a daughter, at 8:10, and both doing well! What joy! Children
jumping about, every one delighted--so thankful and relieved."

The Prince wrote to his daughter as only _he_ could write--wisely and
thoughtfully, yet tenderly and brightly. There was in this letter a
charming passage about his playfellow, Beatrice. After saying of his new
grandchild, "The little girl must be a darling," he adds, "Little girls
are much prettier than boys. I advise her to model herself after her Aunt
Beatrice. That excellent lady has now not a moment to spare. 'I have no
time,' she says, when she is asked for anything, 'I must write letters to
my niece.'"

Shortly after his first little niece was born, the Prince of Wales made
his first acquaintance with the New World. He went over to America to
visit the vast domain which was to be his, some day, and the vaster
domain which might have been his, but for the blind folly of his great-
grandfather, George III. and his Ministers, who, like the rash voyagers
of the "Arabian Nights' Entertainment," kindled a fire on the back of a
whale, thinking it "solid land," till the leviathan "put itself in
motion," and flung them and their "merchandise" off into the sea. He was
a fine young fellow, the Prince, and was received with loyal enthusiasm,
and heartily liked in the Canadas. I believe we of the States treated him
very well, also--and that he had what Americans call "a good time,"
dancing with pretty girls in the Eastern cities, and shooting prairie-
chickens on the Western plains. I think we did not overdo the matter in
fêting and following the son of the beloved Queen of England. We had
other business on hand just then--a momentous Presidential election--the
election of Abraham Lincoln.

In our capital he was treated to a ball, a visit to the Patent-Office and
the tomb of Washington, and such like gaieties. President Buchanan
entertained him as handsomely as our national palace, the White House,
would allow; and afterwards wrote a courtly letter to Queen Victoria,
congratulating her on the charming behavior of her son and heir--"_the
expectancy and rose of the fair State_." The Queen replied very
graciously and even gratefully, addressing Mr. Buchanan as "my good
friend." That was the most she could do, according to royal rules. The
elected temporary ruler of our great American empire, even should it
become greater by the annexation of Cuba and Mexico, can never expect to
be addressed as "_mon frère_" by regularly born, bred, crowned and
anointed sovereigns--or even by a reigning Prince or Grand Duke; can
never hope to be embraced and kissed on both cheeks by even the Prince of
Monaco, the King of the Sandwich Islands, or the Queen of Madagascar. We
must make up our minds to that.

In the early autumn of 1860, the Queen, Prince, and Princess Alice went
over to Germany for another sight of their dear ones. It was the last
visit that the Queen was to pay with the Prince to his beloved
fatherland. They were delighted with their grandson, and I hope with
their granddaughter also. Of baby Wilhelm the Queen writes: "Such a
little love. ... He is a fine, fat child, with a beautiful, soft white
skin, very fine shoulders and limbs, and a very dear face. ... He has
Fritz's eyes and Vicky's mouth, and very fair, curling hair." Afterwards
she wrote: "Dear little William came to me, as he does every morning. He
is such a darling, so intelligent."

I believe this darling grandchild was the "little love" who gave to the
Queen her first great-grandchild.

At Coburg the Prince-Consort came frightfully near being killed by the
running away of his carriage-horses. The accident was a great shock to
the Queen, and the escape an unspeakable joy. At Mayence Her Majesty
confided a family secret to her discreet diary. During a visit from the
Prince and Princess Charles of Hesse-Darmstadt it was settled that the
young Prince Louis should come to England to get better acquainted with
the Princess Alice, whom he already greatly admired. So everything was
arranged and the way smoothed for these lovers, and in this case the
union proved as happy as though brought about in the usual hap-hazard way
of marriages in common life.

The next November the Prince wrote from Windsor: "The Prince Louis of
Hesse is here on a visit. The young people seem to like each other. He is
very simple, natural, frank and thoroughly manly."

The next day the Queen jotted down in her diary the simple story of the
betrothal in a way to reveal how fresh in her own heart was the romance
of her youth:

"After dinner, while talking to the gentlemen, I perceived Alice and
Louis talking before the fireplace more earnestly than usual, and when I
passed to go to the other room both came up to me, and Alice in much
agitation said he had proposed to her, and he begged for my blessing. I
could only squeeze his hand and say 'Certainly,' and that we would see
him in my room later. Got through the evening, working as well as we
could. Alice came to our room. ... Albert sent for Louis to his room,
then called Alice and me in. ... Louis has a warm, noble heart. We
embraced our dear Alice and praised her much to him. He pressed and
kissed my hand and I embraced him." The Queen was right, as she generally
was in her estimate of character. This son-in-law, of whom she has always
been especially fond, is a Prince of amiable and noble disposition, good
ability and remarkable cultivation; not exactly a second Prince Albert--
_he_ was a century plant.

At this Christmas time the Queen's two eldest sons were at home and full
of strange stories of strange lands. Soon after, the Prince of Wales went
to Cambridge and Prince Alfred joined his ship. Before that cruise was
over a deeper, darker sea rolled between the sailor lad and his father.

On February 9, 1861, Prince Albert wrote Baron Stockmar: "To-morrow our
marriage will be twenty-one years old. How many storms have swept over
it, and still it continues green and fresh." The anniversary occurring on
Sunday was very quietly observed, chiefly by the performance in the
evening of some fine sacred music, the appropriateness of which was
scarcely realized at the time. In a very sweet letter to the Duchess of
Kent, such a letter as few married men write to their mothers-in-law, the
Prince says: ... "To-day our marriage comes of age, according to law. We
have faithfully kept our pledge for better and for worse,' and have only
to thank God that He has vouchsafed so much happiness to us. May He have
us in His keeping for the days to come! You have, I trust, found good and
loving children in us, and we have experienced nothing but love and
kindness from you."

This dear "Mama-aunt" had been in delicate health for some time, and once
or twice seriously ill, but she seemed better, her physicians were
encouraging and all were hopeful till the 12th of March, when the Queen
and Prince were suddenly summoned from London to Frogmore by the news of
a very alarming relapse. They went at once with all speed, yet the Queen
says "the way seemed so long." When they readied the house, the Queen
writes: "Albert went up first, and when he returned with tears in his
eyes, I saw what awaited me. ... With a trembling heart I went up the
staircase and entered the bedroom, and here on a sofa, supported by
cushions, sat leaning back my beloved Mama, breathing rather heavily, but
in her silk dressing-gown, with her cap on, looking quite herself. ... I
knelt before her, kissed her dear hand and placed it next my cheek; but
though she opened her eyes she did not, I think, know me. She brushed my
hand off, and the dreadful reality was before me that for the first time,
she did not know the child she had ever received with such tender
smiles."

The further description given by the Queen of this first great sorrow of
her life, is exceedingly pathetic and vivid. It is the very poetry of
grief. I cannot reproduce it entire, nor give that later story of
incalculable loss as related by her in that diary, through which her very
heart beats. It is all too unutterably sad. There are passages in this
account most exquisitely natural and touching. When all was over, the
poor daughter tried to comfort herself with thoughts of the blessed rest
of the good mother, of the gentle spirit released from the pain-racked
body, but the heart would cry out: "But I--I, wretched child, who had
lost the mother I so tenderly loved, from whom for these forty-one years
I had never been parted, except for a few weeks, what was my case? My
childhood, everything seemed to crowd upon me at once... What I had
dreaded and fought--off the idea of, for years, had come, and must be
borne... Oh, if I could nave been with her these last weeks! How I grudge
every hour I did not spend with her! ... What a blessing we went on
Tuesday. The remembrance of her parting blessing, of her dear, sweet
smile, will ever remain engraven on my memory."

During all this time, the Queen received the most tender sympathy and
care from her children, and Prince Albert, was--_Prince Albert_;--
weeping with her, yet striving to comfort her, full of loving kindness
and consideration.

The Queen's grief was perhaps excessive, as her love had been beyond
measure, but he was not impatient with it, though he writes from Osborne,
some weeks after the funeral of the Duchess: "She (the Queen) is greatly
upset, and feels her childhood rush back upon her memory with the most
vivid force. Her grief is extreme... For the last two years her constant
care and occupation have been to keep watch over her mother's comfort,
and the influence of this upon her own character has been most salutary.
In body she is well, though terribly nervous, and the children are a
great disturbance to her. She remains almost entirely alone."

How true to nature! When the first love of a life is suddenly uprooted,
all the later growths, however strong, seem to have been torn up with it.
When the mother goes, only the child seems to remain. Victoria, tender
mother as she herself was, and adoring wife, was now the little girl of
Kensington and Claremont, whose little bed was at the side of her
mother's, and who had waked to find that mother's bed empty, and forever
empty! And yet she said in her first sense of the loss: "I seemed to have
lived through a life; to have become old."

We may say that with the coming of that first sorrow went out the youth
of the Queen; for it seems that while her mother lives, a woman is always
young, that there is something of girlhood, of childhood even, lingering
in her life while she can lay her tired head on her mother's knee, or
hide her tearful face against her mother's breast, that most sweet and
restful refuge from the trials and weariness of life.

Her Majesty's sister, Feodore, strove to comfort her; the dear daughter
Victoria came to her almost immediately; her people's tears and prayers
were for her, and amid the quiet and seclusion of Osborne she slowly
regained her cheerfulness; but the old gladness and content never came
back. The children, too, with all the natural gayety of their years,
found that something of sweetness and comfort had dropped out of life--
something of the charm and dearness of home was gone with "grandmama,"
from the Palace, the Castle, the seaside mansion, as well as from
pleasant Frogmore, where they were always so welcome. Not till then,
perhaps, had they known all she was to them--what a blessed element in
their lives was her love, so tender and indulgent. Age is necessary to
the family completeness. We do not even in our humbler condition, always
realize, this--do not see how the quiet waning life in the old arm-chair
gives dignity and serenity to the home, till the end comes--till the
silver-haired presence is withdrawn.




PART IV.

WIDOWHOOD.




CHAPTER XXVII.

Failing health of Prince Albert--His last visit to Balmoral--His
influence upon the policy of England in the _Trent_ difficulty with
the United States--Strange revolution in English sentiment in respect to
American slavery--The setting of the sun.


All this time while the Queen was absorbed by anxious care, or passionate
grief for her mother, the health of the Prince-Consort was slowly but
surely failing. The keen blade of his active mind was wearing out its
sheath. His vital forces must have begun to give out long before actual
illness, or he would not so easily have resigned himself to the thought
of the long rest,--still young as he was, with so much to enjoy in life,
and so much to do. It is said that he had premonitions of early death,
and tried to prepare the Queen for his going first--but the realization
of a loss so immense could not find lodgment in her mind. Yet though
often feeling weak and languid, he did not relax his labors--spurring up
his flagging powers. He never lost his interest in public affairs, or in
his children's affairs of the heart. He was happy in contemplating the
happiness of his daughter Alice, and followed with his heart the journey
of his son, Albert Edward, in his visit to the country of the fierce old
Vikings, to woo the daughter of a King of another sort--a Princess so
fair and fresh that she could

  --"_with lilies boast,
  And with the half-blown rose_."

That summer his daughter Victoria, with her husband (now Crown Prince)
and their children, came again, for a long visit, and there were many
other guests, and much was done to cheer the Queen; but her first
birthday in orphanage was hopelessly sad, and when that of the Prince
came round, his last--though she wrote to her uncle, "This is the dearest
of days, and one which fills my heart with love and gratitude," she
murmured, because her "beloved mama" was not there to wish him joy. Ah,
what an acting, unreasoning thing is the human heart!

Yet the Queen seems to have had a brief return of happiness--to have been
upborne on a sudden tide of youthful joyance, during their autumn stay at
Balmoral. She wrote: "Being out a good deal here and seeing new and fine
scenery does me good." Of their last great Highland excursion, she said:
"Have enjoyed nothing so much, or felt so much cheered by anything since
my great sorrow."

Because of this intense love of nature--not the holiday, dressed-up
nature, of English parks, streams and lakes--but as she appears in all
her wildness, ruggedness, raggedness and simple grandeur, in the glorious
land of Scott and Burns, the Queen's journal, though a little clouded at
the last, by that "great sorrow," is very pleasant, breezy reading. It
gives one a breath of heather, and pine and peat-smoke.

After coming from Balmoral, and its bracing outdoor avocations and
amusements, the Prince-Consort's health seemed to decline again. He
suffered from rheumatic pains and sleeplessness, and he began to feel the
chill shadows of the valley he was nearing, creeping around him. The last
work of his beneficent life was one of peculiar interest to Americans. It
was the amicable arrangement, in conjunction with the Queen, of the ugly
affair of the _Trent_. That was a trying time for Americans in England,
unless they were of the South, southerly. We of the North, in the
beginning of our war for the Union, found to our sad surprise that
the sympathies of perhaps the majority of the English were on the side of
our opponents. These very people had been ever before, so decidedly and
ardently anti-slavery in their sentiments--had counseled such stern and
valiant measures for the removal of our "national disgrace," that their
new attitude amazed us. We could not understand what sort of a moral
whirlwind it was that had caught them up, turned them round, borne them
off and set them down on the other side of Mason and Dixon's Line. It was
strange, but with the exception of a few such clear-headed, steadfast
"friends of humanity" as Cobden and Bright, and such heroes as those
glorious operatives of Lancashire, all seemed changed. Even the
sentiments of prominent. Exeter Hall, anti-slavery philanthropists had
suffered a secession change, "into something new and strange," especially
after the battle of Bull Run--that fortunate calamity for us, as it
proved. Most people here  were captivated by the splendid qualities of
the Confederates--their gallantry, their enthusiasm, their bravery.
Before these practical revolutionists, those "moral suasion" agitators,
the Northern Abolitionists, made no great show. Garrison with his logic,
Burritt with his languages, Douglas with his magnificent eloquence, were
as naught to Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, and that soldier of the
fine old Cromwellian type--Stonewall Jackson. The "institution" was
pronounced in Parliament "not so bad a thing, after all," and the
pathetic "Am-I-not-a-Man-and-a-Brother" of Clarkson, became the Sambo of
Christie and the "Quashee" of Carlyle. In the midst of this ill-feeling
on one side, and sore-feeling on the other, the rash act of a U. S. Naval
Officer, in boarding the British steamer _Trent_ and seizing the
Confederate Envoys, Mason and Slidell, gave England cause, had our
Government endorsed that act, for open hostility. So ready, so eager did
the English Government seem for a war with America, that it did not wait
for an apology, before making extensive military preparations. With that
brave but cool-headed Captain on our Ship of State, Abraham Lincoln, and
that prudent helmsman, William H. Seward, we could not easily have been
driven into a war with England at this time; but we might have been
humiliated even more than we were, by the peremptory demands of Lord
Palmerston--might have been obliged to eat a piece of "humble pie," so
big, hot, and heavy, that it would have remained undigested to this day--
had it not been for the prudence, the courtesy, good sense, and admirable
tact of the Queen and Prince-Consort in modifying and softening the tone
of that important State paper, the demand for an official apology, and
the liberation of the Confederate Envoys. It is for this that Americans
of the North, and I believe of the South, love Queen Victoria, and not
alone for her sake, bless the memory of "Albert the Good."

I know of nothing in literature so exquisite in its pathos and childlike
simplicity, as the Queen's own account, in the diary kept faithfully at
the time, of the last illness of the Prince-Consort. In it we see the
very beatings of her heart, in its hope and fear, love and agony--can
mark all the stages of the sacred passion of her sorrow. It is a
wonderful psychological study.

That illness in its serious phases, lasted about two weeks. It was a low,
slow fever, which at first was not recognized as fever at all, but only a
heavy cold. I have been told that the Prince himself had from the first,
an impression that he should not recover, and that he talked of his
probable death very calmly with his noble daughter Alice, saying: "Your
mother cannot bear to hear me speak of it yet." The Queen, though very
restless and distressed, and at times shaken with wild alarms, could not
face the coming calamity; could not admit the possibility that the sands
of that precious life--golden sands, were running out. The alternations
of hope and fear, must have been terrible. One morning the Queen records
that on going to the Prince she found him looking very wretched: "He did
not smile, or take much notice of me. His manner all along was so unlike
himself, and he had sometimes, such a strange, wild look." In the evening
she writes: "I found my Albert most dear and affectionate and quite
himself, when I went in with little Beatrice, whom he kissed. He laughed
at some of her new French verses which I made her repeat, then he. held
her little hand in his for some time, and she stood looking, at him."

For several days he wished to be read to, and the Queen and faithful
Alice read his favorite authors; he also asked for music, and Alice
played for him some fine German airs. He even wished often to look at a
favorite picture, one of Raphael's Madonnas, saying, "It helps me through
the day."

At length the fever took on a typhoid form, congestion of the lungs set
in, and there was no longer reason for hope,--though they did hope, till
almost the last hour. Now, it seems that from the first, even when he did
not apparently suffer, except from mortal weariness, there were little
fatal indications. One morning he told the Queen that as he lay awake he
heard the little birds outside, and "thought of those he used to hear at
the Rosenau, in his childhood"; and on the last morning the Queen writes
that he "began arranging his hair just as he used to do when well and he
was dressing."

It seemed to the poor Queen as though he were "preparing for another and
a greater journey" than they had ever taken together. His tenderness
towards her through all this sad fortnight, was very touching. It was not
calculated to loosen the detaining, clinging clasp of her arms; but it
must be very sweet for her to remember. After the weariness of watching,
the prostration of fever, he welcomed always the good-morning caress of
his "dear little wife." Through the gathering mists of unconsciousness,
through the phantom-shades of delirium, his love for her struggled forth,
in a tender word, a wistful look, a languid smile, a feeble stroking of
the cheek. It was "wondrous pitiful," but it was very beautiful. Even at
the last, when he knew no one else, he knew her; and when she bent over
him and whispered, "Tis your own little wife," he bowed his head and
kissed her.

After she knew that all hope must be given up, the Queen still was able
to sit calmly by his bedside, and not trouble with the sound of weeping
the peace of that loving, passing soul. Occasionally she felt that she
must leave the room and weep, or her suppressed grief would kill her. But
she counted the moments and stayed her soul with prayer, to go back to
her post.

It was on the night of December 14, 1861, that the beloved Prince-Consort
passed away,--quietly and apparently painlessly, from the station he had
ennobled, from the home he had blessed. Unconsciously he drifted out on
the unknown, mysterious sea, nor knew that loving feet followed him to
the strand, and that after him were stretched yearning arms.

That death-bed scene passed in a solemn hush, more mournful than any
outcry of passionate grief could be. On one side, knelt the Queen,
holding her husband's hand, trying to warm it with kisses and tears; on
the other, knelt the Princess Alice. At the foot of the bed, the Prince
of Wales and the Princess Helena were kneeling together. It is probable
that all the younger children were sleeping in quiet unconsciousness of
the presence of the dread angel in the Castle. The Dean of Windsor,
Prince Ernest Leiningen,--secretaries, physicians and attached attendants
were grouped around. All was silent, save that low, labored breathing,
growing softer and softer, and more infrequent, and then--it ceased
forever.

I have been told by a lady who had had good opportunities of knowing
about the sad circumstances of that death, that the Queen retained
perfect possession of herself to the last, and that after the lids had
been pressed down over the dear eyes whose light had passed on, she rose
calmly, and courteously thanked the physicians in attendance, saying that
she knew that everything which human skill and devotion could accomplish,
had been done for her husband, whom God had taken. Then she walked out of
the death-chamber, erect,--still the Queen, wearing "sorrow's crown of
sorrow," and went to her chamber, and shut herself in--her soul alone
with God, her heart alone for evermore.

Ah, we may not doubt that this royal being, in whose veins beats the
blood of a long, long race of Kings, was brought low enough then,--to her
knees, to her face,

  "_For grief is proud and makes his owner stoop_."

So absorbing and unwavering had been the love of the Queen for her
husband, who to her, was "nobler than the noblest"; such a proud homage
of the soul had there been--such a dear habit of the heart, in one with
whom habit counted for much, that her people were filled with the most
intense anxiety on her behalf. They feared that this cruel stroke which
lopped off the best part of her life, would kill her, or plunge her into
a depth of melancholy, sadder than death. For some time she was not able
to sleep. The thought of that chamber, so lately the scene of all the
anxious activity of the sickroom, wherein softly moved troubled
physicians and nurses, tearful attendants and awe-struck children, but
where now there were shadowed lights, and solemn silence, and where lay
that beautiful, marble-like shape, so familiar, yet so strange--that
_something_ which was not _he_, yet was inexpressibly dear, kept her
awake, face to face with her sorrow,--and when at last, the bulletin from
Windsor announced, "The Queen has had some hours' sleep," her people all
in mourning as they were, felt like ringing joy-bells.

The friend from whom I have before quoted, Mrs. Crosland, a most loyal
lady, wrote on this text a very sweet poem, from which I am tempted to
give a few verses:

  "Sleep, far the night is round thee spread,
    Thou daughter of a line of kings;
    Sleep, widowed Queen, white angels' wings
  Make canopy above thy head!

  "Sleep, while a million prayers rise up
    To Him who knew all earthly sorrow,
    That day by day, each soft to-morrow
  May melt the bitter from thy cup.

 .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

  "Long life ask for thee, dear Queen,
    And moonlight peace, since joy is set.
    And Time's soft touch on dark regret.
  And memories calm of what has been!

  "Long life for thee--for our best sake.
    To be our stay 'mid hopes and fears.
    Through many far-off future years,
  Till thou by Albert's side shall wake!"

It seems Her Majesty could not bear the thought of her beloved Albert,
whose nature was so bright and joyous, and beauty-loving, resting amid
the darkness and heavy silence and "cold obstruction" of the royal vault;
so, as early as the 18th of December, she drove with the Princess Alice
to Frogmore, where they were-received by the Prince of Wales, Prince
Louis of Hesse, and several officers of the Royal Household. Then,
leaning on the arm of her noble daughter, the Queen walked about the
pleasant gardens, till she fixed upon the spot, where now stands the
magnificent mausoleum, which, splendid and beautiful as art can make it,
is like a costly casket, for the dust, infinitely more precious to her
than all the jewels of her crown. It was sweet for her to feel that thus
under the shadow of her mother's dear home, the two most sacred loves and
sorrows of her life would be forever associated.

There was great and sincere mourning in England among all classes, not
alone for the Queen's sake, but for their own, for the Prince-Consort had
finally endeared himself to this too long jealous and distrustful people.
They had named him "alien," at first; they called him "angel," at last.
He was not _that_, but a most rare man, of a nature so sweet and
wholesome, of a character so well-balanced and symmetrical, of a life so
pure and blameless, that the English cannot reasonably hope to "look upon
his like again," not even among his own sons.

Some of his contemporaries, while admitting his grace and elegance, were
blind to his strength of character, forgetting that a shining column of
the Parthenon may be as strong as one of the dark rough-hewn columns of
Pæstum. Morally, I believe, the Prince-Consort stands alone in English
royal history. What other youth of twenty-one, graceful, beautiful and
accomplished, has ever forborne what he forbore?--Ever fought such a good
fight against temptations manifold? He was the Sir Galahad of Princes.
Being human, he must have been tempted,--if not to a life of sybaritic
pleasure, to one of ease, through his delicate organization,--and,
through his refined tastes, to one of purely artistic and esthetic
culture, which for him, where he was, would have been but splendid
selfishness.

Though my estimate of the Prince-Consort is based on his own good words
and works, to which I have paid tribute of sincerest praise, it is
strengthened and justified by a knowledge of the loving reverence in
which his name is held to this day, by the English people of the better
class, who honor the Queen for her love stronger than death, and love her
the better for it; for I hold,

        ----"the soul must cast
  All weakness from it, all vain strife,
  And tread God's ways through this sad life,
  To be thus grandly mourned at last."




CHAPTER XXVIII.

The Twilight Life after--Marriage of the Princess Alice--Incidents of the
Queen's life at Balmoral--John Brown--A letter from the Queen to the
Duchess of Sutherland.


"There is no one near me to call me 'Victoria' now!" is said to have been
the desolate cry of the Queen, when, on waking from that first sleep, the
cruel morning light, smote upon her with a full consciousness of her
bereavement, and a new sense of her royal isolation. She was on a height
where the storm beat fiercest and there was the least shelter. Her sacred
grief was the business of the world;--she could not long shut herself up
with it, and fold her hands in "blameless idleness"; but as the widowed
mother and housekeeper in humble life struggles up from the great stroke,
and staggers on, resolutely driving back the tears which "hinder needle
and thread," and choking down her sobs, to go wearily about her household
tasks,--so Victoria, after a little time, rose trembling to her feet, and
went through with such imperative State duties as could be delegated to
no one. To a near friend, who expressed joy to find her more calm than at
the time of her mother's death, she said simply, "I have had God's
teaching, and learned to bear all He lays upon me."

There is a record by Lord Beaconsfield of her faithful discharge of such
duties a few years later; but what was true of her then, was almost as
true an account of the routine of her official life, during a large part
of the first years of her widowhood. In a public speech, Beaconsfield
said: "There is not a dispatch received from abroad, or sent from this
country abroad, which is not submitted to the Queen. The whole of the
internal administration of this country greatly depends upon the sign-
manual of our Sovereign, and it may be said that her signature has never
been placed to any public document of which she did not know the purpose
and of which she did not approve. Those cabinet councils of which you all
hear, and which are necessarily the scene of anxious and important
deliberation, are reported, on their termination, by the Minister to the
Sovereign, and they often call from her critical remarks requiring
considerable attention; and I will venture to say that no person likely
to administer the affairs of this country would be likely to treat the
suggestions of Her Majesty with indifference, for at this moment there is
probably no person living who has such complete control over the
political condition of England as the Sovereign herself."

I have come upon few incidents of that first sad year. The Princess Alice
was married very quietly at Osborne, and went away to her German home,
where she lived for seventeen happy years, a noble and beneficent life.
In character she was very like her father--to whose soul hers was so
knit, that, when in her last illness, the anniversary of his death came
round, she seemed to hear his call, and went to him at once in child-
like obedience. She took that fatal illness--the diphtheria--from a dear
child in a kiss, "the kiss of death," as Lord Beaconsfield called it.

The Rev. Norman McLeod has left a record of the widowed Queen's first
visit to Balmoral. It seems he thought she was too unreconciled to her
loss, and felt it his duty to preach what he believed to be "truth in
God's sight, and that which I believe she needed," he said, "though I
felt it would be very trying for her to receive it." She did receive it
very sweetly, and wrote him "a kind, tender letter of thanks for it," She
afterwards summoned him to the castle, and to her own room. He writes:
"She was alone. She met me with an unutterably sad expression, which
filled my eyes with tears, and at once began to speak about the Prince.
... She spoke of his excellencies--his love, his cheerfulness; how he was
everything to her. She said she never shut her eyes to trials, but liked
to look them in the face; how she would never shrink from duty, but that
all was at present done mechanically; that her highest ideas of purity
and love were obtained from him, and that God could not be displeased
with her love."

No, we cannot love enough to displease the God of love, who is not,
whatever men may preach, a "jealous God," in that small way; but perhaps
we may grieve too much to please the Master of Life, of which, in His
eyes, what we call death, is the immortal blossom and crowning.

It seems to me that in her loving tribute to the Prince, the Queen was a
little unjust to her mother, to whose precepts and example she owed very
high "ideas of purity" and that strong sense of duty, and that fortitude,
essentially a womanly, not a manly, virtue, which preserved her through
the temptations of a glad and splendid youth--through the trials and
sorrows of maturer years, and which, when that time of bitterest trial
came, braced up her shattered forces, and held together her broken heart.

Balmoral--the dear mountain-home, so entirely her husband's creation--now
became more than ever dear to the Queen, and has never lost its charm for
her. Her life there has been, from the first, almost pastoral in its
simplicity.

The Highlanders about them, a primitive, but very proud people, regarded
their Sovereign and her husband with no servile awe. With them, even
respect begins, like charity, at home; what there is left, they give
loyally to their superiors in rank. To the Queen and her family they have
given more,--love and free-hearted devotion. Her Majesty has always gone
about among the poorer tenants of the estate, like any laird's wife, in
an unpretending, neighborly way; and they, thanks to their good Scotch
sense and Highland pride, never take advantage of the uncondescending
condescension, to offend her by too great familiarity, or shock her by
servility. Taking up her "Journal," I have chanced upon an account given
by Her Majesty of a round of visits to the cottages of certain "poor old
women," and here is an entry or two:

"Before we went into any, we met a woman who was very poor, and eighty-
eight years old. I gave her a warm petticoat, and the tears rolled down
her old cheeks, and she shook my hands and prayed God to bless me: it was
very touching.

"I went into a small cabin of old Kitty Kear's, who is eighty-six years
old, quite-erect, and who welcomed us with a great air of dignity. She
sat down and spun. I gave her, also, a warm petticoat. She said, 'May the
Lord ever attend ye and yours, here and hereafter; and may the Lord be a
guide to ye, and keep ye fra all harm.'"

Now, some readers, whose ideas of royal charities are derived from the
kings and queens of melodrama, who fling about golden largess, or "chuck"
plethoric purses at their poor subjects, may be amused at these entries
in a great Queen's journal, but "let them laugh who win"--the flannel
petticoats.

During a later visit to the widowed Queen at Balmoral, Dr. McLeod writes:
"After dinner, the Queen invited me to her room, where I found the
Princess Helena and the Marchioness of Ely. The Queen sat down to spin on
a fine Scotch wheel, while I read Burns to her--'_Tam O'Shanter_,' and
'_A Man's a Man for a' That_'--her favorites."

In the Queen's book I find frequent pleasant mention of the young
Highlander, John Brown--a favorite personal attendant, first of Prince
Albert, and afterwards of Her Majesty.

She had the misfortune to lose this "good and faithful servant," in the
early part of this year. In a foot-note in her "Journal," she paid a
grateful tribute to his "attention, care and faithfulness"--to his rare
devotion to her, especially during a period of physical weakness and
nervous prostration, when such service as his was invaluable. She also
says of him, "He has all the independence and elevation of feeling
peculiar to the Highland race, and is singularly straightforward, simple-
minded, kind-hearted and disinterested."

If there is something touching in the nearly life-long service and
devotion of the Highlander, almost always seen so close behind his Liege
Lady, when she appeared in public, that he was named "the Queen's
shadow"--there is something admirable in her grateful appreciation of
that service, in her frank acknowledgment of all she has owed of comfort,
in a constant sense of security, to this man's steadfast faithfulness;
and now that the "shadow" has gone before, I hold it is only fitting and
loyal in her to acknowledge for him, as she does, "friendship," and even
"affection"--not only to lay flowers on his grave, but to pay more
enduring tribute to his honest memory. He was a Highland gillie, of
simple Highland ways and words but "_A man's a man for a' that._" If
Byron could nurse his dying dog, _Boatswain_, and erect a monument to his
memory, and not lose, but gain, our respect by so doing, we surely might
let pass, unquestioned, the Queen's grief for a faithful human creature--
for thirty-four years devoted to her--ever at her call--looking up to
her, yet watching over her; a friend, whose humble good sense and canny
bits of counsel must often, in the simpler, yet not simple, affairs of
her complex life, be sorely missed.

That is how it strikes an American, of democratic tendencies.

About a year after the death of Prince Albert, the Duchess of Sutherland
presented to the Queen a richly-bound Bible, the offering of loyal
"English widows."

In her letter of acknowledgment, Her Majesty gives very strong and clear
expression to her faith, not only in the happy continued existence of her
beloved husband, but in his "unseen presence" with her--a faith which she
has often expressed. The letter runs thus:

"MY DEAREST DUCHESS:--I am deeply touched by the gift of a Bible 'from
many widows,' and by the very kind and affectionate address which
accompanied it. ... Pray express to all these kind sister-widows the deep
and heartfelt gratitude of their widowed Queen, who can never feel
grateful enough for the universal sympathy she has received, and
continues to receive, from her loyal and devoted subjects. But what she
values far more is their appreciation of her adored and perfect husband.
To her, the only sort of consolation she experiences is in the constant
sense of his unseen presence and the blessed thought of the Eternal Union
hereafter, which will make the bitter anguish of the present appear as
naught. That our Heavenly Father may impart to 'many widows' those
sources of consolation and support, is their broken-hearted Queen's
earnest prayer ... Believe me ever yours most affectionately, VICTORIA."

Dean Stanley is reported as telling of a touching little circumstance
which he received from the Princess Hohenlohe (Feodore), from which it
seems that Her Majesty was for a long time in the habit of going every
morning to look at the cows on Prince Albert's model farm, because
"_he_ had been used to do so," feeling, perhaps, that the gentle
creatures might miss him--that somewhere in their big dull brains, they
might wonder where their friend could be, and why he did not come. The
Princess also said that her poor sister found her only comfort in the
belief that her husband's spirit was close beside her--for he had
promised her that it should be so.




CHAPTER XXIX.

Arrival in England of the Princess Alexandra to wed the Prince of Wales--
Garibaldi's visit to London--The Queen's first public appearance after
her widowhood--Marriage of the Princess Louise--Illness of the Prince of
Wales--Disaffection in Ireland--The Queen's sympathy during the illness
of President Garfield.


On the 7th of March, 1863, all London and nearly all England went mad
over the coming of the Princess Alexandra, from Denmark, to wed the
Prince of Wales. Lord Ronald Gower, a son of the beautiful Duchess of
Sutherland, gives in his "Reminiscences" a fine description of her
arrival in London, and of the wedding at Windsor three days after. He
says: "Probably since the day in Paris when Marie Antoinette was
acclaimed in the gardens of the Tuileries, no Princess ever had so
enthusiastic a reception, or so quickly won the hearts of thousands by
the mere charm of her presence." This writer gives a very vivid
description of the crowd which waited patiently for hours, of a cold,
wretched day, for the sight of that sweet face whose sweetness has never
yet cloyed upon them. At last, there came a small company of Life Guards,
escorting an open carriage-and-four, containing the young Danish Princess
and His Royal Highness Albert Edward, looking very happy and very
conscious. The smiling, blushing, appealing face of the Princess warmed
as well as won all hearts. There were few flowers at that season to
scatter on her way, except flowers of poetry, of which there was no jack.
Tennyson's pretty ode has not been forgotten, but all as noble and sweet
was the greeting of her from whom I have before quoted; Mrs. Crosland.
The most touching, though not the strongest verse in that poem, is this:

  "She comes another child to be
    To that Crowned Widow of the land,
  Whose sceptre weighs more heavily
    Since One has ceased to hold her hand."

The Queen did not feel herself equal to taking any part in the marriage
ceremony, but looked down upon the scene of grandeur and gayety from the
Royal Gallery of St George's Chapel. The Duchess of Sutherland attended
her then for the last time. She had been with her at her coronation and
marriage; to-day they were both widows, and must have been at the moment
living intensely and sorrowfully in the past. With the exception of the
Crown Princess of Germany and the Duke of Edinburgh, all the Queen's
children, down to little Beatrice, were present. The bride, it is stated,
"looked lovely; she did not raise her eyes once in going into, and but
little in going out of, the Chapel on her husband's arm."

This first daughter-in-law soon made a place for herself in the Queen's
heart, by her grace and amiability. I have heard a pretty little story of
an attempt of hers to lighten somewhat Her Majesty's heavy cloud of
mourning. Millinery being one of her accomplishments, she prevailed upon
the Queen to let her remodel her bonnet, which she did, principally by
removing a small basketful of sombre weeds. The Queen saw through her
little _ruse_ and shook her head mournfully,--but wore the bonnet.

The next year London went still more mad over Garibaldi. His enthusiastic
admirers almost mobbed Stafford House, at which he was entertained by the
young Duke of Sutherland Lord Ronald Gower describes that memorable visit
and the popular excitement very vividly.

The Italian hero entered that beautiful palace, where a grand company of
the nobility were waiting to receive him, attired in a rough gray
overcoat and trousers, a large pork-pie hat, a loose black neck-tie, and
a red flannel shirt. This he never changed--I mean his style of dress,
not the shirt--but Garibaldi would have been quite un-Garibaldi-ed in an
English evening suit. Lord Ronald Gower writes that his noble, liberty-
loving mother was very devoted to their guest, but does not add that by
so doing she shocked the sensibilities of footmen and housemaids. One of
the latter once told to another guest, a moving story of the strange
habits of "Italian brigand": "Why, marm," she said, "he was such a
common-looking person, and he would get up so awful early and go hobbling
about in the garden. One morning at six o'clock, I looked out of my
window, and there he was walking up and down, and the Duchess with him--
_my_ Duchess, walking and talking with the likes of him!"

The first public appearance of the widowed Queen was at the opening of
Parliament, in 1866. I do not know whether the splendid chair of State
she had provided for Prince Albert, in the happy old time, had been left
in its place, to smite her eyes with its gilding and her heart with its
emptiness; I do not know whether its presence or its absence would have
grieved her most; but every sorrowing widow knows what it is to look on
her husband's vacant chair. It does not matter whether it is made of
rude, unpainted wood and woven rushes, or is a golden and velvet-
cushioned chair of State,--it was _his_ seat, and he is gone! Queen
Victoria must have felt that day, in her lonely grandeur, like crying out
with Constance,

  "_Here I and Sorrow sit. _"

Lady Bloomfield gives a very touching account of her first visit to the
widowed mistress, whom, nearly twenty years before, she had so gladly and
proudly served--for true service is in the spirit, though the act may be
limited to taking a part in a duet, or handing the daily bouquet. She
wrote: "The Queen is dreadfully changed--most sad, but with the gentlest,
most benevolent smile. Even when the tears rolled down her cheeks, she
tried to smile." I think it was about this time that the Queen presented
to our George Peabody her portrait, expressly painted for him, in
recognition of his more than princely munificence in the gift of model
lodging-houses to the London poor. It was a small portrait--enameled, I
believe. I do not think it was an idealized picture, though the pencil
was evidently guided by a delicate and reverential loyalty, "doing its
spiriting gently," in marking the tracings of time and sorrow. In a
description which I wrote at the tune of its exhibition in Philadelphia,
I said: "With the exception of a touching expression of habitual sadness,
this face is very like the one I looked down upon from the gallery of the
House of Lords fifteen years ago. There is the same roundness of outline,
only 'a little more so'--almost the same freshness of tints in the fair
complexion. The soft brown hair is unchanged in color, if somewhat
thinner; and the clear blue eyes have the same steady outlook. The whole
figure is marked by a sort of regal rigidity. The face, if not positively
unhappy in expression, is quite empty of happiness. There is about it an
atmosphere of lonely state and absolute widowhood. The Mary Stuart cap is
very becoming to Her Majesty, but the black dress mars the picturesque
effect of the portrait. The neck and arms have all the roundness of
youth, and are exquisitely painted. I remember hearing the late Mr.
Gibson, who made several statues of the Queen, say that loyalty itself
need not to flatter her arms or bust; in sculpture or painting, as they
were really remarkably beautiful."

In 1868 the Queen had the misfortune to lose her "dearest Duchess"--that
grandest daughter of the grand house of Howard, _the_ Duchess of
Sutherland. She floated all unconsciously out on the waves that wash
against the restful palm-crowned shore, her last words being, "I think I
shall sleep now--I am so tired."

The Princess Louise was married with really royal pomp and a brave
attempt at the old gayety, in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, in March,
1871, to the Marquis of Lome.

The bride, who, according to Lord Ronald Gower, was. "very pale, but
handsome as she always is," was accompanied by the Prince of Wales; her
uncle, the Grand Duke of Coburg; and, to the great joy of all the
assembly, by her mother, the Queen. The wedded pair went to Claremont for
their honeymoon. As they drove away, "rice and white satin slippers were
sent after them, and John Brown threw a new broom, Highland fashion."

The people were much comforted at this appearance of the Queen once more
in the great gay world. They had begun to think that her social seclusion
would never end. When she went down into the "valley of the shadow of
death" with her beloved, though she struggled bravely up alone, she
brought the shadow with her; it enveloped her and wrapped her away from
her subjects--even the most loving and sympathetic. Now they took heart,
believing that royalty was finally coming out from under its eclipse of
mourning, that the Court would be re-established in Buckingham Palace,
and things generally, go on as in the good old days. They never did,
however, and never will, under her reign. It is too much to ask of her,
it seems.

Whether it is true, as I hear, that the air of London is hurtful to her,
giving her severe headaches, or that the scenes of her childhood and
early queenhood, and of her marriage, are too much for her, and heart-
ache is the matter, I know not; but it is undeniable that the Queen
prefers any one of her other homes to Buckingham Palace. She only comes
to it when absolute compelled by the duties of State. It is hard for
London tradesmen and pleasure-seekers, who think Her Majesty's mourning
immoderate, and doubt whether their wives would fret so long for them;
but when, in the first year of her, reign, the pretty, wilful Victoria
said to Lord Melbourne: "What is the use of being a Queen if one cannot
do as one likes!" her people laughed and applauded. Surely, with years
and trouble, and much faithful care and labor, and has not lost the right
to have a mind of her own, or the will to maintain it.

Of late years I have seen Her Majesty some half dozen times; once on her
way to prorogue Parliament, seated in the grand State coach, drawn by the
superb, cream-colored State horses, in all imaginable splendor of
trappings--escorted by the dashing Life Guards, and all the royal
carriages, each with its resplendent coachman and footmen, most gorgeous
of human creatures, and inside, very nice and respectable-looking people,
with no particular air of pride or elation. The Queen wore a cloak of
ermine, a tiara of diamonds, and a long, cloud-like veil of tulle,
floating back from her face, which that day had a very pleasant, genial
expression. She is changed,--of course she is; but she has even more of
the old calm dignity, and when she smiles, the effect is magical; her
youth flashes over her face, and quite the old look--the look _he_
knew her by, comes back for a little while.

At other times I have had glimpses of her as her carriage dashed through
the gateway to Marlborough House, on a garden-party day, or through the
Park, as she was fleeing with all speed from the city, after a Drawing-
room. Sometimes, she has bowed right and left, and smiled, as though
pleased by the cheers of the people; but at other times she has scarcely
inclined her head, and worn a look of unsmiling, utter weariness--proving
that a woman may have much worldly goods, many jewels, and brave velvet
gowns, and heaps of India shawls, and half a dozen grand mansions, with a
throne in every one, and yet at times feel that this brief life of ours
is "all vanity and vexation of spirit."

The Queen, though she had not kept up her intimate relations with the
Emperor and Empress, was shocked at the utter ruin to them and their son,
which resulted from the French and Prussian war, and she was not wanting
in tender sympathy, when the poor frightened refugee, Eugenie, hid a
tearful face against her sisterly breast, and sobbed out, "I have been
too favorable to war." To the Emperor she granted an asylum and a grave.

I know not whether France will ever demand his dust, to give it sepulture
under the dome of the Invalides; but he has already on the banks of the
Seine the grandest of monuments--_Paris_. His memory stands fair and
firm in stately buildings and massive bridges, and is renewed every year
in the plane tree of noble Boulevards, those green _longas vias_,
grander than the military highways of the Caesars.

In 1867 the Prince of Wales fell grievously ill, with the same fearful
malady that had deprived him of his father. Intense was the anxiety not
only of the Royal Family, but of all the English people the world over.
Soon the sympathy of other nations was aroused, and prayers began to
ascend to Heaven for the preservation of that precious life, not only
from all Christian peoples, but from Hebrews, Mohammedans and Buddhists;
in heathen lands the missionaries prayed, and in heathen portions of
Christian cities the mission-children prayed, while on the high seas the
sailors responded fervently when the captain. read in the Service the
"Prayer for the Sick," meaning their Prince, "sick unto death." The fine
old boast of England's power, that "her morning drum beats round the
world," how poor it seems beside the thought, of this zone of prayer!
There had been nothing like this in English history, and there was
nothing like it in ours, till that heart-breaking time of the mortal
illness of President Garfield. O, worthy should be, the life and manifold
the good works of that man for whom so many peoples and tongues have
given surety to Heaven by fervent intercessions and supplications.

This long sad time of anxiety and peril drew the Queen out of her sorrow
as nothing had done before. She watched tenderly by the bedside of her
son, and when he was recovered, and went to St. Paul's to return thanks,
she sat by his side, and wore a white flower in her bonnet, and her
grateful smile showed that there was a rift in the cloud of her mourning,
and that God's sunlight was striking through.

Lord Ronald Gower quotes a letter from his sister, the Duchess of
Westminster, describing the Prince and Princess of Wales as she saw them
about this time. She said: "He is much thinner and his head shaved, but
little changed in his face, and looking so grateful. She looks thin and
worn, but so affectionate--tears in her eyes when talking of him, and his
manner to her so gentle."

Surely convalescence is a "state of grace." Would that it might always
last a lifetime with us!

During this year, Irish disaffection broke out very seriously in the
great Fenian movement. An upheaval this, from the lowest stratum of
society, with no gentlemen, or eloquent orators, for leaders, but all the
more appalling for that. These rough, desperate men meant, as they said,
"business." This movement <was suppressed, driven under the surface, but
only to break out more appallingly than ever some ten or twelve years
later, in brutal assassinations, which have curdled the blood of the
world. Ah, must it always be so? Will this tiresome old Celtic Enceladus
never lie quiet, and be dead, though the mountain sit upon him ever so
solidly, and smoke ever so placidly above him?

Where now, we sadly ask, is the Ireland of Tom Moore, Father Prout, Lover
and Lever? Not enough left of it to furnish a new drama for Mr.
Boucicault. Donnybrook Fair has given place to midnight conspirations.
Fox-hunts to the stalking of landlords--all the jolly old customs
extinct, except the "wake." Peasant-life, over there, sometimes seems, at
the best, one protracted "wake."

I suppose it is too late now, yet I can but think that if the Queen had
built years ago, a palace in Ireland, at Killarney, or in lovely Wicklow,
or in Dublin itself, and resided there a part of every year, things might
have been better. She was so popular in that "distressful country" when,
by frequent visits, she testified an interest in it, and her gentle,
motherly presence might have had a more placating influence than any
"Coercion bill." The money she would have spent there,--the very crumbs
that would have fallen from her table, would have been a benefaction to
that poor people.

The Fenian drama had its ghastly closing _tableau_ in the hanging of
the ringleaders, and the explosion at Clerkenwell. The hanging of those
Fenians must have been about the last of that sort of a public
entertainment, as a law was soon passed making all future executions
strictly private. Among a certain class of Her Majesty's subjects this
was a most unpopular measure. Pot-house politicians and gin-palace
courtiers, both ladies and gentlemen, discussed it hotly and denounced it
sternly, as an infringement on the sacred immemorial rights of British
freemen and a blow to the British Constitution.

In 1874 Mr. Disraeli had become Prime Minister. He died in 1880--Lord
Beaconsfield, sincerely lamented by the Queen, who was much attached to
him as a friend, and greatly admired him as a man of genius. He was a
brilliant novelist and a famous statesman; but the best things I know of
him are the tender love and manly gratitude he always testified towards
his devoted wife, and his pathetic mourning for her loss. He might have
adopted for her tombstone the quaint, terse epitaph of an American
husband--"Think what a wife should be, and she was that."

Through his means, the title of "Empress of India" was conferred on the
Queen by act of Parliament. Some English people opposed it as
superfluous, a sort of anti-climax of dignity, as "gilding the refined
gold" of English Sovereignty with baser metal, as "painting the lily" of
the noblest of English royal titles with India-ink; but it did no harm.
It did not hurt the Radicals and it pleased the Rajahs.

Then came the Zulu war, with its awful disasters in the inglorious
slaughter of some thousands of gallant young soldiers, among which,
because of the power of romantic, historic associations, the death of the
young Prince Imperial stands out in woful relief. This was a severe
personal shock to the Queen. With all her tender sympathy she tried to
console the inconsolable Empress, and with her sons paid funeral honors
to the memory of the Prince, who had been almost as one of her family.
The only time I ever saw him he was in their company, driving away from a
royal garden-party.

The Prince of Wales visited India, traveled and hunted extensively, was
fêted after the most gorgeous Oriental style, and brought home rich
presents enough to set up a grand Eastern bazaar in Marlborough House,
and animals enough to start a respectable menagerie. Everywhere he went
he inclined the hearts of the people to peace and loyalty, by his frank
and genial ways. Does His Royal Highness ever propose such a tour in
Ireland? He would not probably receive as tribute so much jewelry and
gorgeous merchandise--so many tigers, pythons and other little things;
but there is a fine chance for giving over there, and we read: "It is
more blessed to give, than to receive."

I come now to that period of our national history with which the Queen of
England so kindly, so "gently and humanly" associated herself--I mean the
illness and death of President Garfield. To this day, that association is
a drop of sweetness in the bitter cup of our sorrow and humiliation. From
the 2d of July, 1881, the date of her first telegram of anxious inquiry
addressed to our Minister, to the 27th of the following September, when
she telegraphed her tender solicitude as to the condition of "the late
President's mother," not a week went by that she did not send to Mr.
Lowell sympathetic messages, asking for the latest news--congratulating
or condoling, as the state of "the world's patient" fluctuated between
life and death--and when all was over, she at once telegraphed directly
to Mrs. Garfield in these words of tenderest commiseration, so worthy of
her great heart:

"Words cannot express the deep sympathy I feel with you at this terrible
moment. May God support and comfort you as He alone can."

She afterwards sent an autograph letter to Mrs. Garfield, and also asked
for a photograph of the President.

No American who was in London at that time, especially on the day of or
President's funeral, so universally observed throughout Great Britain,
can ever forget the generous, whole-souled sympathy of the English
people, in part at least, inspired by the words 'and acts of the English
Queen. The intense interest with which she had watched that melancholy
struggle between "the Two Angels," over that distant death-bed, and the
grief with which she beheld the issue were known and responded to, and so
the noble contagion spread. It was not needed, perhaps, that signs of
mourning should be shown in her Palace windows, to have them appear as
they did, all over the vast city, but it was something strange and
affecting to see those blinds of a proud royal abode lowered out of
respect for the memory of a republican ruler, and sympathy for an
untitled "sister-widow."

We respected all those signs of mourning about us then--were grateful for
them all, from the flag at half-mast and the tolling bell, to the closing
of the shop of the small tradesman, and the bit of crape on the whip of
the cabman.




CHAPTER XXX.

My reasons for Honoring the Queen--Anecdotes--Some democratic reflections
upon the Queen's position and her Subjects' loyalty--The Royal Children--
Last words.


My reasons for admiring and honoring Queen Victoria are, perhaps, amply
revealed in this little book, but I will briefly recapitulate them:
First, is her great power of loving, and tenacity in holding on to love.
Next is her loyalty--that quality which makes her stand steadfastly by
those she loves, through good and evil report, arid not afraid to do
honor to a dead friend, be he prince or peasant--that quality which in
her lofty position, makes her friendship for the unfortunate exile "as
the shadow of a great rock in a weary land."

Next I place her sincerity, her downright honesty, which makes falsehood
and duplicity in those she has to do with, something to be wondered over
as well as scorned. Next, is her courage, so abundantly shown in the many
instances in which her life has been menaced. I do not believe that a
braver woman lives than Queen Victoria.

I admire her also for the respect and delicate consideration which she
has always had for the royalty of intellect, for the pride and
sensitiveness of genius. This peculiarity dates far back to when, as the
young Princess Victoria, she timidly asked that such men as the poets
Moore and Rogers, and the actors Charles Kemble and Macready might be
presented to her. Thomas Campbell used to relate an incident showing what
charming compliments she knew how to pay to poets. Wishing to witness the
coronation, he wrote to the Earl Marshal, saying: "There is a place in
the Abbey called 'The Poets' Corner,' which suggests the possibility of
there being room in it for living poets also." This brought him a ticket
of admission. His admiration of the young Queen's behavior was unbounded,
and he says: "On returning home, I resolved out of pure esteem and
veneration, to send her a copy of all say works. Accordingly I had them,
bound up and went personally with them to Sir Henry Wheatley, who, when
he understood my errand, told me that Her Majesty made it a rule to
decline presents of this kind, as it placed her under obligations which
were not pleasant to her. 'Say to Her Majesty, Sir Henry,' I replied,
'that there is nothing which the Queen can touch with her sceptre in any
of her dominions which I covet; and I therefore entreat you to present
them with my devotion as a subject.' But the next day they were returned.
I hesitated to open the parcel, but on doing so I found to my
inexpressible joy a note enclosed, desiring my autograph on them. Having
complied with this wish, I again transmitted the books to Her Majesty,
and in the course of a day or two, received in return this elegant
portrait engraving, with Her Majesty's autograph, as you see, below."

The Queen was the friend of Charles Kingsley, and of Charles Dickens, in
his later days. In presenting the latter with her. book, "_Leaves from
a Journal of Our Life in the Highlands_" she spoke of herself as "the
humblest of writers," and as almost ashamed to offer it, even with her
priceless autograph, to "one of the greatest." Mr. Tennyson she delights
to honor with her friendship. I have read a little story of her calling
on him at his place, on the Isle of Wight. It seems he had not received
due notice, or that, absorbed in writing, he had forgotten the hour. At
all events, he was taken by surprise, and was obliged to run out to
receive Her Majesty in his dressing-gown and slippers, and with his hair
disheveled, as it had become in the fine frenzy of composition. Just
think of Mr. Tennyson with his hair more than usually disheveled! Of
course it was all right, as far as the Queen was concerned,--but then the
footmen!

In her youth, the Queen was very fond of the drama, and did honor to its
representations, as we have seen. Rachel used to show, with especial
pride, a costly bracelet, within which was the inscription, "_Victoria
à Rachel._" When the beautiful English actress, Mrs. Warner, was
slowly dying of cancer, the Queen, I am told, used to send daily one of
her carriages to take her out for a drive--as the actress could not
afford herself such a luxury.

Of Americans distinguished for talent, Her Majesty has never failed to
show, when in her power, a generous appreciation. As long ago as 1839,
she invited to Buckingham Palace, Daniel Webster and Mrs. Webster. To our
great statesman--who Miss Mitford, at the time, said was "the grandest-
looking man" she had ever beheld, and whom Sydney Smith called, more
tersely than elegantly, "a steam-engine in breeches"--the Queen was
especially attentive, talking much with him; and he pronounced her "very
intelligent." To Longfellow, purest of poets and sweetest of spirits, she
showed a respect which was almost homage; and I am told that in Mr.
Lowell, she respects the poet and the scholar, even more than the
Minister. Ah, he is one whose poetic genius, whose scholarship, keen wit,
and, above all, exquisite humor, the Prince-Consort would have
appreciated and delighted in.

Artists and men of letters have never been behindhand in tributes to the
Queen. Every sculptor and painter to whom she has sat, has had the same
story as Gibson and Leslie to tell of her kindness, taste and
intelligence. Miss Fox, writing of Landseer, says, "He deeply admires the
Queen's intellect, which he thinks superior to any woman's in Europe. Her
memory is so remarkable that he has known her recall exact words of
speeches, made years ago, which the speakers themselves had forgotten."

That was saying too much, I think, when Mrs. Somerville, Miss Martineau,
and Elizabeth Barrett were living, and working, in England. In the things
pertaining to her station and vocation, Victoria doubtless was, and is,
superior to any woman in Europe. The Duke of Wellington, who thought at
fink that he could not get on with her, because he had "no small talk,"
finally enjoyed conversing with her on the most serious matters of State.
Sir Archibald Alison, in describing an evening with her and Prince
Albert, says: "The Queen took her full share in the conversation, and I
could easily see, from her quickness of apprehension. And the questions
she put to those around her, that she possessed uncommon talent, a great
desire for information, and, in particular, great rapidity of thought--a
faculty often possessed by persons of her rank, and arising not merely
from natural ability, but from the habit of conversing with the first men
of the age."

Ah, I wonder if Her Majesty has ever realized her blessed privilege in
being able to converse freely with "the first men of the age"; to avow
her interest in politics, which is history flowing by; in statesmanship,
that cunning tapestry-work of empire, without fearing to be set down as
"a strong-minded female out of her sphere."

Much has been told me of the Queen's shrewdness and perspicacity. An
English gentleman, who has opportunities of knowing much of her, lately
said to me: "Her Majesty has an eagle-eye; she sees everything--sees
everybody--sees through everybody." And this reminded me of a little
anecdote, told me many years before, by an English fellow-traveler,--the
story of a little informal interview, which amusingly revealed not only
the Queen's quickness of perception, but directness of character.

My informant was a young gentleman of very artistic tastes--a passionate
picture-lover. He had seen all the great paintings in the public
galleries of London, and had a strong desire to see those of Buckingham
Palace, which, that not being a show-house, are inaccessible to an
ordinary connoisseur. Fortune favored him at <last. He was the brother of
a London carpet merchant, who had an order to put down new carpets in the
State apartments of the palace; and so it chanced that the temptation
came to my friend to put on a workman's blouse and thus enter the royal
precincts, while the flag, indicating the presence of the august family,
floated defiantly over the roof. So he effected an entrance, and, when
once within the royal halls, dropped his assumed character and devoted
himself to the pictures. It happened that he remained in one of the
apartments after the workmen had left, and, while quite alone, the Queen
came tripping in, wearing a plain white morning-dress, and followed by
two or three of her younger children, dressed with like simplicity. She
approached the supposed workman and, said: "Pray can you tell me when the
new carpet will be put down in the Privy Council Chamber?" and he,
thinking he had no right to appear to recognize the Queen under the
circumstances, replied: "Really, madam--I cannot tell--but I will
enquire." "Stay," she said abruptly, but not unkindly; "who are you? I
perceive that you are not one of the workmen." Mr. W----, blushing and
stammering somewhat, yet made a clean breast of it, and told the simple
truth. The Queen seemed much amused with his _ruse_, and, for the sake of
his love for art, forgave it; then added, smiling, "I knew, for all your
dress, that you were a gentleman, because you did not address me as 'your
Majesty.' Pray look at the pictures as long as you will. Good-morning!
Come, chicks, we must go."

I hear that a distinguished American friend has expressed a fear that I
shall "idealize Queen Victoria." I do not think I have done so. I leave
that to her English biographers and eulogists. In my researches, I have
come upon curious things, in the way of pompous panegyric, which would
have made Minerva the Wise, feel foolish, and which Juno the Superb,
would have pronounced "a little too strong, really." I have not, it is
true, pointed out faults--I have not been near enough to "the Queen's
Most Excellent Majesty" to become acquainted with them. I presume she has
them--I hope she has. I think all writers who deny her human weaknesses,
or betray surprise at any exhibition of ordinary human feeling, pay the
Queen a very poor compliment. There is in England a good deal of
exaggerated expression of loyalty. Such words as "gracious" and
"condescending" are habits and forms of speech. Of the real sentiment of
loyalty, I do not think there is an excess--at least not toward the
Queen. When Her Majesty gives way to natural emotion over the death of a
friend, or over a great public calamity, I do not believe she likes to
have the fact made a circumstance of. For instance, when that dreadful
tragedy occurred in the Victoria Hall, at Sunderland, when hundreds of
children perished, by being trampled underfoot and suffocated, the Court
intelligence, which seemed to deepen the sadness in many minds, was that
"Her Majesty was observed to weep on reading the account." This item went
the rounds, and called forth such expressions of sympathy that one would
have supposed that it was the august _mater patriæ_ at Windsor, who
had been bereaved, and not those poor distracted mothers at Sunderland.
Why should the Queen not weep over such a "massacre of the innocents,"
like any other good, sympathetic, motherly woman? She has not wept away
all her tears for herself.

I remember at the time of the death of Lady Augusta Stanley, who had
formerly been one of Her Majesty's Maids of Honor, much was said of the
Queen's sympathy with the Dean. She attended the funeral, and afterwards,
it is said, "led the widowed mourner into his desolate home." This act,
so simple and sweet in a friend, was, I know, looked upon' by some as
"condescension," in a sovereign; but how could one sorrowing human soul
condescend to another--and that other Arthur Stanley? Sorrow is as great
a leveler as death. Tears wash away all poor human distinctions.

We also took the Queen's sympathy with us, in our great national-
bereavement, too much as though it were something quite super-royal, if
not superhuman. It was the exquisite wording of those telegrams which
touched, melted our hearts; but we should have been neither surprised,
nor overcome. It was beautiful, but it was natural. _She_ could not have
said less, or said it differently. It was very sweet of her to send that
floral offering, known and dear to us all as "the Queen's Wreath," but
she sacrificed no dignity in so doing, as her flowers were to lie on the
coffin of the ruler of a great empire--a ruler who had been as much
greater than an ordinary monarch as election is greater than accident.

Of course, as the Queen is the most interesting personage in all England,
the least little things connected with her have an interest which
Americans can hardly understand. In a handsome semi-official work called
"A Diary of Royal Events," I find gravely related the story of an Osborne
postman, who once lent the Queen and Prince Albert his umbrella, and was
told to call for it at the great house, when he received it back, and
with it a five-pound note. I see nothing very note-worthy in this, except
the fact, honorable to humanity, of a borrowed umbrella being promptly
returned, the owner calling for it. The five-pound note, though, was an
"event" to the postman.

A few concluding words about the Queen's children, who with many
grandchildren "rise up to call her blessed."

Victoria, the Crown Princess of Germany, is a fine-looking woman, with
the same peculiarly German face, "round as an apple," which she had as a
child. She is very clever, especially in art, and her character, formed
under her father's hand, very noble. The Prince of Wales is a hard-
working man in his way, which means in many ways, for the public benefit-
-industrial, artistic, scientific and social. The people seem bent on
making him true to his old Saxon motto--"_Ich dien_" (I serve). He
is exceedingly popular, being very genial and affable--not jealous, it is
said, of his dignity as a Prince, but very jealous of his dignity as a
gentleman--and that is right; for kings may come, and kings may go, but
the fine type of the English gentleman goes on forever. No revolution can
depose it; no commune can destroy it--it is proof against dynamite.

A handsome man is the Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Alfred), who no longer
follows the sea, but is settled down in England, with his wife, a
daughter of the late Czar, who testified by this alliance his wish to let
Crimean "by-gones be by-gones"--till the next time, at least.

The Duke resembles his father in his love for and cultivation of music.
There does not seem to be any opening for him to play a part like that of
Alfred the Great, but he can probably play the violin better than that
monarch ever did. They drew another sort of a bow in those old days.

The Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (Princess Helena) is in
appearance most like her mother, and perhaps in character and tastes, as
she lives a life of quiet retirement, is a devoted wife and-mother, yet
often giving her time and energies to a good work, or an artistic
enterprise. She also is exceedingly fond of music and is an accomplished
pianist. A passion for music belongs to this family by a double
inheritance. Even poor, old, blind George the Third consoled himself at
his organ, for the loss of an empire and the darkening of as world.

The Duke of Connaught, whom we so pleasantly remember in America as
Prince Arthur, is the soldier of the family--a real one, since he won his
spars in Egypt. He has something of the grave, gentle look of his father,
and is much liked and respected.

The Princess Louise (Marchioness of Lome) is a beautiful woman, but with
a somewhat cold and proud expression, a veritable _grande dame_. She
is remarkably clever and accomplished, especially in art--modeling
admirably well--for a Princess.

Prince Leopold (Duke of Albany) is the scholar of the family--
intellectually and morally more like Prince Albert, it is said, than any
of his brothers. I was once told by the eminent Dr. James Martineau, who
had met and conversed with him, that he was a young man of a very
thoughtful mind, high aims, and quite remarkable acquirements. As Dr.
Martineau is not of _the_ church, being a Unitarian divine, he
cannot be suspected, in pronouncing such eulogies on the Queen's darling
son, of having an eye to preferment-of working for a "living." On the
whole, Her Majesty's sons are a decided improvement on her six royal
uncles, on the paternal side.

We come now to the youngest, the darling and delight of her father, the
little one who "stood and looked at him," when he lay ill, marveling at
the mysterious change in his dear face;--the Princess Beatrice--as
closely associated, as constantly with her mother as was the Princess
Victoria with the Duchess of Kent. She also is accomplished and clever,
nor appears in any way to "unbeseem the promise of her spring." She also
has the love of music which marks her race. She was little more than a
baby when her father went away, and her innocent wonder and questioning
must often have pierced her mother's wounded heart anew; and yet those
little loving hands must have helped to draw that mother from the depths
of gloom and despair in which she was so nearly engulfed. Though the
youngest of all, her father seems to have delegated to her much of his
dearest earthly care, and she the good daughter, is, it may be, led by
unseen hands, and inspired by unspoken words of counsel and acceptance.
So, though the life of the Princess Beatrice is not abounding in the
Court gayeties and excitements which usually fall to the lot of a
Princess, "young, and so fair," none, can question its happiness, for it
is a life of duty and devotion.

       *       *       *       *       *

And now my little biography is finished--"would it were worthier!"--and I
must take leave of my illustrious subject, "kissing hands" in
imagination, with profound respect. If I back out of the presence, it is
not in unrepublican abasement, but because I am loath to turn my eyes
away, from the kindly and now familiar face of the good woman, and the
good Queen--VICTORIA.

THE END.
