Part 28

The fierce rude light that beats upon a throne For which so many royal heads are hid, Served but to make her worth more widely known, To glorify the acts of grace she did.

A favorite sister! She the love had earn’d Her brothers and her sisters for her felt, By her devotion which had brightest burn’d When with disease and threatening death she dealt.

A darling daughter! ’T is the Queen alone Can know the secret of that awful time, When at the father’s side by her were shown A faith and constancy alike sublime.

A doting mother! What could she do more Than for her little one her life lay down? No heroine than this could higher soar-- No grander deed a noble life could crown!

A perfect wife! The heavy veil of grief Back from the stricken hearth we will not draw, Save but to say her life, alas! too brief, Her husband found without one spot or flaw.

Then let not grief persuade us she is dead; She has but left us for a fairer shore; And though her spirit heav’nwards may have fled, Her influence remains for evermore. --_Truth_

FOOTNOTES:

[1] “Life of Prince Consort,” by Sir Theodore Martin, vol. i., p. 166.

[2] The memoranda in this paragraph are communicated by the Crown Princess of Germany.

[3] In a little piece of that name by Madame Jonas.

[4] Bunsen’s “Life,” ii., 328.

[5] In 1857. See the “Life of the Prince Consort,” vol. iv.

[6] “Life of the Prince Consort,” vol. iv., p. 429.

[7] _Ibid._, p. 427.

[8] Prince Louis of Hesse was at this time serving in the Prussian Guards at Potsdam.

[9] “Life of the Prince Consort,” vol. v., p. 253.

[10] This is not quite correct. Prince Louis had left for Germany before the others arrived.

[11] See “Leaves from a Journal,” p. 204, _et seq._

[12] Memorandum by the Grand Duchess of Baden.

[13] Afterward Marquis of Hertford, who died on the 25th of January, 1884.

[14] St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, where the Prince Consort rested until removed to the Mausoleum at Frogmore.

[15] The recumbent statue of the Prince Consort, now in the Mausoleum at Frogmore.

[16] Grand Duke and Grand Duchess Michael of Russia. The Grand Duke Michael is uncle of the present Emperor of Russia.

[17] This was in the autumn of 1860.

[18] This refers to Mr., afterward Sir, Arthur Helps’ Introduction to the “Collected Addresses and Speeches of the Prince Consort,” which was then about to be published (Murray, 1862).

[19] During a musical and gymnastic festival.

[20] The Princess’ lady, Baroness Christa Schenk.

[21] Prince Louis was then at Balmoral.

[22] Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Baden.

[23] Duke of Connaught, then twelve years old.

[24] The Princess Alice’s private secretary.

[25] Princess Victoria of Hesse.

[26] Princess Frederick Charles, mother of the Duchess of Connaught.

[27] Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

[28] Count Lutzow was at this time the Austrian Minister and Plenipotentiary at the Court of Darmstadt.

[29] Tutor of the Prince Consort during his boyhood and early youth.

[30] A favorite greyhound of the Prince Consort’s, which he brought to England at the time of his marriage.

[31] Prince Henry of Hesse, brother of Prince Louis.

[32] Mrs. Hull, a former nurse of the Princess and her brothers and sisters.

[33] Prince Gustav Wasa, first cousin to Prince Charles of Hesse.

[34] The late Duke Frederic of Augustenburg.

[35] Prince and Princess of Leiningen.

[36] Prince Leiningen’s brother.

[37] Former tutor to Prince Leiningen’s father.

[38] Prince and Princess Hermann of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

[39] King Maximilian II. of Bavaria had died on the 10th of the preceding month of March. The Queen is a sister of Prince Louis’ mother.

[40] Of the Princess Anna of Hesse with the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

[41] The unveiling of a statue of the Prince Consort.

[42] Grand Duke Serge.

[43] The History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth.

[44] Wife of General the Hon. Arthur Hardinge, who was on a visit to the Princess.

[45] The Princess Elizabeth was born on the 1st of November, 1864.

[46] By Dr. Samuel Smiles.

[47] John Brown, the Queen’s personal attendant.

[48] One of the Princess’ ladies in waiting.

[49] Then the Crown Princess’ youngest child.

[50] The anniversary of the Queen’s marriage.

[51] Miss Hildyard, the Princess’ former English governess.

[52] This sport is practised in the evening twilight.

[53] Prince Louis’ sister, the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She died on the 16th of April, 1865.

[54] Nurse of the Prince Louis and his brothers and sister.

[55] She was the only sister of Prince Charles of Hesse.

[56] Daughter of M. Van de Weyer, the Belgian Minister Plenipotentiary in England. She had been thrown out from her carriage, and died from the effect of the injuries received.

[57] See “Leaves from a Journal,” Grantown, 1860.

[58] The opening of Parliament by the Queen for the first time after the death of the Prince Consort.

[59] Princess Elizabeth of Great Britain and Ireland, Princess Alice’s grand-aunt.

[60] Princess Hohenlohe.

[61] War between Prussia and Austria was now imminent.

[62] Widow of King Louis Philippe.

[63] Son of the Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia. See _ante_, p. 93.

[64] The Princess Charles had a sister, who died when a child, who had borne that name.

[65] Formerly one of the Royal Band in England. Madame Nichel had been a dresser of the Duchess of Kent’s.

[66] “The Early Years of the Prince Consort,” by the late General Grey.

[67] Son of the Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia.

[68] The uncovering of the monument to the Prince Consort.

[69] General Grey’s “Early Years of the Prince Consort.”

[70] Princess Feodore Victoria Adelaide Paulina Amelia Maria, daughter of Queen Victoria’s sister, the Princess Hohenlohe-Langenburg, and wife of the Hereditary Prince, now the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. She died at the age of thirty-three, on the 10th of February, 1872.

[71] Major Elphinstone, Prince Arthur’s Governor from 1859, now Sir Howard Elphinstone, K.C.B.

[72] Princess Amalie of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, niece of Queen Victoria’s late brother-in-law, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, married to an artist, Herr Lauchert.

[73] The Princess of Wales was suffering at the time from rheumatic fever and rheumatism.

[74] Their nurse, who is still (1884) with the youngest child, Princess Alix.

[75] Of their child, to whom Queen Victoria stood sponsor.

[76] This Catalogue was not completed and made public till 1876.

[77] Her Majesty’s private librarian.

[78] At Buckingham Palace.

[79] The Emperor of Russia.

[80] The Princess’ servant (see _ante_, p. 56). The boy was brought from Java by Baron Schenk-Schmittburg. His father was a negro, his mother a Javanese.

[81] We give this extract in a translation, instead of the original German.

[82] A kind of dwarf tree--half pine, half juniper--which grows in the highest regions of the Alps, and supplies most of the soft wood used by the Swiss wood-carvers.

[83] Riding-master to the Prince Consort and the Queen from 1840 to 1871.

[84] The Cesarewitch and Cesarewna.

[85] Archibald Brown, his valet, younger brother of the Queen’s personal attendant.

[86] Prince Waldemar of Prussia, fourth son of the Crown Prince and Princess. He died of diphtheria on the 27th of March, 1879.

[87] At the funeral of King Louis I., who had died at Nice on the 29th of February.

[88] A footman, much valued by the Prince and Princess.

[89] Mrs. McDonald, the Queen’s first wardrobe-maid.

[90] The Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore.

[91] Who died on the 8th of November, 1825.

[92] The only son and heir of the King of the Belgians.

[93] Princess George of Saxony, Infanta of Portugal, who died in February, 1884.

[94] This refers to the Queen’s stay at Invertrossachs, and the excursions to the neighborhood. These are described in “More Leaves from a Journal of a Life in the Highlands,” pp. 116-147 (London, 1884).

[95] Madame Rollande, formerly the Princess’ French governess.

[96] Miss Grosvenor, Lady Ebury’s daughter.

[97] General Grey, Her Majesty’s private secretary had recently died.

[98] Miss Bauer the German governess of the Royal family.

[99] Prince Frederick William, the “Frittie” of these letters, born the 6th of the previous month of October, and who was killed by a fall from a window on the 29th of May, 1873.

[100] On the 10th, 11th, and 12th of January, 1871, before Le Mans.

[101] Prince Henry Charles Woldemar of Schleswig-Holstein, Governor of the Fortress of Mayence. He died on the 20th of January, 1871.

[102] Daughter of the Duke of Abercorn.

[103] The late Mr. John Mitchell, the librarian of Old Bond Street.

[104] Princess Alix, born on the 6th of June.

[105] Two children who were carried away by a “spate” while playing at Monaltrie Burn, near Balmoral (11th of June, 1872), and swept into the river Dee and drowned. See “More Leaves from a Journal of a Life in the Highlands,” p. 156 _et seq._

[106] For an account of this visit see “More Leaves from a Journal,” p. 164 _et seq._

[107] The Queen’s half-sister, Feodore, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, who died on the 23d of September, 1872, at Baden-Baden.

[108] Daughter of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Subsequently she did marry the Grand Duke Vladamir of Russia, as she was allowed not to change her religion. This was the first time such a thing was permitted in Russia.

[109] Who would have thought that only six years later the Princess herself was to rejoin her father on the same day?

[110] He said to the Princess: “La bénédiction d’un vieillard fait toujours du bien.”

[111] A private plate, engraved for the Queen by the late Mr. Francis Holl, from a picture by Winterhalter.

[112] Also engraved by the late Mr. Francis Holl for the Queen from a picture given by Her Majesty to the Prince Consort on the 26th of August, 1843.

[113] The King of Bavaria and his brother, first cousins of Prince Louis of Hesse.

[114] The opening of Victoria Park, in the East end of London, on the 2d of April.

[115] To the 79th Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, at Parkhurst, on the 16th of April.

[116] The allusion is to the death of the little Prince Frederick, who was killed on the 29th of the previous month by a fall from a window.

[117] Princess Charles’ brother, Prince Adalbert of Prussia.

[118] The Grand Duchess Marie, who was engaged on the 11th of July to the Duke of Edinburgh.

[119] How these words recall those of Constance (_King John_, act iii., scene 4):

Grief fills the room up of my absent child, Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me, Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words, Remembers me of all his gracious parts, Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form; Then have I reason to be fond of grief.

[120] To the Prince Consort in Hyde Park.

[121] Baron Stockmar had such a dislike of leave-takings that he never let it be known when he was going away from the English Court. The first intimation of his intention was--that he was already gone.

[122] A former Dresser of the Queen’s.

[123]

Now unto you the Lord has done what we had wished to do; We would have train’d you up, and now ’t is we are train’d by you. With grief and tears, O children, do you your parents train, And lure us on and up to you, to meet in heaven again.

[124] The first volume of whose “Life of the Prince Consort” had just been published.

[125] To “The Idyls of the King.”

[126] Only child of Sir George Grey, and Equerry to the Prince of Wales. He died at Sandringham of inflammation of the lungs.

[127] “Childe Harold,” canto iii., stanza 30.

[128] During the visit of the Prince of Wales to India.

[129] Her husband, the father of the Queen’s personal attendant, John Brown, had just died. See “More Leaves from a Journal,” p. 319.

[130]Secretary in the office of the Privy Purse.

[131] The Prince Consort’s head groom, who had come over with him to England.

[132] The Hon. Emily Caroline Hardinge, the Princess’ Lady-in-Waiting, died in London on the 4th of September, 1876.

[133] Written after the death of his daughter.

[134] The Grand Duke of Hesse was alarmingly ill.

[135] Of the Princess Charlotte of Prussia with the Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Meiningen.

[136] This memorandum does not go far enough. The Princess returned to the faith in which she was reared, and died in it, a devout Christian.

[137] “She is a pretty and large baby, and we think will be _la Beauté_ of the family.”--_The Queen to King Leopold_, 9th May, 1843.

“Our little baby, whom I am really proud of, for she is so very forward for her age, is to be called _Alice_, an old English name; and the other names are to be _Maud_ (another old English name, and the same as Matilda), and _Mary_, as she was born on Aunt Gloucester’s birthday.”--_The same to the same_, 16th May, 1843.

“Our christening went off very brilliantly, and I wish you could have witnessed it. Nothing could be more _anständig_, and little Alice behaved extremely well.”--_The same to the same_, 6th June, 1843.

[138] The struggle to conceal from the other children that their favorite was dead cost the Princess, down to the time of her own fatal seizure, such a daily and almost hourly effort as, in her weak state, she was ill able to bear. Her sufferings during her short illness, which lasted less than a week, were borne with exemplary patience, and an unselfish and even cheerful spirit which were truly admirable. The day before she died, she expressed to Sir William Jenner her regret that she should cause her mother so much anxiety.