CHAPTER X

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR--THE KING’S ILLNESS

The outbreak and progress of the Franco-Prussian war were naturally watched with the keenest interest at Marlborough House. Two of the King’s own brothers-in-law were serving with the German forces, while, on the other hand, he not only had many close ties with France, but from childhood had always regarded the Emperor and Empress of the French with special affection. When public subscription lists were opened in aid of the ambulances, which distributed medical aid impartially to the sick and wounded on both sides, King Edward gave a liberal donation; and when the Empress Eugénie fled to England, one of the first visits which she received at Chislehurst was from the King and Queen Alexandra.

Exactly ten years after the first dread news of the Prince Consort’s fatal illness had gone forth, it became known that the Heir-Apparent was lying seriously ill at Sandringham. Not very long before, Princess Alice, who was then staying at Sandringham, wrote the following note to Queen Victoria:--

“It is the first time since eleven years that I have spent Bertie’s birthday with him, and though we have only three of our own family together, still that is better than nothing, and makes it seem more like a birthday. Bertie and Alix are so kind, and give us so warm a welcome, showing how they like having us, that it feels quite home. Indeed, I pray earnestly that God’s blessing may rest on him, and that he may be guided to do what is wise and right, so that he may tide safely through the anxious times that are before him, and in which we now live.”

Princess Alice little knew the days and nights of anxious misery that were coming so swiftly upon her brother’s peaceful household, and indeed upon the whole nation. The King sickened in London, but as soon as he felt himself to be seriously attacked he insisted on going home to Norfolk, where the disease was pronounced to be typhoid fever.

The King, his groom Blegge, and Lord Chesterfield, who had all been at Scarborough with Lord Londesborough, were stricken simultaneously, and public attention was soon wholly concentrated on the three cases. Curiously enough, the groom and the peer both died, though in neither case were any pains or expense spared. Doubtless King Edward’s youth and excellent constitution stood him in good stead, but for many days the issue was considered exceedingly doubtful.

The patient was nursed entirely by his wife and his sister, Princess Alice, his medical attendants being Doctors Jenner, Gull, Clayton, and Lowe. On the last day of November came an official notification:--

“The Princess of Wales has borne her great trial in the most admirable manner and with singular equanimity. While fully aware of the gravity of the Prince’s serious illness, Her Royal Highness has throughout been calm and collected.”

But the patient’s state was known to be critical, and soon it was announced that Queen Victoria was going to Sandringham, which she did on 29th November.

The anxiety, succeeded by the most heart-breaking suspense, which prevailed in the Royal family is well reflected in the following extracts from the diary of the late Duchess of Teck, who was then at Strelitz:--

“_November 25._--Read Gussy Alix’s letter to Mama about our poor, dear Wales, who was attacked with the fever about the 19th or so, and is under Dr. Gull’s charge, who says it must have its twenty-four days’ course, and that so far all is going on as well as can be expected.

“_December 1._--… When I finished my packet for the messenger, I telegraphed to darling Alix, and flew up to Mama to consult her about it.… From Alix somewhat better news reached us, after a bad telegram at three from dear Alice.

“_December 2._--A rather better account of Wales.

“_December 3._--Wales improving.…

“_December 5._--… Better accounts from Sandringham, but poor Lord Chesterfield dead.

“_December 6._--… Reassuring message from Alice.

“_December 8._--… Opened a telegram with anxious and distressing news from Sandringham; poor dear Wales has had a relapse; his state evidently very critical. _Gott helfe weiter._ We were much upset, and with a heavy heart I closed my packet for the messenger and wrote till dressing-time, though I had much difficulty in settling down to anything.… Mama was very silent all dinner-time, but we never for a moment suspected, what we afterwards learnt had been the case, that she had received a worse telegram at five o’clock, and had in kindness kept it from us.… I wrote _chez moi_ till a most alarming telegram from Alice to Mama was brought me, with which I hastened to Gussy.… We cried over the almost hopeless accounts together, which spoke of the end as not far distant, provided dear Wales did not at once rally, and with despairing hearts we joined the others in the blue drawing-room. Fritz came in presently, and I read him the three telegrams received that day, and a letter from Lady Macclesfield. Later Mama sent for Gussy and me to wish us a sorrowful good night. I then went to my room and wrote till nearly four, feeling sleep out of the question.

“_December 9._--Gussy rushed in with a rather more hopeful telegram: ‘Night quiet, exhaustion not increased, breathing clearer.’ God grant he may yet rally and pull through! It was a relief after all we had undergone, and thank God for it; the agony of suspense was hard to bear.…

“_December 10._--On our return from church we found a telegram from Sandringham, which Gussy tremblingly opened. _Es lautete, ‘a shade better.’_ Thank God! I ran with it to Tante.…

“_December 11._--About noon Geraldo rushed in with two telegrams, one sent off last night, the other this morning; both _heartrendingly sad_, and giving next to no hope, but for the words, ‘Yet we hope.’ They were a _cruel_ check to our faint hopes. We could think and talk of nothing else.…

“_December 12._--Dolphus brought us a very hopeless telegram from Alice: ‘Night restless, very delirious, no signs of improvement.’ After a while I went to my room and read the papers with accounts from Sandringham and Windsor.…

“_December 13._--… To Mama’s _entrée_, where I found her, Gussy, and Tante much upset over a very disquieting message from Alice, which said, ‘Night without rest. No important change in the general state. Breathing is weak. Anxiety increased.’ One can only look to God’s great mercy for further hope!

“_December 14._--… Bülow congratulated me on the better accounts which had just been received from Sandringham! It was the first I had heard of it; just at that moment Wenckstern appeared with the telegram: ‘Quiet sleep at intervals, gravity of symptoms diminished, state more hopeful.--Alice.’ God be thanked for this blessed change!… I read aloud in Mama’s room, amid tears and sobs, the touching account in the _Daily Telegraph_ of our dear Wales’s illness, of all that goes on at Sandringham, of the prayers for him and the sermons preached about him.

“_December 15._--A much more hopeful telegram from Alice, as follows: ‘Bertie has passed a quiet night. The debility is great, but the conditions are much more favourable.’ Thank God for this great mercy.”

The feeling aroused through the United Kingdom was far greater than any public expression of emotion since the death of Princess Charlotte in 1817. In every town, crowds waited anxiously for the issue of newspapers containing the latest news of the Royal patient’s condition, and the Government found it expedient to forward the medical bulletins to every telegraph office in the United Kingdom. In the churches of every religious communion, prayers were offered, though almost without hope, for the recovery of King Edward.

At length, on 1st December, the King recovered consciousness, and his first remark to those about him was, “This is the Princess’s birthday.” The next coherent utterance came when he heard that Queen Victoria had been at Sandringham. “Has the Queen come from Scotland? Does she know I am ill?” he asked; but this slight rally did not continue, and soon all the Royal family were summoned to Sandringham. On 9th December the fever had spent itself, but the patient’s strength was considered to be exhausted. Special prayers were offered up in all churches; and shortly before the service in St. Mary Magdalene’s, Sandringham, the Vicar received the following note from Queen Alexandra:--

“My husband being, thank God, somewhat better, I am coming to church. I must leave, I fear, before the service is concluded, that I may watch by his bedside. Can you not say a few words in prayer in the early part of the service, that I may join with you in prayer for my husband before I return to him?”

The Vicar, before reading the Collect, in a voice trembling with emotion, which he vainly strove to suppress, said: “The prayers of the congregation are earnestly sought for His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, who is now most seriously ill.”

The day following, an article in the _Times_ began: “The Prince still lives, and we may still therefore hope”; and so the weary days dragged on. On the 16th it was recorded that the patient had enjoyed a quiet and refreshing sleep, and on the 17th, a Sunday, those of the Royal family who were then at Sandringham were present at church, when, by special request, the Prince and Blegge were recommended to the mercy of God in the same prayer. That same day Queen Alexandra visited the poor dying groom, and after his death, which occurred within the next few hours, both she and Queen Victoria found time, in the midst of their terrible anxiety, to visit and comfort his relations.

By Christmas Day the danger may be said to have been over, and on 26th December Queen Victoria wrote the following letter to the nation:--

“The Queen is very anxious to express her deep sense of the touching sympathy of the whole nation on the occasion of the alarming illness of her dear son, the Prince of Wales. The universal feeling shown by her people during those painful, terrible days, and the sympathy evinced by them with herself and her beloved daughter, the Princess of Wales, as well as the general joy at the improvement of the Prince of Wales’s state, have made a deep and lasting impression on her heart, which can never be effaced.…”

Queen Alexandra and Princess Alice now felt that their patient was well enough for them to leave him for an hour or two in order to assist at the distribution of Christmas gifts to the labourers on the estate. In the ceiling of the room afterwards occupied by Queen Alexandra as a bed-chamber, the mark of an orifice might be seen from which projected a hook supporting a trapeze, by the aid of which the patient, when on the slow and weary road to convalescence, could change his position and pull himself up into a sitting posture.

Another memento of the King’s terrible illness is the brass lectern in the parish church. On it runs an inscription:--

TO THE GLORY OF GOD. A THANK-OFFERING FOR HIS MERCY. 14TH DECEMBER 1871. ALEXANDRA.

“When I was in trouble I called upon the Lord, and He heard me.”

The last bulletin was issued on 14th January, and nine days later Sir William Jenner was gazetted a K.C.B. and Dr. W. Gull was created a Baronet--rewards which gave particular satisfaction to the nation.

It was whispered at the time that King Edward, under Providence, really owed his recovery to one of those sudden inspirations of genius of which the history of medicine is full. He seemed to be actually _in extremis_, when one of his medical attendants sent in haste for two bottles of old champagne brandy and rubbed the patient with it vigorously all over till returning animation rewarded the doctor’s efforts.

King Edward’s recovery was hailed with feelings of deep thankfulness by the whole nation, and it was universally deemed appropriate that public thanks should be returned to Almighty God for His great mercy. The utmost interest was taken by all classes of society in the preparations for the proposed National Thanksgiving. Mr. William Longman wrote to the _Times_ urging that, as in 1664 and 1678, subscriptions should be invited for the completion of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in London as a perpetual memorial of the event.

During the interval before the day fixed for the National Thanksgiving, King Edward and Queen Alexandra paid visits to Windsor and Osborne. When they returned to London one of the first visitors they received was Dr. Stanley, who had now become Dean of Westminster. It was resolved that they should attend a private service of thanksgiving in the Abbey, which the Dean thus describes in a letter to an intimate correspondent:--

“I went to Marlborough House to suggest, through Fisher and Keppel, that the Prince of Wales should come. He consented at once, and it was agreed that he, the Princess, and the Crown Prince of Denmark, and if in town, Prince Alfred, should come. I kept it a secret except from the Canons. We met them at the great Western door; the nave (as usual) was quite clear. They walked in with me, and took their places on my right. I preached on Psalm cxxii. 1. The Prince of Wales heard every word, and has decided that it shall be published, which it will be, and you shall have a copy. It was one of those rare occasions on which I was able to say all that I wished to say. They were conducted again to the West door, and departed.”

The day fixed for the public National Thanksgiving in St. Paul’s was 27th February, and never, save perhaps on 22nd June 1897, did Queen Victoria and her eldest son and daughter-in-law receive a more splendid and heartfelt welcome. Thirteen thousand people were admitted to the Cathedral, among them being most of the notable personages of the day, including all the great officers of State.

The procession set out from Buckingham Palace at twelve o’clock. First came the Speaker, the Lord Chancellor, and the Commander-in-Chief, in their carriages, followed by nine Royal equipages, in the last of which sat Queen Victoria, dressed in black velvet trimmed with broad bands of white ermine, Queen Alexandra in blue silk covered with black lace, King Edward in the uniform of a British general and wearing the Collars of the Orders of the Garter and the Bath, Prince Albert Victor then a boy of eight, and Princess Beatrice. The late Duchess of Teck, to her great grief, could not be present, as her eldest son had sickened with scarlet fever.

In the Green Park the procession was greeted by an army of 30,000 children, who sang the National Anthem as the Royal carriages drove by.

St. Paul’s was reached at one o’clock, and the Royal party were received at the great West door by the Dean and Chapter. Queen Victoria passed up the nave leaning on the arm of her son, who conducted Her Majesty to a pew which had been specially prepared for the occasion.

The service began with the “Te Deum,” and after some prayers a special form of thanksgiving which had been officially drawn up was said. Then the Archbishop of Canterbury preached a short sermon from the text, Romans xii. 5, “Members one of another.” The service concluded with a thanksgiving hymn which had been specially written for the occasion. The proceedings were over by two o’clock, and the procession returned by a different route, along Holborn and Oxford Street, in the presence of an enthusiastic crowd said to be the largest ever collected in London. As the poet sings:--

Bear witness, thou memorable day, When, pale as yet, and fever-worn, the Prince, Who scarce had plucked his flickering life again From halfway down the shadow of the grave, Past through the people and their love; And London roll’d one tide of joy thro’ all Her trebled millions and loud leagues of men.

Two days later Queen Victoria wrote from Buckingham Palace to Mr. Gladstone, who was then Prime Minister, one of those touching letters which on many occasions drew still more closely together the ties of loyalty and affection between Her Majesty and her people. The Queen wrote that she was anxious “to express publicly her own personal very deep sense of the reception she and her dear children met with on Tuesday, the 27th of February, from millions of her subjects on her way to and from St. Paul’s. Words are too weak for the Queen to say how very deeply touched and gratified she has been by the immense enthusiasm and affection exhibited towards her dear son and herself, from the highest down to the lowest, in the long progress through the capital, and she would earnestly wish to convey her warmest and most heartfelt thanks to the whole nation for this great demonstration of loyalty. The Queen, as well as her son and dear daughter-in-law, felt that the whole nation joined with them in thanking God for sparing the beloved Prince of Wales’s life.…”

Although the Duchess of Teck had not been able to attend the Thanksgiving Service at St. Paul’s, she returned to England in time to take part in a great ceremony which took place on the 1st of May at the Crystal Palace. Referring to this occasion, she writes:--“We drove down to Sydenham with Louise as Alfred’s guests to attend the _fête_ in celebration of Wales’s recovery. Concert: Sullivan’s _Te Deum_, Miscellanies with Titiens.”

The impression made by King Edward’s illness and marvellous recovery upon the Royal family in general is well illustrated by the following passage from a letter written by Princess Alice to her mother in December 1872:--

“That our good, sweet Alix should have been spared this terrible grief, when this time last year it seemed so imminent, fills my heart with gratitude for her dear sake, as for yours, his children and ours.… The 14th will now be a day of mixed recollections and feelings to us, a day hallowed in our family, when one great spirit ended his work on earth … and when another was left to fulfil his duty and mission, God grant, for the welfare of his own family and of thousands.”