1839

PRINCE ERNEST TO THE QUEEN.

51

Another letter to the Duchess of Kent, from Coburg, presents a vivid picture of the Prince's mind at this moment.

'Coburg, 6th December, 1839.

'Dearest Aunt,-Accept my most hearty thanks for your dear note, which convinces me I am still often in your thoughts. What a multitude of emotions of the most diverse kind sweeps over and overwhelms me-hope, love for dear Victoria, the pain of leaving home, the parting from very dear kindred, the entrance into a new circle of relations, all meeting me with the utmost kindness, prospects the most brilliant, the dread of being unequal to my position, the demonstrations of so much attachment on the part of the loyal Coburgers, English enthusiasm on the tiptoe of expectation, the multiplicity of duties to be fulfilled, and, to crown all, so much laudation on every side, that I could sink to the earth with very shame! I am lost in bewilderment. I pack, arrange, give directions about pieces of property, settle contracts, engage servants, write an infinitude of letters, study the English Constitution, and occupy myself about my coming future.

'Ernest has left me, and gone to Dresden. I am not to see him in Coburg again.

'Everything is deep in snow, and I am tormented with a heavy cold. Forgive me, dearest Aunt, if what I write be rather confused. Just at present I am in that state myself. Not to weary you more, I take my leave, and remain, "Your devoted Nephew, 'ALBERT.'

From Dresden, to which Prince Ernest, as mentioned in this letter, had gone, he wrote to the Queen in terms, which form at once the finest commentary on the past life of his brother, and the best indication of its promise for the future.

'Dresden, 19th December, 1839. 'My dear Cousin,--Let me thank you very sincerely for your kind answer to my letter. You are always so good and so kind to me that I really fear I have not thanked you sufficiently.

'Oh! if you could only know the place you and Albert occupy in my heart! Albert is my second self, and my heart is one with his! Independently of his being my brother, I love and esteem him more than any one on earth. You will

52

LEAVE-TAKINGS.

1839

smile, perhaps, at my speaking of him to you in such glowing terms; but I do so that you may feel still more how much you have gained in him!

'As yet you are chiefly taken with his manner, so youthfully innocent-his tranquillity-his clear and open mind. It is thus that he appears on first acquaintance. One reads less in his face of knowledge of men and experience, and why? It is because he is pure before the world, and before his own conscience. Not as though he did not know what sin was— the earthly temptations-the weakness of man. No; but because he knew, and still knows, how to struggle against them, supported by the incomparable superiority and firmness of his character.

'From our earliest years we have been surrounded by difficult circumstances, of which we were perfectly conscious, and, perhaps more than most people, we have been accustomed to see men in the most opposite positions that human life can offer. Albert never knew what it was to hesitate; guided by his own clear sense, he always walked calmly and steadily in the right path. In the greatest difficulties that may meet you in your eventful life, you may repose the most entire confidence in him. And then only will you feel how great a treasure you possess in him!

"He has, besides, all other qualities necessary to make a good husband. Your life cannot fail to be a happy one!

'I shall be very glad when the excitement of the first days is over, and all is again quiet, and when Papa shall have left England to be a distant and unintruding spectator of your new life. But how I shall then feel how much I have lost! Time will, I trust, help me also! Now-I feel very lonely.

'ERNEST.'

If the brother, with all the interest of opening manhood before him, felt thus 'lonely,' what was the state of the fond grandmother at Gotha, for whom nothing could replace the void thus created in her life? I am very much upset,' she writes to the Prince's father (12th December, 1839). The brilliant destiny awaiting our Albert cannot reconcile me to the thought that his country will lose him for ever! And for myself, I lose my greatest happiness. But I think not of myself. The few years I may yet have to live will soon have passed away. May God protect dear Albert, and keep him in

1839

LEAVE-TAKINGS.

53

the same heavenly frame of mind! I hope the Queen will appreciate him. I have been much pleased that she has shown herself so kind towards me, especially as I am sure I owe it all to the affection of my Albert. And yet I cannot rejoice.'

A few days previous to this letter, the official declaration. of the intended marriage had been made with unusual solemnity at the Palace in Coburg. "The day,' the Prince wrote to the Queen, affected me very much, as so many emotions filled my heart. Your health was drunk at dinner, where some 300 persons were present, with a tempest of huzzas. The joy of the people was so great that they went on firing in the streets with guns and pistols during the whole night, so that one might have imagined a battle was going on.'

The joy thus expressed was coupled nevertheless with a wide-spread regret, that the country was to lose the presence of a Prince, who had made himself no less beloved than respected throughout the Duchies.

'These last days,' the Prince writes to the Queen, from Gotha, on the 28th December, 1839, have been very trying and painful for me. The day before yesterday I bade adieu to dear old Coburg; now it lies behind me, and we have arrived at Gotha. The extraordinary kindness everywhere shown me on my leaving increased the emotion I could not but feel at taking leave. There was quite a stream of people from all quarters to the palace, the last days I was there, to get another look at me; not a village but must send its delegate to town to express to myself the interest taken by the community in the coming event. I am usually (alas!) of a rather cold nature, and it needs a pretty strong appeal to move me, but to see so many eyes filled with tears was too much for me. Here I have been received with a grand illumination, and a torchlight procession of the civic body.'

And when the time came, as it did on the 28th of the following month, for the departure of the Prince to England, the prevailing feeling was most strikingly shown. It cannot be better described than in the words of General Grey, who had gone over with Lord Torrington with the Patent for investing the Prince with the Order of the Garter, and to accompany him to England."

5The winter months of this year,' writes Frederick Perthès, under whom the Prince had studied at Bonn, in a letter published in his Memoirs, have been made interesting and exciting by the chapter of history which has been

54

DEPARTURE FROM GOTHA.

1840

'The departure from Gotha was an affecting scene, and everything showed the genuine love of all classes for their young Prince. The streets were densely crowded; every window was crammed with heads, every housetop covered with people, waving handkerchiefs, and vying with each other in demonstrations of affection that could not be mistaken. The carriages stopped in passing the Dowager Duchess's, and Prince Albert got out with his father and brother to bid her a last adieu. It was a terrible trial to the poor Duchess, who was inconsolable for the loss of her beloved grandson. She came to the window as the carriages drove off, and threw her arms out, calling out "Albert, Albert!" in tones that went to every one's heart, when she was carried away, almost in a fainting state, by her attendants' (Early Years, p. 297).

enacted here. For the Grand-Ducal Papa bound the Garter round his boy's knee, amidst the roar of a 101 cannons. The earnestness and gravity with which the Prince has obeyed this early call to take an European position, give him dignity and standing, in spite of his youth, and increase the charm of his whole aspect. Queen Victoria will find him the right sort of man; and unless some unlucky fatality interpose, he is sure to become the idol of the English nation-silently to influence the English aristocracy-and deeply to affect the destinies of Europe.'

CHAPTER IV.

Announcement of Royal Marriage in England-Appointment of Prince's Household-How the Announcement of Royal Marriage was received in England-Discussions as to the Prince's Annuity-And as to his Status and Right of Precedence-Arrival of the Prince in England-His Reception there-Marriage.

MEANWHILE Some incidents had occurred in England which were calculated to give the Prince an impression that a somewhat rough experience awaited him in his future home.

Lord Melbourne's anticipation that the announcement of. the marriage would be well received was fully realised. The nation hailed with pleasure the union of their Sovereign with a Prince whom universal report proclaimed worthy of her choice. Nor was it less welcome because it promised to sever finally the connection between England and Hanover, and the very unpopular Hanoverian Monarch, who, failing the Queen, would have ascended the English throne.

No time had been lost after the Coburg Princes left England in summoning the Privy Council to receive the formal announcement of the betrothal. They met on the 23rd of November at Buckingham Palace, eighty in number. Wearing a bracelet with the Prince's portrait,' which seemed to give her courage,' as the Queen's Journal records, Her Majesty read to the Council the declaration of her intention to contract a union, which, she expressed her strong conviction, 'will at once secure my domestic felicity, and serve the interests of my country.' Some tidings of the purpose for which the Council had met had reached the public, and on leaving the Palace Her Majesty was greeted by the crowds outside with even more than usual cordiality.

A still more interesting and trying ordeal had to be passed through by the Queen, in making the formal announcement of the approaching marriage from the throne. This was done at the opening of Parliament on the 16th of January following. Enthusiastic crowds lined the streets along the route from Buckingham Palace to Westminster; and the brilliant