CHAPTER IV.

1828-1831.

Life at the Rosenau, etc:-Journals and Letters of Prince Albert.— Death of the Dowager Duchess of Coburg.

THE years 1829 and 1830 seem to have been passed by the princes in the quiet routine of their studies and other occupations, their residence at Coburg and the Rosenau being only interrupted by the visits, now grown periodical, to Gotha.

The duke, their father, had been absent for some time in the winter of 1828-29, and on the 16th of January of the latter year we find Prince Albert, now in the tenth year of his age, writing, by direction of his grandmother (probably from Ketschendorf, where she resided), to say how sorry they were at his staying away so long, and to express their joy to hear he was soon coming back. Again, on the 28th of the same month, he gives his father an account of the manner in which he and his brother, with their young companions, the sons of the principal people of Coburg, who came constantly on Sundays and other holidays to play with them, according to the practice established, as already noticed, in 1825, had been amusing themselves..

They dragged some hand-sledges up to the Festung (the old fortress above Coburg), and "there," he writes,

"we and some other boys got into our sledges, and went the whole way down to the gate of the schloss."

In March, 1829, we find the young princes, with their tutor, going out to dine with their grandmother at Ketschendorf. The following letter in which this is mentioned is also interesting from the insight which it gives into the sound and liberal views of the duchess. What a salutary influence must she not have exercised over the young and candid mind of our Prince, and how much may she not have contributed, by her precepts and her example, to the development of those truly liberal and constitutional principles by which he was always distinguished?

This letter is written to the Duchess of Kent, evidently in answer to one in which the duchess must have mentioned the introduction, by the government of the Duke of Wellington, of a Bill for the Emancipation of the Roman Catholics.

"In spite of your great prudence, my dear," the duchess writes on the 23d of March, "I must speak of politics -namely, that which now interests me-the Emancipation! I say, 'God save the King;' and again, 'God bless the Duke of Wellington!' It is very right in the hero of the Peninsula to stand up so manfully for what he commenced with so much judgment. How they will laugh at the Prussian general, whom they do not like as it is, at Berlin! Ernest begs to be remembered to you. He is very busy planting. The cold March of this spring is more favorable to it than usual.

"I must leave off now, as my company is just arriving

for dinner, namely, the young gentlemen and Mr. Flor schütz. They are dear boys-so clever and merry. Ernest is beginning to grow handsome. He has very fine brown eyes, white teeth, and a fair and rosy complexion. He will have his father's fine, tall figure. Albert is very good-looking, very clever, but is not so strong as his brother."

In July of this year the brothers were again on a visit to their other grandmother at Gotha: "Let me give you," the duchess writes to the duke, on the 31st of July, "the assurance that our dear children are very well and happy. I see them every day, and often more than once. Yesterday afternoon they dined with me, and rode out afterward. They have just breakfasted with me, and to-morrow they intend making a little excursion to Gleichen."

In a journal kept by the Prince in 1830, when he was not yet eleven years old, he gives an account, which is not without interest, of the manner in which he and his brother were in the habit of amusing themselves with their young companions; he also describes the great Protestant festival, in celebration of the Confession of Augsburg, which was held at Coburg in June of that year.

The princes were very fond of assuming the characters of the most distinguished worthies of old times, and of making the most remarkable incidents in by-gone German history the subject of their games. On the occasion mentioned in the following extracts from Prince Albert's

journal, it is not without interest to observe that when the boy selected to play the emperor was missing, he was to be replaced by another boy chosen by lot from among those who were to represent the different dukes. The lot fell worthily on the Prince himself.

But the journal is chiefly interesting from one short entry in it, strongly indicative of that trait in the Prince's character which was, perhaps, the most remarkable, as being, certainly, the most rare in those born to such high rank-his thoughtful consideration, namely, for others. When lamenting the disappointment to himself and his companions of the pleasure which they had promised themselves, and which a wet day had put a stop to, his thoughts seem to turn quite naturally to the still wider disappointment occasioned to the children of the whole town, whose festival was spoiled by the bad weather.

The extracts here given embrace a period extending from January to the end of August, 1830:

“17th January.

Sunday. When I woke this morning, the first thing I thought of was the afternoon when we expected our playfellows. The tallest and one of the cleverest, Emil Gilsa, was to be our emperor. Ernest was to be Duke of Saxony, and was to have two Counts Rottenhahn, the elder M. von Schauroth, a Preger and a Borner, and one of our rooms was to be his duchy.

"Paul von Wangenheim was to be Duke of Bavaria, and his followers were to be the younger M. von Schauroth, a Piani and a Müller, and he also had a room; and I was to be Duke of Burgundy, and Herman, Achill, Victor and Edward von Gilsa, were to belong to me, and

D

another of our rooms was to be my duchy. We dined with dear grandmamma. After dinner we returned home, and our playfellows had already arrived; but we heard with great horror that Achill and Emil von Gilsa (our chosen emperor) were ill, and that the two Mess. von Schauroth were gone out sledging and would come later. We therefore decided on choosing an emperor from among the dukes, and lots were to decide who it was to be. Fortune favored me, and I was emperor. We played very happily till half past eight o'clock.

"8th April.

"Thursday. This morning at eight o'clock we went to the church in the town, where they sang Graun's music. After church we went on foot to the Kalenberg. Here the stork had made us some presents. When we had found all the eggs and cracknels, we dined with dear рара.

.....

"9th April.

"Friday. To-day we went to the town church again at eight o'clock, where they sang the third part of Graun's Passion music. After church papa showed us a large leaden bird-cage which he was going to give us on our birthday. In the centre of the cage was an owl, and a fountain of water spirted from his beak up to the top of the cage.'

"17th April.

"After dinner I played with our companions. We played Wallenstein's Camp. Leopold was Wallenstein. After that we went down stairs, then we came up again, and our companions went away. Then we dined, and afterward went to the play, where Wallenstein was stabbed.