when we children, Albert, Ernest, Ferdinand, Augustus, Alexander, myself, and a few other boys (if I am not mistaken, Paul Wangenheim was one) were playing at the Rosenau, and some of us were to storm the old ruined tower on the side of the castle, which the others were to defend. One of us suggested that there was a place at the back by which we could get in without being seen, and thus capture it without difficulty. Albert declared that this 'would be most unbecoming in a Saxon knight, who should always attack the enemy in front,' and so we fought for the tower so honestly and vigorously that Albert, by mistake, for I was on his side, gave me a blow upon the nose, of which I still bear the mark. I need not say how sorry he was for the wound he had given me.

"Albert never was noisy or wild. He was always very fond of Natural History and more serious studies, and many a happy hour we spent in the Ehrenburg,* in a small room under the roof, arranging and dusting the collections our cousins had themselves made and kept there. He urged me to begin making a similar collection myself, so that we might join, and form together a good cabinet.

"This was the commencement of the collections at Coburg in which Albert always took so much interest. "Albert thoroughly understood the naïveté of the Coburg national character, and he had the art of turning people's peculiarities into a source of fun. He had a natural talent for imitation, and a great sense of the ludicrous, either in persons or things; but he was never severe or ill-natured, the general kindness of his disposition *The palace at Coburg.

preventing him from pushing a joke, however he might enjoy it, so as to hurt any one's feelings. Every man has, more or less, a ridiculous side, and to quiz this, in a friendly and good-humored manner, is, after all, the pleasantest description of humor. Albert possessed this rare gift in an eminent degree.

"From his earliest infancy he was distinguished for perfect moral purity, both in word and in deed, and to this he owed the sweetness of disposition so much admired by every one.

"Even as a child he was very fond of chess, and he, Ernest, Alexander, and myself often played the great four game. This led often to jokes, but sometimes to ridiculous quarrels, which, however, owing to his goodness of heart, always ended good-humoredly.

"While still very young, his heart was feelingly alive to the sufferings of the poor. I saw him one day give a beggar something by stealth, when he told me not to speak of it; 'for when you give to the poor,' he said, 'you must see that nobody knows of it.'

"He was always fond of shooting and fishing, as far as his natural kind feeling would permit, for a wounded animal always excited his warmest compassion.

"One day, out shooting at Coburg, I was hit by a chance shot, and he was the person who showed the greatest concern and evinced the truest anxiety about my accident.

"In order to refresh my memory I have looked over the letters which our mutual grandmother wrote to me when I was a child, and which I still preserve with other relics. In one dated March 1st, 1831, she says: 'Last

night your cousins and some playfellows, Paul Wangenheim, the eldest Gilsa, the little Birner, and Emil Piani, acted proverbs in my room, extemporizing the dialogue for the most part. Albert as a quack, with a pigtail and paunch, was too ridiculous. Ernest, as a lady, looked quite like your mother when she was a girl: he distributed the playbills. Piani represented a drunken prompter. In short, there was a good deal of fun and laughter.'

"In later years we saw much less of each other. In 1839, when I was serving in the Austrian Lancers, we met at Töplitz, and from thence drove together to Carlsbad, to see Uncle Ernest. Eôs* was in the carriage. During our journey Albert confided to me, under the seal of the strictest confidence, that he was going to England to make your acquaintance, and that if you liked each other you were to be engaged. He spoke very seriously about the difficulties of the position he would have to occupy in England, but hoped that dear Uncle Leopold would assist him with his advice. We were at that moment approaching the station where we were to change horses. He asked me the name of the place, which I told him was Buchau, a little village known all round as a sort of Krähwinkel, famous for all sorts of ludicrous stories about the inhabitants. We drove into the place, the postillion blowing his horn and cracking his whip. Albert, seeing a large crowd assembled round the posthouse, said to me, 'Quick; stoop down in the carriage, and we will make Eôs look out of the window, and all the people will wonder at the funny prince.' We did so,

* A beautiful and favorite black greyhound that the Prince brought with him to England.

and the people had to satisfy their curiosity with Eôs. The horses were soon changed, and we drove off, laughing heartily at our little joke.

"Some time ago I collected all the letters I have of dearest Albert's, and in one of them I found a passage most characteristic of his noble way of thinking, as shown and maintained by him from his earliest childhood.

"The poor soldiers,' he says, ' always do their duty in the most brilliant manner; but as soon as matters come again into the hands of politicians and diplomats, every thing is again spoiled and confused. Oxenstiern's saying to his son may still be quoted: "My son, when you look at things more closely, you will be surprised to find with how little wisdom the world is governed." I should like to add, 'and with how little morality.'"

How much these words contain! We again see the Saxon knight, who, as a child, declared that you must attack your enemy in front, who hates every crooked path; and, on the other hand, the noble heart which feels deeply the misfortune of a government not guided by reason and morality.

"I am sorry to say that these are all my recollections of old times. The changes we have had, the wars and revolutions, may have obliterated many dear recollections.

"The noise of the festivities around you will have been most painful to you, causing many a wound to bleed afresh.

"May the Almighty bless this young pair, and may Albert's spirit descend upon his son.

"ARTHUR MENSDORFF."

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,