'
The day after the marriage the Queen wrote to Baron Stockmar: 'There
cannot exist a purer, dearer, nobler being in the world than the prince;'
and she never had cause to take these words back. The blessing of loving
and being loved was certainly given to Queen Victoria.
The royal pair spent three days of honeymoon at Windsor, and then Her
Majesty had to return to London, to hold court, and to receive addresses
of congratulation on her marriage; indeed, she was nearly 'addressed to
death.' The Queen and Prince Albert went everywhere together; to church,
to reviews, to races, theatres, and drawing-rooms; and everywhere the
people were charmed with their beauty and happiness.
One of the trials of royalty is that they are the observed of all
observers, and from the first Prince Albert understood the extreme
delicacy of his position. How well he met the difficulty is told by
General Gray (_Early Years_):
'From the moment of his establishment in the English palace as the husband
of the Queen, his first object was to maintain, and, if possible, even
raise the character of the court. With this view he knew that it was not
enough that his own conduct should be in truth free from reproach; no
shadow of a shade of suspicion should by possibility attach to it. He knew
that, in his position, every action would be scanned--not always,
possibly, in a friendly spirit; that his goings out and his comings in
would be watched; and that in every society, however little disposed to be
censorious, there would always be found some prone, where an opening
afforded, to exaggerate and even invent stories against him, and to put an
uncharitable construction on the most innocent acts.
Pages:
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50