Windsor Castle, 12th November 1861.
My beloved Uncle,—I hardly know how to write, for my head reels and swims, and my heart is very sore!51 What an awful misfortune this is! How the hand of death seems bent on pursuing that poor, dear family! once so prosperous. Poor Ferdinand so proud of his children—of his five sons—now the eldest and most distinguished, the head of the family, gone, and also another of fifteen, and the youngest still ill! The two others at sea, and will land to-morrow in utter ignorance of everything, and poor, dear, good Louis (whom I thought dreadfully low when we saw him and Jean for an hour on Friday) King! It is an almost incredible event! a terrible calamity for Portugal, and a real European loss! Dear Pedro was so good, so clever, so distinguished! He was so attached to my beloved Albert, and the characters and tastes suited so well, and he had such confidence in Albert! All, all gone! He is happy now, united again to dear Stéphanie,52 whose loss he never recovered.... Ever your devoted Niece,
Footnote 51: King Pedro of Portugal died of typhoid fever on the 11th of November; his brother Ferdinand had died on the 6th; and Prince John, Duke of Beja, succumbed in the following December.
Footnote 52: The young Queen Stéphanie of Portugal had died in 1859.
Downing Street, 13th November 1861.
... Viscount Palmerston met yesterday at dinner at Baron Brunnow's the Grand Duke Constantine and the Grand Duchess, and they were overflowing with thankfulness for the kind and gracious reception they had met with at Windsor Castle.
There was reason to suspect that an American federal steamer of war of eight guns, which had lately arrived at Falmouth, and from thence at Southampton, was intended to intercept the Mail Packet coming home with the West Indian Mail, in order to take out of her Messrs Mason and Slidell, the two Envoys from the Southern Confederacy, supposed to be coming in her.53
Viscount Palmerston had on Monday a meeting at the Treasury of the Chancellor, Doctor Lushington, the three Law Officers,54 the Duke of Somerset, Sir George Grey, and Mr Hammond.55 The result of their deliberation was that, according to the Law of Nations, as laid down by Lord Stowell, and practised and enforced by England in the war with France, the Northern Union being a belligerent is entitled by its ships of war to stop and search any neutral Merchantmen, and the West India Packet is such; to search her if there is reasonable suspicion that she is carrying enemy's despatches, and if such are found on board to take her to a port of the belligerent, and there to proceed against her for condemnation. Such being ruled to be the law, the only thing that could be done was to order the Phaeton frigate to drop down to Yarmouth Roads from Portsmouth, and to watch the American steamer, and to see that she did not exercise this belligerent right within the three-mile limit of British jurisdiction, and this was done. But Viscount Palmerston sent yesterday for Mr Adams to ask him about this matter, and to represent to him how unwise it would be to create irritation in this country merely for the sake of preventing the landing of Mr Slidell, whose presence here would have no more effect on the policy of your Majesty with regard to America than the presence of the three other Southern Deputies who have been here for many months. Mr Adams assured Viscount Palmerston that the American steamer had orders not to meddle with any vessel under any foreign flag; that it came to intercept the Nashville, the Confederate ship in which it was thought the Southern Envoys might be coming; and not having met with her was going back to the American coast to watch some Merchantmen supposed to be taking arms to the Southern ports.
Viscount Palmerston heard from a source likely to be well informed that at the interview between the Emperor and the King of Prussia at Compiègne, the Emperor, among other things, said to the King that there were three systems of alliance between which France and Prussia might choose: an alliance of France with England, an alliance of Prussia with England, an alliance of France with Prussia. The first the Emperor said now to a certain degree exists, but is precarious and not likely to last long, because England is too exacting; the second would not be useful to Prussia, but might be dangerous, inasmuch as it would look like hostility to France, and England would not be likely to back Prussia effectually if a rupture took place between Prussia and France. The last was the system best for Prussia, and was calculated to promote her interests; at all events, the Emperor hoped that if at any time there should be a rupture between France and England, Prussia would remain neutral. The King of Prussia said he was not come to discuss matters of that kind with the Emperor, but only to pay him a visit of compliment. Your Majesty will be able to compare this statement with the accounts your Majesty may have received of what passed at that visit....
The Chancellor56 told the Cabinet as he was going away that he would soon have to shut up the Court of Chancery in consequence of having disposed of all the suits before it; and that in future the progress of a Chancery suit will be the emblem of rapidity, and not as formerly synonymous with endless delay.
Footnote 53: See Introductory Note, ante, p. 421.
Footnote 54: Sir William Atherton, Attorney-General, Sir Roundell Palmer, Solicitor-General, and Dr Phillimore, Counsel to the Admiralty.
Footnote 55: Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, afterwards Lord Hammond.
Footnote 56: Lord Westbury.
Windsor Castle, 26th November 1861.
My beloved Uncle,— ... Albert is a little rheumatic, which is a plague—but it is very difficult not to have something or other of this kind in this season, with these rapid changes of temperature; unberufen, unberufen, he is much better this winter than he was the preceding years.57 ...
Footnote 57: The Prince had been unwell, even before the receipt of the distressing news from Portugal, and began to suffer from a somewhat continuous insomnia. On the 22nd of November, he drove to Sandhurst to inspect the new buildings in progress there. The day was very wet, and, though he returned in the middle of the day to Windsor, the exertion proved too severe for him; on the 24th he complained of rheumatic pains, and of prolonged sleeplessness.
Downing Street, 29th November 1861.
Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to state that the Cabinet at its meeting this afternoon resumed the consideration of the forcible capture of the Southern Envoys from on board the Trent steamer upon which the law officers had yesterday given the opinion contained in the accompanying report. The law officers and Doctor Phillimore, Counsel to the Admiralty, were in attendance. The result was that it appeared to the Cabinet that a gross outrage and violation of international law has been committed, and that your Majesty should be advised to demand reparation and redress. The Cabinet is to meet again to-morrow at two, by which time Lord Russell will have prepared an instruction to Lord Lyons for the consideration of the Cabinet, and for submission afterwards to your Majesty. The general outline and tenor which appeared to meet the opinions of the Cabinet would be, that the Washington Government should be told that what has been done is a violation of international law, and of the rights of Great Britain, and that your Majesty's Government trust that the act will be disavowed and the prisoners set free and restored to British Protection; and that Lord Lyons should be instructed that if this demand is refused he should retire from the United States.
It is stated by Mrs and Miss Slidell, who are now in London, that the Northern officer who came on board the Trent said that they were acting on their own responsibility without instructions from Washington; that very possibly their act might be disavowed and the prisoners set free on their arrival at Washington. But it was known that the San Jacinto, though come from the African station, had arrived from thence several weeks before, and had been at St Thomas, and had there received communications from New York; and it is also said that General Scott, who has recently arrived in France, has said to Americans in Paris that he has come not on an excursion of pleasure, but on diplomatic business; that the seizure of these envoys was discussed in Cabinet at Washington, he being present, and was deliberately determined upon and ordered; that the Washington Cabinet fully foresaw it might lead to war with England; and that he was commissioned to propose to France in that case to join the Northern States in war against England, and to offer France in that case the restoration of the French Province of Canada.
General Scott will probably find himself much mistaken as to the success of his overtures; for the French Government is more disposed towards the South than the North, and is probably thinking more about Cotton than about Canada....
Foreign Office, 29th November 1861.
Lord Russell presents his humble duty to your Majesty; Mr Gladstone has undertaken to explain to your Majesty what has taken place at the Cabinet to-day.
Lord Russell proposes to frame a draft for to-morrow's Cabinet of a despatch to Lord Lyons, directing him to ask for the release of Messrs Mason and Slidell and their two companions, and an apology. In case these requirements should be refused, Lord Lyons should ask for his passports.
The Lord Chancellor and the law officers of the Crown are clear upon the law of the case.
Lord Russell will be glad to have your Majesty's opinion on the draft which will go to your Majesty about four o'clock to-morrow, without loss of time, as the packet goes to-morrow evening.58
Footnote 58: The draft of the despatch to Lord Lyons reached Windsor on the evening of the 30th, and, in spite of his weak and suffering state, the Prince prepared the draft of the Queen's letter early the following morning. The letter has been printed in facsimile by Sir Theodore Martin, who adds that it has a special value as "representing the last political Memorandum written by the Prince, while it was at the same time inferior to none of them, as will presently be seen, in the importance of its results. It shows, like most of his Memorandums, by the corrections in the Queen's hand, how the minds of both were continually brought to bear upon the subjects with which they dealt."
Windsor Castle, 1st December 1861.
Note in the Queen's handwriting.
[This draft was the last the beloved Prince ever wrote; he was very unwell at the time, and when he brought it in to the Queen, he said: "I could hardly hold my pen."
The Queen returns these important drafts, which upon the whole she approves, but she cannot help feeling that the main draft, that for communication to the American Government, is somewhat meagre. She should have liked to have seen the expression of a hope that the American captain did not act under instructions, or, if he did, that he misapprehended them—that the United States Government must be fully aware that the British Government could not allow its flag to be insulted, and the security of her mail communications to be placed to jeopardy, and Her Majesty's Government are unwilling to believe that the United States Government intended wantonly to put an insult upon this country, and to add to their many distressing complications by forcing a question of dispute upon us, and that we are therefore glad to believe that upon a full consideration of the circumstances, and of the undoubted breach of international law committed, they would spontaneously offer such redress as alone could satisfy this country, viz. the restoration of the unfortunate passengers and a suitable apology.
Windsor Castle, 4th December 1861.
My dearest Uncle,—I have many excuses to make for not writing yesterday, but I had a good deal to do, as my poor dear Albert's rheumatism has turned out to be a regular influenza, which has pulled and lowered him very much. Since Monday he has been confined to his room. It affects his appetite and sleep, which is very disagreeable, and you know he is always so depressed when anything is the matter with him. However, he is decidedly better to-day, and I hope in two or three days he will be quite himself again. It is extremely vexatious, as he was so particularly well till he caught these colds, which came upon worries of various kinds.... Ever your devoted Niece,
Windsor Castle, 6th December 1861.
My beloved Uncle,—I am thankful to report decidedly better of my beloved Albert. He has had much more sleep, and has taken much more nourishment since yesterday evening. Altogether, this nasty, feverish sort of influenza and deranged stomach is on the mend, but it will be slow and tedious, and though there has not been one alarming symptom, there has been such restlessness, such sleeplessness, and such (till to-day) total refusal of all food, that it made one very, very anxious, and I can't describe the anxiety I have gone through! I feel to-day a good deal shaken, for for four nights I got only two or three hours' sleep. We have, however, every reason to hope the recovery, though it may be somewhat tedious, will not be very slow. You shall hear again to-morrow. Ever your devoted Niece,
Windsor Castle, 9th December 1861.
My beloved Uncle,—I enclose you Clark's report, which I think you may like to hear. Our beloved invalid goes on well—but it must be tedious, and I need not tell you what a trial it is to me. Every day, however, is bringing us nearer the end of this tiresome illness, which is much what I had at Ramsgate, only that I was much worse, and not at first well attended to. You shall hear daily.
You will, I know, feel for me! The night was excellent; the first good one he had. Ever your devoted Niece,
The Americans may possibly get out of it.
Laeken, 11th December 1861.
My beloved Victoria,—How I do feel for you from the bottom of my heart; that you should have this totally unexpected tribulation of having dear Albert unwell, when not long ago we rejoiced that he was bearing this time of the year so well. Now we must be very patient, as an indisposition of this description at this time of the year is generally mending slowly. The great object must be to arrange all the little details exactly as the patient may wish them; that everything of that description may move very smoothly is highly beneficial. Patients are very different in their likings; to the great horror of angelic Louise, the moment I am ill I become almost invisible, disliking to see anybody. Other people are fond of company, and wish to be surrounded. The medical advisors are, thank God! excellent, and Clark knows Albert so well. Albert will wish you not to interrupt your usual airings; you want air, and to be deprived of it would do you harm. The temperature here at least has been extremely mild—this ought to be favourable. I trust that every day will now show some small improvement, and it will be very kind of you to let me frequently know how dear Albert is going on. Believe me ever, my beloved Victoria, your devoted Uncle,
H.R.H. The Prince Consort, 1861.
From the picture by Smith, after Corbould, at Buckingham Palace.
Windsor Castle, 11th December 1861.
Dearest Uncle,—I can report another good night, and no loss of strength, and continued satisfactory symptoms. But more we dare not expect for some days; not losing ground is a gain, now, of every day.
It is very sad and trying for me, but I am well, and I think really very courageous; for it is the first time that I ever witnessed anything of this kind though I suffered from the same at Ramsgate, and was much worse. The trial in every way is so very trying, for I have lost my guide, my support, my all, for a time—as we can't ask or tell him anything. Many thanks for your kind letter received yesterday. We have been and are reading Von Ense's book59 to Albert; but it is not worth much. He likes very much being read to as it soothes him. W. Scott is also read to him. You shall hear again to-morrow, dearest Uncle, and, please God! each day will be more cheering. Ever your devoted Niece,
Footnote 59: The Memoirs of Varnhagen von Ense (1785-1858), who served for some years in the Austrian and the Russian Armies, and was later in the Prussian Diplomatic Service.
Windsor Castle, 12th December 1861.
My beloved Uncle,—I can again report favourably of our most precious invalid. He maintains his ground well—had another very good night—takes plenty of nourishment, and shows surprising strength. I am constantly in and out of his room, but since the first four dreadful nights, last week, before they had declared it to be gastric fever—I do not sit up with him at night as I could be of no use; and there is nothing to cause alarm. I go out twice a day for about an hour. It is a very trying time, for a fever with its despondency, weakness, and occasional and invariable wandering, is most painful to witness—but we have never had one unfavourable symptom; to-morrow, reckoning from the 22nd, when dear Albert first fell ill—after going on a wet day to look at some buildings—having likewise been unusually depressed with worries of different kinds—is the end of the third week; we may hope for improvement after that, but the Doctors say they should not be at all disappointed if this did not take place till the end of the fourth week. I cannot sufficiently praise the skill, attention, and devotion of Dr Jenner,60 who is the first fever Doctor in Europe, one may say—and good old Clark is here every day; good Brown is also most useful.... We have got Dr Watson61 (who succeeded Dr Chambers62) and Sir H. Holland63 has also been here. But I have kept clear of these two. Albert sleeps a good deal in the day. He is moved every day into the next room on a sofa which is made up as a bed. He has only kept his bed entirely since Monday. Many, many thanks for your dear, kind letter of the 11th. I knew how you would feel for and think of me. I am very wonderfully supported, and, excepting on three occasions, have borne up very well. I am sure Clark will tell you so. Ever your most devoted Niece,
Footnote 60: Dr (afterwards Sir) William Jenner, K.C.B. (1815-1898), was at this time Physician-Extraordinary to the Queen.
Footnote 61: Afterwards Sir Thomas Watson (1792-1882), F.R.S.
Footnote 62: Dr. William Frederick Chambers (1786-1855) was well known as a consulting physician.
Footnote 63: Sir Henry Holland (1788-1873) was Physician-in-Ordinary to the Queen and the Prince Consort.
Windsor Castle, 13th December 1861.
My dear Wood,—The Queen desires me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, and to say that she quite approves of the purport of your despatch to the Governor-General, understanding it to be, not that there is to be any reduction of the Artillery force which it had been determined to leave permanent in India as the proper establishment for that country, but simply that some batteries which it had been resolved to bring home, at all events, are to return somewhat sooner than had been intended, etc., etc., etc.,
Osborne, 20th December 1861.
My own dearest, kindest Father,—For as such have I ever loved you! The poor fatherless baby of eight months is now the utterly broken-hearted and crushed widow of forty-two! My life as a happy one is ended! the world is gone for me! If I must live on (and I will do nothing to make me worse than I am), it is henceforth for our poor fatherless children—for my unhappy country, which has lost all in losing him—and in only doing what I know and feel he would wish, for he is near me—his spirit will guide and inspire me! But oh! to be cut off in the prime of life—to see our pure, happy, quiet, domestic life, which alone enabled me to bear my much disliked position, cut off at forty-two—when I had hoped with such instinctive certainty that God never would part us, and would let us grow old together (though he always talked of the shortness of life)—is too awful, too cruel! And yet it must be for his good, his happiness! His purity was too great, his aspiration too high for this poor, miserable world! His great soul is now only enjoying that for which it was worthy! And I will not envy him—only pray that mine may be perfected by it and fit to be with him eternally, for which blessed moment I earnestly long. Dearest, dearest Uncle, how kind of you to come! It will be an unspeakable comfort, and you can do much to tell people to do what they ought to do. As for my own good, personal servants—poor Phipps in particular—nothing can be more devoted, heartbroken as they are, and anxious only to live as he wished!
Good Alice has been and is wonderful.64
The 26th will suit me perfectly. Ever your devoted, wretched Child,
Footnote 64: By a singular coincidence, the Princess was to pass away on the anniversary of the Prince's death. She died on the 14th of December 1878.
22nd December 1861.
Sir Charles Wood, with his humble duty, begs to enclose to your Majesty two letters from India, one giving an account of Lord Canning's investing the Indian Chiefs with the Star of India; and the other an account of poor Lady Canning's illness and death, which, even at this sad moment, may not be without interest for your Majesty.
Sir Charles Wood hopes that he may be forgiven if, when having to address your Majesty, he ventures to lay before your Majesty the expression of his heartfelt sympathy in the sorrow under which your Majesty is now suffering, and his deep sense of the irreparable calamity which has befallen your Majesty and the country.
Though it cannot be any consolation, it must be gratifying to your Majesty to learn the deep and universal feeling of regret and sorrow which prevails amongst all classes of your Majesty's subjects, and in none so strongly as in those who have had the most opportunity of appreciating the inestimable value of those services, of which by this awful dispensation of Providence the country has been deprived.
Barrackpore, 22nd November 1861.65
Lord Canning presents his humble duty to your Majesty. Your Majesty will have heard by the last mail of the heavy blow which has fallen upon Lord Canning. The kindness of your Majesty to Lady Canning has been so invariable and so great that he feels it to be right that your Majesty should receive a sure account of her last illness with as little delay as possible.
The funeral is over. It took place quite privately at sunrise on the 19th. There is no burial-place for the Governor-General or his family, and the cemeteries at Calcutta are odious in many ways: Lord Canning has therefore set a portion of the garden at Barrackpore (fifteen miles from Calcutta) apart for the purpose. It is a beautiful spot—looking upon that reach of the grand river which she was so fond of drawing—shaded from the glare of the sun by high trees—and amongst the bright shrubs and flowers in which she had so much pleasure.
Your Majesty will be glad, but not surprised, to know of the deep respect which has been paid to her memory, not only by the familiar members of the household and intimate friends, who refused to let any hired hands perform the last offices, but by the Civil and Military bodies, and by the community at large. The coffin was conveyed to Barrackpore by the Artillery, and was borne through the Garden by English soldiers.
Lord Canning feels sure that your Majesty will not consider these details as an intrusion. He feels sure of your Majesty's kind sympathy. She loved your Majesty dearly, and Lord Canning is certain that he is doing what would have been her wish in thus venturing to write to your Majesty. In the last connected conversation which he had with her, just before the illness became really threatening, she said that she must write again to the Queen, "for I don't want her to think that it was out of laziness that I was not at Allahabad." The fact is, that she had always intended to be present at the Investiture, and had made all her arrangements to go from Darjeeling to Allahabad for the purpose; but Lord Canning, hearing of the bad state of the roads, owing to the heavy and unseasonable rains, and knowing how fatiguing an additional journey of nearly 900 miles would be, had entreated her to abandon the intention, and to stay longer in the Hills, and then go straight to Calcutta. Whether all might have gone differently if the first plan had been held to, God alone knows. His will has been done.
Footnote 65: Received on the 22nd of December, or thereabouts.
Osborne, 24th December 1861.
My beloved Uncle,—Though, please God! I am to see you so soon, I must write these few lines to prepare you for the trying, sad existence you will find it with your poor forlorn, desolate child—who drags on a weary, pleasureless existence! I am also anxious to repeat one thing, and that one is my firm resolve, my irrevocable decision, viz. that his wishes—his plans—about everything, his views about every thing are to be my law! And no human power will make me swerve from what he decided and wished—and I look to you to support and help me in this. I apply this particularly as regards our children—Bertie, etc.—for whose future he had traced everything so carefully. I am also determined that no one person, may he be ever so good, ever so devoted among my servants—is to lead or guide or dictate to me. I know how he would disapprove it. And I live on with him, for him; in fact I am only outwardly separated from him, and only for a time.
No one can tell you more of my feelings, and can put you more in possession of many touching facts than our excellent Dr Jenner, who has been and is my great comfort, and whom I would entreat you to see and hear before you see any one else. Pray do this, for I fear much others trying to see you first and say things and wish for things which I should not consent to.
Though miserably weak and utterly shattered, my spirit rises when I think any wish or plan of his is to be touched or changed, or I am to be made to do anything. I know you will help me in my utter darkness. It is but for a short time, and then I go—never, never to part! Oh! that blessed, blessed thought! He seems so near to me, so quite my own now, my precious darling! God bless and preserve you. Ever your wretched but devoted Child,
What a Xmas! I won't think of it.
Piccadilly, 30th December 1861.
Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and has read with deep emotion your Majesty's letter of the 26th, every word of which went straight to the heart. Viscount Palmerston would, however, humbly express a hope that the intensity of your Majesty's grief may not lead your Majesty to neglect your health, the preservation of which is so important for the welfare of your Majesty's children, and for that of your Majesty's devotedly attached and affectionate subjects; and which is so essentially necessary to enable your Majesty to perform those duties which it will be the object of your Majesty's life to fulfil.
Lord Granville has communicated to Viscount Palmerston your Majesty's wish that Mr Dilke66 should be made a Baronet, and that Mr Bowring67 should be made a Companion of the Bath, and both of these things will be done accordingly. But there are three other persons whose names Viscount Palmerston has for some time wished to submit to your Majesty for the dignity of Baronet, and if your Majesty should be graciously pleased to approve of them, the list would stand as follows:
Mr Dilke.
Mr William Brown,68 of Liverpool, a very wealthy and distinguished merchant, who lately made a magnificent present of a public library to his fellow-citizens.
Mr Thomas Davies Lloyd, a rich and highly respectable gentleman of the county of Carnarvon.
Mr Rich, to whom the Government is under great obligation, for having of his own accord and without any condition vacated last year his seat for Richmond in Yorkshire, and having thus enabled the Government to obtain the valuable services of Mr Roundell Palmer as your Majesty's Solicitor-General.
Viscount Palmerston has put into this box some private letters which Lord Russell thinks your Majesty might perhaps like to look at.
Footnote 66: Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke was on the Executive Committee of the Exhibition of 1851, and on the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1862. He died in 1869.
Footnote 67: Mr Edgar Bowring's Companionship was conferred on him for services in connection with the earlier Exhibition. He was afterwards M.P. for Exeter, 1868-1874.
Footnote 68: Mr Brown became a baronet in 1863.
Osborne, 10th January 1862.
Lord Canning little thought when he wrote his kind and touching letter of the 22nd November, that it would only reach the Queen when she was smitten and bowed down to the earth by an event similar to the one which he describes—and, strange to say, by a disease greatly analogous to the one which took from him all that he loved best. In the case of her adored, precious, perfect, and great husband, her dear lord and master, to whom this Nation owed more than it ever can truly know, however, the fever went on most favourably till the day previous to the awful calamity, and then it was congestion of the lungs and want of strength of circulation (the beloved Prince had always a weak and feeble pulse), which at the critical moment, indeed only two hours before God took him, caused this awful result. To lose one's partner in life is, as Lord Canning knows, like losing half of one's body and soul, torn forcibly away—and dear Lady Canning was such a dear, worthy, devoted wife! But to the Queen—to a poor helpless woman—it is not that only—it is the stay, support and comfort which is lost! To the Queen it is like death in life! Great and small—nothing was done without his loving advice and help—and she feels alone in the wide world, with many helpless children (except the Princess Royal) to look to her—and the whole nation to look to her—now when she can barely struggle with her wretched existence! Her misery—her utter despair—she cannot describe! Her only support—the only ray of comfort she gets for a moment, is in the firm conviction and certainty of his nearness, his undying love, and of their eternal reunion! Only she prays always, and pines for the latter with an anxiety she cannot describe. Like dear Lady Canning, the Queen's darling is to rest in a garden—at Frogmore, in a Mausoleum the Queen is going to build for him and herself.
Though ill, the Queen was able to tell her precious angel of Lord Canning's bereavement, and he was deeply grieved, recurring to it several times, and saying, "What a loss! She was such a distinguished person!"
May God comfort and support Lord Canning, and may he think in his sorrow of his widowed and broken-hearted Sovereign—bowed to the earth with the greatest of human sufferings and misfortunes! She lived but for her husband!
The sympathy of the many thousands of her subjects, but above all their sorrow and their admiration for him, are soothing to her bleeding, pierced heart!
The Queen's precious husband, though wandering occasionally, was conscious till nearly the last, and knew her and kissed her an hour before his pure spirit fled to its worthy and fit eternal Home!