ponement; but, nevertheless, thought he had a fair right, if he were to keep himself free, and thereby be compelled to decline any other career or line of life which might open itself out to him, to have some definite assurance or understanding that the engagement would be without doubt contracted. This concession, however, the equally natural bashfulness of the Queen would not suffer her to make. However, all came right in the end, and the Queen has very candidly confessed in her riper years, that if she had known as a girl what she afterwards learned as a woman, that she even seemed to be playing with her somewhat undemonstrative but not the less devoted lover, she would not have exacted the semi-sacrifice which the Prince's self-respect caused him to feel uneasy at, but to which the true courtesy of his nature induced him to submit. He did wait till 1839, but the Queen afterwards learned that he came to England in that year prepared to declare that, in the case of further postponement, he must decline to consider himself bound in any way for the future.

In October, 1839, Prince Albert, with his brother, set out from Brussels to England, to urge his final suit. Ere leaving Germany, he had spent a very pleasant time with his cousin, Count Albert Mensdorff, who was doing military duty with the garrison of Mayence. They then made a short journey together, in the course of which the one cousin confided the great secret to the other. "During our journey," writes the Count, "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.

FIRST MEETING WITH PRINCE ALBERT.

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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." The Princes-Albert bearing with him a shrewd and significant letter to the Queen from King Leopoldarrived at Windsor on the 10th of October, where they were cordially received by their cousin and aunt. The Queen was much struck with the greatly improved appearance of the Prince, in the interval of three years since she had last seen him. Gay and festive entertainments had been arranged in their honour immediately upon their arrival. The Queen became more and more charmed with her cousin, and within a week after his arrival, she informed her Premier, Lord Melbourne, that she had made up her mind to the marriage. In reply, he indicated his own perfect satisfaction, and added that the nation was getting anxious that its sovereign should be married; and then he said, in a kindly way, "You will be much more comfortable; for a woman cannot stand alone for any time, in whatever position she be."

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The following we present, without professing either to confirm or question its accuracy, but simply as being the commonly-received report, at the time, of the manner in which the engagement was finally effected between the parties directly interested :

The Prince, in his turn, played the part of a royal lover with all the grace peculiar to his house. He never willingly absented himself from the Queen's society and presence, and her every wish was anticipated with the alacrity of an unfeigned attachment. At length Her Majesty, having wholly made up her mind as to the issue of this visit, found herself in some measure embarrassed as to the fit and proper means of indicating her preference to the Prince. This was

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a perplexing task, but the Queen acquitted herself of it with equal delicacy and tact. At one of the Palace balls she took occasion to present her bouquet to the Prince at the conclusion of a dance, and the hint was not lost upon the polite and gallant German. His close uniform, buttoned up to the throat, did not admit of his placing the Persian-like gift where it would be most honoured; so he immediately drew his penknife and cut a slit in his dress in the neighbourhood of his heart, where he gracefully deposited the happy omen. Again, to announce to the Privy Council her intended union was an easy duty in comparison to that of intimating her wishes to the principal party concerned; and here, too, it is said that our Sovereign Lady displayed unusual presence of mind and female ingenuity. The Prince was expressing the grateful sense which he entertained of his reception in England, and the delight which he experienced during his stay from the kind attentions of royalty, when the Queen, very naturally and very pointedly, put to him the question upon which their future fates depended: “If, indeed, your Highness is so much pleased with this country, perhaps you would not object to remaining in it, and making it your home?" No one can doubt the reply.

The day after the Queen's communication to her Premier, she caused an intimation to be conveyed to her lover that she desired to see him in private. The Prince at once waited upon her, and after a few minutes' general conversation, the Queen told him why she had sent for him, and modestly but plainly said that she was quite willing now to undertake the bond of betrothal. Of course, there was only one possible response, and the Prince joyously wrote the next day to his trusty friend and tried counsellor, Baron Stockmar, "on one of the happiest days of his life, to give him the most welcome news.' The betrothal was at once communicated to Prince Ernest, to King Leopold, and to the Duke of Coburg. From these and other relatives to whom the news, as yet to be kept a family secret, was sent, the warmest felicitations quickly poured in. Leopold wrote,

commending Albert in the highest terms, and emphatically congratulating Victoria on having secured an unmistakably good husband, concluding with the prayer, "May Albert be able to strew roses without thorns on the pathway of life of our good Victoria!"

The Queen had intended to make her first formal announcement of her intended marriage to her Parliament; but on second thoughts, she altered her resolve, and selected her Privy Council as the first official recipients of the tidings. Of course, the Ministers had been already confidentially informed of the Queen's purpose, and they strongly counselled an early union, and both Queen and Prince acquiesced in the proposal. After happy and rapturous days of undoubted and now freely-acknowledged attachment, the Princes returned to Germany, on the 14th of November, after a visit lasting just five weeks; Ernest to return to his military duties, Albert to say farewell to friends and fatherland, ere finally returning to the region of his new life and love.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE QUEEN WEDDED.

Announcement of the intended Marriage to the Privy Council and Parliament-Parliamentary Settlement of the Prince's Rank, &c. -Annoying Circumstances-The Prince's Protestantism-His Income-Arrival of the Bridegroom-Receives a National Welcome -The Wedding-Honeymoon spent at Windsor.

On the day after the departure of the Princes, the Queen wrote letters to the Queen Dowager, and the other members of the Royal Family, informing them of her intended marriage, and received kind letters in return from all. A few days later she and her mother came from Windsor to Buckingham Palace, where Lord Melbourne submitted the draft of the proposed Declaration to the Privy Council. His Lordship told the Queen that the Cabinet had unanimously agreed that £50,000 would be an appropriate annual allowance for the Prince, and that they anticipated no Parliamentary opposition to that amount. He also stated that there had been a stupid attempt to make it out that he was a Roman Catholic, and that "he was afraid to say anything about his religion," and accordingly had not touched upon it in the Declaration. This turned out, as we shall see, a very unwise omission; it actually gave colour and consistency to the absurd report.

On the 23rd of November, eighty-three members of the Privy Council met in Buckingham Palace. Precisely