"A dreadful moment and a dreadful day. Such sickness came over me, real heartache, when I thought of our dearest child being gone, and for so long—all, all being over! It began to snow before Vicky went, and continued to do so without intermission all day. At times I could be quite cheerful, but my tears began to flow afresh frequently, and I could not go near Vicky's corridor. Everything recalled the time now passed.
"At four my beloved Albert returned with the two boys, very sad, and my grief again burst forth. The separation had been dreadful. Albert seemed much impressed by it. Nothing could exceed the loyalty, enthusiasm, and feeling shown by the countless thousands in the city, and again at Gravesend, where the decorations were beautiful. Young girls with wreaths, in spite of the snow, walked on the pier strewing flowers.
"Albert had waited to see the ships leave,—what a moment it must have been!—but Vicky did not come on deck. The sight of the darling baby (Princess Beatrice) even made me sad, as dear Vicky loved her so much, and only yesterday played with her!"
The young princess made a most favorable impression among the Berliners; for her manners were charming, and she had the rare gift of being able to say the right thing at the right time and in the right place. From the moment when her engagement to the Prince of Prussia was thought of, her father had given her daily instruction in the studies that would be of the greatest service in the position she was to fill. A prominent statesman of Germany wrote of her a few weeks after her arrival in her new home: "She sees more clearly and more correctly than many a man of commanding intellect, because, while possessing an acute mind and the purest heart, she does not know the word 'prejudice.'"
CHAPTER XIV
In August the queen and prince consort went to Germany on a visit. They arrived at Antwerp on the eleventh, and drove at once to the railway station. At Malines they were met by King Leopold and his second son, and at Aix-la-Chapelle by the Prince of Prussia, who had come to accompany them for the rest of their journey. The weather was intensely hot, and marred much of their pleasure; but they were everywhere met with a hearty welcome. On the twelfth news reached them of the sudden death of Cart, who had been Prince Albert's valet for twenty-nine years. "He was invaluable," writes the queen in her diary: "Well educated, thoroughly trustworthy, devoted to the prince, the best of nurses, superior in every sense of the word, a proud, independent Swiss, who might be trusted with anything. He was the only link my loved one had about him which connected him with his childhood,—the only one with whom he could talk over old times. I cannot think of my dear husband without Cart! Albert felt the loss so much that we had to choke our grief down all day."
After breakfast the royal couple travelled to Hanover, and were met by the king and queen, with princes and princesses, and a guard of honor, and conducted to the Herrenhausen,—the country palace where George I. was living when called to the English throne. After luncheon