This palace had been the scene of the happy life of the Prince’s grandfather, King Frederick William III, and of Queen Louise. The intimate and beautiful family life that had filled these rooms was the best of omens for the young pair, and the Princess Royal was delighted with her new home. But the palace required to be brought up to modern standards of comfort, and it was very difficult to have the alterations approved by the moody and violent King. What he allowed on one day he took back with hasty blame on the morrow. At last Prince Frederick William obtained the Royal assent to those alterations which were absolutely urgent, together with a grant of 350,000 thalers. Among other improvements was added an eight-cornered “Gedenkhalle” or “Memory-Hall,” in which were placed the numerous wedding presents of the young pair, and to these, from time to time, were added other rare and beautiful objects.
CHAPTER VI
BIRTH OF PRINCE WILLIAM
ON January 27, 1859, Berlin was on the tip-toe of expectation. The custom is that 101 guns announce the birth of a Prince, and only twenty-one that of a Princess, and as in Prussia the Salic Law still obtains, it may easily be imagined with what anxiety the Berliners counted the successive discharges. There was indeed no need to wait for the whole tale of the 101 guns, for the firing of the twenty-second was enough to spread the glad news.
The story goes that when old Field-Marshal Wrangel, “Papa Wrangel” as the Berliners affectionately called him, left the palace, the populace crowded round him and demanded to know what he could tell them. “Children,” he answered, “all is well! It is as fine and sturdy a recruit as one could wish!”
It soon became known, however, that all had not gone well with the young mother and her child. There had been one of those unfortunate mishaps, the exact truth of which it is always so difficult to disentangle, but the following account, we believe, represents what actually happened:
It had been Queen Victoria’s wish that the Princess should be attended in her confinement by Dr. Martin, her English doctor, as well as the German Court physicians. About eight o’clock in the morning of January 27, one of the latter wrote to his English colleague, asking him to come at once to the Palace. But the servant to whom the letter was entrusted, instead of taking it to Dr. Martin’s house, put it in the post, and it never reached him till the afternoon. To that fact the Princess Royal’s friends always attributed the circumstances which resulted in the weakness of the infant’s left arm. Be that as it may, both mother and baby were for a time in imminent danger. No anæsthetic was administered, and the Princess with characteristic courage looked up to her husband, who held her in his arms the whole time, and asked him to forgive her for being impatient. None of those about her thought her strength would hold out, and one of the German doctors actually said in her presence that he thought she would die, and her baby too. But at last her ordeal came to an end, and to her intense joy she was told that she had given birth to a fine healthy boy.
The news of the birth of their first grandchild was quickly flashed to the anxious parents at Windsor. “A boy,” ran the telegram, and Queen Victoria characteristically replied, “Is it a fine boy?” But it was not till the following day, so Prince Albert told Stockmar, that the courier brought “our first information of the severe suffering which poor Vicky had undergone, and of the great danger in which the child’s life had hovered for a time.” To King Leopold the Prince wrote, “The danger for the child and the sufferings for the mother were serious. Poor Fritz and the Prince and Princess must have undergone terrible anxiety, as they had no hope of the birth of a living child, and their joy over a strong, healthy boy is therefore all the greater.”
On the evening of the baby’s birth, the Prince Regent, also a grandfather for the first time, held a reception of which we have a vivid description from the pen of the dramatist, Gustav zu Putlitz, then a member of the Prussian Landtag, and afterwards chamberlain to Princess Frederick William. He says:
“It was like a great family festival. Everyone hurried there with congratulations, and when the young father, beaming with happiness, appeared, the rejoicings increased. This delight is shared by all classes of society, and is a testimony to the extent of the popularity of the Prince and Princess.”
Prince Frederick William received on January 29 the congratulations of the Prussian Chambers, to which he made the following reply: