For pleasure; but thro' all this tract of years
Wearing the white flower of a blameless life,
Before a thousand peering littlenesses,
In that fierce light which beats upon a throne,
And blackens every blot; for where is he
Who dares foreshadow for an only son
A lovelier life, a more unstained than his?"
Fig. 57.—Funeral of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort, at Windsor, December 23, 1861.
When Her Majesty became a widow, she slightly modified the conventional English widow's cap, by indenting it over the forehead à la Marie Stuart, thereby imparting to it a certain picturesqueness which was quite lacking in the former head-dress. This coiffure has been not only adopted by her subjects, but also by royal widows abroad. The etiquette of the Imperial House of Germany obliges the Empress Frederick to introduce into her costume two special features during the earlier twelve months of her widowhood. The first concerns the cap, which is black, having a Marie Stuart point over the centre of the forehead, and a long veil of black crape falling like a mantle behind to the ground. The second peculiarity of this stately costume is that the orthodox white batiste collar has two narrow white bands falling straight from head to foot. This costume has been very slightly modified from what it was three centuries ago, when a Princess of the House of Hohenzollern lost her husband.