ST. GEORGE’S CHAPEL, WINDSOR, SHOWING THE ROYAL GALLERY AND ALTAR.
of the Prince being carried immediately before the coffin, which was preceded by Lord Sydney, her Majesty’s Lord Chamberlain. The pall-bearers were Sir Charles Phipps, General Grey, General Wylde, Colonel Francis Seymour, Lord Waterpark, Colonel Hood, Lieut.-Colonel Dudley de Ros, and Major du Plat, who were respectively Treasurer, Private Secretary, Groom of the Bedchamber, Lord of the Bedchamber, Clerk Marshal, and equerries to his Royal Highness. Immediately after the coffin came Garter King-at-Arms, followed by the Prince of Wales as chief mourner, who was supported by Prince Arthur, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-and-Gotha, and attended by General Bruce, the Crown Prince of Prussia, the Duke of Brabant, the Count de Flandres, the Duke de Nemours, Prince Louis of Hesse, Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, the Count Gleichen, and the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh. They were followed by their suites. On arriving within the choir, the Prince’s crown, bâton, sword, and hat were reverently laid on the coffin, at the head of which stood the Prince of Wales, with Prince Arthur and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-and-Gotha on either side of him. The other illustrious mourners formed a group behind them. At the foot of the coffin the Lord Chamberlain stood, and the pall-bearers stood on each side of it. When the first part of the
FUNERAL OF THE PRINCE CONSORT: PROCESSION IN THE NAVE OF ST. GEORGE’S CHAPEL.
service was over, the coffin was lowered into the vault. The Dean of Windsor having concluded the ritual, Garter-King-at-Arms proclaimed the style and titles of the Prince, and then the mourners left the chapel, while the “Dead March” in Saul was played on the organ. Lord Palmerston’s absence was accounted for by an attack of gout, which had been aggravated by his grief for the Prince’s death. Severe illness confined the Duke of Cambridge to his room. The absence of Dr. Jenner, which was remarked, was due to a melancholy cause. He was detained at Osborne in constant attendance on the grief-stricken Queen. For during the first agony of grief that followed the death of the Prince Consort serious fears were entertained lest the Queen should herself fall ill and die. “How you suffered,” wrote the Princess Alice to her mother many long years afterwards, “was dreadful to witness. Never shall I forget what I went through for you then; it tore my heart in pieces.”[121] Although the Princess took on herself the management of the household, and both verbally and by writing strove to transact her mother’s business, it was obvious that something must be done to rouse her Majesty from the lethargy of sorrow. King Leopold accordingly insisted on an immediate change of surroundings, and decided that she must be taken to Osborne. For a time the Queen resisted this decision. Even the Princess Alice remonstrated with Sir Charles Phipps against a step which seemed to her to be cruel. But she yielded at last to King Leopold’s wishes, and it was indeed through her influence that the Queen was finally induced to quit Windsor before her husband’s remains were laid in the grave.[122] “What a blow this has been,” wrote Bishop Wilberforce to the Hon. Arthur Gordon when describing the scene at St. George’s Chapel; “all my old affection for him (the Prince Consort) has revived over his tomb—and for our poor Queen.... The funeral was most deeply affecting; you saw old dry political eyes, which seemed as if they had long forgotten how to weep, gradually melting and running down in large drops of sympathy. The two Princes and the brother (the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-and-Gotha) and the son-in-law intended (Prince Louis of Hesse) were all deeply moved.”[123]
CHAPTER V.
WAR AND FAMINE.
Outbreak of Civil War in the United States—Origin of the Dispute—The Missouri Compromise—Effect of the “Gold Rush” on the Extension of Slavery—Colonising Nebraska—The Struggle in “Bleeding Kansas”—Assault on Senator Sumner—The Wyandotte Constitution—The Dred Scott Case—Election of Mr. Lincoln as President—Secession of South Carolina—Organisation of the Southern Confederacy—The Firing of the First Shot—Capture of Fort Sumter—Lincoln’s Call to Arms—Opinion in England—The Trent Affair—The Queen and the Prince Consort avert War—Opening of Parliament—Bitter Controversy over the Education Code—Parliament and the Civil War—The Cotton Famine—A Relief Bill—War Expenditure—Mr. Disraeli denounces Lord Palmerston’s “Bloated Armaments”—A Budget without a Surplus—The Fortifications at Spithead—Floating versus Fixed Forts—A Mexican Adventure—Revolution in Greece—Bismarck’s Visit to London—Anecdote of Bismarck and Mr. Disraeli—Progress of the American War—Mr. Peabody’s Benefactions—The Exhibition of 1862—The Prince of Wales’s Tour in the East—The Hartley Colliery Accident—Marriage of the Princess Alice—The Queen’s Visit to Belgium—Her Meeting with the Princess Alexandra of Denmark—The Queen’s Visit to Gotha—Removal of the Prince Consort’s Remains to the Mausoleum at Frogmore.