The Queen's destination in Germany was Reinhardtsbrunn, the lovely little hunting-seat among the Thuringian woods and mountains, which had so taken her fancy on her first happy visit to Germany. There she was joined by the Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia and their children, Prince Louis and Princess Alice, and Prince Alfred.
Her Majesty could not quit Germany without revisiting Coburg, hard as the visit must have been to her. One of the chief inducements was to go to one who could no longer come to her, the aged Baron Stockmar, whose talk was still of "the dear good Prince," and of how soon the old man would rejoin the noble pupil cut off in the prime of his gifts and his usefulness.
Prince and Princess Louis of Hesse spent the winter with the Queen in England, and in the month of November Princess Alexandra of Denmark paid a short visit to her Majesty, when the Princess's youthful beauty and sweetness won all hearts.
Early in the morning on the 18th of December the Prince Consort's remains were removed from the entrance of the vault beneath St. George's Chapel to the mausoleum already prepared for them at Frogmore. The ceremony, which was attended by the Prince of Wales, Prince Arthur, Prince Leopold, and Prince Louis of Hesse, was quite private. Prince Alfred had a severe attack of fever in the Mediterranean.
The Duchess of Sutherland presented the Queen with a Bible from "many widows of England," and to "all those kind sister widows" her Majesty expressed the deep and heartfelt gratitude of "their widowed Queen."
As a consequence of the failure of the cotton crop in America, caused by the civil war rending the country asunder, the Lancashire operatives were in a state of enforced idleness and famine, calling for the most strenuous efforts to relieve them.
When Parliament was opened by commission on the 5th of February, 1863, the Queen's speech announced the approaching marriage of the Prince of Wales. On the 7th of March Princess Alexandra, accompanied by her father and mother, brother and sister, arrived at Gravesend, where the Prince of Wales met her. Bride and bridegroom drove, on the chill spring day which ended in rain, through decorated and festive London, where great crowds congregated to do the couple honour.
In the afternoon at Windsor the Queen was seen seated with her two younger daughters at a window of the castle which commanded the entrance drive. The little party waited there in patient expectation till it grew dark.
On Tuesday, the 10th of March, the marriage took place in St. George's Chapel. The Queen in her widow's weeds occupied the royal closet, from which she could look down on the actors in the ceremony. She was attended by the widow of General Bruce. Among the English royal family were Prince and Princess Louis of Hesse, and the Crown Princess of Prussia leading her little son, Prince William.
The Prince of Wales, who wore a general's uniform with the star of the Garter, was supported by the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and the Crown Prince of Prussia.