For the world, even for
the Court, he grew, as the pitiless, pilfering years went by, a little
too stout, and somewhat bald, while his complexion lost something of its
fine coloring and smoothness, and his eyes their fulness,--but for her,
he seems to have always kept the grace and glory of his youth. Even when
he was dying-when the gray twilight of the fast-coming night was creeping
over his face, clouding the light of his eyes, chilling the glow of his
smile--his beauty was still undimmed for her. She says in her pathetic
account of those sad moments--"his beautiful face, more beautiful than
ever, is grown so thin."
But on this their wedding-day, death and death-bed partings were far
enough from the thoughts of the royal lovers. Life was theirs,--young
life, in all its fulness and richness of health, and hope, and joy, and
that "perfect, love, which casteth out fear."
So essentially young and so light-hearted were they, that they laughingly
welcomed the crowd of shouting, leaping, hat-waving, mad Eton boys, who
as they neared Windsor, turned out to receive them. The Queen jotted down
this jolly incident in her journal thus: "The boys in a body accompanied
the carriage to the castle, cheering and shouting as only schoolboys can.
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