They swarmed up the mound, as the carriage entered the quadrangle, and,
as the Queen and the Prince descended at the grand entrance, they made
the old castle ring again with their acclamations."
What would Queen Charlotte, or any of the stiff, formal Dutch Queens of
any of the Georges have thought of such a boisterous wedding escort,--of
such a noisy welcome to stately Windsor? They would very likely have
said, "Go away, naughty _pays_! How dare you!"
Alas, this royal pair, natural, joyous, girl-like and boy-like as they
were still were slaves to, their station. They could not long hide
themselves from the million-eyed world. In a few days the Court came down
upon them from London. "Mamma" came with them--and I hope that she, at
least, was welcome. Then followed show and ceremony, and amusements of
the common, unpoetic, unparadisiacal, Courtly order. There were "fiddling
and dancing every night," and feasting, and full-dressing, and all that.
Still nothing seems to have interfered much with the Queen's happiness
and content, for Lady Lyttleton wrote of her about this time,--"I
understand she is in extremely high spirits. Such a new thing for her to
dare to be unguarded in conversing with anybody, and with her frank and
fearless nature, the restraints she has hitherto been under, from one
reason or another, with everybody, must have been most painful.
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