The King and several of his sons came off in the royal barge to
meet their yacht, which they boarded. One account says that Louis
Philippe, most unceremonious of monarchs, caught up the little Queen,
kissed her on both cheeks, and carried her bodily on to his barge.
Two Queens--Marie Amelie of France and her daughter, Louise of Belgium,
and two of her daughters-in-law--were at the landing to receive the first
Sovereign of England who had ever come to their shores on a friendly,
neighborly visit. It was a visit "of unmixed pleasure," says the Queen,
and the account of it is very pleasant reading now; but I have not space
to reproduce it. One little passage, in reference to the widowed Duchesse
d'Orleans, strikes my eye at this moment: "At ten, dear Helene came to me
with little Paris, and stayed till the King and Queen came to fetch us to
breakfast."
"Little Paris" is the present Bourbon-Orleanist bugbear of the French
Republic--a very tame and well-behaved _bete noir_, but distrusted
and dreaded all the same.
After this French visit, the Queen and Prince went over to see their
uncle and aunt, at Brussels, and had a very interesting tour through
Belgium. Prince Albert, writing to the Baron soon after, said: "We found
uncle and aunt well.
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