Doubtless the cries of starving children and the moans of fever-
stricken mothers must often have pierced the tender hearts of the Queen
and Prince; but the calamity was so vast, so apparently irremediable,
that they turned their thoughts away from it as much as possible, as we
turn ours from the awful tragic work of volcanoes in the far East and
tornadoes in the West. It was a sort of charmed life they lived, with its
pastoral peace and simple pleasures. Lady Bloomfield wrote: "It always
entertains me to see the little things which amuse Her Majesty and the
Prince, instead of their looking bored, as people so often do in English
society." One thing, however, did "bore" him, and that, unfortunately,
was riding--"for its own sake." So it was not surprising that after a
time the Queen indulged less in her favourite pastime. She still loved a
romping dance now and then, but she was hardly as gay as when Guizot
first saw and described her. Writing from Windsor to his son he gives a
picture of a royal dinner party: "On my left sat the young Queen whom
they tried to assassinate the other day, in gay spirits, talking a great
deal, laughing very often and longing to laugh still more; and filling
with her gaiety, which contrasted with the already tragical elements of
her history, this ancient castle which has witnessed the career of all
her predecessors.
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