He was a Highland gillie, of
simple Highland ways and words but "_A man's a man for a' that._" If
Byron could nurse his dying dog, _Boatswain_, and erect a monument to his
memory, and not lose, but gain, our respect by so doing, we surely might
let pass, unquestioned, the Queen's grief for a faithful human creature--
for thirty-four years devoted to her--ever at her call--looking up to
her, yet watching over her; a friend, whose humble good sense and canny
bits of counsel must often, in the simpler, yet not simple, affairs of
her complex life, be sorely missed.
That is how it strikes an American, of democratic tendencies.
About a year after the death of Prince Albert, the Duchess of Sutherland
presented to the Queen a richly-bound Bible, the offering of loyal
"English widows."
In her letter of acknowledgment, Her Majesty gives very strong and clear
expression to her faith, not only in the happy continued existence of her
beloved husband, but in his "unseen presence" with her--a faith which she
has often expressed. The letter runs thus:
"MY DEAREST DUCHESS:--I am deeply touched by the gift of a Bible 'from
many widows,' and by the very kind and affectionate address which
accompanied it.
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