At last, there came a small company of Life Guards,
escorting an open carriage-and-four, containing the young Danish Princess
and His Royal Highness Albert Edward, looking very happy and very
conscious. The smiling, blushing, appealing face of the Princess warmed
as well as won all hearts. There were few flowers at that season to
scatter on her way, except flowers of poetry, of which there was no jack.
Tennyson's pretty ode has not been forgotten, but all as noble and sweet
was the greeting of her from whom I have before quoted; Mrs. Crosland.
The most touching, though not the strongest verse in that poem, is this:
"She comes another child to be
To that Crowned Widow of the land,
Whose sceptre weighs more heavily
Since One has ceased to hold her hand."
The Queen did not feel herself equal to taking any part in the marriage
ceremony, but looked down upon the scene of grandeur and gayety from the
Royal Gallery of St George's Chapel. The Duchess of Sutherland attended
her then for the last time. She had been with her at her coronation and
marriage; to-day they were both widows, and must have been at the moment
living intensely and sorrowfully in the past. With the exception of the
Crown Princess of Germany and the Duke of Edinburgh, all the Queen's
children, down to little Beatrice, were present.
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