Part 5 (1/2)
In the magnificent procession which attended the Queen to and from Westminster Abbey, no figure attracted more attention, or excited greater admiration, than that of the Crown Prince of Germany, in his white Cuira.s.sier's uniform, and rivetting all eyes by his n.o.ble head and majestic bearing. Little was it then dreamed that within a year he was to succeed his father as Emperor of the Germans, when himself stricken by the cruel malady under which he sank within a few months after his accession. The tragic circ.u.mstances of his death awakened a very profound feeling throughout this country, and men's thoughts turned to the uncrowned Empress whom he left behind, and also to the Queen, who thus saw the fair hopes blighted, with which she and the Prince Consort had resigned their first and highly gifted child to the man of her heart, by whose side they might expect in time to see her throned as sovereign over a mighty kingdom.
The Emperor Frederic died on the 15th of June 1888. As soon as her health permitted, the widowed Empress decided to come to England for a time; and the Queen wrote to me suggesting that some special expression of public sympathy should meet her daughter on her arrival. That this sympathy would be generally and warmly expressed through the usual channels could not be doubted. But I ventured to think, that the expression of it might not unfitly be concentrated in the compacter form of verse. With this view I wrote the following sonnet, which appeared in the _Standard_ two days before the Empress reached England:--
TO THE EMPRESS FREDERIC.
_On her arriving in England, 17th November 1888._
When England sent thee forth, a joyous bride, A prayer went through the land, that on thy head Might all best blessings bounteously be shed, And his, the lover-husband by thy side; And England marked with ever-growing pride, As onwards still the years full-freighted sped, How wrought in both the grace of worth inbred, To n.o.blest acts and purposes allied.
With eyes of longing, not undimmed by tears, England now greets thee, desolate and lone, Heart-stricken, widowed of the twofold crown Of love and empire; and the grief endears, Remembering all the cherished hopes o'erthrown, When at their height thy heart's lord was struck down.
I also wrote this other sonnet, which appeared in the _Morning Post_ on the day of the Empress's arrival:--
TO THE EMPRESS FREDERIC.
_19th November 1888._
Oh lady, how our hearts were pang'd,[29] when he, Whom late we saw, in England's festal hour, Ride through our streets in manhood's stateliest power, Hail'd by all eyes a star of chivalry, Through long sad months of sorest agony, Faced martyr-like the doom, that hour by hour He saw still near and ever nearer lour, To tear him from his country and from thee; Thee of the childlike heart and manlike brain, Fit in all ways to share a monarch's throne, Who made his people's good his chiefest care!
Oh n.o.ble heart, all England shares thy pain, And in thy grief thou wilt feel less alone, 'Midst all the love that waits to greet thee there!
The 9th line of this sonnet was prompted by an incident on the last occasion that I met the Crown Prince and Princess together at Windsor Castle. ”Do you know,” he said to me, ”what her father said of her?”
”Oh, Fritz,” the Princess broke in, antic.i.p.ating what he was going to tell me, ”you should not speak of such a thing.” ”I will speak of it,”
he continued, looking at her with eyes of affectionate pride. ”Why should I not? It is only the truth. The Prince Consort said, 'She has the heart of a child, the brain of a man!'” That her father so thought of her I had seen many proofs in the private correspondence which was placed in my hands while I was writing his life.
I sent these Sonnets to the Queen, and on November 13 she wrote: ”The Queen thanks Sir T. Martin for his two kind letters, and the two exquisite little Sonnets. They should certainly be published, and a special copy be prepared for her poor dear persecuted daughter.” A few days afterwards (November 20) the Queen again wrote: ”The Queen encloses a letter from her dear daughter the Empress, which she is sure he will be pleased to receive.” This was a letter thanking me in very gratifying terms for my Sonnets. ”She thanks him again,” the Queen continued, ”for her two kind letters and the lovely poems.... The dear Empress is very sad. The arrival upset her terribly, but she struggles bravely with the dreadful misfortune, and takes an interest in other things. But it is a misfortune which one cannot understand, and which is a great trial to one's faith. One can but say, as one of her Indian attendants (who are all Mohammedans), an excellent, very refined, and gentle young man, said, 'G.o.d ordered it!'...”
A few days afterwards I had a long and most interesting interview with the Empress at Windsor Castle, and was told of things which explained what was meant by the Queen in speaking of her as her ”poor dear persecuted daughter.” They have now happily sunk into oblivion.
Early in the 'Seventies the Queen intimated to me her great desire to visit North Wales, if a house could be found there suitable for her stay. On looking round the counties of Denbigh and Merioneth, where the Queen wished especially to go, so as to be within reach of some of the best Welsh scenery and also to be seen by the large bodies of workers in coal and other mines and industries, to which the county chiefly owes its prosperity, the mansion of my friend the late Henry Robertson, C.E., at Pale on the Dee, between Corwen and Bala, seemed the most eligible in itself, besides having the advantage of being close to the Llanderfel station on the railway from Ruabon to Dolgelly and Festiniog. It was at once placed by Mr Robertson at Her Majesty's disposal; but the projected visit fell through, owing to the pressure of various engagements which compelled the Queen to abandon it for the time.
The project was again mentioned to me by Her Majesty in the following letter, November 4, 1889;--
”The Queen thanks Sir Theodore for the newspaper, and his article on Wales, which interests her _very_ much. This brings her to the subject of the visit, once contemplated, to Wales. Would that be possible? by the loan of a house like the one mentioned at that time by Sir Theodore?
She believes a short visit of four or five days there would do good. She can no longer ride up hills, but she can drive, and go to some places where her presence might be useful.”
Mr Robertson was dead, but his son and successor in the Pale estate, Mr, now Sir Henry Beyer Robertson, was delighted to have the opportunity of fulfilling his father's intention. On being made aware of this, the Queen decided to make the visit in the summer of the following year on her way to Balmoral. When this decision became known, the people of the princ.i.p.ality, who are as a rule most loyal, looked forward with enthusiasm to the prospect of seeing among them the Queen, who had hitherto been to them only a revered name. Everything was done which loyalty could devise to show how highly the royal presence among them was valued. The only cloud on the general satisfaction was the knowledge that the visit could only be for a very few days--from the 23rd to the 28th of August, one of which was a Sunday.
The Queen arrived at Pale on the 23rd at 7 A.M., and had not been many hours there before she received a deputation of the farm tenants of the adjoining district, who had prepared a walking-stick of their native wood for Her Majesty's acceptance. They were surprised, and more than delighted, by the royal acceptance of it being made in Welsh, the Queen having immediately on her arrival taken pains to learn so much of that far from easy language as served her for this and other similar occasions. In no other way could Her Majesty have so thoroughly touched the hearts of her Welsh subjects. The incident, of which the tidings spread over Wales within a few hours, heightened the enthusiasm with which she was everywhere received. Two days afterwards this was markedly shown in her public visit to Wrexham, the centre of the mining and other industries of Denbighs.h.i.+re, where a reception in Aston Park, the property of Sir Robert Cunliffe, admirably arranged by the Mayor and Corporation of Wrexham, awaited Her Majesty. All the leading people of the adjoining counties were present, and many hundred thousands of the working population a.s.sembled both there and on the five miles of road along which the Queen drove from Ruabon, to which the royal train had come from Pale. A choir of 600 singers gave the Queen her first idea of the choral singing for which Wales is famous. The demeanour of the working men, rough in exterior, and not always on ordinary occasions gentle in manners, produced a most favourable impression on Her Majesty.
”They all behaved like gentlemen,” she said to me when, two days afterwards, accompanied by the Prince and Princess Henry of Battenberg and the Princess Alix of Hesse (now the Czarina), she honoured Lady Martin and myself by a visit to our villa near Llangollen. It had not occurred to us why the Queen had chosen that day, the 26th of August, for the visit. But the reason flashed upon us, when, turning to Lady Martin as she inscribed her name with the date on a sheet of paper prepared for the purpose, she looked up and said, ”The dear Prince's birthday!” Then we saw that as the Prince's _Life_ had been written in my study there, Her Majesty had chosen that day for her visit--surely a very delicately imagined tribute to the author.
Several Welsh airs were sung for the Queen on this visit by a selected number of the Llangollen choir, chiefly young ladies. When they had finished, Her Majesty asked me to what cla.s.s the singers belonged, as she had observed greater refinement in their execution than in any of the other choirs she had heard in Wales. She was also struck by the admirable way they had sustained the pitch from beginning to end of all the choral pieces sung without the drop of half a tone. Only an ear finely trained to a subtle appreciation of musical execution could have noticed these points.
It had been greatly desired that the Queen should visit Festiniog, both for the beauty of the scenery and to satisfy the loyal feelings of the large and intelligent slate-making population of that district. This was found to be impracticable, but a hope was held out that the omission might be remedied by another visit to North Wales. A few days after her arrival at Balmoral the Queen wrote: ”The Queen and her children have brought with them the pleasantest recollections of Wales, its beauty, and the kindness and loyalty of its people. The Queen was greatly pleased to have been able to see Sir Theodore and Lady Martin's charming home.”
Again in the following year (September 3, 1891) Her Majesty wrote:--
”The Queen thanks Sir T. Martin for his letter of the 26th, on which dear day last year we made that charming expedition to Llangollen and visited Sir Theodore and Lady Martin at their delightful little Welsh home at Bryntysilio. The recollection of the Queen's visit to Wales is a most pleasing one, to which she often looks back, and hopes to repeat some day. She would wish to go again to Pale, to which most pleasant and comfortable house Sir H. Robertson has again and again invited her to return. The Queen could visit Harlech Castle and Llanberis, &c., from Pale, returning at night, could she not? The Queen uses the Welsh stick, so kindly given her by the farmers and people at Pale, very often, and always when she travels and wants a good strong one.”