Queen Victoria (14 page)

The Queen had for some time been anxious to visit Louis Philippe and to make the acquaintance of Queen Marie Amelie and their family, with whom the Queen had been long connected by the marriage of her uncle, King Leopold, with the Princess Louise of Orleans. A favourable opportunity now presented itself for a friendly visit, as the French Court was at the Chateau d’Eu, near Treport. In Lady Bloomfield’s
Reminiscences
occurs the following story of an incident of the voyage: “I remained on deck a long time with Her Majesty, and she taught me to plait paper for bonnets, which was a favourite occupation of the Queen. Lady Canning and I had settled ourselves in a very sheltered place, protected by the paddle-box; and, remarking what a comfortable spot we had chosen, Her Majesty sent for her camp-stool, and settled herself beside us, plaiting away most composedly, when suddenly we observed a commotion among the sailors, little knots of men talking together in a mysterious manner; first one officer came up to them, then another, looking embarrassed, and at last Lord Adolphus Fitzclarence was called. The Queen, much puzzled, asked what was the matter, and inquired whether we were going to have a mutiny on board? Lord Adolphus laughed, but remarked that he really did not know what
would
happen unless Her Majesty would be graciously pleased to remove her seat. ‘Move my seat,’ said the Queen, ‘why should I? What possible harm can I be doing here?’ ‘Well, ma’am,’ said Lord Adolphus, ‘the fact is, Your Majesty is unwittingly closing up the door of the place where the grog-tubs are kept, and so the men cannot have their grog!’‘Oh, very well,’ said the Queen, ‘I will move on one condition: that you bring me a glass of grog.’ This was accordingly done, and after tasting it, the Queen said: ‘I am afraid I can only make the same remark I did once before, that I think it would be very good if it were stronger!’ This, of course, delighted the men, and the little incident caused much amusement on board.”

When the royal yacht arrived at Treport, King Louis Philippe came off in his barge to welcome his guest. The Queen in her
Journal
writes: “I felt as it came nearer and nearer, more and more agitated. At length it came close, and contained the King, Aumale, Montpensier, Augustus (Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and husband of Princess Clementine of Orleans), M. Guizot, Lord Cowley, and various officers and ministers. The good kind King was standing on the boat, and so impatient to get out that it was very difficult to prevent him, and to get him to wait till the boat was close enough. He got out and came up as quickly as possible and embraced me warmly. It was a fine and really affecting sight, and the emotion which it caused I shall never forget… The King expressed again and again how delighted he was to see me.” As the Queen left her own yacht the Royal Standard was lowered from the masthead, and hoisted side by side with that of France on the King’s barge. It was the first time they had floated together since the Field of the Cloth of Gold. On landing the Queen was escorted by the King up a somewhat steep stair to where the Queen Amelie with the Queen of the Belgians and other members of the Royal Family awaited their approach. After an interchange of cordial greetings and amid the firing of salutes and the shouts of the spectators, the royal cortege departed for the Chateau. In the evening a grand banquet was given. The Queen sat on the right of the King of the French, and on Her Majesty’s right was the Prince de Joinville. Queen Amelie sat opposite the King, having Prince Albert on her right.

Next day, being Sunday, was spent very quietly; the Queen had no chaplain with her, but prayers were read by one of the members of the suite. “At half-past two,” the Queen records in her
Journal
, “the King and Queen came to fetch us and took us over the greater part of the Chateau. The number of family pictures is quite enormous. The little chapel is beautiful, and full of painted windows and statues of saints, quite a little
bijou
. It is the first Catholic Chapel I have seen. There are numbers of pictures and reminiscences of Mademoiselle de Montpensier. She built part of the Chateau, and there are some interior decorations still of her time. The rooms of the Queen, including a little
cabinet
de
toilette
, are charming. They contain many old family pictures, and pictures of their own family, and there are some of poor Chartres, when a child, the sight of which, we see, is heartrending to the dear excellent Queen.”

On Monday, September the 4th, the
Journal
proceeds, “Up at half-past seven and breakfasted at eight. Good news from the children. The band of the 24th Regiment (Infanterie legere) played under my window, and extremely well… At half-past ten the King and family came and fetched us to their delightful, cheerful breakfast. I sat between the King and Aumale. I feel so gay and happy with these dear people… Later we saw M. Guizot, who came to express his great joy at our visit. It seems to have done the greatest good, and to have caused the greatest satisfaction to the French… I hear that I should have been most kindly received at Paris even. The French naval officers give this evening a banquet on board the
Pluton
to our naval officers, and I trust that the ‘
haine
pour
les
perfides
Anglais’ will cease.”

The great event of the day was a
fete
champetre
at the Mont d’Orleans in the forest of Eu. About four o’clock the King, with Queen Victoria and the Queen of the French, with other ladies, drove up to the large tent, which was pitched on a spot commanding the finest view, and here the party lunched. Prince Albert, with other gentlemen, had already arrived on horseback. The Queen records: “I sat between the King and Queen. Poor Helene (the widowed Duchess of Orleans) sat next the King; it was the first time she had sat at table with them since her terrible misfortune… The King’s liveliness and vivacity, and little
impatiences
, are my delight and amusement.” After luncheon, the King, giving his arm to Queen Victoria, walked round the platform before the tent; Prince Albert came next with the Queen of the French, the rest of the company following. The large crowd which had assembled cheered the Royal party with much enthusiasm. On the return to the chateau, after dinner, “There was,” as the Queen notes, “very fine music by the
artistes
du
Conservatoire
. They played beautifully, particularly the things from Beethoven’s symphonies.”

The next morning Prince Albert, accompanied by the Dukes of Aumale and Montpensier and others, was present at a review of the French cavalry regiment, the Carabiniers, and afterwards of a regiment of the line, at the Caserne de Montpensier. In the afternoon the whole party visited the church of Notre-Dame, and the crypt containing the monuments of the Counts of Artois and of the Counts of Eu, the maternal ancestors of the King. On this day the King presented Queen Victoria with the two splendid pieces of tapestry representing the chase of the Calydonian boar and the death of Meleager, which had been in hand at the Gobelins for thirty years, and now form the principal decoration of Her Majesty’s dining-room at Windsor.

The next day there was another
fete
champetre
in the forest, the scene being the Mont St. Catherine, and the
dejeuner
entirely
alfresco
, no tent having been pitched. “We came home,” the Queen writes - “the evening lovely - at half-past six. After dinner we remained in a little room near the dining-room - as the
galerie
where we generally are was fitted up as
un
petit
theatre
. At a little after nine we went in. The little stage and
orchestre
were perfectly arranged, and we were all seated in rows of chairs one above the other. The pieces were all admirably performed. The first was
Le
Chateau
de
Ma
Niece
, in which Madame Mira acted delightfully; the second, &
Humor
iste
, in which Arnal sent us into fits of laughter… Thursday, September 7. At a quarter to six we got up,
le
cceur
gros
at the thought we must leave this dear interesting family. At half-past six the King (who, with all the Princes, was in uniform) and the Queen and all the family came to fetch us to breakfast. Joinville was already gone to Treport. I felt so sad to go. At half-past seven we went in the large State carriage, precisely as we came the day we arrived, with the Princes riding, and the same escort. It was a lovely morning and many people out. We embarked in the King’s fine barge with great facility… At last the
mauvais
moment
arrived, and we were obliged to take leave and with great regret… We stood on the side of the paddle-box, and waited to see them pass by in a small steamer, which they had all got into, and the King waved his hand and called out ‘Adieu! Adieu!’ We set off before nine… At half-past three we got into the barge off Brighton, with Joinville, the ladies, Lord Aberdeen, and Mr. Tonchard… When we arrived at the Pavilion, we took Joinville upstairs with us, and he was very much struck with the strangeness of the building.”

A few days after their return the Queen and Prince Albert again embarked on their yacht, and landed at Ostend to pay a visit to the King and Queen of the Belgians. They remained in Belgium for nearly a week, visiting Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, and Antwerp. To the Prince the old masters of the Low Countries were a great delight, and he afterwards formed the collection of their works since bequeathed to the National Gallery. After their return the Queen and Prince paid, in October, a visit to Cambridge, where, the next morning, the degree of LL.D. was conferred on the Prince. On the return journey to Windsor two days were spent at Wimpole, the seat of Lord Hardwicke.

Before the close of the year other visits were paid. One to Sir Robert Peel at Drayton Manor gave the Prince an opportunity long desired of inspecting some of the chief manufactories of Birmingham. Another was paid to Chatsworth, where three days were spent, and a third to Belvoir. Of the visit to Birmingham, the Prince writes to Baron Stockmar: “Sir James Graham and others had advised me strongly not to go, as the town is entirely in the hands of the Chartists, and even the Radicals dare not show themselves in it. Nevertheless I was received with an indescribable enthusiasm. The people regarded the visit as a great proof of confidence, and did all they could to give assurance of their loyalty. In short, our excursion was one unbroken triumph.”

On the 29th of January, 1844, Prince Albert lost his father after a few days’ illness. The sympathy of the Queen in his trial was his one consolation. Writing to Baron Stockmar a few days afterwards, he mentions his sister-in-law Alexandrine as being, in the house of mourning at Coburg, “the consoling angel. Just such,” he continues, “is Victoria to me, who feels and shares my grief, and is the treasure on which my whole existence rests. The relation in which we stand to one another leaves nothing to desire. It is a union of heart and soul.” The Queen, too, had her trial to bear. When Easter came and Parliament adjourned, the Prince left England, feeling that duty demanded his presence in Coburg; since her marriage she had never been one day apart from him, and the separation was proportionately painful.

In June, 1844, shortly after the Prince’s safe return, the Queen received a visit from the Emperor of Russia. The Emperor at first took up his quarters at the Russian Embassy, but afterwards, on Her Majesty’s pressing invitation, became the Queen’s guest at Buckingham Palace. The object of this visit he stated in one of his interviews with Sir Robert Peel: “Years ago Lord Durham was sent to me, a man full of prejudices against me. By merely coming to close quarters with me all his prejudices were driven clean out of him. This is what I hope by coming here to bring about with you, and with England generally. By personal intercourse I trust to annihilate these prejudices, for I esteem England highly; but as to what the French say about me I care not.” The Queen, writing on the 11th of June to her uncle, thus records the personal impression made upon her by her visitor: “I will now give you my opinions and feelings on the subject, which I may say are Albert’s also. I was extremely against the visit, fearing the
gene
and bustle, and even at first I did not feel at all to like it; but by living in the same house together quietly and unrestrainedly (and this Albert, and with great truth, says is the advantage of these visits, that I not only
see
these great people, but
know
them), I got to know the Emperor and he to know me. There is much about him which I cannot help liking, and I think his character is one which should be understood, and looked upon for once as it is. He is stern and severe, with strict principles of
duty
which nothing on earth will make him change. Politics and military concerns are the only things he takes great interest in; the arts and all softer occupations he does not care for; but he is sincere, I am certain - sincere even in his most despotic acts - from a sense that it is the only way to govern… He was not only civil but extremely kind to us both, and spoke in the highest praise of dearest Albert to Sir Robert Peel, saying he wished any Prince in Germany had as much ability and sense. He is not happy, and that melancholy which is visible in the countenance made us sad at times.”

The hearty reception given to the Emperor by the Court, and by the whole nation, caused some irritation in the political circles of France. It even seemed at one time as if the projected visit of King Louis Philippe might be interfered with for this reason; and the Queen, in the letter to her uncle, an extract from which has been already quoted, writes: “I hope you will persuade the King to come all the same in September. Our motives and politics are not to be exclusive, but to be on good terms with all - and why should we not? We make no secret of it.”

This irritation, and the estrangement between the two countries, were, however, intensified at this moment by the harsh measures adopted by the French officials to Queen Pomare in Tahiti. The extreme gravity of the situation caused much anxiety and suffering to our Queen, who was at the time in need of quiet and repose, as on the 6th of August her second son was born. In the first letter she was able to write after her confinement, she says to King Leopold: “The only thing almost to mar our happiness is the heavy and threatening cloud which hangs over our relations with France, and which, I assure you, distresses and alarms us sadly. The whole nation here is very angry… God grant all may come right, and I am still of good cheer.” In September, when all disputes had been satisfactorily arranged, the Queen again wrote to her uncle: “The good ending of our difficulties with France is an immense blessing; but it is really and truly necessary that you and those in Paris should know that the danger was
imminent
… We must try and prevent these difficulties for the future.”