The Life of King Edward VII. Marie Belloc Lowndes
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to inspect the alterations that were being made at Marlborough House, which was then being actively prepared as a residence for the Prince of Wales; and on the 9th Queen Victoria wrote in her diary: “This is our dear Bertie’s twentieth birthday. I pray God to assist our efforts to make him turn out well.… All our people in and out of the house came in to dinner. Bertie led me in by Albert’s wish, and I sat between him and Albert.”
Prince Albert paid a hurried visit on 28th November to Cambridge in order to visit the Prince of Wales. The weather was cold and stormy, and he returned to Windsor with a heavy cold.
The next few days were spent by both the Prince Consort and Queen Victoria in considerable anxiety. The seizure of the Trent aroused a great deal of bitter public feeling, and the fact that America was convulsed by civil war did not make the position of Great Britain more easy. The Government adopted a very resolute attitude, and the Prince Consort, instead of allowing himself to be nursed through his feverish attack, spent some hours in composing and writing a draft, on the burning question of the day, to Lord Russell.
The story of those sad days is well known. As time went on, Prince Albert grew slightly worse rather than better, but no real danger was apprehended by those nearest and dearest to him, and Queen Victoria would not hear of having the Prince of Wales summoned, until at last Princess Alice, who behaved with extraordinary fortitude and marvellous self-possession, felt that she must send for her eldest brother on her own responsibility. She accordingly did so, and King Edward was always, up to the day of her death, very grateful to her for her prompt action, because it enabled him to arrive in time to be present at his much-loved father’s death-bed. Although she was herself overwhelmed with bitter grief, it was to the Princess Alice that all turned, for Queen Victoria was so completely overcome that nothing could be referred to her, and it was finally arranged that the Prince of Wales and the Princesses Alice and Helena should accompany their mother to Osborne, where she had consented very reluctantly to go.
The Prince of Wales returned immediately, in order to complete the arrangements for the funeral, and to receive his uncle the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, his brother-in-law the Crown Prince of Prussia (afterwards the Emperor Frederick), and the other foreign mourners who were to take part in the last sad ceremony.
The funeral took place on 23rd December, the service being held in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. The chief mourner was, of course, the Prince of Wales, who was supported, in the absence of Prince Alfred (Duke of Edinburgh), by Prince Arthur. All those present were deeply moved by the grief of the two young princes. They both hid their faces, and after the coffin had been lowered into the vault the Prince of Wales advanced to take a last look and stood for one moment looking down; then, his fortitude deserting him, he burst into a flood of tears, and was led away by the Lord Chamberlain.
Sad indeed were the days that followed. The effect of the Prince Consort’s death on King Edward’s affectionate and sensitive nature was terrible, and those about the Court felt that something must be done to rouse him from his grief.
As we have already seen, the Prince Consort, not long before his death, had assented to his eldest son’s proposal of making a tour in the Holy Land, and it had also been his earnest wish that His Royal Highness should on that occasion be accompanied by the Rev. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, who had himself already taken a journey to Jerusalem. And so, when the tour was decided upon as a means of rousing the Prince of Wales from his stupor of grief, Queen Victoria made up her mind that she would be guided by her late Consort’s wishes, and General Bruce was commanded to write to Dr. Stanley, but not till he reached Osborne was he actually asked whether he would consent to undertake the responsibility.
Dr. Stanley, though he regarded the proposal with reluctance and misgiving, for he could not bear to leave his aged mother, to whom he was most tenderly devoted, consented to do as Her Majesty wished. It was ultimately arranged that he should meet the Prince at Alexandria, ascend the Nile with him, and accompany him, not only through the Holy Land, but on the Egyptian portion of the expedition.
On 28th February King Edward, accompanied by General Bruce, Major Teesdale, Captain Keppel, and a small suite, was joined by Dr. Stanley, the party at once proceeding to Cairo. “The Prince,” wrote General Bruce to his sister, “takes great delight in the new world on which he has entered, and Dr. Stanley is a great acquisition.” They visited the Pyramids together, and then resumed their voyage, the Prince characteristically persuading Dr. Stanley to read East Lynne, a book which had greatly struck his imagination. When recording the circumstance, Dr. Stanley adds:—
“It is impossible not to like him, and to be constantly with him brings out his astonishing memory of names and persons.… I am more and more struck by the amiable and endearing qualities of the Prince.… His Royal Highness had himself laid down a rule that there was to be no shooting to-day (Sunday), and though he was sorely tempted, as we passed flocks of cranes and geese seated on the bank in the most inviting crowds, he rigidly conformed to it; a crocodile was allowed to be a legitimate exception, but none appeared. He sat alone on the deck with me, talking in the frankest manner, for an hour in the afternoon, and made the most reasonable and proper remarks on the due observance of Sunday in England.”
A sad event which occurred in March was destined to draw closer together the ties which were now binding His Royal Highness and his chaplain, for on 23rd March the news was broken to Dr. Stanley that his mother was dead. The Prince of Wales showed the kindest and most tender consideration for his bereaved travelling companion, and was much gratified that Dr. Stanley very wisely made up his mind to continue the journey instead of hurrying home at once.
A few days later the Royal party reached Palestine, and it is interesting to note that this was the first time that the heir to the English throne, since the days of Edward I. and Eleanor, had visited the Holy City. King Edward landed at Jaffa on 31st March, and both on his entrance into the Holy Land and during his approach to Jerusalem he followed in the footsteps of Richard Cœur de Lion and Edward I. The cavalcade, escorted by a troop of Turkish cavalry, climbed the Pass of Bethhoron, catching their first glimpse of Jerusalem from the spot where Richard is recorded to have hidden his face in his shield, with the words, “Ah, Lord God, if I am not thought worthy to win back the Holy Sepulchre, I am not worthy to see it!”
The King, accompanied by Dr. Stanley, carefully explored Jerusalem and its neighbourhood, riding over the hills of Judæa to Bethlehem, walking through the famous groves of Jericho, and staying some time at Bethany.
“Late in the afternoon,” writes Dr. Stanley, “we reached Bethany. I then took my place close beside the Prince. Every one else fell back by design or accident, and at the head of the cavalcade we moved on towards the famous view. This was the one half-hour which, throughout the journey, I had determined to have alone with the Prince, and I succeeded.”
During Dr. Stanley’s previous journey to the Holy Land he had not been permitted to visit the closely-guarded cave of Machpelah, but on this occasion, thanks to the diplomacy of General Bruce, not only the King, but also his chaplain, were allowed to set foot within the sacred precincts. Even to Royal personages the Mosque of Hebron had remained absolutely barred for nearly seven hundred years, and on the present occasion the Turkish official in charge declared that “for no one but for the eldest son of the Queen of England would he have allowed the gate to be opened; indeed, the Princes of any other nation should have passed over his body before doing so.”
King Edward, with his usual thoughtfulness, had made Dr. Stanley’s entrance with himself a condition of his going in at all, and when the latter went up to the King to thank him and to say that but for him he would never have had this great opportunity, the young man answered with touching and almost reproachful simplicity, “High station, you see, sir, has, after all, some merits, some advantages.” “Yes, sir,” replied Dr. Stanley, “and I hope that you will always make as good a use of it.”
On the party’s return to Jerusalem, they witnessed the Samaritan Passover, and Easter Sunday, 20th April, was spent by the shores of Lake Tiberias.
During the journey from Tiberias to Damascus King Edward and his escort lived in tents, an experience which he seems to have thoroughly enjoyed. From Damascus the party turned westward, reaching Beyrout on 6th May, and after