Within a few weeks Palmerston withdrew his resignation, and the public frenzy subsided as quickly as it had arisen.  When Parliament met, the leaders of both the parties in both the Houses made speeches in favour of the Prince, asserting his unimpeachable loyalty to the country and vindicating his right to advise the Sovereign in all matters of State.  Victoria was delighted.  “The position of my beloved lord and master,” she told the Baron, “has been defined for once amid all and his merits have been acknowledged on all sides most duly.  There was an immense concourse of people assembled when we went to the House of Lords, and the people were very friendly.”  Immediately afterwards, the country finally plunged into the Crimean War.  In the struggle that followed, Albert’s patriotism was put beyond a doubt, and the animosities of the past were forgotten.  But the war had another consequence, less gratifying to the royal couple:  it crowned the ambition of Lord Palmerston.  In 1855, the man who five years before had been pronounced by Lord John Russell to be “too old to do much in the future,” became Prime Minister of England, and, with one short interval, remained in that position for ten years.

CHAPTER VI.  LAST YEARS OF PRINCE CONSORT

I

The weak-willed youth who took no interest in polities and never read a newspaper had grown into a man of unbending determination whose tireless energies were incessantly concentrated upon the laborious business of government and the highest questions of State.  He was busy now from morning till night.  In the winter, before the dawn, he was to be seen, seated at his writing-table, working by the light of the green reading—­lamp which he had brought over with him from Germany, and the construction of which he had much improved by an ingenious device.  Victoria was early too, but she was not so early as Albert; and when, in the chill darkness, she took her seat at her own writing-table, placed side by side with his, she invariably found upon it a neat pile of papers arranged for her inspection and her signature.  The day, thus begun, continued in unremitting industry.  At breakfast, the newspapers—­the once hated newspapers—­made their appearance, and the Prince, absorbed in their perusal, would answer no questions, or, if an article struck him, would read it aloud.  After, that there were ministers and secretaries to interview; there was a vast correspondence to be carried on; there were numerous memoranda to be made.  Victoria, treasuring every word, preserving every letter, was all breathless attention and eager obedience.  Sometimes Albert would actually ask her advice.  He consulted her about his English:  “Lese recht aufmerksam, und sage wenn irgend ein Fehler ist,"(*) he would say; or, as he handed her a draft for her signature, he would observe, “Ich hab’ Dir hier ein Draft gemacht, lese es mal!  Ich dachte es ware recht so."(**) Thus the diligent, scrupulous, absorbing hours passed by.  Fewer and fewer grew the moments of recreation and of exercise.  The demands of society were narrowed down to the smallest limits, and even then but grudgingly attended to.  It was no longer a mere pleasure, it was a positive necessity, to go to bed as early as possible in order to be up and at work on the morrow betimes.