It was clear that these interior changes—whatever
else they might betoken—marked the triumph
of one person—the Baroness Lehzen.
The pastor’s daughter observed the ruin of her
enemies. Discreet and victorious, she remained
in possession of the field. More closely than
ever did she cleave to the side of her mistress, her
pupil, and her friend; and in the recesses of the
palace her mysterious figure was at once invisible
and omnipresent. When the Queen’s Ministers
came in at one door, the Baroness went out by another;
when they retired, she immediately returned.
Nobody knew—nobody ever will know—the
precise extent and the precise nature of her influence.
She herself declared that she never discussed public
affairs with the Queen, that she was concerned with
private matters only—with private letters
and the details of private life. Certainly her
hand is everywhere discernible in Victoria’s
early correspondence. The Journal is written in
the style of a child; the Letters are not so simple;
they are the work of a child, rearranged—with
the minimum of alteration, no doubt, and yet perceptibly—by
a governess. And the governess was no fool:
narrow, jealous, provincial, she might be; but she
was an acute and vigorous woman, who had gained by
a peculiar insight, a peculiar ascendancy. That
ascendancy she meant to keep. No doubt it was
true that technically she took no part in public business;
but the distinction between what is public and what
is private is always a subtle one; and in the case
of a reigning sovereign—as the next few
years were to show—it is often imaginary.
Considering all things—the characters of
the persons, and the character of the times—it
was something more than a mere matter of private interest
that the bedroom of Baroness Lehzen at Buckingham
Palace should have been next door to the bedroom of
the Queen.
But the influence wielded by the Baroness, supreme
as it seemed within its own sphere, was not unlimited;
there were other forces at work. For one thing,
the faithful Stockmar had taken up his residence in
the palace. During the twenty years which had
elapsed since the death of the Princess Charlotte,
his experiences had been varied and remarkable.
The unknown counsellor of a disappointed princeling
had gradually risen to a position of European importance.
His devotion to his master had been not only whole—hearted
but cautious and wise. It was Stockmar’s
advice that had kept Prince Leopold in England during
the critical years which followed his wife’s
death, and had thus secured to him the essential requisite
of a point d’appui in the country of his adoption.
It was Stockmar’s discretion which had smoothed
over the embarrassments surrounding the Prince’s
acceptance and rejection of the Greek crown.
It was Stockmar who had induced the Prince to become
the constitutional Sovereign of Belgium. Above
all, it was Stockmar’s tact, honesty, and diplomatic
Copyrights
Queen Victoria from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
