It seems, according to the Queen, that it was Stockmar
that took this last message to the Prince, who lacked
the fortitude to remain by the bedside of his dying
wife—that it was Stockmar who held her hand
till it grew pulseless and cold, till the light faded
from her sweet blue eyes as her great life and her
great love passed forever from the earth. Yet
it seems that through a mystery of transmigration,
that light and life and love were destined soon to
be reincarnated in a baby cousin, born in May, 1819,
called at first “the little May-flower,”
and through her earliest years watched and tended
as a frail and delicate blossom of hope.
Birth of the Princess Victoria—Character
of her Father—Question of the Succession
to the Throne—Death of the Duke of Kent—Baptism
of Victoria —Removal to Woolbrook Glen—Her
first Escape from Sudden Death—Picture
of Domestic Life—Anecdotes.
After the loss of his wife, Prince Leopold left for
a time his sad home of Claremont, and returned to
the Continent, but came back some time in 1819, to
visit a beloved sister, married since his own bereavement,
and become the mother of a little English girl, and
for the second time a widow. Lovingly, though
with a pang at his heart, the Prince bent over the
cradle of this eight-months-old baby, who in her unconscious
orphanage smiled into his kindly face, and though he
thought sorrowfully of the little one whose eyes had
never smiled into his, had never even opened upon
life, he vowed then and there to the child of his bereaved
sister, the devoted love, the help, sympathy, and guidance
which never failed her while he lived.
This baby girl was the daughter of the Duke of Kent
and of the Princess Victoire Marie Louise of Saxe-Coburg
Saalfield, widow of Prince Charles of Leiningen.
Edward, Duke of Kent, was the fourth and altogether
the best son of George III. Making all allowance
for the exaggeration of loyal biographers, I should
say he was an amiable, able, and upright man, generous
and charitable to a remarkable degree, for a royal
Prince of that time—perhaps too much so,
for he kept himself poor and died poor. He was
not a favorite with his royal parents, who seem to
have denied him reasonable assistance, while lavishing
large sums on his spendthrift brother, the Prince
of Wales. George was like the prodigal son of
Scripture, except that he never repented—Edward
like the virtuous son, except that he never complained.
On the death of the Princess Charlotte the Duke of
York had become heir-presumptive to the throne.
He had no children, and the Duke of Clarence, third
son of George III., was therefore next in succession.
He married in the same year as his brother of Kent,
and to him also a little daughter was born, who, had
she lived, would have finally succeeded to the throne
instead of Victoria. But the poor little Princess
stayed but a little while to flatter or disappoint
