know that her marriage was filling with gladness innumerable multitudes both of her own people and of her husband's future subjects.

At four o'clock the Prince and Princess of Wales took their departure for Osborne, where a very short honeymoon was spent. On their return home, which in this case meant Windsor, it was noticed that the lovely bride looked the very picture of happiness. The streets of Windsor were decorated with flags, and the Royal borough looked as gay as it did on the wedding day.

After the marriage of the Prince of Wales the Liturgy of the Church of England was officially altered by the introduction of the name of the Princess of Wales into the Prayer for the Royal Family. The Scottish Church was also officially instructed to pray for "Her Most Sacred Majesty Queen Victoria, Albert Edward Prince of Wales, the Princess of Wales, and all the Royal Family."

CHAPTER V

EARLY MARRIED LIFE

AMONG the very first visitors entertained at Sandringham by the Royal bride and bridegroom was Dr. Stanley, who spent Easter Sunday with them there.

"On the evening of Easter Eve," he writes, "the Princess came to me in a corner of the drawing-room with her Prayer Book, and I went through the Communion Service with her, explaining the peculiarities and the likenesses and differences to and from the Danish Service. She was most simple and fascinating.. My visit to Sandringham gave me intense pleasure. I was there for three days. I read the whole Service, preached, then gave the first English Sacrament to this 'angel in the Palace.' I saw a great deal of her, and can truly say that she is as charming and beautiful a creature as ever passed through a fairy tale."

One of the first public appearances made by the Prince of Wales after his marriage was at the Royal Academy dinner, where he made an excellent short speech, greatly impressing those who were present by his modesty and good sense. William Makepeace Thackeray was among the speakers on this occasion, which was very shortly before the famous novelist's lamented death. At the anniversary of the Royal Literary Fund some months later the Prince made some graceful and appropriate allusions to the great writer whom the Empire had lost. He spoke with evident feeling of the fact that Thackeray had been the life of the Fund, always ready to open his purse for the relief of literary men struggling with pecuniary difficulties.

This spring was a very busy time for both their Royal Highnesses.

On 8th June the Prince and Princess were sumptuously entertained by the Lord Mayor at the Guildhall, when the Prince of Wales took up the freedom of the City, to which he was entitled by patrimony. The entertainments included a great ball, which the Princess of Wales opened, dancing a quadrille with the Lord Mayor, while the Prince had the Lady Mayoress for his partner.

A week later the Royal couple attended "Commem." at Oxford. They received a splendid welcome both from the University authorities and the undergraduates. The honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law was conferred on the Prince in the Sheldonian Theatre, where the wildest uproar prevailed, till amid a sudden lull of perfect silence the Princess entered with Dr. Liddell, then Dean of Christ Church. Scarcely had she traversed half the distance to her seat when a cheer loud and deep arose, and seemed to shake the theatre to its foundation, to the evident satisfaction of the Prince.

After the ceremony was over their Royal Highnesses escaped from all their friends and entertainers and took the opportunity of going over what had been the Prince's rooms as an undergraduate. That same evening a ball was given in the Prince's honour in the Corn Exchange by the Apollo Lodge of Freemasons.

Shortly after their visit to Oxford the Prince and Princess celebrated their house-warming at Marlborough House by an evening party and a ball. During the summer months the Prince and Princess spent some time at Sandringham in the original house, which at that time stood in an isolated park, and which has now been replaced by the present very much larger and more comfortable mansion. There can be no doubt that the Princess's strong affection for her country home is based on the tender recollections of her early married life. It is a significant fact that when the new Sandringham House was built Her Royal Highness begged that her boudoir in the new mansion might be arranged so as to be an exact reproduction of her boudoir in the old house.

The only public function at which the Prince of Wales was present during 1863 occurred in August, when he visited Halifax and opened a new town hall there.

Much satisfaction was felt when the news became known that

the Queen hoped to welcome the first of her British grandchildren in the month of March. One Friday evening, early in January, shortly

after the Princess, who was staying, had been skating on Virginia Water, near Windsor, her eldest child appeared so unexpectedly that for a while the Royal baby had to be wrapped in cotton wool,

for all the beautiful layette which was in course of preparation was at Marlborough House.

The rejoicings over the event, both in this country and in Denmark, were naturally very great, more especially when it became known that the Royal infant was none the worse for his early arrival. Among the two Royal families most immediately concerned the interest and excitement was intense. Princess Alice wrote to the Queen on 9th January 1894, "I was aghast on receiving Bertie's telegram this morning announcing the birth of their little son." But this feeling of trepidation quickly gave place to one of relief when the bulletins announced the steady progress of both mother and babe, and soon the British public saw many charming photographs and portraits of the Princess of Wales in her new role of mother. At the time of the birth of the Duke of Clarence the Princess was not yet twenty, but, like the Queen, she seems to have been wholly absorbed in her maternal duties, and at any moment she would joyfully give up attending a State function or ball in order to spend an hour in her nursery.

It need hardly be said that the first portion of the Prince and Princess of Wales's married life was overshadowed by the war between Denmark and Prussia. The young Princess was naturally strongly patriotic in her sympathies. At breakfast one morning a foolish equerry read out a telegram which announced a success of the AustroPrussian forces, whereupon Her Royal Highness burst into tears, and the Prince, it is said, thoroughly lost his temper for once, and rated his equerry as soundly as his ancestor, Henry VIII., might have done. An amusing story went the round of the clubs about this time. It was said that a Royal visitor at Windsor asked Princess Beatrice what she would like for a present. The child stood in doubt, and begged the Princess of Wales to advise her. The result of a whispered conversation between the two was that the little Princess declared aloud that she would like to have Bismarck's head on a charger!

In July 1864 the Prince laid the foundation-stone of the new West Wing of the London Hospital. He was accompanied by the Princess. This was one of the first occasions on which he showed his great interest in hospital management. The fact that there was a separate ward for the Jews aroused his keen interest. In the same