CHAPTER IV.
PARLEY SEES THE QUEEN, AND RELATES SOME ANECDOTES OF HER MAJESTY.
"'WHAT a dear sweet lady!' were the first words of Peter Parley whenthe Royal cavalcade had passed.
_Madeley lith. 3, Wellington St. Strand._
HER MAJESTY LEAVING BUCKINGHAM PALACE ON THE MORNING OF THE CORONATION.]
"'She is a dear sweet lady, Mr. Parley, and, what is more, she is asgood as she is sweet,' said my friend, Major Meadows, who, afraid lestI should overwalk myself in my zeal for sight-seeing, had followed mefrom Westminster Abbey and luckily fallen in with me in the park,and he went on to relate many very interesting anecdotes of the youngQueen, which Peter Parley took good care to remember because he knewthey would gratify his young friends."
"'Her Majesty is doatingly fond of children, Mr. Parley,' said he, 'andthat you know is always the sign of a good heart. Nothing can be finerthan the traits of character exhibited in a little anecdote which LadyM---- told me a day or two ago.
"'Not long since, her Majesty commanded Lady Barham, one of the ladiesin waiting, to bring her family of lovely children to the new palace.They were greatly admired and fondly caressed by the Queen; when abeautiful little boy about three years of age artlessly said--
"'I do not see the Queen; I want to see the Queen;' upon which herMajesty, smiling, said--
"'I am the Queen, love;' and taking her little guest into her armsrepeatedly kissed the astonished child.
"This little anecdote warmed old Peter Parley's heart towards the youngQueen; nor did any of the stories which Major Meadows told me tend tolessen my regard for her. Peter Parley was pleased to hear that she hasa proper sense of the importance of the station to which she has beencalled by Divine Providence.
"On the day on which she was proclaimed Queen of Great Britain shearrived in company with her royal mother at St. James's Palace for thepurpose of taking part in the important ceremony. As they drove towardsthe palace the party received the most affectionate demonstrationsof loyalty and attachment, the people following the carriages with acontinuous cry of 'Long live the Queen'--'God bless our youthful Queen,long may she live,' &c. Yet, exciting and exhilirating as were theseacclamations, her Majesty's countenance exhibited marks only of anxietyand grief.
"They arrived at St. James's Palace a little before ten o'clock. Whenthe old bell of the palace-clock announced that hour, the band struckup the National Anthem, the Park and Tower guns fired a double royalsalute, and the young and trembling Queen, led by the Marquis ofLansdowne, President of the Council, appeared at an open window lookinginto the great court of the Palace. At the fervent and enthusiasticshout of the people who had come to witness the ceremony, her Majestyburst into tears, and, in spite of all her efforts to restrain them,they continued to flow down her pale cheeks all the time she remainedat the window. Her emotions did not, however, prevent her fromreturning her acknowledgments for the devotedness of her people.
"Some of the most interesting anecdotes which Peter Parley heard,however, related to an earlier period of the Queen's life, when she wasPrincess Victoria.
"'Here is an anecdote which I heard at a Missionary Meeting, Mr.Parley,' said Major Meadows, 'and I assure you it told with greateffect.'"
"A poor but truly pious widow, placed in charge of a lighthouse on thesouth coast of the Mersey, had resolved to devote the receipts of oneday in the year, during the visiting season, to the Missionary cause.On one of these days, a lady in widow's weeds and a little girl indeep mourning came to see the lighthouse; sympathy in misfortune ledto conversation, and before the unknown visitor took her departurethey had most probably mingled their tears together. The lady leftbehind her a sovereign. The unusually large gratuity immediately causeda conflict in the breast of the poor woman, as to whether she wasabsolutely bound to appropriate the whole of it to the Missionary-boxor not. At length she compromised, by putting in half-a-crown. Butconscience would not let her rest: she went to bed, but could notsleep; she arose, took back the half-crown, put in the sovereign, wentto bed and slept comfortably. A few days afterwards, to her greatsurprise, she received a double letter, franked, and on opening it,was no less astonished than delighted to find twenty pounds from thewidow lady, and five pounds from the little girl in deep mourning. Andwho were that lady and that little girl, do you think? No other thanher Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent and our present rightful andyouthful sovereign."
"During one of the summer seasons of the Princess's childhood theDuchess of Kent resided in the neighbourhood of Malvern, and almostdaily walked on the Downs. One day the Princess and her beautifullittle dog Pero, of which she was uncommonly fond, happeningconsiderably to outstrip the Duchess and governess, she overtook alittle peasant girl about her own age. With the thoughtless hilarityof youth she made up to her, and without ceremony, said to her--
"'My dog is very tired, will you carry him for me if you please?'
"The good-natured girl, quite unconscious of the rank of the applicant,immediately complied, and tripped along by the side of the Princess forsome time in unceremonious conversation. At length she said,
"'I am tired now, and cannot carry your dog any farther.'
"'Tired!' cried her Royal Highness, 'Impossible! Think what a littleway you have carried him!'
"'Quite far enough,' was the homely reply; 'besides, I am going to myaunt's, and if your dog must be carried, why cannot you carry himyourself?'
"So saying, she placed Pero on the grass, and he again joyfully friskedbeside his royal mistress.
"'Going to your aunt's;' rejoined the Princess, unheeding Pero'sgambols; 'pray who is your aunt?'
"'Mrs. Johnson, the miller's wife.'
"'And where does she live?'
"'In that pretty little white house which you see just at the bottom ofthe hill, there;' said the unconscious girl, pointing it out among thetrees; and the two companions stood still that the Princess might makesure that she was right, thus giving the Duchess and her companiontime to come up.
"'Oh, I should like to see her!' exclaimed the light-hearted Princess;'I will go with you, come let us run down the hill together.'
"'No, no, my Princess,' cried the governess, coming up and taking herRoyal Highness's hand, 'you have conversed long enough with that littlegirl, and now the Duchess wishes you to walk with her.
"The awful words 'Princess' and 'Duchess' quite confounded the littlepeasant girl; blushing and almost overcome, she earnestly begged pardonfor the liberties she had taken, but her fears were instantly allayedby the Duchess, who, after thanking her for her trouble in carryingPero, recompensed her by giving her half-a-crown.
"Delighted, the little girl curtsied her thanks, and running on brisklyto her aunt's, she related all that had passed, dwelling particularlyon the apprehension she had felt when she discovered that it was thePrincess whom she had desired to carry her dog herself. The half-crownwas afterwards framed and hung up in the miller's homely parlour, as amemento of this pleasing little adventure."
"This is but a childish story, but Peter Parley loves to hear storiesof good children, and he knows that his little friends love to hearthem too."