The Life of King Edward VII
as the yacht came to its moorings although elsewhere Russian soldiers
could be occasionally seen. Presently, General de Kotzebue, Governor of
New Russia and Bessarabia, came on board with his suite--a decorated and
energetic survivor of the great siege at which he had been Chief of
Staff to Prince Gortschakoff. After the four days programme for the
Crimea had been settled the Prince and Princess landed and went first to
inspect the Memorial Chapel and then to visit the great cemetery. A
drive to some of the scenes of battle during the Crimean conflict
followed, with an escort of Tartars and with carriage horses which at
times seemed to fly over the ground. General de Kotzebue knew every foot
of the soil and was, of course, a splendid host on such an occasion. On
this first day the field of the desperate Alma fight was gone over
carefully and on the succeeding morning the ruined ramparts and redoubts
of the once great Fortress of Sebastopol--not as yet restored--were
visited and studied. The Cemetery of Cathcart's Hill was visited and
here there were few in the party who did not find the names of friends
or relatives in this city of silent streets while the Princess found
very many around which associations of some kind were twined. In a small
farmhouse, close to the windmill which was almost a centre of battle on
the day of Inkerman, the Royal party took lunch.
Afterwards the Prince and some of the gentlemen rode over the ridge
around which the famous fight occurred and General de Kotzebue
explained the technical character of the struggle. The Malakoff was next
seen as well as the colossal statue of Lazareff--the father of the Black
Sea fleet and of that conception of Russian power which was shattered
for a time by the success of the Allies. On the 14th the French Cemetery
was visited and thence they went across country to the famous British
Headquarters--the home for so long of Lord Raglan, General Simpson and
Sir W. Codrington. The house was in perfect order and the Prince was
shown with care one of the rooms on the wall of which was a tablet with
the simple words: "Lord Raglan died." Balaclava was next visited and the
scene of the famous charge carefully studied by the Prince. A drive
followed through a country of varied and striking beauty to the Imperial
Palace of Livadia where the Czar's Master of Ceremonies, Count Jules
Stenbock, was waiting to receive the Royal visitors. A ceremonious
entertainment was given here in the highest style of refinement and with
the somewhat unexpected accompaniments of chamberlains in green and gold
and a mass of servants from St. Petersburg, together with every sort of
luxury. Here the Czar Nicholas had stayed in 1855 when he went to
reconnoitre the position of the Allies. A visit followed to Alupka, the
palace of Prince Woronzow and thence, after an exchange of telegrams
with the Czar, they went on board the _Ariadne_ once more.
April the 16th saw the Royal party once more in the Bosphorus with blue
lights burning along the shores and bands playing a courteous welcome.
On the following day the Prince, attended by Colonel Teesdale and
Captain Ellis, paid a last formal visit to the Sultan and this was
promptly returned by His Majesty amidst much ceremony. Meanwhile, the
Princess had taken a last fond "incognito" look at the Bazaars attended
by Mrs. Grey and Mr. Moore of the Embassy. The Ambassador came to the
yacht to luncheon and soon afterwards Sir Andrew and Lady Buchanan bade
farewell. Then, in the evening, came the second departure from
Constantinople, the _Ariadne_ passing through the lately increased
Turkish fleet, under Hobart Pasha, amidst a brilliant display of
rockets, coloured lanterns and blue lights.
A VISIT TO HISTORIC ATHENS
The Port of Athens was reached on April the 20th and here Sir A.
Buchanan once more rejoined the party, followed very soon by various
Russian, French and Italian officers and diplomatists. Next came the
King of Greece--George I., brother of the Princess of Wales--accompanied
by a suite and with sounds of distant cheering and the roar of guns
echoing around the vessel. After luncheon Athens was visited and found
to be gaily decorated and thence the Royal party passed by train to the
King's Palace in the country, a beautiful place surrounded by beautiful
scenery. In the distance were to be seen the green fields and olive
forests of the Attic plain, the Piraeus and the Bay of Salamis, the
groves of Academus, the ancient Acropolis and Ilissus, and the modern
City of Athens. On the following day the Acropolis was visited and the
glories of that scene of historic greatness revived in the memories of
the Royal travellers. A state banquet followed in the evening and on the
next day a number of memorable sights and scenes were visited while the
evening was the occasion for a coloured and very striking illumination
of the mighty ruins of the Acropolis. Athens was left behind on the 23rd
of April and the Royal party, including the King and Queen of Greece,
proceeded to Corfu, which was reached on the following day and a more
kindly greeting accorded to the visitors. The stay here was a very quiet
one enlivened, so far as the Prince of Wales was concerned, by a hunting
party on the somewhat wild coast of Albania. May 1st saw a formal
leave-taking from the King and Queen of the Hellenes and a departure
from this pleasant old-world Island.
On the following day Brindisi was reached, and Turin on the 3rd.
Accompanied by Sir Augustus Paget, the Minister at Rome, the Royal party
crossed the mountains by the Mont Cenis Railway and reached Paris two
days afterwards. Here, until May the 11th, they remained in a succession
of visits, dinners, reviews and entertainments provided by the Emperor
and Empress, and on the following day arrived at Marlborough House after
a six months' absence from England. It had been a round of arduous duty
mixed with every form of honour and compliment, and including much of
genuine pleasure and useful experience, together with the acquisition of
practical and valuable knowledge. To the Heir Apparent it was one more
step in the training and education necessary for any Prince who is
destined to reign over the destinies of an infinitely varied and
scattered people.
CHAPTER VII.
Serious Illness of the Prince
Following his return from foreign travel and the fulfilment of a brief
round of public functions and duties came the now historic and really
eventful illness of the Prince of Wales. It was a critical period in his
career. Boyhood, youth and the first flush of manhood were gone; his
marriage had taken place and his family been born into a position of
present and future importance; his own training in public duties and
experience in foreign travel and observation had been completed up to a
very high point of efficiency. The one element which seemed to be a
little lacking was that of a full appreciation of his own responsibility
to the nation and the Empire. The brilliant light which blazed around
the Throne could find no fault in the actual performance of any duty;
but the critical eye and caustic pen had been prone for some years to
allege an overfondness for pleasure and amusement and the pursuits of
social life.
Whether true or false in its not very serious origin this impression had
been studiously cultivated in certain quarters at home which had an
interest in the theoretical flash-lights of republicanism; and
extensively propagated abroad by cabled falsehoods and magnified
incidents until actual harm had been done to the reputation and
character of the young Prince amongst those who did not know him and
could never actually expect to know him except through the journalistic
food upon which they were fed.
On the other hand, the English people had hardly learned to appreciate
the important place filled by the Prince of Wales in the community, in
the daily life of the nation, in the hopes of his future subjects, and
deep down in the hearts of the masses. Something was apparently needed
to develop those two lines of feeling--one personal and the other
national--and this came in the illness which struck down the Prince in
the closing months of 1871. During the Autumn he had paid a visit to
Lord Londesborough at Scarborough, and, although not feeling well,
nothing was supposed to be seriously wrong. From there the Prince had
gone to stay with Lord Carington at Gayhurst and thence returned to
Sandringham where he became decidedly ill. The _Times_ of November 22nd
was compelled to state that His Royal Highness was suffering from "a
chill resulting in a febrile attack" which had confined him to his room.
On the following day a bulletin signed by Doctors Jenner, Clayton, Gull
and Lowe stated that the Prince was suffering from typhoid.
ORIGIN OF THE ILLNESS
Amid the anxiety caused by this announcement every one wondered where
the disease had been contracted, and ere long it was known that all the
guests of Lord Londesborough at the time of the Royal visit had become
more or less indisposed; that the hostess herself was seriously ill;
that the Earl of Chesterfield, one of the recent guests, was down with
typhoid and, finally that Blegg, the Prince's groom, had caught the same
disease. Ultimately both peer and peasant died, and the seriousness of
their illness as it developed in the public eye added to the gradually
growing excitement over the condition of the Heir-Apparent.
The growth of popular feeling in the matter was evidently deep and
serious. Bulletins stating that the symptoms of the fever were severe
but regular continued for a time amid ever-increasing manifestations of
interest and, as the weeks passed slowly by and the Queen had gone to
the bedside of her son and something of the devotion of his wife to the
sick Prince became known, this feeling grew in volume. Meanwhile the
Princess Alice had also come to lend her brother the sympathetic touch
and knowledge of nursing for which she was so well known. For a brief
moment on December 1st, the patient roused from his delirium
sufficiently to remark that it was the birthday of the Princess, and for
a week thereafter the news of improvement in his condition was good.
Then came a crisis when the fever had spent itself while the patient had
also become worn out. It was impossible to say whether he could live
another day. The Royal family were summoned to Sandringham on December
9th, and on the following day (Sunday) prayers were offered up in all
the churches of the land and in many other countries, by request of the
Archbishop of Canterbury. In the morning, the Vicar at Sandringham
Church received a note from the Princess of Wales: "My husband being,
thank God, somewhat better, I am coming to church, I must leave, I fear,
before the service is concluded that I may watch by his bedside. Can you
say a few words in prayer in the early part of the service, that I may
join with you in prayer for my husband before I return to him?"
THE CRISIS AND THE RECOVERY
On December 11th the _Times_ stated that "the Prince still lives, and we
may, therefore, still hope." During the following days crowds in every
town surrounded the bulletins and waited in the streets for the latest
newspaper reports; and the Government found it necessary to forward
medical statements to every telegraph office in the United Kingdom as
they were issued. On the 14th of the month a favourable change seemed
apparent, and on the 16th the Prince had a quiet and refreshing sleep.
On the following day the Royal family went to church, where, by special
request, the Royal patient and his dying groom--Blegg--were prayed for
together. The latter died within a few hours, but not before the
Princess had found time to visit him and comfort his relations. Slowly,