the
facts. She would send him a letter, pointing out her arduous labours and
the difficulties under which she struggled, and then he might write an
article for one of the magazines. "It is not," she told him in 1863,
"the Queen's SORROW that keeps her secluded. It is her OVERWHELMING WORK
and her health, which is greatly shaken by her sorrow, and the totally
overwhelming amount of work and responsibility--work which she feels
really wears her out. Alice Helps was wonderfully struck at the Queen's
room; and if Mrs. Martin will look at it, she can tell Mr. Martin what
surrounds her. From the hour she gets out of bed till she gets into it
again there is work, work, work,--letter-boxes, questions, etc., which
are dreadfully exhausting--and if she had not comparative rest and
quiet in the evening she would most likely not be ALIVE. Her brain is
constantly overtaxed." It was too true.

III

To carry on Albert's work--that was her first duty; but there was
another, second only to that, and yet nearer, if possible, to her
heart--to impress the true nature of his genius and character upon the
minds of her subjects. She realised that during his life he had not been
properly appreciated; the full extent of his powers, the supreme quality
of his goodness, had been necessarily concealed; but death had removed
the need of barriers, and now her husband, in his magnificent entirety,
should stand revealed to all. She set to work methodically. She directed
Sir Arthur Helps to bring out a collection of the Prince's speeches and
addresses, and the weighty tome appeared in 1862. Then she commanded
General Grey to write an account of the Prince's early years--from his
birth to his marriage; she herself laid down the design of the book,
contributed a number of confidential documents, and added numerous
notes; General Grey obeyed, and the work was completed in 1866. But
the principal part of the story was still untold, and Mr. Martin
was forthwith instructed to write a complete biography of the Prince
Consort. Mr. Martin laboured for fourteen years. The mass of material
with which he had to deal was almost incredible, but he was extremely
industrious, and he enjoyed throughout the gracious assistance of Her
Majesty. The first bulky volume was published in 1874; four others
slowly followed; so that it was not until 1880 that the monumental work
was finished.

Mr. Martin was rewarded by a knighthood; and yet it was sadly evident
that neithe