luence which he wielded was not to be overlooked. Lord
Beaconsfield was careful, from time to time, to send courteous messages
to "Mr. Brown" in his letters to the Queen, and the French Government
took particular pains to provide for his comfort during the visits of
the English Sovereign to France. It was only natural that among the
elder members of the royal family he should not have been popular, and
that his failings--for failings he had, though Victoria would never
notice his too acute appreciation of Scotch whisky--should have been
the subject of acrimonious comment at Court. But he served his mistress
faithfully, and to ignore him would be a sign of disrespect to her
biographer. For the Queen, far from making a secret of her affectionate
friendship, took care to publish it to the world. By her orders two
gold medals were struck in his honour; on his death, in 1883, a long and
eulogistic obituary notice of him appeared in the Court Circular; and a
Brown memorial brooch--of gold, with the late gillie's head on one side
and the royal monogram on the other--was designed by Her Majesty for
presentation to her Highland servants and cottagers, to be worn by them
on the anniversary of his death, with a mourning scarf and pins. In the
second series of extracts from the Queen's Highland Journal, published
in 1884, her "devoted personal attendant and faithful friend" appears
upon almost every page, and is in effect the hero of the book. With an
absence of reticence remarkable in royal persons, Victoria seemed to
demand, in this private and delicate matter, the sympathy of the whole
nation; and yet--such is the world--there were those who actually
treated the relations between their Sovereign and her servant as a theme
for ribald jests.

II

The busy years hastened away; the traces of Time's unimaginable touch
grew manifest; and old age, approaching, laid a gentle hold upon
Victoria. The grey hair whitened; the mature features mellowed; the
short firm figure amplified and moved more slowly, supported by a stick.
And, simultaneously, in the whole tenour of the Queen's existence an
extraordinary transformation came to pass. The nation's attitude
towards her, critical and even hostile as it had been for so many years,
altogether changed; while there was a corresponding alteration in the
temper of--Victoria's own mind.

Many causes led to this result. Among them were the repeated strokes of
personal misfortune which befell the