, feel the loss of this excellent creature; I cannot restrain my
tears while writing this. One great consolation I have, which is, that
I have been the means of making her last days as happy as she could
wish to be, after having lost what she loved most!

... Poor _Mason_, our faithful coachman for so many years, is also
dead. These old servants cannot be replaced; and to see those whom one
has known from one's birth drop off, one by one, is melancholy! You
will think this letter a very sad one, but _I feel sad_....

_Queen Adelaide to Queen Victoria._

MARLBOROUGH HOUSE, _17th April 1838._

... I can well enter into all your feelings of regret at the death of
one so truly attached and so faithful as dear old Louie had been to
you from your infancy, and I quite understand your grief; yet I feel
sure that you will also rejoice for her, that she has been relieved
from her earthly sufferings. For _her_ the change of existence was a
happy one; good and pious as she was, we may trust that her state at
present is one of felicity and bliss through the redeeming grace of
our Saviour....

[Pageheading: THE CORONATION]

_The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

_17th April 1838._

... The Parliamentary affairs will, please Heaven, continue to go on
well; I am more than ever bound to wish it, as I am not anxious to
exchange my clever and well-informed friend Palmerston, with Lord
Aberdeen, for instance, of whose sweetness the Greek negotiation[14]
has given me very fair means of judging. Now I will conclude by
touching on one subject which concerns your great goodness to us.
When we left England you expressed a wish to see us at the time of the
Coronation, which was then believed to take place at the end of May.
More mature reflection has made me think that a King and Queen at your
dear Coronation might perhaps be a _hors-d'[oe]uvre_, and I think, if
it meets with your approbation, that it may be better to pay you our
respects at some other period, which you might like to fix upon. I do
not deny that having been deprived by circumstances from the happiness
of wishing you joy at your birthday, since 1831, in person, I feel
strongly tempted to make a short apparition to see you, as seeing and
speaking is much pleasanter than ink and paper....

[Footnote 14: Referring to the offer of the throne of Greece
to King Leopold in 1830.]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

BUCKINGHAM