thing likely to further her prosperity and
happiness, was evidently kindled by warm affection. She was equally
favored in having as adviser so sagacious a relative as her uncle
Leopold, the late King of the Belgians. The Duke of Wellington
regarded her almost as a daughter; and there was also, ever at hand,
another, whose trained intellect and loyal heart exercised no little
influence on her career--Baron Stockmar--to whose lofty ideal of the
functions of royalty, calmly balanced treatment of all questions of
state policy, and high-toned moral sympathies, both the queen and
the prince consort have amply expressed their indebtedness.

Without touching further on the earlier period of her reign, which
was not without many incidents of interest, we turn to the married
years of the queen as to a bright and sunny memory.

The position of an unmarried or widowed queen necessarily entails a
peculiar loneliness. She is surrounded by the rigorous demands of
state necessity. If she has to form a judgment upon documents
submitted to her, there is no one so close to her and so independent
of all other influences as to be truly an _alter ego_. Faithful
servants of the crown may do their best to be of use, but no one of
them can be so near as to receive such unguarded confidences as can
be given to the husband who shares every joy and sorrow. The queen's
married life was ideally perfect. She married the man she loved, and
each year deepened her early affection into an admiration, a
reverence, and a pride which elevated her love into consecration.

There was no home in England made more beautiful by all that was
tender, cultured, and noble than that in which "the blameless
prince" fulfilled his heroic career of duty, and shed the bright
light of his joyous, affectionate, and keenly intellectual life.
There were few homes in which a greater amount of trying and anxious
work was more systematically accomplished, or in which there was a
more exquisite blending of hard thinking with the enjoyment of the
fine arts and the fulness of loving family happiness. We have
picture after picture given us in the life of the Prince Consort
which puts us in touch with these brilliant years, when the queen
and he were never parted but for one or two brief intervals. Early
hours of close labor were followed by a genial and hearty
relaxation, and at every turn the wife and sovereign felt the
blessedness of that presence which ministered to her in sick