, however, it
seemed that there might be a hitch. It was pointed out in Prussia that
it was customary for Princes of the blood royal to be married in Berlin,
and it was suggested that there was no reason why the present case
should be treated as an exception. When this reached the ears of
Victoria, she was speechless with indignation. In a note, emphatic
even for Her Majesty, she instructed the Foreign Secretary to tell
the Prussian Ambassador "not to ENTERTAIN the POSSIBILITY of such a
question... The Queen NEVER could consent to it, both for public and for
private reasons, and the assumption of its being TOO MUCH for a Prince
Royal of Prussia to come over to marry the Princess Royal of Great
Britain in England is too ABSURD to say the least. . . Whatever may be
the usual practice of Prussian princes, it is not EVERY day that one
marries the eldest daughter of the Queen of England. The question must
therefore be considered as settled and closed." It was, and the
wedding took place in St. James's Chapel. There were great
festivities--illuminations, state concerts, immense crowds, and general
rejoicings. At Windsor a magnificent banquet was given to the bride and
bridegroom in the Waterloo room, at which, Victoria noted in her diary,
"everybody was most friendly and kind about Vicky and full of the
universal enthusiasm, of which the Duke of Buccleuch gave us most
pleasing instances, he having been in the very thick of the crowd and
among the lowest of the low." Her feelings during several days had been
growing more and more emotional, and when the time came for the young
couple to depart she very nearly broke down--but not quite. "Poor dear
child!" she wrote afterwards. "I clasped her in my arms and blessed her,
and knew not what to say. I kissed good Fritz and pressed his hand again
and again. He was unable to speak and the tears were in his eyes. I
embraced them both again at the carriage door, and Albert got into the
carriage, an open one, with them and Bertie... The band struck up. I
wished good-bye to the good Perponchers. General Schreckenstein was much
affected. I pressed his hand, and the good Dean's, and then went quickly
upstairs."

Albert, as well as General Schreckenstein, was much affected. He was
losing his favourite child, whose opening intelligence had already begun
to display a marked resemblance to his own--an adoring pupil, who, in
a few years, might have become an almost adequate companion. An ironic