II, should dance with the
Emperor Napoleon, nephew of England's great enemy, now my nearest
and most intimate ally, in the Waterloo room, and this ally only six
years ago living in this country an exile, poor and unthought of! . . .
I am glad to have known this extraordinary man, whom it is certainly
impossible not to like when you live with him, and not even to a
considerable extent to admire. I believe him to be capable of
kindness, affection, friendship, and gratitude. I feel confidence
in him as regards the future; I think he is frank, means well towards
us, and, as Stockmar says, 'that we have insured his sincerity and
good faith towards us for the rest of his life.'"

The Queen and her husband paid frequent visits, and made many tours
during their early married life. It was a great source of pleasure
to both of them to feel that everywhere they went they were received
with the greatest delight and enthusiasm.

In 1847 they visited Cambridge University, of which Prince Albert
was now Chancellor. "Every station and bridge, and resting-place,
and spot of shade was peopled with eager faces watching for the Queen,
and decorated with flowers; but the largest, and the brightest, and
the gayest, and the most excited assemblage was at Cambridge station
itself. . . . I think I never saw so many children before in one
morning, and I felt so much moved at the spectacle of such a mass
of life collected together and animated by one feeling, and that a
joyous one, that I was at a loss to conceive how any woman's sides
can bear the beating of so strong a throb as must attend the
consciousness of being the object of all that excitement, the centre
of attraction to all those eyes. But the Queen has royal strength
of nerve."[3]

[Footnote 3: The Duke of Argyll, _Queen Victoria_.]

In 1849 they paid their first visit to Ireland, and received a royal
welcome on landing in Cork. The Queen noticed particularly that
"the beauty of the women is very remarkable, and struck us much; such
beautiful dark eyes and hair, and such fine teeth; almost every third
woman was pretty, and some remarkably so."

The royal children were the objects of great admiration. "Oh! Queen,
dear!" screamed a stout old lady, "make one of them Prince Patrick,
and all Ireland will die for you."

In Dublin, the capital of a country which had very recently been in
revolt, the loyal welcome was, if possible, even more striking.

The Queen writes: "It was a wond