The royal marriage was succeeded by all sorts of public entertainments, which served to introduce the prince to court life; but they were a great strain upon him, for he {343}had lived so quietly and regularly all his life that the late hours he had to keep were hard to bear. Besides, the pressure of public duties obliged him to neglect his music and drawing for awhile, and this was a serious deprivation. The prince was an excellent musician, and played both the piano and the organ, but particularly the latter, with rare skill. When work became so planned out as to afford some leisure hours, the royal couple devoted them to etching and to music. To sing and play together was their chief amusement. So highly was Prince Albert's musical knowledge thought of that he was appointed one of the directors of a series of classical concerts, that soon became popular, and went far towards cultivating a taste for the best music. He was interested in all branches of art, and never failed to encourage painters and sculptors as well as musicians. Several attempts have been made on the life of the queen during her reign. The first one occurred about four months after her marriage. She was driving in an open carriage, with the prince, up Constitution Hill, when a youth, seventeen years of age, named Oxford, fired two shots at her. Fortunately neither took effect, and the wretched creature was found to be insane, and confined in a lunatic asylum. The prince could have no better proof of the high estimation in which he was held by both parties in parliament than when a bill was passed appointing him regent, in case the queen should die and leave minor children. There was only one dissenting voice, and that was the queen's uncle, the Duke of Sussex, who wanted the position himself, and thought he was entitled to it. Baron Stockmar then felt that his presence was no longer needed in England, and returned to his quiet home in Coburg, whence he kept up a regular correspondence with the prince, and always {344}pointed out his line of conduct, and watched him at a distance with keen interest. The queen had a daughter born on the thirteenth of November, at Buckingham Palace. She was baptized by the names Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa. The sponsors were the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, represented by the Duke of Wellington, King Leopold, the Queen-dowager, the Duchesses of Kent and Gloucester, and the Duke of Sussex. Lord Melbourne declared next day to the queen that the infant "looked about her quite conscious that the stir was all about herself;" but as she was only three months old when the ceremony took place, it is not probable that she recognized herself as the heroine of it. The prince wrote his father: "The christening went off very well. Your little grandchild behaved with great propriety."