Mr. Feargus O'Conner was somewhat disgusted when, after all his boasting, not more than twenty-three thousand of his followers assembled. Instead of storming the houses of parliament with their petition, they were glad enough to be permitted to send a deputation with it in a couple of common street-cabs, and make the best of their way back home, conscious of the ridicule they had brought about them. And this was the end of Chartism. On the eighteenth of March, while the court were sojourning at Osborne, Princess Louise was born, and a couple of months later they returned to town. The christening took place in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace, and the princess received the names of Louise Caroline Alberta. Some years before Prince Albert had written a chorale, which was sung at this ceremony. A splendid state banquet followed, and throughout the month there was more than the ordinary number of court balls and receptions in honor of the queen's birthday. Immediately after proroguing parliament the queen and {382}Prince Albert, with their children, went to Balmoral, a new country-seat in Scotland, which they had just purchased from the Earl of Aberdeen. This became a favorite retreat with her majesty. Her first impression of it is thus given in her journal: "Looking down from the hill which overhangs the house the view is charming. To the left you look to the beautiful hills surrounding Loch-na-Gar, and to the right towards Ballater, to the valley, along which the Dee winds, with beautiful wooded hills, which reminded us very much of the Thuringian forest. It was so calm and so solitary it did one good as one gazed around, and the pure mountain air was most refreshing. All seemed to breathe freedom and peace, and to make one forget the world and its sad turmoils. The scenery is wild and yet not desolate; and everything looks much more prosperous and cultivated than at Laggan. Then the soil is delightfully dry. We walked beside the Dee a beautiful, rapid stream, which is close behind the house. The view of the hills is exceedingly fine." In this picturesque, wild highland home the queen and Prince Albert found great relief from the cares and anxieties of London life, though they were not without intelligence from the political world that sometimes marred their perfect happiness. While there they heard of the terrible doings in Frankfort, where a mob attacked the national assembly, and hacked to pieces two of its members in a most brutal manner; of the sudden death of Lord George Bentinck, of the election of Louis Napoleon in France, and of a rising of natives against British authority in India. At the end of September the court left Balmoral for London, and, after resting there one night, proceeded to Osborne, returning in a fortnight to Windsor.