A more authoritative story of a photograph is told in the memoir of the late Duchess of Teck. The meeting at Heidelberg in September 1861, already referred to, took place when the Danish Princess and her father were on their way to join one of those famous family gatherings at Rumpenheim, and the Duchess of Teck’s biographer writes:-- “As soon as the Princess arrived at the Hessian Palace, her cousins were most anxious to hear all about the meeting, and much excitement followed when Princess Alexandra, producing a photograph from her pocket, laughingly exclaimed, ‘I have got him here!’” It is certain that though many Princesses had been spoken of in connection with the Prince, and at one time negotiations were actually impending with a view to his engagement to the daughter of a German Royal House, all such schemes were instantly abandoned after he had seen the beautiful Danish Princess. Another meeting is said to have taken place in the Cathedral of Worms during this eventful tour in 1861. The Prince, accompanied by his tutor and equerry, had gone to examine the frescoes, and when wandering through the beautiful old Cathedral they met Prince Christian of Denmark and his daughter intent on the same object. Later, after the Prince Consort’s death, during a short visit which he paid to his cousin, the King of the Belgians, the Heir-Apparent again met Princess Alexandra, and it is said that King Leopold had a considerable share in arranging the preliminaries of the marriage, for it was while the Prince and Princess were both staying at Laeken that Queen Victoria’s formal consent to her son’s making a Danish alliance was granted. The formal betrothal took place on 9th September 1862, but even then what had occurred was only known to a comparatively small circle of friends and relations, for it was not till the eve of His Royal Highness’s coming of age that his engagement was formally announced in the _London Gazette_, and so made known to the whole British Empire. The announcement roused the greatest enthusiasm, for deep as had been the public sympathy with Her Majesty, a widowed Court could not but cast a very real gloom, not only over society, but over all those directly and indirectly interested in the sumptuary trades and the wide distribution of wealth. It was universally felt that the marriage of the Heir-Apparent would inaugurate a new era of prosperity, and scarce a dissenting voice was raised to oppose the Grant voted by the House of Commons for the Royal couple.