Great Britain -- History -- Victoria, 1837-1901 -- Fiction
"Yes," replied the Duke, "and where else should a soldier's daughter be
but at a review? I want to see how she likes the army. You know she
will be at the head of the army some day," he added half in jest and
half in earnest. "Won't you let me have her?" The Duchess shook her
head playfully. Just then the nurse entered the room with the little
Princess in her outdoor wraps. The tall Duke caught up the child and
ran to the carriage like a naughty boy with a forbidden plaything, and
the nurse followed.
At the review the Duke was not so stern a disciplinarian as usual, for
more than one man who was expected to stand "eyes front" took a sly
look at the pretty baby in her nurse's arms, and the proud father
forgot to blame him for the misdemeanor. After the review the people
gathered about the carriage.
"God bless the child," cried an old man. "She'll be a Princess
Charlotte to us."
"Look at her sweet face," said another. "Did you ever see such bright
blue eyes? She'll be a queen who can see what her people want."
There were hurrahs for the Princess and hurrahs for the Duke. Then a
voice in the crowd cried: "Give us a rousing cheer for the Duchess who
cares for her own baby and doesn't leave her to the hired folk."
In all this hubbub and confusion the blue-eyed baby did not cry or show
the least fear. "She's a soldier's child," said the Duke with delight,
and he took her from the nurse and helped her to wave her tiny hand to
the admiring crowd.
Prince George had never been on good terms with his brother, the Duke
of Kent, and after the affair of the name he was less friendly than
ever. He was always jealous of the child, and when he heard of her
reception at the review he was thoroughly angry. "That infant is too
young to be brought into public," he declared.
She was not brought into so public a place again, but she won friends
wherever she went. The Duke could not bear to have her away from him
for an hour, and the greatest honor he could show to a guest was to
allow him to take the little one in his arms. An old friend was at the
Palace, one evening, and when he rose to go, the Duke said: "No, come
with me first and see the child in her crib." As they entered the room
of the little Princess, the Duke said: "We are going to Sidmouth in two
or three days to cheat the winter, and so we may not meet again for
some time. I want you to give my child your blessing. Pray for her, not
merely that her life may be brilliant and free from trouble, but that
God will bless her, and that in all the years to come He will guide her
and guard her." The prayer was made, and the Duke responded with an
earnest "Amen."
In a few days the family set out for Sidmouth. Kensington was becoming
cold and damp, and the precious baby must not be risked in the London
chills of the late autumn. The Duchess, moreover, had devoted herself
so closely to her child that she needed a change and rest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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