The story has often been told of how the Queen received the news of her accession, and of the extraordinarily favorable impression she produced by the youthful dignity and grace with which she presided at her first Council. William IV. expired at Windsor about 2.30 A. M. on Tuesday, June 20th, 1837. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Howley, and the Lord Chamberlain, the Marquis of Conyngham, almost immediately “set out to announce the event to their young Sovereign. They reached Kensington Palace at about five; they knocked, they rang, they thumped for a considerable time before they could rouse the porter at the gates. They were again kept waiting in the courtyard, then turned into one of the lower rooms, where they seemed to be forgotten by everybody. They rang the bell, and desired that the attendant of the Princess Victoria might be sent to inform H. R. H. that they requested an audience on business of importance. After another delay, and another ringing to inquire the cause, the attendant was summoned, who stated that the _Princess_ was in such a sweet sleep she could not venture to disturb her. They then said, ‘We are come to the _Queen_ on business of State, and even her sleep must give way to that.’ It did; and to prove that _she_ did not keep them waiting, in a few minutes she came into the room in a loose white nightgown and shawl, her nightcap thrown off, and her hair falling on her shoulders, her feet in slippers, tears in her eyes, but perfectly collected and dignified.”[7] Another account states that the Queen’s first words to the Archbishop on hearing his announcement were, “I beg your Grace to pray for me,” and that her first request to her mother after she had learned that she was Queen was that she might be left for two hours quite alone. On the same day, about eleven o’clock in the morning, she held her first Council; and it may be noted that in Miss Wynn’s account of this ceremony it is stated that the first of her subjects who paid her homage was the Duke of Cumberland, who knelt and kissed her hand. “I suppose,” says Miss Wynn, “he was not King of Hanover when he knelt to her.” The Diarist goes on to mention that the next to offer homage was the Duke of Sussex; but the young Queen would not allow him to kneel, but rose herself and kissed him on the forehead. This, however, differs slightly from Greville’s account of the Queen’s first Council, which must be now quoted:--