_On her arriving in England, 17th November 1888._ When England sent thee forth, a joyous bride, A prayer went through the land, that on thy head Might all best blessings bounteously be shed, And his, the lover-husband by thy side; And England marked with ever-growing pride, As onwards still the years full-freighted sped, How wrought in both the grace of worth inbred, To noblest acts and purposes allied. With eyes of longing, not undimmed by tears, England now greets thee, desolate and lone, Heart-stricken, widowed of the twofold crown Of love and empire; and the grief endears, Remembering all the cherished hopes o'erthrown, When at their height thy heart's lord was struck down. I also wrote this other sonnet, which appeared in the _Morning Post_ on the day of the Empress's arrival:-- TO THE EMPRESS FREDERIC. _19th November 1888._ Oh lady, how our hearts were pang'd,[29] when he, Whom late we saw, in England's festal hour, Ride through our streets in manhood's stateliest power, Hail'd by all eyes a star of chivalry, Through long sad months of sorest agony, Faced martyr-like the doom, that hour by hour He saw still near and ever nearer lour, To tear him from his country and from thee; Thee of the childlike heart and manlike brain, Fit in all ways to share a monarch's throne, Who made his people's good his chiefest care! Oh noble heart, all England shares thy pain, And in thy grief thou wilt feel less alone, 'Midst all the love that waits to greet thee there! The 9th line of this sonnet was prompted by an incident on the last occasion that I met the Crown Prince and Princess together at Windsor Castle. "Do you know," he said to me, "what her father said of her?" "Oh, Fritz," the Princess broke in, anticipating what he was going to tell me, "you should not speak of such a thing." "I will speak of it," he continued, looking at her with eyes of affectionate pride. "Why should I not? It is only the truth. The Prince Consort said, 'She has the heart of a child, the brain of a man!'" That her father so thought of her I had seen many proofs in the private correspondence which was placed in my hands while I was writing his life.