came up the Queen insisted on mounting at once and riding all the way home, which she reached after ten o’clock at night, to find the Crown Prince of Prussia and Prince Louis of Hesse at the door of the Castle anxiously looking out for her. A week after this accident (13th of October) the Queen was present at the inauguration of Marochetti’s statue to the Prince Consort at Aberdeen. “I could not reconcile it to myself,” she said, in replying to an address from the subscribers, “to remain at Balmoral while such a tribute was being paid to his (Prince Albert’s) memory, without making an exertion to assure you personally of the deep and heartfelt sense I entertain of your kindness and affection, and at the same time to proclaim in public the unbounded reverence and admiration, the devoted love, that fills my heart for him whose loss must throw a lasting gloom over my future life.” It was a mournful ceremony for the Queen, whose emotion was so great that she had to depute Sir George Grey, the Minister in attendance, to read her reply. Dense crowds of people filled the streets, but forbore to cheer, greeting the Royal widow merely with silent and respectful sympathy. In a letter to the Lord Provost of the city, the Queen, on her return to Balmoral, assured him how fully she appreciated the consideration which was shown for her feelings, not only by those who took part in the ceremony, but by the townspeople generally, “on an occasion which was one of severe and painful trial” for her. During the months of September and October the Princess Louis of Hesse was in attendance on the Queen, who was much cheered and benefited by her affectionate companionship. But her visit came to an end in October, when the Princess, in a letter to her Majesty written from Buckingham Palace, on her way to Darmstadt, says of her sojourn, “It was such a happiness to speak to you, and in return to hear all you had to say, to try and soothe you, and try to make your burthen lighter.... I can only say again, trust, hope, and be courageous, and every day will bring something in the fulfilment of your great duties which will bring you peace and make you feel that you are not forsaken, that God has heard your prayer, felt for you as a loving Father would, and that dear papa is not far from you.”[176] The 14th of December--the anniversary of the Prince Consort’s death--was passed in deep seclusion by the Queen at Windsor. As the year closed the country was relieved of all anxiety as to the Cotton Famine in Lancashire. The crisis had, indeed, passed early in summer, and the nation no longer feared that the calamity would prove unmanageable. The history of the Cotton Famine may be termed a history of agreeable disappointments. It was predicted that the prostration of trade in Lancashire would deal a mortal blow at English commerce--that the revenue would dwindle to a vanishing point--that the problem of sustaining vast masses of