Early in the year the Queen received with pleasure the intimation that Prince Arthur had passed his military examination in a manner that did him great credit. “I am delighted,” writes the Princess Louis to the Queen on the 13th of January,[266] “to hear of dear Arthur having passed so good an examination. How proud you must be of him! And the good Major,[267] who has spared no pains, I know--how pleased he must be! Arthur has a uniform now, I suppose.” From another passage in a letter of the Princess’s, one gathers that the cloud of melancholy which overhung the Queen’s widowed life was beginning to disappear. “I think,” says the Princess, replying to one of the Queen’s letters on the subject, “I can understand what you must feel. I know well what those first three years were--what fearful sufferings, tearing and uprooting those feelings which had been centred on beloved papa’s existence! It is indeed as you say ‘a mercy’ that after the long storm a lull and calm ensues, though the violent pain which is but the reverse of the violent love seems only to die out with it, and that is likewise better. Yet, beloved mamma, could it be otherwise? There would be no justice or mercy, were the first stage of sorrow to be the perpetual one.” Still, the advancing year brought its own cares to the Royal Family. A Princess was born to the Prince and Princess of Wales on the 20th of February, and though the official announcements stated that both mother and child were doing well, this was by no means the case. The recovery of the Princess was not satisfactory, and the physicians at last had to admit that she was suffering from a peculiarly obstinate rheumatic attack, that sadly undermined her health and strength. The Queen had, as usual, confided her anxieties to her daughter at Darmstadt, who in reply wrote as follows:--“The knowledge of dear sweet Alix’s[268] state makes me too sad. It is hard for them both, and the nursing must be very fatiguing for Mrs. Clarke. I am so distressed about darling Alix that I really have no peace. It may and probably will last long, which is so dreadful.” On the 14th of April the _accouchement_ of the Princess Christian took place, when she was safely delivered of a little Prince, the Queen being in close attendance by her bedside all day.