Few more touching words have been written than the Queen's Message to the Nation which was made public on May 10th: "From the depth of my poor broken heart," she wrote, "I wish to express to the whole Nation and our own kind people we love so well, my deep-felt thanks for all their touching sympathy in my overwhelming sorrow and unspeakable anguish. Not alone have I lost everything in him, my beloved husband, but the nation, too, has suffered an irreparable loss in their best friend, father, and Sovereign thus suddenly called away. May God give us all his Divine help to bear this heaviest of crosses which He has seen fit to lay upon us. His will be done. Give to me a thought in your prayers which will comfort and sustain me in all that I have to go through. Let me take this opportunity of expressing my heartfelt thanks for all the touching letters and tokens of sympathy I have received from all classes, high and low, rich and poor, which are so numerous that I fear it would be impossible for me ever to thank everybody individually. I confide my dear Son to your care, who I know, will follow in his dear Father's footsteps, begging you to show him the same loyalty and devotion you showed his dear Father. I know that both my dear son and daughter-in-law will do their utmost to merit and keep it." It may be added that the surviving children of King Edward and Queen Alexandra at the time of the King's death were his successor--George Frederick Ernest Albert, Prince of Wales; Princess Louise, Duchess of Fife, who was born in 1867 and married in 1889; Princess Victoria, who was born in 1868 and was unmarried; Princess Maud, Queen of Norway, who was born in 1869 and married in 1896 to Charles, then Crown Prince of Denmark. King Edward's only surviving brother was H. R. H., the Duke of Connaught, who was born in 1850. His surviving sisters were Princess Helena, married to Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein; Princess Louise, married to the Duke of Argyll; and Princess Beatrice, widow of the late Prince Henry of Battenberg. CHAPTER XXVII. The Solemn Funeral of the King