dress. He was devoted to his master, and predicts that the Princess’s
impressionable, generous nature will develop and improve under his
influence and that of a refined and affectionate home, which the poor
child had never known. The Princess herself said to Stockmar: “My
mother was bad, but she would not have become as bad as she was if my
father had not been infinitely worse.” Stockmar was devoted to Leopold,
and spoke of him in a private letter as “My glorious master, a manly
prince and a princely man.” Leopold, on his side, spoke of Stockmar
as “the most valued physician of his soul and body.” In the Royal
household at Claremont he was treated by both the Prince and Princess
as a friend, and he fulfilled the duties of private secretary as well
as physician to his master. His good sense made him decline to act as
medical adviser to Princess Charlotte. This office should, he felt,
devolve on an English doctor. This may have been either fortunate for
himself or unfortunate for the poor Princess,--probably the latter; as
there are reasons to believe that he would have prescribed a rational
treatment in the place of the purging, bleeding, and general lowering
of the system which caused her death within a few hours of the birth of
her stillborn son. In that dark hour of the loss of all his hopes of
domestic happiness and political ambition, Leopold leant on the firm
devotion of Stockmar. He made Stockmar promise never to forsake him.
Kneeling at the bed where his young wife lay dead, Leopold said, “I am
now quite desolate. Promise me always to stay with me.” He promised.
Again later the Prince reminded him of his promise, and asked him if
he had considered all that it meant. He renewed the promise; but even
in this moment of supreme emotion he was not carried away, for he did
not promise unconditionally. “I said I would never leave him as long as
I saw that he confided in me and loved me, and that I could be of use
to him.” He added, in writing an account of all that had happened to
his sister, “I did not hesitate to promise what he may perhaps claim
forever, or, perhaps, even next year, may find no longer necessary to
him.” Without building too much on his being permanently necessary to
the Prince, he knew that he was necessary to him at the moment. No
elder brother was ever more tender than Stockmar to Leopold at the
time of his bereavement. He never left him, he slept in his room; if
the Prince woke in the night Stockmar got up and talked him to sleep
again. He watched over him morally and physically, and devised remedies
and occupations for him. He encouraged him to stay in England and to
devote himself to the study of the English language and literature
and constitutional history, and to interest himself in the social and
political questions of the day. It is probably a universal experience
that love and service go together. One never loves, either human beings
or causes, till one has done something for them. Therefore the more