Such an expedition would require five or six weeks, and our course of study would be quite disturbed by such an interruption. We told dear uncle the purport of your letter, and he said he would write to you on the subject."

We do not often find a young man of eighteen objecting to a holiday because it would interrupt his studies!

CHAPTER VIII.

April, 1837, to the close of 1838.

Residence at Bonn.-Death of William IV.-Tour through Switzerland and North of Italy.-Letters from the Prince.

THE young princes were now to enter upon their academical career. In April, 1837, they left Brussels for Bonn, at which University, with the exception of the usual vacations, they remained for the next year and a half. A small detached house had been taken for them, not far from the Cathedral, and overlooking the alley that leads up to the Kreutzberg; and here they resided with their tutor, M. Florschütz, who bears witness to the diligence and steadiness with which they applied themselves to their studies. Of our Prince more particularly, he says that "he maintained the early promise of his youth by the eagerness with which he applied himself to his work, and by the rapid progress which he made, especially in the natural sciences, in political economy, and in philosophy." "Music also," he adds, "of which he was passionately fond, was not neglected, and he had already shown considerable talent as a composer."*

* The Prince also excelled in manly exercises, and at a great fencingmatch, in which there were from twenty-five to thirty competitors, carried off the first prize, as recorded by an English student at the University, now holding a government situation in Dublin, and who himself obtained the second prize.

Their principal instructors at the University were Messrs. Bethman-Holweg, Schlegel, Fichte, Löbell, Kaufmann, Perthès,* d'Alten, etc., of most of whom the Prince retained throughout life the most affectionate recollec

tion.

Among the students who were at Bonn at this time. were the present reigning Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Prince William of Löwenstein - Werthheim, and Count Erbach, a relation of Prince Leiningen's. With these, from their connection with them, the princes naturally lived on terms of the greatest intimacy, and, indeed, with their fellow-students generally they seem always to have been on the most cordial and friendly footing. With none, however, did Prince Albert form so close and intimate a friendship as with Prince William of Löwenstein, who has lately sent the Queen an account, which will be found at the end of this chapter, of his recollections of their college life. He has also sent several letters, written to him by the Prince at various times after they left the University, which will be found inserted in their place, and which, particularly those written about the time of the marriage, will be read with much inter

est.

Since the visit of the princes to England in the preceding year the idea had become very general that a marriage was in contemplation between Prince Albert and the Princess Victoria; and during their late residence in Brussels reports to that effect had become still more prevalent, though most prematurely, as nothing

*See extract of letter from M. Perthès on the occasion of the Prince's marriage, quoted from Memoirs by his son, Chap. XIII.

was then settled.* Prince Albert's letters to his father at this time are chiefly interesting from their allusion to England and the young Queen. The first is dated from Bonn, only a few days before the death, on the 20th of June, 1837, of William IV., when Queen Victoria, who had only just completed her eighteenth year, ascended the throne. In that letter, after mentioning a visit to Cologne which he had made a few days previously with his brother and the hereditary Grand-duke of Weimar, and alluding to two picturest which they had given a commission to have bought at a sale of old pictures which was to be held there, he goes on:

"A few days ago I received a letter from Aunt Kent, inclosing one from our cousin. She told me I was to communicate its contents to you, so I send it on with a translation of the English. The day before yesterday I received a second and still kinder letter from my cousin, in which she thanks me for my good wishes on her birthday. You may easily imagine that both these letters gave me the greatest pleasure."

On the 4th of July, after dwelling on the beauty of the Ahrthal, to which he and his brother had just made an excursion, and telling his father of their attendance at a swimming-school on the Rhine close to Bonn, he adds: "The death of the King of England has every where caused the greatest sensation. From what Uncle Leopold, as well as aunt, writes to us, the new reign has begun most successfully. Cousin Victoria is said to have

* Memorandum by the Queen.

† One was a sketch by Albert Durer, the other a negro's head by Vandyck.

shown astonishing self-possession. She undertakes a heavy responsibility, especially at the present moment, when parties are so excited, and all rest their hopes on her. Poor aunt has again been violently attacked in the newspapers, but she has also found strenuous supporters."

On first hearing of the king's death, the Prince had already written the following beautiful and characteristic letter to the young Queen. It is the first of his which we have, written in English,* and, allowing for a somewhat foreign turn and formality of expression, it shows what proficiency he had already made in a language which, from the correctness with which he both spoke and wrote it, he soon made his own. "How much," says one who had deeply studied his character, "of the Prince's great nature is visible in it. Though addressed to a young and powerful queen, there is not a word of flattery in it. His first thought is of the great responsibility of the position, the happiness of the millions that was at stake. Then comes the anxious hope that the reign may be glorious." (Did he feel a presentiment at the time how much he would help to make it so?) "And then how gracefully and naturally the tender regard of an affectionate relation comes in at the last." But let us quote it:

"Bonn, 26th June, 1837.

"MY DEAREST COUSIN,-I must write you a few lines to present you my sincerest felicitations on that great change which has taken place in your life.

* All the other letters which have been quoted from the Prince to his parents and grandmother, and from them to him, are translated from the German.