the huge crowds which lined the streets to see the procession pass.
"God grant that I may be the happy person, the _most_ happy person,
to make this dearest, blessed being happy and contented! What is in
my power to make him happy, I will do."




CHAPTER IV: _Husband and Wife_


After four short days the Queen and her husband returned to London,
and from this time onward the Prince acted as his wife's secretary,
attending to every little detail of the mass of correspondence and
State documents which grew larger with every succeeding year.

All the letters received by the Queen during the course of a long
and busy life-time were carefully preserved, and at her death they
amounted to no fewer than five or six hundred large bound volumes.
They include letters from crowned heads of Europe, from her ministers
of State, from her children, and from her friends and relations.

All these the Queen read and answered. She was thus at all times fully
aware of everything that was happening both at home and abroad, and
in her great Empire, an Empire which was destined to grow greater
and greater in power and extent during her reign. Day by day, year
in, year out, without a single break, this immense correspondence
arrived. Ministers resigned and ministers were appointed, but there
was neither halt nor rest. Truly 'the burden of Empire' is heavy for
those who bear it.