I think I never heard anything better read in my life than her speech,
and I could but respond to Lord Fitz-William's remark to me when the
ceremony was over, 'How beautifully she performs!'" How strange it now
seems to think of that slight girl of eighteen coming in upon that great
assembly of legislators, many of them gray and bald, and pompous and
portly, and gravely telling them that they might go home!




CHAPTER X.

Comments upon the young Queen by a contemporaneous writer in
_Blackwood_--A new Throne erected for her in Buckingham Palace--A
touching Anecdote related by the Duke of Wellington--The Queen insists on
paying her Father's Debts--The romantic and passionate interest she
evoked--Her mad lover--Attempts upon her life--She takes possession of
Windsor Castle.


A writer in _Blackwood_, speaking of the Queen about this time,
said: "She is 'winning golden opinions from all sorts of people' by her
affability, the grace of her manners, and her prettiness. She is
excessively like the Brunswicks and not like the Coburgs. So much the
more in her favor. The memory of George III. is not yet passed away, and
the people are glad to see his calm, honest, and English physiognomy
renewed in his granddaughter."

Her Majesty's likeness to the obstinate but conscientious old king, whose
honest face is fast fading quite away from old English half-crowns and