suitable alliance, but was marrying "for love," according to the oldest,
wisest, best plan. They knew the glad truth as if by instinct, and how
heartily high and low entered into her happiness and wished her joy! It is
said there is one spectacle which, whether the spectators own it or not,
hardly ever palls entirely even on the most hardened and worldly, the most
weary and wayworn, the poorest and most wretched--perhaps, least of all on
the last. It is a bridegroom rejoicing to leave his chamber, and a bride
blushing in her sweet bliss. There are after all only three great events in
human history which, projected forward or reflected backward, colour all
the rest--birth, marriage, and death. The most sordid or sullen population
will collect in knots, brighten a little, forget hard fate or mortal wrongs
for a moment, in the interest of seeing a wedding company go by. The
surliest, the most whining of the onlookers will spare a little relenting,
a happier thought, for "two lunatics," "a couple of young fools whose eyes
will soon be opened," "a pore delooded lad," "a soft silly of a gal;" who
are still so enviable in their brief bright day.

What was it then to know of a pair of royal lovers--a great Queen and her
chosen Prince--well mated! It softened all hearts, it made the old young
again, with a renewing breath of late romance and tenderness. And, oh! how
the young, who are old now, gloried in that ideal marriage! What tales they
told of it, what wonderful fancies they had about it! How it knit the
hearts of the Queen and her subjects together more strongly than anything
else save common sorrow could do! for when it comes to that, sorrow is more
universal than joy, sinks deeper, and in this world lasts longer.

Indeed, at this stage, as at every other, it was soon necessary to descend
from heaven to earth; and for the royal couple, as for the meanest of the
people, there were difficulties in connection with the arrangements,
troubles that proved both perplexing and vexatious. It may be said here