youth, and increase the charm of his whole aspect."

The investiture was followed by a grand dinner, when the Duke proposed the
Queen's health, which was drunk by all the company standing, accompanied by
several distinct flourishes of trumpets, the band playing "God save the
Queen," and the artillery outside firing a royal salute. Already the Prince
had written to the Queen, when the marriage was officially declared at
Coburg, that the day had affected him very much, so many emotions had
filled his heart. Her health had been drunk at dinner "with a tempest of
huzzas." The joy of the people had been so great that they had gone on
firing in the streets, with guns and pistols, during the whole night, so
that one might have imagined a battle was going on. This was a repetition
of that earlier festival, only rendered more emphatic and with a touch of
pathos added to it by the impending departure of Prince Albert, to lay hold
of his high destiny. The leave-takings were earnest and prolonged, with
many pretty slightly fantastic German ceremonies, and must have been hard
upon a man whose affections were so tender and tenacious. Especially
painful was the farewell to his mother's mother, the Dowager Duchess of
Gotha, who had partly reared the princely lad. She was much attached to
him, and naturally saw him go with little hope of their meeting again in
this world.

The Prince was accompanied by his father and brother, with various friends
in their train, who, after the celebration of the marriage, were to return
to Germany. But Prince Albert carried with him--to remain in his near
neighbourhood--two old allies, whose familiar faces would be doubly welcome
in a foreign country. The one was his Swiss valet, Cart, a faithful,
devoted servant, "the best of nurses," who, had waited on his master since
the latter was a boy of seven years of age. The other was the beautiful
greyhound, Eos, jet black with the exception of a narrow white streak on