independence, he won and kept their perfect confidence to the end. He loved
them heartily in return, without seeking anything from them; on the
contrary, he showed himself reluctant to accept tokens of their favour.
While lavishing his services on others, and readily lending his help to
those who needed it, he would seem to have wanted comfort himself. An
affectionate family man, he consented to constantly recurring separation
from his wife and children in order to discharge the peculiar functions
which were entrusted to him. For he played in the background--contented,
nay, resolute to remain there--by the lawful exercise of influence alone,
no small part in the destinies of several of the reigning houses in Europe,
and through them, of their kingdoms. Like Carlyle, he suffered during his
whole life from dyspepsia; like Carlyle, too, he was a victim to
hypochondria, the result of his physical state. To these two last causes
may be attributed some whimsicalities and eccentricities which were readily
forgiven in the excellent Baron.

Baron Stockmar did not come too soon; in less than a month, on the 20th of
June, 1837, after an illness which he had borne, patiently and reverently,
King William died peacefully, his hand resting where it had lain for hours,
on the shoulder of his faithful Queen.

The death took place at Windsor, at a little after two o'clock in the
morning. Immediately afterwards the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Howley,
and the Lord Chamberlain, the Marquis of Conyngham, together with the Earl
of Albemarle, the Master of the Horse, and Sir Henry Halford, the late
King's physician, started from Windsor for Kensington. All through the rest
of the summer night these solemn and stately gentlemen drove, nodding with
fatigue, hailing the early dawn, speaking at intervals to pronounce
sentence on the past reign and utter prognostications, of the reign which
was to come. Shortly before five, when the birds were already in full