the fair young widow, Lady Ribblesdale, his devotion to whom had drawn from
the wags a profane pun. They called the gifted little lord "the widow's
mite." When the marriage ceremony was being performed between him and Lady
Ribblesdale the wedding-ring fell from the bride's finger--an evil omen
soon fulfilled for the marriage tie was speedily broken by her early death.
"Plain John Campbell" was a very different man. The son of a minister of
the Church of Scotland, in a presbytery which included among its members
the father of Sir David Wilkie, his Scotch tongue, Scotch shrewdness,
healthy appetite for work, and invulnerable satisfaction with himself and
his surroundings, caused themselves to be felt in another sphere than that
to which he was born.

"The Cabinet Ministers tendered to the Queen the seals of their respective
offices, which her Majesty was most graciously pleased to return, and they
severally kissed hands on their reappointment." The last business done was
to arrange for the public proclamation of the Queen, and to take her
pleasure with regard to the time, which she fixed for the day following,
Wednesday, the 21st of June, at ten o'clock. When Lord Albemarle, for whom
she had sent, went to her and told her he was come to take her orders, she
said, "I have no orders to give. You must know this so much better than I
do, that I leave it all to you. I am to be at St. James's at ten to-morrow,
and must beg you to find me a conveyance proper for the occasion." We are
further informed that the Queen, in the course of the morning, received a
great many noble and distinguished personages. So finished a busy and
exciting day; the herald of many other days crowded with engagements and
excitement.

The Palace of St. James's, where the proclamation was to take place, had
been for a long time the theatre of all the principal events in the lives
of the kings and queens of England. Even the young Queen already viewed it