Her Majesty bore herself from first to last with quietness and confidence,
and went through the service with due earnestness and solemnity.

The wedding breakfast was at Buckingham Palace. The wedding-cake was no
less than three hundred pounds in weight, fourteen inches in depth, and
three yards in circumference. The young couple proceeded to Windsor, where
they were received by an enthusiastic throng of Eton boys, in white gloves
and white favours.

One of the ladies-in-waiting wrote to her family that 'the Queen's look
and manner were very pleasing: her eyes much swollen with tears, but great
happiness in her countenance: and her look of confidence and comfort at
the prince when they walked away as man and wife, was very pleasing to
see.' And this sympathetic observer adds: 'Such a new thing for her to
_dare_ to be _unguarded_ with anybody; and with her frank and fearless
nature, the restraints she has hitherto been under, from one reason or
another, with everybody, must have been most painful.'

The day after the marriage the Queen wrote to Baron Stockmar: 'There
cannot exist a purer, dearer, nobler being in the world than the prince;'
and she never had cause to take these words back. The blessing of loving
and being loved was certainly given to Queen Victoria.

The royal pair spent three days of honeymoon at Windsor, and then Her
Majesty had to return to London, to hold court, and to receive addresses
of congratulation on her marriage; indeed, she was nearly 'addressed to
death.' The Queen and Prince Albert went everywhere together; to church,
to reviews, to races, theatres, and drawing-rooms; and everywhere the
people were charmed with their beauty and happiness.