Macleod in his Journal, 'after daundering in a green field with a path
through it which led to the high-road, and while sitting on a block of
granite, full of quiet thoughts, mentally reposing in the midst of the
beautiful scenery, I was aroused from my reverie by some one asking me if
I was the clergyman who had preached that day. I was soon in the presence
of the Queen and prince; when Her Majesty came forward and said, with a
sweet, kind, and smiling face: "We wish to thank you for your sermon." She
then asked me how my father was--what was the name of my parish, &c.; and
so, after bowing and smiling, they both continued their quiet evening walk
alone. And thus God blessed me, and I thanked His name.' The Queen in her
Journal remarked that she had never heard a finer sermon, and that the
allusions in the prayer to herself and the children gave her a 'lump in
the throat.'

Dr Macleod was again at Balmoral in 1862 and 1866. Of this visit in May
1862, made after the Queen's bereavement, he reported to his wife that
'all has passed well--that is to say, God enabled me to speak in private
and in public to the Queen, in such a way as seemed to me to be truth, the
truth in God's sight--that which I believed she needed, though I felt it
would be very trying to her spirit to receive it. And what fills me with
deepest thanksgiving is, that she has received it, and written to me such
a kind, tender letter of thanks for it, which shall be treasured in my
heart while I live.

[Illustration: Balmoral Castle.]

'Prince Alfred sent for me last night to see him before going away. Thank
God, I spoke fully and frankly to him--we were alone--of his difficulties,
temptations, and of his father's example; what the nation expected of him;
how, if he did God's will, good and able men would rally round him; how,