A ROYAL ROMANCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 65, 16 March 1878, Page 4

A ROYAL ROMANCE.

* i i imi i ii m+ . the queen's engagement, and how it came about; ■[London Coi respondent Chicago Tribune."] An inquisitive contributor to the Figaro, who writes nnder tbe name of " Ignatue," has apparently been diving deep into the secrets of Balmoral and Windsor. Some of his discoveries (?) would considerably surprise hor Majesty, I fancy, but on the wholo, ihe revelations of "Ignat«B"are sufficiently sober, and if unreliable, at least charmingly recorded. Ths following extract, in wbich he tells bis story of a royal * courtship, is, I think, as dainty a bit of writing as any I have seen in a paper this many a day : Certainly the young Queen thought less of courtship than _ of marriage. The Ministers would fain have made her marriage a sort of international treaty. Beyond any doubt, Victoria was tbe finest match in Ibe world. Tha Queen, however, was full of a host of little projects, ever shifting and changing like the little heaps of sand in the garden of the Luxembourg!). Sbe told her mother she would wed with no one whom she did not love. The Duchess of Kent reported the, speech to tbe Ministers, who thought in revolutionary in the extreme. Coronation day came, and next day the ball at Windsor. Among the dancers was a'tall, handsome, slender student from the University of Bonn — her cousin, a Coburg, like herself. The Queen noticed bim, nnd Prince Albert did not return to Bpnn. Even bad he , ; not loved, he would have stayed ; but he. loved. But his cousin was the Queen,, here the woman had to make the advances. Victoria, greatly touched iai she was by thia love (which was never more to leave her),.could not easily conquer the maidenly timidity dae to her severe education. Neveribe lessa morning came. 1 assure yru . I invent nothing. Although the Queen . has never consented to relate tbese delightful incidents, Prince Albert has told them to bjs friends. Nevertheless, then, a morning ceme. They were riding , togetber, she aud he, down tbe great avenue of oake at Windsor. Those oaks were younger then, but old enough already. • After a gallop they found themselves sloae. We know how dan r . geroue.it is for a man and woman to ride .together. ' Suddecly the Queen took a . sprig of honeysuckle from, her bosom, ' and 7 Btopping, . offered it to Prince Albert. Bending to reach, his lips touehed r tbe tips of his cousin's gloves. Perhaps 'twas the fault of the horses. The woods of England and of France know well how many loves the noble br.utes, have .been the.cause of. A silence : ; followed, more sweet than anything ever sung ito the heart by Mozart. Next morning Prince Albert still wore .Ahe honeysuckle in his button-hole. He kept it even when it bad faded. A fortnight after that ride, the Plenipotentiary Minister handed King Leopold of Belgium a tiny letter, closed by an enormous red seal, as though it hid a mfghty secret of State.. It began ••"My- dear Uncle," and waß signed " Victoria." , A month after, the Queen mentioned her intention to marry Prince Albert, of Saxe Coburg-Gotha, to; her Ministers, and asked their counsel, ' but. vfith a pretty aim of decision, which „ caused th-em to reply with great quickness, "Yes." The wedding took place in February,- 1840. The Queen of England thus married for love. Lord Melbourne wes right when he stated that the Queen's marriage " was a Queen's romance."'