CHAPTER IX.

1838-1839.

Separation of the Brothers.-The Prince's Tour in Italy.-Baron Stockmar.-Majority of Prince Ernest.—Prince Albert declared of Age at the same Time.-Letters.

THE brothers were now to be separated for the first time in their lives, and deeply was the separation felt by both. At the close of their University career, the elder, Prince Ernest, was to go to Dresden to enter the Saxon service, while Prince Albert was to set out shortly afterward for Italy, where he was to spend the winter, according to the plan which, as we have seen, had been already determined upon for him.

They had, however, still two months to spend together at Coburg before the final separation took place, and, attached to each other as they were, we may easily imagine how dear to them must have been the last days spent together at a home which they both loved so much. These last days had, however, been nearly marked by a sad catastrophe, of which the Prince gives the following account in a letter to his grandmother; and it will be seen that it was only averted by a combination of coolness and good sense very rare at such moments. Had they opened the doors to call for assistance in the first alarm, as would have been only natural, instead of "shutting themselves

in with the fire," the consequences might have been most serious.*

to

Coburg, 18th Oct., 1838.

"DEAR GRANDMAMMA,—I have again delayed writing you, but when a man is once sunk in idleness, it is difficult to get out of it.

"I learned from your dear letter to Ernest that you are better, and that you have moved into your pretty winter residence in all its new splendor.

How perishable such splendor is we felt seriously yesterday, when, if God had not held his protecting hand over us, the whole palace of Coburg might have become a prey to the flames, nor we ourselves able in any way to escape.

"A fire is lit in our rooms every morning lest we should find them cold when we come to town occasionally in the afternoon. It happened the day before yesterday that we staid in town after the play, in order not to catch cold driving back to the Rosenau. The next morning I was awoke by an unpleasant smell; I sprang out of bed to see whether the register had not been forgotten to be opened in one of the stoves. The smoke met me thicker and thicker, but I could not discover any thing. In the fourth room I was met by the flames darting toward me; it was all on fire. I called out 'Fire! fire!' when Ernest and Cart came from their rooms to my assistance. No living soul was in this wing of the palace except us three; it was also so early that nobody was astir in the neighborhood. You can fancy our alarm. We did not take long to consider, but closed all * See original letter in Appendix C.

the doors and shut ourselves up with the fire. There were only two jugs with water, and a jug of chamomile tea at our command, of which we made the most. Ernest took my cloak and his own and threw them upon the flames, while I dragged all my bedding there, and pressed the mattresses and large counterpanes against the burning wall. Cart lifted a marble table with incredible strength and threw it against the bookcase enveloped in flames, causing it to fall down. Having thus subdued the fire, we could think of calling for more help.

"Ernest ran just as he got out of bed down stairs to the sentry, who gave the alarm, while I and Cart* were still working up stairs. The heat and smoke were so powerful that all the windows had fallen out; even the glasses of the framed pictures were cracked, and the pictures shriveled in, and the paint of the doors is quite charred.

"Help now came in haste from all sides: a number

*NOTE BY THE QUEEN.· Cart came over to this country with the Prince on his marriage, and remained in his service as valet till he died in August, 1858, having been with him twenty-eight years. The Prince received the news of his death at Dusseldorf just as he was starting with the Queen for Hanover and Babelsberg, and they were both deeply affected by the news. Cart's devotion to the beloved Prince was really quite like that of a nurse for a child, and the Prince never ceased to lament the loss of that faithful servant and true friend, whose discretion and independence of character were most striking. When he died the Prince said to the Queen that many recollections of his childhood were gone with Cart to the grave. He was a link, he added, with his happy childhood and dear native country which was peculiarly precious to him, living as he did in a foreign land; for that even the Queen could only talk of those times as of history, and as of things of which she personally knew nothing. Cart was a native of Nion, near Geneva.

of workmen brought water up and extinguished the smouldering fire. A bookstand with many books and all our prints, two chairs, a table, a looking-glass, etc., have been burnt.

"There is no other harm done, but that Cart and I have burnt the soles of our feet as we got barefooted into the cinders.

"The accident was caused by the ignorance of a stoker who had heated a stove that was not meant to be used, and on which books and prints were lying, and against which a quantity of maps were standing.

"The only picture that was not injured is the one of the fire at the Palace of Gotha.

"Farewell now, dear grandmamma, and always love your faithful grandson, ALBERT.

"Rosenau, 18th Oct., 1838.

"P.S.-I shall soon be able to send you the promised picture."

On the same day that the above narrative of their escape from fire was written, the dowager duchess was herself writing to the duke, to express her pleasure at having seen Prince Albert again, and to bewail the approaching separation of the brothers.

"It was most kind," she writes, October 18, 1838, "to allow the dear children to spend a day with me, and our dear Albert gave me a most delightful surprise. I regretted very much that dear Ernest could not come also. I sympathize deeply with the poor children on their approaching separation. With that moment I am sure the merriest and happiest periods of their lives will have

passed. Who could be otherwise than sad on such an occasion? Every day that now passes adds to my sorrow for them."

Among those who have been mentioned as fellowstudents at Bonn with the Prince and his brother, there was no one, as has been already mentioned, with whom. the former was more intimate, or to whom he was more attached, than Prince William of Löwenstein, whose recollections of their University life conclude the preceding chapter. For some years after leaving the University, the Prince kept up an occasional correspondence with him, and he has lately given the Queen some of the letters he received, which are very characteristic of the Prince's warm heart and affectionate disposition. While the brothers were now awaiting at Coburg the dreaded moment which was to bring with it their first separation from each other, the Prince thus writes to his college friend:*

"Coburg, October 26, 1838. "DEAR LÖWENSTEIN,-A thousand thousand thanks for your dear friendly letter, which is a proof to us that you still sometimes think of your true friends. I believe that the pleasant days which we spent together, partly in useful occupations, partly in cheerful intercourse (in froher Unterhaltung), will ever appear to me as the happiest of my life. In spite of our unrestrained intimacy (Ungenirtheit) and our many practical jokes (den vielen Neckereien), the utmost harmony always existed between How pleasant were our winter concerts-our theatrical attempts-our walks to the Venusberg-the swim

us.

*Sec Appendix C. for the original.